Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/405

Rh of the Treaty of Aigun was the cession to Russia of the territory in the region of Primorskaya where Vladivostok was founded in the following year (1861).

Thereafter for more than fifteen years I-shan filled various comparatively unimportant posts in the capital, such as lieutenant-general of various Banners. His hereditary rank was raised in 1864 to a first class noble of the ninth rank. In the summer of 1874 he retired on the ground of illness and four years later (1878) he died, being past eighty years of age. He was canonized as Chuang-chien 莊簡.

[1/379/1a; 2/56/11a;, Ch'ou-pan i-wu shih-mo; 黑龍江志稿 Hei-lung-chiang chih kao (1932); Ho Wên-han 何文漢, 中俄外交史 Chung Ê wai-chiao shih (1935); Vladimir, Russia on the Pacific and the Siberian Railway (1899); South Manchurian Railway, 近代露支關係の研究, 沿黑龍地方之部 (1920).]

2em

 I-tsung, temple name of.

 I-tsung 奕誴, July 23, 1831–1889, Feb. 18, was the fifth son of Emperor Hsüan-tsung (see under ). His mother was a secondary consort. In 1846 he was named heir to his uncle,, who was a prince of the first degree with the designation, Tun (惇親王). But in accordance with the law of the dynasty he inherited the reduced rank of a prince of the second degree (Chün-wang 郡王) with the same designation, Tun. He was six days younger than his half-brother, Emperor Wên-tsung (see under ), but the two did not get along well during the first few years of the emperor's reign. In 1855, owing to alleged breach of decorum and other offenses, I-tsung's princedom was reduced one degree, but early in the following year he was reinstated as a Chün-wang. It seems that he gradually won the emperor's favor and in 1856 was appointed a chamberlain of the Bodyguard. In 1860, when the emperor was preparing to celebrate his thirtieth birthday, he showered favors upon the princes and made I-tsung a prince of the first degree. During the reign of his nephew, Emperor Mu-tsung (see under ), I-tsung was accorded many honors, and in 1862 was appointed head tutor in Manchu to the child emperor with the title Hung-tê-tien tsung anda 弘德殿總諳達. In the reign of Emperor Tê-tsung (see under ), I-tsung was likewise given various honors, and after 1886 was exempted from all services at Court. He retired, probably to his country villa, Ch'inghua Yüan 清華園, which in 1911 became the campus of Tsing Hua College. After his death he was canonized as Ch'in 勤.

I-tsung had eight sons, five of whom held princedoms of different degrees. Three of the five were sponsors of the Boxers who nearly wrecked the dynasty in 1900, namely, the eldest, Tsai-lien 載濂, who, as heir to I-tsung, inherited the reduced rank of a prince of the third degree (beile 貝勒) with the title, Chün-wang; the second, Tsai-i (see below); and the third, Tsai-lan 載瀾, who held the rank of a prince of the eighth degree.

Tsai-i 載漪, mentioned above, was in 1860 made the adopted heir of, known as the second Prince Jui (瑞郡王). As heir, he inherited both a fortune and the rank of a beile, or prince of the third degree. For more than thirty years he remained inconspicuous, but in 1893 was made an adjutant-general, and in the following year—during the celebration of the sixtieth birthday of Empress —he was raised to a prince of the second degree, or Chün-wang. The designation attached to his princedom should have been Jui 瑞—that is to say, identical with that of I-chih—but owing to the mistake of a copyist the character Tuan 端 (having some similarity in form) was written instead. In previous reigns an error of this nature would have resulted in the dismissal of the clerk and of many high officials, but the Court was then in such confusion that the mistake remained for some time unnoticed, and when discovered was allowed to stand.

Thus Tsai-i became Prince Tuan (1894), but even so he remained for many years an unimportant personage. His wife was the daughter of Kuei-hsiang 桂祥, the second brother of Empress Hsiao-ch'in, and thus he had reason to feel particularly affiliated with the Empress Dowager. When Emperor Tê-tsung promulgated the sweeping reforms of 1898 (see under ) the conservative adherents of the Empress Dowager felt themselves steadily pushed into oblivion. Tsai-i, his wife, and his brothers, were the first of the conservatives who, in order to protect their privileges, rallied to the side of the Empress Dowager in putting an end to the reform program. After the reformers were executed or scattered, and the Emperor was safely relegated to a Palace Compound, the Empress Dowager resumed her power as ruler, with Tsai-i as one of her favorites. A 393