The Zhang Lin family, who initiated the poetics of Jinmen

Opening whispers

In the era of the imperial examination, the number of people and soldiers became an important indicator of the level of regional cultural development. Although the development of Tianjin city began in the Ming Dynasty, until the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were not many people and scholars from Tianjin. After the establishment of the prefecture and county during the Yongzheng period, tianjin was unprecedentedly prosperous, the number of people and scholars increased by a spurt, and many keju families appeared, most of whom were enthusiastic about local cultural and social undertakings, which led to the rapid improvement of Tianjin's cultural status and soon became the political, commercial and cultural center of the north. The emergence of the Keju family and the elevation of its cultural status are of symbolic significance in the history of Tianjin's urban development. Starting from this issue, this column has successively launched the Tianjin Keju Family Series.

In the second year of Yongle of the Ming Dynasty (1404), Ming Chengzu established Tianjin Wei, which became an important military town, which was also the real starting point for Tianjin's urban development. After the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, commerce gradually developed because Tianjin was in the throat of grain being transported to the Beijing Division and was the gateway to Qifu. However, until the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Tianjin's culture was extremely backward, and the Tianjin literati Wang Youpu said: "Although Yuxiang is close to the Beijing Division, it was built by Ming Chengzu and built the army to defend the land." Its vulgarity is still brave and reckless... For this reason, people who are eager to learn and can write have not been known for hundreds of years. ”

In the second year of the Yongzheng Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1724), Tianjin was changed to a prefecture, and in the ninth year, Tianjin Prefecture was established, with Tianjin County attached. According to the "New Chronicle of Tianjin County", by the year of Guangxu Gengzi (1900), people accounted for two-tenths of the entire province directly under the central government, and jinshi accounted for one-quarter. In the Qing Dynasty, Tianjin also appeared many family members whose family name lasted for generations. Most of these keju families are enthusiastic about local cultural, educational and charitable undertakings, which further promotes the development of Tianjin's cultural and social undertakings.

The Zhang Lin family is a typical family of keju in the early Qing Dynasty that had an important impact on Tianjin culture.

Zhang Lin (1658-1713), also known as Ru Zuo ,鲁庵, also known as Wosong Laogu (倭松老衲), was a native of Funing (present-day Funing District, Qinhuangdao). During the Shunzhi period, his father Zhang Xi moved to Tianjin because he ran the Changlu salt industry. In the 20th year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1681), Zhang Lin was appointed as the head of the official work department by The Gong (a tribute obtained through the donation of money) as the head of the Official Works Department, and later promoted to langzhong of the Military Department. In the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Zhang Lin's mother died, and after three years of serving his mother Ding You, he supplemented the original official, and soon promoted to Shaanxi Yi Preacher, and later promoted to anhui envoy, Fujian buzheng, Yunnan buzheng and other positions. During his tenure as a political envoy in Yunnan, he also acted as the inspector of Yunnan.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, entering the army through the imperial examination was called the right way. Those who enter the bureaucracy through donations are often discriminated against. Although Zhang Lin was admitted to the government by donation, he had both talent and knowledge, and his poems, texts, and words were all "outstanding into a family". Zhang Lin's appointment from donation to envoy from Erpin and acting as inspector of Zheng Erpin is obviously related to his talent and knowledge.

The Zhang Lin family was a large salt merchant in Fujiajinmen and also a family of scholars in Tianjin. Zhang Lin not only read a lot of books himself, but also attaches great importance to the education of future generations, especially the study of karma. In the thirty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty, his sons Zhang Tan and Zhang Yu were raised in the same place. It is called "one door and two phoenix". Zhang Tan, Zi Yifeng, Mei Zhou Sanren, and Qingyu, "Sexual Love, Strong Knowledge, And Percussion", Official Cabinet Zhongshu. Zhang Yu (張壎), a hundred characters, is a secretary of the cabinet of successive officials. Good cursive, gong poems, author of "Qin You Poetry Grass". The two brothers also co-authored the collection of essays "Two Zhangzi Combined Manuscripts". Among the descendants of the Zhang clan, two jinshi were also produced, namely Zhang Lin's great-grandson Zhang Yingwei and his grandson Zhang Hubai. Zhang Yingwei was the grandson of Zhang Yu( 張壎), a third-year (1823) jinshi of Daoguang, and a county magistrate of Lichuan County, Hubei Province. Zhang Hubai, the character Xishan, called on the subjects, and also called Xiaoya. Qianlong Thirty-three years (1768), thirty-four years of joint Jie Jinshi, the cabinet of successive officials. Forty-five years of addition to the Rank of Hanlin Academy editor, supervision of Henan. Later, he was the head of the Zongren Mansion. Zhang Hubai was a clean and honest official, good at identifying talents, and "Gong Kai Shu, which was valued by the university scholar Ah Gui." The inscription of his ancestors will make Zhang Hubai write." He is the author of the Collected Poems of Myo Xiang Ge.

