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列傳一百八十一
Biography 181
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Xu Guangjin, whose courtesy name was Zhongsheng, came from Luyi in Henan Province. He received his jinshi degree in the twenty-fifth year of the Jiaqing reign (1820), entered the Hanlin Academy as a probationary academician, was appointed revising compiler, and later became a censor. In the thirteenth year of Daoguang (1833) he was posted as prefect of Yulin in Shaanxi, then served in turn as intendant of the Huining–Chizhou–Taiping circuit in Anhui, Jiangxi grain transport commissioner, and Fujian provincial judicial commissioner. He was promoted to governor of the capital prefecture of Shuntian, and shortly afterward was appointed provincial treasurer of Sichuan. After his mother's death he left office for mourning; when the mourning period ended, he was appointed provincial treasurer of Jiangning. In the twenty-sixth year of Daoguang (1846) he was promoted to governor of Yunnan and then transferred to Guangdong. In the twenty-eighth year (1848) he was promoted to governor-general of the two Guang provinces and concurrently appointed superintendent of foreign trade.
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Under the Treaty of Nanjing, which opened five treaty ports, Canton had been allowed to set up bonded warehouses in the provincial city and foreign consuls were to enter the city and be received on equal terms. The Cantonese clung to the old prohibition on foreigners entering the city, rallied in crowds to resist, and the authorities could not settle the matter. Governor-General Qiying had already negotiated with the British to postpone entry for two years; he was soon recalled to the capital, and Guangjin took his place. When villagers at Huangzhuqi killed six Britons in a beating, Consul Davis pressed for compensation and guarantees; Guangjin punished the killers but refused his unreasonable demands, warned the populace against violence, and the incident was closed. When Davis went home, Bonham became consul in his stead and on arrival asked for an official audience. Guangjin went to Humen to inspect the forts, received him there, and even boarded his ship to show openness and good faith. In the twenty-ninth year (1849) Bonham argued that the two-year deferral had expired and demanded that the agreement be honored; Guangjin cited the terms Qiying had granted. He offered a provisional compromise: the people were furious, public anger could not be defied, and the government could not hold them back. Bonham held firm to the treaty, countered by pointing to foreign access in other provinces, and threatened to send warships to Tianjin to lodge a complaint in the capital; neither side would yield.
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廣縉疏聞，自請嚴議。 密詔許暫入城一次，以踐前言，不得習以為常。 廣縉复疏言：「入城萬不可行。 廣東民情剽悍，與閩、浙、江蘇不同。 阻其入城而有事，則眾志成城，尚有爪牙之可恃； 許其入城而有事，則人心瓦解，必至內外之交訌。 明知有害無利，詎敢輕於一試。」 卒堅拒之。 英人乃集兵船三於香港，放小艇至海口各港測水探路，示恫喝。 廣縉增兵守諸砲台及要隘，嚴備以待。 時民團號十萬，聲勢甚張。 華商會議暫停各國貿易，密告美、法兩國領事，啟釁實由英人。 於是諸洋商慮受擾累，將以損失歸領事負責。 士紳聯名致文翰，為反覆陳利害甚切。 文翰內受牽制，乃罷入城之議，乞照舊通商。 與要約，停市開巿皆非由官令，不進城即通商，後有反覆，仍行停止。 事既定，廣縉疏聞，宣宗大悅。 詔曰：「洋務之興，將十年矣。 沿海擾累，糜餉勞師，近雖略臻安謐，而馭之之法，剛柔未得其平，流弊因而愈出。 朕恐瀕海居民或遭蹂躪，一切隱忍待之。 昨英酋复伸入城之請，徐廣縉等悉心措理，動合機宜。 入城議寢，依舊通商。 不折一兵，不發一矢，中外綏靖，可以久安，實深嘉悅！」 於是錫封廣縉一等子爵，賜雙眼花翎，是役商民一心，尤得紳士許祥光、伍崇曜之力為多，二人並被優擢。 逾數月，文翰復言國王以進城未能如約，為人所輕，似覺赧顏，請為轉奏，廣縉以罷議進城之後貿易始復，豈可再申前說，拒之。 三十年，文翰又遺書大學士穆彰阿、耆英，遣人至上海、天津投遞。 文翰尋自赴上海，欲有所陳請，先後卻之； 乃回香港，蓋覬覦未已也。
Guangjin reported the situation to the throne and asked to be held strictly accountable. A secret edict allowed a single temporary entry to honor the earlier pledge, on condition that it not become routine. Guangjin memorialized again: "Allowing entry into the city is utterly out of the question. The people of Guangdong are far fiercer than those of Fujian, Zhejiang, or Jiangsu. If we keep them out and trouble follows, the people will stand as one and we will still have forces we can count on; but if we let them in and trouble follows, morale will collapse and we will face rebellion within and without. Knowing full well that the harm outweighs any gain, how could I dare experiment lightly?" In the end he stood firm and