Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/434

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
415

as by his literary abilities. He managed however to make enemies among his superior o£Scers, and within three years he was impeached for insubordination and thrown into prison. His case was subsequently laid before the Emperor, who not only set him fi^ee but appointed him to be Prefect at Canton, bestowing upon him at the same time some valuable medicine, an autograph copy of verses, a sable robe, some joss-stick, and other coveted marks of Imperial favour. But all was in vain. He died of a broken heart, one month after taking up his post. His complete works have been published in 20 small octavo volumes, two of which are devoted to a record of the chief criminal cases tried by him during his short judicial career. Perhaps the beet known of all his works is the ^^ 4^ , a treatise on the education of women , with which may be mentioned his ij^ |||r 4^ ^ . Among his essays and State papers are some curious documents referring to commercial intercourse with the ^'barbarians of the West.'* He protested against Buddhism with an eloquence which Tecalled the earnestness of E[an Ytl, complaining that nine-tenths of the priests and nuns did not willingly take the vows, but had been "given to the priests when quite little, either because their parents were too poor to keep them, or in return for some act of kindness." "These cloister folk," he added, "do a deal of mischief amongst the populace, wasting the substance of some, and robbing others of their good name.'*

1084 Xan T'ing-ohen ^ ^ 3# (T. ^J^). A.D. 1663-1729. Principal lieutenant of Shih Shih-p'iao in the suppression of the Pormosan rebellion of 1721, and afterwards Admiral of Fnhkien. Canonised as

1085 Iian Ts'ai Ho g ^ ^ . One of the Eight Immortals of Taoism, generally regarded as a woman and represented as dressed in a blue gown, with one foot shod and the other bare, waving a wand as she wanders begging through the streets.