in doing so, the governing power out of her hands. As soon as the Emperor reached an age when he was capable of ruling for himself, he evinced qualities of greatness and of virtue that won for him his subjects' hearts. During his reign the eunuchs, who afterwards proved a still greater source of trouble and difficulty, asserted themselves in the administration, and obtained some of the highest offices in the state through the ability of their chief, Ching Chong. Hoti died, A.D. 105, after a reign of seventeen years, which would have been uneventful but for the deeds of Panchow, now to be described.

During the previous reigns Panchow had warred with unvaried success in the region west of China Proper. Some small kingdoms and numerous tribes had been brought into subjection, and Panchow had spread the terror of his name far beyond the limits of his actual conquests. Several years before Hoti ascended the throne, Panchow is stated to have conquered the city of Kashgar, and to have extended the Chinese Empire to as far west as the Pamir; but when Changti died and the youthful Hoti became ruler, Panchow, the veteran general and foremost of Chinese subjects, was able to order things more after the fashion of his own heart. With a largely increased army he made his position in Eastern Turkestan, or Little Bokhara, the stepping-stone for greater triumphs in the kingdoms beyond that state. It is said that in the course of this later campaign, which doubtless covered several years, he reduced fifteen kingdoms, and reached the Caspian, or Northern Sea, as the Chinese called it. This barrier, which he meditated crossing, was represented to him by the inhabitants to be so formidable and of such extent that he abandoned the design he had conceived of carrying his master's dominions beyond its borders. The difficulties which he and his army had overcome in their long march across burning deserts, lofty mountain ranges, and mighty rivers, and through innumerable enemies, afforded every reason for supposing that the Caspian could not retard a host whose progress had up to that been irresistible. The peoples on its borders were fully cognizant of this, and they invested it accordingly with terrors that it did not possess. Panchow's

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

III

army remained for some time encamped in this quarter, when commercial relations are believed to have been established with the Roman Empire, or the great Thsin, as it was called by the Chinese. It is instructive to know that the Parthians and their neighbours placed obstacles in the way of this intercourse through their country because they found that their own trade suffered in consequence. Panchow has always been represented as having undertaken these wars from mere love of military ambition, and it would be significant to learn that his object was of so practical a character as the coercion of the peoples of Western Asia for purposes of trade. In most cases the desire to advance personal interests is found to be a more potent motive-power than the mere love of fame. After concluding this brilliant expedition Panchow returned to China, where the veteran died in his eightieth year, trusted by his sovereign, and, in no extravagant sense, the popular idol.

Hoti was succeeded by his son Changti, only ten days old when his father died, but he expired within the sanie year.

Ganti, son of the Prince of Tsingho, a brother of Hoti, then became the choice of the people, or rather of the Palace, and was proclaimed Emperor in the year A.D. 106, when he was only thirteen years of age. Hoti's widow was named Regent during his minority, and wielded the executive power for almost the whole of his reign of nineteen years. Long after Ganti attained years of discretion the Empress-Regent evaded the representations made to her to surrender her position. No remarkable events occurred during this reign, which proved singularly barren of interest. The Regent, wisely recognizing that the borders of the Empire had been extended further than its strength could permanently sustain, contracted its limits, and relaxed the hold that had been obtained over numerous vassal princes. Internal peace was the better preserved, and the ravages of a pirate named Changpelou were checked and their perpetrator executed, after a career of successful impunity of more than five years. Famines and other grave visitations had brought suffering to the Chinese and anxiety to their rulers; but on the whole the Regent showed herself well able to provide for all the

1

wants of the people; and when Ganti died, in A.D. 124, he left after him the name of an amiable and conscientious prince.

His son Chunti, who succeeded him, soon became engaged in several small wars, out of which he emerged successfully. The later years of his reign witnessed the outbreak of several rebellions, of which that headed by Mamien was the most formidable. Mamien, aspiring to play a great part, caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor; but his career was speedily cut short, and, being taken prisoner, he suffered the extreme penalty of the law. The only other event of this reign of any importance was the passing of a law that no one should be raised to the magistracy who was less than forty years of age. The contests among men were matched by the conflicts of the elements. To famines there were added earthquakes and landslips on a large scale among the natural phenomena of the time, and Chunti died, it is said, of fright brought on by one of these catastrophes. Of the same age as his father, like him he reigned nineteen years.