refused. The British then concentrated three warships at Hong Kong and sent launches to sound the harbors along the coast as a show of force. Guangjin reinforced the forts and key passes and made ready for whatever might come. Local militia at the time claimed a strength of one hundred thousand, and their presence was formidable. Chinese merchants agreed to suspend trade with all foreign powers and quietly told the American and French consuls that the British had provoked the crisis. Foreign traders then feared they would bear the cost of the disruption and looked to their consuls to answer for the losses. Local gentry sent Bonham a joint petition, pressing him again and again on the stakes involved. Caught between pressures, Bonham dropped the demand for entry and asked only that trade resume as before. They agreed that neither closing nor reopening the market would be by official decree; trade would continue without entry into the city, and any later breach would bring a renewed boycott. Once the affair was settled, Guangjin reported to the throne, and the Daoguang Emperor was delighted. An edict declared: "Foreign relations have troubled us for nearly ten years. The coastlands have been harried, treasure spent, and troops worn down; though things have lately grown somewhat calmer, we have not struck the right balance between firmness and concession, and new abuses keep appearing. Fearing harm to our coastal people, We have endured much in silence. When the British envoy again demanded entry into the city, Xu Guangjin and his colleagues handled the matter with care, and their measures were well judged throughout. The entry question was dropped, and trade went on as before. Not a man was lost, not an arrow fired; peace was restored at home and abroad, and lasting calm seems possible—We are deeply pleased!" Guangjin was then created a first-class baron and granted the double-eyed peacock feather. In this affair merchants and commoners stood together, with particular help from the gentrymen Xu Xiangguang and Wu Chongyao, both of whom received exceptional promotions. Months later Bonham wrote that his king felt humiliated because entry had not been granted as promised and asked that the matter be referred to Beijing; Guangjin replied that trade had resumed only after the entry demand was dropped and refused to reopen the question. In the thirtieth year (1850) Bonham again wrote to Grand Secretaries Mujangga and Qiying and sent couriers to deliver the letters at Shanghai and Tianjin. Bonham soon went to Shanghai in person hoping to lodge petitions, but was turned away each time; he then returned to Hong Kong, his designs evidently not yet abandoned.
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時兩廣盜賊蜂起，以廣西金田洪秀全為最悍。 巡撫鄭祖琛柔懦縱賊，廣縉疏劾其養筴貽患，罷之。 廣東韶州、廉州匪亦蔓延，廣縉遣軍扼梧州、肇慶。 詔廣縉赴廣西剿辦，尋起林則徐督師，命廣縉剿捕廣東遊匪。 咸豐元年，出駐高州。 匪首凌十八、陳二、吳三、何茗科踞羅鏡圩及信宜，與洪秀全聲勢相倚。 廣縉遣兵進擊，殲吳三，追何茗科至貴縣擒之； 又破廉州賊顏品瑤，擒李士青。 二年春，乘勝進攻羅鏡圩，擒凌十八。 捷聞，加太子太保。 命馳赴梧州，而洪秀全大股已犯桂林，竄入湖南。 賽尚阿以罪黜，授廣縉欽差大臣，署理湖廣總督。 十月，至衡州，賊攻長沙甚急，駱秉章、張亮基力守，屢挫賊，乃下竄岳州。 廣縉始抵長沙。 未幾。 岳州亦陷，直犯武昌。 廣縉進駐岳州，而漢陽、武昌相繼陷。
Bandits were rising throughout the two Guang provinces, and the fiercest leader was Hong Xiuquan of Jintian in Guangxi. Governor Zheng Zuchen was timid and let the rebels grow; Guangjin impeached him for indulging the threat and had him removed. Rebels also spread through Shaozhou and Qinzhou in Guangdong, and Guangjin sent troops to block them at Wuzhou and Zhaoqing. The court ordered Guangjin to Guangxi to suppress the rebels; Lin Zexu was soon recalled to take command, and Guangjin was told to clear the roving bandits of Guangdong. In the first year of Xianfeng (1851) he took the field and established headquarters at Gaozhou. The rebel leaders Ling Shiba, Chen Er, Wu San, and He Mingke held Luojing Market and Xinyi, coordinating their strength with Hong Xiuquan. Guangjin sent troops against them, destroyed Wu San's force, pursued He Mingke to Guixian and captured him; he also defeated the Qinzhou rebel Yan Pinyao and took Li Shiqing prisoner. In the spring of the second year (1852) he pressed the advantage, stormed Luojing Market, and captured Ling Shiba. On news of the victory he was