Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/119

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Ting
Ting

activities of the governor-general, Kao Ch'i-cho (see under Ts'ai Yü-jung). In 1724 he became lieutenant-governor of Yunnan. A year later he was promoted to be governor of Chekiang, and in 1727 he was made governor-general of that province—a post specially created for him. He executed the Emperor's wishes so well that in 1728 he was given the additional task of governing southeastern Kiangsu. In 1732 he was transferred to Chihli and served there until his death.

Being a man of unusual height and strength, Li's appearance was commanding, although he had a pock-marked face. Unlike T'ien Wên-ching, he was hospitable to scholars and sponsored their literary projects, but he was uncompromising toward corrupt officials and cruel landlords, irrespective of their status or political connections. He was, therefore, loved by the common people, but hated by many persons of influence. On occasion, however, he showed evidences of vanity, and insensibility to the normal Confucian restraints. Although in his term at Hangchow he improved greatly the architecture and scenic beauties of West Lake, he saw nothing incongruous in having an image of himself placed in the main hall dedicated to the Spirit of the Lake, a divinity known also as the Spirit of Flowers. In a smaller structure to the rear of this image was placed a group of figures representing himself and his wives. When, some five decades later (in 1780), Emperor Kao-tsung visited Hangchow he ordered these figures removed and replaced by others more in harmony with the Spirit of the Lake.


[1/300/3a; 1/300/9b; 2/13/37a; 3/162/31a; 9/18/6b; Honan t'ung-chih (1869) 54/60a; Yung-chêng chu-p'i yü-chih; Tung-hua lu, Yung-chêng 5:7, 6:5, 10:11; Ch'ing-pai lei-ch'ao (see bibl. under Liu Lun), vol. 11, mu-liao, p. 6; Hsuchow fu-chih (1919) 57/1b.]

Fang Chao-ying


TING Jih-ch'ang 丁日昌 (T. 持靜, 雨生), 1813–1882, official, was a native of Fêng-shun, Kwangtung. When he was about twenty sui he became a hsiu-ts'ai, and soon thereafter purchased the title of a student of the Imperial Academy. When his talents as a writer became known, he was kept occupied as a secretary to local officials. In the meantime he purchased ie rank of an expectant director of schools. For helping to subdue a band of local bandits, he was rewarded in 1854 with the rank of an expectant magistrate. In 1856 he was appointed sub-director of schools of the prefecture of Ch'iung-chou (Hainan Island), and three years later was made magistrate of Wan-an, Kiangsi. In 1861, while he was serving as acting magistrate of Lu-ling, that city fell to the Taiping Rebels. Although he and his superiors recovered it, he was cashiered for his failure to hold it. He then joined Tsêng Kuo-fan's [q. v.] staff in southern Anhwei; and for his service to Tsêng his earlier rank was restored to him (1862). He was sent to Kwangtung on an errand concerning likin (see under Kuo Sung-tao) and, while there, was asked to help in supervising the manufacture of firearms and ammunition. In 1863 he was repeatedly ordered by Li Hung-chang [q. v.] to return to Kiangsu to help make ammunition there.

At this time Li Hung-chang had two armies, both trained by Westerners: the Ever Victorious Army under Gordon (see under Li Hung-chang) at Kun-shan, and a smaller force under Macartney (see under Kuo Sung-tao) at Sungkiang (1863). Macartney started an arsenal which he and Li Hung-chang moved to Soochow (December 1863) and then to Nanking (June 1865). Ting probably joined Li's staff late in 1863 and began another smaller arsenal at Soochow. There was a third arsenal at Soochow, directed by Colonel Han Tien-chia 韓殿甲. At the same time Ting served on the Military Secretariat under Li Hung-chang. For his services, in a campaign by which Li recovered most of Kiangsu from the Taipings, Ting was rewarded with promotion to expectant prefect. In May 1864 he helped Gordon to disband the Ever Victorious Army, but since Parkes (see under Yeh Ming-ch'ên) and Hart (see under Chang Chih-tung) both opposed the disbandment, he and Gordon worked out a compromise plan to keep nine hundred of the four thousand men as a battalion under foreign officers, with quarters near Shanghai. It was probably owing to his skill in this matter that Ting was appointed acting, and later full, Shanghai taotai (intendant of the Soochow, Sungkiang and T'ai-ts'ang Circuit) to take charge of the customs and other matters relating to foreigners. Whereas Macartney's arsenal remained at Nanking, those of Ting and Han were moved to Shanghai. In 1865 Ting caused the purchase of machinery from a foreign factory at Shanghai, and with this he founded the Kiangnan Arsenal (江南機器製造局) which was located in 1867 on a site south of Shanghai. It progressed rapidly under the

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