her service as a eunuch, for which purpose his beard had previonslj been extirpated. By Lao Ai she had two children; but in B.C. 238 the intrigue was discovered, and Lao Ai, who had acquired considerable wealth and power, as a last resource broke into open rebellion. He was, however, defeated, and taken prisoner and put to death with all his family. The queen-dowager was exiled, and Ltl Pu-wei was condemned to death; but in consideration of his former services his punishment was commuted to banishment to his appanage in Honan. Afber living some time in retirement, he was suspected of treasonable designs and banished to Sstlch^uan, where he put an end to his extraordinary career by poison. He had been Minister in Gh4n for twelve years. In 254 and 253, the^Wei and the Han States, respectively, had become its vassals; and in 253 Chao Hsiang had offered the Imperial sacrifice to Shang Ti. In 249 Lii Pu-wei extinguished the Eastern Chou State, the last remnant of the Imperial domain; and by 247 Shantung had been incorporated. Then when Wei Wn-ch*i, at the head of the armies of the five allied States, inflicted a severe defeat upon M£ng Ao, the Ch4n general, Lii managed by bribery to get him removed from the command; and his death in 244 left the Ch'in State free to pursue its career of conquest. Ltl Pu-wei *had also made a bid for literary fame. He engaged a number of scholars to produce a kind of encyclopaedia, which he published nnder the title of § ^ ^ ^ ; and when completed he placed a copy of it in the market-place at Hsien-yang, offering a purse of one thousand taels to any one who could improve it even by adding or expunging a single word. This work is not mentioned in Ssti- ma Ch*ien's history; and although a work is still extant nnder the same title, it enjoys small reputation among the learned, and may safely be referred of the ingenuity of some scholar of the £. Han dynasty, probably ^0^ ^ Eao Tu.
