Statue of Zhang Weiping on the Greenland Square of the Southern Yue Ancestors in Guangzhou.
Nanfang Daily reporter Huang Chuxuan photographed
In the interior of Guangzhou Yuyan Academy, the couplet on the wall is left by Zhang Weiping: "The clouds and the flowing water see the truth, and the bright moon and the breeze come to the deceased." Nanfang Daily reporter Huang Chuxuan photographed
● Guo Shan
"The sound of thunder in front of the three yuanli, thousands of people came at the same time; because of the indignation and courage of the righteous, the townspeople joined forces to destroy it." The family must be guarded, and the drums must not be beaten; the women are united and healthy, and the ploughs and hoes are all weapons in their hands..."
This poem, entitled "Sanyuanli", vividly depicts the struggle of the masses of the people in Sanyuanli, Guangzhou, during the First Opium War, to resist the British invaders, and shows the patriotic spirit of the sons and daughters of China who are not afraid of violence, hate the enemy, and resist foreign humiliation. Its author is Zhang Weiping, a famous patriotic poet in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.
Zhang Weiping (1780-1859), Zizishu, Nanshan, also known as Songxinzi, was a native of Panyu, Guangdong (present-day Guangzhou). Zhang Weiping lived through the four dynasties of Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng, and successively served as a prefecture and county magistrate in Hubei and Jiangxi. He was diligent in government and loved the people, and was honest and honest with officials, and won the reputation of "dedication to civil affairs and deep consultation with public opinion" (see Chen Li's "Mr. Zhang Nanshan's Tombstone").
Zhang Weiping has always adhered to the political ambition of "hoping for the ancient sages" and saving the people in the world, but he resigned his official position and returned to Li because of the dark corruption of the late Qing dynasty officialdom. During the two Opium Wars, Zhang Weiping wrote "Sanyuanli" and "Songs of the Three Generals" praising Chen Liansheng, Ge Yunfei, and Chen Huacheng, and other famous works. These works were widely circulated at that time and played a role in rallying people's hearts and inspiring morale. The late famous literary scholar A Ying (Qian Xing Estate) once praised Zhang Weiping's works as the "most brilliant and immortal" "heroic epic" of the Opium War (The Opium War Literature Collection).
The great instrument is late in life, risking death and disaster relief
"Qianlong Xiucai, Jiaqing Juren, Daoguang Jinshi, Xianfeng Laoyu" is a party seal engraved by Zhang Weiping before his death. These sixteen words condensed the trajectory of his life for nearly eighty years.
In the forty-fifth year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1780), Zhang Weiping was born in Panyu to a family of scholars. His father, Zhang Bingwen, grew up in poetry, made a living as an apprentice in the library, and served as a school instructor in Sihui County. Zhang Weiping was deeply influenced by family learning, and his poem "Shu De" was written: "I have not been crowned to learn as a text, and my father is good at seducing." Out of the boy test, shame on the crown of puppets. The writing is that he entered the library with his father to study the scriptures since he was a child, and participated in the Panyu County Examination in the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong (1791), ranking first in the list, and since then he has been famous for his poetry.
In the ninth year of Jiaqing (1804), Zhang Weiping participated in the Guangdong Township Examination, and then went to Beijing for the first time in the twelfth year of Jiaqing (1807). Although he regrettably fell behind in the test, his talent was still recognized. After reading Zhang Weiping's poems, Weng Fanggang, a famous poet and writer at that time, could not help but exclaim: "The enemy of the poetry world is the greatest!" Since then, Zhang Weiping has taken the imperial examination many times, but all of them have failed. While being trapped in the science field for a long time, Zhang Weiping, Lin Botong, Huang Qiaosong, Tan Jingzhao, Liang Peilan, Huang Peifang, Kong Jixun and other Guangdong poets zhuyunquan Mountain Museum in Baiyun Mountain, where everyone often wrote and inked elegant collections, poetry and wine were sung, known as the "Seven Sons of Poetry".
In the second year of Daoguang (1822), Zhang Weiping, who had passed the age of confusion, tried to be jingmin again, and finally entered the army and was sent by the imperial court to Zhi County, Huangmei County, Hubei Province. In the summer of the second year of his reign, the river surged and broke its banks, displacing the victims, and Zhang Weiping was worried and ran day and night for flood relief. One night, while he was in a small boat to investigate the disaster, the boat was swept away by the rapids, and he was fortunate to hold the tree and not die (see his self-annotation in the poem "Huangmei DashuiXing").
After escaping from danger, Zhang Weiping sighed in a poem: "A body (the same as 'will') be enough to regret, and ten thousand households can be hurt? This means that compared with the difficult situation of thousands of families affected by the disaster, how can their own safety be concerned?
