Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/73

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary

(or 姮) Hêng, in reference to the line 如月之恒 "like the waxing moon" in the Odes; but as the Emperors Mu Tsung and Chên Tsung of the T'ang dynasty both had Hêng for their personal names, it was therefore changed to Ch'ang.

141 Ch'ang-sun Shun-tê 長孫順德. An official under the Emperor T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, A.D. 627-650, who took some silk as a bribe. The Emperor, instead of punishing him, sent him a number of pieces of silk as a present, and thus put him to shame.

142 Ch'ang-sun Wu-chi 長孫無忌 (T. 輔幾). Died A.D. 659. A native of Lo-yang, and comrade in arms in early youth of Li Shih-min, who married his sister. When Li Shih-min came to the throne in 627 as second Emperor of the T'ang dynasty, Chiang-sun was made President of the Board of Civil Office, and was entrusted with revision of the criminal code. In 633 he was appointed to the Board of Works, and in 643 was made Senior Preceptor to his nephew, the Heir Apparent, whose guardian he became, conjointly with Ch'u Sui-liang, upon the Emperor's death in 649. In 654 he refused offers of heavy bribes to aid in the elevation of the Empress Wu Hou; the result being that in 659 he was accused of treason, stripped of his honours, banished to confinement in Ssŭch'uan, and ere long put to death and his family exterminated.

143 Ch'ang Yü-ch'un 常遇春 (T. 伯仁). A.D. 1330—1369. Originally a bandit of 懷遠 Huai-yüan, he joined Chu Yüan-ch'ang in 1355, and by extraordinary acts of valour won a place second only to Hsü Ta. On several occasions during the struggle to gain the empire, he turned defeat into victory, and more than once he saved the lives of his master and Hsü Ta. Made a State Counsellor and a Duke, he shared in the victorious northward campaign of 1368—69. Brave to a fault, he treated his men with