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[[underline]] Chapter VIII. [[/underline]] 151. harvesting. Over its northern and northwestern slopes and scatteringly elsewhere were numerous modern graves, mere small conical heaps of earth. Eight [[underline]] li [[/underline]](nearly three miles) to the northeast, our companions told us, was the confluence of the two streams, the Huai and the Yu. The mound, roughly elliptical in outline, bore the curious name of the Lei Ku T'ai 雷鼓臺----the "Thunder-Drum Tower" (also written [[3 Chinese characters]], meaning "Drum-Beating Tower")----of Ch'u Chuang Wang. [[superscript]](154) [[/superscript]] There ------------------------- [[superscript]](154) [[/superscript]] The first [[underline]] lei ku [[/underline]] is a technical term for a particular kind of drum, with eight sides; the second means "to beat a drum". A [[underline]] t'ai [[/underline]] is a tower, stage, or raised platform of earth. Chuang Wang, probably the greatest of the ancient kings of Ch'u, reigned from 613 to 591 B.C., and was therefore a contemporary of Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and Josiah of Judah. He must have been a remarkable man if we may judge from the surviving records and from the way in which his name is still attached to so many places in Central China even after the lapse of 2500 years ([[underline]] cf. [[/underline]] page 53 and note 31). ------------------------------ must once have been some legend or tradition to explain this appellation; but so far as I could learn, all memory of it had been lost. Our companions told us however that as recently as four years before the time of our visit, a man digging for Han bricks (or for hidden treasure; accounts varied) had broken through the roof of an underground chamber and fallen into the vault beneath. We asked to see the place. There was no trace of a hole or other evidence to support the story; but so circumstantial were its details that it seemed likely to be founded on some actual occurrence. On top of the mound we discovered, almost hidden in the earth, a brick bearing stamped on it the date, "Yung Yüan 永元, eleventh year" (equivalent to 99 A.D.). This was also the 11th year of the reign of Ho Ti 和帝, fourth in the line of Eastern Han emperors. [[superscript]] (155) [[/superscript]] The find ---------------------------- [[superscript]] (155) [[/superscript]] Han Ho Ti reigned from 89 to 105 A.D. For a brief sketch of his life see Giles, [[underline]] Biogr. Dict. [[/underline]], no. 1275. ---------------------------- gave us direct confirmation of the age of some at least of the ancient remains about Yu Ho Chên; it also suggested that on (or perhaps
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