Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/341

 work concurrently on the Grand Council, in which capacity he served continuously for twenty years. In the meantime he served as president of the Board of Revenue (1755–73), as an Associate Grand Secretary (1771–73), and as a Grand Secretary (1773–80). In 1773, after and  had died, he became Chief Grand Councilor, and for the next six and a half years was the most powerful minister in the empire. He was intimate with the Emperor, who made him adviser on national affairs, and was skilled, moreover, in the formulation of edicts. He also undertook the tedious task of editing the Emperor's poems which the latter often composed at intervals during an audience and which Yü would write down later from memory. It is said that, even under these circumstances, he seldom made an error. His predecessors,, Liu Lun, and Wang Yu-tun 汪由敦 , had exhibited the same ability, and likewise had assisted the Emperor in editing his poems.

Yü Min-chung was constantly with the Emperor in the capital or on a tour, and many important policies of the middle Ch'ien-lung period were decided by the Emperor in accordance with Yü's advice. He enjoyed a powerful position at Court, much as, and  had before him, and as  did after him. However, he was not treated as respectfully as were his predecessors, nor did he enjoy the confidence of the Emperor as Ho-shên did. He was younger than Emperor Kao-tsung by three years, and was in office during the years when the Emperor was active and dominant. He was not above reproach in the matter of bribes, though in this he was far less culpable than the corrupt Ho-shên. In 1774 a eunuch, Kao Yün-ts'ung 高雲從, was tried for having divulged to several high officials the Emperor's private ratings of certain minor officials. The eunuch disclosed that he had once requested Yü Min-chung to help him in a lawsuit, and that on another occasion he had reported to Yü the Emperor's private criticism of an official. The Emperor, on hearing of Yu's connection with the eunuch, vehemently denounced him.The eunuch was executed, but Yü was allowed to remain in office. The Emperor said that Yü would in time have received an hereditary rank for his assistance in directing the Chin-ch'uan War (1771–76, see under ), but that a cancellation of it would now be his punishment. Nevertheless, after the war was concluded in 1776, Yu was commended for his services and was given the rank of a Ch'ing-ch'ê tu-yü with the rights of perpetual inheritance. His portrait was placed in the Tzŭ-kuang ko (see under ), along with those of the generals in the campaign. He was also given the privilege of wearing the double-eyed peacock feather and the yellow jacket—honors which were for the first time bestowed on a Chinese civil official. Early in 1780 Yü died of asthma. He was canonized as Wên-hsiang 文襄 and his name was entered in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen. His portrait was painted by Father Joseph Panzi (see under ) and about 1781 it came into the possession of Jean-Baptiste Bertin (1719–1792) the French Secretary of State.

In the decade and a half after his death Yü Min-chung was several times posthumously denounced by the Emperor. In 1780, only a few months after his decease, a nephew, who had been in charge of his personal financial affairs, transferred many chests of goods from the house in Peking to Chin-t'an and secreted them with a view to keeping them himself. Yü's only son having died, his (adopted?) grandson, Yü Tê-yü 于德裕, appealed to the authorities to help him restrain the culprit. The Emperor ordered an investigation, and on a vague charge of corruption directed that, with the exception of twenty or thirty thousand taels which were to be left to Yü Tê-yü, all the property should be used by the local authorities to defray the expense of public works. The investigation disclosed that Yü Min-chung had contributed farm land worth nine thousand taels to support his poorer clansmen. Since this was in the Emperor's view a laudable act, the land so donated was allowed to remain in the clan. But it was also found that Yü Min-ching had had a garden built for him by a former grain intendant of Kiangsu, and for this the intendant was cashiered and Yü was denounced for corruption. Nevertheless, in 1782, the Emperor permitted Yü Tê-yü to inherit the rank of Ch'ing-ch'ê tu-yü and appointed him secretary in a Board.

A second incident which came to a climax in 1782 was equally unfavorable to Yü's memory. In 1774 he had advised the Emperor to permit the authorities in Kansu province to sell, to those who could afford it, the rank of Student of the Imperial Academy—the revenue in grain and silver thus obtained to remain on deposit in the province. This policy brought on large 943