Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/82

 孫擴圖, was a chü-jên of 1736 who served as a magistrate in Chekiang for five years—his last post being at Ch'ien-t'ang (Hangchow) 1762-63. Sun Yü-t'ing became a chin-shih in 1775, was selected a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, and later was made a corrector (1778). After several promotions he was sent to Shansi as intendant of the Ho-tung Circuit (1786) but retired a year later to mourn the death of his father. In 1790 he was appointed salt intendant of Kwangsi, and six years later was made provincial judge of that province. In 1797 a rebellion of the Miao tribesmen on the Kweichow border was quickly suppressed by provincial troops and Sun Yü-t'ing attracted notice by his efficient dispatch of supplies to the front. In 1799 Emperor Jên-tsung appointed him financial commissioner of Hupeh to look after supplies for the troops of that province who were then combating the Pai-lien-chiao rebels (see under ). He performed this task so well that in 1802 he was promoted to be governor of Kwangsi. There he supervised the sending of the documents granting the title of King of Yüeh-nan to Juan Fu-ying (see under ). In 1803 he was transferred to Canton as governor of Kwangtung where he maintained a strong policy against pirates and caused the removal of the governor-general,, who favored pacifying them. In 1808, because of the occupation of several forts at Macao by a British landing party (see under ), Sun Yü-t'ing was reprimanded and was transferred to Kweichow. The governor-general of Kwangtung, Wu Hsiung-kuang 吳熊光, was blamed for not having used force to expel the British from Canton and was recalled to Peking. In 1809 the case was closed when Wu was sent into exile and Sun was cashiered for failure to report against Wu. However, later in the same year, Sun was given the rank of a compiler of the Hanlin Academy and a year after that (1810) was made governor of Yunnan. After serving in Yunnan for five years he was transferred to Chekiang (1815).

In 1816 Sun was promoted to be governor-general of Hunan and Hupeh and was summoned to Peking for an audience. He arrived at the time when the Amherst Mission to Peking was, for various reasons, turned back, one reason being the refusal of the British commissioners to perform the kowtow ceremony (see under ). The Emperor, feeling that he had been slighted, questioned Sun regarding his past experience in dealing with Englishmen at Canton. Sun reported that in 1804 he was in charge of handing over to Staunton the Emperor's gifts to the King of England. On that occasion, he said, Staunton took off his hat and bowed while listening to the edict, and bowed again before he left. Sun asserted that this bowing was equivalent to the kowtow in China. In his opinion the British by refusing to kowtow, intended no disrespect to the Emperor, and that furthermore, their tight trousers made it inconvenient for them to kneel. Sun also asserted that Englishmen were in such dire need of tea that they would not venture to open hostilities; that English ships were too large to sail into inland waters; and that an attack with fire would surely destroy their fleet. These reports pleased the Emperor and dispelled his worry about British reprisals. The same erroneous argument, that tea was essential to health in England, was used by two decades later.

Late in 1816 Sun Yü-t'ing was transferred to Nanking as governor-general of Kiangsu, Kiangsi and Anhwei—a post he held for nearly nine years. In the meantime he was concurrently an Associate Grand Secretary (1821–24) and then a Grand Secretary (1824–25). In 1824 the Yellow River overflowed into Kiangsu, and Sun, for his "negligence", was deprived of all ranks but was allowed to retain his offices. Because floods delayed transport of rice to Peking by way of the Grand Canal, he was told to find ways of hastening traffic on this waterway. By the autumn of 1825 transport by this route was feasible, but an edict had already been issued to have him cashiered. Thereafter he lived at his home in Tsining for nine years. In 1834 he was given the rank of a fourth grade official to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of his becoming a chü-jên, but he died that year.

Sun Yü-t'ing left a collection of works, entitled 延釐堂集 Yen-hsi t'ang chi, 8 chüan, printed in 1872, which includes his memorials in 4 chüan, his poems in 2 chüan, his miscellaneous prose works in 1 chüan, and a work about salt administration, 鹽法隅說 Yen-fa yü-shuo, in 1 chüan. He wrote his autobiography, entitled Sun Yü-t'ing tzŭ-ting nien-p'u (自訂年譜), which was printed in 1834. He served from 1778 to 1780 as a collator for the compilation of the Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu (see under ), and as a compiler in the State Historiographer's Office (1782–86). In the latter capacity he served as 684