Zhou Maoqi (1836-1896 AD), also known as Hongbao, Ziyu, hanhou, ancestral home of Jixi, Anhui. Zhou Maoqi was a patriot who was active in the Tongzhi and Guangxu years of the Qing Dynasty, and moved to Nantong because of his elders' business. He was recruited into the shogunate by Xu Zonggan of Nantong, and was recommended to enter the career path, successively serving in Taiwan, Funing, Tianjin, and Hubei, and successively serving as an official to the title of Yipin Fengdian erpin, Hubei Jingshi Yibing Road and Jingzhou YichangGuan to handle trade affairs supervision. Ju Guan was praised for his self-encouragement of "being loyal and straight", and eventually died in office in Hubei.
Zhou Maoqi was twice the prefect of Funing Province (府治 in Xiapu). According to the Republic of China edition of the Xiapu County Chronicle, "Zhou Maoqi, Ziziyu, a native of Jixi, Anhui, set up a library in the academy, purchased dozens of books, and added scripture classes. The following small editor for everyone to share his performance in Funing Province:
First, build roads
In 1869 (the eighth year of Tongzhi), Zhou Maoqi was appointed as the prefect of Funing Province for the first time, and after Zhou Maoqi arrived at office, he immediately approved the old zhi, became familiar with the local conditions, personally visited the subordinate counties for investigation and investigation, often went deep into the people, and soon found out the crux of the restriction on the development of Funing, and put forward the idea of building roads and carrying out diversified operations. In the short period of two years in office, there were 6 roads in Xiapu and 2 bridges and culverts in Xiapu that were repaired by him. Among them, the most difficult project should be the Yangjiaxi Bridge, which is located between Yangjiaxi and Qiandawang Village on the Fuwen Ancient Yidao, the creek is wide and the water is rapid, it is one of the important traffic bridges on the post road, it is the only land main road leading to Zhejiang in Xiapu, and it is also the longest bridge on the five main roads leading to the outside of the province in Fujian, with a large span of 123.3 meters and a bridge height of 3.1 meters. It was once called "the old National Highway 104". In order to make the bridge repair work practical, he also personally visited the scene to supervise the specific work of rebuilding the Yangjiaxi Bridge. When the restoration of the bridge was completed, he also attended the site to preside over the completion ceremony. And personally wrote "Rebuilding the Yangjiaxi Bridge". According to the inscription, the Yangjiaxi Bridge was built in the fourth year of Mingshun (1460), and was destroyed by a flood shortly after it was rebuilt in the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751), and nearly a hundred years later, "the bridge is still crossed".
In the winter of the eighth year of Tongzhi (1869), Zhou Maoqi came to Dianning County, Yang Chunrong and others because of the afterword of Zhang Guolun, the founder of the Yangjiaxi Bridge, the work was completed in march, and Dong Qi's personnel were Yang Chunrong, Wusheng Zhou Buqing, Zhou Buqu, Xie Hongjian, Pan Siren and others, and also recorded: The bridge is wide and forty zhang is built with stone, and there is a pavilion on the east side of the bridge, and the pavilion is on the road. In September of the ninth year of Tongzhi, when Zhou Maoqi visited Yangjiaxi again, he found that the bridge was blocked by debris, and some were destroyed by nearby residents, in order to better protect the Yangjiaxi Bridge, which was not easy to build, he personally wrote the "Forbidden Qi", which strictly prohibited "stones to hit the bridge indiscriminately... There is a row of roads under the bridge that can be supported by the road, and people who drop the row are not allowed to mess with the penny iron head. It is also strictly forbidden to "pile up firewood and grass in the pavilions of nearby residents, prohibit the recording of miscellaneous trees by the upper stream, and gather refugees and refugees, and each should obey it, and do not show it from afar." From his handwriting of the reconstruction of the bridge inscription and the forbidden monument, it can be seen that Zhou Maoqi Junshou attaches great importance to the construction of transportation infrastructure in Funing.
