ABSTRACT
Ch'en Pa-sien reigned three short years, when he passed away without having accomplished anything that the royal historian deemed worthy of record. Wen Ti had hardly been seated on the throne before tidings came that the eldest son of Ch'en Pa-sien had been released by Yu-wen, and would soon be on his way to claim the inheritance of his father. In the year A. D. 566 the ruler of the Northern Ts'i, who was an exceedingly superstitious man and deeply moved by anything extraordinary in nature, was terrified by the appearance of a comet. In the seventh year of his reign the Emperor Wen Ti became very ill, and as there was no hope of his recovery he began to plan with regard to the succession. In the year A. D. 575 he issued an edict forbidding the exercise of both the Taoist and Buddhist faiths, and commanded that all his subjects should be content with the teachings of Confucius.
