1
列傳二百五十七
Biographies 257
2
志銳劉從德春勳良弼宗室載穆萬選德霈同源
Zhi Rui; with Liu Congde, Chun Xun, Liang Bi, Zongshi Zaimu, Wan Xuan; with De Pei and Tong Yuan
3
文瑞承燕克蒙額恆齡德霈等樸壽謝寶勝姚靄雲
Wen Rui; with Cheng Yan, Ke Meng'e, and Heng Ling; with De Pei, Pu Shou, Xie Baosheng, and Yao Aiyun
4
黃忠浩楊讓梨等志銳，字公穎，他塔拉氏，世居扎庫木，隸滿洲正紅旗，陝甘總督裕泰孫。 父長敬，四川綏定府知府。 志銳幼穎異，光緒六年成進士，選庶吉士，授編修。 與黃體芳、盛昱輩相勵以風節，數上書言事。 累遷詹事，擢禮部右侍郎。 中東事起，上疏畫戰守策累萬言。 慮陪都警，自請募勇設防，稱旨，命赴熱河練兵。 未踰月，以其妹瑾、珍兩妃貶貴人，降授烏里雅蘇台參贊大臣，釋兵柄。 遂迂道出張家口，策馬逾天山西絕幕。 所迳台站，輒週諮山川、風俗、宗教，箸詩記事。 居數年，將軍長庚令赴邊外釐中俄積案，凡六閱月，結千餘起。 前後五上疏籌西北防務，發強鄰狡謀，中當軸忌，左遷索倫領隊大臣。 領隊例不得專摺奏事，居則鉤稽地形戹塞，出則徼循鄂博、卡倫，冀得當以報。 又數年，改授寧夏副都統，疏請發帑二十萬濬城外故渠，獲沃壤數千頃。 頻上疏，多言人所不敢言。
Huang Zhonghao, Yang Rangli, and the others are treated below. Zhi Rui, styled Gongying, belonged to the Tatara clan and had lived for generations at Zhakumu. He was enrolled in the Manchu Plain Red Banner and was a grandson of Yu Tai, governor-general of Shaanxi and Gansu. His father, Chang Jing, served as prefect of Suining in Sichuan. As a boy Zhi Rui showed unusual brilliance. In 1880 he passed the metropolitan examination, entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor, and was appointed a compiler. He and such men as Huang Tifang and Sheng Yu spurred one another to uphold integrity, and he sent up memorial after memorial on affairs of state. He rose step by step to Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent and was then promoted to vice minister of rites. When war broke out with Japan, he submitted a memorial of many thousand words outlining strategies for offense and defense. Alarmed at the prospect of danger to the secondary capital, he asked to raise volunteers and organize defenses. The court approved and sent him to Rehe to train troops. Before a month had passed, his younger sisters the consorts Jin and Zhen were demoted to noble ladies. He was stripped of his command and demoted to assistant minister at Uliastai. He left by a roundabout route through Zhangjiakou and rode on horseback across the Tianshan into the desolate western frontier. At each relay station along the route he questioned people about the land, local customs, and religion, and wrote poems to record his journey. After several years General Chang Geng sent him beyond the frontier to clear long-standing Sino-Russian disputes. In six months he settled more than a thousand cases. He sent up five memorials in all on northwestern defense, laying bare the schemes of an aggressive neighbor. The men at the center of power took offense, and he was demoted to Solon brigade commander. Brigade commanders were not allowed to submit memorials on their own. At his post he studied the terrain and strategic choke points; in the field he patrolled border markers and frontier stations, hoping for a chance to serve the dynasty. Several years later he was appointed vice commander at Ningxia. He asked the court for two hundred thousand taels to dredge an old canal outside the walls and reclaimed several thousand qing of rich farmland. He memorialized again and again, often speaking plainly where others would not dare.
5
宣統二年，遷杭州將軍。 明年，調伊犁將軍，加尚書銜。 入覲，條上弭邊患、禦外侮機宜甚悉； 又力陳新政多糜費，請省罷，壹意練兵救危局。 並請邊地練兵費百萬，部議止予二十萬。 抵新疆，聞武昌變，或勸少留，不可。 踰月，到官，日討軍士而申儆之。 已，蘭州軍譁變，寧夏繼之。 伊犁協統楊纘緒以兵叛，夜據南北軍器庫，攻將軍署。 群議舉志銳為都督，峻拒之； 迫詣商會，亦弗從，起發槍擊之，遂遇害。 其僕呂順奔走營棺斂，撫屍號慟，亦為叛軍所戕。 又武巡捕官劉從德四川人、教練官春勳京旗人，並及於難。 事聞，贈志銳太子少保，諡文貞。
In 1910 he was transferred to the post of general at Hangzhou. The following year he was moved to general at Yili and given the nominal rank of a ministry president. On audience with the throne he laid out in detail how to ease border troubles and resist foreign aggression; and he argued forcefully that the new reforms wasted money, urging that they be pared back so the court could concentrate on training troops to rescue the realm. He also asked for a million taels to train troops on the frontier, but the ministries approved only two hundred thousand. When he reached Xinjiang he heard of the uprising at Wuchang. Some advised him to wait awhile; he refused. Within a month he assumed his post and drilled the troops every day, warning them sharply of their duty. Before long the garrison at Lanzhou mutinied, and Ningxia did the same. Yang Zuanxu, the assistant commander at Yili, rose in revolt. That night his men seized the northern and southern arsenals and assaulted the general's residence. The rebels proposed making Zhi Rui military governor; he flatly refused; when they forced him to the chamber of commerce he still would not yield. He rose and opened fire on them, and was killed. His servant Lü Shun rushed about to secure a coffin, embraced the body and wept aloud, and was killed by the rebels as well. The armed patrol officer Liu Congde of Sichuan and the drill officer Chun Xun of the Metropolitan Banners also died in the turmoil. When word reached the court, Zhi Rui was posthumously made junior guardian of the heir apparent and given the posthumous name Wenzhen, "Loyal and Upright."
