Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Chang Huang-yen
CHANG Huang-yen 張煌言 (T. 玄箸, H. 蒼水, childhood name 阿雲), July 8, 1620–1664, Oct. 25, Ming loyalist, was a native of Yin-hsien (Ningpo), Chekiang. One of his ancestors, Chang Chih-po 張知白 (T. 用晦, posthumous name 文節), served as premier during the reign of the Sung emperor, Chên-tsung (宋真宗, 998–1023). Chang Huang-yen's father, Chang Kuei-chang (T. or H. 兩如, b. 1578), was a chü-jên of 1624 and for some time a private tutor in the home of Huang Tsung-hsi [q. v.]. In 1642 Chang Huang-yen became a chü-jên. After the Ch'ing armies took Nanking in 1645 he and his fellow townsmen organized a volunteer corps to support the Ming Prince of Lu (see under Chu I-hai). After making him a chin-shih, the Prince gave him the rank of a compiler in the Hanlin Academy to take charge of drafting imperial decrees, and in the same year (1645) sent him to the Court of the Prince of T'ang (see under Chu Yü-chien) at Foochow to reconcile the differences between the two Courts and to strengthen the defense against the Ch'ing troops. In 1646, when Chang Huang-yen heard of the attack by the Manchus on the Ming loyalists in Chekiang, he hurried back from Foochow to Chekiang in time to accompany the Prince of Lu and Chang Ming-chên [q. v.] in their flight to the Chusan Islands. The Prince and his party were rejected by Huang Pin-ch'ing (see under Chang Ming-chên) who at that time controlled the islands. The party then sailed to Amoy and to other islands on the Fukien-Kwangtung border (see under Chu I-hai), but Chang Huang-yen remained at Chusan.
In 1647 Chang Huang-yen accompanied Chang Ming-chên on a naval expedition up the Yangtze River, but the fleet was shipwrecked near Ch'ung-ming Island. Though captured by the Manchus, Chang Huang-yen managed to escape to Chusan. In 1648, in the hills of Shang-yü 上虞 west of Ningpo, he collected a band of loyalists and stayed with them there nearly two years. In 1650 he joined the Prince of Lu on the Chusan Islands which were taken in the previous year from Huang Pin-ch'ing, with the help of Chang Ming-chên. The Prince of Lu appointed Chang Huang-yen a vice-president of the Board of War. When the Ch'ing troops took the Chusan Islands in 1651 Chang Huang-yen, together with the Prince of Lu and Chang Ming-chên fled southward to Quemoy (Chin-mên), Fukien, combining their forces with those of Chêng Ch'êng-kung [q. v.]. During the years 1652–54 Chang Huang-yen took part in several forays up the Yangtze. In the meantime (1653) the Prince of Lu renounced his title of "administrator of the realm". Soon Chang Ming-chên died and bequeathed his command and all of his soldiers to Chang Huang-yen who devoted the ensuing two years to the training of his troops. Chang finally (1657) made his headquarters on the Chusan Islands which he recaptured from the Manchus. In 1658 he was appointed president of the Board of War by the Prince of Kuei (see under Chu Yu-lang) whose court was then at Yunnanfu. Meanwhile (1658) the allied fleet of Chang Huang-yen and Chêng Ch'êng-kung attempted to attack the Ch'ing forces along the Yangtze, but was shipwrecked at Yang-shan Island 洋山島 and was forced to return to the Chusan Islands where they passed the winter. In 1659 the combined forces again sailed up the Yangtze (see under Chêng Ch'êng-kung). From July 1659 they held for two months a number of important cities along the river, including Chinkiang. Chêng Ch'êng-kung, commander of the main fleet, attempted to capture Nanking, and Chang Huang-yen led a small force to Wuhu where he managed to win the allegiance of four prefectures, three departments, and twenty-four districts (all in Kiangsu and Anhwei). On September 9, 1659, Chêng's forces were defeated with heavy losses before they reached Nanking and were gradually forced to retire to Amoy. Under pressure of the Ch'ing troops Chang Huang-yen also fled. He abandoned his fleet at T'ung-ling, a river-port in Anhwei, and took refuge in the mountains near T'ung-ch'êng, Anhwei, and finally found his way to Ning-hai, Chekiang, covering a distance of more than 2,000 li. He wrote a detailed description of his flight at the close of the year 1659 under the title, 北征得失紀略 Pei-chêng tê-shih chi-lüeh, 1 chüan, also known as Pei-chêng lu (錄). In the same year (1659) the Prince of Kuei made Chang Huang-yen Grand Secretary of the Tung-ko (東閣).
