Yao Yufei
Wars are often accompanied by plagues. The Taiping Rebellion, which lasted for nearly a decade, could lead to a massive outbreak of plague in the Jiangnan region at the time of Xiantong. Yu Xinzhong believes that "the large-scale plague that occurred in Jiangnan during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War began in the Xianfeng Decade (1860), reached its climax in the first year of Tongzhi (1862), and gradually subsided with the end of the war in the third year of Tongzhi. It was the plague that broke out in jiangnan during the Qing Dynasty after the Jiadao epidemic and the highest mortality rate, killing millions of people. Types of plague include cholera, malaria, dysentery, smallpox, choleraoids, and may include typhoid fever and whooping cough. (Yu Xinzhong, "Exploration of the Plague in Jiangnan at the Time of Xiantong- On the Relationship between War and The Plague") Before and after the pandemic affected 32 counties, and in the first year of Tongzhi, the peak of the epidemic, 24 counties broke out of the plague.
The war had a severe impact on both the Qing and Taiping armies, and more civilians were killed in the plague, and Tobie Meyer-Fong, in his recent book Restless Souls: Violence, Disorder, and Death in the Taiping War, even devoted a chapter to discussing how people dealt with all kinds of corpses during this period. The diary of the Tongzhi dynasty preserves the remnants of the author's life under the plague and can be regarded as the event book of the plague. Many researchers have used diaries to study the nature of the plague, the type of disease, and the extent and scale of infection, and these analytical studies have increased awareness of this terrible catastrophe. However, if we look at the diary of the plague period as a whole, the contents involving the symptoms of the epidemic and the prescriptions taken by the patient are not so rich, but still mainly record people's daily life and practice. This is precisely a reminder that, in addition to the plague itself, we can also explore how people in this period treated the plague and how they lived under the plague. The diary recreates the process of people living with the epidemic, preserves the behavior and way people respond to the effects of the plague, and provides a historical proof of individual emotions under the plague. In the diaries of Zeng Guofan, Mo Youzhi, Zhao Liewen and others, there is no shortage of important records about this plague. Among them, the outstanding feature of "Zhao Liewen's Diary" (Zhonghua Bookstore, 2020 edition) is to care about the suffering of relatives and low-level people under the influence of the plague, and the pen is more emotional.
Zhao Liewen's diary records the news that many people were infected, and some of them were undoubtedly deaths caused by the plague, which affected Zhao Liewen's activities in the first year of tongzhi. In the autumn and winter of this year, Zhao Liewen was troubled by the death of his relatives and "family members". These things disrupt his daily rhythm and change his itinerary and life. For Zhao Liewen, the first year of Tongzhi can be called the "plague moment" in his life.
Fan Xin collated "Zhao Liewen's Diary", Zhonghua Bookstore, 2020
First, the weather and omens of the first month
On the night Chinese New Year's Eve of the eleventh year of Xianfeng, the people of Wuchang City, Hubei Province, as in previous years, followed the local customs and burned with wooden barrels to burn with loose grease, and the flames of the roar illuminated the whole street like daylight. This unique "Chinese New Year's Eve Songming", accompanied by the diary of Zhao Liewen (1832-1893), spanned the Xianfeng Year to the first year of Tongzhi.
On new Year's Day of the first year of Tongzhi (1862), it was sunny in the morning, the southeast wind was cold, and soon there was a heavy fog. Zhao Liewen burned incense and worshipped the heavens as usual, worshipped Confucius, worshipped bodhisattvas, and worshipped ancestors. Then he began the routine that he had to do at the beginning of each year, the divination activities that pre-pre-pre-occupied the auspicious year. For several days, heavy snow in Wuchang and other places gave him special confidence. Two days earlier, on the 29th of the lunar month, Zhao Liewen and his friends climbed the Yellow Crane Tower to admire the snow, and what they saw was, "The sky is pouring ink, the river is frying ochre, the two cliffs are shining, and the boundaries are clear." The two days of heavy snow were three feet thick and "unprecedented in twenty years." Since then, the cold weather for ten consecutive days has never been experienced by Zhao Liewen in his life. Unfortunately, Ruixue does not necessarily sign a good year. Zhao Liewen occupied "'Wind Mountain Gradually' to 'Water Mountain'", which symbolizes the sign that "the room family may have a disease, and there is no big blame". This guaxiang was not bad overall, but Zhao Liewen did not notice the disease problem predicted by the guaxiang, and he thought that the word "seemed to refer to the emptiness of the home, the outside of the house is just a subsistence, and there is nothing to be gained." However, this disease problem, which was considered "blameless", eventually shaped the direction of the year. Unfortunately, Zhao Liewen, who was good at predicting the future, was able to predict that the Qing Dynasty would collapse within fifty years, but at this time he could not predict that the plague would become so dangerous in this year.
