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ceremonies of an exceptional character. At this time Vouti is stated to have ruled his people with a prudence and moderation that gained him all hearts, and certainly this useful work should not be placed last among the benefits he conferred upon China.

In A.D. 272 Sunhow had been obliged to employ force in putting down a revolt within his dominions, and by rapid marching his general Loukang succeeded in overcoming all opposition before Vouti's general Yanghou, who had promised to afford the rebel assistance, could come up. A few years later Yanghou, having completed the scheme for the invasion of the states of Wu, died, to the great relief of all over whom he had exercised authority; and the master, whom he had served faithfully and for so many years, caused an eulogium, cut in letters of gold on stone, to be erected to his memory, reciting his numerous virtues-at once a reward to the minister and an exhortation to other officials to follow his example.

The year following Yanghou's death beheld the longexpected invasion of Wu on the eve of being put into practice. Five different corps from as many points were to attack Sunhow's dominions at the same time. One general carried everything before him between Henkiang and the Yangtsekiang; while Wangsiun, descending that river with his fleet, struck terror into the hearts of the people of Wu, who were quite unprepared for this unusual form of attack. In this emergency the only device they could think of was to throw chains across the river; but these Wangsiun forced with ease by using fire rafts. The whole military and naval strength of the Tsins was, therefore, converging on the very heart of the dominions of the King of Wu, and the nearer the approach of the danger the less able did Sunhow appear to be to defend himself. Touyu, the engineer of the Mongtsin bridge, had been entrusted by Vouti with the chief command, and while his lieutenants were obtaining successes in other quarters of the field, he won the great victory of the war near the city of Kianling, which fell to his arms without resistance. The effect of this was enhanced by a further battle won at Panpiao, in Kiangsu, when Changti, the most resolute of Sunhow's

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remaining generals, met a soldier's death, fighting bravely at the head of his men.

After these disasters, unrelieved by the smallest ray of success, with his fleet destroyed and his armies shattered, Sunhow came to the resolution that it was time to abandon his dreams of ambition, and to make up his mind that the supremacy of the Tsins could no longer be disputed. He therefore gave himself up to Wangsiun, the general who, by constructing a fleet in the conquered province of Chow, had done so much towards deciding the fortune of this war. This event took place in the year A.D. 280, twenty years after the incorporation of Chow, and it added to the Tsin Empire a kingdom of vast dimensions. Wu at this time comprised four large provinces, sub-divided into forty-three departments, containing five hundred and twenty-three towns and villages, and a standing force of two hundred and thirty thousand men. This large territory was re-incorporated with the rest of China, and passed under the same laws as those which had been imposed elsewhere by the Tsins.

Having thus accomplished the object of his life, Vouti showed an inclination to pass the remainder of his days in peace. He reduced, against the advice of many of his ministers, his standing army to the lowest dimensions, and he also gave himself up to the indulgence of pleasures which, in his earlier days, he had regarded with stoical indifference. It almost seemed as if his mind, having been braced to a great effort, relaxed after the strain had been removed, and refused to recover the mastery over his mundane actions. Be that as it may, the last ten years of his life were passed in a different manner to his earlier ones. After the conquest

of Wu, numerous customs were introduced which ill accorded with the sobriety of the northern races. A band of comedians, composed of five thousand females, who had been wont to amuse the leisure of Sunhow, was brought to the capital, and established in Vouti's palace. His principal pastime became to spend his time in their midst, and to drive in a car drawn by sheep through the gardens of the royal residence. There was much in this to shock the strict simplicity of Chinese life, and while his great qualities are

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not ignored, the native historian visits with censure this weakness of the Emperor. The close of his reign was after a different fashion, therefore, to the commencement, and although the founder of the later Tsin dynasty, he was the first to exemplify the faults which entailed its ruin.

In A.D. 290, Vouti fell ill and died, having reigned over Wei and Chow for fifteen years, and over the whole Empire for ten. He was succeeded by his son Ssemachong, who was at this time about thirty years of age. On his deathbed, Vouti left the principal part in the administration to Yangsiun, an ambitious but weak-willed personage, more anxious to advance his own interests than those of the Tsins.

