Nanjing was the seat of the Liangjiang Governorate of the Qing Dynasty. Not long ago, when I visited the former site of the Liangjiang Governor's Office, I found that it displayed some portraits of famous courtiers of the late Qing Dynasty who had once been the governor of Liangjiang, such as Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, Zeng Guoquan, etc., as well as Lin Zexu, whom we are familiar with.
In my impression, although Lin Zexu had served as an official in Jiangsu, and had also served as the governor of Huguang, the governor of Liangguang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the governor of Yungui, and other feudal officials, it seemed that he had not been the governor of Liangjiang. Could it be that the portrait displayed at the Liangjiang Governor's Office is wrong?
In fact, we can say that Lin Zexu was the governor of Liangjiang, or we can say that he did not have been the governor of Liangjiang.
What's going on?
Let's start at the beginning.
Lin Zexu, ziyuanfu, a native of Houguan County, Fujian, was born in 1785. Lin Zexu was a person who passed the examination at the age of 19, but the first time he participated in the examination, he unfortunately fell behind Sun Shan, and it was not until the age of 26 that he was admitted to the jinshi and entered the career path. Lin Zexu was dissatisfied with the deceit of the officialdom, and once resigned from the official and returned to his hometown. After the Daoguang Emperor ascended the throne, on the recommendation of Cao Zhenyong, Shen Weijun and others, Lin Zexu was promoted and reused. Lin Zexu was able to make a name for himself in the official arena.
Lin Zexu is very familiar with Jiangsu, he has served as an official in Jiangsu for 3 times, successively serving as an envoy of Jiangsu Province, a political envoy of Jiangning Province, and an inspector of Jiangsu, with a cumulative period of up to 12 years. During his stay in Jiangsu, Lin Zexu was diligent in government affairs, concerned about people's livelihood, and did a lot of things beneficial to the local people and the people in terms of water conservancy, water reduction, disaster relief, and mitigation, and was praised by the local people:
"Wu Zhonghuan was hungry, and he played the role of sparing the endowment and raising a pension. Before he was appointed in the Department of Relief, he agreed on a charter for relief, which was effective, until it was still the law, and the drawbacks were clear. Relief is the accumulation of grain and preparation for famine. Qing Li confessed, and all the prisons were controlled by Beijing. Zhao Jiazhi, reluctantly do it. ”
"Restore the original river to the bay to straighten, save more than 30,000 yuan in labor costs, and use the Qipu River of the Liu River near The Dredging, and the XuLiujing of the nearby Baimao, and the East and West Protective Pond Rivers." He also jundantu, Danyang Canal, Baodai Bridge, And Dian, with the second xingju, for the benefit of Wuzhong for decades. ”
The "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" records Lin Zexu's political achievements in Jiangsu in more detail, and specifically mentions: "The governor of the two departments and two rivers. "It turned out that the governor of Liangjiang at that time was called Tao Shu. Tao Shu was a very capable official with a very broad heart, promoting and reusing a group of young officials and letting them do things, lin Zexu was one of them.
In 1835, when Tao Shu entered Beijing to report for duty, lin Zexu acted as the governor of Liangjiang; in 1836, Tao Shu went to other places to inspect defense, and Lin Zexu acted as the governor of Liangjiang again. This is the matter of the "Governor of the Two Departments and Two Rivers" mentioned in the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty.
The so-called "acting" refers to the vacancy or departure of an official, and other officials temporarily act as their deputies. During the Qing Dynasty, "acting" was also a way for officials to serve. Therefore, we can call Lin Zexu the governor of Liangjiang. However, Lin Zexu's time as acting governor of Liangjiang was very short, so that the records of the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" were few words, not as rich as other experiences, so we can also say that Lin Zexu did not act as the governor of Liangjiang.
In addition to acting viceroy of Liangjiang twice, Lin Zexu also had the experience of rubbing shoulders with the position of viceroy of Liangjiang.
It was in the spring of 1939, due to the death of Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang, due to illness, the imperial court appointed Lin Zexu as the governor of Liangjiang, but Lin Zexu "did not arrive". What's going on here?
Originally, at that time, opium was rampant in Guangdong, and Huang Jue, the secretary of the Hongxu Temple, went to the shu imperial court and requested that opium be strictly prohibited. The Daoguang Emperor gave this proposal to his ministers for discussion. Lin Zexu insisted on using heavy codes to ban smoking, saying: "If this disaster is not eliminated, after ten years, there will be no money to raise, and there will be no available soldiers." ”
The Daoguang Emperor was impressed by Lin Zexu's words, and he was deeply impressed, and summoned Lin Zexu for consultation 19 times in a row. Soon, the Daoguang Emperor appointed Lin Zexu as a minister of Chincha and went to Guangdong to ban opium—thus, there was the famous "Humen tobacco sales".
Since then, Lin Zexu has never returned to Jiangsu.
[References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Governor of Liangjiang, etc.]