ments at various sites in Shantung, Shansi, and Kansu—but mercy for his family. According to an unsubstantiated account, this sentence was not actually carried out. It is alleged that the Emperor, despite denunciatory decrees, was really fond of him, one factor being that the ages of the two men almost exactly coincided. Hence we are informed that the Emperor privately sent a messenger to the jail and, after a brief personal interview with Yin in the Palace, took pity on him, even laughed at him, and let him return unnoticed to his home. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the sentence of li-chüeh was as a rule summarily carried out. Moreover the official record, written six days after the sentence was pronounced, speaks of Yin's brother-in-law, Li Shou-ch'ien (see under Li Tu-no), being questioned for coming to Peking on behalf of his sister (Yin's wife) to look after the funeral.
Yin Chia-ch'üan may not have been a great writer, but he was certainly a prolific one, in frequent demand for poetic effusions and prefaces. More than one hundred items are attributed to him: volumes of poetry, essays, a family genealogy, an autobiographical nien-p'u, memorials, collections of sayings of famous ministers of the Ch'ing period, comments on parts of the Confucian canon, etc. These were one and all blotted out of existence. Even a preface which his wife (née Li 李) wrote for a work originally composed in the T'ang dynasty was extracted and burned. Thus did the literary labors of one of the most cultured families of Chihli province, in the eighteenth century, go almost for naught.
[2/18/3a; Ch'ing-tai wên-tzŭ yü tang (see bibl. under Huang T'ing-kuei (no. 6; Ch'ing-pai lei-ch'ao (see bibl. under Hung-li) vol., 8 p. 130; 上諭條例 Shang-yü t'iao-li, Ch'ien-lung 46 hsia-chi 103–126; Po-yeh hsien-chih (1767) 4/7b; Lü Chih, Yin Shao-tsai kung nien-p'u (1749), chronological biography of Yin Hui-i.]
YIN-chih 胤祉, Mar. 23, 1677–1732, July 10, was the third son of Emperor Shêng-tsu. In 1693 he represented the Emperor at the ceremonies held to commemorate the completion of repairs on the Temple of Confucius at Ch'ü-fu, Shantung, and in performance of the rites at the tomb of the sage. In 1696 he accompanied the Emperor on the expedition against Galdan [q. v.] in Mongolia, being in charge of the troops of the Bordered Red Banner. Two years later he was made a prince of the second degree (Chün-wang) with the designation Ch'êng 誠, but in 1699 his rank was lowered one degree for cutting his hair during the mourning period for the death of a concubine of the Emperor. He seems, however, to have been one of the favorite sons of the Emperor who after the year 1707 visited Yin-chih's house and garden once or twice each year. Yin-chih was also on good terms with his half-brother, the one-time heirapparent, Yin-jêng [q. v.]. When the latter became insane (1708) Yin-chih reported that their eldest brother, Yin-t'i [禔, q.v], had employed a Lama sorceress to cast a spell on Yin-jêng. For this act Yin-t'i was imprisoned in his own courtyard where he died in 1734. In 1709 Yin-jêng was again made Heir Apparent and Yin-chih was raised to the rank of a prince of the first degree. About the same time Emperor Shêng-tsu appointed several learned Chinese as secretaries to Yin-chih, one of whom, Ch'ên Mêng-lei [q. v.], with the help of Yin-chih, edited the great encyclopaedia, Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'êng. It is reported that these secretaries likewise drafted the Lü-li yüan-yüan (see under Ho Kuo-tsung).
In the struggle of the princes for the throne Yin-chih was one of the opponents of Yin-chên [q. v.] who obtained the throne in 1722. Early in 1723 the new Emperor ordered the confiscation of the Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'êng and banishment of the editor. In the printed copy all references to the original editor or to Yinchih's connection with the work were omitted. Only in the Lü-li yüan-yüan is Yin-chih's name mentioned as one of the two princes in charge, the other prince being the Emperor's favorite brother, Yin-lu [q. v.]. The jealous Emperor further persecuted Yin-chih by ordering him in 1723 to guard the tomb of their father, thus removing him for a time from Peking. In 1728 Yin-chih was found guilty of display of temper when questioned in court on a charge of bribery, and for this was degraded one degree in rank; his third son, Hung-shêng 弘晟, was put in chains and imprisoned. Although Yin-chih had been for a time, in 1730, reinstated in his rank as Ch'in-wang, he lost it in the same year when he was accused of eight "misdemeanors" of which the following are examples: association with Ch'ên Mêng-lei, ingratitude to the Emperor, intimacy with the Emperor's enemies, and unfilial conduct toward their father. He was imprisoned, the immediate reason perhaps being
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