Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/319

 that part of Kiangnan now known as Kiangsu (a name which came into use in 1667) was stationed at Soochow. Yin-chi-shan's plan was to transfer the financial commissioner of Anhwei to Anking and to apportion Kiangsu between two financial commissioners. His plan was endorsed by the Emperor, and this system was followed during the remainder of the dynasty.

In 1764 Yin-chi-shan was made a Grand Secretary but remained as governor-general of Liang-kiang for one year more before he was recalled to Peking. In 1765, at the age of seventy sui, he began his service as Grand Secretary in Peking and was assigned to many concurrent posts, including that of chief tutor in the Palace School for Princes, and chancellor of the Hanlin Academy. He was given posthumously the title of Grand Guardian, the name, Wên-tuan 文端, and recognition in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen. Emperor Kao-tsung praised him as not only an able administrator but as one who was kind and broad-minded. The people of Kiangsu whom he ruled, intermittently for some twenty years, loved him for his justice and his friendliness.

The fourth son of Yin-chi-shan, named Ch'ing-kuei 慶桂, served from 1755 to 1813 as an official. He held, among others, the following posts: military governor of Uliasutai (1780–81, 1789–91); president of the Board of War (1784–99); Grand Secretary (1799–1813); and Grand Councilor (1771–73, 1784–93, 1799–1812). During his last years of service he was given the minor hereditary rank of Ch'i tu-yü (1802) and the title of Grand Guardian. He was canonized as Wen-k'o 文恪. Thus from Yin-t'ai to Ch'ing-kuei, each generation of this family produced a Grand Secretary.

Yin-chi-shan was given the garden, Hsün-ch'un yüan 絢春園, which had once belonged to and which was located near the Yüan-ming Yüan (see under ). He married a niece of O-êr-t'ai, and was often compared to that elder statesman because of the similarity of their official careers, their abilities, and their enjoyment of imperial favor. A daughter of Yin-chi-shan married, eighth son of Emperor Kao-tsung.

[1/313/1a; 2/18/26b; 3/21/1a; 4/27/9a; 7/16/4b; 3/l2/34a; 3/31/15a;, Yung-chêng chu-p'i yü-chih, Yin-chi-shan; , 袁文箋正 Yüan-wên chien-chêng, chüan 9; Tung-hua lu, Ch'ien-lung 36:4; , Ch'un-jung t'ang shih chi).]

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 YIN Chia-ch'üan 尹嘉銓 (了端, 隨五, 古稀老人), May 21, 1711–1781, official and writer, was a native of Po-yeh, Chihli, the eldest son of Yin Hui-i 尹會一 (元孚, 1691–1748), a scholar who shortly before his death was appointed vice-president of the Board of Civil Office. Yin Chia-ch'üan graduated as chü-jên in 1735, but failed to qualify in the chin-shih examinations. This failure, however, does not seem to have hampered his career, owing possibly to his father's eminence. He was appointed to minor offices in the Board of Punishments at Peking, and by 1763 was intendant of the Chi-Tung-T'ai-Wu-Lin Circuit in Shantung. During the ensuing years he occupied provincial posts in Shansi, Shantung, and Kansu, until 1774 when he was recalled to Peking as director of the Court of Judicature and Revision. In the following year the Emperor was urged to degrade and transfer him for failure to report on a secret society in Kansu when he was lieutenantgovernor of that province (1771–74), but the suggestion was ignored. When in 1778, owing to a Mohammedan uprising in Kansu, a second proposal for his dismissal was made, the Emperor permitted him to retire without, however, depriving him of his rank. Three years later (April 11, 1781) when the Emperor was returning from a pilgrimage to Wu-t'ai Shan by way of Paoting, Yin dispatched his son from Po-yeh to request a posthumous title for his father, the above-mentioned Yin Hui-i. The Emperor was obviously irritated by the proposal, and Yin should have taken the hint, but did not. He again proposed that the tablets of, , , and  be admitted to the Confucian temple—adding to the list, half apologetically, the name of his father. This was too much. After the court had reviewed the evidence in the case, the Emperor ordered that Yin be arrested and sentenced and that a thorough search be made for disrespectful or seditious comments in his writings. These were found in abundance, in particular, remarks on political societies which the Emperor had good reason to dread.

The sequel was a sentence (May 10, 1781) of "immediate death by strangulation" (絞立決 chiao li-chüeh) for Yin Chia-ch'üan, confiscation of his property, and complete destruction of his writings, including even those carved on monu- 921