6
志銳夙負奇氣，守邊庭逾十稔，自號為窮塞主。 工詩詞。 熟察邊情，懼禍至無日。 其赴伊犁也，以手書遍告戚友，言「以身許國，不作生入玉門想」。 其致命遂志，蓋已定於拜疏出國門日雲。
Zhi Rui had always been a man of fierce spirit. He held the frontier for more than ten years and called himself Master of the Desolate Pass. He was accomplished in poetry. He knew the frontier situation intimately and feared catastrophe was only a matter of time. When he left for Yili he wrote by hand to relatives and friends everywhere, saying, "I give my life to the country and do not expect to return alive through the Jade Gate." His determination to die for his convictions had been settled, it seems, from the day he submitted his memorial and left the capital.
7
良弼，字賚臣，紅帶子，隸鑲黃旗，大學士伊里布孫。 少孤，事母孝。 劬學，留學日本陸軍學校，畢業歸，入練兵處。 歷陸軍部軍學司監督副使，補司長。 時新設禁衛軍，任第一協統領兼鑲白旗都統，遷軍諮府軍諮使。 平日以知兵名，改軍制，練新軍，立軍學，良弼皆主其謀。 尤留意人才，自將帥以至軍士，莫不延納。 思有所建樹，頗為時忌。
Liang Bi, styled Baichen, was a girdled bannerman enrolled in the Bordered Yellow Banner and a grandson of Grand Secretary Yilibu. Orphaned early, he was devoted to his mother. He studied hard, trained at the Japanese Army School, returned after graduation, and joined the Army Training Office. He served as deputy director of the military studies bureau in the army ministry and was later appointed bureau chief. When the new Imperial Guard was formed he commanded its first brigade and concurrently headed the Bordered White Banner, and was later made a military adviser on the general staff. He was widely known as a military expert. Army reform, training of new forces, and founding military schools—all bore his stamp. He was especially attentive to talent, recruiting officers and enlisted men alike. He hoped to accomplish great things, and many at court resented him for it.
8
武昌亂起，各省響應，朝論紛呶，王公貴人皆氣餒，莫知所為。 良弼獨與三數才傑朝夕規畫，外聯群帥，內安當國，思以立憲弭革命，圖救大局，上下皆恃以為重。 時袁世凱來京，方議國體，人心不安甚矣。 一日，良弼議事歸，及門，有人遽擲炸彈，三日而卒。 事聞，震悼，優恤如例。 其後官紳請立祠於北京祀之。
When rebellion erupted at Wuchang and province after province followed, the court was in an uproar. Princes and nobles lost heart and had no idea what to do. Liang Bi alone, with a handful of able men, plotted day and night—rallying commanders in the provinces, steadying those who held power in the capital—hoping constitutional rule might halt the revolution and save the dynasty. Court and country alike looked to him. Yuan Shikai had come to Beijing while the form of government was still in dispute, and public anxiety ran very high. One day, as Liang Bi returned from a meeting and reached his gate, an assassin hurled a bomb. He died three days later. When word reached the throne the court was shaken with grief and granted the usual generous posthumous honors. Later officials and local gentry petitioned to build a shrine in Beijing in his honor.
9
良弼剛果有骨氣，頗自負，雖參軍務，無可與謀，常以不得行其志為恨，日有憂色。 及遇刺，醫初謂可療，忽有進以酒者，遂死。 死未旬日，而遜位詔下，時皆悼之。 宗室載穆，字敬修，隸滿洲鑲藍旗，恂勤郡王允禵五世孫。 祖綿翔，鎮國將軍。 父奕雲，一等侍衛，記名副都統。 載穆年二十，除三等侍衛，累遷頭等，兼辦事章京。 以忼直忤上官意，數歲不遷。 光緒二十六年，拳亂起，兩宮西幸，痛哭自盡者再，遇救獲免。 三十二年，授太原城守尉。 明年，有詔遞裁駐防，分遣歸農，乃倡農桑，勸女工，興學校。 比去晉，旗民男婦務耕作、嫺織紝者達二百人。 省城門有八，舊閉其二。 阜城門當汾水沖，河決土壅，不能通車馬，群議閉之。 載穆曰：「此汾西數十村入城孔道也，請於舊門南闢新門。」 民稱便。 秩滿，將入覲，巡撫丁寶楨疏留之，報可。
Liang Bi was resolute and proud. Though he took part in military affairs, he had no true partner in counsel and brooded that he could not put his plans into effect; worry showed on his face every day. After the attack physicians at first thought he might recover, but someone then gave him wine and he died. Within ten days of his death the abdication edict was promulgated, and contemporaries mourned him all the more. Zongshi Zaimu, styled Jingxiu, was enrolled in the Manchu Bordered Blue Banner and a fifth-generation descendant of Prince Xunqin Yunli. His grandfather Mianxiang held the rank of defender of the state. His father Yiyun was a first-class imperial bodyguard with the recorded rank of vice commander. At twenty Zaimu was appointed a third-class bodyguard, rose to first class, and also served as a clerical secretary. His blunt integrity offended his superiors, and for years he received no promotion. In 1900, when the Boxer rising broke out and the court fled west, he twice wept and tried to take his own life but was saved each time. In 1906 he was appointed garrison commander of Taiyuan. The next year an edict called for successive cuts to the garrisons and the return of bannermen to farming. He promoted agriculture and sericulture, encouraged women's weaving, and opened schools. By the time he left Shanxi, two hundred banner men and women were working the fields or weaving skillfully. The provincial capital had eight gates, two of which had long been closed. The Fucheng Gate lay in the path of the Fen River. After a breach the silt piled up until neither carts nor horses could pass, and many argued the gate should be shut permanently. Zaimu said, "This is the main route by which dozens of villages west of the Fen enter the city. Open a new gate south of the old one instead." The people welcomed the change. When his term ended and he was due at court, Governor Ding Baozhen memorialized to keep him in post, and the request was granted.
