Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/26

Rh These memorials were all approved and were more or less put into practice.

In 1654 Emperor Shih-tsu (see under ) ordered the abolition of the Office of the Imperial Household (Nei-wu fu 内務府), which had charge of affairs inside the Palace and which since the time of his father or grandfather had been managed by Manchu or Chinese bannermen. He restored, however, the Ming system of having all the affairs inside the palaces supervised by eunuchs. In Ming times there were twenty-four offices directed by eunuchs who through their posts exercised great power (see under ). Emperor Shih-tsu ordered the establishment of thirteen offices to manage the affairs of the Imperial Household, and made it clear that bannermen and eunuchs were alike eligible to these offices. Asitan, because of his status as a bond servant in the Imperial Household, served as a secretary in one or another of these offices. In the meantime he served as a tutor of the Manchu language in the palace school for young eunuchs. But one day he was reprimanded for being late at the sacrificial ceremony which took place at the Fêng-hsien tien 奉先殿 (the private ancestral hall of the emperor, built in 1657). For this offense he was deprived of his ranks and offices, but still served without rank as a tutor to eunuchs. The eunuchs, however, fell into disfavor after Emperor Shih-tsu died (early in 1661), and some of them were executed or dismissed. The thirteen offices were abolished, and the office of Nei-wu fu, manned by bannermen, was restored to take charge of the eunuchs and other servants in the palace. Asitan, as onetime tutor of the eunuchs, lost his position, and during his inactivity in the following six or seven years declined to join the powerful clique under. In 1668 he was recommended as a compiler of the "veritable records" (實錄) of Emperor Shih-tsu, but as not all the members of the Commission favored his appointment he was refused admission and was assigned to another post in the Imperial Household. On several occasions Emperor Shêng-tsu sought his advice, and once he was complimented by the emperor as a "great Confucianist" (大儒). He retired in 1679 and died about five years later.

Asitan was generally recognized as the most outstanding of all translators (from Chinese to Manchu) of his time, and in the Shun-chih period he published Manchu translations of the Great Learning (Ta-hsüeh), the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung-yung), the Classic of Filial Piety (Hsiao-ching), the 太公家教 T'ai-kung chia-chiao, and the 通鑑總論 T'ung-chien tsung-lun. The last mentioned is an elementary text-book of general history by P'an Jung 潘榮 of the Yüan period, and the Manchu version, made by Asitan, is still extant. It is said that Asitan was also the author of discourses (講義 chiang-i) on the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, in Chinese. His sons, Osu 鄂素, and, especially the latter, also distinguished themselves as translators. A grandson, Liu-pao 留保, served as junior vice-president of the Board of Civil Office (1740–43). Many other descendants of Asitan were famous officials (see under and ).

[1/296/6a; 1/489/13a; 1/125/3a; 3/74/38a; 3/133/7a; 4/52/24b; 34/3/25b; Pa-ch'i Man-chou shih-tsu t'ung-p'u (see under ) 28/8a;, Pa-ch'i wên-ching 57/7a, 58/3a; , Hung-hsüeh yin-yüan t'u-chi 3 上/賜塋來象; , Shih-ch'ü yü-chi 1/1a.]

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BAHAI 巴海 (d. 1696), general, was the eldest son of of the Gûwalgiya clan, which belonged to the Manchu Bordered Blue Banner. Beginning as a captain, he was appointed in 1657 a reader in the Pi-shu yüan (秘書院). In 1659 he was made a commander of the garrison troops at Ninguta to succeed his father who died in that year. At the same time he inherited the rank of baron (男) of the first class which had been granted to his father. In 1660 he reported a complete victory over the Russian troops under Afanasiĭ Filippovich Pashkov (d. 1664, founded Nerchinsk in 1658) at the village of Ku-fa-t'an (古法檀) which was in the Shilka River region. When, in 1661, it was discovered that Bahai had purposely omitted to report some losses among his own troops in this battle he was deprived of his hereditary rank. Nevertheless in the following year he was appointed the first military-governor of Ninguta. As a reward for his success in 1673 in organizing a tribe of natives called the Meljere into 40 companies known as the New Manchus (新滿洲), he was five years later given a minor hereditary rank. In 1676 he removed his headquarters to a 14