Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/568

 involving Ting Jih-ch'ang, was reported to the throne by a high official. It happened that Ting's son had servants who were unruly, and their lawlessness had been condemned by Ma. Ting's son was reprimanded for his failure to control them. When, a few months later, Ma was assassinated it was easy to point to this son as a possible instigator of the crime. Nevertheless, the investigation cleared both Ting and his son of any connection with it.

The sudden death of Ma Hsin-i is significant in Chinese history because it affected the careers of two eminent men of the day, namely, Tsêng Kuo-fan and. Despite his early popularity as the leader primarily responsible for suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, Tsêng had alienated public opinion in the north by his unbiased settlement of the Tientsin Massacre (see under ). He condemned a number of guilty persons to death and even sent several local officials into exile. He thus settled the case in conformity with French demands and averted a possible war, but he was blamed as cowardly and unpatriotic, particularly by reactionary gentry and officials in the north. The Court could not in decency remove from his post in Chihli the hero of earlier days, but the vacancy left by Ma in Nanking offered both a fitting and convenient solution. Tsêng was sent back to his old post in Nanking with the honorable mission of conducting further investigations into the assassination and of maintaining peace and order in Kiangsu. Thereupon the important post of governor-general of Chihli was passed on to Li Hung-chang who held it, off and on, for more than twenty-five years, and so more or less shaped the history of Chinese foreign relations in his day.

[Ma Tuan-min kung nien-p'u (公年譜, 1877); 1/432/4b; 2/49/1a; 5/26/1a;, Yung-an pi-chi, chüan 4; Ch'ing pai lei-ch'ao (see bibl. ) vol. 9, p. 205; Ch'ing-ch'ao yeh-shih ta-kuan (see bibl. under ) vol. 4, pp. 59–64.]

2em

 MA Hsiung-chên 馬䧺鎭, 1634–1677, Nov. 6, official, was a native of Liaoyang, Fengtien. Although the family belonged to the Chinese Bordered Red Banner, his ancestors came originally from P'êng-lai, Shantung. His father, Ma Ming-p'ei 馬鳴珮, rose in his official career to the presidency of the Board of War, and to the military governorship of Kiangnan and Kiangsi, and took part in the suppression of the Southern Ming forces, including the Koxinga family of Formosa (see under ). In 1656 Ma Hsiung-chên was appointed an assistant administrator in the Board of Works, in charge of the Mint (寶源局) and of the imperial glazed-tile factory (琉璃窰) in the south city, Peking. After observing the period of mourning for his father he was, in 1667, made senior vice-president of the Censorate and in the following year a sub-chancellor of the Grand Secretariat. He was appointed governor of Shansi in 1669, but before he could set out for this post an edict was issued transferring him to the governorship of Kwangsi, a post which he assumed in the following year. Within a few months he put down bandits who had allied themselves with the Yao 猺 and T'ung 獞 tribesmen in the prefectures of Wu-chou 梧州 and P'ing-lo 平樂. He established schools, abolished burdensome taxes and duties, and lowered the price of salt—on the whole the condition of the province was improved under his administration. But by the end of the year 1673 rebelled, and early in the following year, Manchu general-in-chief of Kwangsi, espoused his cause.

Being a civil governor without military power, Ma Hsiung-chên was prevented from offering active resistance. He tried to commit suicide, but was thwarted. Unable conscientiously to join in the new regime, he was put in custody. On May 6, 1674 he secretly sent his eldest son, Ma Shih-chi 馬世濟, to Peking to report the situation and to plead for help. Three months later he sent his second son, Ma Shih-yung 馬世永, his eldest grandson, Ma Kuo-chen 馬國楨, and some members of his staff, on the same mission. In consequence of this move his whole family was thrown into prison and he himself was confined to a separate cell where he remained for three years. While Sun Yen-ling was wavering between the new cause and a return to Manchu allegiance, Wu San-kuei (late in 1677) sent into Kwangsi a relative, Wu Shih-tsung 吳世琮, who had Sun murdered by stealth. Pressure was again brought to bear on Ma to coöperate with the new regime, but stubbornly refusing all offers, he was killed November 6, 1677—likewise all members of his family in Kwangsi and some of his staff. When the account of his heroic death was sent 556