Ssemachong took the name, on mounting the throne, of Hweiti, and his first anxiety was caused by the ambition and intrigues of the minister Yangsiun; but these were of slight importance in comparison with the sinister intentions and criminal designs of his own wife, the Empress Kiachi. Resolved to avenge herself for slights which she conceived had been offered her during the reign of Vouti, Kiachi breathed vengeance against that ruler's widow, Yangchi, and the minister Yangsiun, nor did she rest content until her wrath had been gratified. The weakness and vacillation of Yangsiun, who could have averted the catastrophe by exhibiting ordinary courage and promptitude, played the game into the hands of Kiachi, whose partisans attacked the minister in his palace, and put him and his followers to the sword. The Empress Yangchi was deposed from her position, and relegated to the ranks of the people. Kiachi appointed other ministers, but these soon forgot the lessons of prudence, and thought their chief duty was to establish a party of their own. The fall of Yangsiun changed only the name of the dominant minister, and the Emperor, a miserable and harmless prince, became a mere puppet in the hands of a wicked wife and a designing statesman.

This state of things in the capital invited confusion throughout the realm, and rendered it impossible for the border lieutenants to resent with the necessary vigour the insults which the neighbouring peoples dared to offer the national dignity. Risings on a small scale took place, and remaining

unrepressed, speedily assumed larger proportions. The generals sent against them passed their time in quarrelling among themselves as to which should have precedence of the other; and when, their troops disgusted and their supplies exhausted, they hurled themselves against the confident rebels, it was only to incur a defeat which had been rendered almost inevitable by their dissension and misconduct. More significant, though of less immediate import, some of the Tartar kings were extending their authority far to the west, over states nominally Chinese vassals, and all the court did was to say that these places were too remote for any interest to be taken in their fate. Yet the key of the whole situation lay in those northern and north-western provinces, whence conquerors of China have sometimes, and devastators of her fair plains have always, come in hordes prolific of hardy warriors. Before this Tsin dynasty had been fairly placed on the throne, it was made clear that the causes of its fall were already in operation. Its vitality had never been of the most vigorous kind, and the folly of Vouti's successors made it assume a stunted growth.

In the midst of a world of disunion, and at a time when the bonds of society are loosened, it often happens that a single human genius appears upon the scene, and by some brilliant act fully exposes the weaknesses and decline of the age, at the same time that he revives the memory of former vigour. The truth of this was exemplified in China at this time by the deeds of Mongkwan, a eunuch in the service of the Empress Kiachi. When all the leading generals had been defeated, and the court was reduced to despair, Mongkwan was entrusted with an army as a last resource. His acts more than justified the choice. Although in the depth of winter, he marched against one of the rebels, defeated him in several encounters, and finally crushed him in a great battle, when his whole army surrendered. Thus did the Chinese Narses restore in one district the waning authority of Hweiti. But Mongkwan could not act everywhere, and in all other quarters of the Empire it went hard with the representatives of the Tsins. Neither the tranquillity of the realm nor the interests of the dynasty were

promoted by the murder of the heir-apparent, who was poisoned at the order of Kiachi.

In the year A.D. 304 the Hiongnou were divided into five clans dependent on the Chinese government, and a number of them had been distributed throughout the Empire. Lieouyuen had been appointed chief over them, and he and his family, that of the Lieous, occupy a prominent place in the events which happened during the closing years of Hweiti's reign. Lieouyuen's son Lieousong had had all the advantages of a Chinese education, and in addition to the martial qualities of the Tartar, he possessed the scientific knowledge and other accomplishments of the Chinese. These Tartars had not forgotten the traditions of independent authority which still survived in their history, and seeing the disunion prevailing among the members of the royal family, they resolved to turn the opportunity to their own personal advantage. Skilfully concealing their plans, they claimed to be working for the common good, and identified themselves on the first occasion with the party of the Emperor. But after a show of friendship they withdrew to Leaoutung, where they established an independent authority, and Lieouyuen was proclaimed king. Not content with this, he laid claim to the Empire as the representative in the female line of the Hans, and assumed the title of King of Han.

The disorders in the Empire had now reached their height. Hweiti was compelled to flee from his capital, which was plundered and given to the flames; but the weak king did not even then make any effort to shake off the tyranny of those who, possessed of his person, ruled in his name, but only for their private ends. His death, in A.D. 306, was a happy release from a state which possessed no meaning, and a situation full of anxiety without any compensating advantages. His brother Ssemachi succeeded him as the Emperor Hwaiti, and at first promise was afforded of an improvement in the state of affairs. At the least, it could not become much worse.

Hwaiti began his reign with the best intentions, and with a resolve to personally attend to the cares of government