Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/171

Rh to the degradation in rank of the Imperial concubines, Chin-fei and Chên-fei (see under ), who were his cousins, he was relegated to the assistant military governorship of the remote Uliasutai region, a post assumed in the spring of the following year. Poems he wrote during this journey were collected under the title, 張家口至烏里雅蘇台竹枝詞 Chang-chia-k'ou chih Uliasutai chu-chih tz'ŭ, printed in 1910 in the collectanea 懷豳雜俎 Huai-Pin tsa-tsu. During his term in office he made efforts to strengthen the defenses against Russia, but a memorial by him on this subject incurred the displeasure of the Empress Dowager who in 1839 deprived him of his position. For the ensuing nine years he remained on the northwestern frontier, first as commandant of the Manchu colonial troops and later as deputy military lieutenant-governor, with headquarters at Ninghsia.

Shortly after the death of the Empress Dowager (late in 1908) Chih-jui was recalled to Peking and in 1910 was appointed Tartar General at Hangchow. Early in the following year he was made Tartar General and military governor of Ili and was also given the nominal rank of President of a Board. But before he assumed his new duty the anti-Ch'ing revolution broke out (October 10, 1911) at Wuchang; and late in 1911, about a month after he reached his new post in Ili, the Hunanese troops under him revolted. On January 7 of the following year they attacked his yamen and put him to death. A few days later he was canonized as Wên-chên 文貞 and was given the honorary title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.

Chih-jui excelled in poetic composition and in calligraphy. His poems were collected under the title 廓軒詩集 K'uo-hsüan shih-chi.

[1/476/1a; 6/34/30a; Hsüeh-ch'iao shih-hua (see under ), first series, 12/73b; Nien-p'u of Yü-t'ai compiled by his sons (1870).]

2em

 CHIN Chien 金簡 (鑑) d. Jan. 12 or 13, 1795, came from a Korean family of I-chou 義州 on the Yalu River. In 1627 an ancestor, Sandari 三達理, joined the court of and was appointed an interpreter. Sandari's eldest brother, Sindari 新(辛)達理, head of the family, was made (1637) captain of a newly created company composed of Korean families taken in the course of Abahai's expedition to Seoul. This company constituted the second Korean contingent of the Fourth Bond Servant's Division of the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner, but in the official biography Chin Chien is listed as a member of the Chinese Plain Yellow Banner. The captain of this company was always a member of Sindari's family. Chin Chien's father, Sanbao 三保, was a grandson of Sandari and captain of the Korean company. Sanbao served for several terms as salt censor of the Ch'ang-lu Salt District, with headquarters at Tientsin (1734–37, 1740–43). His family received imperial favors in the Ch'ien-lung period, owing to the fact that his daughter (see under ) became a concubine of Emperor Kao-tsung and between the years 1739 and 1752 gave birth to three of the emperor's sons:, and. She was Chin Chien's younger sister, and because of her position Sanbao's branch of the family was in 1799 freed from the status of bond servants, was granted the clan-name Jingiya (金佳) and was incorporated in the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner.

Chin Chien began his official career by purchasing the rank of a student of the Imperial Academy and of a clerk in the Imperial Household. In the latter office he became a secretary in 1750, a department director in 1765, and a director of the Imperial Gardens and Hunting Parks in 1770. In 1772 he was made a minister of the Household, a post which, together with other concurrent offices, he probably held until his death. On April 2, 1773, he was named concurrently superintendent of the Imperial Printing Press and Bindery (Wu Ying Tien 武英殿) and thus achieved fame in the history of printing in China.

In 1772 the project for compiling the Imperial Manuscript Library, Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu (see under ), was initiated and on April 2, 1773, the emperor ordered Chin Chien to take charge of making reprints from a number of rare works, some of them copied from the Yung-lo ta-tien (see under and under ). On December 11, 1773, chin memorialized concerning a plan for printing with movable wooden type, a proceedureprocedure [sic] he regarded as much cheaper than the commonly used wooden blocks. He recommended cutting from jujube wood some 6,000 characters in common use and duplicating by tens or hundreds the ones most frequently needed. These type would be of two sizes, the smaller size to be used for footnotes or commentaries. Uncut blanks would also be prepared so that any uncommon character might he cut as needed. To this plan the 159