Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/269

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary

besi^ed in 1868 by Chang Shih-ch^Sng. Chn YtLan-chang came to the rescue; and though too late to save the city and Lin, he escorted Han to the modern Nanking where he died in 1867.

621 Han Ni-chou (T. |{f ^). Died A.D. 1207. A prominent statesman under the Southern Sung dynasty. He played a leading part in the deposition of the Emperor Euang Tsung, and subsequently rose to a position of great power and influence; but his failure to cope with the in?ading forces of the Chin^ Tartars, together with his own great unpopularity, brought about his downfall, and he was assassinated in a garden of the palace as he was going in to audience.

622 Han P'êng . Minister to Prince j^ E'ang of the Sung State under the Ghou dynasty. The Prince seized his wife, a great beauty, and cast him into prison where he committed suicide. The wife flung herself down from the top of a high tower, leaving a letter in her girdle in which she asked to be buried with her husband. This the enraged tyrant refused; whereupon their two coffins sprouted into growth, the two graves became one, and in a tree which grew hard by, two birds sang together a dirge over their remains.

623 Han Po-yü • A filial son, who lived under the Han dynasty. In early life he never cried when his mother beat him, but later on he b^an to do so. On his mother asking the reason of this, he replied, 'Tormerly your blows hurt me, and I knew you were strong and well. Now they don't hurt me any more, and I know that your strength is failing; therefore I weep.*'

624 Han P'u . 10th cent. A.D. A native of Ch'ang-an, who graduated as chin shih in 954 and rose to high office under the first two Emperors of the Sung dynasty, retiring in ill-health in 991. He was a widely-read scholar, especially remarkable for his

knowledge of eminent men of the T^ang dynasty and his power