en for the service of the
state.

Crowned with the laurel of A. B., or budding genius, before he
was out of his teens, three years later he won the honour of A.
M., or, as the Chinese say, he plucked a sprig of the _olea
fragrans_ in a contest with his fellow-provincials in which
only one in a hundred gained a prize. Proceeding to the imperial
capital he entered the lists against the picked scholars of all
the provinces. The prizes were 3 per cent. of the whole number
of competitors, and he gained the doctorate in letters, which, as
the Chinese title indicates, assures its possessor of an official
appointment. Had he been content to wait for some obscure position
he might have gone home to sleep on his laurels. But his restless
spirit saw fresh battle-fields beckoning him to fresh triumphs.
The three hundred new-made doctors were summoned to the palace to
write on themes assigned by the Emperor, that His Majesty might
select a score of them for places in the Hanlin Academy. Here again
fortune favoured young Chang; the elegance of his penmanship and
his skill in composing
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mechanical verse were so remarkable that he secured a seat on the
literary Olympus of the Empire.

His conflicts were not yet ended. A conspicuous advantage of his
high position was that it qualified him as a candidate for membership
of the Board of Censors. Nor did fortune desert her favourite in
this instance. After writing several papers to show his knowledge
of law, history, and politics, he came forth clothed with powers
that made him formidable to the highest officers of the state--powers
somewhat analogous to the combined functions of censor and tribune
in ancient Rome.

Before I proceed to show how our "knight of the longbow" employed
his new authority, a few words on the constitution of that august
tribunal, the Board of Censors, may prove interesting to the reader.
Its members are not judges, but prosecuting attorneys for the state.
They are accorded a freedom of speech which extends even to pointing
out the shortcomings of majesty. How important such a tribunal for
a country in which a newspaper press with its argus eyes has as
yet no existence! There is indeed a court _Gazette_, which
has been called the oldest newspaper in the world; but its contents
are strictly limited to decrees, memorials, and appointments. Free
discussion and general news have no place in its columns; so that
in the modern sense it is not a newspaper.