The future of the New Year is unpredictable, but Zhao Liewen's current residence has been strange. Zhao Liewen lived in the new residence of his friend Liu Han (Zi Pufu), and the other three rooms behind the house also lived two concubines of Liu Han's relative Gao Mou. The two concubines were harassed by monsters every night and kept complaining to their families. Around the New Year's Day, they claimed one after another that "their objects are black, they jump and walk, they cannot move, and they are sick." People did not think at first, until the third day of the first lunar month, Zhao Liewen and others caught the footprints left by the monster in the snow, and found that the square-shaped footprints were "not human-like, and not beast-like, and there is no succession and shape", Zhao Liewen speculated that the monster was a "one-legged monster". According to the records in the ancient books, he believed that this was a mountain fish, because the mountain fish "feared to hear the bell, because he taught his family to hang the bell to protect himself".
The hanging bell did succeed in disturbing the monster, and it no longer harassed the Concubine of the Gao clan, but shifted its target. On the fourth day of the first lunar month, the monsters who were afraid of the ringing of the bell began to harass Zhao Liewen. Of course, at night, Zhao Liewen "felt that something came to press his left shoulder, and it was very heavy." After pressing, Yu immediately wakes up, and rolls on the ground until it is silent under the window." On the night of the fifth day of the first month, the monster did not come to disturb. After dinner on the sixth day of the first year, the room was full of creaks, and Zhao Liewen's servants saw a monster like a black monkey snatching the door and coming out. At that time, Zhao Liewen and his family were not asleep, so they lit firecrackers to frighten the monster, and they saw the monster running away, crossing under the feet of several people and escaping, and finally disappearing.
Thousands of miles away in Changzhou, Zhao Liewen's wife wrote to tell him that the family had no money to pawn autumn clothes. Three female relatives of his friend Dong Liangyi (Zi Zhongming) were thrown into the water and martyred. For all kinds of hardships in his hometown, Zhao Liewen was helpless to live outside, and there were still work in the shogunate waiting for him to complete. On the fourteenth day of the first month, Zhao Liewen took a boat down the river to the camp of Zeng Guofan in Anqing, and when passing through the Jiujiang River, Zhao Liewen "boarded the boat and looked east, his hometown was all exotic, his family and friends were in trouble, and he did not feel unbearable."
The New Year begins in such a strange and grim way that for Zhao Liewen, it is more cruel than other years since the military revival. Fortunately, he was used to wandering and could tolerate it. However, the following years were even worse. In May and June, floods continued in Hubei and other places, the price of rice soared, and some prefectures and counties, such as Tongcheng fields, "could not cultivate more than three-thirds of the two", and for a while, people were panicked. In July, locusts flew over Anqing. Zhao Liewen incidentally completed a study of locusts. On the sixth day of the first month of July, Zhao Liewen wrote in his diary: "It is said that the snow is one inch deep, and the locusts are in the ground. It is also known that the eggs of shrimp and fish in the drought have turned into locusts. The snow was seven feet deep in winter, and this summer the water overflowed four provinces, (two Chu Yu Anhui). And yesterday I saw the locusts passing through the sky. The old saying is hard to believe. The plague of locusts additionally taught Zhao Liewen the knowledge of evidence, but it brought deep disasters to the people. This time the flying locusts transited, staying in Anqing for at least five days, until the first ten days of July, Zeng Guofan also wrote in his diary, "On the tenth day of rain, this day is sunny, and the party thinks that it is happy, and the flying locusts cover the sky, and they are deeply worried."
The ancients often used phenology and celestial signs for a year's fortunes not without cause, and judging from the scene of Jiangnan in the first year of Tongzhi, there was indeed no peace in this year. Over time, it was gradually discovered that the plague that began in the Xianfeng Decade (1860) was particularly severe during the year, and many people died in this plague. Zhao Liewen had to face the unnatural deaths of many people, some of whom were important to him, and others, though less important, but also left traces in his life. He kept them all in his diary.
Second, the matter behind the strange man Zhou Tenghu
Zhou Tenghu (1816-1862), who was regarded as a "strange child" by Li Zhaoluo (1769-1941) as a young man, was swept away by the plague in the autumn of that year. Zhou Tenghu, mingying, character 弢甫, Jiangsu Yanghu people, Daoguang years have been appreciated by Lin Zexu. In the early years of Xianfeng, together with Qian Jiang (1800-1853) and others, he created the system of lijin. In the sixth year of Xianfeng (1855), Zong Jichen (1792-1867) recommended him to the imperial court together with Zuo Zongtang and others. Zhou Tenghu considered himself a celebrity, and once signed that "there is a king to take the Dharma, and there is no Buddha to honor" (Xiao Lianqi's "< Zhou Tenghu's Diary > Foreword"), but unfortunately his life was not fulfilled.
Zhou Tenghu is a character who appears very frequently in Zhao Liewen's diary, known as Hanfu, Taofu, Han Weng, and Lao Lao. Zhao Liewen detailed zhou tenghu's related matters, not only because Zhou Tenghu was his brother-in-law, but also because Zhou Shi had an extremely important influence on his growth process and ideological concepts. Even Zhao Liewen's first acquaintance with Zeng Guofan was also because of Zhou Tenghu's strong recommendation.
