Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/253

 the grounds. W. A. P. Martin testified that Wên-hsiang "took a pride in living poor and dying so". Martin also asserts that Wên-hsiang once told him, "We shall learn all the good from you people of the West." It was Wên-hsiang who sponsored China's first national institution of Westernized education; who took charge of the training of a contingent of riflemen, and demonstrated its usefulness in suppressing bandits; who initiated the idea of sending Burlingame (see under ) to Western countries as China's representative; and who helped I-hsin to steer the country out of civil and foreign wars to an era of peace and prosperity.

Wên-hsiang wrote a modest and truthful autobiography, entitled 文忠公自訂年譜 Wên Wên-chung kung tzŭ-ting nien-p'u, 2 chüan, printed in 1882 in the collectanea, Wên Wên-chung kung shih-lüeh (事略), 4 chüan. This collection comprises, in addition, a series of biographies and eulogies, and two records of his travels: one to Szechwan in 1854, entitled 蜀軺紀程 Shu-yao chi-ch'êng; the other to the Barin Mongols in Northern Jehol in 1857, entitled Pa-lin chi-ch'êng.

In the last years of the Ch'ing Dynasty Wên-hsiang stood out among Manchu ministers as capable, conscientious, and not given to corrupt practices. Another Manchu of this type was the above-mentioned Pao-yün who, however, was discharged in 1884 along with I-hsin and several other officials of the Tsungli Yamen. Pao-yün left several collections of poems; the largest one, 寶文靖公集 Pao Wên-ching kung chi, 12 + 1 chüan, being printed in 1895 and reprinted in 1908. In the latter year were also reprinted four smaller collections under the collective title, Pao Wên-ching kung shih-ch'ao (詩鈔).

[1/392/2a; 2/51/48b; 5/7/1a; 張文襄幕府記聞 Chang Wên-hsiang mu fu chi-wên, shang/2b in 清人說薈 Ch'ing-jên shuo-hui; Morse, H. B., The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, vol. 2, p. 53; Martin, W. A. P., The Lore of Cathay (1901), p. 17; idem., A Cycle of Cathay (1896), pp. 360–63; Chin-shih jên-wu chih (see under ), p. 50.]

2em

 WÊN Huang-ti. Posthumous name of.

 WÊN T'ing-shih 文廷式, 1856–1904, official and scholar, was a native of P'ing-hsiang, Kiangsi. After becoming a chü-jên, early in the eighteen-eighties, he went to Peking where he became acquainted with many prominent contemporaries, among them who assisted him greatly. In 1890 he obtained his chin-shih degree with high honors and was made a compiler in the Hanlin Academy. After a brief sojourn in his native place, he returned early in 1894 to Peking and soon after was promoted to an expositorship in the Hanlin Academy—this unusual promotion being probably due to the influence of Shêng-yü, or perhaps to the Imperial concubines, Chin-fei and Chên-fei (see under ), who, as children, had studied under him. Being a member of the group of progressives known as Ch'iang Hsüeh Hui (see under ), Wên often advised the Emperor on matters of governmental reform. It is reported that a few months after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war the Empress Dowager conspired to dethrone Emperor Tê-tsung, but that Wên persuaded and other generals on the battlefields to support the Emperor, thus frustrating her plan. After the Treaty of Shimonoseki was concluded, Wên severely critized for having taken a too conciliatory attitude toward Japan, but upon the advice of Shêng-yü, who feared that such outspoken criticism might bring disaster, Wên left the capital for his native place. When he reached Shanghai and was entertained by the local Tao-t'ai, Liu Ch'i-hsiang 劉麒祥, a relative of Li Hung-chang, Liu's attendants examined Wên's baggage and discovered several copies of his secret memorials to Tê-tsung. Liu transmitted them to Li Hung-chang who, in turn, presented them to the Empress Dowager, and at the same time caused a censor to denounce Wên. In March 1896 Wên was deprived of his rank and position. Two years later, when the coup d'état of the Empress Dowager took place, his life was in such danger that he sought refuge in Japan.

Wên T'ing-shih was one of the scholars who studied Mongol history under the influence of Shêng-yü. In this field his special contribution was his reconstruction of some parts of the 經世大典 Ching-shih ta-tien, or "Institutes of the Yüan Empire", 880 + 14 chüan, which was commissioned in 1329, completed in June 1331, and presented to the throne in the spring of the following year. A sole manuscript copy of this work was preserved in the Palace library, but was lost in the middle of the Ming period. While a member of the Hanlin Academy, Wên T'ing-shih gathered extracts from it which had been quoted in the Yung-lo ta-tien (see under ), and edited them in five books. These 855