Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/112

 was degraded to Tartar General of Sian. In February 1809 he became very ill with asthma. The Emperor consoled him by giving him the rank of a third class duke, but he died two months later. He was given the posthumous name, Chuang-kuo 壯果. His memory was celebrated in the Temple of Zealots of the Dynasty in Peking and a special temple was erected to his honor in Chengtu.

As in the case of Ê-lê-têng-pao, the son of Tê-lêng-t'ai (i.e. Su-ch'ung-a) was allowed to inherit the reduced rank of a first class marquis. After Su-ch'ung-a died (1829), the rank was inherited by his elder son, Wo-shih-no 倭什訥 (d. 1852). The younger son of Su-ch'ung-a, named Hua-sha-na (see under ), was a chin-shih of 1832 and a member of the Hanlin Academy. He rose to be president of the Board of Civil Appointments (1854–59). Hua-sha-na and Kuei-liang were the two commissioners sent to Tientsin in 1858 to negotiate treaties of peace with the British, French, American, and Russian envoys (see under ). Hua-sha-na edited a biography of his grandfather, entitled 德壯果公年譜 Tê Chuang-kuo kung nien-p'u, 32 chüan, printed in 1857, with a portrait of Te-lêng-t'ai. The great number of dated documents which this work contains makes it one of the best sources for the Pai-lien-chiao Rebellion.

[1/350/10a; 2/29/44b; 3/303/9a; Tê Chuang-kuo kung nien-p'u.]

2em

 TÊ-p'ei 德沛, official, scholar, and Christian convert, was a member of the Imperial family and a descendant of. The latter's eighth son was Tê-p'ei's great-grandfather. The grandfather of Tê-p'ei, named Fulata 傅拉塔 (1622–1676, posthumous name 惠獻), was a cousin of. As holder of the hereditary rank of beise 貝子 (prince of the fourth degree), Fulata, with the title of Ning-hai chiang-chün 寧海將軍, assisted in suppressing the rebellion of  in Chekiang and Fukien (1674–76). Fulata's fifth son, Fu-ts'un 福存 (1665–1700), was at first made a Chêng-kuo-kung 鎭國公 (prince of the fifth degree), but in 1691 succeeded to his father's rank of beise. Fu-ts'un had ten sons, of whom the second, Tê-p'u 德普 (1683–1729), inherited the reduced rank of Chên-kuo-kung. The eighth son was Tê-p'ei.

Brought up in an environment of wealth and ease, Tê-p'ei learned to ride horses and became an expert marksman with the bow and arrow. But being afflicted, about the age of twenty (sui), with tuberculosis, he left his home and went to lead a secluded life in the hills west of Peking where he meditated on and studied the Classics and the writings of the Sung philosophers. About the year 1718 he embraced the Christian faith and was baptized by Father Ignace Kögler (see under ). He was intimate with the family of his distant cousin,, whose sons became Christians. It was probably in 1729 (when his brother, Tê-p'u, died) that he declined the offer to inherit the family rank. Preferring to continue his studies, he relinquished it in favor of his nephew.

In time Tê-p'ei became known as a learned, dependable, and upright man. In 1735 his name was presented to Emperor Shih-tsung by Prince Kuo (Yin-li, see under ) and he was summoned for an audience. In June or July of that year he was made a noble of imperial lineage of the ninth rank; and on October 4, four days before the Emperor died, he was given the high post of senior vice-president of the Board of War. Under the new Emperor, Kaotsung, he continued to enjoy special favors and was entrusted with various important posts. In 1736 he was made provincial commander-in-chief of Chihli with headquarters at Ku-pei-k'ou. Early in 1737 he was sent to Kansu as governor, and later in the same year was made governor-general of Hupeh and Hunan. In 1739 he was transferred to Foochow as governor of Fukien and Chekiang, and three years later was transferred to Nanking to serve as governor-general of Kiangsu, Anhwei, and Kiangsi. He was recalled to the capital in 1743, made a vice-president of the Board of Civil Office and concurrently libationer of the Imperial Academy. In January 1748 he was raised to be president of his Board but seven months later he resigned because of illness.

Three months after his resignation Tê-p'ei was named by Emperor Kao-tsung to succeed to the hereditary rank which had been originally awarded to his great-granduncle,. This rank, a princedom of the first degree (designated first as Chêng Ch'in-wang 鄭親王 and later as Chien 簡 Ch'in-wang), had remained in Jidu's family from 1657 to 1748. The holder in Tê-p'ei's time was a grandson of Jidu and a fourth cousin of Tê-p'ei, named Shên-pao-chu 神保住, who in his later years became blind. Shên-pao-chu was deprived of his status on 714