In April and May of the first year of the Tongzhi Dynasty, Zhao Liewen and Zhou Tenghu were in the shogunate of Zeng Guofan, often discussing the current situation. After that, Zhou Tenghu was entrusted by Zeng Guofan and rushed to Shanghai to urge the merger and acquisition of foreign ships, guns, and cannons. On May 28, Zhao Liewen went to the Shuai Mansion to inquire about Zhou Tenghu's recent situation, and the news he got was that "the old man has not been written for a long time." For this brother-in-law and the division commander he respected all his life, Zhao Liewen was very worried, and perhaps an ominous premonition had vaguely sprouted in his heart.
On the fourth day of the first month of August, Zhao Liewen learned of the fierce cost of Zhou Tenghu's death, "terrified ... The cruelty of heaven has reached this point, and the husband has said nothing more." In the days that followed, Zhao Liewen was immersed in grief. On the sixth day of the first month of August, Zhao Liewen wept at Zhou Tenghu in the spiritual seat set up in his apartment. On the same day, he wrote the article "Weeping Han Fu Wen", in which he fondly recalled Zhou Tenghu's early teachings: "If a king obtains a different book, he will show Yu, and if he has a word, he will command Yu." The vague feelings, which will follow? The sorrow of a lifetime, which is more than enough? Famous mountains and rocks, rivers and rivers, Junjin is dead, who is with you? Secret Book Gao Wen, Strange Treatise, Junjin is dead, what and exploration? Woohoo! It was not until the tenth day of the first month that Zhao Liewenfang learned the details of Zhou Tenghu's death from Hua Xiangfang's family letter, that is, "on the twenty-third day of July, he died of dysentery at one moment, and he also heard that Yang Zishao also died in the steamship." Zhao Liewen couldn't help but sigh, "A boat is small, so kill two people, sadly also husband!" In fact, Zhou Tenghu and others died not because they were riding on an ominous boat, but because they died of popular dysentery, and Yang Zishao mentioned in the letter did not die.
The war and the plague have made information communication across Gangnam very congested, and rumors and false news have accelerated people's fears of the plague. Regarding the death of Zhou Tenghu, except for Zeng Guofan who received accurate information earlier, "Zhou Taofu died in Shanghai", many people in his shogunate misheard the news. For example, Mo Youzhi's diary on the fourth day of the first month of August recorded that "Zhang Zhongyuan and Zhou Taofu died in Changzhou." Poor communication, coupled with wars and plagues, has fueled the birth of all kinds of rumors.
Zhou Tenghu died of malaria, and as for the details of the illness, it is not known. Zhou Tenghu wrote to Zhao Liewen on July 11, talking about "the illness began on June 11, the beginning of July 89, repeatedly fainted", it seems that at that time, Zhou Tenghu did not have a premonition that he was about to reach the end of his life. Malaria is an important reason for Zhou Tenghu's sudden death, but depression and bad mood may also accelerate the deterioration of the disease. Zeng Guofan learned of Zhou Tenghu's death from Li Hongzhang's letter on the third day of August, and commented that Zhou Tenghu was "recommended for his old age, impeached by his participation, and depressed and died." It is enough to kill people, and it is a pity to hurt." The year before, Zeng Guofan had raised zhou Tenghu, Hua Xiangfang, and others, believing that Zhou Tenghu was "distant and far-sighted, and had a profound sense of interest", and ordered him to investigate and use it. However, because someone impeached him, the court believed that Zhou Tenghu "held the argument and misbehaved" and held him accountable (Xiao Lianqi's "< Zhou Tenghu's Diary > Foreword"). Zhou Tenghu, who was in his twilight years, was hit by this blow, and was plagued by the disease, and his body and mind were exhausted, so he cried out for his life.
Zhou Tenghu married Zhao Liewen's fourth sister, Zhao Shuzhu, and because his father Zhao Renji (1789-1841) died when Zhao Liewen was eight years old, Zhou Tenghu partially assumed the responsibility of educating Zhao Liewen. The two have extraordinary feelings. The "Diary of the Falling Flower Spring Rain Nest", which was first disclosed in the "Diary of Zhao Liewen", records Zhao Liewen's rural life between the ages of 22 and 25, of which Zhou Tenghu was directly involved in a large number of times. According to the statistics of the index of personal names attached to the "Diary of Zhao Liewen", it can be seen that Xianfeng 34 times in the second year, 17 times in the third year of Xianfeng, 10 times in the fourth year of Xianfeng, and as many as 23 times in the first half of The sixth year of Xianfeng. These texts involving Zhou Tenghu show that Zhao Liewen often went to Zhou Tenghu's house for dinner, talked with Zhou Tenghu's papers, and borrowed various books from Zhou Tenghu. Sometimes there are only a few strokes, recording eating tofu soup, eating steamed buns at the tea shop, flipping through Books such as Zhou Tenghu's newly purchased "The Theory of the Purpose of the Heavenly Emperor", and seeing warm family affection in trivial crumbs. Judging from the contents of the diary, as long as Zhou Tenghu is at home, Zhao Liewen will almost always meet and talk, and the relationship between the two is closer than that of brothers. No wonder Zhao Liewen said in the "Re-Sacrifice of Mr. Tao Fu Wen": "Xi Wuxian gong was a eunuch Yu Zhang, unfortunately in the world, lonely and nowhere, Junshi left and right to avoid great worries." Capture Yu is established, and the king's love is more than Kundi's. Induce rewards and persuasions, make The Man fall to his will, and repeat the discussion to open his heart. The so-called love is too brotherly, and the grace of teaching is no less than that of father and brother, not Zhao Liewen's fictitious words, but a documentary writing of the relationship between the two.
