# Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Jung-lu

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​JUNG-lu 榮祿 (T. 仲華), April 6, 1836–1903, April 11, official, was a member of the Manchu Plain White Banner. His clan name was Gûalgiya 瓜爾佳 and he was a descendant of Fiongdon [q. v.]. His grandfather, T'a-ssŭ-ha 塔斯哈 (T. 秀泉, posthumous name 莊毅, d. 1830), served during the campaign of 1826–28 against the Mohammedans of Turkestan (see under Ch'ang-ling). In 1830, when T'a-ssŭ-ha was assistant military-governor at Kashgar, he was killed in action defending the frontiers against a Khokandian invasion. Jung-lu's father, Ch'ang-shou 長壽 (T. 希彭, posthumous name 勤勇, d. 1852), a brigade-general, and Jung-lu's uncle, Ch'ang-jui 長瑞 (T. 小泉, posthumous name 武壯, d. 1852), also a brigade-general, were in joint command of a detachment that resisted the rebels under Hung Hsiu-ch'üan [q. v.] in Kwangsi, but both were killed in battle at Yung-an in that province, where a temple was later erected to their memories. The biographies of the two brothers and of their father were compiled and printed by Jung-lu, together with eulogies by his friends and colleagues, some dated as late as 1890. This collection is entitled, 世篤忠貞錄 Shih-tu chung-chên lu, or 長白瓜爾佳氏三忠列傳 Ch'ang-pai Gua-êr-chia shih san-chung lieh-chuan.
In 1852, after his father had died in defense of the dynasty, Jung-lu was made an honorary licentiate, and early in 1853 inherited the minor hereditary rank of Ch'i-tu-yü which was posthumously given to his father. Later (1853) he was appointed a secretary in the Board of Works, ard five years after that was made an assistant department director in the same Board. In 1859 he was transferred to the Board of Revenue. When the British and French allied forces entered Peking in 1860 he served under I-hsin [q. v.], the renowned Prince Kung, and was in charge of police in the suburbs of Peking. In 1861, in view of his contributions to the national treasury, he was given the rank of an expectant intendant of a circuit. Later in the same year he took part under I-hsin and I-huan [q. v.] in the organization of the Peking Field Force (see under I-hsin). This was the first army corps in China equipped with modern firearms and drilled in the Western manner. It is said that in 1862 when the Dowager Empresses (see under Hsiao-ch'in) returned from Jehol it was Jung-lu who escorted them with a loyal detachment of troops. In 1864 he became brigadier of one of the two wings of this force, which he led in 1865 to fight against a band of outlaws from Manchuria, then operating in northeastern Chihli. In 1868 he was appointed lieutenant-general of the Gendarmerie patrolling the eastern part of Peking. Early in 1870 he was made general commandant of the Peking Field Force, a post he held for nine years. Concurrently he served as vice-president of the Board of Works (1871–73), of the Board of Revenue (1873–78), president of the Board of Works (1878–79), a minister of the Imperial Household (1873–79), and general commandant of the Peking Gendarmerie (1877–79).
Jung-lu was trusted by the Empress Dowager, Hsiao-ch'in [q. v.]. On the night of January 12, 1875, when she decided to adopt her nephew Tsai-t'ien [q. v.], as her son and to enthrone him as emperor, it was Jung-lu whom she deputed to lead an armed force to escort the child from the home of his father (I-huan) to the Palace. At this time Jung-lu was already powerful, as commander of the Peking Gendarmerie and the Field Force. However, in September 1878 he was granted sick leave, and early in 1879 was retired from all his posts. According to Wêng T'ung-ho [q. v.], Jung-lu had trouble with his leg which was operated on by a Western surgeon. According to another account, Jung-lu had incurred the displeasure of I-hsin by boasting of his influence over the Dowager Empress, Hsiao-ch'in. Still another writer attributes his downfall to his having antagonized the Empress Dowager by insisting on limiting the powers of the eunuchs. Officially, however, he was accused of receiving bribes and was lowered two grades in rank. This meant that when he should be called to serve again he would receive a lower appointment than he had before his retirement. Although, in view of contributions he made toward the equipment of the army, he was restored to his former rank in 1885, he remained inactive for two years longer.
In 1887 Jung-lu was recalled from retirement ​and was appointed lieutenant-general of a Banner. A year later he was made a chamberlain of the Imperial Bodyguard From 1891 to 1894 he served as Tartar General of the Manchu garrison at Sian, Shensi, where he organized a battalion of five hundred riflemen. In 1894 he was summoned to Peking to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Empress Hsiao-ch'in. But in view of the out-break of the Sino-Japanese War the celebration was not held. Jung-lu was again made general commandant of the Peking Gendarmerie with instructions to maintain order in the capital. He was also detailed to serve in the Foreign Office known as the Tsungli Yamen. In 1895, after the close of the war with Japan, he was appointed president of the Board of War and a year later was concurrently made an Associate Grand Secretary. During this period he devoted his energies to the training of a new army.