In addition to the two jinshi and two jujutsu in the Zhang family, there were also two gongsheng: Zhang Lin's great-grandson and Zhang Yingdou as the year gongsheng, and the grandson Zhang Jing as the qianlong fifty-fourth year gongsheng.

As a family of people, the Zhang Lin family attaches great importance to their own social influence. To this end, most of the family members are enthusiastic about local public welfare undertakings, such as Zhang Lin, when he was serving as a preacher in Shaanxi Yi, zhang Lin donated funds to relieve the victims of the disaster in the midst of a disaster in Shaanxi; his grandson Zhang Zhen also donated funds to build a college; and his great-grandson Zhang Yingchen, "Establishing ancestral halls, repairing academies, and supporting the clan party".

The Zhang Lin family has made pioneering contributions to Tianjin culture. After becoming rich by running the salt industry, Zhang Lin was keen to build private gardens, and relied on gardens to make friends with the world's literati. Zhang Lin built the Qingjin Garden at the Jinyiwei Bridge in the northeast of Jincheng (near the jinzhonghe road to Xiaoguan Avenue in present-day Hebei District), and built an acre of garden in the northeast corner of The outer part of Tianjin, with beautiful scenery such as weeping rainbow pavilion, green Yi Pavilion, red falling building, Huanyan building, and Suixian Hall. Zhang Lin "respects the wise and the heavy soldiers", every time the township test and the meeting test, the people who lift their sons out of the capital from all over the country are given a coil, and those who stay in the capital are extended to The Gate of Jinmen, "greeting the day without a waste". At that time, famous scholars from the north and south of the great river, such as Jiang Chenying, Zhao Zhixin, Zhu Yizun, Mei Wending, Fang Zhou, Fang Bao, Wu Wen, Xu Lan, Shen Yiyun, Shao Changyu, Zha Shenxing, and the local tianjin literati Liang Hong, Li Youtai, Long Zhen, and Huang Qian, all lived in their gardens.

After Zhang Lin, his family name lasted for four generations, and the style and elegance lasted for a long time, especially the Zhang family relied on the garden to make friends with literati and scholars from all over the world, changing the social trend of Tianjin's "still courageous and not literate".

Many scholars at that time and in later generations had a pertinent evaluation of the zhang lin family and its suixiaotang's pioneering work in Tianjin culture, such as the Tianjin poet Mei Chengdong during the Jia and Dao dynasties, who commented: "Most of the jinmen poetics advocates its style, only the Suixiantang Zhang clan is the head, followed by the Sitang chashi!" The "Biography of the Great Qing Dynasty", which was compiled by Xu Shichang, the president of the Republic of China, also commented: "Tianjin poetry is really from (Zhang) Lin's initiative. ”

After Zhang Lin, Zha Riqian, who had turned to Zhang Lin to engage in the salt industry and later became a great salt merchant, also became a famous Keju family in Jinmen, and its Shuixi Zhuang pushed Tianjin's traditional poetry to the peak and made Tianjin a representative of the northern literary circle at that time. Guo Shitai, a scholar in Tianjin during the Daoguang years, commented: "If the humanities are prosperous, there are Zhang's Suixian Hall and Cha's Yusi Hall. Well-known people from the north and south of the great river gathered in Si people and heeled each other. Jingu Wenming, Suijia Ichi Gun, is the hometown of Yuyan Wujian, and is the place where cultural relics are declared. ”

(The author is a researcher of Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences and Tianjin History and Culture Research Center)