made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent. He was ordered to rush to Wuzhou, but Hong Xiuquan's main column had already struck Guilin and slipped into Hunan. Saišangga was disgraced and removed; Guangjin was made imperial commissioner and acting governor-general of Huguang. In the tenth month he reached Hengzhou. The rebels were pressing Changsha hard; Luo Bingzhang and Zhang Liangji held the city and beat them back repeatedly, and the rebels finally broke south toward Yuezhou. Guangjin arrived at Changsha only after the crisis had passed. Before long, Yuezhou fell as well, and the rebels drove straight on Wuchang. Guangjin moved up to Yuezhou, yet Hanyang and Wuchang fell one after another.
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An edict condemned Guangjin for slow advance, missed chances, holding uselessly at Yuezhou, and keeping a large force under his personal control; he was dismissed, arrested, his property seized, and sentenced to death. In the summer of the third year (1853), when Guangdong rebels entered Henan, Guangjin was freed, placed at the disposal of Governor Lu Yinggu, and ordered to win back his honor through service. He led troops to Guide, where he helped guard against and suppress the Nian rebels with distinction. In the eighth year (1858) he was sent to Sheng Bao's headquarters; he soon received fourth-rank ministerial rank and stayed at Fengyang to campaign against the Nian under Yuan Jiasan. He died not long afterward.
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Ye Mingchen, whose courtesy name was Kunchen, came from Hanyang in Hubei Province. He received his jinshi degree in the fifteenth year of Daoguang (1835), entered the Hanlin Academy as a probationary academician, and was appointed revising compiler. In the eighteenth year (1838) he was posted as prefect of Xing'an in Shaanxi. He served in turn as intendant of the Yanping circuit in Shanxi, Jiangxi salt controller, Yunnan judicial commissioner, and provincial treasurer of Hunan, Gansu, and Guangdong. In the twenty-eighth year (1848) he was promoted to governor of Guangdong. In the twenty-ninth year, when the British sought to enforce the entry agreement, Mingchen joined Governor-General Xu Guangjin in a firm refusal, rallied the militia, and put the province on a war footing. Chinese merchants imposed a trade boycott to pressure them, and the British finally dropped the demand. For his service he was created a first-class baron and granted the peacock feather. In the thirtieth year (1850) he suppressed bandits in Yingde and received special commendation. In the first year of Xianfeng (1851) he destroyed the Luojing rebel Wu San and was made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. In the second year, when Guangjin went to Guangxi to command the campaign, Mingchen was assigned the Luojing suppression and took the field from Gaozhou. That autumn Ling Shiba, the Luojing rebel chief, was destroyed; Mingchen received governor-general rank, served as acting governor-general, and took charge of operations in the Nanxiong and Shaozhou districts. He was soon appointed full governor-general of the two Guang provinces and superintendent of foreign trade.
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時廣東盜賊蜂起，四年，廣州群匪擾及省城，遣將分路進剿，連戰皆捷。 近省之佛山、龍門、從化、東莞、陽山、河源、增城、封川，韶州之海豐、開建，潮州之惠來，肇慶府城及德慶並陷，先後克復。 鄰省軍務方亟，糧餉器械多賴廣東接濟，名琛籌供無缺，益得時譽。 五年，以總督協辦大學士。 六年，拜體仁閣大學士，仍留總督任。
Bandits were rampant in Guangdong; in the fourth year (1854) mobs threatened the provincial capital itself. He sent generals on several columns and won a string of victories. Foshan, Longmen, Conghua, Dongguan, Yangshan, Heyuan, Zengcheng, Fengchuan, Haifeng and Kaijian in Shaozhou, Huilai in Chaozhou, and the prefectural seats of Zhaoqing and Deqing all fell and were retaken in turn. Neighboring provinces were hard pressed in the war and depended heavily on Guangdong for grain, funds, and arms; Mingchen kept the supplies flowing and won still greater praise. In the fifth year (1855) he was made assistant Grand Secretary while retaining the governorship. In the sixth year (1856) he was appointed Grand Secretary of the Birenjian Pavilion while continuing as governor-general.
