The highly respected ones follow
——Written on the occasion of the publication of "Wu Tang, the Great Official of the Frontier"
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Xu Yin
In today's China, speaking of Wu Tang, the governor of Sichuan, who is Wu Tang? A lot of people don't know. But as long as it is Qinghe Zhixian who sent silver to Empress Dowager Cixi, someone will say: "Know, know, you are talking about him." In Huai'an, Chengdu, and his hometown of Eastern Anhui, where Wu Tang had served for a long time, there are also stories that Wu Tang was promoted by sending silver to Empress Dowager Cixi. So, why is this nonsense thing rumored and gradually perfunctory into a legend with a storyline, and even widely circulated? Who started it? Why did the silver giver point to Wu Tang and not to someone else? The humble book "Wu Tang, the Great Official of the Frontier", will unveil this mystery for readers with detailed historical information.
Wu Tang stone carved small portrait rubbing
Wu Tang (1813-1876), governor of Sichuan, was a Chinese poet who called Chunting, Zhongxuan, and Zhongxian. In the late Qing Dynasty, a native of Xuyi (present-day Sanjie Town, Mingguang City, Chuzhou), Tongzhi iii years (1864), moved to the old town of Chuzhou (now part of Langya District). Although his family was poor when he was young, he still studied. In the fifteenth year of Daoguang (1835), he took the first place and embarked on a career. The Wu family lived in Chuzhou, where Ouyang Xiu and Wang Yangming traveled and spread Confucian culture. Wu Tang was deeply influenced by Ouyang Xiu's pro-people thoughts, and often referred to himself as "I am an old zaiguan who is pro-people". He often used Wang Yangming's famous sentence "Willing to hear about one's own mistakes and seek to understand the people's feelings" to encourage himself, manipulate administrative achievements, and be admired by the people. Wu Tang has a deep friendship with his hometown, and once had a poem: "Footprints are half the world, nothing is like hometown relatives." Travel and travel all over the world, just like the hometown people. In the turbulent situation of the late Qing Dynasty, Wu Tang set up a regiment in his hometown to ensure the safety of the party. He also asked the imperial court to exempt Chuzhou from taxes, donated silver to rebuild the school, drunken pavilion, etc., to help the people recuperate.
Wu Tang wrote a letter to Xue Shiyu for the reconstruction of drunken Pavilion
Throughout his life, Wu Tang was diligent in political affairs, built embankments on the river, provided disaster relief to the people, had the responsibility of guarding the land, protected the border and the people, built a college, used culture to educate the people, and governed the political clarity in the office, and the people lived in peace. Wu Tang, who was "old and mature, diligent in handling affairs", was prominent in government, and was promoted to the governor of Caoyun, the governor of Jiangsu, the governor of Liangguang (not yet appointed), the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, the governor of Sichuan, and the general of Chengdu, and eventually became a feudal governor and a heavy minister in the late Qing Dynasty. Guangxu died in the second year and was buried in Longshan, Shaheji Dongwei Village, Nancheng District, Chuzhou. "Diligent and beneficial".
In the Qing Dynasty, there was the saying of "eight governors under heaven", that is, the eight governors of Zhili, Liangjiang, Huguang, Liangguang, Fujian, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, and Yungui (the governors of the three eastern provinces were added at the end of the Qing Dynasty), and Wu Tang was the governor of Fujian, Zhejiang and Sichuan. Wu Tang was loyal to the imperial court because of his good government and honest duties, and was "a scholar of the Prancing Horse Jun'en", and was appreciated and relied upon by Empress Dowager Cixi, and many were promoted. In order to curb Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang's Xianghuai clique, the Qing dynasty government vigorously promoted Wu Tang and tried to make him another political force outside the Xianghuai clique, so it was jealous of the Xianghuai clique and the envy of the world, and "those who enjoyed great reputation also followed."
The Tongzhi Emperor enshrined Wu Tang's parents' holy will
Due to regional relations, Wu Tang was deeply influenced by the culture of the Tongcheng school of literati who "applied to the world", "Wuyi Tongcheng is not far away." He had close contacts with the Literati of the Tongcheng School, and made important contributions to the inheritance and promotion of the Tongcheng School culture, the spread and expansion of Confucianism, and was comparable to Zeng Guofan.
