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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary


his chin shih degree; whereupon he said with a sigh, ^^Is literature then the only road to fame for a hero? Let me but hear the cock crow at dawn, with a hundred thousand soldiers at my back, and as for glory I should only have to stretch out my hand to grasp it." He attracted the attention of the veteran commander ^ ^^ ^ Mu-hua-li, under whom his father had . served, and received a command, subsequently following him on his campaigns and being present at the siege of Peking in 1214. He had attracted to. his standard a large number of young and active recruits, and gave to his army the title of ]^ ||^ ^ . Having destroyed a nest of bandits who were in reality in collusion with ^ f|lj Wu Hsien, a general who had given in his allegiance to the Mongols, the latter was so enraged that he invited him to a banquet and caused him to be assassinated.

1731 Shih T*ien-tse ^ ^ ^ (T. JP| "^ ). A.D. 1202-1275. Younger brother of Shih T4en-ni {q. v.). Eight feet in height, with a voice like a bell, he excelled in military exercises. He received a command under Ogotai Ehan upon his accession in 1229, and served his successors, Kuyak, Mangu, and Eublai Ehan, with fidelity and devotion, rising under the last-named to be a Minister of State and materially aiding by his counsels to consolidate the Mongol rule. It was said that for 50 years his Imperial masters had no cause for suspicion against him and he had no cause for complaint against them. He was forty years old before he became a student of books; latterly, his house was a place of refuge for the homeless scholars of the decadent House of Chin<^. With his. last breath he begged Eublai Ehan to restrain his soldiery from acts of rapine and outrage. Canonised as J^ ^ .

1732 Shih T*ing-chu :5Stt- ^^^^ 1599-1661. A Manchu by descent, in 1622 he was in command of ^ ^ Euang-ning. He yielded however to the Emperor T'ai Tsu, and was rewarded with a title. After serving against the Mings, in 1637 he accompanied