ABSTRACT
In the days of the northern Sung dynasty, as its power declined and its reign was coming to an end, there lived a rich libertine called Hsi Men, surnamed Tsing the Lucky One, in the district capital of Tsing ho hsien, which belongs to the prefecture of Tung Ping in the province of Shantung. The alarming news of the Tartar invasion had not failed to reach the province of Shantung and the district capital of Tsing ho hsien. For many years the populous district capital of Tsing ho hsien had been a flourishing trading centre. The odour of prosperity arose from it and would doubtless be wafted to the nostrils of the booty-greedy barbarians and attract them. In the twentieth year of the reign of the Emperor Hui Tsung the Kin Tartar hordes swept down again on the Middle Kingdom and threatened the capital Kai fong fu.