After the Sino-Japanese War there arose a strong demand for military reform. About the year 1895 Chang Chih-tung [q. v.] organized in Nanking and Wuchang several battalions of troops equipped and trained in the Western way. At the same time Jung-lu recommended Yüan Shih-k'ai (see under Yüan Chia-san) as capable of training a new army in Chihli. This marked the beginning of Yüan's military influence and laid the foundation of the so-called Pei-yang 北洋, or Northern, military party in China. Apart from Yüan's new army, known as Hsin-Chien chün 新建軍, Jung-lu sponsored the expansion of three other armies: the I-chün 毅軍 under Sung Ch'ing [q. v.]; the Kansu soldiers (甘軍) under Tung Fu-hsiang 董福祥 (T. 星五, 1839–1908); and the Wu-i chün 武毅軍 under Nieh Shih-ch'êng 聶士成 (T. 功亭, posthumous name 忠節, d. 1900). The forces of Sung and Tung consisted merely of old style soldiers without modern firearms, whereas those under Yüan and some of those under Nieh had modern training and equipment. The scramble of the Western powers for spheres of influence forced Jung-lu and other statesmen to become more military-minded, and caused Emperor Tê-tsung to launch the reform movement of June–September 1898 (see under T'an Ssŭ-t'ung). Soon after the first reform decree was issued (June 11), the Dowager Empress, Hsiao-ch'in, sensed the danger to herself of the Emperor's rising power and independence. To consolidate her position she needed the control of the military forces near Peking, and so on June 14 she effected the appointment of Jung-lu (then a full Grand Secretary) as governor-general of Chihli. While the reform movement was in progress she conspired with the reactionaries in Peking, and Jung-lu consolidated his control of the armies at Tientsin. Meanwhile the reformers also sought to gain control of the army, and on September 16 appointed Yüan Shih-k'ai, an expectant vice-president of a Board, to take the place of Jung-lu in command of the new forces. When Yüan left Peking he was empowered to execute Jung-lu and to bring a force to Peking powerful enough to support the Emperor and relegate the Empress Dowager to oblivion or to death. But when Yüan reached Tientsin (September 20) he betrayed his trust and revealed the entire plan to Jung-lu. Jung-lu left immediately for Peking and on the same day (September 20) had a conference with the Dowager Empress and the reactionary courtiers. After a plan had been formulated he returned to Tientsin, brought his army to Peking, and on September 22 supported the Empress Dowager in her resumption of control of the government, in the confinement of Tê-tsung, and the rescinding of all edicts issued in the Hundred Days of Reform (see under T'an Ssŭ-t'ung).
For his faithful support of the Empress Dowager Jung-lu was for a time given great powers in the government similar to those granted the princes, I-hsin and I-huan. Late in September 1898 he was ordered to stay in Peking as a Grand Councilor and as Grand Secretary, but was allowed to retain full control of all the military and naval forces of North China. Thus, at least in name, he became one of the most powerful ministers of the Ch'ing Dynasty. To increase the efficiency of his command he reorganized the forces into an army corps designated Wu-wei chün 武衛軍. The corps was divided into five groups. The first army, called Wu-wei ch'ien-chün (前軍), commanded by Nieh Shih-ch'êng, was stationed at Lu-t'ai, northeast of Tientsin, for the defense of that city and the coast. The second, Wu-wei hou (後) chün, under Tung Fu-hsiang, was stationed northeast of Peking. The third, Wu-wei tso (左) chün, under Sung Ch'ing, was stationed at Shanhaikuan. The fourth and most famous, Wu-wei yu (右)-chün, under Yüan Shih-k'ai, was stationed at Hsiao-chan, southeast of Tientsin. The fifth army, Wu-wei chung (中) chün, created by Jung-lu, and under his command, was stationed at Nan-yüan, the Imperial Hunting Park south of Peking. Thus Jung-lu was the founder of the new army of North China which, under the leadership ​of Yüan Shih-k'ai and other officers, was the dominant military force in China until 1927.
