Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/132

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
118

ventoring to put hia views in writing, he expressed them in pictorial form, which so impressed his Majesty that Wang An-shih was at once dismissed. He then memorialised that Wang's successor in office, 呂惠卿 Lü Hui-ch'ing, was mixed up with a seditious society, in consequence of which he himself was banished. Pardoned and restored to office in 1101, he again lost office under Ts'ai Ching, and retired into private life.

274 Chêng Hsüan 鄭玄 (T. 康成). A.D. 127–200. A native of 高密 Kao-mi in Shantung, and one of the most famous pupils from the school of Ma Jung. Beginning life as a petty official in his native place, he soon resigned his post and became an ardent student under Ma Jung. After having made a name for himself as a scholar, he again took office; but the rebellion of the Yellow Turbans threw the empire into confusion, and Chêng retired into private life and devoted himself to study. As an instance of the general respect in which he was held, it is recorded that at his request the chief of the rebels spared the town of Kao-mi, leading his troops forward by another route. In A.D. 200 Confucius appeared to him in a vision, and he knew by this token that his hour was at hand. Consequently, he was very loth to respond to a summons sent to him from 冀 Chi-chou in Chibli by the then powerful Yüan Shao. He set out indeed upon the journey, but died upon the way. He is one of the most voluminous of all the commentators upon the Confucian Classics. He simply lived for learning. The very slave-girls of his household were highly educated, and interlarded their conversation with quotations from the Odes. He was nevertheless fond of wine, and is said to have been able to take three hundred cups vrithout losing his head. His tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple in 647; in 1530 it was removed; but in 1724 it was replaced.

275 Chêng K'o-shuang 鄭克塽. The son and successor of Chêng Chin, and grandnephew of Koxinga (see Chêng Ch'êng-kung). He