Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/145

 St. Petersburg as annotated by Tsêng Chi-tsê, was printed in 1887. The Treaty of Livadia was finally annulled, and the Treaty of St. Petersburg was signed on February 24, 1881. By this new treaty China, gained a large strip of territory including the Tekkes Valley and the mountain passes between Ili and Kashgaria. Changes were made in regard to trade routes and customs, and additional Russian consulates were authorized in China. In return, China agreed to pay Russia, for the expense of occupation, nine million metallic roubles instead of the five million previously arranged. The treaty was generally regarded as a diplomatic triumph for China.

There was also the question of Annam. In 1874 a treaty of peace and alliance and a commercial treaty were signed between Annam and France, which amounted, in effect, to a transfer of Annam's allegiance from China to France. Annam continued, however, to send tribute to Peking. Early in 1880 Tsêng Chi-tsê was instructed by the Chinese government to inquire about the status of Annam. Repeated aSsŭrances had been given by France that she had no designs on Tongking but, with a. change of administration, the French policy altered. On August 25, 1883 another treaty was signed by which Annam accepted the status of a French protectorate. Though warfare broke out here and there between China and France (see under and ), negotiations were intermittently carried on with China until a treaty was signed at Tientsin on June 9, 1885 by  and Patenôtre (see under ). Meanwhile Tsêng Chi-tsê's term as minister to France ended in the spring of 1884. On July 18, 1885 he and Lord Salisbury signed at London an additional article to the Chefoo Convention (see under ) concerning an increase of the tax levy on the importation of opium. In the same year Tsêng was recalled and was made his successor. Tsêng was then ordered to assist in the newly-formed Board of Admiralty (see under ) and, while waiting in London for his successor to arrive, began negotiations for the purchase of warships. As England was then taking steps toward the annexation of Burma, Tsêng was simultaneously charged with making overtures in this matter, though a convention was not concluded until later.

Before leaving London Tsêng Chi-tsê wrote an article which appeared in the January issue (1887) of the Asiatic Quarterly Review under the title "China, the Sleep and the Awakening". In it he described the existing state of China and forecast her future policies. He arrived at Shanghai on October 18, 1886, and reached Peking on December 11. Appointed to serve in the Tsungli Yamen, he was made junior vice-president of the Board of War, and later (1887) became a senior vice-president of the Board of Revenue. He also served (1885–90) on the Board of Admiralty.

In 1889 he was charged with the administration of the Yung-wên Kuan (see under ). His death at the age of fifty-two sui was a severe loss to China. He was granted full posthumous honors and was canonized as Hui-min 惠敏. Being progressive in his ideas, and liberal in his understanding and appreciation of things Western, he met with frequent opposition from his more conservative colleagues. Some of them even attributed his premature death to his reliance on Western medicine.

The complete works of Tsêng Chi-tsê, entitled Tsêng Hui-min kung ch'uan-chi (公全集) were first printed by the Kiangnan Arsenal (see ) in 1893 and were reprinted lithographically at Shanghai in 1894. The material is distributed under the following titles: Tsêng Hui-min kung tsou-i (奏議), 6 chüan, comprising his memorials; Tsêng Hui-min kung wên-chi (文集), 5 chüan, consisting of his writings in prose; 歸樸齋詩鈔 Kuei-p'u chai shih-ch'ao, 4 chüan, his poems; and 使西日記 Shih Hsi jih-chi, 2 chüan, the diaries he kept during his terms as a diplomat in Europe.

[1/452/3b; 2/58/29b; 5/15/17b; 19 hsin-hsia 28b; Ch'ing-chi wai-chiao shih-liao (see under ); Boulger, D. C., The Life of Sir Halliday Macartney; Martin, W. A. P., A Cycle of Cathay; Cordier, Henri, Histoire des relations de la Chine avec les puissances occidentales; see bibl. under .]

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 TSÊNG Ching 曾靜, 1679–1736, Jan. 31, executed for defaming Emperor Shih-tsung, was a native of Yung-hsing, Hunan. A licentiate in the district school, he was deprived of his degree when he failed in one of the annual examinations. Thereafter he made his living by teaching children, for whom he wrote an elementary text-book, entitled 小學開蒙 Hsiao-hsüeh k'ai-mêng. Having read a book by, then deceased, which recom- 747