Li Bingheng (李秉衡)

Overview

The translated histories identify Li Bingheng as an administrator, general, official, and statesman. This record brings together 20 passages from 3 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Li Bingheng	李秉衡	Li Bingheng
Given	Bingheng	秉衡	Bingheng
Given	Bingheng	秉衡
Title	Governor	巡撫
Courtesy	Jiantang	鑑堂	Jiàntáng
Surname	Li	李
Personal name	Li Bingheng	李秉衡	Lǐ Bǐnghéng
Posthumous	Zhongjie	忠節

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:460:s0140, qingshigao:465:s0072
Sex: male
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0003

Roles

Administrator
General
Official
Statesman

Life and dates

Death

Manner: took poison (drank gold) / 飲金死 · Place: Tongzhou / 通州 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 拳亂 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0042

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 二十三年 · Western Year: AD 1897
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:467:s0030
Source Date: Text: 二十年 · Western Year: AD 1894
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:467:s0024
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十一年 · Western Year: AD 1895
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:460:s0139, qingshigao:460:s0140
Source Date: Text: 光緒五年 · Western Year: AD 1879
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:467:s0005
Source Date: Text: 十年 · Western Year: AD 1884
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:467:s0013
Source Date: Text: 拳禍作 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:467:s0037, qingshigao:467:s0040
Source Date: Text: 明年 · Western Year: AD 1885
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:467:s0014
Source Date: Text: 聯軍至 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:465:s0072

Career and standing

Label: acting governor of Guangxi / 護撫 · Action: appointed · Start Date: Source Date: Text: 光緒十一年前後 · Western Year: AD 1885
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0018, qingshigao:467:s0022
Label: assistant magistrate / 縣丞 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0004
Label: governor of Shandong / 山東巡撫 · Action: appointed · Start Date: Source Date: Text: 二十年 · Western Year: AD 1894
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0024
Label: judicial commissioner of Zhejiang / 浙江按察使 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0012
Label: magistrate of Jizhou / 知冀州 · Action: appointed · Start Date: Source Date: Text: 光緒五年 · Western Year: AD 1879
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0005
Label: Governor of Shandong / 山東巡撫 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:465:s0229
Label: Governor / 巡撫 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:460:s0140
Label: county magistrate / 知縣 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0004
Label: prefect of Yongping / 知永平府 · Action: promoted · Start Date: Source Date: Text: 越二年 · Western Year: AD 1881
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0008
Label: governor-general of Sichuan / 督四川 · Action: transferred · Start Date: Source Date: Text: 二十三年 · Western Year: AD 1897
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0030
Label: posthumous name Zhongjie / 諡忠節 · Action: granted
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0043
Status: dismissal · Action: dismissed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 二十三年 · Western Year: AD 1897
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0031
Label: stripped of office and posthumous honors / 褫職，奪卹典 · Action: punished
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0044

Places and affiliations

Polity: Qing / 清 · Relation: served
Explicit · qingshigao:465:s0072
Place: Haicheng, Fengtian / 奉天海城
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0003

Works and attributed material

Kind: memorial · Role: author · Other Person Id: Li Hongzhang (李鴻章)
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0010

Events and relationships

Kind: military · Role: commander · Action: commanded four armies against allies · Place: Yangcun and Hexi Wu / 楊村、河西塢 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 拳亂 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0040
Kind: military · Role: commander · Action: defeated · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 聯軍至 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:465:s0072
Kind: political · Role: governor · Action: encouraged-Big-Sword-Society
Explicit · qingshigao:465:s0229
Kind: official · Role: recipient · Action: received-false-accusation · Other Person Id: Liu Chaopei (劉超佩)
Explicit · qingshigao:460:s0140
Kind: official · Role: petitioner · Action: requested-posthumous-honor · Other Person Id: Dai Zongqian (戴宗騫)
Explicit · qingshigao:460:s0151
Relation: friend-of · Person Id: Wang Tingxiang (王廷相)
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0033

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: foremost incorrupt official of Zhili · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · qingshigao:467:s0011

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 460Volume 460 Biographies 247: Zuo Baogui Younger Brother: Bao Xian, Yong Shan, Deng Shichang, Liu Buchan, Lin Taiceng, Dai Zongqian · 2 passages

Open chapter

宗騫往援，而超佩蹌踉遁，三台拱手讓敵，反訴巡撫李秉衡，誣宗騫背約。 Zongqian went to help, but Chaopei fled in disorder and surrendered three batteries without a fight; he then reported to Governor Li Bingheng, falsely accusing Zongqian of breaking their agreement.

