EMPEROR [_recites verses]_. During the ten generations that
have succeeded our acquisition of Empire, my race has alone
possessed the four hundred districts of the world. Long have the
frontiers been bound in tranquillity by the ties of mutual oaths.
And our pillow has been undisturbed by grief or anxiety. Behold in
us the Emperor Yuente, of the race of Han. Our ancestor Kaoute
emerged from a private station, and raised his family by
extinguishing the dynasty of Tsin, and slaughtering their race. Ten
generations have passed away since he left this inheritance to us.
The four boundaries of the empire have been tranquil; the eight
regions at rest! But not through our personal merits; we have wholly
depended on the exertions of our civil and military rulers. On the
demise of our late father, the female inmates of the palace were all
dispersed, and our harem is now solitary and untenanted; but how
shall this be endured!
MINISTER. Consider, sir, that even the thriving husbandman
may desire to change his partner; then why not your Majesty, whose
title is the Law of Heaven, whose possessions are the whole world!
May I advise that commissioners be despatched to search throughout
the empire for all of whatever rank that is most beautiful between
the ages of fifteen and twenty, for the peopling of the inner
palace.
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