Zhao Liewen's "Diary of falling flowers and spring rain nest" book shadow, selected from "Zhao Liewen Diary"
The death of Zhou Tenghu was only the loss of an aide and the absence of a clerk for the shogunate of Zeng Guofan, but for Zhao Liewen, it was the farewell of a close relative and the death of a friend like a father and brother. Death did not only bring grief, but also left Zhao Liewen with many specific affairs, the most important of which was the burial of Zhou Tenghu and the care of his family. On August 12, Zhou Tenghu bid farewell to Zeng Guofan and went to Jiangxi to greet Zhou Tenghu's family. Dealing with Zhou Tenghu's affairs became the main affair of Zhao Liewen and Tongzhi in the second half of the first year. These tedious affairs handled by Zhao Liewen are mainly divided into the following five aspects:
First, he went to the Zhou family to report the funeral and comfort the Zhou family. On August 23, Zhao Liewen arrived in Nanchang and immediately went to "Zhou Yu asked the four sisters to be unharmed." That is, to sue the murderer, the family threw the trumpet, and the misery was indescribable. Bitterly advise the spirit to be far away, and to think of great things, and it is not filial piety to be lost. Words are poor, and there is little breath from the beginning.". Conveying the news and comforting the emotions of the Zhou family, although it took a lot of lips and tongues, was only the first step for Zhao Liewen to deal with Zhou Tenghu's aftermath.
Second, handle Zhou Tenghu's funeral. After arriving in Nanchang, Zhao Liewen made a comprehensive arrangement for Zhou Tenghu's funeral: First, comprehensive overall planning and deployment of personnel. Zhao Liewen arrived in Nanchang on August 23, and fellow villager Wang Weiyuan came to visit Zhou Tenghu's son Zhou Shicheng (Zi Lu, Meng You, etc.), that is, stayed behind to help handle the funeral. Zhao Liewen also invited Jin Xun (Zi Huating) to be responsible for making filial piety clothes, obituarys, and other matters. With the assistance of Jin Xun and another fellow villager, Xu Qingfeng (Zi Jingshan), he drafted the "twenty-fifth day family dress, twenty-seventh day hanging" was drawn up. The second is to do it himself, write a bang, and highly summarize the life of Zhou Tenghu. Bang Lianyun: "A thousand have been criticized, a hundred have been flawed, only repentance of the long talent, and the gentleman and the world; not to be underestimated, but to be greatly affected." The pain is vain, and the prosperity is not left in the human world. "Ming fry fang xi". This union will be Zhou Tenghu's regret that he did not meet and did not have ambitions. Two months later, on September 24, Gong Orange told Zhao Liewen that Zhou Tenghu was dying: "Although there is no career after a thousand autumns, there is an inch of work. With the comparison of the dying poem and the bang lian, Zhao Liewen is worthy of being Zhou Tenghu's confidant. The third is to reward guests on behalf of guests. From the twenty-third to the twenty-seventh, for five consecutive days, Zhao Liewen helped the Zhou family to entertain the guests who came to mourn, although the total number was only thirty, but the hardships between them were still unspeakable.
Zhou Tenghu's anthology, pictured from "Rare Qing Ren Bei Ji 100 Kinds"
Zhou Tenghu's dying poem
This kind of socializing includes both daily receptions and letters. For example, on August 17, Zhao Liewen wrote a letter to Guo Songtao in the boat, saying, "Hearing that Your Excellency knows the death of HanFu, he sighs very much, and the foot signs and qi are different and constant." When Zhao Liewen received Zhou Tenghu's family members to Anqing, he also set up a spiritual seat for Zhou Tenghu in the east side of the house, and Hua Xiangfang, Mo Youzhi, Jin Anqing and other Zeng Guofan staff all came to mourn. This reward is a great physical and mental effort. In August of the leap year of the Tongzhi Dynasty, The Tongcheng scholar Xiao Mu (1835-1904) helped the owner of the Liu family in Kaifeng, Henan Province, to take care of the funeral, and only to entertain the guests outside, he slept for seven or eight consecutive nights after midnight. Try to see Xiao Muyan's diary cloud on the 27th of August, "I should receive foreign guests for a long time." At night, I went through obituary and lamentation with everyone. After midnight is lying down". Zhao Liewen's diary records are not as detailed as Xiao Mu's, but similar affairs are probably roughly the same.
