Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/502

This page has been validated.
Li
Li

killed in Szechwan, he accompanied the remnant armies into Kweichow. After several years of free lance conquest he joined the cause of the Ming Prince of Kuei (see Chu Yu-lang), who gave him the rank of marquis, later raised to prince. In 1652 he led a force by way of Hunan, culminating a series of brilliant victories by the capture on August 7, 1652, of Kuei-lin, the capital of Kwangsi. Later he captured a large part of Kwangsi and Hukuang for the Ming cause. He had incurred the jealousy of his sworn brother and former superior, Sun K'o-wang [q. v.], Ming general with personal imperial ambitions, and in 1657 defeated him on the banks of the San-ch'a river in southwestern Kweichow. Sun K'o-wang then gave himself up to the Manchus.

The next year Imperial armies moved on Kweichow from Szechwan, Hupeh, and Kwangtung. Li Ting-kuo, now the chief support of the Prince of Kuei, was driven from Kuei-yang to Yunnan and after desperate fighting in 1659 followed his prince into Burma where for two years he resisted the Ch'ing armies which pursued him relentlessly, sought to win over the Burmese, who finally betrayed the Prince of Kuei to the Manchus, and tried in vain to enlist other countries in the Ming cause. When he heard of the Prince of Kuei's death at the hands of Wu San-kuei [q. v.], he became ill and after charging his son and his one remaining general never to surrender to the Manchus, died August 7, 1662.


[1/230/10a; M.41/18/4a; M.41/20/23b; M.59/37/1a; cf. references to Ming-chi nan-lüeh in bibliography of Sun K'o-wang.]

Earl Swisher


LI T'ing-i 勵廷儀 (T. 令式, H. 南湖), 1669–1732, July, official, was a native of Ching-hai, Chihli. Like his father, Li Tu-no [q. v.], he was an accomplished calligrapher. Made a chin-shih in 1700 with the rank of Hanlin bachelor, he was appointed two years later to the Imperial Study, and in 1704 was made a Hanlin compiler. In 1723 he was made assistant director of the Board which compiled the official chronicles of Emperor Shêng-tsu (see under Chiang T'ing-hsi), and in the same year president of the Board of Punishments. In the latter capacity he memorialized the throne on alterations in the prison system, suggesting that the prisons be divided into inner and outer quarters, the former for hardened criminals, the latter for light offenders. At the same time he advocated the erection of suitable walls to isolate the women's quarters. But owing to errors in two judicial decisions (one made by himself, the other by a subordinate) he was deprived of his rank as President of the Board of Punishments. He was allowed, however, to continue in office, and his rank was restored to him shortly. In 1727 he acted as chief examiner in the Metropolitan examinations. The title of Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent was bestowed on him in 1729, and two years later the title of president of the Board of Civil Office was added. In May 1732 he asked to resign on grounds of ill health and died two months later. He was canonized as Wên Kung 文恭. A collection of his verse appeared under the title 雙清閣詩集 Shuang-ch'ing ko shih-chi, 8 chüan.


[1/272/3a; 3/60/4a; 29/3/3b; Ching-hai-hsien chih (1873) 6/9a.]

Tu Lien-chê


LI Tsung-wan 勵宗萬 (T. 滋大, H. 衣園), 1705–1759, official, painter and calligrapher, was a native of Ching-hai, Chihli. He was a son of Li T'ing-i [q. v.], a grandson of Li Tu-no [q. v.] and a son-in-law of Huang Shu-lin [q. v.]. A precocious youth, he was made a chü-jên in 1720 and a chin-shih the following year at the early age of seventeen (sui). Like his father and grandfather, he entered the Hanlin Academy and after 1724 he served in the Imperial Study. After a term (1727–29) as director of education in Shansi, he was promoted in 1729 to the post of censor of that province. Denounced by the governor of Shansi for alleged misuse of the postal service and for allowing his servants to take bribes, he was dismissed from office.

In the summer of 1732 Li Tsung-wan was recalled, and by 1735 rose to the vice-presidency of the Board of Punishments. Denounced in 1736 for carelessness in recommending to office his personal friends, he was dismissed, but was ordered to serve on literary projects. After several promotions he became vice-president of the Censorate (1744) and a year later was again made a vice-president of the Board of Punishments. In 1746 he was concerned in a bribery case involving the secretary of one of his brothers, and was discharged. In 1748, when his youngest brother, Li Tsung-i 勵宗奕, was accused of using force to collect rent on land to which he had no clear title, Li Tsung-wan was sentenced to flogging for failure to restrain his brother.

490