Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/173

 CHINESE SPT 149 or Imperial Academy, were men from GaochaDg and Thibet* on the west, and from Qaoli, Baiji, and Sinlo on the east In 630, Sinlo sent to the Chinese court two lovely damsels as tribute ; but one of the principal ministers objected to receive them. The emperor was pleased ; and said that the other day two vary-coloured parrots were returned to Linyi (Annam), their native country, because they longed for their homes ; how much more should two young virgins be thus treated. Two years after, the king of Sinlo died j and as he had no son, the people elected his queen, Duashan, to rule over them. In 64jO, the emperor sent the senior secretary, Chun Dadua, io the eastern kingdoms, to spy out the land. He brought with him quantities of silk and other articles, intended as presents to open locked doors ; his object being to see all the chief cities, mountains, and rivers, and to observe their manners and customs. He was to describe himself as a man eager to see the beauties of the country. He was well received by the Coreans ; and when they heard that the remote Gaochang had fallen before the arms of Tang, their politeness was doubled. Wherever he went, he found men who had been left behind in the various Swi expeditions, or who had fled to avoid the evils invariably attending the throes of a change of dynasty in China. These made eager enquiries about their friends at home; and he made a point of telling eveiy enquirer that not only were those friends alive, but well and happy ! His presence and words made them all long for home, and they wept bitterly wherever he parted from them. The emperor listened with rapt attention to all the traveller had to report ; and then said that the present Gaoli land was originally Chinese soil ; that a few myriads sent to Liaotung, and a fleet to Pingyang, would restore those refugees to their native place, and those provinces to China ; and added, *' but Shantung is still staggering under its load of starvation.'' Hence the courtiers inferred that the emperor had designs on Corea ; and sooner than he had anticipated, he found another foe.
 * "Toofan" which came first into contact with Chin* five yean before, as a