Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/549

 One day in 1789 the Emperor visited the Imperial School, only to find it deserted. Upon learning that neither tutors nor students had been present for seven or eight days he became angry and issued several condemnatory edicts. Liu Yung, as head tutor, was held primarily responsible for this breach of discipline and was reduced to the rank of a junior vice-president of a Board and was deprived of all his honors and concurrent offices. The other tutors and the students were punished correspondingly. Soon thereafter, Liu Yung was again made sub-chancellor of the Grand Secretariat. He did not, however, remain long in disgrace, for after several promotions he was (early in 1791) again appointed president of the Censorate and within a month or two was made president of the Board of Ceremonies with his honors and concurrent posts restored. In 1792 he was transferred to the Board of Civil Offices. In 1797 he became a Grand Secretary, and in 1799 was honored with the title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Despite his advanced age he continued to hold office, acting also as head librarian of the Wên Yüan Ko from 1803 until his sudden death in 1805. He was honored posthumously and canonized as Wên-ch'ing 文清.

Although Liu Yung was in active service during the period of greatest extravagance of the Ch'ing dynasty he was renowned for the high standards of honesty, frugality and propriety which he himself maintained and required of the members of his family. He did not attack openly the malfeasance of Emperor Kao-tsung's favorite,, but he dared to oppose him outright in many matters of governmental administration. As an example of the latter may be mentioned the case of corruption in Shantung in 1782 when he was sent, together with Ho-shên and the censor, to investigate charges brought by Ch'ien against the governor and the finance commissioner of the province who were two of Ho-shên's henchmen. Liu made a careful and just investigation of the affair and proved an incontestable case of corruption against the officials, after which Ho-shên could do nothing but sign the testimonials which resulted in the execution of his favorites (see under ).

Liu Yung was a nationally renowned calligrapher. Many examples of his handwriting are extant, some of which, by order of Emperor Jên-tsung, were collected by his nephew, Liu Huan-chih (see under ), and w ere reproduced in facsimile, under the title 清愛堂石刻 Ch'ing-ai t'ang shih-k'o. Liu Yung's literary collection, entitled 劉文清公遺集 Liu Wên-ch'ing kung i-chi, 17 chüan, and a collection of his Court poems, entitled Liu Wên-ch'ing kung ying-chih shih (應制詩), were printed in 1826 by his grandnephew,. Liu Yung participated in the compilation of several works prepared under Imperial patronage, among them the Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu (see under ) and the Jih-hsia chiu-wên k'ao (see under ). He also officiated frequently at civil service examinations.

[1/308/8a; 2/26/26a; 3/30/1a; 7/16/13b; 20/3/00; 26/2/4a; 29/5/6a;, Hsiao-t'ing tsa-lu and Hsü-lu, passim; Chu-ch'êng hsien Hsü-chih (1834) 13/1a; Portrait in 青鶴 Ch'ing-ho, vol. III, no. 24 (Nov. 1, 1935); Ku-tung so-chi (see under ) 4/24b.]

2em

LO-k'o-tê-hun. See.

 LO Ping-chang 駱秉章, Apr. 28, 1793–1867, Dec. 12, was a native of Hua-hsien, Kwangtung. After devoting his early life to study, he obtained in 1832 the chin-shih degree, and in the following year became a compiler of the Hanlin Academy. In 1839 he was appointed a censor and achieved distinction by his memorials to the throne on domestic and foreign problems. After ten years in various metropolitan and provincial offices he was appointed governor of Hunan—a post he held (except for an interval of a few months in 1853) from July, 1850 to October, 1860. During this period he had to face the difficult problem of the Taiping Rebellion which harassed that region soon after he assumed office. In 1851 he was ordered to take steps for the defense of Hunan and was one of the commanders within the walled city of Changsha when it withstood the siege of the Taipings from September 11 to November 30, 1852. In the following year Nanking was proclaimed the capital of the insurgents, thus greatly strengthening their hold on South China.

At this critical moment, was placed in command of the "Hunan Braves," and Lo and, governors of Hunan and Hupeh respectively, were ordered to direct the fighting against the rebels. Impressed with the simple, straightforward, and inde- 537