Jump to content

Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/394

From Wikisource
This page needs to be proofread.
A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
375

and singing with Yang I apon the city wall; whereupon the Emperor cried out, "If K'ou Chun can feel like this, why should I be sad?" Shortly afterwards the Kitau leader was shot, and the enemy sued for peace. In spite of these services Wang Gh4n-jo managed by intrigue to bring about his downfall, chiefly on the ground that the peace concluded with the Eitans was a dishonourable one. He was degraded , and ultimately sent to ^ Hj^ T'ien- hsiung in Chihli. There he was seen by the Eitan ambassador, who asked why he was not at his post in the capital. "There is no trouble at the capital now," he replied; "and I was the only one who could keep the key of our northern gate." When the Emperor Ch£u Tsung went out of his mind, it was through his influence that the Heir Apparent became Regent; for which he was appointed Grand Tutor and ennobled as f^ ^. In 1022, through an intrigue of the Empress, he was again banished to Lei-chou in Kuangtung; and in 1023 to H6ng-chou in Hunan, where he died. On his way to Lei-chou he stopped at ^ ^ Kung-an in Hupeh; and there he plucked a bamboo and stuck it in the ground before a shrine to some god, saying, "If I have not been disloyal to the State, may this bamboo take new life and grow." The bamboo lived. Canonised as j^ S . See Ting Wei.

Koxinga. See Chêng Ch'êng-kung.

986 Ku Chiang (T. E. ). A.D. 1612-1681. A native of K'un-shan in Eiangsu, who remained faithful to the Mings after their final downfall. In 1645 he changed his personal name from Chiang to ^ "^ Yen-wu, and wandered about the empire in disguise until he finally settled down at Hua-yin in Shensi in 1677. He declined to serve under the Manchus, and supported himself by farming. A profound student, it is recorded that in his wanderings he always carried about with him several horse-loads of books to consult whenever his memory might be at