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列傳一百二十三
Biography 123
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葉士寬陳夢說介錫周方浩金溶張維寅顧光旭
Ye Shikuan, Chen Mengshuo, Jie Xi, Zhou Fanghao, Jin Rong, Zhang Weiyin, and Gu Guangxu
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葉士寬，字映庭，江蘇吳縣人。 康熙五十九年舉人，授山西定襄知縣。 求民隱，滌煩苛，不假胥吏，事辦而民不擾。 雍正八年，擢沁州知州，署潞安知府。 除無名諸稅，复四門集以便商民。 歷署平陽、太原，治行為山西最。 十二年，舉卓異，擢浙江紹興知府。 有惰民格殺士人，眾譁，將罷試，士寬方勘三江閘，馳歸，數言諭解之。 風潮陷海塘，躬任堵築，三月而工完。 乾隆初，調金華。 東陽饑民求賑者以萬計，士寬曰：「按冊施賑，是賑冊非賑民也。」 乃召飢者前註名於冊，而斥二人，眾乃定。 二人者：一婦人，曾以訟至官，服華服，至是易敝衣乞賑，士寬識之，令褫其敝衣，內華服如故； 一男子，容甚澤，令飲癰莢汁，嘔出酒肉。 眾驚服，冒賑者潛散去。 在金華三年，多善政，郡人為立生祠。 擢杭嘉湖道，調金衢嚴道。 衢州地高，西安、龍遊諸縣，素築壩蓄水溉田？ 木商入山者，私開壩，水日涸，士寬嚴禁之，民皆稱便。 八年，調寧紹台道。 紹興大水，蕭山、諸暨民多挾眾詣縣求食，巡撫惡之，不欲賑。 士寬曰：「某來時，民飢幾欲死。 何忍坐視其悉填溝壑耶？」 繼以泣請，乃得上聞給賑。 士寬以待飢而賑常不及，議濬紹興之鑑湖、寧波之廣德湖，會去官，未果。 著浙東水利書，冀後有行之者。 父憂歸，遂不出。
Ye Shikuan, whose courtesy name was Yingting, came from Wuxian County in Jiangsu. He passed the provincial examination in the fifty-ninth year of the Kangxi reign and was appointed magistrate of Dingxiang in Shanxi. He sought out the people's grievances, swept away petty harassment, and handled affairs himself without leaning on clerks, so that business was done and the people left undisturbed. In the eighth year of the Yongzheng reign he was promoted to prefect of Qinzhou and served concurrently as acting prefect of Lu'an. He abolished assorted taxes levied without proper title and reopened the four-gate market to ease trade for merchants and townspeople. After serving in acting posts at Pingyang and Taiyuan, his administrative record was judged the finest in Shanxi. In the twelfth year he was cited for outstanding service and promoted to prefect of Shaoxing in Zhejiang. When a shiftless townsman killed a scholar, the crowd erupted in uproar and the examinations were nearly called off. Shikuan was inspecting the Sanjiang sluice at the time; he rode back at once and, with only a few words of persuasion, calmed the disturbance. When wind and tide broke through the seawall, he took personal charge of the repairs, and the work was completed within three months. Early in the Qianlong reign he was transferred to Jinhua. In Dongyang, tens of thousands of famine victims came forward seeking relief. Shikuan said, "If we distribute aid strictly by the register, we are feeding the register, not feeding the people." He had the hungry come forward one by one to sign the register, then publicly rebuked two offenders, and the crowd at last quieted down. One was a woman who had once come before him in court dressed in fine clothes; she now wore rags to beg for relief. Shikuan recognized her and had the rags torn away, revealing the same fine garments underneath. The other was a man with an uncommonly well-fed look; Shikuan made him drink a purgative decoction, and he vomited up wine and meat. The crowd was awed into compliance, and those who had been feigning hunger quietly dispersed. During his three years at Jinhua he carried out many beneficent measures, and the people of the prefecture built a shrine to him while he was still alive. He was promoted to intendant of the Hang-Jia-Hu circuit and then transferred to the Jin-Qu-Yan circuit. Quzhou sits on elevated terrain; in Xi'an, Longyou, and neighboring counties the people had long relied on dams to store water for irrigation. Timber merchants going into the hills had been opening the dams on the sly, and the stored water dwindled day by day. Shikuan strictly forbade the practice, to the universal relief of the farming population. In the eighth year he was transferred to the Ning-Shao-Tai circuit. When Shaoxing was struck by severe flooding, crowds from Xiaoshan and Zhuji marched on the county seats demanding food. The provincial governor took offense at the disorder and was unwilling to authorize relief. Shikuan said, "When I first came here, the people were starving to the point of death. How could I sit by and watch them all perish in the ditches?" He followed this with tearful entreaties, and only then was the case reported to the throne and famine relief approved. Believing that waiting until famine struck before distributing aid was always too late, he proposed dredging Mirror Lake at Shaoxing and Guangde Lake at Ningbo, but he left office before the plan could be carried out. He wrote a treatise on water management in eastern Zhejiang, in the hope that a successor might one day act on it. After returning home to observe mourning for his father, he never took office again.
