benefits on the people, it as a matter of fact produced none of these results, and was an unqualified failure. In Shensi, where it was most extensively put into practice, the cultivated land became greatly reduced in area and impoverished in quality, not merely through the unskilful treatment of the small holder, but also on account of the dislike inherent in man to protracted labour for which he does not see an immediate return. The statesman-historian, Ssemakwang, showed sounder judgment and a more accurate estimate of human nature than his rival when he denounced these views as chimerical. But as men are swayed by their hopes, and as the statesman, whose argument is based on what the future -painted in his own brilliant colours-may bring forth, must always have the advantage over, and attract more sympathy than, those who dwell on the merits of the past and oppose change, Wanganchi triumphed over the sage Ssemakwang, and long had the great majority of his countrymen at his back. It was only when it could no longer be denied that his schemes had proved abortive, and that his regulations were mischievous, that he lost the sympathy of the public which had sustained him in his contest with the learned classes headed by Ssemakwang. The royal favour supported him for a short time longer, and then came his fall. He survived his disgrace ten years, dying in the year A.D. 1086, when a new ruler had succeeded his patron Chintsong. He protested to the end that his scheme was sound, and admitted of practical application; but he does not appear to have been wronged in being styled the Chinese Socialist or visionary and speculative minister of the eleventh century. His fortunes proved scarcely less fluctuating after his death than they had been during his life. In the year following his decease the Empress Regent prohibited, under penalty of dismissal from the public service, the use of his commentaries, which had been in vogue. Twenty years later his name was placed in the Hall of Confucius, on the ground that since Mencius there had been no one to compare with Wanganchi-a privilege of which the Emperor Kintsong deprived his memory in A.D. 1126, when Wanganchi's name finally disappeared from the public records. DREAD OF THE TARTARS. 261 Chintsong's last acts were to divide his dominions into twenty-three provinces, and to receive from the hands of the great historians the works upon which they had laboured for nearly twenty years. His death occurred in A.D. 1085, when he left peaceable possession of his dominions to his son Chetsong. Chintsong had studiously followed the example of his predecessors, and, whatever his original inclination for war may have been, he had repressed his martial instincts and given China eighteen more years of undisturbed peace. The Tartars of Leaoutung had made a further advance, and seized the cities which Chitsong of the later Chow dynasty had wrested from them. This accession of territory was far from being unimportant, and instead of solving the frontier question, added rather to the growing gravity of the situation. As Chetsong was only ten years of age, the Empressmother assumed the functions of government as Regent, and during her life the country rejoiced in a tranquillity which was the direct consequence of her wise administration. Her virtues were those which commended themselves most to her countrymen, who in their gratitude compared her reign to the semi-mythical period of perfection when Chun and Yao were the patriarchal rulers of a contented people. But even she dared not provoke a war with the Tartars. In A.D. 1090 they restored a few officers and soldiers taken prisoners during previous expeditions, but in turn insisted, under the threat of hostilities in the event of refusal, on the surrender of four fortified towns in the province of Shensi. The threat sufficed, and the towns were handed over to these insatiable opponents. The same year witnessed floods on a tremendous scale in the provinces of Chekiang and Kiangnan, when it is computed that nearly one million persons perished. The Regent's death, two years after this calamity, left Chetsong alone to cope with the dangers of his situation on his own resources. There were great questions to be dealt with at home, and the periodical visitations, now of drought and again of floods, were a constant source of anxiety to the ruler and of loss to the people, while on the northern frontier the war-cloud caused by Tartar ambition and military vigour was steadily assuming larger proportions. His first acts were ill calculated to enlist public confidence. The eunuchs were recalled to the power from which they had been so long banished, and they set themselves to the task of undoing as much as they could of the work the late Empress had accomplished. Under their influence, Chetsong divorced his Empress-a step of the greatest gravity in Chinese eyes, and one not to be taken by even an Emperor save when morally justified-and when remonstrated with he replied with indifference that “he was only imitating several of his predecessors." "You would do better," retorted the public censor, "to imitate their virtues and not their faults." He was not to be turned from his purpose, and having deposed one Empress he exalted another of his wives to her place. This domestic change did not prove auspicious. The infant son of the new Empress, on whom Chetsong's hopes had centred, died soon after her elevation, and Chetsong himself expired of grief at his loss the same year * (A.D. I100). His reign of fifteen years had on the whole been peaceful. The incursions of the Hias had been checked, and two