Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/694

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
675


and successor of Sstl-ma Ohao, who had been created Prince of Chin. In 265 his father died, and at the end of the year he deposed the Emperor Yflan Ti and founded the Chin dynasty , placing his capital at Lo-yang in Honan. In 280 he deposed the ruler of Wu, and added its territory to his dominions, which he divided into nineteen j^ provinces containing one hundred and seventy-three ^ (or ^ ) districts. He restored the custom of twenty-seven months' mourning for parents instead of twenty-seven days, to which it had been reduced by the Emperor W6n Ti of the Han dynasty. He was a patron of literature, and collected a large library. But having achieved success, he began to abandon himself to pleasure. He allowed the army to be so much reduced that the Turkic tribes in the north- east encroached upon the empire. Already during the troublous times of the Three Kingdoms they had penetrated within the Great Wall, and now it was necessary to buy their nominal allegiance with titles and dignities. No less than eight princedoms of important provinces were created, which proved under the following reign to be sources of infinite trouble. Canonised as {U^ JiB. iS^ ^ W * Ssti-ma Ten fj l| ^ (T. ift ^). A.D. 820-342. Eldest son 1769 of the Emperor Ming Ti , and third sovereign of the E. Chin dynasty. He succeeded at the age of five , under the Regency of his mother. The Court was torn by factions, and in 327 Su Ch^n revolted in Anhui and seized Nanking by a rapid advance. Several officers however came to the rescue, and he was driven back to Anhui, and in 328 captured and beheaded, as was likewise his son in the following year. Shih Lo, who styled himself Emperor, had now possession of all the north, and after capturing and losing Hsiang- yang in Hupeh, vainly proposed peace in 333. In 335 the Emperor took the reins of government, and for seven years ruled well and peacefully, troubled only by the hostile operations of Shih Chi-lung. Canonised as M^ ^M.^-