Page 381 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

ROSE VERTE. 411

apparel which was in fashion, and set an example by causing
a bonfire to be made in his of a vast of embroidered
palace heap
garments and jewellery. Under the influence of the wise
counsels of and other ministers,
Chang Yiieh, Chang Kiu-ling,
his administration of the and divers reforms
empire prospered,
were introduced ; but, as time rolled on, the emperor, satiated
with the into a
pleasures of rule, lapsed by degrees craving
for ease and sensual The courtier Li Lin-fu
enjoyment. crafty
encouraged these longings with a view to his own aggrandize-
ment, and the passion which the emperor conceived, in 734,
for the Princess the consort of one of his sons, marked
Yang,
the commencement of an era of infamy and extravagance,
which led at to universal About 742
length disorganization.
a Turkish minion of the court, named
Ngan Lu-shan, grew
into high favour. The government was soon abandoned into
his hands, and wielded under the influence of the three
sisters of Yang, who, with their brother Yang Kwoh-chung,
had over the enfeebled
complete control emperor's will.
A revolt was at undertaken by Ngan Lu-shan, and
length
the was in a blaze of insurrection, the
empire shortly aged
author of these calamities driven from his and
being capital
forced to take in the extreme west of China, under-
refuge
going the misery of seeing his male and female favourites
butchered before his He abdicated
eyes (A.D. 756). hereupon
"
in favour of his son, who became the Suh
Emperor Tsung
(p. 267). "Yang Kwei-fei. The Princess Yang, celebrated
as the favourite of the Hiian
all-powerful Emperor Tang
Tsung. She was the daughter of Yang Huan-yen, a native
and in Western China. attracted
petty functionary Having
notice her and she
by surpassing beauty accomplishments,
became, in A.D. 735, one of the concubines of Prince Show,
the Three
emperor's eighteenth son. years later, on the death
of the then
imperial favourite, the ministers to Ming Hwang's
pleasures cast their eyes upon the lovely Princess Yang. No
sooner had the obtained a of his
emperor sight daughter-in-
law than, violently enamoured, he caused her to be enrolled
among the ladies of his seraglio, bestowing in exchange another
consort on his son. Before a had so an
year elapsed, great
ascendency had been gained in the harem by the now-called
Yang T'ai-chen that she obtained from the entire court and