IN THE DAYS OF THE TAIPINGS THE TRIADS AT SHANGHAI 3 empire.By an exceptional act of Grace,he was allowed to retire into private life while still having six years of life years of his life was my grandfather,his second son,Ting before him,and he retired to the enjoyment of a vast for- Tunyen. tune,acquired during forty years of holding office,in the Ting Tunyen was born in the tingyu year (1777),and course of which he had not neglected the opportunities was in his forty-second year when his'father died.As a for enrichment which his'position gave him.Year by year youth he showed no aptitude for his hooks,and though,as he remitted his surplus income to his nephew,who was his one of the gentry,he entered the examinations,he failed to trusted agent;and by him it was invested in buying property take his degree.Year after year he tried without success, in and around Tungli. but finally in his forty-seventh year,he obtained his Siutsai When my great-grandfather died,in the tingchow year degree at the same examination as his own son,my father. (1817),he left an estate worth many million taels,invested Though he had no aptitude for scholarship,he was an ex- in property in the village;in rice fields around it of several cellent farmer and man of business;and his administration thousand mow,also producing a second dry crop;in large of the estate was highly approved by his brothers and their plantations of mulberry trees,of which the succulent leaves married sons. fed silk-worms producing the best of silk;in extensive fish- My father Ting Kunyi,with the to-name Minsien,was ing and reed-cutting rights on the shallow lake which bor- born in the jensui year,the seventh of Kiaking (1802).He dered the estate on the east;in a bank,a pawn-shop and'two backed his book well,and took his Siutsai degree at the first grain-shops in Wukiang;in two banks and three pawn-shops trial,in his twenty-first year.He might have gone on to the in Soochow;and in a large store of gold and silver in ingots. higher examinations and entered official life,with all its His daughters were provided for on their marriage,and be- possibilities of enrichment;but the business of the estate fore his death he arranged for the division of his estate in was so great and complicated,that he was needed to assist this way.To his eldest son he gave the family mansion with his father;and,on his father's death in the kengtze year the lands pertaining to it,and the ancestral temple,with (1840),he became the administrator. land sufficient to constitute a generous endowment.To his I have now come down to my unworthy self,the old scholar third son he gave the banks and pawn-shops in Soochow and who pens this narrative for your recreation.I was born Wukiang with half a million taels in silver.The remaining under the sign of the Serpent,in the kweisze year (1833) portion of the gold and silver he divided into three parts,one the kengwu month,the yichow day,at the jenshen hour;and each to the eldest and second sons,and the third part to be the astrologer informed my father that the heavenly aspect a fund for the benefit of the estate and to protect it from the indicated by my eight characters foretold a life of many rapacity of the minor officials. vicissitudes,but long and ending in peaceful calm.My The residue of his estate,comprising house property, father gave me the name of Kienchang,"Well-established farms,fishing and other rights,and grain shops,he left in and Luxuriant,"my official name by which I should always trust,to be held undivided for the benefit of his descendants. be inscribed in official records;but,as is customary with us Of the net annual profit,one-tenth was to be paid to the head Chinese,when I reached the age of puberty and became a of the family;one-tenth divided equally between the ances- serious student,I selected the to-name Meisun,"Beautiful tral temple,and the administrator of the estate;and the Gentleness",by which I would thenceforth,for the rest of remaining eight-tenths divided equally between his living my life,be addressed familiarly by all my kinsfolk and my male descendants who had married,were householders,and friends. were either resident on the estate or were engaged in busi- I took to learning as a duck takes to water.My first ness for it.The administrator of the estate during the later lesson-book,the "Three-Word Classic",was soon mastered, and it was for me a proud moment when,the noisy din of