Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/124

Rh ), Taiwan bunka shi (1929) pp. 105–140; Also see bibliography for .]

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CHÊNG Hsieh 鄭燮, 1693–1765, official, poet, calligrapher and painter, popularly known by his hao, Pan-ch'iao 板橋, was a native of Hsing-hua, Kiangsu. While still a child he lost his mother and was brought up by a nurse and later by his step-mother. He was the only son in the family and his most intimate associate was his cousin—a son of his father's younger brother. A brilliant student, Chêng Hsieh excelled in calligraphy and painting and in the writing of verse. He spent his youthful days in the pursuit of pleasure, but in the seventeen-twenties, owing to his father's death, he was compelled to seek employment. For some ten years—which he spent mostly at Yangchow—he eked out a meagre living by selling his paintings. These years of hardship probably wrought a great change in his character. Previously he had been known as a proud and temperamental artist, but from then on he was patient and considerate. He became a chü-jên in 1732 and a chin-shih in 1736. In the decade after 1732 he went often to Peking where he made friends with Buddhist priests and Manchu nobles, one of the latter being Prince Shên (慎郡王), or Yin-hsi 胤禧, twenty-first son of Emperor Shêng-tsu. About 1742 Chêng Hsieh was appointed magistrate of Fan-hsien, Shantung. As such he showed sympathy for the people and energetically engaged in relief work during a famine. In 1746 he was transferred to Wei-hsien where he served for seven years until his retirement in 1753. Thereafter he lived quietly at home, occasionally selling his paintings to supplement his income.

Chêng Hsieh specialized in the painting of orchids, bamboo and rocks. In calligraphy he developed his own style—a combination of several ancient modes. His poems are expressed in simple but forceful language, as are also his prose writings. His poems in the style known as tao-ch'ing 道情, or "free expression of feeling," have been put to music and are popularly sung in schools. Specimens of his calligraphy and of his paintings of bamboo and orchids, carved on stone, exist in many temples and are highly appreciated as rubbings. His collected works, entitled 板橋集 Pan-ch'iao chi, comprise his ruled verse (詩鈔 shih-ch'ao), in 3 chüan, his poems in irregular meter (詞鈔, tz'ŭ-ch'ao), his tao-ch'ing, his colophons on paintings (題畫 t'i-hua), and his letters to his cousin (家書 chia-shu). These letters, in addition to expressing his philosophy of life, reveal an unusually free spirit, and a keen sensitiveness to natural beauty.

[1/509/8b; 2/72/1b; 3/233/9a; 7/43/2b; 20/2/00; 26/2/6b; 27/11/15b; 29/4/8a; Hsing-hua hsien chih (1852), 8/15a; Wei-hsien chih (1760) 3/35a; L.T.C.L.H.M., p. 419b; Lin Yutang, My Country and My People, pp. 37 and 339; idem, The Importance of Living, p. 302.]

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CHÊNG Hung-k'uei 鄭鴻逵 d. 1657, a native of Nan-an, Fukien, was a younger brother of. He became a military chü-jên in 1630 and in reward for his brother's naval operations against the Dutch was made lieutenant in the palace guards. He became military chin-shih in 1640 and, through successive promotions, brigade-general. He was at the Ming court in Nanking in 1644, joined Chêng Chih-lung in the cause of the Prince of T'ang (see under ), and urged that the latter be formally enthroned as emperor. He was rewarded with the title of marquis and designated a meritorious official but was soon after impeached for disrespectful conduct at court. In the campaign of the winter of 1645-46 he led the Left Vanguard of the Ming troops, was defeated, and deprived of rank. On the occasion of the birth of the emperor's first son he was restored to favor and made Duke Ting-kuo 定國公. He tried to dissuade Chêng Chih-lung from going over to the Ch'ing cause and continued to co-operate half-heartedly with his nephew,.

In 1651 he trapped General in Amoy, but spared his life to preclude Ch'ing retaliation against his brother in Peking and his family in Taiwan (Formosa). When Chêng Ch'êng-kung returned to Amoy and made his uncle, Chêng Chih-kuan (see under ), who was nominally in charge of the defense, pay for this leniency with his life, Chêng Hung-k'uei was disgraced. The latter bore his nephew no resentment and moved to the island of Pai-sha where he enjoyed the simple pleasures of retirement. When the island was attacked by Ch'ing forces, Chêng Ch'êng-kung recalled him to Chin-mên, opposite Amoy, where he died of illness in 1657.

[M.41/5/33b, 12/35b, 19/1a; M.59/38/4b; 東南紀事 Tung-nan chi-shih 12/16a; see bibliog- 112