Xiao Muri records that tongzhi co-organized the funeral in the first year of the reign, pictured from the "Shanghai Library Collection of Manuscripts and Diary Series"
Third, raise funds for the future life of the Zhou family and take care of the descendants of the Zhou family. On August 26 and 30, Zhao Liewen visited Shen Baozhen (1820-1879), the governor of Jiangxi, twice, but because Shen Baozhen was ill, he was not seen. Zhao Liewen had no choice but to write a letter to express his feelings. The content of the letter was purely for Zhou Tenghu's aftermath, Yun: "Han Fu unfortunately had a short life, and nothing could be accomplished... Your Excellency's generous assistance, Gao Yi belongs to the clouds, and all in the qi class, the same deep admiration. Lie came to welcome his dependents to Anhui, and then took his son to Shanghai and helped him to bury him. ...... The Canal family was heavily in debt, and they could not lead the way with the times, and they had very little knowledge, and they did not swing their lines, and they were particularly anxious. Yesterday, when I inquired about his home, there was still a temple sculpture "Three Links", and the market price was worth hundreds of gold, and there was absolutely no measure of length outside. On the first day of August, Shen Baozhen replied that he would visit the next day, and it was also on this day that Zhao Liewen, who came to the door for the third time, finally saw Shen Baozhen and was able to hold a long talk. On the second day of the first month of September, Shen Baozhen returned to pay homage to Zhao Liewen and hang zhou Tenghu's funeral, and then helped Baijin. Zhao Liewen lamented in his diary that day that Shen Baozhen "first gave the twenty-fourth two of the founding gold, and yesterday he described his situation, and he could hardly get out, because of this generous help, it was particularly touching." Shen Baozhen's generous assistance this time touched Zhao Liewen, and dozens of days later, in a letter to Shen Baozhen, Zhao Liewen did not forget to thank him: "Remembering your excellency's kindness, today I am still at the edge of the Imperial Pavilion, looking at the Western Mountains, I don't know." Perhaps because of this, in the face of the conflict between Zeng Guofan and Shen Baozhen, Zhao Liewen always had a feeling of gratitude to Shen Baozhen.
Thinking of Zhou Tenghu's family's poverty, Zhao Liewen interceded for Zhou Tenghu's family many times since then. In the first month of the second year of the reign, Zhao Liewen visited Zeng Guoquan and talked about the Zhou Tenghu incident, and Zeng Guoquan (1824-1890) immediately gave a rich gift. In this regard, Zhao Liewen was also grateful in his diary: "Shuai Su did not know HanFu, and he heard that his family was poor, and he was very thick, but he could feel it very much." ”
Fourth, comprehensively take care of Zhou Tenghu's family and family chores. In August of the first year of Tongzhi, after the funeral in Nanchang, Zhao Liewen took All of Zhou Tenghu's family to Anqing. After that, Zhao Liewen took on the responsibility of caring for Zhou Tenghu's son Zhou Shicheng (?-1878), and Zhou Shicheng was like a father. During the six or seven years of Tongzhi, Zhou Shicheng made pompous friends at the Jinling Bookstore, becoming increasingly vulgar and far away from the zhengshi. In the summer of the eleventh year of The Reign of Ran Tongzhi (1872), when Zhao Liewen was serving as the governor of Zhao Prefecture, he still summoned Zhou Shicheng to come. Unfortunately, Zhou Shicheng's indulgent nature was difficult to change, and he did not quit. After Zhou Shicheng's death, Zhao Liewen could not swallow for it, and sighed: "Uncle and nephew are close relatives, they cannot teach and prevent idleness in the front, and they cannot tolerate it in the back, and they have no face to see their dead sister in the underground ear." Zhao Liewen, who had done his best to take care of his nephew, still couldn't help but feel regrets, and this was not because he had already appointed himself as the orphan of the Zhou Tenghu family in the first year of Tongzhi.
In addition, after Zhou Tenghu's death, the poems and miscellaneous manuscripts left behind were also inspected by Zhao Liewen. For five or six years, he also personally reviewed and edited Zhou Tenghu's "Diary of a Peony Flower House".
Fifth, preside over the burial of Zhou Tenghu's coffin. After Zhou Tenghu died in Shanghai, he was initially "buried in the silk industry office". After settling in Zhou Tenghu's family, Zhao Liewen withdrew from busy official duties, and still on September 17, he led Zhou Tenghu's son Zhou Shicheng down the river to the east, arrived in Shanghai on the twenty-first day, and on the afternoon of the twenty-second day, "went to the old funeral home of Hanfu, caressed the coffin, and endured for a long time." After that, Zhao Liewen handled affairs in Shanghai. On October 23, the coffin of Zhou Tenghu was transported back from Shanghai. November 27, in Rugao Xiangdi. On the sixth day of the first month of December, the tribute was paid to Zhou Tenghu and his father-in-law Deng Eryi (1810-1860). On the seventh day of the first month of December, Zhou Tenghu and Deng Eryi were buried. For many years after that, Zhao Liewen passed through the Zhou Tenghu cemetery, and it was inevitable that he would pay tribute to him.
