Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/102

Rh Imperial Bodyguard and was sent to join camp in Shensi. Before he left Peking he was ordered to hurry to Paoting which was threatened by the northern advance of the Nien bandits. At Paoting he commanded seven battalions and was also placed in command of the Peking Field Force (see under ). After winning several battles he again became arrogant. Charged with insubordination, he was severely reprimanded. Yet he was relied on to fight the Nien bandits on the border districts of Chihli, Shansi, Honan, and Shantung. After reported that the Nien bandits had been annihilated, Ch'ên Kuojui, for his part in the campaign, was rewarded with the decorations of the yellow jacket and the peacock feather, and was given back his original rank of a brigade-general with the title of provincial commander-in-chief. In addition he was granted the minor hereditary rank of a Yün-ch'i yü 雲騎尉.

As he had several times been wounded, Ch'ên Kuo-jui was granted leave to recuperate, and lived for some time at Yangchow. In 1870 he was passing through Tientsin on his way to Peking when the mob attacked the Catholic missionaries (see under ). The French minister accused Ch'ên, the prefect, and the magistrate of Tientsin as being responsible for the attack, and demanded that they be executed. However, Prince Ch'un (see under ), then in command of the Peking Field Force, spoke up for Ch'ên and saved him the disgrace of being tried at Tientsin. According to Ch'ên's own account, he had nothing to do with the attack by the mob and only went to Ch'ung-hou's yamen when he heard a rumor that Ch'ung-hou had been killed by the French consul. In view of his past conduct, however, it is difficult to believe that he was entirely innocent. After the Tientsin case was settled Ch'ên made his home in Yangchow. In 1871 he had an encounter with another general which resulted in his capture and imprisonment in a boat on the Yangtze. Only an urgent order from Tsêng Kuo-fan, then governor-general at Nanking, saved his life. For the sake of discipline, however, Tsêng saw to it that Ch'ên's rank was reduced and that Ch'ên's captor was stripped of all ranks. Ch'ên was ordered to go back to Hupeh, but disobeyed and continued to live at Yangchow. In 1875, when one of his relatives was murdered by a retired general, Ch'ên was falsely accused by that general as responsible for the death. Although he was cleared of any complicity in the case, punishment was meted out to him for his refusal to return to Hupeh. He was banished to Heilungkiang where he died in exile early in 1883. A few months later, on the plea of a censor, his ranks were posthumously restored, and a sketch of his life was permitted to be included in the dynastic history. Early in 1884 his hereditary rank was given to his son, and special temples to his honor were erected in Shantung, Chekiang, and Kiangsu. In 1893, 1894, and 1895 many more temples were erected to his memory. He was a brave general, but lacked self-control. He doubtless often repented of his rashness, but lacked the will to avoid repetition.

[1/434/6b; 2/56/38a; 5/51/23a; 清朝野史大觀 Ch'ing-ch'ao yeh-shih ta-kuan, 7/102;, Shên wên-su kung tsou-i (奏議) 6/25a; Ch'ou-pan I-wu shih-mo (see under ), chüan 73, 74]

2em

 CH'ÊN Li 陳澧, Mar. 23, 1810–1882, Mar. 11, scholar, was a native of Canton where his grandfather had moved from Nanking. His father was a merchant who late in life purchased the rank of a district-magistrate. After studying at several academies in Canton Ch'ên Li graduated as chü-jên in 1832 and was chosen a fellow of the Hsüeh-hai T'ang Academy (see under ) in 1834. In 1837 he lived as a tutor at the home of and during the ensuing two years taught a number of pupils. Then he was made (1840) a superintendent of the Hsüeh-hai T'ang Academy, a position he held for about twenty years. Appointed sub-director of schools at Ho-yüan, Kwangtung, in 1849, he resigned early in 1851 on the ground of illness, though in reality he was disgusted with the inability of the magistrate to subdue local bandits. In 1852 he competed unsuccessfully for the seventh and last time in the metropolitan examination. Though he was unable to obtain a chin-shih degree, his frequent visits to Peking for the examination brought him into close contact with such scholars of note as and.

In 1854 Ch'ên Li lived for about a month as a tutor in the official residence at Canton of the acting magistrate of Nan-hai, Hu Hsiang 胡湘 ; and in the following year, at the request of Magistrate Li Fu-t'ai 李福泰, became 90