fiercely. Ting Yung, the judge the province, also hated him as By Larnaron When the Empress Dowager, Ta' Hi, fled fror "Poking during the Boxer trouvits and tool with her the Emperor, Kuang Hs0, and their staffs, after the murder of the Pear! Coneubine, the District Magistrate Huai-lei, a small city lying on the route of the flight, north of Peking, was Wu Vu-chuan, who, otherwise known as Wu Yung, is Stl living at Peiping enjoying a ripe old age of over seventy years. Hig family had been scholars and coffleials under the Empire for 500 years, At an early age Wu Yung, After being privately taught in his father's house, continued his studies Independently' and passed the pro-Vinelat examinations, and later the Imperial ones, with ease. His father's death' left him badly off but he was. befriended by the Marquis Tseng, whose daughter he married. "Huai-loi was his frst office and he was appointed there in 18097, three years before the events which so. changed the course of his life and had such a profound effect on Chinese history.
1800 his wife died, teaving him without children, but his elder sister and her husband came to live in his yamen in addition to, his sister-in-law and his nephew. The outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion caused great trouble in Wu Yun istrict and he displayed consider~ able tact and courage in handling the rebels, his difficulties being of course increased by the fact that the Boxers had strong backing in Thigh quarters and. the imperial edicts first c'dered their suppress sion and then instructed the officials to let the people learn from the Boxers and help them with money and in other ways, A Tong time after he had retired' he told his story to a friend, Li Kun, and subsequently Liu Kun, who himself was a government off cial under the new regime, came to the conclusion that the story should bbe put on record: edded to ask YO-ch'van to tai the story again, But as he had Just recovered from. an illness, and Was stil short of breath, I hesitated to trouble him. However the others the department wanted to hear and all begged him for it. YUeh'uan could not refuse, The company sat in a circle hugging their Jenees, as interested ax if they had been listening to Pockmarked Liu telling "tales from the Shui Hu. Their hearts and their spirits wer: fan illness. His description of the Boxer troubles was so real that his audience was startled, was amused, was moved to anger' as the story was fold. There seemed to be no end to his words, The telling of the tale was like the current of the Yellow River flowing thousands of miles from its ouree to the sea. It could be stopped by nothing, "He tathed until the story was finished. The Misteners stood up and looked out. Only then did they perceive that the shadow on the west wall was seven steps long, and that the sun had reached the west window.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.