Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/450

Rh and his poems were published under the title 增默庵詩 Tsêng-mo an shih, 2 chüan.

[2/73/14b; 6/7/6a; 20/4/xx (portrait); 29/8/17a; Fukien t'ung-chih (1871) 227/11b, (1922) 列傳 38/13a, 15a, 藝文 66/9b, 32/3b, 文苑 9/14a, 15b.]

2em 2em

 KUO Sung-tao 郭嵩燾, Apr. 11, 1818–1891, July 18, statesman, scholar and diplomat, was a native of Hsiang-yin, Hunan. In his younger days he studied in the Yüeh-lu Academy (嶽麓書院) at Changsha where he became a close friend of and Liu Jung (see under ). Becoming a chin-shih in 1847, he was selected a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, but owing to mourning for the death of his parents he did not immediately assume office. In 1852 when the Taiping forces invaded Hunan, Tsêng Kuo-fan, who was then at home observing a period of mourning, was ordered to take charge of organizing volunteers in his native place. Tsêng was about to decline the appointment, but Kuo Sung-tao persuaded him to assume the responsibility. In 1853 Kuo was with the volunteer force which lifted the siege of Nanchang and released from the beleaguered city. While in Nanchang, Kuo learned of the activity of the Taipings on the water, and suggested the establishment of a fleet on the Yangtze—a plan that was later put into effect (see under ). Kuo was also one of the promoters of the plan to collect local taxes on merchandise, known as likin 釐金, in order to finance the war against the Taipings. The likin tax, introduced as an experiment at Yangchow in 1853 by Lei I-hsien 雷以諴, became an important source of income to provincial treasuries until its abolition in 1930–31.

Made a compiler of the second class, Kuo Sung-tao went to Peking in 1857 and in the following year was appointed to serve in the Imperial Study. In 1859 he was sent to Tientsin to assist in building up the defenses against the British and French allies but shortly afterwards was sent to Shantung on a customs mission. In matters of foreign relations Kuo Sung-tao strongly opposed resort to force—at a time when many high officials maintained a hostile attitude to foreigners. Being at variance on this matter with his superior, Sêng-ko-lin-ch'in, and others, and aware that any suggested plans for the reform of the Shantung customs would be used against him, he resigned in 1860 and went home. But he was there not more than two months, when Tientsin fell to the allied forces (1860), resulting in the flight of the Court to Jehol and the burning the Yüan-ming Yüan (see under ).

In 1862, on the recommendation of, then governor of Kiangsu, Kuo Sung-tao was appointed grain intendant of the prefectures of Soochow and Sungkiang, and before long was made salt controller of the Liang-Huai region. In 1863 he became acting governor of Kwangtung where he facilitated the collection of revenues, subdued pirates, improved relations with Western powers, and helped to suppress a contingent of Taiping rebels under Wang Hai-yang (see under ). Nevertheless he was for some reason discharged from office in 1866. He was summoned to Peking in 1874, and in the following year was made judicial commissioner of Fukien. On February 21, 1875 the British interpreter, Augustus Raymond Margary, was killed in Yunnan (see under ), and this incident led to further difficulty with England. Whereas most high Chinese officials took a militant attitude, Kuo submitted a memorial to the throne suggesting that, governor of Yunnan, should be sent to the Board of Civil Office for questioning. This memorial stirred violent criticism, and some officials accused Kuo of trying to curry the favor of westerners.

The Chefoo convention (see under ) which resulted from the Margary affair, stipulated that China should send a mission of apology to London. As important Chinese officials had already recommended the establishment of legations abroad, the government took the opportunity to appoint Kuo (1876) minister to England, and he was therefore the first Chinese minister of modern times to be stationed in a Western country. He and his staff and his associate, Liu Hsi-hung 劉錫鴻 who was later appointed minister to Germany (1877–78), set out from Shanghai on December 3. 1876. On his staff was the Scotsman, Samuel Halliday Macartney 馬格理, who had been in the service of the Chinese government since 1862 and had for ten years (1865–75) directed the Arsenal at Nanking. On this mission Macartney served as secretary, and later as counselor in the Chinese Legation at 438