Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/138

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
119


the Lq State, to whom the Duke of the ChH State forwarded a namber of singing-girls and horses as a present for his soTereign Duke ^ Ting. The acceptance of these by the latter caused (Confucius to retire from office.

292 Chi Huang A.D. 1710—1794. Son of Chi Tseng-yHn. He graduated as chin ahih iu 1729, and was attached to the person of the Emperor Gh^en Lung. In 1766 he was made Director-General of the Tellow Biyer, and dealt with it so successfdlly that stories arose of special proyidential intervention on his behalf. Recalled to Peking in 1799, he became a Grand Secretary in the following year, and was practically Prime Minister until his death. Gh^en Lung, who was of the same age, never wearied of loading him with honours, even granting him leave in 1790 to ride in his sedan-chair up to the Hall of Audience. Ganonised as ^ ^ .

293 Chi K'ang (T.;|{^). A.D. 228-262. A native of modern Anhui. His ancestors came from Ghehkiang, whence they had fled in consequence of political disturbances, changing the hmily name from ^ Hsi to Ghi. As a youth,, he was clever and handsome, and seven feet seven inches in height. Yet he is to have regarded his body as so much clay or wood, and to adorn it. He married into the Imperial family, and TBceiTed an official appointment. But his favourite study was alchemistic research; and he passed his days sitting under a willow-tree in his court-yard and experimenting in the transmutation of metals, varying his toil with music and poetry, and practising the art of breathing with a view to securing immortality. Happening however to offend by his want of ceremony one of the Imperial pnDces, who was also a student of alchemy, he was denounced to the Emperor Wen Ti of the Wei dynasty as a dangerous person and a traitor, and condemned to death. Three thousand