of any whose lot it has been to shape the destinies of China. Ch`ien
Lung was an indefatigable administrator, a little too ready perhaps
to plunge into costly military expeditions, and somewhat narrow in the
policy he adopted towards the "outside barbarians" who came to trade at
Canton and elsewhere, but otherwise a worthy rival of his grandfather's
fame as a sovereign and patron of letters. From the long list of works,
mostly on a very extensive scale, produced under his supervision, may
be mentioned the new and revised editions of the Thirteen Classics of
Confucianism and of the Twenty-Four Dynastic Histories. In 1772 a search
was instituted under Imperial orders for all literary works worthy of
preservation, and high provincial officials vied with one another in
forwarding rare and important works to Peking. The result was the great
descriptive Catalogue of the Imperial Library, arranged under the four
heads of Classics (Confucianism), History, Philosophy, and General
Literature, in which all the facts known about each work are set forth,
coupled with judicious critical remarks,--an achievement which has
hardly a parallel in any literature in the world.



CHAPTER VI--CHIA CH`ING

Ch`ien Lung's son, who reigned as Chia Ch`ing (high felicity--not to
be confounded with Chia Ching of the Ming dynasty, 1522-1567), found
himself in difficulties from the very start. The year of his accession
was marked by a rising of the White Lily Society, one of the dreaded
secret associations with which China is, and always has been,
honeycombed. The exact origin of this particular society is not known.
A White Lily Society was formed in the second century A.D. by a certain
Taoist patriarch, and eighteen members were accustomed to assemble at a