Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/173

Rh year submitted to the Manchu conquerors and was given his former official post. In 1648 he was made president of the Board of Works and in 1653 president of the Censorate. In March 1654 he was appointed a Grand Secretary. In the following year he asked leave to retire on account of illness but the Emperor, instead of granting the request, sent a painter to make his portrait. In 1658 he was made concurrently president of the Board of Civil Office, and collaborated in fixing the code of laws. In 1659 he was given the titles of Grand Guardian and Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent, and in the following year that of Grand Tutor. He was permitted to retire in 1662 on account of age.

Though his official and personal character were attacked after his return home, and the title of Grand Tutor revoked in consequence, his recorded official acts seem to have been in the interests of the common people—lightening the burden of taxation and relieving from punishment the families of offenders. He was given the posthumous name, Wên-t'ung 文通. He left 10 chüan of works in prose and poetry which were printed in 1649, under the title 息齋集 Hsi-chai chi, together with a supplement in 4 chüan of memorials to the throne and a chronological autobiography in one chüan.

For his relations with Adam Schall see under.

[1/244/6b; 2/79/4a; 天津直隸圖書館書目 Tientsin, Chihli t'u-shu-kuan shu-mu 27/2a]

2em

 CHIN Fu 靳輔, 1633–1692, Dec. 26, official and specialist in river conservancy, was a member of the Chinese Bordered Yellow Banner and a native of Liao-yang where his ancestors had migrated from Tsinan, Shantung, in the early Ming period. His father, Chin Ying-hsüan 靳應選, was a secretary in the Transmission Office. After completing his studies in he Government School Chin Fu was selected (1652) a compiler in the Kuo-Shih Yüan 國史院. In the following nineteen years (1652–71) he rose rapidly in his official career and by 1671 was appointed governor of Anhwei, a post he held until 1677. During this period revolted in South China and Chin Fu assisted the government by quelling local uprisings in Shê-hsien, by improving the defenses of Anhwei and by devising plans to finance the troops in the south. In 1677 he was appointed director-general of Yellow River Conservancy to cope with the menace of floods which had caused serious damage in Kiangsu province. In this post, which he held for the next eleven years, he made his most important contribution to the country. The control of the Yellow River was regarded by Emperor Shêng-tsu as one of the three most pressing problems of the time—the other two being that of grain transport to the capital via the Grand Canal, and the rebellion of Wu San-kuei.

Taking office on May 7, 1677, at Su-ch'ien, Kiangsu, Chin Fu immediately made a comprehensive personal survey of the Yellow River in general and of the flooded areas in particular. After two months of intensive study he submitted to the throne on August 4, 1677, a far-reaching memorial embodying the following eight points: (1) deepening of the lower reaches of the Yellow River from Ch'ing-chiang-p'u 清江浦 to the sea and making use of the silt to erect dikes on both sides of the river; (2) repairing and deepening the canals linking Lake Hung-tsê 洪澤湖 with the Yellow River in order thus to accelerate the current and carry the silt to the sea; (3) improving the embankments on the east shore of Lake Hung-tsê, particularly at Kao-chia-yen 高家堰 (or Kao-yen), by making them more sloping and so mitigating the force of the waves and their consequent damage; (4) repairing thirty-four breaks in the dikes between Chou-ch'iao Water Gate 周橋閘 and Chai-chia-pa 翟家壩 south of Kao-chia-yen; (5) deepening a section of 230 li in the Grand Canal between Ch'ing-k'ou, near Huai-yin, and Ch'ing-shui-t'an 清水潭 in the district of Kao-yu; (6) increasing local taxes for financing these undertakings; (7) reorganizing the management of personnel; and (8) insuring maintenance of the dikes by stationing guards at suitable intervals. His plan was adopted by the government with few alterations, and the gigantic project was ordered to begin in 1678.

By 1681, after three years of labor, floods in some parts of the Yellow River had not yet abated. For this failure Chin Fu offered to shoulder the responsibility and in consequence was deprived of his official title, but was permitted to supervise the work. In 1683 he reported the return of the River to its course, with the result that early in the following year his title was restored. Emperor Shêng-tsu, being at this time (1684) on his first tour of South China, took occasion to laud the work of Chin Fu by honoring him with a poem and showering him with gifts. Apparently at this time Chin 161