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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
875


to Peking, on which journey he passed eight days without eating. Every effort was made to induce him to own allegiance to the Mongol Emperor, but without success. He was kept in prison for three years. "My dungeon," he wrote, "is lighted by the will-o'- the-wisp alone: no breath of spring cheers the murky solitude in which I dwell." At length he was summoned into the presence of Kublai Ehan, who said to him, "What is it you want?" "By the grace of the Sung Emperor," he replied, "I became his Majesty's Minister. I cannot ser?e two masters. I only ask to die." Accordingly he was executed, meeting his death with composure and making a final obeisance southwards as though his own sovereign was still reigning in his own capital. He was canonised as ^ jE > ^^^ in 1843 his tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple.

Wen Tsung. See Li Han.

Wen Tro-sheng fl^ ^ # (T. j| J^:). A.D. 495-? 550. A 2307

native of T^ai-yOan in Shansi, and descendant of Wdn Ch4ao. In 516 he was one of twenty-four chosen to be Censors out of eight hiindred competitors, and in 533 he became Reader and Equerry to the Heir Apparent. About 550 he was suspected of treason by the founder of the Northern Ch4 dynasty and thrown into prison, where he was kept without food until he killed himself by swallowing a part of his bedding. He left only some essays, but is ranked as one of the Three Able Men of the Northern Dynasties (see Wei Shou); and these essays are said to have been found by an envoy to the Turkic tribes at the bedside of one of the Turkic chieftains. 3308 Wen Wang ;^ ^, B.C. 1231—1135. The title of canonisation under which is known ^ Chiang, Duke of Chou, otherwise called 0i >f|^ the Chief of the West, the father of Wu Wang, first sovereign of the Chou dynasty. He was hereditary ruler of the Principality of ||^ Ch4 in modern Shensi, and a wise and virtuous man. He had a face like a dragon and eyebrows like a tiger. His