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宣統三年，簡京口副都統。 鄂難作，緣江戒嚴。 載穆繕城郭，犒軍士，設練兵處，定營防城守章條，晝夜徼循，旗、漢民雜居者皆安堵。 已而新軍徙頓鐵道旁，運槍械者繦屬。 載穆知有異，遣使如江寧告急，弗應。 江蘇巡撫程德全號獨立，傳檄鎮江，防營乃潛通蘇軍，全城益怖懼。 於是官紳集議，定滿、漢聯合策，約毋戰，且要旗營繳軍械。 載穆知事不可為，罷會大慟，語左右曰：「吾上負朝廷，所欠止一死耳！」 左右環跽，請系眾心，維危局。 翼日，鎮紳楊邦彥詣軍門趣繳械，不許。 會新軍入據漢城，旗營大譁，乃進旗眾而語之曰：「駐防兵單糧儲竭，吾戰死甘如飴。 顧糜吾民肝腦膏鋒刃，吾奚忍？ 若曹其徇眾議，紓急禍。 吾身為大臣，且天潢親也，宜效死。」 是時驍騎校萬選力爭，請毋止戰，不見用，頓足大哭。 印班德霈亦憤甚，曰：「大局休矣！ 吾寧死以報國。」 載穆嘿不語，乃繕遺疏，手自緘印，遣佐領良才賚至京師。 复草遺書致商會，猶殷殷以七千人生命相囑。 隨行四僕皆遣歸。 有李順者，去復返，朝夕侍其側，偶退休，詰朝入寢室，則已自經死矣。 郡人哀之，殯斂如禮，且為置田安厝焉。 將軍鐵良上聞，命覈覆死事。 江寧失，鐵良走，宗人府亦無奏報，故褒贈之典弗及-{云}-。
In 1911 he was appointed vice commander at Jingkou. When rebellion broke out in Hubei, the Yangzi valley was placed under martial law. Zaimu repaired the walls, rewarded the troops, set up a training office, and drew up rules for camp defense and city garrison, patrolling day and night until banner and Han residents alike lived in peace. Before long the new army encamped beside the railway, and convoys of arms and ammunition passed without cease. Zaimu sensed trouble and sent messengers to Jiangning to plead for help, but received no answer. Jiangsu governor Cheng Dequan declared independence and sent a proclamation to Zhenjiang. The defense garrison secretly contacted Jiangsu troops, and terror spread through the city. Officials and gentry then met and agreed on a joint Manchu-Han policy not to fight, demanding that the banner garrison surrender its weapons. Zaimu saw that nothing could be done. When the meeting ended he broke down in tears and told his attendants, "I have failed the dynasty; all that remains for me is to die." His attendants knelt around him and begged him to steady the people and hold the crisis together. The next day the local gentleman Yang Bangyan came to headquarters to press for the surrender of arms; Zaimu refused. The new army then seized the Han quarter of the city and the banner camp erupted. Zaimu went before the banner people and said, "Our garrison is small and our stores are gone. I would gladly die fighting. But I cannot bear to waste our people's lives on the sword. How could I? Do as the assembly asks and ease this immediate danger. I am a high minister and of the imperial house; it is for me to die in service." The valiant cavalry officer Wan Xuan argued fiercely against yielding and pleaded that they not stop fighting, but was overruled. He stamped his feet and wept. The seal officer De Pei was furious as well. "The cause is lost," he said. I would rather die for the country." Zaimu said nothing. He drafted a final memorial, sealed it himself, and sent Assistant Commander Liang Cai to bear it to Beijing. He also wrote a farewell letter to the chamber of commerce, earnestly charging them with the lives of seven thousand people. He sent his four attending servants away. A servant named Li Shun left and came back again, waiting on him day and night. Once when Li stepped away briefly, he entered the bedroom at dawn and found Zaimu had hanged himself. The people of the district mourned him, buried him with full rites, and set aside land for his tomb. General Tie Liang reported the matter to the court, which ordered an inquiry into his death in service. Jiangning then fell, Tie Liang fled, and the Imperial Clan Court filed no report, so the usual posthumous honors never reached him.
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萬選、德霈並殉。 先是驍騎校同源以旗人將失所，忍死爭旗產。 至是乃語家人曰：「吾可以從殉國諸公後矣！」 沐浴整衣冠，不食而死。 萬選，字子昭，蒙古敖漢氏。 著有易注、筆諫、金石賞心、火龍攻戰略諸書。 德霈，字雨田； 同源，字子清：並蒙古人。
Wan Xuan and De Pei died with him as well. Earlier the valiant cavalry officer Tong Yuan, fearing that banner families would lose their livelihood, had risked death to defend banner property. Now he told his family, "I may follow the men who died for the dynasty." He bathed, dressed in his formal robes, and starved himself to death. Wan Xuan, styled Zizhao, was of the Mongol Aohan clan. He wrote Commentaries on the Changes, Brush Admonitions, Appreciating Metal and Stone, and Fire Dragon Attack Strategy, among other works. De Pei, styled Yutian; Tong Yuan, styled Ziqing: both were Mongols.
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文瑞，鈕祜祿氏，滿洲鑲紅旗人。 世襲男爵，充頭等侍衛，出為馬蘭鎮總兵。 中日之役，喜峰口迫近戰地，策守禦，遏內匪，轄境以寧。 坐陵樹蟲災免，頃之被宥，除歸化城副都統，兼署綏遠城將軍。 拳匪亂，蔓延蒙旗，教案紛糾。 文瑞至，與外人推誠商榷，償款獨輕，綏民德之。 調青州，念旗民乏生計，為闢工廠，興學校，編制軍隊，滿城一切皆治辦。 移成都，未之官，擢西安將軍。 興學、勸工，為治复仿青州。
Wen Rui was of the Niohuru clan and enrolled in the Manchu Bordered Red Banner. He inherited a baron's title, served as a first-class imperial bodyguard, and was appointed brigade general at Malan. During the Sino-Japanese War his post at Xifengkou lay near the front. He organized defenses, suppressed local banditry, and kept his district quiet. He was dismissed after insects damaged trees at the imperial tombs, but was soon pardoned and made vice commander at Guihuacheng, concurrently acting general at Suiyuan. When the Boxer rising spread into the Mongol banners, missionary cases multiplied and relations grew tense. Wen Rui dealt openly with foreign representatives; the indemnities he arranged were unusually light, and the people were grateful. At Qingzhou, seeing that banner families lacked livelihoods, he opened factories, founded schools, reorganized the garrison, and put the Manchu quarter in order. He was transferred to Chengdu but never took up that post and was promoted to general at Xi'an instead. He promoted schools and crafts and governed Xi'an much as he had Qingzhou.