Though Chang escaped to Ning-hai after the failure of the Yangtze campaign against the Manchus, and later stayed at Lin-mên (臨亹) a village in Ning-hai, his wife (née 董) and his son, Chang Wan-ch'i (張萬祺, 1639–1664), were imprisoned in Chinkiang. Stubbornly refusing to surrender to the Manchus, Chang Huang-yen reorganized his followers at Lin-mên in 1660 and urged Chêng Ch'êng-kung in the following year to initiate a combined attack upon the Ch'ing troops in order to lift the strong pressure which the Manchus put upon the court of Chu Yu-lang at Yunnanfu. But Chêng Ch'êng-kung, then busily engaged in attacking the Dutch in Taiwan, failed to comply with Chang's request. Consequently the whole province of Yunnan was taken by the Ch'ing forces, and the Prince of Kuei, who had fled to Burma, was captured by Wu San-kuei [q. v.] in 1662. In the same year Chêng Ch'êng-kung captured Taiwan, but soon died. Chang Huang-yen, realizing the need for a strong central government to unite the remnants of the Southern Ming forces, repeatedly urged the Prince of Lu to take an active part in the reorganization, but despaired when the latter died toward the end of 1662.
In that same year (1662), Chang Huang-yen completed a compilation of his essays, under the title 氷槎集 Ping-ch'a chi, 1 chüan, and of his verse, under the title 奇零草 Ch'i-ling Ts'ao, 3 chüan, both bearing his own prefaces dated 1662. In 1664 he disbanded his army and went to live in Hsüan-ao 懸𡒃 (also known as 花(范)澳), an island in the district of Nan-t'ien, Chekiang. About a month later (on September 6, 1664), betrayed by his former lieutenant, he was arrested by the Ch'ing forces and was taken to Hangchow where he and his followers, Lo Lun 羅綸 (T. 子木 or 子牧), and Yang Kuan-yü 楊冠玉, were executed. His wife and son were executed at Chinkiang a few days earlier. The poems he wrote shortly before he died were collected and published, under the title 采薇吟 Ts'ai-wei yin, 1 chüan. In 1934 a complete collection of his literary works was edited and published by a descendant, Chang Shou-yung 張壽鏞 (T. 詠霓, b. 1876, chü-jên of 1903), under the title 張蒼水集 Chang Ts'ang-shui chi, 9 chüan, which was included in the collectanea, 四明叢書 Ssŭ-ming ts'ung-shu, second series (1934). The remains of Chang Huang-yen were interred by his friends, among them Wan Ssŭ-ta [q. v.], at the foot of one of the hills (南屏山荔子峯) near West Lake. He was given the posthumous name Chung-lieh 忠烈 by Emperor Kao-tsung in 1776.
[M.35/22/21a; M.40/75/18a; M.41, passim; M.55/2/7b; M.59/44/6b; M.64/辛7/3a; M.86/21/18a; 1/230/1a; Yin-hsien chih (1788) 16/47a, (1876) 16/9b–11b; Nan-t'ien, hsien chih (1930) 13/16b–17a, 12/5a; Chang Ts'ang-shui chi (with portrait and two nien-p'u by Ch'üan Tsu-wang and Chao Chih-ch'ien [qq. v.])].
J. C. Yang