復以秉衡請，贈太常寺卿。 On Bingheng's further petition, he was posthumously made Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 465Volume 465 Biographies 252: Xu Tong With: Yu Shi, Yu Shi Son: Cheng Yu, Gang Yi, Zhao Shuqiao, Qi Xiu, Ying Nian, Yu Lu With: Ting Yong, Yu Xian With: Li Tingxiao · 2 passages

Open chapter

聯軍至，李秉衡兵敗，太后乃令王文韶與舒翹詣使館通殷勤，為議款計。 When the allied armies arrived and Li Bingheng's force was routed, the Empress Dowager ordered Wang Wenshao and Shuqiao to visit the legations with courtesies to open peace talks.

是時李秉衡撫山東，適有大刀會仇西教，秉衡獎借之，戕德國二教士。 Li Bingheng was then governor of Shandong; anti-Christian sentiment ran high in the Big Sword Society, and he encouraged it, resulting in the killing of two German missionaries.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 467Volume 467 Biographies 254: Li Bingheng, Wang Tingxiang, Nie Shicheng, Luo Rongguang, Shou Shan Zu Sun : Rui Chang, Feng Xiang, Chong Yu · 16 passages

Open chapter

李秉衡王廷相聶士成羅榮光壽山族孫瑞昌鳳翔崇玉等 Li Bingheng, Wang Tingxiang, Nie Shicheng, Luo Rongguang, and Shoushan's kinsmen Ruichang, Fengxiang, Chongyu, and others

李秉衡，字鑑堂，奉天海城人。 Li Bingheng, whose style was Jiantang, came from Haicheng in Fengtian (Liaoning).

明年，法人假越事寇邊，秉衡主龍州西運局。 The following year, as the French used the Vietnamese crisis as a pretext to raid the frontier, Bingheng was placed in charge of the Longzhou Western Transport Bureau.

秉衡益節儉，汰浮費，無分主客軍，給糧不絕，戰卹功賞力從厚。 Bingheng tightened his own frugality, cut waste, and—making no distinction between local and outside troops—kept rations flowing without interruption; for the wounded and the meritorious in battle, he rewarded as generously as he could.

既而日軍浮三艦窺登州，秉衡悉萃精兵於西北，而榮城以戎備寡，為日軍所誘而獲，時論詬之。 Soon afterward three Japanese warships probed Dengzhou; Bingheng concentrated his best troops in the northwest, while Rongcheng, thinly garrisoned, was lured into a trap and seized by the Japanese—drawing widespread blame upon him.

二十三年，會眾戕德國教士，德使海靖要褫秉衡職，編修王廷相力爭之，徙督四川。 In 1897 society members killed a German missionary; Minister von Heyking demanded that Bingheng be removed, but Compiler Wang Tingxiang fought hard on his behalf, and he was transferred instead to governor-general of Sichuan.

海靖請益堅，乃罷免。 Von Heyking pressed his demand still harder, and Bingheng was dismissed.

於是秉衡隱安陽，居三年，剛毅入樞廷，薦之起，入都。 Bingheng then withdrew to live quietly at Anyang. Three years later, when Gangyi joined the Grand Council and recommended him, he was summoned back to the capital.

朝命秉衡詣奉天按事，奏廷相自隨。 The court ordered Bingheng to Fengtian on an inspection tour, and he asked that Tingxiang accompany him.

還，會御史彭述疏請整飭長江水師，詔使秉衡往，秉衡固辭，太后責勉之，遂行。 After his return, when Censor Peng Shu memorialized for reform of the Yangtze fleet, the throne ordered Bingheng to take charge; he firmly declined, but the Empress Dowager rebuked and pressed him, and he went.

於是定畫保東南約，秉衡與焉。 The plan to preserve the southeast was then drawn up, and Bingheng was party to it.