The record of The Ancestral Hall of Chen Tai in the Weixian Chronicle
An inscription unearthed from the City God Temple that records Chen Jieqi's good deeds
When the Twister army arrived in Weixian County, Chen Jieqi moved from the countryside to the city. For more than 20 years thereafter, he lived in the Chen family compound at the eastern end of Zengfutang Street. Here, he collects antiquities and studies. When war and famine came, he always stepped forward and fulfilled the role of a gentry and sage who protected the people. He also followed the good examples and guided future generations to inherit the spirit of the townspeople. Later, the locals invited him to the xiangxian ancestral hall to receive worship.
During the war, regiments were set up to build forts to defend their hometowns
The Twister Army attacked the outside of Weixian County in the second month of the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861). Prior to this, Chen Jieqi had already made generous donations, and together with local officials and gentry, he set up local regiments to train the armed forces, and their precautionary measures played a great role. In the desperate resistance of the regimental training armed forces, the Twister army retreated in vain, and the county seat was safe and secure.
Detectives on the relevant side may come again in August of this year. Chen Jieqi actively planned in the middle of the summer heat and created three forts. The size and style of the fort were developed by himself. Later, the Twister army did arrive as scheduled, but did not attack the county town again. People say that this is the twist army seeing the strong defense of the city, no longer doing useless work.
At the same time, Chen Jieqi also arranged for the publication of the "Township Shou Ji Zhi" to guide local villages to build polder forts for defense. Countless local villages have been saved by positive response.
In the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), the Part of the Twister Army Lai Wenguang entered weixian county four times in June, August, November, and December. Whenever the war came, Chen Jieqi took the lead and climbed the city wall to lead everyone to defend. In this year, the Inspector of Shandong Ding Baozhen passed through Weixian County, chen Jieqi went out of the city to comfort him, and from then on, he made friends with Ding Baozhen.
After that, Ding Baozhen often used the method of mailing letters to consult with Chen Jieqi on military affairs. The two exchanged letters several times a day. After the army was purged in Shandong, Ding Baozhen asked the imperial court for merit for Chen Jieqi, and the imperial court rewarded Chen Jieqi with the title of Sanpin.
For two consecutive years, a porridge factory was opened to relieve the villagers
In the first year of Guangxu (1875), weixian cereal crops failed, and the wheat harvest failed the following year, so there was a great famine, and the gentry agreed to open a porridge factory to relieve the hungry. Chen Jieqi opened one on his own. At first, his porridge factory was set up in the teaching field (the original site was located in the southeast of Songyuanzi Community in Weicheng District), and thousands of people ate every day. Later, he opened a porridge factory at the City God Temple, and the number of hungry people who ate increased to more than 10,000 a day.
For more than eight months, he took out as much grain as he had hidden in his home and led his eldest grandson Chen Fu to the City God Temple every day to give porridge. Whenever he goes to the scene, he must taste the taste of porridge in person. Whenever he saw the hungry people coming one after another, his heart was always worried. As a result, his porridge factory has been well organized, and the hungry people have been on hand, and there has been no crowding and chaos.
After this great famine in Weixian County, there was no plague accompanied by it, which was rare under the conditions at that time. Chen Jieqi's charity saved more than 10,000 hungry people. The magistrate also made a request to the imperial court, and the imperial court rewarded Chen Jieqi with two tops.
The people of Weixian County are grateful to Chen Jieqi for his good deeds. They urged the local official and scholar Tian Ming to write an article recording Chen Jieqi's good deeds, engraved them on the stone stele, and erected the stone stele in the courtyard of the City God Temple. Later, the stele was buried underground. This year, the stone stele was seen again at the construction site of the city god temple repair project.
Chen Jieqi's descendants recall that Chen Jieqi collected a large number of pottery pottery texts, which was almost the period of this great famine. The famine was caused by a great drought, not only in Weixian County, but also in many parts of Shandong. When Chen Jieqi led Chen Fu to set up a porridge factory to give porridge, farmers in Linzi( Linzi District, Zibo City), the former capital of the State of Qi, heard that Chen Jieqi collected pottery pottery, and they collected the whole or fragments of pottery from the field and sent them to Weixian County. Chen Jieqi accepted all of them and paid the equivalent remuneration. Later, some people said that Chen Jieqi's move also had the meaning of receiving relief in lieu of charity.
Words and deeds influenced future generations of eldest grandsons to become presidents of the Chamber of Commerce
Chen Jieqi's cousin Chen Jiemei was killed in the county town defense battle in the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861). He was instructed to build a special shrine for his cousin, and spared no effort in funding and supervising the work. The shrine was built in the fifth year of Guangxu (1879) and the scale is three halls. Chen Jiemei (陈介梅), Daoguang Seventeenth Year (1837) Pagong, Chaokao First Class, initially served as the Zhi County of Yanshan, Jiangsu, and was a tired official to the Prefect of Guide, Henan (府治今, Henan Shangqiu). After his death, the imperial court posthumously gave him official positions such as Taibu Siqing and Hereditary Riding Lieutenant, and built a special shrine called Chen Taibu Ancestral Hall.
Chen Tai Servant Ancestral Hall is located in the west courtyard of the Wen Temple in Weixian County (the original site is located in the area of Qipan Street, Dongfeng West Street, Weicheng District), dedicated to Chen Jiemei, Wusheng Qianzong Chen Zhipu, Hanlin Yuanzhao Liu Pengxi, Zhou Tong Chen Shouxun, County Cheng Hu Wentan, From Jiupin Chen Shizhi, Eight Pin Rank Chen Jiefeng, Appendages Zhang Xianglin, Li Shiji, Wang Xunguan, Wang Ruqiao, Supervisor Yunsheng, Wusheng Xu Yuanqing, Eight Pin Rank Li Shanpei and other victims.
Later, Chen Jieqi closed the door in the Chen Family Compound on Zengfutang Street, focusing on tasting cultural relics and delving into learning, while also seriously teaching Chen Fu's Four Books and Five Classics and other traditional Chinese studies, and the teaching materials were written by Chen Jieqi himself. Chen Jieqi also wrote the enlightenment article "Xi Zi Zhi" that taught traditional calligraphy in China.
In Chen Jieqi's words and deeds, Chen Fu later became an influential local figure with a rural sage style.
Chen Fu, zi hu zeng. In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898), Chen Fu independently funded the expansion of the examination institute in the city, and built 14 new houses, which directly benefited the Students of Weixian County who participated in the imperial examination. In the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu (1902), Shandong sent personnel to Weixian to set up a commerce bureau. Chen Fu served as the first General Office of the Commerce Bureau. The Commerce Bureau was later the Weixian Chamber of Commerce, and the General Office was the later president of the Chamber of Commerce.