In addition to devoting himself to military and political affairs, Wu Tang Gong Yu Ya Shang Kunqu, inscribed books and writings, and his works include: ten volumes of manuscripts, ten volumes of "Wangsan Yizhai Poetry notes", five kinds of fifteen volumes of "Wangsan Yizhai Manuscripts"; the construction of "Wangsan Yizhai" and "Chushan Shutang" has a collection of 10,000 volumes, and the publication of 70 kinds of books engraved by Fang Bao and other Tongcheng school literati and sub-collection books of the classic history, which are still hidden in 49 libraries at home and abroad.
Wu Tang collected books and printed
Wu Tang's seal of the preface to Du ShiJingquan
I became acquainted with Wu Tang, a feudal official, in 2004. In order to complete the task of finding and protecting the former residences of celebrities, I went through great hardships to find Wu Tang's former residence in Chucheng Nanchen North Road (Center Street) - Wu Mansion. In 2005, I wrote a proposal "The Former Residence of Wu Tang, the Governor of Sichuan, Urgently Needs Protection", which contributed to the former residence of Wu Tang as a "Cultural Relics Protection Unit of Chuzhou City". For more than a decade, I and people from all walks of life have taken advantage of various opportunities such as the plenary session of the CPPCC to appeal to the principal leaders of the Chuzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Chuzhou Municipal Government for the restoration of Wu Tang's former residence. In 2016, the restoration and installation of Wu Tang's former residence began, and I participated in it as an expert and donated precious materials and pictures accumulated over the years to set up the exhibition. On New Year's Day 2020, Wu Tang's former residence was opened.
Wu Tang's former residence in 2004
Aerial view of the restored Wu Province
In 2018, the Chuzhou Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature asked me to write a book by Wu Tang. I am very old, sick, and I am not up to the task. He hesitated, taking into account the large amount of information collected over the years, especially the Wu clan relatives who provided the information, such as Wu Shaobin, the great-grandson of Wu Tang, Wu Keyi, and the great-grandson of the clan, Wu Shaohua, who had died. If this precious information is not disclosed, it will be drowned out. After the former residence of the Wu family in the Mingguang Old Three Realms was burned down by Li Zhaoshou in the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858), as many as a thousand people followed Wu Tang to Huai'an, many of whom were promoted because of their military merits, and after becoming rich, they built their former residences in Chucheng's Nanchen North Road, West Avenue, North Street, Donghou Street, Taipingqiao Lane, etc. Even part of the old military sub-district familiar to the public was also the former residence of Wu Tang's nephew and Wu Bingren, the governor of Yangzhou. These former residences will be an important resource for the city to declare a national-level historical and cultural city in the future. Hence the book.
Based on a large number of literature and the word-of-mouth information of Wu's relatives (some materials and pictures are disclosed for the first time in China), this book truly shows Wu Tang's thick, elegant, bold, and decisive style, showing Wu Tang from several different aspects, in the era of "great changes that have not occurred in a thousand years" in the late Qing Dynasty, from a Han warrior to a famous governor of the territory who ruled the party, and directly chased the colorful life of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang in the Tongzhi "Zhongxing Famous Ministers".
In 2004, Wu Tang V Sun Qinwei (Wu Wei)
In front of Wu Tang's tomb
The difficulty in writing this book is to write a biography of Wu Tang, a bureaucrat and doctor in the feudal era, and it is necessary to grasp the measure, neither exalting beauty nor demanding predecessors, and seeking truth from facts to reflect Wu Tang, a famous township sage who came out of Chuzhou, "the world's famous Huaihai official". It is necessary to record historical materials to the greatest extent, provide clues for future Wutang researchers, and reflect the academic nature, but also take into account ordinary readers and pay attention to readability. Therefore, the whole book is divided into two volumes, the first and the second, which are both independent and interrelated, and confirm each other. The first volume pays attention to readability, narrates Wu Tang's eunuch journey and life deeds in Chuzhou in plain language, shows his outstanding contributions to his hometown, and shows the deep friendship of a generation of feudal officials for his hometown. The next volume reflects the academic nature, with detailed historical materials, "no word and no origin", focusing on excavating wu tang and eunuch yiwen, and contributing to traditional culture. For example, the correspondence between Wu Tang and the Tongcheng school, the historical remains of the collection of books and engravings, especially the analysis of the true relationship between Wu Tang and Empress Dowager Cixi, and the reasons for the damage to Wu Tang's image by literary works. The story behind Wu Tang's former residence in the appendix allows readers to learn more about Wu Tang's former residence and the Wu family.
