Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/143

 order was given, it could have come only from Li Chên-kuo 李珍國, a native of Momein (born of a Burmese mother) who remembered that the British had conquered lower Burma in 1862, and that at the time of the Margary affair they were forcibly extending their influence northward. The city of Momein had been in the hands of Moslem rebels from 1861 to 1873. During that time (1867) a British trade mission came to the city and was well received by the rebels, but was prevented from going farther into Yunnan by government troops and by a native militia led by Li Chên-kuo whose operations blocked the highways. Li helped the government forces to recover Momein in 1873 and was made a colonel. Though by the time Margary came Li's troops had been disbanded, they might well have been summoned on short notice. In such a move he probably had the support of the local merchants who feared the impact of any new trade agreements on their livelihood.

By the time the Chefoo Convention was signed, Ts'ên was no longer at the head of affairs in Yunnan, since several months earlier he had retired to Kweilin, Kwangsi, to observe a twenty-seven months' mourning period for the death of his mother. Early in 1879 he went to Peking where he was granted several audiences, and where he met for the first time the higher officials of the central government. After serving as governor of Kweichow (1879–81) and of Fukien (1881–82), he was promoted in 1882 to be governor-general of Yunnan and Kweichow and was ordered to prepare for a possible conflict with France over Annam. In 1883 he and were reprimanded for temporarily withdrawing their troops from the border. Early in 1884 Ts'ên went to Annamese territory to direct supplies to the army under Liu Yung-fu who was then fighting the French (see under ). When war with France was openly declared in August 1884 the Yunnan troops advanced along the Red River to Hsüan-kuang 宣光 (Tuyen-Quan), with the purpose of joining the Kwangsi troops under Governor P'an Ting-hsin 潘鼎新, but Ts'ên failed to take Hsüan-kuang or to advance any farther. After the armistice was signed in April 1885 he returned to Yunnan—a province whose treasury had been drained and whose border now faced French forces. He had learned the importance of having western arms, and of swift communications. The question of communications was solved by the extension, at this time, of the telegraph to Kunming.

Late in 1885 Ts'ên was given the additional hereditary rank of Yün-ch'i-yü. In 1888, on his sixtieth birthday, he was presented with many gifts from the Emperor. The gentry of Yunnan presented to him an album of forty paintings depicting the important events of his life, which was lithographically reproduced (1891) under the title, 勖德介福圖 Hsün-tê chieh-fu t'u. On this anniversary year he edited and printed the genealogy of his family, entitled 西林岑氏族譜 Hsi-lin Ts'ên-shih tsu-p'u, 10 chüan. After he died he was canonized as Hsiang-ch'in 襄勤 and was celebrated in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen in Peking, as well as in special temples in Kunming, Kweiyang, and elsewhere. A chronology of his life was compiled by Chao Fan 趙藩, and was printed in 1899 under the title Ts'ên Hsiang-ch'in kung nien-p'u (公年譜). His collected memorials, Ts'ên Hsiang-ch'in kung tsou-i (奏議), 30 + 1 chüan, were printed in 1897. It is said that his hereditary rank was posthumously raised to a second-class baron.

Ts'ên Yü-ying had seven sons. The eldest, Ts'ên Ch'un-jung 岑春榮, inherited the family hereditary rank and later served as intendant of Northern Honan (1893–?). The second, Ts'ên Ch'un-hsü 岑春煦, headed a number of prefectures in Honan and Chihli. The fifth, Ts'ên Ch'un-ming 岑春蓂, served as governor of Kweichow (1905–06) and of Hunan (1906–10). The most famous of his sons was the third, Ts'ên Ch'un-hsüan 岑春煊 (original ming 春澤, T. 雲階 H. 炯堂, b. 1861), a chü-jên of 1885 who filled various posts in Peking, Kwangtung, and Kansu. In the Boxer uprising of 1900 he led some troops to the rescue of Peking, and escorted the Court on its flight through Taiyuan to Sian. He became a favorite of the Empress Dowager (, q.v.). Later he served as governor of Shensi (1901–02) and as governor-general of Szechwan (1902–03) and of Kwangtung and Kwangsi (1903–06). In 1907 he retired under criticism. Early in the Republican period he opposed Yüan Shih-k'ai (see under ) and took part in the civil wars against him, being made in 1916 commander-in-chief of the forces concentrated at Chao-ch'ing, Kwangtung, to oppose Yuan's monarchical schemes. In 1918 he was elected one of the directors of the so-called Military Government 745