his own hand; and then Wei Ltl, seeing that he was not to be forced into submission, threw him into a dungeon and left him withont food for several days. He kept himself alive by sucking snow and gnawing a felt rag; and at length the Hsiung-nu, thinking that he was a supernatural being, sent him away north and set him to tend sheep. Then Li Ling was ordered to try once more by brilliant offers to shake his unswerring loyalty, but all was in ▼ain. In the year 86, peace was made with the Hsiung-nu, and the Emperor Ghao Ti asked for the return of Su Wu. To this the Hsiung-nu replied that he was dead; but ^ ^ Oh'ang Hui, who had been assistant to Su Wu, bade the new envoy tell the Khan that the Emperor had shot a goose with a letter tied to its leg, from which he had learnt the whereabouts of his missing envoy. This story so astonished the Ehan that Su Wu was released, and in B.C. 81 returned to China after a captivity of nineteen years. He had gone away in the prime of life; he returned a "white-haired and broken-down old man. He was at once appointed Chancellor of the department for controlling the afiGEurs of dependent States; but in the following year his son became mixed ufTin some treasonable conspiracy and was beheaded. For a long time he retired from public life, to be ultimately restored to favour, dying at the age of over eighty years.
Su YUn-oh'ing MW^M- ^^^^ ^^°^- ^•^* ^ ^^^^^ ^^ MM ^^^^
Euang-han in Sstich'uan, who retired to an out-of-the-way part of Eiangsi, and passed his time in gardening and making straw sandals for a living. Subsisting on the rudest fare and wearing the coarsest clothes, he gave away all his surplus money in charity; and he was consequently much beloved by the neighbouring poor, who named him ^ ^ . In youth he had been an intimate friend of Chang Hsiin, now a powerful Minister, and the latter sent him some presents accompanied by a letter. The messengers tried to
