Wen | Jin Man Lou
Throughout his life, Lu Xun repeatedly mentioned his father and did not say anything about his grandfather Zhou Fuqing, but in fact the latter also caused a sensation in the official field of the late Qing Dynasty. Lu Xun did not mention it, and it was really difficult to say.
Zhou Fuqing was born in the eighteenth year of Daoguang (1838), his original name was Zhou Zhifu, the character Zhensheng, the number Jiefu, and the name Meixian. According to genealogical records, the Zhou family of Shaoxing considered itself to be a descendant of zhou Dunyi, the great Confucian of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the sixth ancestor Zhou Yunshan was a qingqianlong Bingchen Enke, and then chose Zhi County, so he bought land and built a house, set up a business, and set up a good field, and the Zhou family became a local clan.
In the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), when the Great Chaos in Jiangnan was settled, Zhou Fuqing was raised in the middle of that year. However, Zhou Fuqing did not pass the Lianjie examination at the next year's meeting, but served as a transcription in the Strategy Hall for three years before passing the examination in the tenth year of Tongzhi (1871). After that, Zhou Fuqing was transferred to the Hanlin Yuan Shuchangguan for further study, the so-called "Shu Ji Shi".
Entering the Hanlin Academy for further study is not equivalent to Hanlin (Bachelor), and Shujishi is usually only considered to be "half Hanlin". Because according to the system at that time, after three years of study, Shu Jishi had to take the examination of the scattered library, and those who had good grades and a promising future were left behind, and they were appointed as editors and reviewers, which was the real Hanlin official, and it was possible to become a university scholar or a Shangshu waiter or a supervisor in the future.
As for those who could not stay in the museum, their personal fate was more delicate, because they would be assigned to the heads of various departments or sent out as zhixian like the same section of the same year, which was equivalent to three years in vain. Unfortunately, Zhou Fuqing was renamed as the county commander of Jinxi County, Jiangxi Province (I interned in this county in 1999).
However, it is not so easy to become an official. Zhou Fuqing, the county prince, only worked for more than three years, and in the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), he was impeached by Shen Baozhen, the governor of Liangjiang, who said: "Zhou Fuqing of Zhixian County, Jinxi County, is good at handling affairs and excellent in literature and reasoning", and as a result, he was dismissed from his post in Zhixian and suggested to be used as an instructor.
Under the guidance of fellow villager Li Ciming, Zhou Fuqing sold the field to donate officials, and then waited in Beijing, and finally donated a cabinet secretary from Qipin (equivalent to the secretary of the ministry), although the work was mainly copied and written, but it was always a small Beijing official (better than the instructor of Qing Suffering).
After his resignation from Jinxi, Zhou Fuqing has been in the capital, and although he has only been a petty official during this period, he has no shortage of ideas to wait for the opportunity. In March of the nineteenth year of Guangxu (1893), Lu Xun's great-grandmother, Lady Dai, died, and Zhou Fuqing returned to DingYou (three years) according to the regulations, but it was also in this year that the shocking "Bribery Case of The Science Field" occurred.
For this unexpected storm, Zhou Zuoren made the following account in the "Memoirs of Zhitang":
That year was when the township examination was held in Zhejiang, the main and deputy main examinations had been published, and they had already come out of Beijing, and the main examination Yin Ruzhang may have been in the same year, and he was acquainted with Jie Fugong. Some of the relatives and friends came up with the idea, recruited a few rich talents, put together ten thousand taels of silver, wrote the promissory notes of the money bank, and the Jiefu Gong went to give them to the main examination, bought the joints, took the middle of the people, and paid another reward for handling the work.
Jiefu Gong went to Suzhou to wait for the arrival of the main examination, met once, and then sent the 'second master' (this is the honorific title called the follower) Xu Fu to send the letter. At that time, it happened that the deputy chief examiner Zhou Xi'en was chatting on the main examination ship, the main examination was interesting, and the letter was not immediately dismantled, and the follower was a countryman, waiting in a hurry, so he shouted outside, saying, 'Why didn't the silver letter give a reply?' And that's what pierced it. Handed over to the Suzhou Government for investigation.
Judging from the course of events, Zhou Zuoren's account is generally not bad, but there are a few details that are not particularly accurate. For example, the attendant who delivered the letter was not named Xu Fu, but a servant named Tao Ashun; although the first person to handle the case was the Suzhou Government, the substantive investigation was transferred to the Hangzhou Government.
Regarding the process of the Zhou Fuqing bribery case, there is another theory:
When Yin Ruzhang, the chief examiner of the Zhejiang Township Examination, passed through Suzhou, Wang Renkan, the prefect of Suzhou, came to Yin Ruzhang's boat for a courtesy visit. Just at this time, Tao Ashun sent Zhou Fuqing's name post and secret letter. According to the regulations, the chief examiner could not receive any personal letters on the way to the post, and in order to prevent the handle from falling, Yin Ruzhang had to ask Wang Renkan to open it on his behalf. As a result, the latter opened it, his face changed drastically, and he immediately called for the messenger to be taken down. After that, seeing that Tao Ashun was gone and could not return, Zhou Fuqing, who felt that things were not good, quickly drove away from Suzhou and temporarily went to Shanghai to hide.
