Huai'an Banzha was once a well-known bustling town, because the Ming and Qing dynasties and the early Republic of China set up a large tax authority directly under the central government - Huai'an Pass, Huai'an Guanguan under the jurisdiction of Huaiguan, Yan, Lian, Su four regions of the three passes and eighteen cards, every year made a great contribution to the national finances. Banzha also once walked out of a famous historian Xiao Lingyu (?) –1854, Zi Meisheng), who spent his life mainly as a copywriter and aide in the Huai'an Pass, Guangzhou Customs, and liangguang Governor's Office, and in his later years received a minor official in the Shandong Salt Transport Department of Eight Pins, and died before he could take office. He did not dare to forget the worries of the country, paid attention to the people's livelihood all his life, guan Wang Guoyun, and was diligent in writing, and wrote a lot of works. In recent years, his academic achievements have been repeatedly mentioned, valued by the academic community, and he is considered a pioneer with a profound influence on China's modern history.
Qinghe Erxiao, famous
Xiao Lingyu was born into a poor family in Qinghe County. His father was a scholar, who achieved nothing, was not good at making a living, was in debt, was exiled to the Beijing Division, and did not return home for many years. Because of the lack of livelihood, Xiao Lingyu and his younger brother went to Shanyang with their mother Liu Shi to live with their uncle, who was not rich, living in a temporary and ventilated thatched hut in Banzha Town, living a half-hungry and half-full life under the fence all year round. Mother Liu shi is smart and industrious, she was running housework when she was young, often while washing and cooking, while listening to her brothers and brothers reading, silently remembering the knowledge she heard, and asking them for advice as soon as she had free time, therefore, although she had not gone to school, she even recognized a lot of words, could write and write, knew many historical stories, especially for "the rise and fall of the dynasty, the unskillfulness of the queen, the rise and fall of talents, the gains and losses of chaos" (Xiao Wenye's "Ancestor Liu Tairu's Behavior"), has a certain understanding and insight, He often used tea and dinner to tell his young son and carry out enlightenment education. After years of fumigation, the knowledge of xiao Lingyu and Xiao Wenye (zi Meijiang) brothers has far exceeded that of their peers. At school age, Liu cheekily borrowed money in order to raise money, and finally sent the brothers to the best private school in the local area. When her neighbor saw her running all day, in tattered clothes and skinny bones, he kindly advised her: "What books do poor men read?" It is better to let them go to the rich family as a partner as soon as possible, which not only solves the problem of eating, but also saves some money, so as to take a daughter-in-law in the future. She replied, "If this is the case, my son will be poor for the rest of his life and be a partner for a lifetime." I'd rather live a few fewer years than let my son get ahead! "Mei Sheng and Mei Jiang brothers are very sensible, listen to their mother's teachings, and study very hard. Once, Mr. Private School said with emotion: "Among the students in my full hall, the Xiao family brothers have the worst clothes, but their studies are the best, and they will be the most successful in the future." ”
Later, Mei Sheng and Mei Jiang both won xiucai, wrote good words and good articles on the other, and became celebrities in the town. The two brothers were knowledgeable, familiar with ancient and modern literature, and had a remarkable literary talent, and were introduced to the shogunate by the local Huai'an Guanguan, in charge of copywriting, responsible for the daily writing work of Huaiguan, with a stable income and a gradual improvement in family situation. When the mother saw that the brothers had a proud look on their faces, she promptly taught them to strengthen their moral cultivation and not to be proud and complacent. The two brothers then studied more diligently in their spare time, and wrote books and li said that Mei Sheng had written such works as "The Inscription of the Stone Pillar of the Chuzhou Embassy", "The History of the Qinghe Frontier", "HuaiYu Zhi Zhi", "Parasitic Lu Collection", "English Chronicle", "Treatise on the City of Eastern Guangdong", and Mei Jiang wrote "The Collected Works of Yong mu Lu", all of which are conclusive evidence, meticulous in writing, and have never been published before, and are important historical documents. The reputation of the "Qingjiang Erxiao" spread far and near the land of Jianghuai, and celebrities such as Yao Ding, Guo Zhijia, and Bao Shichen took the initiative to make friends with him, and literati and officials passing by Huai'an also stopped their ships and landed on the shore to visit and seek advice. In the seventeenth year of Jiaqing, Ruan Yuan came to Huaihuai as the governor of Caoyun, and was very appreciative of the literary talent of the second brother, and received them many times to consult the strategy of governing the river and salt. Four years later, Nguyen Yuan was transferred to the post of Governor of Liangguang, and he asked Mei Sheng to accompany him, and arranged for him to serve as a senior staff member at the Guangzhou Customs and the Governor's Palace. In modern times, Ding Yan, a great Confucian from Huai'an, had seen Erxiao when he was young, and he respected them very much, saying that they "had the ambition to use the world, and all the great politics of the river canal, the salt law, the transfer of water, and the royal yi were all investigated." Repeatedly participating in the shogunate, the high officials relied heavily on it" ("Records of the Tang Dynasty"), which records the influence of Erxiao at that time. During the Republic of China period, Mao Guangsheng came to Huai to serve as the supervisor of Huaiguan, reminisced about the matter, admired Erxiao's character and knowledge, "hated him for not being with him at the same time" ("Xiao Meisheng Meijiang Biography"), searched for the two people's manuscripts, and engraved them into the "Chuzhou Series", so Erxiao's works were widely disseminated.
Delve into practical doctrines that benefit the country and the people
In the era in which Xiao Lingyu lived, the imperial examination system was still popular and played the role of a baton; most of the intellectuals turned a deaf ear to things outside the window, and they also immersed themselves in studying the so-called "Four Books and Five Classics" of the so-called sage way more than 2,000 years ago, and were obsessed with writing the rigid and stale Eight Strands of Thought, in order to gain fame, gain an official and a half-post, and honor the ancestors. Xiao Lingyu, who was born in poverty, also had dreams of going to tianshelang and ascending to the Tianzi Hall, but later found that this road was too difficult, and these theories were really useless, so after Zhongxiucai, he shifted his interest to practical theories that were applied to the world, and could put forward valuable insights into water transportation, water conservancy, salt affairs, agriculture, folklore, criminal law, military, etc., which were deeply appreciated by local officials and won wide praise among the intellectual class. He devoted his life to the study of the scriptures, and was diligent in practical investigation, writing many treatises of practical value.
During his tenure at Huaiguan, he spent a lot of time studying historical materials and conducting field investigations to make a relatively complex long list of the territorial history of Qinghe County, and compiled the longer-length examination texts and ancillary texts into the "Qinghe County Territorial History Table", which is rich in materials and preserves some important historical materials, and has become one of the main bases for future generations to understand the historical evolution of Qinghe. There is a stone pillar from the Tang Dynasty in Huai'an City, which has the inscription of the history of Chuzhou's successive thorns, because of its long age, wind and rain erosion, covered with moss, and has fallen off in many places, blurred. For an important local golden stone historical material, no one has asked for thousands of years. Xiao Lingyu and his brother worked together to clean and restore it, and consulted a large number of materials, and wrote a monograph "Chuzhou Embassy Stone Pillar Inscription", which made an important contribution to the preservation of local culture. In addition, such as "Borrowing Huang Ji Yun Discussion", "Buying Huaibei Pond Production Surplus Salt", "Shulian Shan Yao's Discussion on Using Soldiers", and so on are all treatises closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood and current affairs and politics at that time. After serving in Guangdong, he wrote works such as "The Book of England" and "The Treatise on the City of Eastern Guangdong", which brought him great fame and laid the foundation for his position in academic history.