Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/780

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
761


Ts'ao T8*an ^ ^ (T. ^j^ ^ ). Died B.C. 190. A native of 2012 P^ei in Kiangsu. After serving as a gaol oflScial under the Ch4n dynasty, he joined the fortunes of his fellow-countryman, Liu Pang, who was then Duke of P^ei. Serving ■ with him all through his adventurous career, he rose to the highest o£Sces of State and was ennobled as Marquis. On the death of Hsiao Ho he took the latter*s place as chief Minister and continued his policy with unswerving fidelity. He positively declined to consider any deviation from the laws and, regulations which had been sanctioned by his great predecessor; and when any one came to deliberate in such a sense, Ts'ao Ts'an would ply the visitor with wine until he was too drunk to begin the subject. Canonised as

Ts*ao Ts^ao. W H <>' ^s^ao Chi-U "§ ^ M (T. ^^. 2013

Baby name ^ |^). A.D. 155—220. A native of P^ei in modern Kiangsu, whose father was the adopted son of the chief eunuch of the palace under the Emperor Ling Ti of the Han dynasty. In his youth he was fond of coursing and hawking, but managed by the age of twenty to take the degree of haiao lien. He first distinguished himself in a campaign undertaken A.D. 184 against the Yellow Turban rebels. He was the prime mover in a mass gathering of various ofiBcials who determined to raise an army of volunteers to fight for the Right, purge the empire generally , and especially direct their efforts towards subduing Tung Cho, then in power. This assembly of jealous men accomplished nothing. Step by step, however, Ts*ao Ts'ao overcame many chieftains, including Lu Pu, once Tung Cho's lieutenant, who at the instigation of Wang Ydn had become the assassin of his master. Ts^ao Ts*ao*s longest struggle was with Ydan Shao and his sons ^ Tan and jjS^ Shang, the latter of whom fied to the Hsiung-uu and was the cause of an expedition into the desert of Sha-mo against that race. In 208 he was appointed Minister of State, and in 216 was ennobled as