[5] B. A.D. 735; d. 799.  Famous for his campaigns against the Tibetans and Uighurs.

Now it happened that Chang had been friendly with the political party to which the commander at Puchow belonged.  At his request a guard was sent to the temple and no disorder took place there.  A few days afterwards the Civil Commissioner Tu Chio was ordered by the Emperor to take over the command of the troops.  The mutineers then laid down their arms.

The widow Cheng1 was very sensible of the service which Chang had rendered.  She therefore provided dainties and invited him to a banquet in the middle hall.  At table she turned to him and said, “I, your cousin, a lonely and widowed relict, had young ones in my care.  If we had fallen into the hands of the soldiery, I could not have helped them.  Therefore the lives of my little boy and young daughter were saved by your protection, and they owe you eternal gratitude.  I will now cause them to kneel before you, their merciful cousin, that they may thank you for your favours.”  First she sent for her son, Huan-lang, who was about ten years old, a handsome and gentle child.  Then she called to her daughter, Ying-ying:  “Come and bow to your cousin.  Your cousin saved your life.”  For a long while she would not come, saying that she was not well.  The widow grew angry and cried:  “Your cousin saved your life.  But for his help, you would now be a prisoner.  How can you treat him so rudely?”

At last she came in, dressed in everyday clothes, with a look of deep unhappiness in her face.  She had not put on any ornaments.  Her hair hung down in coils, the black of her two eyebrows joined, her cheeks were not rouged.  But her features were of exquisite beauty and shone with an almost dazzling lustre.

Chang bowed to her, amazed.  She sat down by her mother’s side and looked all the time towards her, turning from him with a fixed stare of aversion, as though she could not endure his presence.

He asked how old she was.  The widow answered, “She was born in the year of the present Emperor’s reign that was a year of the Rat, and now it is the year of the Dragon in the period Cheng1-yuuan.[6] So she must be seventeen years old.”

[6] I.e., A.D. 800.

Chang tried to engage her in conversation, but she would not answer, and soon the dinner was over.  He was passionately in love with her and wanted to tell her so, but could find no way.

Ying-ying had a maid-servant called Hung-niang, whom Chang sometimes met and greeted.  Once he stopped her and was beginning to tell her of his love for her mistress; but she was frightened and ran away.  Then Chang was sorry he had not kept silence.

Next day he met Hung-niang again, but was ashamed and did not say what was in his mind.  But this time the maid herself broached the subject and said to Chang, “Master, I dare not tell her what you told me, or even hint at it.  But since your mother was a kinswoman of the Ts`uis, why do you not seek my mistress’s hand on that plea?”