“In former days, after having gained ascendancy over a weakling King of the powerful Tsʻin Dynasty, Chao Kao wielded the whole authority of the Throne, overruling the government. All dignity and fortune came through him and his contemporaries were restrained so that none dared to speak openly. Slowly but surely evolved the tragedy of the Wangi Temple, when the Emperor was slain and the Imperial tablets perished in the flames. He, the author of these crimes, has ever since been held up to obloquy as the arch example of an evil-doer. “In the later days of the Empress Lü of the Hans the world saw Lü Chan and Lü Lu, brothers of the Empress and fellows in wickedness, monopolising the powers of government. Within the capital they commanded two armies and without they ruled the feudal states of Liang and Chao. They arbitrarily controlled all State affairs and decided all questions in the council chamber and the Court. This dominance of the base and declension of the noble continued till the hearts of the people grew cold within them. “Thereupon Chou Pʻo, Marquis of Chiang, and Liu Chang, Marquis of Chuhsü, asserted their dignity and let loose their wrath. They destroyed the contumacious ministers and restored their Ruler to his royal state. Thus they enabled the kingly way to be re-established and the glory to be manifested. Here are two instances where ministers asserted their authority. “This Tsʻao, now a minister, forsooth, had for ancestor a certain eunuch named Tʻêng, fitting companion of Tso Kuan and Hsü Huang. All three were prodigies of wickedness and insatiably avaricious and, let loose on the world, they hindered ethical progress and preyed upon the populace. This Tʻêng begged for and adopted Tsʻao’s father who, by wholesale bribery, wagons of gold and cartloads of jewels presented at the gates of the influential, contrived to sneak his way into considerable office where he could subvert authority. Thus Tsʻao is the depraved bantling of a monstrous excrescence, devoid of all virtue in himself, ferocious and cunning, delighting in disorder and revelling in public calamity.