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陳夢說，字曉岩，山西絳縣人。 乾隆十三年進士，授刑部主事。 讞決，執法不阿上官； 兼提牢，役不能為奸。 累遷禮部郎中。 出為浙江寧紹台道。 台州素獷悍，寧海梅村民拒捕，提督將以兵往，旁村皆驚竄。 夢說輕騎臨縣，縣令已纟累系竄者數十人，盡釋之，曰：「吾來捕梅姓數人而已。」 獲誅拒捕者，而釋其少子一人。 台人感之，謠其事為存孤記。 修鄞縣錢湖徬。 值上南巡，召見，素知其在刑部有能名，賜綺貂。 尋以失察屬吏不職罣議，仍以道員用。 授督糧道，卻餽金，漕政肅然。 時訛言妖人翦發，蕭山捕僧了凡等四人，誣服，夢說平反之。 後或言事由浙見，解京訊治無驗，抵妄捕者罪，以夢說輕比，降秩。 修餘杭南湖堤。 署嘉興、嚴州、處州、湖州諸府，復原官。 夢說官浙十二年，所至有聲。 尋乞歸。
Chen Mengshuo, whose courtesy name was Xiaoyan, came from Jiang County in Shanxi. He received his jinshi degree in the thirteenth year of the Qianlong reign and was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Punishments. When adjudicating cases he held to the law and would not defer to his superiors. While also serving as prison superintendent, he kept the underlings from any misconduct. He rose through successive promotions to director in the Ministry of Rites. He left the capital to serve as intendant of the Ning-Shao-Tai circuit in Zhejiang. Taizhou had long been known for its fierce and unruly populace. When villagers at Mei in Ninghai resisted arrest, the provincial commander prepared to march troops against them, and neighboring hamlets scattered in panic. Mengshuo rode to the county seat with only a light escort. The magistrate had already bound dozens of people from the surrounding villages, and Mengshuo released them all, saying, "I have come to arrest only a handful of men from the Mei clan." He captured and executed those who had resisted arrest, but spared one younger son. The people of Taizhou were deeply moved and spread a ballad about the affair, calling it the Tale of the Spared Orphan. He repaired the Qian Lake embankment in Yin County. During the emperor's southern tour he was summoned to audience. The emperor, who had long known his reputation for competence at the Ministry of Punishments, rewarded him with a fur robe of fine sable. Shortly afterward he was censured for failing to detect misconduct by a subordinate, yet was retained in service at the circuit level. Appointed grain-transport intendant, he refused bribes of gold and brought order to the grain-shipping administration. At the time a rumor spread that sorcerers were clipping people's hair. Xiaoshan arrested the monk Liaofan and three others, who confessed under coercion, and Mengshuo overturned the convictions. Later it was reported that the affair had first appeared in Zhejiang. The case was sent to the capital for investigation, but no evidence was found. Those who had made wrongful arrests were punished, while Mengshuo was demoted for having treated the matter too leniently. He repaired the South Lake embankment in Yuhang. After serving in acting posts at Jiaxing, Yanzhou, Chuzhou, and Huzhou, he was restored to his former rank. Mengshuo served in Zhejiang for twelve years and won renown wherever he was posted. He soon petitioned to retire.