13
議辦移墾授田法，未及行而鄂變作，西安新軍應之，先據漢城，緣塗縱火，煙焰張天。 疾趨南街，遇新軍，前騶戈什哈數人被擊死，紆道歸。 與左翼副都統承燕、右翼副都統克蒙額籌應變策，遣軍士畫陴而守，兩軍合戰，自申及亥不少休。 翼日昧爽，新軍分攻東、南門，旗兵多傷亡，文瑞督懾益力。 未幾，新軍請停戰會議，遣協領葆鈞往，迄未得要領。 复貽書新軍，反覆開喻，亦不答。 而新軍又兩路夾攻，旗營火器竭，漸不支。 日方午，東門破，進滿城，終夕巷戰，旗兵死者二千餘人，餘皆屠殺。 麾下壯士從者十餘，及其子熙麟而已。 於是環請引避圖恢復，文瑞愾然曰：「吾為統兵大員，有職守不能戡亂，重負君恩，惟有死耳！」 乃口授遺疏，趣熙麟書之，命乘間達京師，而自從容整衣冠赴井死。 幕僚秦鶴鳴斂之。 承燕同時投井死。 克蒙額，字哲臣，滿洲鑲藍旗人。 先請巡撫發新式軍械，遲不應，激戰三晝夜，力竭陣亡。
He was planning land-grant colonization schemes when rebellion broke out in Hubei. The new army at Xi'an joined in, seized the Han quarter first, and set fires along the streets until the sky was black with smoke. He rushed to South Street, ran into the new army, and several of his escorts were killed before he made his way back by a side route. With the left vice commander Cheng Yan and the right vice commander Ke Meng'e he planned their response, posted men along the walls, and fought the new army from mid-afternoon until late evening without respite. At dawn the next day the new army assaulted the eastern and southern gates. Banner casualties mounted, and Wen Rui drove the defense with all his strength. Soon the new army asked for a truce and talks. He sent Assistant Commander Bao Jun, but no terms could be agreed. He wrote again to the new army, reasoning with them at length, but they did not answer. The new army then attacked on two fronts at once. The banner garrison ran out of firearms and could no longer hold. At noon the eastern gate fell. The rebels entered the Manchu quarter and street fighting raged all night. More than two thousand banner soldiers died; the rest were massacred. Only a dozen loyal followers remained, together with his son Xilin. His followers begged him to withdraw and regroup. Wen Rui said angrily, "I am a commanding general charged with putting down rebellion. I have failed the emperor; I can only die." He dictated a final memorial for Xilin to write and told him to get it to Beijing if he could, then calmly dressed in his formal robes and drowned himself in a well. His aide Qin Heming arranged his burial. Cheng Yan drowned himself in a well at the same time. Ke Meng'e, styled Zhechen, was a Manchu of the Bordered Blue Banner. He had asked the governor for modern arms, but help came too late. After three days and nights of fierce fighting his strength gave out and he was killed in battle.
14
恆齡，字錫九，舒穆魯氏，滿洲正藍旗人，湖北荊州駐防。 恆齡少嗜學，嫺武幹，尤熟中外兵家言。 以附生官筆帖式，遷驍騎校，累擢佐領。 旗營久習窳惰，罕知兵事，乃創編新軍，設講武堂教之。 拳匪亂作，湘人旅荊者被煽動，燔沙市躉船及稅關、領事署，外國僑民多逃避，勢岌岌。 恆齡率二百人往鎮撫，誅首要，宥脅從，外人避難者護持之。 事寧，軍政課最。 將軍綽哈布疏綜營務，恆齡條上四事，曰：設警察，興學校，釐財政，練常備軍，並奏行。 設八旗高等學堂、陸軍小學堂，俾任校事。 顧其時風氣闇僿，款無所出，遂走謁總督張之洞，面陳規畫，獲助萬金，始成立； 猶不足，省新軍陋規益之，歲以為常。 於是訂章條，甄材穎，走書幣聘海內名儒，分科教授，校風肅然。 學部曹司考察，稱荊州第一。 旋領振威新軍，調督練處參議，總辦陸軍小學。 將軍恩存、總督陳夔龍交章論薦。
Heng Ling, styled Xijiu, was of the Shumulu clan, enrolled in the Manchu Plain Blue Banner, and garrisoned at Jingzhou in Hubei. From youth Heng Ling loved learning, was skilled in military affairs, and knew both Chinese and Western military theory well. Starting as a licentiate clerk, he rose to valiant cavalry officer and then to assistant commander. The garrison had grown slack and knew little of soldiering, so he formed a new force and opened a military academy to train them. When the Boxer rising broke out, Hunanese in Jingzhou were stirred up to burn warehouses at Shashi along with the customs house and consulate. Foreign residents fled and the situation looked desperate. Heng Ling led two hundred men to restore order, executed the ringleaders, pardoned those who had been coerced, and protected foreigners who sought refuge. When order was restored his military administration received the highest rating. General Chuo Habu reported on garrison affairs. Heng Ling proposed four measures—police, schools, fiscal reform, and a standing army—and all were adopted. He founded a banner higher school and an army primary school and was placed in charge of both. Funds were scarce and local opinion was narrow, so he went in person to Governor-General Zhang Zhidong, laid out his plans, and received ten thousand taels before the schools could open; even that was not enough, so he trimmed waste from the provincial new army's budget each year to make up the shortfall. He drew up regulations, selected promising students, and recruited distinguished scholars from across the country to teach by subject. Discipline at the schools was exemplary. Inspectors from the ministry of education ranked Jingzhou first in the province. He soon commanded the Zhenwei New Army, became an adviser at the training directorate, and oversaw the army primary school. General En Cun and Governor Chen Kuilong jointly recommended him in memorials.