At this time two movements, both aiming at the expulsion of foreigners and foreign influence, made their appearance in North China. One, known later as the Boxer Movement, arose among the common people; another arose among the nobles in Peking. The former had its origin in several mystic and superstitiou.s organizations, notably the Ta-tao hui 大刀會, or Big Sword Society, and the Pa-kua chiao 八卦教, both claiming for their adherents supernatural powers, even to immunity from bullets. During the Sino-Japanese War many people in Shantung joined these societies, believing that from them they could learn the magic which would save them from death by bullets. Led by shrewd and opportunistic rascals, these destitute and ignorant farmers began to stage riots and commit robberies. Believing that Christian converts used mystic foreign influences to oppress non-Christians, the rioters murdered Christians and burned their churches. Li Ping-hêng 李秉衡 (T. 鑑堂, 1830–1900), governor of Shantung from 1894 to 1897 during the Sino-Japanese War and during the German occupation of Tsingtao, at first sent the perfect, Yü-hsien 毓賢 (T. 佐臣, d. 1901), to suppress the rioters by force (1895–96). But Li and Yü-hsien both hated foreigners for their political and military aggressions. In 1895 Li memorialized the throne against the establishment of railroads, mines, telegraph lines, paper currency, factories, a modern army and navy, Westernized schools, and even the post office. The only foreign thing which he did not condemn was firearms which could be used to oppose foreign aggression. In 1897 he was succeeded by Yü-hsien who was even less enlightened and may really have believed in the supernatural powers claimed by the mobs. Both were responsible for sponsoring the secret societies which this time were known generally as I-ho ch'üan 義和拳, whence the name "Boxers". In 1899 the Boxers adopted the slogan, "Support the Ch'ings, Annihilate Foreigners" (扶清滅洋), thus courting the approval of such anti-foreign reactionaries as Yü-hsien who gave his official endorsement to the movement by changing its name to I-ho t'uan (團). After many churches had been burnt and missionaries murdered, the foreign ministers in Peking succeeded, late in 1890, in having Yü-hsien removed from Shantung and Yüan Shih-k'ai sent in his place. Yüan took his army to Shantung and suppressed the Boxers by force. Forbidden in Shantung, the Boxers gradually moved to Chihli where they were welcomed and sponsored by the governor-general, Yü-lu 裕祿 (T. 壽山, d. 1900). By May 1900 one group of Boxers had established itself in Tientsin and another advanced northward to combine with the anti-foreign group in Peking.
The anti-foreign movement among the uneducated nobles and superstitious courtiers may be said to have been led by the Empress Dowager who was irked by the support which the foreign governments had rendered to the reformers of 1898. Prince Tuan (Tsai-i, see under I-tsung) despised the foreigners because they had frustrated his plan to elevate his own son to the throne in place of Emperor Tê-tsung. He saw in the Boxers an instrument for getting rid of foreigners, and convinced the Empress Dowager that the Boxers had unusual powers. Other princes who favored the Boxers were Tsai-hsün (see under Yin-lu) and Tsai-i's younger brother, Tsai-lan (see under I-tsung), who were in turn encouraged by other reactionaries like Li Ping-hêng; the Grand Secretary, Hsü T'ung 徐桐 (T. 豫如, H. 蔭軒, 仲琴, 1819–1900); the Associate Grand Secretary, Kang-i 剛毅 (T. 子良, d. 1900); the President of the Board of Punishments, Chao Shu-ch'iao 趙舒翹 (T. 展如, d. 1900); the President of the Board of Ceremonies, Ch'i-hsiu 啟秀 (T. 穎芝, d. 1900); and the Vice-president of the Board of Revenue, Ying-nien 英年 (T. 菊儕, d. 1901).
In this period of conflicting counsels Jung-lu did not assert himself. He knew that the Boxers could not be trusted, and that armed conflict with the Powers was futile. Yet he did not dare to oppose the Empress Dowager, and feared to offend Tsai-i. Moreover, he had personal grudges against Emperor Tê-tsung. Among his subordinates, Yüan Shih-k'ai and Nieh Shih-ch'êng recognized the Boxers as a lawless mob. But Tung Fu-hsiang and his unruly Mohammedan soldiers from Kansu who were stationed in or near Peking were openly anti-foreign, and on June 11 murdered a secretary of the Japanese Legation. This was two days before the Boxers were invited into Peking by order of Empress Hsiao-ch'in and Tsai-i, and three days before the Boxers entered Tientsin. Later Tung's soldiers in Peking joined the Boxers in pillaging, burning and murdering. Though nominally in command, Jung-lu was powerless and had to accede to the edicts which justified the course taken by the Boxers. On June 20, at a council of princes and officials—from which Jung-lu was absent—Em​press Hsiao-ch'in and Tsai-i, overruling the opposition from more enlightened officials, declared war on the foreign powers and initiated the attack on the foreign Legations in Peking. As commander of the army, Jung-lu had to issue the orders to the soldiers under Tung Fu-hsiang who made the attack. He probably foresaw the folly of these actions, but was in danger of losing his own life if he voiced strong opposition. He kept silent, obeyed the commands of the Empress Dowager, but secretly prepared for the eventuality of victory by the foreigners.
