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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
431

yery fond of literary pursuits, and attained to real distinction as a poet. Canonised as ^ ^ ^ ^ .

1128 Li Han-ohang ^1^:^ (T. ^^). Bom A.D. 1821. A licentiate of Anhui and elder brother of Li Hung-chang. He was appointed in 1862 to assist in leyying transit-dnes in S^iangsi, and rose in the regular course to be a provincial Governor in 1865. In 1870 he became Viceroy at Wu-ch'ang, a post he filled again in 1876. In 1875 he was appointed Special Commissioner to enquire into the murder of Margary, but his conduct of the mission was highly unsatisfactory to the British Commissioners. In 1888 he became Director General of the Grain Transport « and was subsequently transferred to Canton as Viceroy, from which post he retired in 1895, to the great joy of the people, his greed and misrule having been fully exposed by i^ ^ ^ Ma P'ei-yao, the honest Gk>vemor of Euangtung.

1129 Id Hang ^^ (T. ^s:^). A.D. 946-1004. A native of ? ^ Fei-hsiang in Chihli, who graduated as chin shih in 980 and was highly esteemed by the Emperor T^ai Tsung of the Sung dynasty. Becoming a Supervising Censor, he rose under the Emperor ChSn Tsung to be Vice President of the Board of Revenue and was left in charge of the capital while his Majesty conducted an expedition against the Eitan Tartars. He was associated with Wang Tan in the direction of State affairs, and by his strict uprightness extorted from his less scrupulous colleague the admission that he was indeed a holy man. Hence he came to be known as the ^ ijff Holy Minister. At his death the Emperor was overcome with grief and went to weep beside his bier, suspending the usual audiences for five days. In the earlier part of his career he built a house for himself of such modest dimensions that a horse could hardly turn round iti the entrance-yard. To some one who alluded to this, he said, ^'It would be small for a Minister of State, but