Zhao Liewen wrote "Mr. Zhou's Tomb Table"
Portrait of Zhou Tenghu
Zhao Liewen wrote Zhou Tenghu's tomb table calling himself "friend Zhao Liewen"
In the process of taking care of Zhou Tenghu's posthumous affairs, the burden on Zhao Liewen's shoulders did not lighten. Because some of his other family members could not withstand the plague, they died one after another, and these things also plagued Zhao Liewen.
III. The Death of Zhao Liewen's "Family"
For the unfortunate in the plague, the diseases continue one after another, and one death is followed by another. Zhao Liewen in the first year of tongzhi was unfortunate to suffer such a misfortune. This plague took away Zhou Tenghu and also implicated the Zhao family.
In August of the first year of Tongzhi, an epidemic also occurred in Nanchang, Jiangxi. When Zhao Liewen took his servants to Nanchang to greet Zhou Tenghu's family, he did not expect to lose an old servant on this trip. At the time of departure, the servant was in good health, but after staying in Nanchang for more than ten days, the servant inadvertently contracted an illness. On the fourth day of the first month of Leap August, when Zhao Liewen and his party left Nanchang and prepared to board the boat, the servant Li Yi slightly felt unwell. After more than ten days of boat trekking, on the 21st of August, on the 21st of August, near the small lonely mountain, the boat was moored in a strong wind. Zhao Liewen's servants "made profits here, dozens of lines day and night, and were in danger, and the boat could not advance, and was anxious about it." Lying down at night, being connected with my body, the smell is unbearable, and it is also very bitter." Zhao Liewen, who was in a boat with his servant Li Yi, had to endure this bad situation.
The plague gave the servant Li Yi the opportunity to appear, and because of this serious illness, he was written into a diary by Zhao Liewen and left his full name in the diary. However, the result of this serious illness was the end of his life.
At noon on the 23rd day of the leap august, Zhao Liewen and his party arrived in Madang, "After staying in the boat, Li Shu died, and everything was buried, and it was evening." He hired another boat and sent it to Anhui Province for burial." One day, Li Yi died and was hastily buried, and this old servant of Zhao Liewen's family ended his life. In the diary of that day, Zhao Liewen marked Li Yi's township and left a valuable file about the servants. Diary Yun: "Li Yi, also known as Li Si, is a native of Tongshang Village, Eighteen Miles south of Hongdong County, Pingyang Province, Shanxi, and lives in the West ShouzhongheTang in the village. A son kicker, also known as double shou. Nephew Li Guanzi, who had a letter from the previous year, said that he was physiological in Daizhou. This concise file explains Li Yi's place of origin and relatives, with only a few strokes, writing the life of an old servant in Shanxi. According to this brief account, we have no way of knowing how Li Yi drifted from Shanxi to Changzhou and became a servant of Zhao Liewen's family. However, Li Yi's life was very laborious, and I am afraid that it is indeed true. In the chaotic world, li Yi died in a lonely boat, and Li Yi probably confessed the aftermath to Zhao Liewen at the time of his death, which led to this "servant file" in the diary.
The next day, Zhao Liewen wrote a letter to Li Yi's nephew to inform him of Li Yi's illness and death. He also sent servants to escort Li Yi's coffin back to Anqing first.
On August 26, Zhao Liewen, who had been away from home for more than a month, returned to Anqing, and the news he received was still bad news. "The young daughter Was born on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, and the silver official died of illness a few days ago, and was shocked to death." His young daughter died in his hometown of Changzhou, and his maid Yinguan also died violently in Changzhou, and it seems likely that he died of an acute cholera.
The plague caused many changes to the servants in Zhao Liewen's house, the old servants left, and the new servants were very express. On the ninth day of September, shortly after Li Yi's death, Zhao Liewen took in a new servant, Wu Sheng, a servant from Chao County, Anhui. At the end of the year, zhao Liewen left Shanghai on October 23 to return to Anqing after dealing with the aftermath of Zhou Tenghu and others. At this time, Zhao Liewen "took the sick servant Li Sheng alone." ...... The old servant Atao was sent away, and the new servants Chen Fu (a Suzhou native) and Wang Gui (a Jurong person) were taken in. Li Sheng, the son of Li Fa, this summer Uncle Suo went and took him to Shanghai, and now he is very ill and cannot return, so I can't bear it, so I also go along. Zhao Liewen remembered the feelings of the master and servant, and deliberately took Li Sheng back to Anqing. The helpless ship has not yet left Shanghai, and Li Sheng has already died of illness. Zhao Liewen asked his friend Ding Yanshan to handle the affairs after Li Shu's death and go to Guoyu hall to collect the coffin, spending two foreign yuan. The diary of October 26 recorded: "In the afternoon, I was buried and carried to the main church for burial. There is a ticket and a piece of paper, and he collects it with the ticket. Therefore, the life of the servant Li Sheng was also explained in this way.