On July 9 Nieh Shih-ch'êng, who fought against the Boxers and was also attacked by the Allied Forces, was killed while defending Tientsin. Five days later the Allied Forces took that city. The Court in Peking became alarmed. Most of the time from July 15 to August 6 attacks on the Legations were suspended. The foreign ministers were invited to go to Tientsin under the escort of Jung-lu, but naturally declined to leave their barricades. In the meantime the out-spoken anti-foreign conservative, Li Ping-hêng, reached Peking (about July 25) and by agreeing to fight against the foreigners greatly bolstered the spirit of Tsai-i and the other conservatives who on July 28 ordered the execution of two high officials, Yüan Ch'ang and Hsü Ching-ch'êng [qq. v.], for opposing Tsai-i's policies. The assault on the Legations was presently resumed. As the allied forces advanced northward from Tientsin (August 5), they first overcame and dispersed the army under Sung Ch'ing. Governor-general Yü-lu, who fled with the defeated army, committed suicide. On August 11 Li Ping-hêng was defeated near Tungchow and he too committed suicide a day later. On August 14 the allied forces entered Peking, thus lifting the siege of the Legations. Nevertheless, so blood-thirsty were the misguided conservatives that only three days before Peking fell they ordered the execution of three other high officials for urging the suppression of the Boxers.
After Empress Hsiao-ch'in fled from Peking to set up Court at Sian she ordered Jung-lu, Ch'ung-ch'i [q. v.], and Hsü T'ung to remain in the capital to negotiate with the foreigners. But Hsü hanged himself and Jung-lu and Ch'ung-ch'i fled to Paoting with a handful of Tung Fu-hsiang's Kansu soldiers. On August 26 Ch'ung-ch'i also committed suicide. Jung-lu was ordered to command the troops at Paoting, and later it was decreed that he should assist Prince Ch'ing (I-k'uang, see under Yung-lin) and Li Hung-chang [q. v.] in the negotiations with the foreign envoys. But Jung-lu did not dare to return to Peking. In October Li Hung-chang warned him, and the Court at Sian, that the foreign envoys regarded him as having been in command of the soldiers who attacked the Legations. So he hurriedly left Paoting for Sian to serve in his capacity as head of the Grand Council. The negotiations were carried on by Li Hung-chang and I-k'uang. In the meantime the sponsors of the Boxers were punished; Tsai-i and his brother, Tsai-lan (see under I-tsung), were banished to Ili; Ying-nien, Chao Shu-ch'iao and Tsai-hsun, were ordered to commit suicide. Yü-hsien, who as governor of Shansi in 1900 ruthlessly killed many missionaries and Christian converts, was executed. So were Ch'i-hsiu and Hsü T'ung's son, Hsü Ch'êng-yü 徐承煜 (T. 楠士, d. 1901). Even those who had already died—men like Hsü T'ung, Kang-i, and Li Ping-hêng—were posthumously dishonored. Tung Fu-hsiang was deprived of all ranks and offices. Jung-lu was not condemned, but was commended for restraining Tung Fu-hsiang's soldiers during their attack on the Legations. Thus when the Court returned to Peking, early in 1902, he was made senior Grand Secretary in place of Li Hungchang who had died two months previously. Afflicted, however, by a disease, Jung-lu was inactive and died in 1903. He was canonized as Wên-chung 文忠 and was given posthumously the hereditary rank of a first class baron. His name was celebrated in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen.
