Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/371

Rh in the city of Sung-shan, and was captured by the Manchus when the city fell on March 19, 1642. He surrendered and was ordered to serve in the Chinese Bordered Yellow Banner. A false report of his death reached Peking, and the Ming Emperor I-tsung decreed that a temple should be built in Peking in honor of this supposedly loyal official. The temple, now standing immediately outside and east of the great gate, Chêng Yang Mên 正陽門, popularly known as Ch'ien Mên 前門, is said to be the one built for him, but it was dedicated instead to the Chinese God of War (Kuan Yü).

Hung Ch'êng-chou was well treated by the Manchu chief,, later known as Emperor T'ai-tsung, and was ordered to join the Chinese Bordered Yellow Banner but was not given any power until the Manchu Court was set up in Peking in 1644 under. He was then, at the age of fifty-two (sui), made a Grand Secretary. In 1645 he was sent to Nanking with the title of Pacificator of Kiangnan (招撫江南) but was actually entrusted with the task of raising funds and providing food for the armies under, and other generals who were engaged in conquering South China. Hung was also responsible for the capture and execution, early in 1646, of, a Ming Grand Secretary under the Prince of T'ang and commander of troops in Anhwei. Many Ming officials and members of the Imperial Family who led the opposition in Kiangnan were suppressed by him. Nevertheless, he was constantly suspected by the Manchus, and was several times accused of having secret relations with the Ming side. During his three years at Nanking he lost the sight of his right eye, and in 1647 the left one also became dim. His father having meanwhile died at the ancestral home in Fukien, he asked for leave. This was granted, but before the period of mourning was concluded, he was ordered to continue at his post as Grand Secretary. Hence in 1648 he returned to Peking, taking his mother with him. For a few months, in 1651, he was concurrently in charge of the Censorate. With a view to reforming that office he held a secret meeting with and Ch'ên Chih-lin (see under ), but all three were in consequence accused of conspiracy. Hung was blamed, in addition, for sending his mother back to Fukien without notifying the Emperor. He was allowed, however, to remain at his post.

In 1652 Hung's mother died in Fukien but he was not permitted to retire for mourning. In that year the defeat of the Manchu troops in the provinces of Kwangsi, Hunan, and Szechwan by the southern Ming generals, and, worried the Court at Peking. News of death prompted the young Emperor Shih-tsu to send a strong man as commander of the Ch'ing forces in the south. Hung was selected and appointed governor-general of the five provinces of Hukuang, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Yunnan, and Kweichow, with command of all Chinese civil and military officials in those provinces. He was granted the title of Grand Guardian (raised in 1656 to Grand Tutor), and was given a special seal reading, Ching-lüeh Ta-hsüeh-shih 經略大學士, that is, Grand Secretary and Commander-in-chief. His real task, however, was again to provide for the armies. With Changsha as his headquarters, he and the generals were able to check the advance of the southern Ming troops. For a time in 1657 he was released from his military duty, but was soon ordered to resume it when a civil war broke out among the generals of the Prince of Kuei (i.e., ). Sun K'o-wang, defeated by Li Ting-kuo, surrendered to Hung late in 1657. This weakened the southern Ming forces, and in 1658 the Ch'ing armies marched on Kweichow along three routes: one under advanced from Szechwan; another under Jaobtai 趙布太 advanced from Kwangsi; and a third, composed of Chinese troops under Hung himself, advanced from Hunan, together with a Manchu force, commanded first by Loto (see under ) and later by Doni (see under ).

In a few months Kweichow was occupied by these armies which soon pushed on to Yunnan while Hung remained at Kweiyang to attend to military supplies. Early in 1659 the capital of Yunnan, where the Prince of Kuei had set up his Court, was also taken. The Ming prince fled to Burma (see under ). It seems that Hung did not have the heart to press the Ming prince further, as the Manchu Court ordered him to do, and asked permission to return to Peking on the ground that he was old and infirm and that he was nearly blind. Permission was granted, and the task of exterminating the last Ming prince was entrusted to Wu San-kuei.

Upon his arrival in Peking in 1660 Hung Ch'êng-ch'ou served one year more as Grand Secretary. In May 1661, three months after Emperor Shih-tsu died, he was allowed to retire. 359