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名琛性木彊，勤吏事，屬僚憚其威重。 初以偕徐廣縉拒英人入城被殊眷，因狃於前事，頗自負，好大言，遇中外交涉事，略書數字答之，或竟不答。 會匪之逼廣州，或議借外國兵禦賊者，斥之退。 匪既平，按察使沈棣輝功最多，列上官紳兵練出力者請獎，格不奏，兵練皆解體。 又嚴治通匪餘黨，或藉捕匪仇殺，從賊逃不敢歸，其黠者投香港，勸英人攻廣州。 會水師千總巡河，遇划艇張英國旗，搜獲十三人，拔其旗。 英領事巴夏禮索之不得，貽書名琛責問，謂捕匪當移取，不當擅執，毀旗尤非禮。 名琛令送十三人於領事，不受，必欲並索千總，遂置之。 未幾，遣通事來告：「越日日中不如約，即攻城。」 至期，英兵果奪獵德、中流砲台。 名琛曰：「彼當自走。」 令水師勿與戰，於是鳳皇山、海珠諸砲台皆被踞，發砲擊省城，十月朔，毀城，既入復出。 遣廣州知府往詰用兵之故，英人曰：「兩國官不晤，情不親。 誤聽傳言，屢乖和好。 請入城面議。」 名琛勿許。 請於城外會議，亦不許。 兵練數万來援，怵敵火器，不能力戰。 民憤甚，焚英、法、美三國居室，凡昔十三行皆燼。 英兵亦焚民居數千家，退泊大黃，各報其國。
Mingchen was stubborn by nature, tireless in administration, and his subordinates stood in awe of his authority. He had first won exceptional favor for joining Xu Guangjin in blocking British entry into Canton; resting on that success he grew arrogant, spoke in grand terms, and on foreign affairs would scribble a few lines in reply—or ignore the message altogether. When rebels threatened Guangzhou, some suggested hiring foreign troops to help; he dismissed the idea out of hand. After the rebels were suppressed, Judicial Commissioner Shen Dihui had done the most; Mingchen drew up a list of officials, gentry, and militia deserving reward but refused to submit it, and the militia drifted apart. He also cracked down harshly on those accused of aiding the rebels; some used the campaign as cover for private vendettas; former followers fled and dared not return, and the cleverest took refuge in Hong Kong and urged the British to attack Guangzhou. A naval patrol lieutenant on river duty came upon a rowboat flying the British flag, searched it, seized thirteen men, and tore down the flag. Consul Parkes could not get them back and wrote to Mingchen in protest, arguing that suspects should be handed over on request, not seized unilaterally, and that tearing down the flag was an insult. Mingchen ordered the thirteen men delivered to the consulate; Parkes refused them and also demanded the lieutenant; Mingchen let the matter drop. Soon an interpreter came with a warning: "If your terms are not met by noon tomorrow, we will attack the city." At the appointed hour British troops seized the Liede and Zhongliu forts. Mingchen said, "They will withdraw on their own." He ordered the navy not to engage. The British then took Fenghuang Hill, Haizhu, and the other forts, shelled the city, and on the first day of the tenth month breached the wall, entered, and withdrew again. He sent the prefect of Guangzhou to ask why force had been used; the British replied, "When the officials of our two countries do not meet, there can be no mutual trust. Misled by rumors, we have repeatedly fallen out. They asked to enter the city for a face-to-face meeting." Mingchen refused. When they asked to meet outside the walls, he refused that as well. Tens of thousands of militia came to help, but they feared the enemy's firearms and could not put up a real fight. Public fury ran high; mobs burned the quarters of the British, French, and Americans, and the old Thirteen Factories district was left in ashes. British troops burned thousands of civilian homes in return, withdrew to Whampoa, and each side reported home.
