HISTORICAL NOVEL. 187 and the Man tribes were hanying his southern frontiers; the Tibetans were plundering the west; the Eatan were helping themselves in the north, and, worst of all, the formidable Turks were devastating the north-west, both on the northern and western frontiers. Gaoli, utterly ruined, and an empty husk, was nominally annexed to China, only to make Bohai a powerful kingdom in the north, which speedily overran all Liaotung to the gulf of the same name ; and to remove all pressure from the east of Kitan which could therefore, and did, throw its undivided and constantly increasing strength upon the north of China^ till, as the Liao Dynasty, it occupied the northern half of China proper. Thus, while the Tang Emperor was glorifying himself on the numbers of Oaoli whom he sent to the wolves, he sent at least as many of his own subjects to a bloody grave ; and he spread, for a century, miseries and calamities over all his land, such as no " glory could ever repay. Such vain boasting of mere animal courage, cruelly aggressive, cannot but make a thinking man disgusted with the silly race of man who can apply the name of *'glory to any victories gained in any battle, save what is to preserve the lives and to uphold the liberties of the people of his country. It may not be uninteresting to give a brief summary of the maimer in which the Shvx> Ta/ag, or historical novel of that dynasty, treats of the conquest of Liaotung and Corea The <x>ntents of each chapter are given in a poetical stanza, just like the modem novel of the west The hero of the story is Hiie Yingwei, a common man, forced to marry a lovely young lady, high above him, because her guardian sees from his face that he is to rise to high rank. Unlike western love stories, he is loth and the young lady is the suitor, — or rather she informs her guardian privately how gladly she will consent So, married they are, in spite of his bashfulness. He is, also from the warmth of the lady's desires, afterwards obliged to marry another young beauty, the daughter of a wealthy man, — ^whom he saved by his prowess from the band of robbers come to take her for their chief. He does not live much with either, however, for the brawny
