As early as 1914, Yuan Shikai held a conference on the law of the covenant law, trying to concoct a new law to replace the provisional law, and his attempt to legitimize his ultra vires was clearly revealed. A total of 61 members of the congress attended the meeting, and only one person openly confronted Yuan Shikai, opposing the president's monopoly of power and casting the only negative vote. This person is zhuang yunkuan, president of the Republic of China Audit Court.
Zhuang Yunkuan was born in 1866, the character Enxuan, the number of Baoque, also known as Yunnan, Wujin County, Jiangsu Province. In his legendary and magnificent life, he successively served as the prefect of Wuzhou in Guangxi in the late Qing Dynasty, a member of the Republic of China Convention, a member of the Pingzheng Yuan, the president of the Audit Yuan, and the chairman of the Palace Museum.
In the record, Zhuang Yunkuan's overstepping of power by publicly opposing Yuan Shikai is only slightly overstated, and it is not difficult to imagine how much risk he is facing, and let people pinch a sweat for him in their hearts.
Later, Yuan Shikai was worried about zhuang Yunkuan's prestige and could only deliberately envelop him. At this time, Zhuang Yunkuan was serving as the head of the Su ZhengShi of the Su Zheng Department, and he still scrupulously did his duty not to be moved, and he did not dare to speak out of people, and did not dare to do anything for others. His gangzheng did not provoke Yuan Shikai to kill him. Zhuang Yunkuan was aware of this, and once he was a little more widely monitored, he went to Tianjin to avoid trouble among Zhang Yilu (secretary general of the presidential office). After Yuan's death, Zhuang Yunkuan was able to return to Beijing and serve as the head of the audit.
At that time, the Audit Institute was in charge of the national accounting supervision affairs, but it was not valued by those in real power. Only when local officials need the central government to write off expenditures in order to renew them, they privately give gifts and implore the Audit Institute to facilitate accommodation. Zhuang Yunkuan deeply resented this, and after taking office, this bad wind gradually subsided.
The financial situation of the Beiyang government in the later period was no longer able to pay the salaries of government officials, and some important departments could still raise funds for self-sufficiency, but the Audit Bureau was extremely embarrassed because it had no actual financial resources, and it was common for it not to pay salaries for several months. Zhuang Yunkuan had to ask the Ministry of Finance for salaries from time to time, and once he was collected, he distributed them from the bottom up, and when he got it, he often had nothing left.
In order to maintain the normal operation of the Audit Court, Zhuang Yunkuan had to borrow money from foreign banks in China. According to the 1922 "Report on the Investigation of the Loan of the Bank of The Auditor-General", it was learned that on March 31, 1921, Zhuang Yunkuan entered into a contract with the Ministry of Finance at the bank, borrowing 300,000 silver yuan, and from March 1921 onwards, 30,000 yuan was paid every month, in a total of ten months, with a monthly interest rate of 1 minute and 4%. Happily, however, despite the perennial arrears of wages, the Court of Auditors was able to function normally under the difficult maintenance of the President.
Because Zhuang Yunkuan suffered hardships in the front and led by example, under the inspiration of his personality charm, the staff at all levels "admired his virtue, although there was no reserve of ascension, he would never follow him." However, he is very strict with his subordinates and will never shield or protect. When the Court of Auditors audited the Ministry of Communications' may 1922 expenditure calculation, it found that one expenditure violated the government's regulations on part-time work and no part-time salary. Under the salary item, 29 people from various ministries and institutes received a total salary of 2363 yuan and 9% in the Ministry of Communications. Among the 29 people, there is 1 accounting officer of the Audit Institute, who also serves as a trainer of the Ministry of Transportation for 1 month and receives a salary of 80 yuan. The case was included in the audit report, and according to the audit opinion, the part-time salary amount was excluded in full, and the official who violated the provision would refund the salary received in full, including the official of the Court of Auditors.
During his tenure as audit dean, Zhuang Yunkuan was also responsible for the preparation of the Palace Museum. Over the course of several years, the palace museum's cultural relics have undergone various twists and turns, including four reorganizations of the museum's leadership in just two years, from March 1926 to June 1928. But it is thanks to a group of guardians like Zhuang Yunkuan, who have always sacrificed their lives to protect themselves with a passion for blood, that the Forbidden City can survive to this day in a relatively intact appearance.
In his twilight years, Zhuang Yunkuan chose to stay away from the officialdom and return to his hometown of Changzhou for recuperation, occasionally engaged in some cultural work. However, the patriotic feelings in his bones made him always concerned about the development of the situation, and he was often worried because the Japanese army continued to provoke incidents to invade China, and soon left for the west.
Looking at Zhuang Yunkuan's life, it can be said that he has gone through twists and turns and is extremely legendary, and he has formed an aura of non-anger and self-esteem by virtue of his selfless and generous pride in his heart, with his honesty and self-sustainability, and the integrity of his words and deeds, protecting him all the way forward. He is also quite accomplished in the field of calligraphy, and his characters are not stable and rich in changes, with a broad and thick image. I guess that's how words are.
Author: Shi Minqi, New Media Workstation, National Audit Office