Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/331

Rh eldest grandson of Hsü Kuang-ch'i, named Hsü Êr-chüeh 徐爾覺 (1603–1680), baptized under the name Melchior 滿覺爾, was also a devout Christian.

[M.1/251/15a; M.2/356/22b; M.3/235/14b; Shanghai hsien-chih (1871) 15/27a, 19/29a; 學風月刊 Hsüeh-fêng yüeh-kan, vol. 4, nos. 5 and 6, biography by Hsü Ching-hsien; 人文月刊 Jên-wên yüeh-kan, vol. 4, no. 7 (1933) on the tercentenary celebration; 新月 Hsin-yüeh, vol. 1, no. 8, on his writings; Tung-fang tsa-chih (Chinese Miscellany), vol. 30, no. 24, on his contribution to education; Revue Catholique (Shêng-chiao tsa-chih), vol. 22, no. 11 (Nov. 1933), special number devoted to Hsü; Tsêng-ting Hsü Wên-ting kung chi (nien-p'u);, Ch'ou-jên chuan (1935), p. 390-407; Li Yen, 中算史論叢 Chung suan-shih lun-ts'ung, pp. 152–66; Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress (1934), pp. 149–50; Pfister, Notices, passim.]

2em

 HSÜ Kuang-chin 徐廣縉, d. ca. 1858 age 73 (sui), official, was a native of Lu-i, Honan. His ancestral home was in Anhwei. His father, Hsü Han 徐瀚, a chin-shih of 1811, was a secretary of the Grand Secretariat. Taking his chin-shih degree in 1820, Hsü Kuang-chin became a compiler of the Hanlin Academy in 1822. In 1830 he was made a censor and three years later was appointed prefect of Yü-lin-fu, Shensi. In 1836 he was promoted to grain intendant of Kiangsi and then became successively provincial judge of Fukien and prefect of the metropolitan prefecture (Shun-t'ien)—both in 1840. After observing a period of mourning for his mother (1842–45), he became financial commissioner at Nanking, and in 1846 governor of Yünnan, whence he was soon transferred to the governorship of Kwangtung. Because he contributed ten thousand taels to famine relief in Honan, the emperor ordered the ministry of civil appointments to give him credit for promotion. On February 3, 1848 Hsü Kuang-chin was appointed acting governor-general of Kwangtung and Kwangsi and concurrently deputed Imperial Commissioner for foreign affairs in succession to.

Hsü took charge of foreign relations at Canton at a time when the era of cordial cooperation in Anglo-Chinese relations, inaugurated by Ch'i-ying and Pottinger (see under ), was rapidly drawing to a close. Following the British evacuation of Kulangsu and Chusan—places held in pledge since 1842—there had been a series of incidents and a gradual increase of Anglo-Chinese friction, particularly at Canton where the question of entrance to the walled city had become the chief point of contention. The British versions of the treaties of 1842–43 had provided for residence in the "cities and towns" of Canton, etc., which the Chinese versions had generally translated as "harbors" or "anchorages". At any rate, the strong anti-foreign sentiments of the Cantonese gentry had become fixed upon this issue, and in April 1847 the British were obliged to agree with Ch'i-ying to defer their entrance into the city until April 1849 (see under ). In June 1848 Bonham (see under ), governor of Hongkong, wrote to Hsü suggesting that preliminary arrangements be made for entrance into the city in 1849. Hsü temporized; excitement mounted among the people of Canton, and as the time approached, placards and processions of militia were much in evidence. After an inconclusive interview with Bonham at the Bocca Tigris in February 1849, Hsü sent to him on April 1 a copy of an Imperial Rescript which declared that the emperor could not overcome the unanimous opposition of the people of Canton. Meanwhile the local gentry and merchants, headed by [q.v., Howqua], and encouraged by Hsü Kuangchin, held a meeting at which it was decided to stop the foreign trade, and the American and French consuls were told that England alone would be held responsible for the resulting loss. A joint letter was also sent to Bonham. Under these circumstances the British were obliged to content themselves with a formal protest (August 1849). Their defeat on this issue, which had grown out of all proportion to its original importance, marked a turning point in Anglo-Chinese relations in the period between 1842 and 1858, and brought honor to Hsü Kuang-chin whom the emperor praised as having got the greatest diplomatic success in ten years. Hsü was given the hereditary title of a viscount of the first rank and a double-eyed peacock's feather. , governor of Kwangtung, was made a baron. A few leaders among the gentry were also secretly rewarded with brevet titles and buttons of the third rank. A British protest in 1850 was fruitless (see under ). From this time, in fact, it became increasingly difficult for the ministers of foreign powers to communicate or to have interviews with the Imperial Commissioner at Canton, to whom all diplomatic affairs were referred by the Chinese 319