In order to save the people from water and fire, Zhang Weiping asked the imperial court to use treasury silver to relieve the disaster, and also specially arranged for special personnel to supervise the distribution process of disaster relief funds, strictly prevent embezzlement and impersonation, "all silver money is not handled by the book messenger", and it will be publicized in each township in advance before it is distributed; when the disaster victims receive relief funds, only one person is allowed to enter, and the money is issued with a ticket, and the front door enters and the back door exit, and the order is orderly. Zhang Weiping worked tirelessly, did everything himself, was fair and honest during His tenure in Huang Mei, and was admired and appreciated by the local people (see Jin Jingmao's "Outline of Mr. Zhang Nanshan's Chronology").
Deeply resentful of corruption, he resigned his post in anger
Subsequently, Zhang Weiping was ordered to be transferred to Zhi County, Guangji County, Hubei Province. Guangji County (present-day Wuxue, Hubei) was an important shipping port in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the annual grain income was quite large. The so-called "Cao grain" belongs to a kind of ancient field endowment and is an important source of local office funds. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, caoyun corruption was rife, and although the imperial court had explicit provisions on taxation, it actually acquiesced to local officials to collect taxes by means of "floating harvest and extortion" (that is, using forced means to collect additional fees). Therefore, the harvesting of grain was regarded as a "way to make money" that officials and officials protected each other tacitly, and officials of all sizes and even the soldiers and servants of the shipping ships often colluded with each other and demanded from each other layer by layer, taking advantage of the opportunity to profit from it (see Xu Ke's "Qing Barnyard Bills").
In the face of such a lucrative "fat difference" as harvesting grain, Zhang Weiping was very resistant. In his view, "If you don't float the collection, then the cao fee will not come out, the floating collection will not be straight, and if it is not straight, it will not be stretched, and I would rather abandon the official to extend the gas." Despite the court's repeated reminders, he still refused to collect the grain and resigned due to illness (see Chen Li's "Tombstone of Mr. Zhang Nanshan"). Not only that, Zhang Weiping also made a fierce attack on the unscrupulous officials who were blackmailing and exploiting under the pretext of collecting grain and filling their own pockets in the poem "Collecting Cao's Words".
Zhang Weiping, as the zhi county of Caoyun, was unwilling to collect more grain, which was regarded as an aggressive and strange thing by the world at that time. However, Jiang Youhua, who was then the governor directly subordinate to him, praised his noble character of caring for the people like a son and being honest and selfless. Jiang Youhua said: "The husband is in trouble with the disaster relief people, and the Nanshan is in a good place; the people who receive the water are happy, and the Nanshan resigns decisively." (Zhang Weiping, "Flower Armor Gossip")
After repeatedly retaining his superiors, Zhang Weiping was transferred to Xiangyang Province. When he left Guangji County, the local people shed tears and sent banners with "Virtue, Thickness and Wind" to praise his kindness. Zhang Weiping modestly said in the poem "Bei Guangji": "Wu Ze and People's Virtue Are There, And It is difficult to say that there is no merit and no merit. It can be seen from this that "morality" and "purity" are precisely his purposes and goals for being an official.
From the twelfth year of Daoguang (1832), Zhang Weiping successively served in Jiangxi as tongzhi of Yuanzhou Prefecture, ZhiXian of Taihe County, Tongju of Ji'an Province, and prefect of Nankang Province. In his career of more than ten years, Zhang Weiping witnessed all kinds of darkness and corruption in the official arena at that time, and indignantly created works such as "The Ballad of the Tiger", "Salt Owl Music", and "Jailer Wei" to expose the brutality and greed of corrupt officials and corrupt officials and the oppression of civilians. He did not want to go along with the flow, but he often felt the powerlessness and loneliness of "walking on the ice in the abyss", and realized that "an official has no supplement for life, it is better to go back" (preface to "Flower Armor Gossip"), and the idea of retreating. But as long as he is in office, he has always governed for the people and worked diligently. When he was the tongzhi of Yuan Prefecture, he often interrogated prisoners and investigated cases in a "gentle and enlightened" manner, rather than extorting confessions by torture (see Jin Jingmao's "Outline of Mr. Zhang Nanshan's Chronology"); when he stepped down as the governor of Nankang Province, he suddenly received an urgent order to control the locust plague, and then he was ordered to rush to the front line of the disaster to catch locusts, and later compiled his work experience into a book called "Outline of Curing Locusts" for reference in other affected areas.
The heart of the country is to use poetry to resist the enemy
In the sixteenth year of Daoguang (1836), Zhang Weiping resigned from illness and returned home, built the "Listening Pine Garden" in Guangzhou, and devoted himself to writing, lecturing on art, and inviting travels to write poems every day. However, this quiet life of "water and green trees on three sides, fragrant flowers on one shoulder, sand gulls with wide heaven and earth, and free to raise for more than a year" ("East Garden Miscellaneous Poems") was soon broken by the invasion of Western imperialism.
One day in the nineteenth year of Daoguang (1839), a special visitor came to Zhang Weiping's home, Lin Zexu, the minister of Chincha who was ordered to go to Guangdong to preside over the prohibition of opium. The two are in the same department and have a deep friendship. Lin Zexu visited the door and asked Zhang Weiping for anti-smoking measures.
