_Mien Tisong_ is surely faulty, and must likely be corrected in _Mien
Chung_, proved especially at the Ming Period. (PELLIOT, _Bul. Ecole franc.
Ext. Orient_, IV., July-Sept, 1904, p. 772.)

LI., LII., pp. 98 seq.

WAR AGAINST THE KING OF MIEN.

The late Edouard HUBER of Hanoi, writing from Burmese sources, throws new
light on this subject: "In the middle of the thirteenth century, the
Burmese kingdom included Upper and Lower Burma, Arakan and Tenasserim;
besides the Court of Pagan was paramount over several feudatory Shan
states, until the valleys of the Yunnanese affluents of the Irawadi to the
N.E., and until Zimme at the least to the E. Narasihapati, the last king
of Pagan who reigned over the whole of this territory, had already to
fight the Talaings of the Delta and the governor of Arakan who wished to
be independent, when, in 1271, he refused to receive Kublai's ambassadors
who had come to call upon him to recognize himself as a vassal of China.
The first armed conflict took place during the spring of 1277 in the Nam
Ti valley; it is the battle of Nga-caung-khyam of the Burmese Chronicles,
related by Marco Polo, who, by mistake, ascribes to Nasr ed-Din the merit
of this first Chinese victory. During the winter of 1277-78, a second
Chinese expedition with Nasr ed-Din at its head ended with the capture of
Kaung sin, the Burmese stronghold commanding the defile of Bhamo. The
_Pagan Yazawin_ is the only Burmese Chronicle giving exactly the spot of
this second encounter. During these two expeditions, the invaders had not
succeeded in breaking through the thick veil of numerous small thai
principalities which still stand to-day between Yun Nan and Burma proper.
It was only in 1283 that the final crush took place, when a third
expedition, whose chief was Siang-wu-ta-eul (Singtaur), retook the fort of
Kaung sin and penetrated more into the south in the Irawadi Valley, but
without reaching Pagan. King Narasihapati evacuated Pagan before the
impending advancing Chinese forces and fled to the Delta. In 1285 parleys
for the establishment of a Chinese Protectorship were begun; but in the
following year, King Narasihapati was poisoned at Prome by his own son
Sihasura. In 1287, a fourth Chinese expedition, with Prince Ye-sin Timur
at its head, reached at last Pagan, having suffered considerable
losses.... A fifth and last Chinese expedition took place during the
autumn of 1300 when the Chinese army went down the Irawadi Valle