Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/449

Rh audience, Kuo was appointed governor-general of Hu-kuang (Hunan and Hupeh). As such Kuo proposed a comprehensive land survey of that region. Despite his warning that the government would receive about thirty percent less in taxes after the survey was made, his plan was approved by the emperor on the ground that it would benefit the poor. But during his four years in Hu-kuang not even the first steps toward the survey were taken. Several times he was denounced as unfit for his post. Pleading illness, he asked five times for permission to retire, but was repeatedly ordered to remain at his post. Finally news of the revolt of the Miao tribesmen in western Hunan which he had neglected to bring to the attention of the government was carried to the throne, and investigation by proved Kuo responsible. On account of this and other charges Kuo was dismissed in 1703. He died twelve years later, leaving a collection of memorials entitled 華野疏稿 Hua-yeh shu-kao, (also known as 松璧奏疏 Sung-pi tsou-shu), in 4 chüan supplemented by a nien-p'u, and other biographical material. These were printed in 1732 with prefaces added later. According to some accounts Kuo's early days as an official at Wu-chiang were marked by corruption, but for three or four years he escaped detection. When T'ang Pin became governor of Kiangsu in 1684, he became aware of Kuo's irregularities and warned him of the consequences. Kuo went to T'ang, made a confession, and took an oath to refrain from further illegal practices. He lived up to his promise.

[1/276/4a; 3/160/34a; Chi-mo-hsien chih (1873) 9/名臣 6b, 10/17a;, Jung-ts'un yü lu hsü-chi, chüan 14.]

2em

KUO Shang-hsien 郭尚先, 1785–1833, Feb. 18, was a son of Kuo Chieh-nan 郭捷南. His ancestral home was in P'u-t'ien, Fukien, but he was born at Li-yang, Kiangsu, in the home of his paternal grandfather, Kuo Chan-hsüan 郭占選, who was at that time magistrate of Li-yang. He passed the provincial examination as chieh-yüan (the highest ranking chü-jên) in 1807. Two years later he became a chin-shih and was appointed a member of the Hanlin Academy with assignment to study the Manchu language. Later (1811) he was made a compiler of the Academy. In 1813 he was examiner of the province of Kweichow; in 1816, of Yunnan; and in 1819 of Kwangtung. He returned home in 1820 to observe the period of mourning for his father and while there assisted in the relief of the famine which afflicted Fukien in the following year. In 1828 he was appointed commissioner of education of Szechwan, and two years later was made assistant secretary of the Supervisorate of Imperial Instruction. After several promotions, he was made early in 1832 director of the Banqueting Court, and in the same year was appointed director of the Court of Judicature and Revision, and was ordered to take charge of the provincial examination of Shantung. Soon after his return to Peking he became seriously ill and died early in 1833 at the age of forty-eight (sui).

Kuo Shang-hsien was noted for his calligraphy, in which he was regarded by his contemporaries as the equal of Chao Mêng-fu (see under ) of the Yüan dynasty and of of the Ming. Soon after reaching the age of forty his hair turned white, and this occurrence—unusual in China—was attributed by his close friend,, who composed his funerary inscription, to over-exertion in writing. However that may be, it is known that he seldom refused requests for specimens of his handwriting. Kuo Shang-hsien wrote many comments upon the calligraphy of famous men. A collection of these was made by his son-in-law, Hsü Tsu-fang 許祖淓 and was printed with movable type in 1874 by Kung Hsien-tsêng 龔顯曾, in 4 chüan, under the title 芳堅館題跋 Fang-chien kuan t'i-pa. Kuo Shang-hsien was also a painter, and in the last chüan of this work may be found his comments upon his own paintings. The Fang-chien kuan t'i-pa is included in the collectanea, 述古叢鈔 Shu-ku ts'ung-ch'ao. The original draft of Kuo's diary of his trip to Szechwan—beginning with his appointment as commissioner of education on September 9, 1828, and ending with his return to Peking on January 29, 1832—was published under the title 使蜀日記 Shih-Shu jih-chi, 1 chüan, by his son, Kuo Chien-ling 郭籛齡. Kuo Shang-hsien's collected works were edited and printed in 1845 by Wei Mao-lin 魏茂林, under the title 郭大理遺稿 kuo Ta-la i-kao, 8 chüan; 437