Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Fu-ch'ang-an
FU-ch'ang-an 福長安, d. 1817, was a Manchu of the Fuca clan and the Bordered Yellow Banner. He was a son of Fu-hêng and the younger brother of Fu-k'ang-an [qq. v.]. Appointed a junior Imperial Bodyguard in 1775, he rose within four years to a deputy lieutenant-generalship in the Manchu division of the Plain Red Banner. Early in 1780 he was appointed a probationary Grand Councilor, even though his first ministerial position, that of junior vice-president of the Board of Revenue, did not come until two months later. In 1786 he became president of the Board of Revenue. In 1791 he was transferred to a corresponding position in the board of Works, and in 1794 was concurrently given command of the Manchu division of the Bordered White Banner. in September 1798, as one of a number of awards made by the Emperor in celebration of the capture of an important rebel leader, he was made a marquis. Five months later, almost immediately after the death of the abdicated Emperor Kao-tsung, Fu-ch'ang-an and Ho-shên [q. v.] were deprived of their office and posessions and condemned to death on grounds of gross corruption and misuse of office, althought Emperor Jên-tsung at once commuted their sentences—allowing Ho-shên to take his own life and Fu-ch'ang-an to remain in prison.
Toward the end of 1799 Fu-ch'ang-an, after being released from prison and having his lawfully acquired property restored to him by the Emperor, was appointed an assistant department director and assigned to service at the tomb of Kao-tsung. In 1801, however, when he begged to be allowed to return to Peking on the plea of ill health, he thereby aroused the ire of the Emperor and was sent to Mukden as an ordinary soldier. During the remaining years of his life Fu-ch'ang-an gradually rose in military rank, with occasional setbacks, until he finally became deputy lieutenant-general of the Manchu division of the Plain Yellow Banner (1816). He died in the following year and was posthumously given a brevet lieutenant-generalship. His record is without distinction, for even during the period before his disgrace when he was a member of the Grand Council his high offices had come to him through his relationship to Fu-hêng and Fu-k'ang-an rather than because of any marked ability of his own.
[1/307/7b; 3/93/35a; 7/18/7a; see bibliography under Ho-shên.]
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