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介錫週，字鼎卜，山西解州人。 康熙六十年進士。 雍正初，授貴州畢節知縣。 烏蒙土司叛，督運軍糧，遇逆苗，徒役欲棄糧走，錫週厲聲曰：「失糧法當死，犯苗亦死。 死法毋寧死賊！」 策馬徑前，千夫擁糧而進，逆苗眙愕，鳥獸散。 遷平遠知州。 烏蒙倮夷复叛，川、滇苗、倮應之。 錫周先往撫大定苗，平遠得無患。 十三年，擢大定知府。 古州苗亂，陷黃平、清平，驛路俱梗。 塘兵妄報土酋安國賢通古州苗，剋期犯貴陽。 大吏發川兵將至，國賢轄地九百里，眾惶駭。 錫週甫蒞郡，立召國賢至，諭以禍福。 國賢伏地陳無交通古州狀，錫周曰：「汝率眾苗就撫，我以百口保汝不死，且止川兵。」 時丹江亦被圍，乃請以川兵往援，丹江圍解而大定安堵。
Jie Xi, whose courtesy name was Dingbu, came from Jiezhou in Shanxi. He received his jinshi degree in the sixtieth year of the Kangxi reign. Early in the Yongzheng reign he was appointed magistrate of Bijie in Guizhou. When the Wumeng native chieftain rebelled, Xi was charged with escorting military grain. They encountered hostile Miao, and the porters wanted to abandon the supplies and flee. Xi shouted, "To lose the grain is death under the law; to face the Miao is death as well. Better die by the law than die at the hands of the enemy!" He spurred his horse straight ahead, and a thousand men pressed forward with the grain. The hostile Miao stood stunned, then scattered like startled birds and beasts. He was transferred to serve as prefect of Pingyuan. When the Wumeng Lolo rebelled again, Miao and Lolo across Sichuan and Yunnan rose in response. Xi went first to pacify the Miao of Dading, so that Pingyuan remained untroubled. In the thirteenth year he was promoted to prefect of Dading. When the Miao of Guzhou rebelled, they overran Huangping and Qingping, and every courier route was cut. A courier soldier falsely reported that the native chieftain An Guoxian was conspiring with the Guzhou Miao and would attack Guiyang on a set date. The provincial authorities dispatched Sichuan troops that were already on the march. Guoxian's territory stretched nine hundred li, and the populace was thrown into panic. Xi had only just assumed the prefecture when he summoned Guoxian at once and lectured him on the consequences of loyalty and rebellion. Guoxian prostrated himself and declared that he had had no dealings with Guzhou. Xi said, "Lead your Miao to accept pacification. I stake the lives of a hundred people on your safety, and I will halt the Sichuan troops as well." Danjiang was also under siege at the time, so Xi requested that the Sichuan troops be sent to its relief. The siege of Danjiang was lifted and Dading was left in peace.
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南籠民王祖先素無籍。 以書符惑眾，播為逆詞。 又粵西儂人王阿耳為寨長王文甲所執，竄入苗寨，誣文甲將糾合冊亨諸寨叛。 二獄同時起，株連千餘人，南籠獄不能容。 滇、粵錯壤，寨苗多逃。 錫週奉檄往會鞫，蔽罪悉當，釋文甲及系累者，逃亡並歸，邊境以靖。 攝貴東道，筦糧運。 時軍興，歲餽餉金二百四十餘萬兩、米八十餘萬石，調馬三千、夫五千，麕集鎮遠，漫無紀，夫縻廩食，馬累裡戶； 复於上游南籠諸府役民夫加運九站，下游銅仁諸府則增僱調二千人助役。 錫週畫三策：以馬設台站，運凱里、丹江諸路； 夫按期日運台拱諸路，楚、粵米皆由水運； 分清江及古州、都江兩路，輓輸迅速，糧乃集。 上游之加運，下游之調夫，皆止之，省帑數十萬，民間亦減勞費之累。 補貴西道，調糧道。 兵米折色，不收餘羨，兵民交頌之。 乾隆中，擢按察使。
Wang Zuxian of Nanlong had always been a man of no fixed occupation. He used written charms to deceive the people and spread seditious slogans. Meanwhile Wang A'er, a Zhuang man from western Guangdong, had been seized by the stockade chief Wang Wenjia. A'er fled into a Miao stockade and accused Wenjia of plotting to rally the stockades of Ceheng in rebellion. The two cases erupted at once, implicating more than a thousand people, and the Nanlong jail could not hold them all. Because Yunnan and Guangdong share a tangled borderland, many stockade Miao fled across it. Xi was ordered to join in the joint investigation. Finding the charges groundless throughout, he released Wenjia and all those implicated with him. Fugitives returned from hiding, and the border was pacified. While acting as intendant of Eastern Guizhou, he took charge of grain transport. With campaigns underway, the province supplied more than 2.4 million taels of silver and over 800,000 shi of grain each year, while 3,000 horses and 5,000 laborers were requisitioned. They crowded into Zhenyuan without order: porters devoured the granaries, and horses burdened every village household. The upstream prefectures around Nanlong pressed civilians into nine extra relay stations, while downstream prefectures around Tongren hired an additional two thousand men to help. Xi devised a three-part plan: establish horse relay stations for the routes through Kaili and Danjiang. Schedule porters by fixed dates along the Taigong routes, and move all grain from Huguang and Guangdong by water. He split transport between the Qingjiang route and the two routes through Guzhou and Dujiang. Cartage speeded up, and the grain finally accumulated. He halted the extra upstream relays and the downstream labor levies alike, saving several hundred thousand taels from the treasury and easing the people's burden of labor and expense. He was appointed intendant of Western Guizhou and then transferred to grain-transport intendant. When military grain rations were commuted to cash payments, he refused to pocket the surplus, and soldiers and civilians alike praised him. During the Qianlong reign he was promoted to provincial surveillance commissioner.
