Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/390

Rh and other officials who were responsible for the military reverses of the War. In May the emperor meekly replied that it was he who should be held responsible for the ignominious defeats. Nevertheless he cancelled the appointments and ordered Ch'i-shan and I-ching to meditate on their misdemeanors at home.

In November 1843, six months after his humiliation, I-ching was reappointed commissioner at Yarkand. In 1844 he was made commandant of the forces at Ili, but was discharged two years later for a mistrial and was exiled to Heilungkiang. Released in 1850, he was again made (1851) commandant of the forces at Ili. In the same year (1851) he was transferred to Yinggishar. He was recalled in 1852 and made vice-president of the Board of Punishments with the concurrent post of commandant of the Peking Gendarmerie. In 1853, when the Taiping forces took Nanking and threatened to advance northward, I-ching was sent with a detachment to defend Hsü-chou where he died of malaria late in that year.

His younger brother, I-chi (see ), was made a noble of Imperial Lineage in 1816, but was deprived of his rank in 1840. A son of I-chi, named Tsai-chih 載治 (original name 載中, d. 1880, posthumous name 恭勤), became in 1854 the adopted son of a distant uncle, I-wei 奕緯 (1808–1831, posthumous name 隱志). I-wei was the eldest son of Emperor Hsüan-tsung and a prince of the third degree. His princedom was in 1850 posthumously raised one degree by his half-brother, Emperor Wên-tsung. Thus Tsai-chih inherited the rank of a prince of the third degree. His eldest son, P'u-lun 溥倫, was in 1875, and again in 1908, suggested as heir to the throne but was both times rejected by Empress. Tsai-chih's second son, P'u-t'ung 溥侗, is a famous authority on the Chinese drama, a subject he once taught in Tsinghua University.

[1/171/8b, 21b; 1/379/3a; 2/41/17b; 4/19/7a; Ch'ing Huang-shih ssŭ-p'u (see under ) 3/27a;, Chiao-p'ing Yüeh-fei fang-lüeh 65/16a; Hsüeh-ch'iao shih-hua (see under ) 11/40b; see also bibliography under .]

2em

 I-chu 奕詝, July 17, 1831–1861, Aug. 22, was the seventh emperor of the Ch'ing Dynasty who ruled under the reign-title Hsien-fêng 咸豐 (1851–62). He was the fourth son of Emperor Hsüan-tsung (see under ). His mother, Empress Hsiao-ch'üan 孝全成皇后 (née Niuhuru, 1808–1840), was for a time a concubine of Emperor Hsüan-tsung but in 1834, after the emperor's second wife had died, became Empress. At the age of six (sui) I-chu began to study with his tutor,. After his mother's death (1840) he was cared for by Empress Hsiao-ching (see under ) and was always grateful to her for giving him the same consideration that she gave her own son,. Both youths lived on very friendly terms, pursuing together their literary studies, their lancing and their swordsmanship. On August 7, 1846 I-chu was secretly chosen by his father as heir to the throne (see under ). Upon his father's death (February 25, 1850) he was publicly declared heir-apparent and ascended the throne on March 9, 1850, at the age of twenty (sui).

The empire which I-chu inherited was on the verge of disintegration. The government was without vitality, the officials corrupt, and the treasury depleted. famines and wars caused insufficiency of foodstuffs for the ever-multiplying population. Encouraged by secret anti-Manchu and religious societies, and incited by hatred for the dishonest and smug officials, the hungry populace of many places rose in arms. After the close of the Ch'ien-lung period uprisings of the farmers had from time to time taken place but were always ruthlessly suppressed. Finally the Anglo-Chinese War of 1840–42 exposed to the people the weaknesses of the government and encouraged them to revolt. While the regular imperial army at Canton was unable to resist the British onslaught (see under ), Cantonese villagers won a battle over a detachment of British troops. However inconclusive the victory, it inspired the people with a feeling of power over the military forces of the empire and made them bold to instigate further revolt. Only a few months after I-chu ascended the throne he was confronted with the news of the Taiping Rebellion initiated by villagers in Kwangsi (see under ). The troops he dispatched to put down the uprising proved so inefficient that the rebels were able by March 1853 to take Nanking and make it their capital. As their power increased they pressed on to southern Shansi and even to within a few miles of Tientsin (see under ).

As the head of the government in Peking. I-chu was too young and inexperienced to cope with these chaotic conditions. To be sure, he 378