Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Ho Ch'ang-ling
HO Ch'ang-ling 賀長齡 (T. 耦庚, H. 西涯, 耐庵, 齧缺叟), Mar. 18, 1785–1848, July 6, official, was a native of Shan-hua, Hunan. Several of his immediate ancestors were petty judicial officials. He studied for about a year in the Yüeh-lu (嶽麓) Academy at Shan-hua, becoming a chü-jên in 1807, and a chin-shih in 1808. In the following year he was selected a compiler of the Hanlin Academy. Thereafter he remained in the capital holding various posts until 1821, absenting himself only twice—in 1810 when he went to Kwangsi as an assistant examiner of the province and again in 1816 when he went to Shansi as commissioner of education. After serving as prefect of Nan-ch'ang-fu, Kiangsi (1821–22); as intendant of the Yen-I-Ts'ao-Chi circuit in Shantung (1822–24); and as judicial commissioner of Kwangsi (1824) and Kiangsu (1824–25), he was in 1825 appointed financial commissioner of Kiangsu. In the same year he was dispatched to Shanghai to survey the sea route to Peking, owing to the fact that the dykes of the Grand Canal had been partially weakened in the previous winter. His survey resulted in the transport of grain by sea under the supervision of T'ao Chu [q. v.], governor of Kiangsu and Ch'i-shan [q. v.], governor-general of Kiangsu, Kiangsi, and Anhwei. After this system of transport was inaugurated, Ho Ch'ang-ling and others collected the documents pertaining to the case. These were published under the title 江蘇海運全案 Chiang-su hai-yün ch'üan-an, 12 chüan, with a preface dated 1827. Early in 1827 Ho was transferred to Shantung, and late in the same year to Nanking. At the close of 1830 he was permitted to return home to look after his sick mother.
Owing to his mother's death, and then his own illness, he remained at home until the summer of 1835 when he went to the capital and received appointment as financial commissioner of Fukien. Early in the following year he was promoted to the governorship of Kweichow, an office he retained for nine years. There he promoted education by the establishment of academies and private schools and by printing text-books. To encourage local industry he strictly prohibited the cultivation of the poppy; and established a special bureau to improve cotton fabrics, which had not hitherto been developed in that remote province. Despite his wise policy and good administration, riots, led mostly by adherents of secret religious societies, broke out, (1837, 1838, 1839, 1841 and in the spring of 1845), but he was able to suppress them. Early in the autumn of 1845, shortly after he was elevated to the post of governor-general of Yunnan and Kweichow, a Mohammedan uprising occurred in Pao-shan (Yung-ch'ang), which he suppressed by the end of the year. Early in the following year, however, the rebels rallied and later were aided by Mohammedans from Yün-hsien and Mien-ning. Before he could suppress the uprising he was lowered in rank to financial commissioner of Honan (October, 1846). The insurgents were vanquished by his successor, Li Hsing-yüan [q. v.] in the following year. Ho Ch'ang-ling proceeded to his new post early in 1847, but after about two months retired to his native place owing to illness.
Being interested in the practical application of scholarship to government, Ho Ch'ang-ling collected, during his stay in Kiangsu, many essays by Ch'ing officials and scholars on social, political, and economic problems. These he edited after the model of a similar work, entitled 切問齋文鈔 Chieh-wên chai wên-chao, compiled by Lu Yüeh (see under Chang Êr-ch'i), and published in 1776 in 30 chüan. With the assistance of Wei Yüan [q. v.] Ho completed his compilation in 1826 in 120 chüan, and it was printed in the following year under the title 皇朝經世文編 Huang-ch'ao ching-shih wên-pien—the title being suggested by the Huang-Ming ching-shih wên-pien, by Ch'ên Tzŭ-lung [q. v.]. This work by Ho Ch'ang-ling received high praise and was many times reprinted. Continuations appeared one after another. Three different works, all entitled Huang-ch'ao ching-shih wên hsü (續) pien, and each consisting of 120 chüan, were published by Jao Yü-ch'êng 饒玉成 in 1882; by Ko Shih-chün 葛士濬 in 1888; and by Shêng K'ang 盛康 in 1897. During the years 1901–02 there appeared the following continuations, all entitled Huang-chao ching-shih wên hsin (新) pien: one by Mai Chung-hua 麥仲華, in 21 chüan; another by Kan Han 甘韓, in 21 chüan; and a third by a publishing firm named I-chin Shih 宜今室, in 61 chüan. About the same time there appeared so-called third and fourth supplements: one entitled Huang-ch'ao ching-shih wên san (三) pien, 80 chüan, by Ch'ên Chung-i 陳忠倚, the other entitled Huang-ch'ao ching-shih wên ssŭ (四) pien, 52 chüan, by Ho Liang-tung 何良棟. The supplements contain numerous translations from western works dealing with contemporary political history, commerce, science, military tactics, and Christianity. A collection of Ho Ch'ang-ling's works was published under the title 耐庵全集 Nai-an ch'üan chi. It consists of memorials, 12 chüan; public documents, 4 chüan; and literary works, 9 chüan.
One brother, Ho Hsi-ling 賀熙齡 (T. 光甫, H. 蔗農, original ming 永清, 1788-1846), took his chin-shih degree in 1814 and was made a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. After several promotions, he was appointed commissioner of education of Hupeh (1828). In the same year he retired from official life, but later was director of the Ch'êng-nan(城南) Academy in Shan-hua for about eight years.
[1/386/6a; 2/38/1a; 3/138/49a, 202/30a; 5/24/2b; Hu-nan t'ung-chih (1934), pp. 3473–3474; (Huang-chao) Hsü wên-hsien t'ung-k'ao (see under Ch'i Shao-nan) 91/2b; Tung-hua lu: Tao-kuang, 25:11–12, 26:4–8, 27:1–3.]
Hiromu Momose