investigating antiquities, and reading (and remembering) every book that came in his way. In 1149 he was summoned to an audience, and received an honorary post. He was then sent home to copy out his 通志 History of China, which covered a period from Fu Hsi down to the T'ang dynasty. On its presentation to the Emperor he was made an Imperial historiographer. Besides this, he was author of a collection of twenty-six poems and seven prose pieces, published under the title of 夾漈豪. He also wrote a treatise entitled 石鼓文, in which he showed that the inscriptions on the famous Stone Drums, hitherto accepted as dating from the early part of the Chou dynasty, belonged rather to the latter half of the 3rd century B.C. He was opposed to the famous peace proposals of Ch'in Kuei, and this led to his early retirement into private life, where he died at the age of fifty-eight.
266 Chêng Ch'ien 鄭虔. 8th cent. A.D. A poet and landscape-painter of the T'ang dynasty, famous for having illustrated his own poems. Being unable to procure paper to write upon, he used persimmon-leaves; yet he rose under the Emperor Hsüan Tsung, A.D. 713—756, to be a Doctor in the Imperial Academy. In consequence of certain published notes on contemporary events, he was accused of tampering with the dynastic history, and was banished for ten years. On his return, he withdrew a large portion of these from circulation. Popularly known as 鄭廣文.
267 Chêng Chih-lung 鄭芝龍 (T. 飛皇). Died A.D. 1662. A native of Nan-an, near Amoy. As a young man, he visited Macao and Japan, and married a Japanese wife, by whom he had a son, the famous Koxinga (see Chêng Ch'êng-kung). Having obtained the leadership of a large fleet of junks, traders or pirates as occasion served, he was compelled to place his services at the command of the last sovereign of the Ming dynasty, in whose cause he fought against the Manchu invaders. In 1628 he tendered his submission