Judging from the records of Zhao Liewen's Diary, the plague is a disaster for everyone, but the lower the people, the greater the probability of illness and death. The reason for this is probably not that the plague is that the rich love the poor, but that the conditions for the poor to seek medical treatment are far inferior to those of the rich. It can be seen that the valuable thing about Zhao Liewen's diary is that it always records the illness of some less well-known people, making people feel real. The following is a list of diseases seen in Zhao Liewen's diary in the first year of Tongzhi:
On July 23, Zhou Tenghu died of illness.
On August 23, the old servant Li Yi died.
On the twenty-eighth day of the leap august, Yao Tongfu fell ill and Zhao Liewen was slightly ill. Zhi Dong Liang died in Hangzhou.
On September 23, Zhang Yin died of illness in Shanghai. The servant Cao Gan died in Chongming.
On the first day of October, he consulted Mrs. Shen Suojun in Shanghai.
On October 23, Li Sheng, an old servant, fell ill in Shanghai.
On November 18, Zhou Yihao's wife Xu shi fell ill in Xuzhou.
On December 26, Zhao Liewen's wife Deng Jiaxiang fell ill.
The diary of the plague period is the product of the author's contact with the plague, a series of records of unexpected encounters with the plague in daily life. Zhao Liewen did not deliberately want to record the plague, but when the plague affected his family, when the plague occurred around him, affecting his life, he could not sit idly by. Zhao Liewen recorded a series of affairs caused by the plague in his diary, and his diary added a new item.
Human sorrow and joy may be the same, but different people's perceptions of plague and disease are not the same. Zhao Liewen was sensitive and affectionate, so the diary was often emotional when it came to plague and death, while others could show considerable restraint despite witnessing it. Also a guest in the shogunate of Zeng Guofan, Mo Youzhi in his diary, only a few times about the epidemic. Consider the many people in the shogunate of the Zengguo Clan in his pen who are infected:
On the first two days of February, Chonchang disease.
On March 16 and 17, Mo Youzhi had a chill and a cold. It lasts at least until April 18.
On April 25, Mo Shengsun (1844-1919) fell ill and lasted at least until the third day of the first month of May.
On the fifth day of the first month of July, Jin Anqing and Wu Dating fell ill.
On July 21, Sui Zangzhu's disease turned malaria.
……
There are not many infected people in the shogunate of Zeng Guofan, but Mo Youzhi seems to cherish his pen and ink, preferring to spend a lot of ink and ink in his diary to talk about literature and discussion, and rarely leave the words to the disease, even if he and his son are infected with the disease, it is only a stroke. Perhaps, he has a higher pursuit of creating diaries and writing styles. Mo Youzhi's feelings about this plague were not as strong as Zhao Liewen's, and he did not show more emotion, and it may also be that Because Mo Youzhi's relatives were mainly displaced in Guizhou and were not disturbed by the plague, he lacked the pain of the consequences of the plague. He and his son Mo Shengsun and others fell ill, which seemed to be mild, and they were able to recover quickly.
The Diary of Mo Youzhi contains a very brief description of the plague situation
For Zeng Guofan, who sits in Anqing, his diary is more complicated. Before his younger brother Zeng Guobao contracted the disease, Zeng Guofan's tone was as rational and restrained as Mo Youzhi's, and as for Zeng Guobao's death, he was emotional, and his penmanship was close to Zhao Liewen's diary. In addition, due to the control of military affairs in the four provinces of Jiangnan, Zeng Guofan paid attention to the overall plague, which was more macroscopic than Mo Youzhi and Zhao Liewen's views on the plague. Zeng Guofan's series of records of the plague in Zeng Guofan's diary are roughly equivalent to the "Ask Jane's Close Ministers to Run Military Affairs Films" played on August 12. Folding Clouds:
On the south bank of the great river, the epidemic is rife. ...... The territory of Ningguo is the most serious, followed by Jinling, followed by Huizhou and Quzhou. The Marine Division and the armies of Shanghai and Wuhu were also full of diseases and deaths. According to a report issued on the second day of the first month, in addition to those who had recovered, there were 6,670 sick people, and thousands of them had died, and the exact number had not yet been found. Inside and outside the city of Ningguofu, the corpses were in disarray and no one buried them. The sick have no one to serve the medicine. Even within a shed, no one cooked. Famous generals in his army, such as Huang Qing and Wu Huahan, died one after another. Bao Chao was also seriously ill. ...... Zhang Yunlan sent his brother Zhilan to Qimen, but he also fell ill and was still difficult to return to the camp. Yao Tibei of Southern Anhui Province went to the outside of the ridge to check once, and he could not afford to be infected. The ministers sent the battalion affairs office sipinqing to Gan Jin to Ningguo and his party, and now they are also infected and return to the province. Yang Yuebin returned from Yangzhou and was also seriously ill.
