122 Some account of the Wars between Burmak and China. [Feb. 



array came down and invested Myen-zain, for the purpose of assisting 

 and re-establishing the king Kyo-zua. The rebel nobles applied for 

 advice to a priest, who recommended them, apparently as a taunt, 

 to consult tumblers and rope-dancers. Some of that profession were, 

 however, sent for, and they, whilst exhibiting their feats before the 

 three nobles, repeated as customary words of no meaning, a sentence 

 like the following : " There can be no dispute when no matter for 

 dispute remains." The nobles seized upon these words, and apply- 

 ing them to their own case, observed, If king Kyo-zua is killed, the 

 royal line, which the Chinese have come to restore, will be extinct. 

 Accordingly, they cut off the king's head and showed it to the 

 Chinese, w T ho then proposed to retire, if the nobles would send some 

 presents to their emperor. [The nobles agreed, but upon condition 

 that the Chinese army should first dig a canal ; and the Chinese 

 generals, to shew the immense numbers of their army, dug in one 

 day, between sunrise and sunset, a canal 4900 cubits long, 14 broad 

 and 14 deep, which canal near Myen-zain is still in existence*. The 

 Burmese chronicles further state, that the little pieces of skin, which 

 the spades and other instruments the Chinese used when digging 

 this canal had peeled off their hands and feet, being afterwards 

 collected, were found to measure ten baskets full, well pressed down ! 

 In the reign of king Kyo-zua, the nine Shan towns on the frontiers 

 of China, Maing-mo, Ho-thd, La-tha, &c. are said to have been sepa- 

 rated from the empire of Pagan. 



In the year 1412, during the reign of Men:-gaung, the first king 

 of Ava, the Shan chief of Thein-ni, whose father had been defeated 

 and killed that year when marching with a force to attack Ava, invit- 

 ed the Chinese to come and aid him against the Burmese, whilst 

 they were besieging the city of Thein-ni. The king of Ava's son, who 

 commanded the Burmese army, hearing of the approach of the 

 Chinese, advanced and lay in wait for them in a wood, from which, 

 as soon as the Chinese came up, the Burmese sallied forth and 

 attacked them, and destroyed nearly the whole of their army. In 

 the following year, during the same king of Ava's reign, and whilst 

 almost the whole of the Burmese army were absent engaged in a 

 war with the Talains in lower Pegu, another Chinese army entered 

 the kingdom of Ava, and actually invested the capital, demanding 

 the liberation of the families of two Shan chiefs, the lords or gover- 

 nors of Maun-toun and M6-kay. These chiefs having committed 

 some aggression near Myedu, a town in the king of Ava's dominions, 



* It is called Theng-due-myaung, and communicates with the Z6 river, and is 

 used for the irrigation of paddy lands. 



