Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/787

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary


afker the European pattern. In 1869 he became Viceroy of Chihli, and devoted himself to measures of reform. In June 1870 came the Tientsin Massacre, when he strongly advocated a steadfast policy of peace with foreign nations, thereby incurring the odium of the more fanatical of the literati. In Sept. 1870 he was transferred back to Nanking, and in 1871 he was nominated Imperial Com- missioner for International Trade. His writings, official and other, have been published under the editorship of Li Hung-chang, and are greatly admired. A faithful and energetic servant of his country, he lived incorruptible and died poor. As stated in the memorial by ^^^ Mei Ch*i-chao, ^^When his wardrobe was examined to find some suitable garments for the last rites, nothing new could be discovered. Every article of dress had been worn many times; and this may be taken as an example of his rigid economy for himself and in all the expenditure of his family.'* Canonised as ^J^ jj^ . 2022 Tseng Ts'an ^ |^ (T. -^ ^). B.C. 505-437. A native of Wu-ch^eng in the Lu State; hence he is sometimes spoken of as Lu Ts'an. He is one of the most famous of the disciples of Confucius, and is said to have drafted or sketched the outline of the Great Learning (see K^ung Chi). The Canon of Filial Piety is also ascribed to his pen, he himself being one of the twenty-four examples of that virtue, which he declared to consist in serving one's parents when alive, burying them at death, and worshipping ever afterwards at their tombs. He further maintained that with the possession of wife and children the earnestness of a pious son would be likely to wane. In youth, he was weeding some melons when he acci- dentally cut the root of a plant; upon which his father beat him so severely that he fainted. Confucius blamed Tsdng for not getting out of the way; **for," said the Sage, ^^by quietly submitting to a beating like that, you might have caused your father to kill yoO| and what unfilial conduct could have been worse than that?" Againt