Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/75

Rh offend either power, Chang and Wêng T'ung-ho, against the objections of Li Hung-chang, arranged in March 1898 to make this loan through the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, a commercial, and supposedly neutral, concern. In the meantime he and Li Hungchang signed the lease to Russia of the Liaotung Peninsula. According to the Memoirs of the Russian Foreign Minister, Count Witte, Li and Chang signed the lease after they had received bribes from Witte amounting to 500,000 and 250,000 rubles respectively.

At this time Chang Yin-huan was very powerful, especially in the Board of Revenue. Though Prince Ch'ing (I-k'uang, see under ) and Li Hung-chang were then in charge of the Tsung-li Yamen, Chang Yin-huan still exercised a powerful influence because of his experience in Western lands. Nevertheless, he gradually antagonized his superiors and colleagues and others in government circles. Moreover, he had the favor of Emperor Tê-tsung and for that reason was suspected by Empress Hsiao-ch'in. Late in May 1898 a censor, Wang P'êng-yün 王鵬運, accused Chang and Wêng T'ung-ho of having received enormous bribes when they negotiated the third loan earlier in that year. Early in June Wêng was dismissed, not on this charge, but because he "alienated the affections of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager". Chang, however, remained in office and so became an object of attack by censors. Late in June he was summoned to the presence of Empress Hsiao-ch'in and was severely reprimanded. He was not held for arrest, probably because Emperor Tê-tsung needed his assistance in carrying out the reform program (see under ). On August 10 Chang and Wang Wên-shao (see under ) were named directors of the Bureau for the Control of Railways and Mines. On September 5 an edict was issued endorsing Chang's suggestion of organizing a national army based on conscription and drilled in the Western way. Two days later Li Hung-chang was expelled from the Tsung-li Yamen, according to some because of Chang's intrigues. However that may be, on September 20 the conservatives under the Empress Dowager came back to power with the result that the reformers were scattered and some were executed. On September 24 Chang himself was arrested and would have been executed had it not been for the earnest efforts of the Japanese chargé d'affaires, Hayashi Gonsuke 林權助. Five days later he was sentenced to banishment to Sinkiang on the vague charge that "his actions were deceitful, mysterious and fickle, and he sought after the rich and the powerful". His property was confiscated and some of his enemies now did their best to augment his misery. His escort to Sinkiang, however, treated him well, and during his two years of exile in Urumchi he endured no great hardships. Another official who was also banished to Urumchi about this time for his share in the reform movement was the president of the Board of Ceremonies, Li Tuan-fên (see under ). The latter's sister married the celebrated young reformer, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao (see under ). In the summer of 1900 when the anti-foreign conservatives and the Boxers were at the peak of their power an edict was suddenly sent to Urumchi to have Chang executed. He had been saved by foreign intervention in 1898 and now that foreigners were disparaged he perceived that his doom was near. It is said that two days before the edict ordering his execution arrived he hurriedly fulfilled promises he had made to complete certain paintings and writings on fans. In 1901, at the suggestion of the British and American Ministers, his former ranks were posthumously restored to him. Li Tuan-fên was later pardoned and died at his home in Kweiyang.

Although Chang Yin-huan spent a large part of his life in the study of Western civilization, and appreciated its achievements in art and science, he managed to gain recognition as a poet, writer and painter in the Chinese tradition. His poems were highly praised by his contemporaries, including Wêng T'ung-ho. A collection of his verse and short articles in prose is entitled 鐵畫樓詩文稿 T'ieh-hua lou shihwên kao, 6 chüan. A supplement, T'ieh-hua lou shih hsü-ch'ao (詩續鈔), 2 chüan, containing more poems, was printed in 1902. As a collector and critic of paintings he especially admired those by. He designated his studio Pai-Shih Chai 百石齋, to show that it was a place where a hundred paintings by Wang Hui were kept. He was a noted player of wei-ch'i 圍棋 (Chinese chess), and for this accomplishment he is said to have gained the favor of Ting Pao-chên and other superiors early in his career.

[1/448/6b; 6/6/12b; 19/壬上/25b; 南海縣志 Nan-hai hsien-chih (1911) 16/18b; ''U. S. Foreign. Affairs 1885–1889'', 1901 Appendix; Li Hung-chang, 63