Opinions differ as to Jung-lu's conduct during the Boxer War. In view of his strategic position with the Empress Dowager and his great powers and responsibility as presiding member of the Grand Council and as commander of the new army, he cannot be absolved for failing to stamp out the Boxers before they became so strong. He could have done it, as Yüan Shih-k'ai did in Shantung, if he had issued the order before the Empress Dowager endorsed the Boxers. This was possibly the only way by which the nemesis of 1900 could have been averted, though he might have lost his position in the process. Later he was praised by many writers for his attempts to stop the attack on the Legations, and for refusing to the Boxers the use of certain artillery. Others maintain that he pleaded for the lives of Yüan Ch'ang and other victims of the anti-foreign clique, but he did not press his point after the Empress Dowager threatened him for intervention. What he actually did in these instances is not known. Some statements in praise of his ​conduct are possibly based on a diary attributed to Ching-shan 景善 (1823–1900), a retired official who was murdered by his son shortly after the Allies entered Peking. The diary was found by an Englishman, presumably E. Backhouse, on August 18, 1900, in the courtyard of Ching-shan when the residence of that official was about to be burned by Sikhs. The document purports to relate the events of the fateful days from May to August 1900. It was translated into English and published in 1910 in Bland and Backhouse, China Under the Empress Dowager. In 1924 a new translation, made by J. J. L. Duyvendak, was published, together with the Chinese text taken from the original document preserved in the British Museum. Recently, however, the diary has been shown, by Dr. Duyvendak and others, to be a forgery compiled from various sources by one or more persons. According to Chin-liang (see under Wêng T'ung-ho), who took an active part in editing the official history of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Ch'ing-shih-kao (characters in Yu T'ung), the motive of those who fabricated the document was to make Jung-lu appear as a friend of foreigners and so clear him of any responsibility in connection with the attack on the Legations. In his miscellany, entitled 四朝佚聞 Ssŭ-ch'ao i-wên (1936), Chin-liang states that he had intended to include in the Official History a biography of Ching-shan, because of the latter's wide fame as the writer of the diary, but that a closer examination of the diary disclosed so many errors and discrepancies that he concluded to omit the sketch. A comparison of the diary with known memorials shows that many statements in it which criticize the Boxers and favor foreigners were culled from those memorials and put into the mouth of Jung-lu. In Chin-liang's opinion, friends or adherents of Jung-lu, anticipating that the wrath of the foreign powers would fall upon him, forged the diary in order to clear him—and then placed it where observant foreigners would find it.
Chin-liang draws attention to a letter written by Tung Fu-hsiang to Jung-lu in which Tung complains that though Jung-lu ordered him to attack the foreigners, when punishment was finally demanded, he shifted the responsibility to Tung alone. Wang Yen-wei (see under I-hsin) who was in Peking in 1900 and who, as a secretary of the Grand Council, followed the Court to Sian, characterized Jung-lu as talented, but dangerous, treacherous, and covetous. These characterizations are hard to reconcile with the amiable figure portrayed in Ching-shan's diary, but they fit the character of one who may have ordered the compilation of such a diary. It cannot truthfully be said that Jung-lu was a great statesman, or that he ever pretended to be. He was more concerned with personal wealth and position than with national affairs. He owed his rise to power, not primarily to great personal merits, but to the favors he received from I-hsin and from Empress Hsiao-ch'in. The former regarded him as a protégé and the latter as a favorite and an obedient tool. Though during the years 1898-1903 he might have exercised a salutary influence in the government, he failed to use his power to further either the interests of the nation or of the ruling house.
Jung-lu was the father of the wife of the second Prince Ch'un, whose name was Tsai-fêng (see under I-huan), and he was the maternal grandfather of P'u-i (see under Tsai-t'ien).
[1/443/1a; 2/57/33b; 6/1/19b (mistaken in date of Jung-lu's death); Shih-tu chung-chên lu; Fan Tsêng-hsiang 樊增祥, 樊山集 Fan-shan chi 23/92a; Morse, H. B., The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (1918), vols. II, III; Chin-shih jên-wu chih (see under Wêng T'ung-ho) p. 207; Wên Kung-chih 文公直, 最近三十年中國軍事史 Tsui-chin san-shih-nien Chung-kuo chün-shih shih (1930); 逸經 I-ching, no. 22, pp. 25–28; 人文 Jên-wên, vol. II, nos. 5, 10, vol. III, nos. 5, 7; Tung-hua lu, Kuang-hsü; Wang Yen-wei, Hsi-hsün ta-shih chi (see under I-hsin); Chung-kuo chin pai-nien shih tzŭ-liao (see under Li Hsiu-ch'êng) (first series, 1926; second series, 1933); 西巡囘鑾始末記 Hsi-hsün hui-luan shih-mo chi (1905); Duyvendak, Ching-shan's Diary—a Mystification, in T'oung Pao, 1937, pp. 268-94; Lewisohn, William, Some Critical Notes on the So-called "Diary of His Excellency Ching Shan", in Monumenta Serica, vol. II (1936–37), pp. 191–202; Li Ping-hêng, 李忠節公奏議 Li Chung-chieh kung tsou-i (1930) 7/28b, 8/16b, 9/20b, 10/3b, 12/15b; U. S. Foreign Relations (1901), Appendix: Rockhill's Report on China; Wêng T'ung-ho [q. v.], Wêng Wên-kung kung jih-chi (1925); Cordier, Henri, Histoire des relations de la Chine, vol. 3 (1902).]
Fang Chao-ying