15
宣統改元，調充熱河練軍統領。 汰老弱，補缺額，申嚴紀律，凡兩閱月，獲匪首葛蘭亭等，推功將校。 二年，授寧夏副都統，朝陽紳民籥留，夔龍上聞。 廷議以西陲邊要，趣到官。 既蒞事，首嚴煙禁； 開渠屯田，久無效，設方略整飭之。 三年，遭父憂。 令甲，旗員百日服除即視事。 恆齡固請終制，解職去，奉父喪於萬縣，抵宜昌，鄂亂作，道塗阻絕，將軍連魁疏請參軍事，上命署荊州左翼副都統。 恆齡援「墨絰從戎」義，愾然任城守，而援絕餉匱，兵人疲饉則譁變，乃斥家財餉之，涕泣誓眾，令毋擾沙市啟外釁。 時方患癰劇，裹創策騎出，晝夜徼循，血痕猶濡縷然。 無何，事益亟，外城失。 恆齡晨起，公服端坐堂上，發手槍洞胸而歾。 家人得其與弟恆廣、子裕文書，曰：「吾家世受國恩，宜竭力圖報。 今城既失，義當死。 所憾者老母在堂，忠孝不獲兩全。 第吾母有子能盡忠，亦甚得。 我死，汝曹能闔門殉節固善，否則善事吾母，以補吾不孝之罪，毋以吾死狀令老人知也。」 恆齡死數日，連魁與右翼副都統松鶴開門納民軍，荊州遂失。 事聞，上震悼，諡壯節。
At the beginning of the Xuantong reign he was appointed to command the Rehe training army. He cut the old and weak from the rolls, filled vacancies, and enforced strict discipline. Within two months he captured the bandit chief Ge Lanting and others, giving credit to his officers and men. In 1910 he was appointed vice commander at Ningxia. The gentry of Chaoyang petitioned to keep him, and Kuilong reported this to the court. The court decided the western frontier was too important and ordered him to take up his post at once. On taking office his first measure was a strict ban on opium; he reorganized long-neglected canal and frontier-farming projects. In 1911 his father died. Regulations required banner officers to resume duty after a hundred days of mourning. Heng Ling insisted on observing the full mourning period, resigned, and buried his father at Wanxian. At Yichang rebellion broke out in Hubei and travel became impossible. General Lian Kui asked the court to use him militarily, and he was ordered to act as left vice commander at Jingzhou. Invoking the tradition of taking the field in mourning dress, he angrily undertook the city's defense. Relief and supplies ran out; when hungry troops mutinied he spent his family fortune to pay them, wept before his men, and ordered that Shashi be left unmolested lest foreigners be provoked. He was suffering from a severe abscess but rode out day and night with his wound bound, blood still seeping through his clothes. Before long the crisis worsened and the outer city fell. Heng Ling rose in the morning, put on his official robes, sat upright in the hall, and shot himself through the chest. His family found letters to his brother Heng Guang and son Yu saying, "Our family has enjoyed the dynasty's favor for generations and ought to repay it with all our strength. Now that the city is lost, I am bound to die. My only regret is that my mother still lives; I cannot fulfill both loyalty and filial duty. Yet she has a son who can die loyal—that should comfort her somewhat. After I die, if you can all die with me, so much the better; otherwise care for my mother and atone for my unfilial conduct, and do not let her know how I died." A few days after Heng Ling's death, Lian Kui and the right vice commander Song He opened the gates to the revolutionary army, and Jingzhou fell. When word reached the throne the court was shaken with grief and gave him the posthumous name Zhuangjie, "Steadfast in Integrity."
16
參謀長德霈自經死。 恩霈亦自經，家人救之，憤不欲生，後數日卒。
His chief of staff, De Pei, hanged himself. En Pei also tried to hang himself. His family saved him, but grief consumed him and he died a few days later.
17
樸壽，字仁山，滿洲鑲黃旗人。 光緒二十年舉人，授吏部主事，累遷郎中。 拳亂起，聯軍入城，首與各國謀保商民。 出為山西歸綏道，簡庫倫辦事大臣。 三十二年，召授鑲藍旗滿洲副都統，遷正黃旗漢軍都統。 明年，除福州將軍，整旗務，嚴煙禁，專志訓練，得精卒四千人。 宣統三年，省城民軍起，率防軍與搏，火器猛利，民軍幾不支。 然民軍雖被創，輒隨時募集，防軍以猛鬥故，傷亡多，卒敗潰。 樸壽被執，受挫辱，不屈，遂支解之，棄屍山下，其死狀為最烈-{云}-。 事聞，贈太子太保，予二等輕車都尉世職，諡忠肅。
Pu Shou, styled Renshan, was a Manchu of the Bordered Yellow Banner. In 1894 he passed the provincial examination, joined the ministry of personnel as a director, and rose to bureau director. When the Boxers rose and allied troops entered Beijing, he was among the first to negotiate with the foreign powers to protect merchants and civilians. He was posted as intendant of Guihua in Shanxi and later selected as minister in charge at Urga. In 1906 he was recalled and made Manchu vice commander of the Bordered Blue Banner, then commander of the Chinese Plain Yellow Banner. The following year he was appointed general at Fuzhou, reorganized banner affairs, banned opium, concentrated on training, and built a force of four thousand elite troops. In 1911 the revolutionary army rose in the provincial capital. He led the defense garrison into battle; his troops' firepower was so strong the revolutionaries nearly broke. Though wounded, the revolutionaries recruited replacements at once. Pu Shou's troops fought fiercely but took heavy losses and were finally routed. Pu Shou was captured and humiliated but would not submit. He was dismembered and his body thrown below the hill—the most brutal death in the chapter. The court posthumously made him junior guardian of the heir apparent, granted a hereditary second-class commandery chariot captaincy, and gave him the posthumous name Zhongsu, "Loyal and Stern."
