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27.
[underline]] Chapter II. [[/underline]]   

For its control numerous wars have been waged. In the course of these the town itself has more than once been taken and even destroyed. It has at different periods occupied various sites between the Wei Ho and the Chên Shui 溱水. both affluents of the Huai River 淮河. In 375 B.C. Prince Ai 哀侯, ruler of Han 韓, annexed Chêng and made its capital that of his own state. Such it remained until the extinction of Han by Ch`in Shih Huang Ti, in 230 B.C. Violent and repeated changes like these help to explain the break in the continuity of tradition concerning earlier times and the absence of any record regarding the interment which we wished to investigate.

[[underlined]] The Site of the Interment. [[/underlined]]
   Crossing the above-mentioned ravine, we entered the town by its 
^[[margin note l.c. with following two capitals struckout]]East Gate. Here our escort guided us first south, then west, along a sunken road skirting the inner base of the wall, until they brought us to our destination---the site of the interment.
   The surface here appeared to me slightly higher than that of the immediately adjacent area. This point, as we shall see later, may be of significance. At all events the spot, in days prior to the construction of the present town wall, obviously commanded a superb view over the Wei valley and the picturesque, undulating country to the south and southeast. It must have afforded an ideal location for an important burial.
   The site lay not far within the southern face of the town wall, at the edge of a cultivated area ^[[margin note l.c. and the capital M struckthrough]](see Map, [[strikethrough]] x). [[/strikethrough]] ^[[strikethrough]] pl XXI, [[/strikethrough]], fig 6).]] About it was gathered a crowd of spectators, soldiers, and workmen. One of the first things that we noticed was the absence of a grave-mound---a point which we shall discuss in the next chapter. The excavators had so far dug four
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