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final step on which he was resolved. Filling all the principal offices with his own creatures, he courted popularity, at the same time that he removed possible rivals by persecuting the eunuchs, whose extermination he ordered and carried out with such severity that "only thirty old men and children" were spared. Soon after this event Chuwen was created Prince of Leang.

In A.D. 904 Chuwen compelled Chaotsong to leave Singan and take up his residence at Loyang, where he felt more secure and better able to attain the objects he had before him. In view of his growing power Likeyong himself lost courage, and feared that his intervention would only provoke a greater catastrophe. Chaotsong entreated his former deliverer and other Chinese governors to come to his assistance; but none ventured to stir in his behalf. This unhappy prince endeavoured also to free himself from the chains in which his tyrant had placed him, by offering him a poisoned drink, but Chuwen was too wary to be thus entrapped. When Chaotsong reached Loyang his doom was sealed. Treated with

the outward form of respect, he was without power, and in the hands of a man who regarded him as an obstacle in the path of his ambition. For a few months he was suffered to live, and then he was brutally murdered by order of Chuwen. The excuse put forward was that some mutinous soldiers committed this act; but, if Chuwen wished the tale to obtain credence, he took a very bad way-although he executed his own son as the murderer-to effect his object. He invited all the princes of the Tang family that were at Loyang to a grand banquet-held on the borders of a lake-and when he had feasted them, a body of soldiers appeared upon the scene, and threw all the guests into the water. Nor did his barbarity cease with this act. Because "there is no peace for the wicked," he deposed all the officials, and executed many of them, distrusting their fidelity, although they were nearly all of his own creation. He persecuted after a similar fashion the highest officers in the state, and on the advice of a minister, who told him that if any serious danger could come to him from any class it would be from them, he caused them to be condemned and led in chains to the banks of the

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Hoangho, where they were drowned. Such acts as these show in the clearest light the probability of Chuwen's guilt in the case of Chaotsong's murder.

Chuwen put Chao Siuenti, one of the youngest sons of the deceased Emperor, on the throne; but he, seeing that he must prove another victim to his unscrupulous ambition, resigned the hollow office after a nominal reign of two years' duration. During that brief period he was not responsible for the acts committed in his name. Chuwen's sole fear arose from the power of Likeyong, who maintained an observant attitude within his own dominions; but in A.D. 906 that chief, on the recommendation of his son, placed an army in the field, and wrested the town of Loochow from him. Chuwen, alarmed at this reverse, returned to Loyang, where the closing events in the drama of the fortunes of the Tang family obscure, for the moment, the interest in the struggle between the two great rivals, Chuwen and Likeyong the Turk.

It was after this campaign that Chao Siuenti resigned the insignia of power to Chuwen. The transfer of authority was effected with all necessary ceremony. Chuwen accepted the will of the people, and Chao Siuenti recognized the force of circumstances and the decree of fate. The change came at a critical moment, for there were clouds on the horizon for the new ruler to dispel if he could. In the north-west there were defeats to avenge and retrieve, and in the interior much discontent and little confidence prevailed. Chuwen was accepting a great responsibility, and it was doubtful whether he possessed the strength necessary to meet it. His own attached followers saw no reason to confide in his friendship, and they did not support him with the staunch and implicit trust of those who know that the victory of the leader will be not more in proportion than the triumph of the men who follow and who make his fortune. Chuwen founded a dynasty, and took the great names of Taitsou Hwangti; but in the very birth of the new power there were perceptible the seeds of an early decay.

Chao Siuenti did not long survive his abdication. It was no part of Chuwen's programme that he should remain a standing danger to his administration, and in the year following