Regarding this matter, Li Chaoqiong, the commander of Suzhou Yuanhe County, has a relatively clear record in his diary on that day, and his diary is copied as follows:
Twenty-seven days Ding Weiqing White dew
The new emperor of the xian dynasty, Kezhuang Taishou, received the seal and congratulated him first. ...... Zhejiang chief examiner Yin Qiuqiao Taichang (Such as Zhang), Zhou Bojin editing (Xi'en) arrived at Xumen Jianggan, and there was a Zhejiang gentleman Zhou Fuqing who sent a letter with a foreign ticket of 10,000 yuan to buy five joints. Yin Gong was furious and detained the person who submitted the book. The king was too honored to worship, so he ordered it to be brought back for interrogation. Naifu Qinggong and Yin Gong went to see each other in the same year. He who has boarded the ship, waving it away for his servants, is retreating. Since Yu and others had entered the court, Yin Gongbei said that his situation was like this, because he sighed with indignation, thinking that the corruption of the scholarly habits and the defeat of the officials were extremely bad for the people of Zhejiang.
Press: Wang Kezhuang and Wang Taizun in the diary, that is, Wang Renkan, the new prefect of Suzhou. Wang was the third-year champion of Guangxu, then a Qingliu jianjun, that is, the grandfather of Wang Shixiang, an expert and collector of modern cultural relics.
It is worth noting that Li Chaoqiong clearly recorded that when Tao Ashun submitted the book, Wang Renkan was not present, and when he came to Yin Ruzhang's ship for a courtesy visit, Tao Ashun had already been detained, which was transferred to Wang Renkan for handling.
Here, a detail recorded by Li Chaoqiong is worth noting, because it has been said in the past that Zhou Fuqing fled to Shanghai to hide after Tao Ashunjiu's long absence, but Li Chaoqiong clearly recorded:
When Zhou Fuqing learned of the defeat, he actually "went straight to see Him in the same year as Duke Yin"; moreover, Zhou Fuqing had already boarded the boat, but Yin Ruzhang resolutely disappeared and ordered his servants to drive Zhou away. After that, Li Chaoqiong also went to visit Yin Ruzhang and Zhou Xi'en, but this was already the case, and the guests and hosts could only sigh.
From this, it can be seen that Wang Renkan took Tao Ashun away, but it is not true to say that he opened the book on his behalf. Logically speaking, if there was only One Yin Ruzhang at the time of the submission, even if he had no intention of participating in the matter after seeing the famous post, at least he would look at the face of the same year and return the secret letter and the famous post together, as Li Chaoqiong remembered, Yin Ruzhang did not want to make a big deal out of it. However, when Tao Ashun submitted the book, more than one person was present, that is, another important witness to the case- Deputy Chief Kao Zhou Xi'en.
Taiwan historian Gao Yang once put forward a point of view, saying that the object of Zhou Fuqing's letter was not the chief examiner Yin Ruzhang, but the deputy chief examiner Zhou Xi'en, who did not intend to mistakenly dispatch a stupid servant who did not know the seriousness when he submitted the letter in Suzhou, and the letter of bribery fell into the hands of the main examiner Yin Ruzhang, thus being exposed.
Gao Yang's reasons are twofold:
1. Although Zhou Fuqing and Yin Ruzhang are in the same year, the two have no contact, and it is unreasonable to rush to take a shot only by virtue of the friendship of the same year;
2. Zhou Fuqing and Zhou Xi'en are the same sect, and when they were in Beijing, they were familiar with each other and could be trusted. From this, Gao Yang's speculation is that Zhou Fuqing is likely to pay a courtesy visit to Yin Ruzhang, but it is Zhou Xi'en who really wants to bribe.
Yin Ruzhang, a native of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, was the same as Zhou Fuqing as Xin Weike Jinshi, and was then a senator of the Zhengwupin Tong Political Envoy Department. It should be said that although Gao Yang's statement has a certain novelty, as far as facts are concerned, most of them cannot withstand scrutiny.
Judging from the physical evidence, confessions and trial process of the entire case, Zhou Fuqing wrote a letter to bribe Yin Ruzhang without mentioning Zhou Xi'en, and it also emphasized the friendship of the same year. As for the relationship between Zhou Fuqing and Yin Ruzhang and Zhou Xi'en, Gao Yang did not put forward substantial evidence to prove his point.
In fact, in the ancient eunuch class, the importance of the relationship in the same year has repeatedly appeared in the annals of history, and there is no need to spend much ink and ink, and it is very difficult to say that the same sect is concerned. Just imagine, the Zhou surname ranks fifth among the hundred family names, and how many people with the surname Zhou in the world are available for use?
As for Gao Yang's accusation that Zhou Xi'en had a bad reputation and that he "made a big show of betraying people" when he was appointed deputy examiner of the Shaanxi Township Examination in the fourteenth year of Guangxu (1888), his source was nothing more than the "Wild Records of the Qing Dynasty", and there was no substantive evidence.
However, Zhou Xi'en was indeed affected by the Zhou Fuqing case, so that afterwards he was impeached by the latter's compatriot and friend, Yushi Li Ciming, and his career was frustrated, and he finally died of depression at the age of 47.
Excerpt from Jin Manlou: "Perusing the Seventy Years of the Late Qing Dynasty", Chinese Publishing House, 2021.