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錫週在黔中久，吏治、風土、民苗疾苦皆熟習，蒞之以誠，慎刑獄，興教化。 性素耿介，不諧於時，以老乞休。 上念其勞勚，召入覲，授太僕寺少卿。 閱三年，告歸。
Having served long in Guizhou, Xi knew its administration, customs, and the hardships of both Han settlers and Miao by heart. He governed with sincerity, was careful in criminal matters, and promoted education and moral reform. Upright and uncompromising by nature, he never fit comfortably with the temper of the age and eventually petitioned to retire on grounds of age. The emperor, mindful of his long service, summoned him to court and appointed him vice minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud. Three years later he petitioned to return home.
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方浩，字孟亭，安徽桐城人。 雍正八年進士，授山西太原知縣。 嘗知隰、平定二州。 隰民有茹素號為大乘教者，浩召至庭，啖以酒肉，人莫知其故。 其後逮捕大乘教人連數郡，而隰民獨免。 平定旱，奸民煽譁呶求糶，捕渠魁一人置之法，餘悉不問。 遷潞安知府。 會上西巡，取道澤、潞，吏平道，及道旁民田。 浩以鑾輿未出而民廢耕作，非上愛民之意，令耕如平時。 民得收穫，而事亦治。 擢江西廣饒九南道按察副使，兼攝九江府事。 歲旱，米商未至，他郡縣乏食，大吏檄運倉糧往濟。 浩以郡民咸待食，而移粟他往，恐生事，請獨輸九江倉，而屬縣停運，違大吏意。 未幾，安仁以阻運成大獄，大吏以此重浩。 旋調吉南贛道。 奸民據險為亂，馳詣捕緝。 比大吏至，謀主已就擒，其敏捷如此。 坐事罷，循例復職。 方需次吏部，以疾卒。
Fang Hao, whose courtesy name was Mengting, came from Tongcheng in Anhui. He received his jinshi degree in the eighth year of the Yongzheng reign and was appointed magistrate of Taiyuan in Shanxi. He had previously served as magistrate of Xi and Pingding subprefectures. In Xi there were vegetarians who called themselves adherents of the Mahayana sect. Hao summoned them to court and fed them meat and wine, to the puzzlement of all who watched. Later, when Mahayana adherents were arrested across several prefectures, the people of Xi alone were spared. When Pingding suffered drought, agitators stirred up crowds demanding that grain be sold at reduced prices. Hao arrested a single ringleader and punished him by law, and let the rest go untouched. He was transferred to serve as prefect of Lu'an. When the emperor made his western tour by way of Ze and Lu, officials leveled the road and the farmers' fields along it as well. Hao argued that leveling fields before the imperial procession had even set out, forcing farmers to abandon their crops, was not what the emperor's love for the people intended. He ordered farming to continue as usual. The farmers were able to bring in their harvest, and the preparations for the tour were completed without incident. He was promoted to vice surveillance commissioner of the Guang-Rao-Jiu-Nan circuit in Jiangxi and concurrently handled the affairs of Jiujiang prefecture. In a drought year, before grain merchants had arrived, neighboring prefectures and counties ran short of food. The provincial authorities ordered grain shipped from the local granaries to relieve them. Hao argued that with his own prefecture's people still waiting for food, shipping grain elsewhere might provoke unrest. He asked to contribute only from the Jiujiang granary and ordered the subordinate counties to halt shipments, defying the provincial authorities' wishes. Before long, Anren became embroiled in a major case for obstructing grain shipments, and the provincial authorities came to value Hao all the more for his foresight. He was soon transferred to the Ji-Nan-Gan circuit. When ruffians seized defensible ground and rebelled, he rode at once to hunt them down. Before the provincial authorities even arrived, the plot's leader was already in custody—such was his dispatch. Dismissed for an offense, he was later reinstated under the usual regulations. While waiting his turn for appointment at the Board of Personnel, he died of illness.
