Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/181

Rh audience in the palace the emperor presented her with four poems in praise of her bravery and loyalty. Soon after the Manchus evacuated that region she returned to her province where she was entrusted with the task of exterminating bandits. But she left a detachment of her troops in Peking under the command of her son, Ma Hsiang-lin, and his wife, Ma Fêng-i 馬鳳儀 (née Chang 張, daughter of, q. v.). In May 1633 Ma Fêng-i herself was ordered to assist to exterminate bandits in Honan. About two months later she was killed in battle at Lin-hsien in that province. Back in Szechwan the troops of Ch'in Liang-yü gained several victories over the bandits but they were defeated by in 1640, owing to errors on the part of officials higher in command. She tried in vain to prevent Chang Hsien-chung from conquering the province, but did succeed in protecting her home town from devastation. The Prince of Kuei (see under ) bestowed on her the title, Marquis Chung-chên 忠貞侯 and Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent—titles that were inscribed on her tomb two years after her death. Her grandson surrendered to the Manchus in 1659, but the family retained the native chieftainship until 1761 when the district of Shih-chu was changed into an independent sub-prefecture.

In 1751 a scholar and official by the name of Tung Jung 董榕, printed a play, entitled 芝龕記傳奇 Chih-k'an chi ch'uan-ch'i, concerning the career of Ch'in Liang-Yü and another woman leader of the same period, named Shên Yün-ying 沈雲英 (1624–1661). The latter was a daughter of Shên Chih-Hsü 沈至緒 (d. 1643), a second captain in command of the garrison at Tao-chou, Hunan, who was killed when defending that city against an onslaught of bandits under Chang Hsien-chung. Shên Yün-ying took over her father's command, bravely defended the city, and saved it from the besieging bandits. By a special decree she was made a second captain to succeed her father at Tao-chou, but she resigned the command when she heard that her husband, a first captain at Chingehou, Hupeh, had also been killed in the fight against the bandits. She then returned to her home at Hsiao-shan, Chekiang.

[M.1 /270/11b; Shih-chu t'ing-chih (1843) 7/2b; 小說枝譚 Hsiao-shuo chih-t'an 下/96; Hsiang-ch'êng-hsien (Honan) chih (1746) 13/9a and Fêng-yang fu (Anhwei) chih (1908) 6/24a for approximate date of Ma Ch'ien-Ch'êng's death, deduced from the biography of Chang Ning 張寧, an official in Szechwan who resigned because he was unable to save Ma's life; 明通鑑 Ming-t'ung-chien 83/21a, 23a; 蕭山縣志, Hsiao-shan hsien-chih (1929) 22/9b.]

2em

 CHING Huang-ti, posthumous name of.

 CH'ING, Prince (I-k'uang, see under ).

 CH'IU Chin 秋瑾, 1879?–1907, July 15, woman martyr of the revolution, came from a family of Shan-yin (Shaohsing), Chekiang. Her father evidently was a lawyer-secretary who served under local officials in various provinces, which accounts for the fact that Ch'iu Chin was born in Fukien and also spent a number of years in Hunan. It was while in the latter province that, at nineteen sui, she married Wang T'ing-chün 王廷鈞 (d. 1908) of Hsiang-t'an, and later gave birth to a son and a daughter. When her husband purchased an official post in Peking, the family moved to the capital where she came to know the celebrated woman calligrapher, Wu Chih-ying 吳芝瑛, whose husband, Lien Ch'üan 廉泉 , was an official in Peking. During the Boxer Uprising (1900) Ch'iu Chin and her family escaped with their lives. Keenly conscious of the pitiful condition of China, she determined to fit herself to serve her country. In 1904 she left her husband and children and went to study in Japan. Through her friend, Chiang (Kiang) K'ang-hu 江伉虎 (original ming 紹銓, b. 1883), she came to know Dr. and Mrs. Hattori Unokichi (see under ) with whom she travelled to Japan. She lived most of the time in Tokyo where she witnessed the celebrations of the victories of Japan over Russia. Like other compatriots in Japan she blamed the Manchu regime for the weakness of China and believed that the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty was necessary to China's salvation. She joined the revolutionaries and herself became one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement. She changed her name to Ching-hsiung 競雄 and gave herself the hao, Chien-hu nü-hsia as recorded above.

Ch'iu Chin is reported to have returned to China in 1905 and, through the introduction of T'ao Ch'êng-chang 陶成章 came to know the leaders of the revolutionary society known as Kuang-fu hui 光復會—among them Hsü Hsi-lin 徐錫麟.  169