Heaven has descended on a great war, which is rare in recent times. Bad is a lot of trouble, and the heart is broken.
Fortunately, the imperial court did not blame Zeng Guofan for the plague. On the first day of September, the court sent a piece of paper to regard the plague as a punishment from heaven, and believed that there was also an infection in the Taiping Army, so it was not the crime of the minister. Piece folded clouds: "The political affairs of the Yi Dynasty are many things that have been lost, and they are enough to go to heaven and heaven." But pray silently with a fasting heart, in order to pray for the blessings of the heavens, and the defilement will be completely eliminated. We, the monarchs, should be painfully responsible, have solid strength, and strive to save the way, and ask for the people's lives, so that the heavenly heart will be transferred, and things will go smoothly. After the imperial court's gentle decree was issued, zeng guofan's worries in his heart eased slightly. Since then, there have been fewer records of outbreaks throughout the barracks.
However, shrouded in this plague, deaths in the Gangnam region often came unexpectedly. If there is no writer to record the pain and death in the plague, the experience of the sick and the dead will undoubtedly decay with the grass and trees. Fortunately, Zhao Liewen and others were not indifferent. On September 11, Zhao Liewen was ordered to hire a steamship to Jiujiang, and when he passed through Huayang Town, "there were people in the boat who died of illness, in order to help the coffin." "In a special situation, a little compassion leaves a memorable mark on history.
Who cares about individuals under the plague?
Taking the first year of Tongzhi as a cross-section, the history of this period is sliced, which does not take the grand events as the main concern, nor does it focus on important historical figures, but starts from the perspective of the family and individual life, and analyzes how individuals deal with specific life affairs in the face of the plague. Individual life affairs include livelihood, family affairs, and so on. This article does not focus on economic conditions and other aspects, but mainly focuses on disease and death caused by the plague, and pays special attention to the impact of death on individuals. For individuals, death is the extreme result of the plague and the ultimate yardstick of an individual's life and emotions. Death has a sudden impact on the individual's spiritual level and on the order of daily life. In response to the impact of death, the individual must face death head-on, deal with a series of consequences caused by death, and the diary depicts the appearance of sentient beings under the plague, which helps to glimpse the responsibility, temperament, talent, and so on of the individual.
Through the diary's account of the plague, it is possible to glimpse the extent to which the diary writer cared about the plague. Some authors write in generalities, while others devote a considerable amount of ink to attention, forming a "gaze" at the plague to some extent. The "gaze" of different authors on the plague is different, some "staring" at the plague situation of the whole society, and some paying attention to the plague situation of certain groups in the local area. It can be said that people from different classes have a very different understanding of this plague, and for Zhao Liewen, he understands that it is an unprecedented plague, but he is mainly concerned with the death of the pro-old caused by the plague, and he does not associate it with the wider disaster. In Zhao Liewen's pen, death is an irreparable pain, but it is the pain of individuals and families isolated in the vast desert world.
Illness and death caused by the plague spawned many disease writings and death writings, unexpectedly contributing to the flourishing of deformed literature. The plague caused the prosperity of many medical records, and the records of symptoms, prescriptions, etc. were scattered in various miscellaneous books, sometimes entering new medical cases, and stimulating more people to pay attention to medicine. With the development of the plague, a large number of relevant contents were recorded in letters, diaries, and poetry collections, and the deaths caused by the plague promoted the development of the literature of the Lianlian and the Biography. After the end of the plague and the war, the literati also wrote biographies, built the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall, and held various ceremonial activities to commemorate the dead, so that they could live forever in the world of words and become part of eternal memory.
The servants at the bottom also got the opportunity to perform because of the plague, and they took on more heavy nursing and care work, often in exchange for inexplicable sickness. Many servants died in the plague due to the lack of medical conditions, and with this misfortune they left deeper traces in their masters' diaries than before. Their names were recorded, their deeds were passed down, and they wrote with their lives the lamentations of those on the margins of society. The deaths of servants such as Li Yi and Li Sheng, as well as the arrival of new servants such as Wu Sheng, show that there were still a large number of displaced people during this period, and people with higher social status could always easily find new domestic slaves. The plague is equal for all, but some people are clearly in a more miserable situation in the midst of the plague.
The plague also brought about changes in family relations. Some are forced to assume their due social roles in advance, while others lose the protection of their loved ones and may have taken the wrong path in life. The experiences of Zhao Liewen and Zhou Shicheng, the son of Zhou Tenghu, reflect this change. The plague of the first year of tongzhi once again proved that in a fragmented society, relatives are still "strong links" in interpersonal relationships, and the connections based on factors such as the same year and region may not be as strong as those of families. For all beings under the plague of the first year of Tongzhi, home is still the most attractive and powerful harbor.
[This article is a phased result of the major project of the National Social Science Foundation of China " Narrative, Collation and Research of Modern Chinese Diaries" (18ZDA259), first published by the surging news (www.thepaper.cn). ]
Editor-in-Charge: Shanshan Peng
Proofreader: Yan Zhang