Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/773

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754 A Chinese Biographical Dictionary


Entering public life he rose by 170 to be a Beviger in the department of historiography. He was employed among other things in saperintendiog the work of engraving the authorised text of the Five Clctuia^ which he wrote out on stone in red ink for the workmen to cni In 175 he incurred the resentment of a cabal, and being accnsed of magical practices was thrown into prison and condemned to death. This punishment was commuted to that of having his hair pulled out, coupled with banishment to Kansnb. He reached Jl J^ Wu-yuan in Inner Mongolia; but it was represented to the Emperor that his work on the annals of the E. Han dynasty had been very valuable, and in the following year he was pardoned. He then appears to have led a wandering life, mostly as a refugee in the Wu State, until the year 189 when the Emperor Ling Ti died and Tung Gho summoned him to take office. At first he declined on the ground of sickness. Tung Cho however would hear of no refusal and forced him to accept office, rapidly promoting him to the highest posts and transferring him from one to another in an unprecedented manner. He had just been ennobled as Marquis when Tung Gho himself fell, and for words of regret which he thoughtlessly uttered he was once more thrown into prison where he died in spite of great efforts to obtain his release. He was a hard drinker and consumed daily an almost incredible amount of wine, earning for himself the nickname of the Drunken Dragon. He was an excellent musician, on one occasion fashioning a Inte out of a half-burnt firebrand, on another a fiute out of a bamboo lance-handle. See Wang Ts^an,

1987 Ts'an Ts'ung j^ H . A descendant of the Yellow Emperor. He became the first king of ^ Shu, modern Sstlch'oan.

1988 Tsang Li-fang ^|g^ (T. IfO^). 18th cent. A.D. A brother of Tsang Yung, and an enthusiastic student. He wrote on the Shuo Wen (see Hsu Shen) and published a volume of examples