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英遣額羅金來粵，聚兵澳門、香港，貽書索償款。 名琛以其言狂悖，不答。 法、美兩國領事亦索賠償，且告英兵已決計攻城，原居間排解。 名琛慮其合以脅我，亦不聽； 且不設備。 七年，英兵攻東莞，總兵董開慶與戰，軍潰。 額羅金遣艇遞照會，名琛答以通商而外，概不能從。 累疏言：「英國主厭兵，粵事皆額羅金等所為。 臣始終堅持，彼窮當自伏。」 密詔戒勿輕視，猶信其事有把握，仍褒勉之。 九月，英兵驟至，法、美兵皆從。 將軍司道商戰守，名琛惟恃通事張云同為內應，待敵窮蹙。 民間見其夷然不驚，事皆秘不宣示，轉疑其陽拒陰撫，人心益渙。 十一月，敵張榜城外，限二十四時破城，勸商民遷避。 砲擊總督署，延燒市廛，城遂陷。 巡撫柏貴檄紳士伍崇曜等議和，名琛猶持不許入城之議，夜避左都統署，英人大索得之，舁登舟。 將軍、巡撫以聞，詔斥名琛剛愎自用，辦理乖謬，褫其職，英人遂踞省城，禁巡撫等官不得出，責以安民。 民各集團練，設總局於佛山，相持數年。 各國聯師赴天津，事乃益棘矣。
Britain sent Lord Elgin to Canton, concentrated troops at Macao and Hong Kong, and demanded indemnities in writing. Mingchen judged his demands outrageous and did not answer. The French and American consuls also demanded compensation and warned that British forces had resolved to storm the city, offering at first to mediate. Mingchen feared they would combine to coerce him and would not hear them out; nor did he make any preparations for defense. In the seventh year (1857) British forces attacked Dongguan; Regional Commander Dong Kaiqing met them in battle and his army was routed. Elgin sent a launch with an official note; Mingchen replied that beyond continuing trade he would agree to nothing. He sent repeated memorials claiming: "The British queen is weary of war; the trouble in Guangdong is entirely the work of Elgin and his party. I have held firm throughout; when they are cornered they will yield on their own." A secret edict warned him not to underestimate the enemy, but the court still believed he had matters under control and continued to praise and encourage him. In the ninth month British forces arrived without warning, with French and American troops following. Generals, provincial officials, and merchants debated war and defense, while Mingchen relied solely on his interpreter Zhang Yuntong as a go-between and waited for the enemy to collapse. The people saw him show no alarm and keep everything secret; they began to suspect he was defying the foreigners in public while appeasing them in private, and morale fell apart. In the eleventh month the allies posted notices outside the walls, giving twenty-four hours before the city would fall and urging merchants and residents to flee. They shelled the governor-general's compound, fire spread through the markets, and the city fell. Governor Bogui summoned gentry including Wu Chongyao to negotiate peace; Mingchen still clung to his refusal of entry into the city, fled at night to a Manchu banner office, was hunted down by the British, and carried off to their ships. The general and governor reported to the throne; an edict condemned Mingchen for stubbornness and gross mismanagement and stripped him of office. The British then held the provincial capital, confined Bogui and other officials inside, and ordered them to keep the peace. The people organized militia companies and set up a headquarters at Foshan; the stalemate lasted several years. The allied powers then marched on Tianjin, and the crisis grew far worse.
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Once Mingchen was a prisoner, the British took him to Bengal in India and kept him in the Zhenhai Tower. He still painted and wrote calligraphy, signing himself "Su Wu upon the sea," wrote poetry to declare his loyalty, and recited the scripture of Patriarch Lü every day without fail. In the ninth year (1859) he died, and his body was sent home. Cantonese who blamed him for ruining the country composed a rhyme: "He would not fight, would not treat, would not defend; would not die, would not surrender, would not flee; the magnanimity of a Grand Secretary, the resolve of a frontier governor; unknown in antiquity, rarely seen today."
