Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/T'ang Chiung
T'ANG Chiung 唐炯 (T. 鄂生, H. 成山老人), Apr. 24, 1829–1909, Jan. 20, official, was a native of Tsun-i, Kweichow. His father, T'ang Shu-i 唐樹義 (T. 方山, 子方, 1793–1854), was a chü-jên of 1816 who rose from a magistrate to the post of financial commissioner of Hupeh (1847–49). In 1853 T'ang Shu-i was made provincial judge of Hupeh with orders to assist the campaign against the Taiping rebels who were then threatening Wuchang. He committed suicide in the following year, when his troops deserted, and was canonized as Wei-k'o 威恪. Tang Chiung became a chü-jên in 1849. In 1857 he became a magistrate by purchase, and was sent to Szechwan. Two years later he obtained appointment as acting magistrate of Nan-hsi, situated on the Yangtze river between Chengtu and Chungking. A few months after he assumed office Nan-hsi was threatened by a group of bandits from Yunnan. T'ang at once strengthened the defenses of the city and led some of his men to assist the generals in withstanding the insurgents. His bravery won him a promotion, early in 1861, to magistrate of the department of Mien-chou, but soon that city was besieged by the same bandits who by this time had spread throughout the province. The siege lasted more than four months and was finally raised by troops under Lo Ping-chang [q. v.]. But Tang was discharged from his post for refusing to press his people for money to satisfy the victorious troops. Late in the same year (1861), he was again entrusted with the command of some troops. By the following year he had organized 2,000 new men and engaged the Taiping general, Shih Ta-k'ai [q. v.], in several battles in southern Szechwan. Late in 1862 he was compelled by illness to return to Chengtu.
After Szechwan was stabilized, Tang Chiung spent three years of tranquility in that province as acting prefect of Sui-ting-fu. In 1866 he went to Shensi to assist his friend, Governor Liu Jung (see under Lo Ping-chang), in a campaign against the Nien 捻 rebels, but as Liu was dismissed in that year Tsang also left Shensi. In 1868 he was sent to northern Kweichow with 6,000 Szechwan troops to subdue insurgents, consisting mostly of Miao tribesmen (see under Ts'ên Yü-ying), but he was forced to relinquish his command in 1870 owing to the jealousy of the provincial troops of Kweichow.
Tang Chiung returned to official life in 1877 when he was summoned to Szechwan by the governor-general, Ting Pao-chên [q. v.], to reform the salt administration of that province. A new bureau, directed by T'ang, was formed to sell salt directly to consumers. The old method of giving several merchants a monopoly of the salt trade was abolished and in consequence government revenue from that source greatly increased. During the five years he was thus engaged (1877–82), Tang served concurrently as acting intendant of the Ch'uan-tung Circuit, later as intendant of the Chien-ch'ang Circuit, and finally as acting intendant of the Salt and Tea Revenue. He left some writings concerning his work in the salt administration, for which see under Ting Pao-chên.
In 1882 T'ang Chiung was made financial commissioner of Yunnan. At this time the French were invading Tonkin and Tang was ordered to assist the governor-general, Ts'ên Yü-ying [q. v.], in strengthening the defenses along the southern border of Yunnan. He repeatedly urged that China should avoid open hostility with France but should secretly assist Liu Yung-fu (see under Fêng Tzŭ-ts'ai), commander of the Black Flag Army in Tonkin, to withstand French encroachments. In 1882 France occupied Hanoi, and in 1883 took several provinces in northern Tonkin, thus forcing the unstable government of Annam to accept French protection (August 25). At this time the Peking government, wavering between war and peace with France, appointed T'ang Chiung governor of Yunnan and commander of the Yunnan forces to guard the border of that province, with orders to reinforce Liu Yung-fu if necessary. But Tang made the mistake of returning to the capital of Yunnan (September 1) to take over his new office, having meanwhile ordered his frontier guards to withdraw for a short distance from the boundary. Although he returned in less than two months to his headquarters on the border, his absence from the frontier, without approval from Peking, became a serious charge against him. Thus when Liu Yung-fu was defeated, late in 1883, Tang was blamed for lowering the morale of the soldiers and, early in the following year, was arrested. He was tried in Peking and early in 1885 was sentenced to imprisonment awaiting execution. However, he was released late in 1886 and ordered to redeem himself by serving in Yunnan under Ts'ên Yü-ying. Early in 1887 he was granted the nominal rank of a governor, and was entrusted with the administration of the copper and lead mines in Yunnan. In 1894 he was lowered to an official of the third grade because the salt administration in Szechwan, which he had set up sixteen years before, was now charged with corruption. However, upon his retirement in 1906, after nine years of service in supplying the mints with copper, he was commended and given back the title of governor. In 1908 he celebrated his eightieth birthday at his home in Kweiyang and, in anticipation of the sixtieth anniversary of his becoming a chü-jên (1909), was given the title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. He died early in 1909 before the celebration could take place.
The collective works of Tang Chiung, entitled kill 成山廬稿 Ch'êng-shan lu kao, 12 chüan, printed in 1908, contain his poems and short writings in prose, biographies of his ancestors, and a nien-p'u of Ting Pao-chên, entitled 丁文成公年譜 Ting Wên-ch'êng kung nien-p'u. T'ang Chiung also compiled his own nien-p'u, entitled 成山老人自撰年譜 Ch'êng-shan lao-jên tzŭ-chuan nien-p'u, 6 chüan (with portrait), covering his life to 1886 when he was released from prison. This nien-p'u was printed in 1910 by his son, T'ang Chien 唐堅 (b. 1866), who provided a supplement, narrating the last years of his father's life.
[1/464/2a; Nien-p'u; Chin-liang, Chin-shih jên-wu chih (see under Wêng T'ung-ho) p. 243; Ling T'i-an 凌惕安, 咸同貴州軍事史 Hsien-T'ung Kweichow chün-shih shih (1932).]