A generation of "strange officials" Zhang Zuonan

Five years after Daoguang, the street talk of Xuzhou officials and people has a new topic: Why is our new prefect Zhang Zuonan Zhang so uninhibited? After work, I did not participate in the gentry's banquet, nor did I go to the Qinglou to listen to small songs, which was very different from the previous old master.

Some curious people went to the mansion to peep and came back: Lord Zhang has set up a "scattered museum" and is grabbing a job with Mr. Private School. The historical records record this scene, using the four words "bonfire class reading".

In the Qing Dynasty, "Sanguan" roughly had two meanings, Hanlin Yuan Shu Jishi studied in Shuchangguan, which was called Sankan after the expiration of the study period; in addition, private schools run by private people, also known as Sankan, to distinguish public schools (academies). Zhang Zuonan hung a lantern at night to open a scattered house and teach nearby children to read, but didn't he grab a job with Mr. Private School? However, the children all know that reading with Mr. Zhang does not have to pay the shackles (tuition fees), and there is a free supper to eat at night, and the little faces are happy like flowers.

So the question is, where did Zhang Zuonan's funds come from? Since Daoguang first year as the governor of Taicang Prefecture, he has been running education privately and has never worried about costs.

Do you use public funds? Impossible, he is a humble Confucian official; does he pay for it out of his own pocket? It is also impossible, Zhang Zuonan's salary needs to support a family of old and young, a large group of wives and concubines and children, he is not so rich. It turned out that the funds came from the family side business, he let "wife and daughter textile often to the night equinox", that is, to ask his wife and daughter to do textile to earn money, and often work overtime until midnight, if it is not to subsidize the education funds, I can not think of other explanations.

It is strange not to feel sorry for your own wife and daughter, but to feel sorry for other people's children, right?

Zhang Zuonan's strangeness is more than that. For example, the readers at that time, who were not officials, did not hesitate to spend a lot of silver and donate an official to do it; those who became officials sharpened their heads and climbed up. Zhang Zuonan felt that being an official was very uninteresting. At the beginning of the seventh year of Daoguang, the imperial court promoted him to huai xu hai tong military preparation road, and it was four products. You can be promoted without drilling camp, and you can wake up laughing when you fall asleep, how good! After staying up for another two or three years, Bao Buqi was an envoy or envoy of a certain province, and the future could not be said to be bright, and at this time, he was in his prime, and he had not yet reached the age of fifty. Surprisingly, he "begged for support" and asked for retirement in advance.

In addition to health reasons, there are only two major uncontrollable factors for officials who have not reached the retirement age: one is poor treatment, low income, and feeling that being an official is boring; the other is mood problems, such as poor political ecology, personal value expectations cannot be realized, and so on.

Personally, I think Zhang Zuonan belongs to the latter. People who are familiar with history will not be unaware that although Daoguang is an emperor who is frugal to the point of cutting the door, he has also rectified the rule of officials, but the historian Mr. Cai Dongfan still gave a very unceremonious bad evaluation: "In vain, he did not speculate on his roots, he reduced his clothes and food, and he ruled the family more than enough, and the country was insufficient." How much information must be provided to us by saying "insufficient governance of the country"!

What was the ecology of the bureaucracy at that time? An example is given in the living note. One day, "the emperor thought about eating powder soup, and ordered to make the law according to what he said." The Ministry of the Interior said, "If this system is followed, a separate kitchen must be built, and a fund of 60,000 taels is required; the annual fee is 15,000 taels." "A bowl of ordinary noodle soup, but the following execution is such a cost, let alone anything else?" The sentence that there are countermeasures under the policy of the leopard is really of great historical origin. Zhang Zuonan from Jiaqing thirteen years into the shi, all the way, the Qing Dynasty's official ecology, he is clear, this early retirement, more like "escape", not a source of pressure, low income, less opportunities, his salary is enough to spend a few children's milk powder and diaper money, his promotion is still quite smooth; what really makes him sad is the unbearable ecology of the officialdom, so that his value realization has no hope.

The strangest thing happened after he retired.

His hometown was in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and many officials found that Zhang Zuonan's three sons did not study, but every day "hoeing the day of the day, the sweat drops down the soil", did the work of farmers, and even learned crafts from craftsmen. Some people can't figure it out, your old Zhang family is a scholarly door, the family of officials and eunuchs, let your son "work as a farmer", what is the matter? Zhang Zuonan smiled and said, "For thousands of years, boys have been studying for the sake of meritorious service, but now they can't do it, once they become officials, everyone's hearts and minds will become bad, I don't let my son take the road of keju, I really don't want them to degenerate." ”

Cheung Chok Nam, zi Dan Estate, historians praised him as "actuarial science, through The East and the West", was an outstanding astronomer, and there was the "Cui Wei Shan Fang Series" passed down, and it is said that this series of books was "regarded as a guideline by scholars" at that time. I think that this academic achievement is undoubtedly the result of his "escaping" from the officialdom, "living in the countryside for more than twenty years, and not entering the city", and engaging in research with all his heart; if he survives to retire normally, wastes time on deceit and ushers in the delivery, where will he realize the value of his life?

A generation of "strange officials" Zhang Zuonan, his "qi", can not simply be understood by "the state has the way, the state has no way to hide", he has also been fighting in the official field for more than ten years, and has also done a lot of things for this "state". His "oddness", qi in the understanding and accurate judgment of the political environment, qi in changing the traditional family style and value realization, enough for today's national examination students to learn. To be an official is nothing more than a career or job choice, to engage in a certain occupation or work, nothing more than a means of making a living and realizing personal value, neither of which is delayed, it is for wisdom, and if one of them is delayed, it should be weighed.

Zhao Yan

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