Yeh Ming Hsin

Yeh Ming Hsin was the appointed Viceroy of Kwang Tung (zh-tsp |t=廣東 |s=广东 |p=Guǎngdōng) and Kwangsi (zh-tsp |t=廣西 |s=广西 |p=Guǎngxī) from 1854-1857.

He was a native of Han-Yang, part of the port of Hankou (formerly existing cities now in the territory of Wuhan), which was destroyed by the forces of the Taiping Rebellion.

The leaders of the Taiping Rebellion came from the areas of Kwang Tung and Kwangsi, and it'sindicated that Governor Yeh transferred his personal loss into intense bitter feelings for the people over whom he was to rule.

A provincial insurrection in Canton (zh-tsp |t=廣州 |s=广州 |p=Guǎngzhōu) separate from the concurrent Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1855 during the administration of Governor Yeh. During this time he curried favor with the Qing government by quickly executing "rebels" without trial en masse —half of whom were said to be innocent of sedition, and had been accused of such as a pretext for extortion. Many, —reportedly 75,000— were executed in the summer of 1855 by decapitation.

The speed and volume of the executions meant that the headless bodies were left piled up on both sides of the driveway near the execution ground in Canton, laying out in the hot sun for two days or more before any arrangements for the burial of so many people could be made.

The corpses of the individuals killed during the crack-down were ultimately disposed of in a ravine located at the western outskirts of Canton.

Yeh Ming Hsin's governance was brought to an end by a joint British and French force led by James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and Baron Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros a few years after this incident in 1857 when, in response to the Viceroy's pattern of persecuting foreigners in Canton (including the burning down of places of foreign business, bounties on legal foreign businessmen, and even an attempted poisoning of their food supply), he made his final insult to the British by having arrested 12 Chinese sailors aboard the "Arrow" (a Chinese-owned ship which had been licensed to sail under a British flag in Hong Kong).

Partly owing to Governor Yeh's reported obesity, he was easily captured and then banished to Calcutta where hefell into disparity and lived the remainder of his life in ignominy.

References

* My Life in China and America (1905) pages 53-56 - Yung Wing
* China and the Manchus (1912) chapter 8 - Herbert Allen Giles