fire on Canton, directing their aim particularly at the residence of the governor-general. But since a policy of force did not, at this time, have the sanction of Parliament the British temporarily withdrew. On December 5 a British sailor was killed and the village implicated was burned by British troops as a warning to others. Angry Chinese mobs soon (December 14) set fire to the foreign Factories. In July 1857 Lord Elgin 額爾金 (James Bruce, 1811–1863) reached Hongkong. He and the French Baron Gros (Jean Baptiste Louis Gros 格羅, 1793–1870) were the two high commissioners authorized to submit final demands to Yeh. This they did on December 12 in simultaneous notes, demanding direct negotiation, occupation of some nearby territory, and payment of an indemnity. Two days later Yeh replied in a tone of defiance. On the 15th Honam island was occupied and on the 24th an ultimatum w as sent to Yeh, threatening bombardment of Canton. Yeh's reply being still evasive, the allied forces began on the 28th the bombardment of Canton. The city fell the following day and was policed by joint Chinese and Western authority. On January 5, 1858 Yeh was captured in one of the local yamens and taken on board H. M. S. "Inflexible." The boat steamed from Hongkong February 23, taking him to Fort William, in Calcutta, India. Later he was lodged in a villa, Tolly Gunge, outside Calcutta, where he remained until his death in the following year. His remains were returned to China and buried at Han-yang. In the meantime Canton was kept for three years under joint British, French, and Chinese administration, until the signing of the conventions of Peking, late in 1860 (see under I-hsin).
Yeh Ming-ch'ên was tall and bulky with little or no refinement of appearance or manner. Like many officials of his day, he was fortunate in passing the routine government examinations, and then was placed in positions of responsibility for which he was not fitted. Brutalized by the harsh treatment he had meted out to rebellious natives of Kwangtung, he came to believe that Westerners might be brought to terms, if not by force, at least by arrogance, obstruction, and interminable delay. He had little conception of the gravity of the international problems involved, and took little or no pains to learn. Possibly a realization of the fate of his two predecessors induced in him a policy of indecision. Lin Tsê-hsü [q. v.] had resorted to force and brought on a disastrous war. Ch'i-shan [q. v.] acquiesced, but his peace was obtained at great price. Both fell into disgrace and incurred the imperial punishment. Yeh Ming-ch'ên took a middle course, and therefore had no policy at all. At the same time Western merchants, through their representatives in China, made demands which appeared to the Chinese as motivated by greed and by territorial ambitious. They showed little consideration for the internal difficulties China was then facing. Moreover some of their leaders, such as Parkes, were unduly ruthless in the methods they employed.
It is reported that Yeh Ming-ch'ên and his father, who was with him in Canton, were believers in occult Taoism. After his capture, documents were discovered which showed that he made use of the fu-chi 扶乩, or planchette, and put confidence in oracular divination, even in important affairs. This misplaced confidence perhaps accounts in part for the very inadequate preparations he made for defence, and why he was so easily captured. After his capture the people of Kwangtung propounded a saying which may be translated as follows: "He would not fight, he would not make peace, and he would not take steps for defense. He would not die, he would not surrender, and he would not flee. In his pretense at being a minister and a governor there were none like him in antiquity and there are almost none like him today." (不戰不知不守, 不死不降不走, 相臣度量, 疆臣抱負, 古之所無, 今之罕有).
[1/400/2b; 2/40/44b; 5/4/22a; Han-yang hsien-chih (1884) jên-wu lüeh, shang 37b; Han-yang hsien-chih (1868); Hupeh t'ung-chih (1921) 138/29a; Ying-chi-li Kwangtung ju-ch'êng shih-mo (The Story of the British Entry into Canton) in Yang-shih ch'ien-ch'i-pai êr-shih-chiu ho chai ts'ung-shu (see under Chao Chih-ch'ien); Ch'ou pan I-wu shih-mo (see I-hsin), Hsien-fêng period; Cooke, George W., China in 1857–58, with portrait of Yeh; Leavenworth, Charles S., The Arrow War with China; Cordier, H., L'expédition de Chine de 1857–1858.]
YEH Ying-liu 葉映榴 (T. 丙[炳]霞, H. 蒼巖), Dec. 3, 1638–1688, June 23, official, and martyr, was a native of Shanghai. He became a chin-shih in 1661 at the age of twenty-four (sui). After holding several posts in Peking he was appointed in 1676 superintendent of customs of Kiangsi. There he co-operated with the local officials in relief work and in defending the
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