Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/106

 against the Nien 捻 rebels, but as Liu was dismissed in that year Tsang also left Shensi. In 1868 he was sent to northern Kweichow with 6,000 Szechwan troops to subdue insurgents, consisting mostly of Miao tribesmen (see under ), but he was forced to relinquish his command in 1870 owing to the jealousy of the provincial troops of Kweichow.

Tang Chiung returned to official life in 1877 when he was summoned to Szechwan by the governor-general,, to reform the salt administration of that province. A new bureau, directed by T'ang, was formed to sell salt directly to consumers. The old method of giving several merchants a monopoly of the salt trade was abolished and in consequence government revenue from that source greatly increased. During the five years he was thus engaged (1877–82), Tang served concurrently as acting intendant of the Ch'uan-tung Circuit, later as intendant of the Chien-ch'ang Circuit, and finally as acting intendant of the Salt and Tea Revenue. He left some writings concerning his work in the salt administration, for which see under Ting Pao-chên.

In 1882 T'ang Chiung was made financial commissioner of Yunnan. At this time the French were invading Tonkin and Tang was ordered to assist the governor-general,, in strengthening the defenses along the southern border of Yunnan. He repeatedly urged that China should avoid open hostility with France but should secretly assist Liu Yung-fu (see under ), commander of the Black Flag Army in Tonkin, to withstand French encroachments. In 1882 France occupied Hanoi, and in 1883 took several provinces in northern Tonkin, thus forcing the unstable government of Annam to accept French protection (August 25). At this time the Peking government, wavering between war and peace with France, appointed T'ang Chiung governor of Yunnan and commander of the Yunnan forces to guard the border of that province, with orders to reinforce Liu Yung-fu if necessary. But Tang made the mistake of returning to the capital of Yunnan (September 1) to take over his new office, having meanwhile ordered his frontier guards to withdraw for a short distance from the boundary. Although he returned in less than two months to his headquarters on the border, his absence from the frontier, without approval from Peking, became a serious charge against him. Thus when Liu Yung-fu was defeated, late in 1883, Tang was blamed for lowering the morale of the soldiers and, early in the following year, was arrested. He was tried in Peking and early in 1885 was sentenced to imprisonment awaiting execution. However, he was released late in 1886 and ordered to redeem himself by serving in Yunnan under Ts'ên Yü-ying. Early in 1887 he was granted the nominal rank of a governor, and was entrusted with the administration of the copper and lead mines in Yunnan. In 1894 he was lowered to an official of the third grade because the salt administration in Szechwan, which he had set up sixteen years before, was now charged with corruption. However, upon his retirement in 1906, after nine years of service in supplying the mints with copper, he was commended and given back the title of governor. In 1908 he celebrated his eightieth birthday at his home in Kweiyang and, in anticipation of the sixtieth anniversary of his becoming a chü-jên (1909), was given the title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. He died early in 1909 before the celebration could take place.

The collective works of Tang Chiung, entitled kill 成山廬稿 Ch'êng-shan lu kao, 12 chüan, printed in 1908, contain his poems and short writings in prose, biographies of his ancestors, and a nien-p'u of Ting Pao-chên, entitled 丁文成公年譜 Ting Wên-ch'êng kung nien-p'u. T'ang Chiung also compiled his own nien-p'u, entitled 成山老人自撰年譜 Ch'êng-shan lao-jên tzŭ-chuan nien-p'u, 6 chüan (with portrait), covering his life to 1886 when he was released from prison. This nien-p'u was printed in 1910 by his son, T'ang Chien 唐堅 (b. 1866), who provided a supplement, narrating the last years of his father's life.

[1/464/2a; Nien-p'u; Chin-liang, Chin-shih jên-wu chih (see under ) p. 243; Ling T'i-an 凌惕安, 咸同貴州軍事史 Hsien-T'ung Kweichow chün-shih shih (1932).]

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 T'ANG Hsien-tsu 湯顯祖, 1550–1616, dramatist, contemporary of Shakespeare, was a native of Lin-ch'uan, Kiangsu. A chin-shih of 1583, he was appointed to a minor post in the government at Nanking, and after two years was promoted to a secretaryship in the Board of Ceremonies. In 1591 he submitted a memorial to the throne, accusing the Grand Secretaries of usurpation of power, which so offended the Emperor that he was degraded to the lowest rank of officialdom and made a district police magistrate and jail-warden of Hsü-wên, Kwangtung. After four 708