Sun Shên-hsing was the great-great-grandfather of the eminent scholar, Sun Hsing-yen [q. v.].
[M.1/243/11a; M.39/21/1a; Wu-chin Yang-hu ho-chih (see under Li Chao-lo) 21/1a.]
SUN Shih-i 孫士毅 (T. 智冶, H. 補山), 1720–1796, July 25, official, was a native of Jên-ho (Hangchow). His family was poor and he endured great hardships in his youth. For more than twenty years he competed in provincial examinations without success, but finally became a chü-jên in 1759 and a chin-shih two years later. While awaiting appointment he took a special examination at Hangchow in the spring of 1762 when Emperor Kao-tsung made his third tour of the Yangtze Valley. Sun passed with first honors and was appointed a secretary in the Grand Secretariat. He was then already forty-three sui. Selected to accompany Fu-hêng [q. v.] to Yunnan in 1769 in the war against the Burmese, he did his secretarial work so well that on his return to Peking a year later he was made a department director in the Board of Revenue. In the same year (1770) he was sent to Hunan to supervise the provincial examinations and then served as director of education of Kweichow (1770–74). After several promotions he was, in 1775, appointed financial commissioner of Yunnan. Four years later, just after being promoted to the governorship of Yunnan, he was discharged for not reporting the corrupt practices of Li Shih-yao [q. v.]. Though the charges against Li savored of collusion, Sun was nevertheless sentenced to banishment to Ili—a fate from which he was saved only by a special edict. The emperor, appreciating his literary abilities, appointed him one of the three chief compilers of the Imperial Manuscript Library, Ssŭ-k'u ch'üan-shu (see under Chi Yün). At the same time he was reinstated in officialdom with the coveted rank of a compiler in the Hanlin Academy—an honor he had failed to attain after becoming a chin-shih. It seems that from then on he was closely associated with Ho-shên [q. v.] whose power was then in the ascendency.
In 1782, after completing his work as chief compiler, Sun was made financial commissioner of Shantung and a year later, governor of Kwangsi. Transferred to the governorship of Kwangtung in 1784, he was quick to call on the people to pay their taxes which had long been in arrears. In 1786, when Furgun 富勒渾 (d. 1795), governor-general of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, was charged with corruption, Sun was appointed acting governor-general and was entrusted with the conduct of the trial. Two of Furgun's servants had been found in posession of thousands of taels obtained illegally with their master's consent. During the trial Furgun rebuked and threatened Sun, but the latter was undaunted. When Sun reported the case in full, perhaps to Ho-shên's satisfaction, he was made governor-general of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. Late in 1786 the rebellion in Taiwan broke out (see under Ch'ai Ta-chi), and early in 1787 Sun made swift preparations of men and provisions and, when orders came to him to assist in the campaign against the rebels, he was ready. For his alertness he was given the honorary title of Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent, the double-eyed peacock feather, and the hereditary rank of a third class Ch'ing-ch'ê tu-yü.
At this time Annam was torn by a civil war. In the last days of the Later Li 黎 Dynasty (1428–1789) there rose a powerful militarist, Juan Wên-yüeh 阮文岳 (Nguyên Văn-Nhạc, d. 1793), whose brother, Juan Wên-hui 阮文惠 (Nguyên Văn-Huệ, d. November 13, 1792), sent an army in 1787 to occupy Hanoi, the capital of Annam. Li Wei-ch'i 黎維祁, (Le Duy-Ki, original name 維謙, posthumous name 愍, d. 1793), the last king of the Li Dynasty, fled from the capital. In 1788 Li's family sought refuge with the authorities in Kwangsi. When Sun Shih-i and Sun Yung-ch'ing 孫永清 (T. 宏度, d. 1790), then governor of Kwangsi, reported the matter to Peking, they were ordered to give Li Wei-ch'i full protection. Li's family was quartered at Nanning, Kwangsi, while armed intervention was decided upon to restore him to his throne.
In command of the main army of ten thousand men, Sun Shih-i set out in November 1788 from the pass, Chên-nan kuan, Kwangsi, while two flanking armies advanced, one from Yunnan, by land, the other from Ch'in-chou, Kwangtung, by sea. As the people of northern Annam were loyal to the Li family, they assisted the Chinese armies in various ways. Sun Shih-i won several skirmishes and entered Hanoi on December 17, 1788, while Juan Wên-hui retreated southward without offering much resistance. Li Wei-ch'i came from his place of refuge and was restored to the throne. When a report of this victory reached Peking, Emperor Kao-tsung rewarded Sun Shih-i with the hereditary rank of a duke of the first class with the designation, Mou-yung
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