his proclamation he caused him to be assassinated. Thus closed, with the extinction of the race, the career of the illustrious family of the Tangs. It had given twenty Emperors to China during a period of nearly three centuries, and some of these conferred benefits upon the country which endured long beyond the fall of their family. In the great Taitsong it may boast the greatest ruler, taken all in all, that ever guided the destinies of the Chinese race; and whether we consider the extent of the mission with which it was entrusted, or the manner in which its duties were performed, we can only hesitate before comparing any other reigning House with it. In Chinese history the part played by the Tangs is unique, unless the present reigning dynasty should equal or eclipse it; and, although their fall clearly shows how much the descendants of Kaotsou and Taitsong had forgotten the art of government, the record of their prowess, of their conquests, and of the benefits of their domestic administration yet remains to excite our wonder and admiration. From Cochin China to Tokharistan, from Corea to the Persian frontier, there was not a people or a state which did not regard the Empire of the Tangs as the great military and civilized Power of Asia. India did not escape the influence of the spell, and the impetuous Arabs abstained from insulting the borders of a potentate whom they could not but respect. The tradition of China's power and wealth remained, but the richest legacy left by the early Tangs to those who occupied their seat in after times was that no ruler can be held to be great who is not just, and that, although his first duty is to his own people, his justice is imperfect if it does not also include other peoples and nations besides his own. Taitsong saw and acted upon this truth, thus making it the brightest wreath in the laurels of the Tangs.

* We reluctantly give him precedence over Keen Lung, the fourth of the Manchu rulers, who must, in our opinion, be placed next. Tsin Hwangti, Han Vouti, Kublai Khan, Ming Taitsou or Hongwou, and Kanghi are all worthy of a place immediately following, but close to, these two Emperors.

CHAPTER XVI.

FIVE SMALL DYNASTIES.

The Later Leangs, Tangs, Tsins, Hans, and Chows.

IT very soon became evident that Taitsou had accepted a task for which he did not possess the necessary strength. His authority was not recognized outside a portion of Shantung and the whole of Honan, while his assumption of the Imperial title had made him an object of hatred to the other governors, who regarded him as a person defrauding them of their lawful right. Several went so far as to call themselves Emperors, and to adopt the ceremony held by custom to accompany that high dignity; but the greatest danger was threatened by Likeyong, who did nothing. His policy was to wait upon the course of events, and not to strike until he saw where the blow might be best delivered. The impetuosity of his son Litsun-hiu urged him to break this prudent resolve, and to adopt the advice that it would be better to strike before Taitsou could consolidate his position.

An alliance between Likeyong and Yeliu Apaoki, a powerful Tartar chieftain in Southern Mongolia, who had subdued many tribes and a large tract of country, threatened Taitsou with a danger which might have proved fatal. Fortunately for him, Yeliu Apaoki, although the first to propose it, was not sincere in his engagement with the Prince of Tsin, and made counter proposals to Taitsou. This double-dealing saved the new Emperor from a grave peril, while it enabled the Khitan Apaoki to consolidate his own

power, and some years later to assert his supremacy in the Empire. Encouraged by this diplomatic victory, Taitsou came to the conclusion that his best plan would be to declare war upon the Prince of Tsin without giving him the time for forming fresh alliances. He despatched a force, therefore, to lay siege to the town of Loochow, taken from him only a few years before. This place was gallantly and, in the end, successfully defended against him; but the most interesting event of the year was the death of Likeyong. Litsun-hiu was recognized as his successor, and the struggle for power was resumed with greater vigour and determination than

ever.

Litsun-hiu resolved to give lustre to his name by effecting the relief of Loochow, being, as he said, not without a hope that Taitsou might relax some of his attention to the war in consequence of Likeyong's death. This belief proved well founded, and Litsun-hiu effected the relief of this city by winning a brilliant victory over the Imperialist army besieging it. On receiving the disastrous news, Taitsou exclaimed, "Likeyong is not dead; he lives again in his son." The war continued during the remaining years of Taitsou's life. In A.D. 911 Litsun-hiu won another battle on the banks of the Yeho, when he captured the enemy's camp, and a large quantity of his baggage.

This crushing blow produced an effect upon the mind of Taitsou from which he never recovered, and the bitterness of defeat was intensified by the knowledge that he had no one to fight his battles save himself, or to carry on the work which he had barely commenced. On several occasions he showed the old distrust of his most intimate and confidential advisers, few as they were; and to the end he remained isolated and apart from both the desires of the people and the ambitious objects of his own followers. His death was brought about by other causes than those of war and turmoil. His eldest son, whom he had provoked, slew him in a moment of passion, thus cutting short a career which had throughout its whole length been one of confusion and restlessness. The parricide did not long enjoy the fruits of his crime, for a brother, constituting himself the avenger of his sire, attacked

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