Second, be considerate of the people
Zhou Maoqi is very sympathetic to the lives of the people. According to the Republic of China's "Xiapu County Chronicle Huizheng Zhi", it is recorded that the Jingjie Hall, Xiapu Hun Pu, more than the household to learn poetry, women also worship festival righteousness, only the women of the bitter festival are often hungry and do not continue, and sometimes there is a risk of freezing. In the ninth year of Tongzhi, the county shou Zhou Maoqi and the county ordered Tang Zhenwei to run a concubine. The Western Suburbs Baiyi Hall was renamed "Jishan Hall", and the township was the place where the festival was worked. The dental households should pay the government and county fees, and each household pledged to donate the tooth ring over the years, accumulated huge sums of money, paid interest, purchased property, and funded the perennial pension. He personally drew up the statutes, set quotas, and made arrangements for Chang Yuan. And set up a chairman, they are: Xishe Zhang Dazhu and others, Dongshe Wang Shili, etc., Nanshe Wang Hanying, Beishe Lu Qingyu, etc., a total of ten and six people. They are responsible for the work of the four societies and distribute them on a monthly basis. Wu Yushu and Zhang Guolun were entrusted with the post of premier inspector to ensure that the work was carried out in a down-to-earth manner.
Third, attach importance to education
Zhou Maoqi is not only diligent in government affairs, but also attaches great importance to cultural education and talent training. According to the "Xiapu County Chronicle Huizheng Zhi", in the ninth year (note: it should be between the second and fifth years of Guangxu), the county sheriff Zhou Maoqi returned to his post, read the examination papers of the Holy Academy, and approved the clouds: "The style of writing in The Yi is still not strong. Because the officials could not advocate it, and the study of scripture had no roots, the Han and Tang dynasties and the writings of the elders of the Qing Dynasty not only did not read his books, but also did not know their names." Therefore, he specially raised funds for the anointing of the scriptures with life and rest, and at the same time purchased the "Three Rites and Righteous Shu", "The Legend of the Four Classics", the "Commentary on the Classics" of Huisan Tongzhitang and XuehaiTang, and issued his own Gui's "Sayings of The Meaning of The Scriptures", "Guangyun", "Ji Knock" and other books, which were uniformly stored in the academy room for students to read and study. He also proposed Duan's "Commentary on the Sayings of the Text", Wang's "GuangyaShu", "Jing Chuan Zhi" and other kinds of "Commentaries on the Classics of Xuehaitang", and used Zhu Pen to sign out and order the students to copy and read them in order to read them. The books in the collection were handed over to Lu Qingbao for management by the academy, and the monthly salary was paid. Believing that the scripture classes were ineffective and fearing that the art and the examination of posts would be absurd, the courses were suspended, and the specialty was reduced to sixteen.
Zhou Maoqi attached great importance to cultural accomplishment throughout his life, and his academic achievements were fruitful. Although Zhou Maoqi was an official, he was still diligent in his studies, and left research results for posterity in bronze inscriptions, geography, classics, and ancient phonology. He compiled the "Jingnan Cui Ancient Compilation", "Quantai Map", "YuyangShan People Essence Record And Supplement (11 volumes)" and other books; The school's "Ancient Zhou Yi Jie", "Five Books of Phonology Thirty-Eight Volumes", "Lü's Spring and Autumn Twenty Volumes", "Yi Tong Change Forty Volumes". Unfortunately, he left not many poems in Xiapu, and so far it has only been found that he wrote inscriptions such as "Rebuilding the Yangjiaxi Bridge" and "Forbidden Migration", and in the Republic of China edition of the "Xiapu County Chronicle. The "Literary and Art Chronicle" only contains the article "Epitaph of Engong Lu Chunpo".
In his lifetime, Zhou Maoqi was not only a diligent and conscientious patriotic official, but also an accomplished scholar. During his reign in Taiwan, he also personally wrote the "All-Taiwan Map Theory", which has become an ironclad historical record that the Diaoyu Islands have been China's territory since ancient times. He first studied, paying attention to the practical learning of the world, and later took the initiative to learn the scientific civilization of the West, and strived to find a way out for the prosperity and strength of the country, becoming a down-to-earth practitioner in the late Qing Dynasty. In short, Zhou Maoqi served as a county sheriff in Funing for two terms, and did a lot of projects for the people of Xiapu that were related to people's livelihood, and the people of Xiapu still miss this county sheriff who was hard and loyal.
Author: Lei Hengrun