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[[underlined]] Chapter III. [[/underlined]]         54.

leading state of northern China, repeatedly attacked Chêng. In 596 B.C., for example, he invested its capital and reduced it to submission. Possibly this siege may be the one referred to in the local legend, whether the latter be a genuine folk-recollection or of later literary origin. On the episode see the [[underlined]] Tso Chuan [[/underlined]], Bk. VII, under the twelfth year of Hsüan Kung [[2 Chinese characters]].
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This we wished to inspect with a view to its possible later excavation. Obviously artificial in origin and not a mere remnant weathered out of a former loess plateau, it seemed however not to be a grave-mound. If any credit attaches to the local legend linking it with the king of Ch'u, the story would perhaps suggest that around the beginning of the [[strikethrough]] sixth [[/strikethrough]] ^[[6th]] century B.C. the capital of Chêng stood immediately west of the present town of Hsin Chêng Hsien.
   The following morning we devoted to preparations for departure and to farewell calls upon various officials, to thank them for our courteous treatment. In the afternoon we paid a last visit to the site of the interment. There we found our friend Mr. Ch'iu Tzŭ-yüan, of the Peking Historical Museum, and discussed with him various problems which had suggested themselves to us in the course of our investigations. We also gathered a little more material from the dumps in the form of additional bones and potsherds. We then returned once more to the railway station, three miles away, and proceeded thence by train to Chêng Chou.
   There, on Sept. 27th, we again called on General Chin. He greeted us cordially, telling us that he had had further instructions from the Marshal in our absence and giving us permission to photograph the Hsin Chêng bronzes. That evening I received a letter from Dr. Y.S. Tsao (Ts'ao Yü^[[n]]-hsiang [[3 Chinese characters]]), President of Tsing Hua College, just outside of Peking, offering us the coöperation of that institution in the prosecution of our archaeological investigations.

Transcription Notes:
Chinese characters needed