Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/332

Rh authorities elsewhere. In October 1848 the American commissioner, John W. Davis 德威士, (1799–1859), was received by Hsü outside the walls of Canton in a warehouse; the American chargé, Peter Parker 伯駕 (1804–1888), did not obtain an interview in 1850-52, nor did the French minister, Bourboulon (see under ), in 1852–55. The policy of non-communication inaugurated by Hsü Kuang-chin and carried further by his successor, Yeh Mingch'ên, formed part of the background for the second Anglo-Chinese war.

Beginning in 1850, Hsü was confronted with the problem of the Taiping Rebellion, which broke out in Kwangsi in that year. He impeached the governor of that province as weak and incompetent and the latter was thereupon replaced by. Having been ordered to suppress local insurrections in Kwangtung, Hsü succeeded in executing numerous bandit leaders at Kao-chou, Lien-chou, and other places (1851–52), and was rewarded with the title of Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent. In the summer of 1852 he was succeeded in the office of Imperial Commissioner and governor-general at Canton by Yeh Ming-ch'ên and was sent to Wu-chou in Kwangsi to manage military affairs. Before he reached that place the Taiping forces had advanced into Hunan. The Imperial Commissioner, Sai-shang-a (see under ), was dismissed, and his place was taken by Hsü who was appointed concurrently governor-general of Hupeh and Hunan (September 1852). When he reached Hêng-chou, however, the rebels captured Yochow; when he reached Yochow, they had taken Wuchang, capital of Hupeh. For the slowness of his advance he was severely reprimanded by the emperor and deprived of his rank and titles; his property was confiscated, and he was imprisoned to await execution. Fortunately, in the summer of 1853 the Taipings invaded Honan (see under ) and Hsü was ordered to protect Kuei-tê and so gain merit to offset his punishment. This he did by fighting against the Nien bandits (see under ) in the region around Kuei-tê. In 1858 he was despatched to Huai-yuan and Fêng-yang in Anhwei to fight the same banditti, and was restored to the fourth rank. Two months later he was stricken by paralysis and soon died.

[1/400/1a; 2/48/10b; Lu-i hsien-chih (1896); Ch'ou-pan i-wu shih-mo (see under ), Tao-kuang period 79–80, Hsien-fêng period 1–2; F. O. 17/164-168, Public Record Office, London; Morse, H. B., International Relations of the Chinese Empire, I, ch. XIV (London, 1910); P'ing-ting Nien-fei fang-lüeh (see under ), chüan 45, 47.]

2em 2em

 HSÜ Shu-k'uei 徐述夔 (original ming 賡雅), chü-jên of 1738, poet and teacher, was a native of Tung-t'ai, Kiangsu, which until 1768 was a part of T'ai-chou. Although a sketch of his life is known to have been written by, at the request of Hsü Shu-k'uei's son, Hsü Huai-tsu 徐懷祖 (d. 1777), and although he left a considerable number of published and unpublished works, little is known about his life, owing to systematic attempts on the part of the ruling house, after 1778, to blot out his memory. Shên wrote of him that both his scholarship and his conduct were exemplary. Hsü is quoted as remarking to one of his students, "Had I lived in the middle of the Ming dynasty I would have been the equal of and T'ang Shun-chih 唐順之, but people today cannot recognize my ability." If we judge from the title of one of his works, 和陶詩 Ho-T'ao shih, 1 chüan, he felt a spiritual kinship with the ancient poet, T'ao Ch'ien (see under ). After his death the posthumous name Hsiao-wên 孝文 was privately conferred on him by his friends.

When an enemy of the Hsü family threatened to inform the authorities that certain poems in Hsü Shu-k'uei's collected verse, entitled 一柱樓詩 I-chu lou shih, in 6 chüan, printed about 1763, covertly abused the ruling dynasty, a grandson, Hsü Shih-t'ien 徐食田, handed over in May 1778 to T'u Yüeh-lung 涂躍龍 , the magistrate of Tung-t'ai, the printing blocks and all printed copies of the collection. He expected thus to incur a less severe penalty in case the books were pronounced to be offensive. The magistrate in turn transferred the case to the Bureau of Censorship that had been set up in Nanking in 1774. But, as many books were daily submitted to the authorities, the case was neglected until the commissioner of education,, brought it to the notice of the throne in October 1778 when by imperial order it was speedily acted upon.

One couplet in the I-chu lou shih which par- 320