Along the mottled stone road of Shaobo Ancient Town, all the way to the south, there is a newly restored ancient building, No. 143-145 South Avenue, which is Dong Ke's reading place.
Who is Dong Gong?
Dong Ke (東恂), also spelled Chenfu (音城府), was born in 1807 in the old mansion southeast of the West Huizheng Bridge in the Shaobo Canal of Jiangdu, he served in the four dynasties of Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu, and served as the prime minister plenipotentiary of the prime minister of state affairs, and was the "first person to translate English poetry into Chinese" in China.
Since childhood, his family has been poor, and he has cut words into books
When Dong Ke was a child, his family was very poor, and he once moved his home four times in this Shaobo town. However, his family did not give up his education, and at the age of 4, his grandfather cut it into a book and taught it word by word. He loves to read, and he especially likes to learn from evidence. As a teenager, he had almost read all the books in the private collection of Shaobo Town at that time. In the seventeenth year of Daoguang (1840), he was raised to a higher rank, and in the twentieth year (1843), he entered the army and embarked on a career.
The current house where Dong Ke studied was originally built by the Qi family, who ran the oil mill, and after the Qi family and Dong Ke married as relatives, Dong Ke Shouxiao studied here.
The restored courtyard covers an area of 960 square meters, with a construction area of 670 square meters, using relief, through carving, bas-carving and other processes, which is a unique simple and heavy style of Ming and Qing dynasty architecture.
The restored Dong Ke Reading Office
Officials of the Four Dynasties do not forget their hometown
Dong Ke has been an official for decades, living in the height of the temple, but he always thinks directly about his hometown thousands of miles away, the ancient town of Shaobo.
In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), Dong Ke was ordered to supervise the transportation of grain from Southern Chu, and when passing through his hometown, he saw that the town water cattle on the canal were well preserved, but there was no inscription, so he supplemented the iron cow inscription.
He was enthusiastic about charity in the township, not only funding the maintenance of incorruptible funds, advocating the construction of the Fraternity Hall and the CompassionAte Association, adopting the homeless old, the weak, sick and disabled, but also donating funds to build Hexi Avenue, and named it "Sanfu Street" with a vigorous letter, which was once on the other side of The Horse's Head, but now there is no trace of it.
In the winter of the third year of Xianfeng (1853), from Hunan to "fengzhen guili", he used this time to travel through the ditches and ridges of his hometown, visited the field to collect first-hand information, and began to write in July of the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), which took less than 5 months to complete the "Gantang Xiaozhi".
Four Corners Tower of Shaobo Ancient Town
I'm over eighty years old and still reading my books
In the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), Dong Ke retired from old age and retired from his post as a Beijing master, and named him "Still Reading My Book". At the age of 84, he still purchased the 1430-volume "Imperial Poetry Commentary Continuation" to study, which shows his spirit of endless life and reading.
In the eighteenth year of Guangxu (1892), Dong Ke died of illness in Jingshi at the age of 86. On his deathbed, he asked his eldest grandson to hang a plaque on the side of his coffin: "No trouble, no disaster, one of the vicissitudes of the sea; and now and then, listen to the history of the thousand autumns." "Plaque also read my book". The Guangxu Emperor personally gave him a sacrifice text, saying that he was "virtuous in nature and good in order to be competent."
Although Dong Ke did not return to his hometown shaobo town, the people of his hometown, out of love for him, specially built a crown tomb for him and erected a monument to commemorate it.
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The strip stone pier in Shaobo Ancient Town