18
謝寶勝，字子蘭，安徽壽州人。 初隸金順麾下，從征西陲。 嗣隨宋慶、馬玉昆克肅州及關外諸城，積勳至都司。 以事與玉昆左，棄冠服走博克達山為黃冠。 光緒十五年，玉昆提督畿輔，鳩集舊部，獨偉視寶勝，招之出。 敦促備至，寶勝愾然曰：「玉昆知我者，義不忍卻！」 乃棄黃冠，詣軍所獻方略。 二十一年，朝鮮告警，從出關，與日軍數十戰，勇敢躐倫等。 玉昆弟陷重圍，銳身救之出。 和議成，憤甚，復為道士裝，羈跡京師白雲觀，如是者數年。
Xie Baosheng, styled Zilan, was from Shouzhou in Anhui. He first served under Jin Shun on campaigns in the far west. He later followed Song Qing and Ma Yukun in taking Suzhou and other cities beyond the pass and rose to colonel on accumulated merit. After a falling-out with Ma Yukun he abandoned his office, fled to Mount Bogda, and became a Daoist priest. In 1889 Ma Yukun became governor-general of Zhili, reassembled his old command, singled out Baosheng for special regard, and called him back to service. Ma Yukun pressed him insistently. Baosheng said angrily, "Yukun knows me well—I cannot in honor refuse!" He laid aside his priest's robes, went to headquarters, and offered his plans. In 1895, when war broke out in Korea, he crossed the frontier and fought the Japanese in dozens of engagements, his courage unmatched among his peers. When Ma Yukun's younger brother was surrounded, Baosheng fought his way in and brought him out. After peace was made he was furious, put on Daoist robes again, and lived for years at the White Cloud Abbey in Beijing.
19
拳亂作，柴洪山統武衛護軍，榮祿檄領前路後營，已留河南，更名精銳軍，領左營，尋筦豫北軍。 忌者中以蜚語，巡撫吳重憙疏辨其冤，上卒優容之。 駐軍河、陝、汝最久，將士積相畏服，軍麾所指，紀律肅然。 累遷至副將。
When the Boxers rose, Chai Hongshan commanded the Wuwei Guard. Ronglu ordered Baosheng to lead a rear battalion in Henan; the unit was renamed the Elite Army, and he soon took command of forces in northern Henan. Rivals spread rumors against him, but Governor Wu Chongxi memorialized in his defense and the court eventually exonerated him. He was longest stationed along the He, Shan, and Ru rivers. His officers and men came to respect and fear him, and wherever his banner pointed discipline held firm. He rose step by step to brigade deputy.
20
宣統改元，授河北鎮總兵。 明年，移南陽，河、陝、汝軍仍受節度。 寶勝益感奮，尤嚴治盜，所蒞毌擾民。 恆短衣執械先士卒，或宵行數十百里，偽為小商，诇虛實。 村民通匪者憚其至，嘗置毒飲水處，寶勝則自攜水罂，懷麥餅，食盡，忍飢渴以為常，以是寇鮮漏網。 洛陽張黑子、嵩縣王天縱、汝州董萬川尤鷙悍，張、董併計擒之，天縱懼不敢出。 豫西數十州縣皆安堵，而南陽王八老虎猶嵎負。 寶勝至，移書期決鬥。 會天大雪，前期五日，潛師薄其巢，賊不戒，據中庭轟拒。 寶勝奮身入，眾繼之，火其廬，卒就縛，置之法。 自是南陽無遺寇。 寶勝短軀幹，目光炯炯能懾人。 視盜如仇，待士卒若子弟。 勞無吝賞，遇喪亡，賻卹尤厚。 餉饋無所受，無兼衣餘食，統兵十餘年，而負債鉅萬。 巡撫寶棻上聞，中旨敕司庫償九千餘金，異數也！ 三年，移師嵩縣。 值鄂亂作，亟還籌戰守。 其時襄樊已應和，土寇處處飆起。 豫南與陝、鄂壤地接，市言訛鷖日數至。 檢勒部曲，日夕巡徼不少休。 支振數十日，而襄樊軍闌入，士民與通款，將內訌。 諸將意沮，咸莫能奮，惟都司姚靄雲慷慨原從戰。 無何，新野陷，大吏飛檄戒毋妄動。 寶勝憤激，赴校場，與眾誓死守，而府縣官已委印綬去。 翌日元旦，獨朝服詣萬壽宮行禮，痛哭不能止。 俄傳南軍入，煙焰翳天，各營亦以食盡而潰。 不得已，退頓裕州，比至，城皆樹白幟矣，乃止舍。 至夕而遜位詔至，召將卒勵以忠義，麾之去，夜半時，屏僕從，肅衣冠，嘔血數升，以槍自擊死。 平旦，將卒趨視，皆哭失聲，以大纛裹屍，舁至獨頭鎮斂之。
At the beginning of the Xuantong reign he was appointed brigade general of Hebei. The following year he was transferred to Nanyang while still commanding the He, Shan, and Ru forces. Baosheng threw himself into the work, cracked down hard on banditry, and never allowed his troops to harass civilians. He often wore plain clothes, took up arms, and led from the front; sometimes he traveled scores of miles by night disguised as a peddler to scout the enemy. Villages that colluded with bandits feared him and sometimes poisoned water sources. He carried his own water jar and wheat cakes and routinely endured hunger and thirst on campaign, so few bandits escaped him. Zhang Heizi of Luoyang, Wang Tianzong of Songxian, and Dong Wanchuan of Ruzhou were especially fierce. He captured Zhang and Dong by stratagem; Tianzong was too afraid to show himself. Dozens of counties in western Henan were pacified, but Wang Balao of Nanyang still held out defiantly. When Baosheng arrived he sent a letter challenging Wang to a decisive fight. Heavy snow fell. Five days before the appointed duel he led troops secretly to the bandits' lair. They were caught off guard but fought back fiercely from the courtyard. Baosheng charged in himself; his men followed, burned the camp, captured Wang, and executed him by law. After that no bandits remained in Nanyang. Baosheng was short in stature, but his bright, piercing gaze could intimidate anyone. He hated bandits as personal enemies and treated his soldiers like family. He rewarded hard work generously and gave especially rich condolence payments when men fell. He accepted no gifts, owned no spare clothes or extra food, commanded troops for more than ten years, and still owed tens of thousands of taels. Governor Bao Fen reported his case to the throne, and an imperial order directed the treasury to repay more than nine thousand taels—an exceptional act of grace. In 1911 he moved his troops to Songxian. When rebellion broke out in Hubei he rushed back to plan how to fight and hold his ground. By then Xiangyang and Fancheng had joined the uprising, and local bandits were rising everywhere. Southern Henan bordered Shaanxi and Hubei, and rumors and alarming reports arrived every day. He drilled his troops and patrolled day and night without rest. He held on for several weeks, but Xiangyang-Fancheng troops broke in; his men and local people were in contact with them and mutiny was imminent. His officers lost heart and none would fight—only Colonel Yao Aiyun volunteered to stand with him. Before long Xinye fell, and superiors sent urgent orders warning him not to act rashly. Baosheng, furious, went to the drill ground and swore with his men to hold to the death, while prefectural and county officials had already abandoned their posts. On New Year's Day he went alone in court dress to the Palace of Longevity to perform the rites and wept without stopping. Soon word came that southern troops had entered the city; smoke blotted out the sky, and the camps broke up one by one as provisions ran out. He had no choice but to withdraw to Yuzhou. When he arrived, the city had already raised white flags of surrender, and he halted there. That evening the abdication edict arrived. He assembled his officers and men, urged them to loyalty, and sent them away. At midnight he dismissed his attendants, dressed in his formal robes, vomited blood, and shot himself. At dawn his officers and men came running; all wept aloud. They wrapped his body in his command banner and carried it to Dutou for burial.