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Huang Zonghan, whose courtesy name was Shouchen, came from Jinjiang in Fujian Province. He received his jinshi degree in the fifteenth year of Daoguang (1835) and entered the Hanlin Academy as a probationary academician. After completing his Hanlin training he was appointed a clerk in the Ministry of War and served on the staff of the Grand Council. He rose through the ranks as vice director and director, then became a censor and supervising secretary. In the twenty-fifth year (1845) he was posted as Guangdong grain transport commissioner, transferred to the Leizhou and Qiongzhou circuit, and later served as judicial commissioner of Shandong and Zhejiang. Early in Xianfeng, Governor Wu Wenrong recommended Zonghan for higher responsibility, and he was appointed provincial treasurer of Gansu. In the second year (1852) he was promoted to governor of Yunnan but never took up the post and was transferred to Zhejiang instead. While a trial of grain transport by sea was under way, tribute boats on the lake routes ran aground; the grain was sold locally at a loss of more than three hundred thousand taels, and Provincial Treasurer Chunshou hanged himself in despair. Zonghan memorialized that the stranded grain should be forwarded to Beijing with the new tribute shipment, and the court agreed.
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In the third year (1853), when Guangdong rebels threatened Nanjing, he sent two thousand Zhejiang troops to help defend the city. Nanjing soon fell; Zonghan went to Jiaxing and Huzhou to organize defenses and argued in a memorial that Zhejiang could not simply defend its own borders. He then sent troops into Jiangsu and Anhui to help hold the line, and the court praised his sound judgment. When rebels seized Shanghai, he asked that the sea transport route be shifted to Liuhe for collection of tribute grain. The great Jiangnan camp needed vast supplies; Zonghan wrote to Xiang Rong with a comprehensive plan to fix monthly quotas from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. Xiang forwarded the plan to the throne, and the Xianfeng Emperor approved it. In the fourth year (1854) a special edict praised Zonghan for his defense work, sea transport, suppression of bandits, and inspection of officials—praising his thoroughness and courage—and granted him an imperial plaque inscribed "Loyal, diligent, upright, and straight," urging him to finish as he had begun and become a minister worthy of his age.
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He was promoted to governor-general of Sichuan. Supervising Secretary Zhang Xiuyu memorialized: "Zonghan's administration of Zhejiang is soundly arranged and he should not be moved." The court did not agree. When he failed to report for several months, the throne inquired; he pleaded illness and was rebuked; demotion by three ranks was proposed, but as a favor he was allowed to keep second-rank insignia and remain in the Sichuan post. In the fifth year (1855) tribal rebels rose at Mabian on the Sichuan frontier; he suppressed them. On imperial orders he sent Regional Commander De'en of Songpan with two thousand men to relieve Jingzhou, dispatched four thousand troops to Guizhou against the Miao rebels, and contributed one hundred thousand taels of silver. In the sixth year (1856), again for long silence in reporting, General Leqin was ordered to investigate; Zonghan cited phlegm illness; the ministry proposed demotion; he was recalled to Beijing to await a new appointment. He was appointed a Grand Secretariat academician and concurrently served as vice minister of justice and governor of the capital prefecture of Shuntian.
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When war broke out in Guangdong and Ye Mingchen was taken prisoner, Zonghan was appointed governor-general of the two Guang provinces and superintendent of foreign trade. Canton was then in British hands, and Governor Bogui inside the city was under their control. Militia sprang up everywhere; recalling how Xu Guangjin had blocked British entry with gentry and commoners behind him, the Xianfeng Emperor wanted to revive that strategy and ordered retired Vice Minister Luo Dunyi, capital official Long Yuanxi, and Supervising Secretary Su Tingkui to organize the militia. Luo Dunyi and the others raised village militia numbering tens of thousands, fixed a date to storm the city, and failed; they also forbade Chinese from working for foreigners in order to pressure them.
