Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/122

 expectant prefect. In 1860 he was appointed prefect of Yochow, Hunan, and in consequence the volunteers under him were disbanded. He left Kweiyang in 1861 and the task of suppressing the Miao rebellion fell to the local officials who did not complete the work until twelve years later (see ).

After serving for about half a year at Yochow, Ting Pao-chên was (in 1862) transferred to Changsha where he suppressed a riot among a detachment of troops passing through the city. Late in 1862 he was promoted to be provincial judge of Shensi, but before he could leave Changsha he was asked to assume the same post in Shantung. At this time Prince was fighting the Nien bandits in the Shantung area, but found that his northern volunteers lacked discipline. Ting was therefore ordered to bring with him one or two hundred Hunanese who had served in the army or had had experience in training soldiers. With this force Ting proceeded hurriedly to Shantung and began to look after judicial affairs and the training of volunteers. In 1864 he was made financial commissioner of Shantung, but in 1865, after Sêng-ko-lin-ch'in was killed in action, Ting was one of the officials who were reprimanded for failure to prevent a disaster of this magnitude in their territory. Nevertheless he retained his post and, in co-operation with the governor, Yen Ching-ming 閻敬銘, fought the roving bandits and looked after the building of dikes along the flooded waterways.

In 1867 Ting was made governor of Shantung, a post he held until 1876. During these years he worked ceaselessly to rehabilitate the wartorn districts, to prevent floods, to strengthen the local militia, to introduce modern industries, and to construct coastal defenses. He witnessed the dispersal of the Nien bandits in 1868 and was rewarded for his part by being given the title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Also he was several times commended for his efforts to improve the Grand Canal which had gotten into disorder after the Yellow River changed its course in 1855.

But the most impressive achievement of Ting in Shantung was his part in the dramatic capture and execution of the eunuch, An Tê-hai 安德海 (1844–1869), favorite of the Empress Dowager,. Except for a brief time in the Shun-chih period, eunuchs were never given much power—until the eighteen-sixties. Empress Hsiao-ch'in, as one of the regents, relied on eunuchs to spy on officials and to help her to maintain order in the palaces. Her first favorite was An Tê-hai whom she sent in 1869 to supervise the weaving of certain patterns of imperial fabrics at Nanking. This assignment was a serious departure from the regulations governing eunuchs, and if allowed to become a precedent might easily have led to eunuch ascendancy and all the accompanying ills. An Tê-hai and his party passed through Tientsin and sailed south on the Grand Canal in several boats, flying imperial insignia and banners. So encouraged was he by the respect which the over-awed officials of Chihli had shown him that he engaged women to play music on the boats and demanded services and bribes from local magistrates. As he was passing through Shantung his activities were reported to Peking by Ting who announced also that he was ordering the arrest of the offender. On September 7, 1869, An was arrested in Tai-an. In the meantime Ting received a decree ordering his execution, and this was carried out on September 12. Other members of An's party were either executed or banished. According to some sources, Ting was secretly told by Prince Kung (see under ) to arrest and execute An. Others attribute the decision to Empress Hsiao-chên (see under ). It is possible, on the other hand, that both the Prince and Empress Hsiao-chên were dismayed at the trust which Empress Hsiao-ch'in placed in eunuchs and forced her to consent to the execution. At any rate this dramatic episode served as a warning both to the eunuchs and to Empress Hsiao-ch'in, and for a number of years limited the activity of eunuch functionaries inside the Palaces. The incident marked also, perhaps, the beginning of the cleavage between the two dowager empresses. However that may be, it is significant that Empress Hsiao-ch'in never took reprisal on Ting.

From 1873 to 1874 Ting Pao-chên obtained leave to repair his home and his ancestral tombs in Kweichow which had been destroyed by the Miao rebels. Thereafter he served another two years in Shantung, and then was promoted to be governor-general of Szechwan where he served for about ten years, until his death. In Szechwan he repaired dikes to adjust certain waterways for irrigation, established a modern arsenal, and worked hard to fill the granaries during years of ample harvest. He abolished some surtaxes which had gone more often into the pockets of the collectors than to the treasury. Similarly he effected many sweeping reforms in the financial 724