21
姚靄雲，陝西人。 舊為多隆阿部將，後從寶勝軍，隸營務處，亦為民軍所戕-{云}-。
Yao Aiyun was from Shaanxi. He had served under Duolong'a and later under Baosheng at the camp affairs office. He too was killed by revolutionary troops.
22
黃忠浩，字澤生，湖南黔陽人。 通經術，嗜讀儒先性理書。 以優貢生入貲為內閣中書。 主沅州講席，銳意地方利弊，建西路師範學堂，勸民植桑育蠶，尤顓志礦業。 陳寶箴、趙爾巽先後撫湘，設礦局及公司，採平江金礦、常寧水口山鉛礦，至今稱厚利，皆其謀也。
Huang Zhonghao, styled Zesheng, was from Qianyang in Hunan. He was versed in the classics and devoted to Neo-Confucian moral philosophy. As an outstanding tribute student he purchased a post as secretary in the grand secretariat. He taught at Yuanzhou, focused on local welfare, founded the Western Circuit Normal School, encouraged sericulture, and was especially devoted to mining. When Chen Baozhen and Zhao Erxun governed Hunan in turn, they set up mining offices and companies and opened the Pingjiang gold mines and Changning Shuikoushan lead mines—still regarded as highly profitable—all on his advice.
23
光緒二十一年，以東事籌防，募鄉勇五百人入鄂，守田家鎮砲台。 總督張之洞一見重之，調領武靖營，駐洪山。 二十三年，治軍長沙，統毅字軍，軍故徵苗舊旅，日久窳敝，不可用。 寶箴納其議，別募威字新軍，俾主之。 二十六年，之洞檄募師勤王。 二十八年，徙駐岳州，緝新堤土寇，平之。 再入貲為道員。 赴日本參觀大操，歸，益詳練戰術，知兵名大著。 明年，爾巽檄綜湖南營務處，統忠字旗五營。 其冬，母憂去職。
In 1895, as war with Japan loomed, he raised five hundred local militia and sent them into Hubei to guard the batteries at Tianjiazhen. Governor-General Zhang Zhidong took to him at once and put him in command of the Wujing Camp at Hongshan. In 1897 he drilled troops at Changsha and commanded the Yi Army—veteran anti-Miao forces that had grown rotten with age and were no longer fit for service. Baozhen accepted his advice, raised a new Wei Army separately, and put him in command. In 1900 Zhang Zhidong ordered him to raise troops for the relief of the court. In 1902 he was posted to Yuezhou, suppressed bandits at Xindi, and restored order. He again purchased the rank of circuit intendant. He went to Japan to observe army maneuvers and returned with a far sharper grasp of modern tactics; his reputation as a military expert spread widely. The following year Erxun put him in charge of the Hunan camp affairs office and five battalions of the Zhong Banner. That winter he resigned to mourn his mother.
24
逾歲，廣西降匪陸亞發陷柳州，湘邊大震。 起忠浩率所部援桂，直搗梅寨，用少擊眾，寇大創，降敕褒嘉。 寇奔福祿村，村故瑤地，箐壑深岨，中有危塗垂線縷，容一人行。 忠浩乃短衣芒蹻，徒步深入。 會天酷暑，鬱為瘴癘，兵士死相繼，忠浩亦遘膨疾，然治軍勤如故，寇卒不敢近。 捷上，授狼山鎮總兵，請終制，改署任道員授總戎，特例也。 是時岑春煊駐桂林，檄與議軍事，奏署右江鎮。 服闋，予實授。 未幾，乞假去。 再至湖北，爾巽留綜營務處，兼統全省防軍，荊襄水師受節度。
A year later the surrendered bandit Lu Yafa of Guangxi seized Liuzhou, throwing the Hunan border into alarm. Zhonghao was recalled to lead his men into Guangxi, struck Meizhai directly, defeated a larger force with fewer troops, and received an edict of commendation. The bandits fled to Fulu Village in former Yao country, where deep ravines held a perilous path no wider than a thread that only one man could traverse at a time. Zhonghao put on plain clothes and straw sandals and went in on foot. The heat was fierce and miasma spread; soldiers died in succession. Zhonghao fell ill with swelling disease but drilled his men as diligently as ever, and the bandits dared not approach. After his victory was reported he was appointed brigade general of Langshan. Though still in mourning, he was given acting rank as intendant and field command—an exceptional arrangement. Cen Chunxuan was then at Guilin; he summoned Zhonghao to discuss strategy and memorialized him as acting commander of the Right River. When mourning ended he received a substantive appointment. Before long he asked for leave and departed. He returned to Hubei; Erxun kept him at the camp affairs office, put him in command of the provincial defense forces, and placed the Jing-Xiang naval force under his orders.
