the
Emperors are never allowed under any circumstances to cast an eye over
their own records.

When the Hanlin College was burnt down, in 1900, some said that the
"Veritable Records" of the present dynasty were destroyed. Others
alleged that they had been carted away several days previously. However
this may be, the "Veritable Records" of the great Ming dynasty, which
came to a close in 1644, after three hundred years of power, are safe in
Division B of the Cambridge Library, filling eighty-four large volumes
of manuscript.

The next historical epoch is that of Ssu-ma Kuang, a leading statesman
and scholar of the eleventh century A.D., who, after nineteen years of
continuous labour, produced a general history of China, in the form of
a chronological narrative, beginning with the fourth century B.C. and
ending with the middle of the tenth century A.D. This work, which is
popularly known as _The Mirror of History_, and is quite independent
of the dynastic histories, fills thirty-three of our large bound-up
volumes.

There is a quaint passage in the old man's Preface, dated 1084, and
addressed to the Emperor:--

"Your servant's physical strength is now relaxed; his eyes are
short-sighted and dim; of his teeth but a few remain. His memory is so
impaired that the events of the moment are forgotten as he turns away
from them, his energies having been wholly exhausted in the production
of this book. He therefore hopes that your Majesty will pardon his vain
attempt for the sake of his loyal intention, and in moments of leisure
will deign to cast the Sacred Glance over this work, so as to learn from
the rise and fall of former dynasties the secret of the successes and
failures of the present hour. Then, if such knowledge shall be applied
for the advantage of the Empire, even though your servant may lay his
bones in the Yellow Springs, the aim and ambition of his life will be
fulfilled."

Biography, as we have already seen, is to some extent provided for under
the dynastic histories. Its scope, however, has been limited in later
times, so far as the Historiographer's Department is concerned, to such
officials as have been named by Imperial edict for inclusion in the
national records. Consequently, there has always been a vast output of
private biographical literature, dealing with the lives of poets,
painters, priests, hermits, villains, and others, whose good and evil
deeds would have been long since forgotten, like thos