he had sought to win by force was granted to him as a favor.
The Sanpou gave up his barbarian ways, adopted Chinese customs, and
built a walled city for his princess wife.

The next act of the great emperor was to bring Eastern Turkestan,
conquered by Panchow more than five centuries before, under Chinese
rule. This country had admitted the supremacy of the emperor, but not
until now did it become part of the empire, which it has since remained.

The last warlike act of Taitsong's life was the invasion of Corea. Here
he won various great battles, but was at length baffled in the siege of
a Corean town, and lost all he had gained, the gallant commandant of the
town wishing the troops "a pleasant journey" as they began their
retreat.

Taitsong did not confine himself to deeds of war. Under the advice of
his wife Changsungchi, a woman as great in her way as he was in his, and
celebrated for her domestic virtues, talent, and good sense, he founded
the Imperial Library and the great College, decreased the taxes, and
regulated the finances of the realm. The death of this good woman was to
him a severe blow, and he ordered that she should receive the funeral
honors due to an emperor.

His last days were spent in drawing up for the instruction of his son a
great work on the art of government, known as the Golden Mirror. He died
in 649 A.D., having proved himself one of the ablest monarchs, alike in
war and in peace, that ever sat on the Chinese throne.

[Illustration: SHANGHAI, FROM THE WATER-SIDE.]

_A FEMALE RICHELIEU._

Five years after the death of the great Taitsong, his son Kaotsong,
Emperor of China, fell in love with a woman, a fact in no sense new in
the annals of mankind, but one which was in this case destined to exert
a striking influence on the history of an empire. This woman was the
princess Wou, a youthful widow of the late emperor, and now an inmate of
a Buddhist convent. So strong was the passion of the young ruler for the
princess that he set aside the opposition of his ministers, divorced his
lawful empress, and, in the year 655, made his new love his consort on
the throne.

It was a momentous act. So great was the ascendency of the woman over
her lover that from the start he became a mere tool in her hands and
ruled the empire in accordance with her views. Her first act was one
that showed her merciless strength of purpose. Fearing that the warm
love of Kaotsong might in time grow cold, an