ABSTRACT
From the moment that T'ai Tsu grasped the reins of power his mind seemed to become absorbed with one great thought, viz., that it was his supreme business to overcome the princes that in various parts of the country maintained an independent rule and to restore the unity of the empire. He took away from them the power of life and death and handed it over to the Board of Punishments, without whose consent no one could be executed. T'ai Tsu turned his thoughts towards the subjugation of the Prince of Han and the recovery of the remaining departments that Shih King-t'ang had given the Khitans for their aid in placing him on the throne of China. The year A. D. 981 saw the Khitans again on the move, and a hundred thousand of them were marching on the city of Yen-mun.