25
宣統二年，從爾巽入川，署提督，乞歸。 三年，京師開全國教育會，忠浩與焉。 爭鐵路國有為非計，議大濬洞庭湖，紓湘菑，議論侃侃無所撓。 還長沙，值巡撫余誠格新蒞官，黨人謀日亟。 誠格慮新軍有異志，以中路巡防十營屬之，不就。 誠格下席揖請至再，不獲已，始受事。 甫三日，鄂亂起。 九月朔，新軍變，將入城，協統蕭良臣遁，防軍為內應。 忠浩方晨謁，隨誠格出，撫諭至再，勢洶洶不可遏，要誠格為都督。 誠格從間道出，召水師，水師亦變。 誠格投江，左右援之，不得死。 忠浩猶留署，火起，護弁強之出，及門，遇亂兵，被執，脅降不從，劫之走，刃傷臂及股，至小吳門城樓，遂遇害。 家人奉喪歸葬，緣塗設奠者數百里。 繼忠浩死者有楊讓梨。
In 1910 he followed Erxun into Sichuan as acting provincial commander and then asked to retire. In 1911 a national education conference met in Beijing; Zhonghao attended. He argued that railway nationalization was a mistake, urged a major dredging of Dongting Lake to ease Hunan's floods, and spoke his mind without flinching. Back in Changsha, the new governor Yu Chengge had just taken office and revolutionary plotting grew more urgent by the day. Chengge, fearing disloyalty in the new army, offered him the ten central-route patrol battalions; he refused. Chengge rose from his seat and bowed to him repeatedly; unable to refuse further, he at last accepted command. Three days later rebellion broke out in Hubei. On the first day of the ninth month the new army mutinied and prepared to enter the city. Assistant commander Xiao Liangchen fled, and elements of the defense force acted as collaborators within. Zhonghao was on a morning call and went out with Chengge, reasoning with the mob again and again, but the crowd could not be restrained and demanded that Chengge become military governor. Chengge slipped out by a side route and called up the naval force, but the sailors mutinied as well. Chengge threw himself into the river, but his attendants pulled him out and he could not die. Zhonghao remained at headquarters. When fire broke out his guards forced him out. At the gate he was seized by rebel troops, refused to surrender, was dragged away with wounds to his arm and thigh, and was killed at the Xiaowumen gate tower. His family bore his coffin home for burial, and mourners set out offerings along the route for hundreds of miles. Among those who died after Zhonghao was Yang Rangli.
26
楊讓梨，字劭欽，籍湘鄉。 少與王珍子詩正友善。 詩正援台灣，戰失利，嘗負之以免，軍中咸壯之。 積勳至守備。 轉戰新疆、河州、西寧，數有功，累擢參將，賜號鏗色巴圖魯。 既，還長沙，隸忠浩麾下。 宣統二年，補鎮筸鎮標中軍游擊。 明年，武漢事起，忠浩電調援長沙。 次辰州，聞省城亂，乃扼辰龍關，誓死守。 筸兵故悍銳，為民軍所憚。 時總兵周瑞龍持兩端，其子瓚齎金至，將以餌筸兵，哨弁李鳳鳴潛告讓梨，得為備。 瑞龍稱疾，檄讓梨還，代以他將。 讓梨乃上書責以大義滅親，辭激昂，且傳檄捕瓚，瓚遁。 已而瑞龍降，道府官委印綬去。 讓梨痛哭，犒遣軍士，獨棹小舟至清浪灘，踴身入水。 舟子泅出之，讓梨恚甚，曰：「奚活我為？」 瓚出代其軍，遣人追縶讓梨及其子傳孔，鎖送長沙。 迳常德，遇龍璋巡按西路，勸之不屈，遂斬之。 臨刑，肅衣冠北鄉拜，觀者萬餘人，皆泣下。 傳孔釋還。
Yang Rangli, styled Shaoqin, was from Xiangxiang. In youth he was close friends with Wang Zhen's son Shizheng. When Shizheng went to fight in Taiwan and the battle went badly, he once carried Rangli on his back to safety, and the whole army admired the deed. He rose on accumulated merit to garrison commander. He fought in Xinjiang, Hezhou, and Xining, won repeated distinction, rose to brigade general, and was granted the title Kense Batulu. He later returned to Changsha and served under Zhonghao. In 1910 he was appointed central battalion commander of the Zhenqian garrison. The following year, when rebellion broke out at Wuhan, Zhonghao telegraphed for him to reinforce Changsha. At Chenzhou he heard the provincial capital had fallen into chaos and seized Chenlong Pass, swearing to hold it to the death. The Qian garrison was famously fierce, and the revolutionary army feared them. Brigade general Zhou Ruilong was wavering; his son Zan arrived with gold to bribe the Qian troops. Sentinel officer Li Fengming secretly warned Rangli, and he was able to prepare. Ruilong claimed illness, ordered Rangli back, and replaced him with another officer. Rangli wrote a furious letter invoking the duty to put loyalty above family ties and issued a warrant for Zan's arrest; Zan fled. Before long Ruilong surrendered, and circuit and prefectural officials abandoned their posts. Rangli wept, rewarded and dismissed his soldiers, poled a small boat alone to Qinglang Beach, and threw himself into the water. The boatman pulled him out. Rangli was furious and said, "Why did you save me?" Zan took command of the troops and sent men to seize Rangli and his son Chuan Kong, who were shackled and sent to Changsha. Passing through Changde he met Long Zhang, inspector of the western circuit, who urged him to submit; he refused and was beheaded. At the execution he dressed in his formal robes and bowed toward the north; more than ten thousand onlookers wept. Chuan Kong was released and sent home.
27
有陳萁者，讓梨從子壻也。 當讓梨被縛時，萁即奪起擊縛者，僕一人，攢刃交下，傷其首，斷一足，並死之。
There was also Chen Qi, Rangli's nephew by marriage. When Rangli was seized, Qi sprang up and attacked his captors. With a single servant he fought back until blades cut his head and severed a foot; both died.
28
論曰：辛亥之變，各省新軍既先發難，防營不能獨支，而京外旗兵久無軍備，又多被殘困，死行陣者，自寥寥可數。 志鈞等權輕勢孤，艱難搘柱，思以一隅挽全局； 及事不可為，乃以死報，志節皎然，可敬亦可哀矣！
The historian comments: In the revolution of 1911 the provincial new armies struck first; defense garrisons could not hold alone. Banner troops outside the capital had long gone without proper arms and were often trapped and slaughtered, so those who died fighting were few. Men such as Zhi Rui held little power and stood alone, struggling to shore up the situation and hoping to save the dynasty from a single corner of the empire; when nothing more could be done they repaid the dynasty with their lives. Their integrity shines bright—admirable and deeply moving.