83 IMPERIAL TEN. entirely from bis having eaten too many dates, and from his hasty temper. Chin became very angry ; giving proof of his hasty temper, or, as we might call it, of his violent passion, for saying : *' Are you a prophet ? How did you know I had eaten dates? he ordered the physician to be led out to instant executioa He was known as a ferociously cruel monarch, and was very frequently drunk. These instances suffice to prove it, and also to show the condition of law and order. In 358, he had to carry on an unequal contest against both Tsin and Yen ; the latter of which powers seized much of his land In 359, he nominated his General Wang Mung, Kingdom-Separating Commander. We shall meet him again. In the spring of 358, the Tsin commandant of Taishan,* in the west of Shantung, attacked the eastern flank of, Yen ; but Go compelled him to beat a hasty retreat, crossed the river in pursuit, and ravaged the southern banks. When General Ping was marching south (p. 79), between the rivers Jang (Chang) and Woo, he summoned old Chief Jien and his Bohai f men to submit These had seceded from Jao, on the defeat of the latter by the rising Wei, and had not yet acknowledged any master. Old Jien compelled the Yen army to fight for mastery ; but he was easily overpowered. Jien was seized; and the bravery, skill, ability, and the strength of the old man of sixty were highly praised. General Go set an ox as a target for the old man, at a hundred paces .j distance. Jien said that "when yOung he could at that distance hit without wounding ; but he was afraid his eye was now imcertain, and his hand unsteady ; " — at the same moment letting fly an arrow which grazed the shoulder of the ox, and in an instant^ another arrow grazed the belly. Each arrow cut away the hair, but left the skin unhurt ; both marks
- The f amotis moimtain south of Tnnan, the Capital of Shantung.
fThe modem Nanpi hien, south-east of Ghihli, was the centre of BohaL tA, Chinese pace is 5 ft, a step being taken by each foot to make ajiace. Froud, in his History of England, was staggered at the 220 yards demanded by law as the nearest target for manly archery in Old England. But as he found that the English archer was certainly ordered to hit at over 600 ft., we may allow 500 ft. as 1^ not impossible distance for Jien.
