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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
389

the confidence of the Emperor Shih Tsung until in 1529, being then a Grand Secretary, he was accused of a suspicious intimacy with an Imperial physician. He and Chang were both dismissed as having been "false to the sovereign and to the State," but they were re-instated in the following year. He retired shortly afterwards on the plea of ill-health. His writings on government and the duties of an Emperor were much esteemed. Canonised as 文襄.


1016 K'uei 夔 . One of the 9 Ministers of the Emperor Shun, charged with the direction of State music. According to the Tso Chuan, K'uei married 玄妻 the "dark lady," daughter of the Prince of 仍 Jêng, who was famous for her extraordinary beauty and lustrous black hair. She bore him a son, named 伯封 Po Feng, who "had the heart of a pig." He was insatiably gluttonous, covetous, and quarrelsome. Men gave him the name of the Great Pig. He was killed by Hou I, Prince of Ch'iung, and his family became extinct.


1017 Kumarajiva 鳩摩羅什婆 (abbreviated to 羅什, and signifying one who though young in years is old in virtue). Died A.D. ? 412. The nineteenth of the Western Patriarchs of Buddhism. A native of India, whose father was invited to Kuchah near Turfan, appointed State Preceptor, and married to the king's daughter, a clever girl of twenty who had hitherto refused all suitors. At the age of seven his mother dedicated him to Buddhism, and he is said to have repeated daily one thousand gâthâ or hymns of thirty-two words to each. At twelve he was taken by his mother to the State of 沙勒 Sha-lo, where he lived for a year, studying deeply, especially astrology and kindred subjects. He devoted himself to the Mahayana or Greater Development, and soon had crowds of pupils. At twenty he returned to Kuchah, and publicly expounded the sûtras. He preached with such success that Fu Chien heard of his