victories in the field added an unknown lustre to the Chinese arms; but it is probable that the importance of these successes is exaggerated in the Court chronicles. However, they signify at least that the border governors were strong enough to maintain peace on the western frontier. When Chetsong died he had not named an heir after the loss of his son, because, it is naively recorded, "he did not expect to die so soon." The troubles that might have ensued through a disputed succession were averted by the firmness of his widow, who pronounced herself in favour of Chetsong's brother Chaoki, Prince of Twan. Chaoki took the name of Hoeitsong, and during his reign the troubles, of which the premonitory symptoms had been so long apparent, broke out. * A sage presented Chetsong with a small book containing ten precepts as essential for the guidance of a ruler's conduct. They were: 1. Fear Heaven. 2. Love the people. 3. Work to make yourself perfect. 4. Apply yourself to the sciences. 5. Raise wise men to the public service. 6. Listen to the advice which is offered you. taxation. 8. Moderate the rigour of the law. 9. Avoid pomp. from debauchery.-Pauthier, p. 345. 7. Diminish 10. Fly Hoeitsong at first followed in the wake of the policy marked out for him by the Empress Mongchi, and the wise minister Hanchong Yen. But he soon wearied of following a set course, for he preferred to indulge his own inclinations. Open to flattery, he was unable to see through the snares of those of his courtiers who praised every trifle that he performed; while his superstition and credulous disposition made him a tool in the hands of the astute personages who were intriguing for the possession of power. With the ingratitude of weak minds, he turned upon his benefactress Mongchi, whom he deposed from her proper rank, and he also banished from his Court all the ministers whom he had accepted during the first year of his reign. He gave himself over to the superstitious practices, and to the study of magic, which were condemned in the case of the first Chintsong, and wished that his people should call him by a title signifying "the Emperor who is the master of the law and the prince of doctrine." To this testimony of his infallibility the nation refused to subscribe, and the attempt to force it on his people is only remembered as the extravagance of a weak ruler. Hoeitsong's vanity was in no sense inferior to his incapacity to appreciate the exact character of his position. Surrounded by flatterers who echoed his opinions, he never saw the reality of the dangers which menaced him. He conceived that he had but to command for his orders to be obeyed and carried into execution; and he treated all his neighbours as petty potentates who would never dare to dispute the proposals which he might condescend to make to them. There was no friend at his elbow, no capable minister, to warn him that his views were erroneous. The enterprise which he desired to undertake was a great and a perilous one, but he entered upon it "with a light heart." It required brave soldiers, skilful generals, and wise ministers to bring it to a happy conclusion. He had none of these; but he trusted to the magic of his name, and inferred from the prognostics of the augurs a speedy and a happy result. It was in obedience not to the promptings of a great ambition, but to the dictates of a petty vanity, that Hoeitsong rushed blindly on his fate. The Niuche or Chorcha Tartars, who more than a century before had come to settle in China, had steadily multiplied and gathered to themselves a considerable power. Their seven hordes represented a military force of considerable proportions, which had become subservient to the Leaoutung administration in the time of the great Apaoki. But a large number of them, sooner than surrender their privileges, had withdrawn beyond the reach of the Khitan power into the country which is now Manchuria. Early in the twelfth century, however, this people had come together again, and the remembrance of their common origin caused them to form a fresh alliance, and one having moreover its foundation in a mutual antipathy to the Khitans of Leaoutung. Among these there appeared a great warrior, Akouta, who first distinguished himself in battle in the year A.D. 1114 against his Khitan neighbours and the oppressors of his race. Inspired by his first success, he led his army from victory to victory, taking many towns and subjecting a large extent of territory. The rapidity of his conquest induced him to proclaim himself Emperor, when he assembled his army in order that it should witness the proclamation of the new government, and the announcement of the name by which he intended it to be known. Akouta began his address by informing his soldiers that the Khitans had in the earlier days of their success taken the name of Pintiei, meaning the iron of Pinchow, but he went on to say," Although the iron of Pinchow may be excellent, it is liable to rust, and can be eaten away. There is nothing save gold which is unchangeable, and which does not destroy itself. Moreover, the family of Wangyen, with which I am connected through the chief Hanpou, had always a great fancy for glittering colours such as that of gold, and I am now resolved to take this name as that of my Imperial family. I therefore give it the name of Kin, which signifies gold." In this proclamation (A.D. 1115) is to be found the origin of the Kin dynasty, the rival of the Sungs. After this ceremony, the Tartar king of Leaoutung realized that he would have to fight for the preservation of his kingdom, if not of his independence. The danger which had so |