Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/329

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310
A Chinese Biographical Dictionary

790 Hsü Shih Tsŭ  ??? A Prince named ? Chih, Heir Apparent to the State of ^ HsiL He is mentioned in the Tmo Chuan as haying ^^mnrdered his soTereign /' and is also stigmatised by Gonfdciiis as a murderer. It woold appear that he administered a potion to his sick £Either without haring taken the preeaation of preyioosly tasting the medicine himself, and that his father die4 from the effects.

791 Hsü Shou-hui (T. ^ $^). 14th eent. A.D. A cloth-trader of |^ QQ Lo-tHen in Hnpeh, who was made chief of the band formed by ^ ^ Ying Yii, a priest of ^ Yflan- chon in fiaangsi, to prepare for the coming of Maitrfiya Buddha. In 1351 he styled himself Emperor, with his capital at ^ jjji ChH-shui in Hapeh. After occupying Wu-ch'ang, and even Hangchow, and making an unsuccessful attack upon An-ch4ng, he suffered several reverses, and in 1356 fixed his capital at Han- yang. In 1357 he was imprisoned by Ch'£n Yu-Iiang in Chiang- choa, and shortly afterwards slain.

792 Hsü Ta (T. ^^). A.D. 1829^1383. A natiTs of F^ng-yang in Anhui, and the chief supporter of Chu Yflan-chang in his overthrow of the Mongol dynasty. Joining the latter in 1353, he immediately won his confidence and did nearly all the actual fighting on his behalf, the new soTcreign declining to interfere with his dispositions. His almost unbroken series of successes calminated in the capture of Peking in 1368. He was then employed in clearing the Mongols from the north-western provinces, and in thoroughly weakening their power of aggression by frequent expeditions beyond the Chinese frontier. During the war he took two capitals and over one hundred other cities, without a single instance of murder or rapine; and when Peking changed masters, the market was not stopped for a single day.

He was a plain, simple man, and never presumed on his great