Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Chih-jui
CHIH-jui 志銳 (T. 伯愚, H. 公顈, 廓軒, 迂安), 1852–1912, Jan. 7, civil and military official, was a member of the Tatala (他塔剌) clan and of the Manchu Bordered Red Banner. His grandfather, Yü-t'ai 裕泰 (T. 東巖, H. 餘山, posthumous name 莊𣪣, 1788–1851), had a long and brilliant career as governor of Hunan (1836–37 and 1838–41) and as governor-general of Hu-Kuang (1841–51). His father, Ch'ang-ching 長敬 (1831–1868) who was the third son of Yü-t'ai, served as prefect of Sui-ting-fu, Szechwan, where he died in office. Losing his father when he was seventeen sui, Chih-jui spent his later youth at the official residence of his uncle who served as Tartar General at Canton. Graduating as chü-jên in 1876 and as chin-shih in 1880, he served for about ten years in the Hanlin Academy. During this period he was on intimate terms with Shêng-yü, Wên T'ing-shih and Huang T'i-fang [qq. v.]. Like them he often criticized the unfair practices of the high officials who retarded his promotion, but early in 1894 he was made junior vice-president of the Board of Ceremonies. Several months later, at the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, he was dispatched to Jehol to drill troops. Late in the same year, however, owing to the degradation in rank of the Imperial concubines, Chin-fei and Chên-fei (see under Tsai-t'ien), who were his cousins, he was relegated to the assistant military governorship of the remote Uliasutai region, a post assumed in the spring of the following year. Poems he wrote during this journey were collected under the title, 張家口至烏里雅蘇台竹枝詞 Chang-chia-k'ou chih Uliasutai chu-chih tz'ŭ, printed in 1910 in the collectanea 懷豳雜俎 Huai-Pin tsa-tsu. During his term in office he made efforts to strengthen the defenses against Russia, but a memorial by him on this subject incurred the displeasure of the Empress Dowager who in 1839 deprived him of his position. For the ensuing nine years he remained on the northwestern frontier, first as commandant of the Manchu colonial troops and later as deputy military lieutenant-governor, with headquarters at Ninghsia.
Shortly after the death of the Empress Dowager (late in 1908) Chih-jui was recalled to Peking and in 1910 was appointed Tartar General at Hangchow. Early in the following year he was made Tartar General and military governor of Ili and was also given the nominal rank of President of a Board. But before he assumed his new duty the anti-Ch'ing revolution broke out (October 10, 1911) at Wuchang; and late in 1911, about a month after he reached his new post in Ili, the Hunanese troops under him revolted. On January 7 of the following year they attacked his yamen and put him to death. A few days later he was canonized as Wên-chên 文貞 and was given the honorary title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.
Chih-jui excelled in poetic composition and in calligraphy. His poems were collected under the title 廓軒詩集 K'uo-hsüan shih-chi.
[1/476/1a; 6/34/30a; Hsüeh-ch'iao shih-hua (see under Shêng-yü), first series, 12/73b; Nien-p'u of Yü-t'ai compiled by his sons (1870).]
Hiromu Momose