he used to till the ground himself, refusing to eat except of what his own labour had produced. Several attempts were made to introduce him into official life, but he had no desire for this kind of distinction. On one occasion he was driyen to earn the means of conveying home a friend's coffin by burnishing mirrors as he passed from stage to stage. When the mother of Euo Lin-tsung died, he only went to the door of the house and left there a bundle of grass. Kuo remembered the passage in the Odes and said, "This must be the doing of Hs^ Chib, the great scholar of Nau'^ch'ang."
767 Hsü Chih-kao . Died A.D. 943. A descendant of the Prince of ^ Chien. His real name was ^ ^ Li Pien (T. }£ '^)» Left an orphan at an early age, he was adopted by Tang Hsing^mi, founder of the Wu State; but owing to the jealousy of the sons of that potentate, he was transferred to the Minister ^ j^ Hsfl W6n, whose name he took. In 963 he mounted the throne vacated by Tang P'u, changed the dynastic title to T'ang, and resumed his original name. His capital was at modern Nanking, and his rule embraced the territory between the Huai and the Tang-«tsze, Kiangsi, southern Anhui, and part of Eiangsu* He restored the statutes and customs of the T'ang dynasiy, patronised literature, and collected a large library* Canonised as ^ jffi. of the Southern T'ang State.
768
Hsü Ching-ch'êng A native of Chehkiang, who
graduated as chin slUh in 1868, and entered the Han-lin College,
of which he was made a sub-Reader in 1800. From 1884—1888
he was Minister to France, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Holland,
and in 1890 was appointed Minister to the three last-named
countries and Russia. In 1893 he became a sub-Chancellor of the
Qrand Secretariat, and in 1895 was promoted to be Senior Vice
President of the Board of Works. «
769
