Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/89

 of Po-chou, Anhwei. How long he served in the latter post is not clear, but in 1642 and 1643 he was in his native district assisting the authorities financially and collaborating with them in suppressing a local rebellion. At any rate, he never resumed official life after the change of dynasty (1644). His brother, Sung Ying-shêng, rose after several promotions to be prefect of Canton, but likewise retired at the close of the Ming period and died soon thereafter.

The T'ien-kung k'ai-wu is divided into eighteen sections, each section being devoted to a special subject illustrated by beautifully executed woodcuts accompanied by texts explaining the processes involved. Among the subjects illustrated are the implements of tilling, weaving, well-drilling and hydraulics; the manufacture of salt, pottery, oil, paper, fire-arms, dyes, and wine; and the processes of coinage, mining, pearl-fishing, and work in jade. Part of the text and a few illustrations had been reproduced in the encyclopaedia, Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'êng (see under ), but otherwise the work almost completely disappeared in China, owing possibly to the fact that some of the processes described, such as coinage, salt-making, and the manufacture of arms, were government monopolies.

Fortunately, a copy of the original Chinese edition is preserved in the Seikado Library, Tokyo, and of this there are photostats in the Library of Congress. Two reprints appeared in Japan: one issued by Eda Masuhide 江田益英 in 1771, and another published in 1825. In 1927 the Chinese bibliophile, T'ao Hsiang 陶湘, reprinted the work in Peking, basing the text and illustrations on the 1771 Japanese reprint, and on the sections preserved in the Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'êng, in the agricultural compendium, Shou-shih t'ung-k'ao (see under ), and in other works. In 1929 T'ao published a revised edition in his Hsi-yung hsüan ts'ung-shu (see under ) to which was added a postscript and a biography of Sung Ying-hsing, written by the well-known scientist, Ting Wên-chiang (see under ).

[M.1/112/9a; Fêng-hsiang hsien-chih (1871) 8/11a, 9/12a, 16/16b; Lien-l'ing shu-mu (see under ); Report of the Librarian of Congress (1930) p. 364.]

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 SUNG-yün 松筠, 1752–1835, June 17, official, was a Mongol of the Khorcin clan which took the surname Ma-la-t'ê 瑪拉特. An ancestor named Ta-êr-mi-tai 達爾彌岱 was a follower of, and thereafter the family belonged to the Mongol Plain Blue Banner. Having trained himself as an interpreter, Sung-yün became a clerk in the Court of Colonial Affairs (1772). In 1776 he was appointed a secretary to the Council of State, and after various promotions became sub-chancellor of the Grand Secretariat (1783). In the following year he was sent to Kirin to supervise the gathering of ginseng. Owing to the rise of border troubles with Russia he was in 1785 sent to Urga, and in the following year became imperial agent, remaining at Urga until 1792. After the consummation of the Treaty of Kiakhta of 1727 (see under ), trade with Russia was interrupted several times owing to border disputes. The first suspension was ordered by Emperor Kao-tsung in 1764, but trade was resumed after a conference of the representatives of both countries in 1768. The second interruption lasted about a year (1779–80) and the third began in 1785 when the Buriats crossed the border and pillaged the Mongols. In 1792 Sung-yün and the Russian representative, Serabate, concluded a new agreement at Kiakhta, known as the New Commercial Treaty of Kiakhta. This contained five articles with little change in principle from the treaty of 1727 except that stress was laid upon the arrangement that criminals would be tried by the country to which they belonged—a practice then convenient to both nations.

Upon his return to Peking Sung-yün was appointed (1793) vice-president of various Boards and concurrently a Grand Councilor in the Council of State. He was one of the officials who escorted the Macartney Mission through the imperial garden, Wan-shu Yüan 萬樹園, at Jehol (September 15–17, 1793). He also accompanied the Mission on the return journey down the Grand Canal to Hangchow. Since Macartney had himself lived in Russia for three years, and since Sung-yün had dealt with the Russians in Siberia, the two had certain interests in common. Apparently Sung-yün made a good impression on the British who in their accounts of the Mission refer favorably to him as Sun-ta-zhin (gin) or Sung Tajin (i.e. 松大人).

Early in 1794 Sung-yün acted as military governor of Kirin and later in the same year was appointed imperial resident of Tibet, where he 691