To Chunti succeeded his infant son Chongti, and to Chongti another child Cheti, a descendant of the Emperor Changti. The former was always sickly, and died in a few months after Chunti. The latter held nominal authority during one year, when he was poisoned by Leangki, a noble whose ambition forms one of the episodes of the period, and of whom during the next reign more will be heard.

On Cheti's death, Houanti, the elder brother of that unhappy prince, was proclaimed Emperor by the exercise of unwarranted authority on the part of the murderer Leangki. Like most of the ambitious intriguers who have from time immemorial infested the palace of the Chinese ruler, Leangki was not a prince of the blood, but the brother of one of the Empresses. During the long minority which had followed among the Chinese sovereigns after the death of Hoti, the opportunity was afforded this personage of advancing his own interests at the expense of the state. In the palace his word became virtually supreme, and none ventured to question his commands. An incautious phrase on the part of the boy Cheti had cost him his life; and now, under the nominal

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authority of Houanti, Leangki sought to carry everything before him with a high hand. His intrigues and crimes constituted the gravest danger in the path of the new ruler. Having removed by foul means several of the ministers of whose influence he was most apprehensive, Leangki grew so confident that he ventured on one occasion into the presence of the Emperor with a sword by his side-an act punishable with death. He was at once charged with the offence, and would have suffered the penalty of the law if Houanti had not intervened, and spared his life in consideration of his having placed him on the throne. Leangki, far from feeling grateful for this generous treatment, intrigued against the Emperor, and sought to form a party of his own. His plots were discovered, but, when on the point of capture, he accepted the inevitable, and evaded his just sentence by taking poison.

Troubles of various kinds and in different quarters beset the Chinese during this period. The tribes on their borders, constantly stirred up by their own irrepressible energy, and by the spasmodic ambition of their chiefs, again became troublesome, and the consequences of their hostile movements assumed increased gravity because of a growing disposition among them to combine against China. The Sienpi, in Leaoutung, at first carried on hostilities against the Hiongnou, but this quarrel was arranged (apparently by the subjugation of the Huns, part of whom migrated to the West, arriving in Europe at a critical moment, while the rest coalesced with the Sienpi) when they turned their united armies against China. Owing to the skill of the general Twan Keng, and, at a later stage of the contest, of Toanyng and Hoangfoukoue, these tribes were defeated, and the authority of the Emperor was re-established on a firm basis. In the final battle of the war the balance of victory hung in doubt, until Twan Keng, rushing to the front of his army, exhorted his men to charge once more, with the following heroic speech: "Recall to your minds how often before you have beaten these same opponents, and teach them again to-day that in you they have their masters." Houanti's reign was, therefore, one of brilliant military achievement; and when he died, in A.D. 167, there was no symptom that the long term of the Han rule was

VOL. I.

I

approaching its close. Never, indeed, did it appear more vigorously established than when, after a reign of more than twenty years, the fingers of Houanti relaxed the sceptre of his

ancestors.

Houanti died without leaving an heir, and a young prince, one of the descendants of Changti, was placed on the throne under the name of Lingti. The eunuchs had, during the previous reigns, been extending their influence, and steadily acquiring the chief posts of authority. Under Lingti their activity increased, and, finding in the Emperor a weak and easily-guided instrument, they aimed at nothing short of a supreme position, when they would be free of all control. The very first act of his reign was to extend his protection to the eunuchs whom the other ministers endeavoured to crush; and it was under the encouragement of Imperial favour that they hatched the plot which made their position more assured than it had ever been. Turning their occupation of the palace to account, they gained possession of the Emperor's person, and while one of their number amused him with. sword exercise, the rest, making use of his name, seized their rivals and had them promptly executed. After this bold move no one ventured, for some time, to challenge the authority of the eunuchs.

By

Lingti was engaged in a war of considerable difficulty and importance with the Sienpi, who had shown a fresh disposition to encroach on the Chinese dominions, and through the courage and ability of his commander, Chow Pow, the contest had a very satisfactory termination for him. some means the family of this general had fallen into the power of the Sienpi, and when Chow Pow came face to face with the enemy they exhibited his mother outside their camp, threatening to slay her the instant he made any movement. There was a short struggle in the mind of Chow Pow, and then duty to his sovereign and his country triumphed over his affection for his mother. He attacked and defeated the Sienpi, who, however, carried their threat into execution. Chow Pow, infuriated at his loss, offered up hecatombs of warriors in expiation of the crime. It fared ill that day with any foe who crossed the path of a Chinese soldier, but