Zhang Weiping had long foreseen the great harm caused by the flow of opium. When compiling the "Preliminary Compilation of the Poetry of the National Dynasty," he once reminded the people of the world that it is necessary to guard against foreigners who use opium to "harbor evil intentions and be unpredictable," and called on the imperial court to strengthen coastal defenses and strictly investigate those who commit adultery and evil. Since then, in the process of Lin Zexu's smoking ban, Zhang Weiping has been advising and helping him.
After the outbreak of the Opium War, Zhang Weiping, who originally planned to keep the door closed and not ask about the world, was infected by the people's anti-British righteousness of the Sanyuanli people and wrote a series of immortal poems praising the heroism and fearlessness of the Chinese military and people and their unity against the enemy, demonstrating the determination, strength, and national integrity of the Chinese people to resist aggression, of which "Sanyuanli" and "Song of the Three Generals" are the most famous.
On the other hand, he created works such as "Book Anger", "Haimen", "Jiang Hai", "Drinking Five Songs", and "Cold Food with Feeling", denouncing the wolf ambitions of the invaders and condemning the Qing court for adopting a policy of surrender that lost power and humiliated the country. When the news came that the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing, he was full of sorrow and indignation, and created a poem "Before the Rain", bluntly saying that the unequal treaty was "the shame of the ancient times under the city", calling on the people to be angry and try to be strong, to lie down and taste courage, and to defend the country.
In the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856), the Second Opium War broke out, and the following year Guangzhou fell, and Zhang Weiping took refuge in the west of the city. During this period, he used poetry to witness the depression and decay of the city after the British and French forces captured Guangzhou, and recorded the deep trauma caused by the war to the people of Li.
In the ninth year of Xianfeng (1859), Zhang Weiping, who was eighty years old, died of illness in Guangzhou. In the same year, he also lamented in his poem: "When will China eliminate the disaster, and when will the battlefield be extinguished?" ("New Year") expresses deep concern about the fate of his home country.
"The clouds and the flowing water see the truth, and the bright moon and the breeze come to the deceased." This is a couplet that Zhang Weiping has left in the Luofeng Temple in Guangzhou. As a poet, Zhang Weiping established his position in the history of modern Chinese literature with his excellent anti-imperialist patriotic poems. As an honest official, he was in the turbid and decaying official field of the middle and late Qing Dynasty, and although he was powerless to reverse the situation, he still cared for the people, cleaned himself, and kept upright, which was particularly valuable.
【Comments on Zhang Weiping】
"The county officials are reluctant to collect the water, and it is rare in the world!" This is the evaluation of Zhang Weiping of Guangji Zhi County in the Daoguang Period of the Qing Dynasty. Harvesting, that is, harvesting grain, using waterways to transfer grain. After the Sui and Tang dynasties, the center of gravity of the agricultural economy shifted south, while the capital was still in the north, and the water transportation system from the southeast to the northwest was born.
In the era when Zhang Weiping was an official, the Caoyun system had been corrupted to the point of rectifying round after round, but the multiplicity of the Caojia faction and the greed of officials at all levels were still repeatedly prohibited. From the collection of grain to the redemption, from the long-distance transportation to the Beijing-Tong warehouse, there is almost no harm everywhere, no officials and no greed, and the result is that "the prefecture and county are taken from the people, benting is taken from the state and county, and the ministry secretary warehouse service is taken from benting, and the layers need to be demanded, and there is nothing but the grease paste of Luli." Against this background, Zhang Weiping, as a district-aware county, did not have any possibility of turning the tide, but he was jealous of this corrupt phenomenon. He said: "If you don't float the harvest, then the cao fee will not come out, the floating income will not be straight, and if it is not straight, it will not be strong. "You can take the opportunity to catch a handful but refuse to go along with the same stream, and you don't even want the official position, and resign in anger, how precious!"
There are many officials in history who are not very well-known like Zhang Weiping, but who are enough to become role models for future generations. Another example is Xu Qing of the Ming Dynasty, who has been an official for 40 years, the Punishment Department, the Military Department, the Prefect, from the central to the local, where there are positions and powers, he has done it, but "We Lu Xiaoran", even his own house is still very unusual. When he was the fat messenger of Changlu Salt, as soon as he took office, he began to make it clear: "I want to be clear and I am an official." With this guiding ideology, he "never takes a penny." Jiao Hu borrowed the deeds of Wang Liang, the great master of the Han Dynasty, who "cloth quilted tiles" and his wife "returned from the field with a cloth skirt dragging firewood from the field", and asked: "Do people today have officials and cleansing and Pu Xi cloth bedding?" Does his wife have a well to support? Di Shi Ran used his power to fish and hunt villains, and it was only a plan for the fat family to satisfy his wife. "There is no need to dwell on the words jiaohuo uses, but what needs to be considered is the substantive problem he expounds.
"Rare in the world", is tantamount to a fairly high evaluation. Zhang Weiping's actions are no different from a clear stream in the filth. This clear stream emerges, which is the hope of society. Because to be able to do this, it takes first righteousness, and secondly, courage.
- Tide white