Source: Jiangyin Chronicle
South Street Garden, one of the four famous gardens in Jiangyin, Shengang Street Miaojia Village, the place where celebrities came out, these two places in Jiangyin in the leap April of 1887 because of the magical intersection of the two talents.
Since the Opium War, when the Western powers opened the door to China by force, Western countries have gradually gained privileges such as trade between the five ports, the stationing of ministers in Beijing, and the travel and missionary travel in the interior. Western diplomats, officers, businessmen, missionaries, and scholars have continuously come to China's coastal and inland areas in the name of travels, and have collected various political, economic, and military intelligence on China. Some enlightened people in the Qing government lamented the diaphragm and ignorance of China's external situation, and also began to advocate encouraging the Chinese people to travel abroad.
In the tenth year of Guangxu (1884), Yushi Xie Zuyuan folded "How Difficult the Times Are, Please Collect Qijie's Men travel to the Foreign Countries" and suggested that the imperial court select Hanlin Talents to accompany the ministers on foreign missions to familiarize themselves with foreign affairs, and was supported and supplemented by the Prime Minister Yamen Minister Yi Xi and others, and was soon approved by the Guangxu Emperor and notified to the Hanlin Yuan, the Six Ministries and the embassies stationed abroad.
▲Prince Yi of Qing and his son Zaizhen
On January 3, 1887, the Guangxu Emperor ordered six ministries to sponsor the officials of the headquarters, and on May 18, Prime Minister Yamen also drew up the fourteen articles of the "Regulations on Traveling Abroad" as a specific plan for dispatching travel envoys. From April 21 to 22( 1887 ( June 12 to 13 , 1887 ) of the thirteenth leap year of Guangxu, two unique examinations were held in the Tongwen Pavilion belonging to Premier Yamen in Beijing, and this was the first examination in China's modern history to select officials traveling abroad. In this examination, a total of 76 people were guaranteed by the six departments, and the number of candidates was 54. As a result of the examination, 28 people were initially admitted, of which Fu Yunlong ranked first in Bingbu Langzhong, and Miao Yousun, the head of the household department, ranked second.
▲Prime Minister Yamen
The 28 officials of the six ministries who were admitted were finally designated by the Guangxu Emperor himself with a Zhu pen as official travel envoys, and they were sent to travel to Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Among these 12 people, the 33-year-old Head of the Hubu Study, Miao Yousun, and the 31-year-old Chief of the Ministry of Works, Chen Xitang, were both from Jiangyin, and both were in the same year as the Chengshu Branch (1886).
On July 24, 12 travel envoys were sent in five groups, including Fu Yunlong and Gu Houkun to Japan, the United States, Canada, Peru, Cuba, and Brazil; Liu Qitong, Li Yingrui, Kong Zhaoqian, and Chen Xiantang went to Britain and France and their colonies of India; Li Bingrui and Cheng Shaozu went to Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and other countries; Miao Yousun and Jin Peng went to Russia; And Hong Xun and Xu Zongpei went to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, norway, and other countries.
▲ Chen Xie Tang (字燮卿, 号翕青) Temple Trial Strategy Treatise Volume. Jiangyin Archives And History Collection
During the two years of travel, the envoys carried out many diplomatic activities and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, but the most important work was to travel and investigate and write investigation reports in various countries. They visited government agencies and parliamentary groups, visited various industrial and mining enterprises, schools at all levels, inspected ports, railways, postal services, surveyed barracks, forts, and prisons, and toured museums, zoos, botanical gardens, churches, temples, and so on. Through extensive and in-depth investigation and research, the travel envoys have obtained a large amount of first-hand information and perceptual understanding, and on this basis, they have written a number of weighty travel and investigation reports.
Miao Yousun, Chen Xitang, and others were unwilling to regard this trip to the sea as merely a routine routine to cope with messengers, or simply to be satisfied with visiting the mountains and rivers to understand the exotic customs, but regarded this trip to the sea as a good opportunity to observe the world's ambitions and regarded it as a survey and study. After returning to China, they wrote books and said that Miao Yousun compiled the "Compilation of Russian Travels" and published them, and Chen Xitang also wrote "You Compilation", but unfortunately they scattered, and they tried to tell the Chinese people what they saw and heard to help the Chinese people understand the world and learn from foreign countries.
▲Miao Yousun's "Compilation of Russian Travels"
However, the Qing government's motivation and goal of sending envoys this time were not high, and they only focused on investigating foreign affairs, lacked a clear intention to promote China's reform and modernization, and did not have the long-term goal of cultivating and training diplomatic talents. After returning to China, most of the 12 traveling envoys were only rewarded with four titles, and when they were absent, they were first filled as prefects and tongzhi, and they were rarely reused to engage in diplomatic work and play a role. This situation and results are far from the Iwakura Mission in Japan during the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
▲ Letters of Miao Yousun
Therefore, Chen Xitang, who was deeply disappointed, soon took advantage of his mother's illness to beg for a leave of absence, left the temple, returned to Jiangyin, repaired the damaged garden in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is now the Suitable Garden, and from then on, he sent love to the landscape and became a famous calligrapher, painter and collector at that time. Miao Yousun was soon appreciated by Yi Bi, transferred to the prime minister Yamen Zhangjing, and then worked as an errand boy in the Russian stock and also in the French stock, which was considered to be the 12 traveling envoys who stood in diplomatic positions. But just over a year later, in 1893, Miao Yusun suffered a stroke and died the following year, at the age of 44.
▲Jiangyin Shiyuan
As Miao's hometown of Miao Yousun in Shengang Subdistrict Miaojia Village, Zhong Lingyuxiu, talented, his cousin Miao Quansun is the founder of the famous Chinese library, including the famous incorruptible official Dinghaizhi County Miao Fu during the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor's royal painter Miao Bingtai, and Miao Gu, who guards the CCP's "Central Library"...
Jiangyin Archives jointly produced by Jiangyin Archives and History Museum and Jiangyin Rong Media Center· Hundreds of villages and thousands of households" oral history - "Jiangyin Archives • Rural Memory" film crew also entered Miaojia Village, ready to show all aspects of Miaojia Village through the collation of materials and the narration of villagers, so stay tuned.
▲The film crew went to the Xiaosha Grand Temple (Miao Gong Ancestral Hall) in Zhoushan to collect miao fu historical materials