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八年春，各國遣人赴江蘇投書致京師大學士訴粵事，請遣大臣至上海會議； 且言逾期即赴天津。 詔仍回廣東候宗漢查辦，而英、俄兩國兵船已泊吳淞。 宗漢過江蘇，總督何桂清堅留在上海開議，宗漢不可，遽去； 取道浙、閩，調兵不可得。 及至廣東，敵兵已犯天津。 宗漢駐惠州，惟恃聯絡民團，出示空言激勵，為英人所禁格，不能遍及。 既而天津和約成，俟償款六百萬兩分年交畢，始退出廣州，粵民愈憤。 英領事宣布和議，新安鎮鄉勇殺其張示者數人，遂發兵陷新安。 民團大舉攻城，初勝終挫，懸賞格購洋官首，亦僅時伺隱僻，有所殺傷而已。 宗漢外怵強敵，內畏民嵒，不能有所措施。 泊大學士桂良等至上海議稅則及換約事宜，將與商交還廣州，向宗漢詢近狀，輒不答。 而英人以既議和，民團復相仇殺，來相詰問，且揭團紳告示載諭旨有異，必欲去宗漢及三團紳。 桂良等疏聞，詔責宗漢捕偽造諭旨之人，罷其通商大臣，改授何桂清。 英使額羅金猶不愜，遽率監赴廣東。 九年，遂復有天津之役。
In the spring of the eighth year (1858) the foreign powers sent envoys to Jiangsu with letters to Grand Secretaries in Beijing about the Canton crisis, asking that a senior minister come to Shanghai for talks; and threatening to proceed to Tianjin if the deadline passed. An edict ordered the envoys back to Guangdong to await Zonghan's investigation, but British and Russian warships were already at Wusong. Zonghan passed through Jiangsu; Governor He Guiqing pressed him to stay in Shanghai for negotiations, but Zonghan refused and hurried on; traveling through Zhejiang and Fujian, he could raise no troops. By the time he reached Guangdong, the allied forces had already struck Tianjin. Zonghan stayed at Huizhou, relying only on links with local militia and empty proclamations to rouse them; the British blocked such messages from circulating widely. When the Treaty of Tianjin was signed, the allies agreed to leave Canton only after six million taels of indemnity had been paid in installments; the Cantonese grew still angrier. When the British consul posted the peace terms, militia from Xin'an Town killed several men who put up the notices, and British troops seized the town in retaliation. Militia mounted a major assault on the city, winning early fights but losing in the end; rewards were offered for foreign officers' heads, but only a few were killed in ambushes here and there. Zonghan feared the foreign enemy abroad and popular fury at home, and could devise no effective policy. When Grand Secretary Guiliang reached Shanghai to negotiate tariffs and treaty revision and to discuss the return of Canton, he asked Zonghan for reports on the situation, but Zonghan would not reply. The British, noting that fighting continued among militia even after peace talks, pressed for explanations and produced militia proclamations bearing edicts that did not match the court's texts, demanding the removal of Zonghan and the three militia leaders. Guiliang reported to the throne; an edict ordered Zonghan to arrest those who forged imperial edicts, stripped him of the trade superintendency, and gave the post to He Guiqing. Lord Elgin was still not satisfied and abruptly led his staff back to Guangdong. In the ninth year (1859) the allies struck Tianjin again.
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He was soon transferred to Sichuan as governor-general, recalled to Beijing, and reduced to await appointment as a vice minister. In the tenth year (1860) he served as acting vice minister of personnel and soon received the full appointment. Sichuan officials in Beijing petitioned that he be sent home to organize militia; the request was denied.
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Zonghan was allied with Zaiyuan, Duanhua, Sushun, and their faction. In the eleventh year (1861) the Tongzhi Emperor ascended the throne, and Zaiyuan and his associates were condemned. Junior Mentor Xu Pengshou impeached Zonghan along with Chen Fu'en and Liu Kun as close associates of Sushun's faction. An edict declared: "Huang Zonghan went to Rehe this spring and used alarmist language to block the emperor's return to Beijing. When Our late father's coffin was about to return to the capital, he spread word that the city was unsafe, telling everyone he could in hopes of stopping the move. His aim was plainly to curry favor with Zaiyuan and his party, as everyone knew. With a reputation and conduct such as this, how can he be allowed to hold high office and set an example for other officials? Strip him of office and never employ him again, as a warning to high officials who cringe before power." The court also revoked the imperial plaque "Loyal, diligent, upright, and straight" that had been granted earlier. He died in the third year of Tongzhi (1864).
20
The historian comments: In the Daoguang and Xianfeng eras the maritime frontier was thrown open, yet court and country alike were blind to foreign realities. Cantonese who had suffered deeply from foreign aggression and watched national prestige collapse were torn between anger and fear; the refusal to let foreigners into the city thus ignited a far greater crisis. The court wrongly believed popular fervor could be harnessed, not understanding that bluster alone could not be trusted. Xu Guangjin knew how to manage the situation and secured a temporary peace; Ye Mingchen rested on his earlier success, and arrogance and obstinacy brought him down—as he deserved. Huang Zonghan's vacillation caused harm, and in the end he was punished for siding with the ruling clique. Guangjin earned credit for suppressing the Luojing rebels in eastern Guangdong, but when he replaced Saišangga in command the war was already lost; his panic and indecision left him with no excuse.