Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/391

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372
A Chinese Biographical Dictionary

Kien Lung or Kien Long. See Ch'ien Lung.

977 Ko Hsien-wêng A magician of old, who could change the rice-grains from his month into beeSf and ^hen receiTe them back into his month as into a hiTe, whereopon they immediately became rice again.

978 Ko Hung (T. ). 4th cent A.D. A native of ^ ^ Chn-jnng in Kiangsn. who was so poor in yonth that he had to cnt firewood in order to buy paper and ink for his stodies, which he prosecuted with unflagging energy. He stammered badly; and as he cared little for wealth or &me. he shut himself up in his house and saw no risitors. Sometimes he had a hard job to push his own way through the brambles which choked up the path to his door. In A.D. 326 he was appointed bj Wang Tao to an official post; and later on he petitioned the Emperor to be allowed to become Magistrate at ^ ^ Kon-lon, because he had beard that cinnabar came from Cochin-Chinaf and he wished to be able to obtain a full supply for experimental purposes. The Emperor consented, and he set off with his family for Koangtung. The Governor, ^ J||^ T^ng To, would hare detained him, but he went off and stopped at the famous fS ff. Lo-fo mountain, wheie for some years he attempted to compound the elixir of life. After that he wandered about, writing books and calling himself ^fl^ -^. Although 81 years of age. he had a complexion like that of a child. One day he wrote to Teng To. and begged him to come and see him. T^ng went: but before his arrival Ko Hung had pass^ into a tranquil sleep, and when they came to examine hiiOf his clothes were found to be empty. He was gone! Author of ih iill ft Bic^raphtff Of tin' G.\h. the ^ ^. etc

979 Ko Jung . An insurgent leader under the Northern Wei dynasty, who in A.D. 526 proclaimed himself Emperor of the Oii State with ^ Euang-an as his year-l