Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/86

 On December 19 Sung directed his men to resist stubbornly the advancing Japanese army at a point some ten miles west of Haicheng. Both sides suffered many casualties, but with the arrival of Japanese re-inforcements Sung was compelled to retreat. Early in February Weihaiwei, and the Peiyang fleet which was based there, were lost to the Japanese. In March Sung's army was defeated at Yingkow and Tienchuangtai and retreated westward to Chin-chow 錦州. By the time the armistice took effect (March 30, 1895), large numbers of recruits had been assembled by and  at Chinchow and Shanhaikuan, but they arrived too late. The brunt of the Japanese attack was borne mostly by the I-chün under Sung Ch'ing, by the Shêng-chün, and by the regular troops from Manchuria. Sung Ch'ing, though then in his seventies, saw action personally at Haicheng and at Tienchuangtai.

After the treaty of peace was signed (April 17, 1895, see under ) and exchanged (May 8), Sung Ch'ing remained in Chinchow to look after the disbanding of troops. Late in 1895 he was in charge of receiving from Japan the Liaotung Peninsula, and established his headquarters at Kinchow. In 1898, when Russia occupied Liaotung, he was transferred to Shanhaikuan. The army under his command, comprising now about 15,000 men, was reorganized as one of the five army corps of North China and was named the Wu-wei tso-chün (see under ). As commander of this army corps Sung Ch'ing went to Peking in 1899 to have an audience with Empress who, in view of his eightieth birthday in that year, gave him many presents. Early in 1900 Ma Yü-k'un was made deputy commander to assist him. During the Boxer War, in 1900, it was Ma who commanded the I-chün in several battles at Tientsin against the Allies. Following the fall of Peking Ma escorted Empress Hsiao-ch'in to Sian. After the peace of 1901 Sung Ch'ing went to Honan to meet the Court on its way back to Peking. From then on he and his army were stationed at Tungchow. He died in 1902 and was posthumously given the name Chung-ch'in 忠勤, and the higher hereditary rank of baron.

From the death of Sung until 1908 the I-chün were commanded by Ma Yü-k'un. Thereafter they were commanded by General Chiang Kuei-t'i 姜桂題 who maintained order in Peking during the revolution of 1912 and supported Yüan Shih-k'ai (see under ). Chiang later transferred his troops to Jehol where he served as military governor. In 1922 the command of the I-chün passed on to Wang Huai-ch'ing 王懷慶 and, after the coup d'état by Fêng Yü-hsiang 馮玉祥  in 1924, to Mi Chên-piao 米振標 who in 1925 was transferred to Honan. Thus the I-chün, which became part of the Honan army in 1865, came back to that province after some sixty years of fighting and garrisoning in various parts of North China. During these years it served in many wars and survived all the military reorganizations and improvements of the late Ch‘ing and early Republican periods. Perhaps because it was stationed in barren Jehol, it survived most of the civil wars waged by the war lords in their search for profitable territories. Only after the Kuomintang armies unified the country in 1927–28 did the I-chün cease to exist, thus bringing to an end another symbol of a bygone era in the military history of China.

[1/467/1a; 2/62/35a; 5/53/22b; 6 mo 12b; Palace Museum, Peking 中日交涉史料 Chung-Jih chiao-shê shih-liao; 費縣志 Fei-hsien (Shantung) chih 11/62b; 政府公報 Chêng-fu kung-pao, Jan. 1922, Nov. 1924; U. S. War Department, War Between China and Japan (1896); McCormick, Frederick, The Flowery Republic (1913), p. 57, 156, 322, 333; Pooley, A. M., (editor), The Secret Memoirs of Count Tadasu Hayashi (1915).]

2em

 SUNG Ch'üan 宋權, Aug. 5, 1598–1652, July 10, official of both the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, was a native of Shang-ch'iu, Honan. Made a chin-shih in 1625, he became district magistrate of Yang-ch'ü, Shansi, and in the spring of 1644 was appointed governor of Shun-t'ien (Peking) with headquarters at Mi-yün in the metropolitan area. Three days after taking the latter post, Peking fell to the insurgent leader,. Sung Ch'üan resisted and succeeded in defeating one branch of the rebel forces. When the Manchus under entered the city on June 6, 1644 he surrendered but was again appointed governor of Shun-t'ien. One of his first acts in this capacity was to memorialize the conquerors on the following matters: to assign officially a posthumous title or miao-hao 廟號 to the late Ming Emperor Ssŭ-tsung (see under  688