In the process of writing this book, many friends have given help, and I am deeply grateful for them. Thanks to the Publicity Department of the Chuzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Federation of Literary and Art Circles for publishing a series of cultural books, which not only publicizes and inherits the history and culture of Chuzhou, but also provides a platform for researchers of literature and history. For me, the process of writing is also a process of learning, a process of improving my comprehensive quality. At this moment, when "Wu Tang, the Great Official of the Frontier" was published, I recalled that I had buried my head in the pile of books and sea materials for three years, and there was a feeling that the little bees had collected sweet honey, although it was hard to taste, but it was as sweet as a gluttony.
After 1949, Wu Mansion was converted into the People's Cinema and Xinhua Bookstore. In 1967, a procession passed through here.
When writing this book, I found that Wu Tang has two points that are most praiseworthy: First, "the family style is habitually poor", because he grew up at the bottom of the people, Wu Tang is well aware of the people's sufferings, is familiar with the various situations of the city, and after entering politics, he diligently cultivates the rule of officials, pays attention to the people's livelihood, and sympathizes with the people's feelings. Before Wu Tang became the governor of Caoyun, the governor's palace in Huai'an used mountain treasures and seafood to entertain guests, and more than half of the dishes in the Manchu han table came from Huaiyang cuisine. In the face of the bad habits of the officialdom, Wu Tang asked to "cook Huaiyang cuisine with Huai production", which achieved the pattern of Huaiyang cuisine today, and the pu vegetables, yellow eels, and white fish of Wu Tang's guests are still important ingredients in Huaiyang cuisine. During his tenure as governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Wu Tang did not hesitate to offend Zuo Zongtang and Shen Baozhen and other powerful people for the rest and recuperation of the people, and replaced officials who were able to perform their work by indiscriminately collecting taxes. "Thirty years of serving officials, the diligence of self-encouragement, and the love of the people are like a day." Until the Republic of China period, Wu Bingren also warned the descendants of the Wu family to abide by the last precept of "family style and habit of keeping poor".
23 years after Wu Tang's death, the people of Huai'an were honored
"Wu Qinhui Went to Think about the Monument"
The second is that "defending the countryside is patriotic", in the third year of Tongzhi (1864), the Taiping Army rebel General Li Zhaoshou had been occupying Chuzhou for six years, and the prefectures, sub-cities, and Yedu Bridges were all destroyed. Langya Mountain was tragically burned by soldiers, and the Drunken Pavilion and Langya Temple were re-scorched. "In the midst of the harsh winter, there is no food and no shelter, and the people freeze and starve to death." Within the four realms of Xu, Ding, Chu and Lai, white bones are everywhere, artemisia is forested, and there are no people who have more than four years. ”
In order to rescue his hometown father and elder who were suffering under the harsh government, Wu Tang did not hesitate to violate the rules of the imperial court, agreed to Zeng Guofan's request to "ask your ministry to come and assist in the defense", and sent troops across the border to take over and garrison Chuzhou. Wu Tang instructed Wu Bingqi, who led the team, to say: "Remembering that the hometown has long been ashes and withered to the extreme, we always train the soldiers, although every grass and tree should not disturb our hometown, and if we can defend the township, we will report to the country." The uncles and nephews carefully planned to close the eastern, western, and northern gates, and only allow Li Zhaoshou's troops to withdraw from the south gate. At that time, the city was in good order and handed over safely. Wu Tang's ministry of education has turned the enthusiasm for serving the country into a concrete action to defend and love the hometown, and loving the hometown is to love the country, and this love of the hometown still has certain practical significance to this day.
Source: Chuzhou Municipal Party Committee Cyberspace Administration
Preliminary: Deng Zhonghang
Review: Zhang Youkui Review: Wang Qing
Submission email: [email protected]
2021.7.17