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金溶，字廣蘊，順天大興人。 進士，以刑部員外郎擢山東道監察御史。 高宗即位，詔求直言，溶上疏言安民五事：一曰開墾之地緩其昇科； 二曰帶徵之項宜加豁免； 三曰關稅正額之外免報盈餘； 四曰州縣殿最首重民事，不以辦差為能； 五曰巡狩之地崇尚樸素，不以紛華取媚。 當是時，上命翰詹科道各進經史摺子，溶又上疏曰：「頭會箕斂以裕囊櫝者，匹夫之富也； 輕徭薄稅使四海咸寧者，天子之富也。 易卦：損下益上，上益矣而反名損； 損上益下，上損矣而反名益。 蓋謂百姓足君孰與不足，百姓不足君孰與足，聖人制卦之意可深長思也。」 乾隆九年，湖廣總督孫嘉淦因徇巡撫許容奪職，命修順義城。 溶上疏論曰：「賞罰者，人主禦世之大權。 臣工有罪，有罰鍰一例，因其素非廉吏，使天下曉然知所得者終不能為子孫計留也。 孫嘉淦操守不苟，久在聖明洞鑑之中，而罰令出貲效力，恐天下督撫聞之，謂以嘉淦之操守，尚不免於議罰，或一不得當，而罰即相隨，勢必隳廉隅預為受罰之地。 是罰行而貪風起，不可不慎也。 臣為嘉淦所取士，不敢避師生之嫌而隱默不言。」 奏上，部議奪職。
Jin Rong, whose courtesy name was Guangyun, came from Daxing in the Shuntian metropolitan district. After receiving his jinshi degree, he was promoted from vice director in the Ministry of Punishments to supervising censor of the Shandong circuit. When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, he called for candid counsel; Rong submitted a memorial on five measures to secure the people: first, delay elevating newly reclaimed land to full tax status; second, arrears still being collected should be further exempted; third, stop reporting surpluses above the regular customs quota; fourth, rank prefectures and counties chiefly on how they handle civil affairs, not on how well they run special commissions; fifth, regions on the imperial tour should value plainness and not court favor through ostentation. At that time the emperor ordered Hanlin, Imperial Academy, and censorate officials each to submit folded essays on the classics and histories; Rong memorialized again: "Heaping taxes head by head and bushel by bushel to swell one's purse is the wealth of a private man; lightening corvée and taxes until the realm is tranquil—that is the wealth of the Son of Heaven. In the Book of Changes: "Diminish the lower to benefit the upper"—the upper gains, yet the hexagram is named Diminishment; The upper is diminished to benefit the lower; the upper loses, yet the hexagram is named Increase. It means: when the people are secure, how could the ruler lack security; when the people are destitute, how could the ruler be secure—the sages' meaning in these hexagrams deserves long reflection." In the ninth year of the Qianlong reign, Sun Jiagao, governor-general of Huguang, was dismissed for favoring the provincial governor Xu Rong and was ordered to repair the walls of Shunyi. Rong submitted a memorial arguing: "Reward and punishment are the sovereign's supreme instruments for ruling the realm. When an official errs, the precedent of a monetary fine applies because he was never an upright man, so the empire understands that ill-gotten gains cannot be kept for one's heirs. Sun Jiagao's integrity is beyond reproach and has long been known to the throne; yet to fine him and require him to pay for labor—governors-general and governors everywhere may conclude that even Jiagao's record cannot escape censure, that any slip will bring a fine, and they will abandon integrity and budget for fines in advance. If fines are imposed in this way, greed will spread; the Court must weigh this carefully. I was Jiagao's chosen student and dare not stay silent for fear of the teacher-pupil tie." When the memorial reached the throne, the ministry recommended his dismissal.
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未幾，特起為福建漳州知府。 漳俗強悍，胥吏千餘交結大吏家奴，勢力出長官上。 有吳成者，設局誘博，擒治之，民稱快。 華葑村距縣治二百里，康熙時嘗議設縣丞，以不便於胥吏，格不行。 溶復以請，布政使文不下府而直行縣，溶大怒，嚴訊縣胥，得其交通狀，乃詳請治罪而設官。 其父老歎曰：「微金公，吾儕奔馳道路死矣！」 十三年春，閩省旱，斗米千錢，大府檄溶平糶。 溶勸富家出糶，給印紙令商人赴糴； 又請寬台灣米入內地之禁； 民情帖然。 其他脩文廟樂器，增書院膏火，皆次第舉行。 遷台灣道。 補陝西鹽驛道。 署布、按兩司事。 調浙江糧道，與巡撫陳學鵬牴牾，學鵬論溶迂緩不任事，原品休致。 卒，年七十三。
Soon afterward he was specially recalled to serve as prefect of Zhangzhou in Fujian. Zhangzhou folk were notoriously tough; over a thousand clerks had allied with the household slaves of senior officials and wielded more power than the prefect himself. One Wu Cheng ran a gambling house; Rong arrested and punished him, to the people's delight. Huafu Village lay two hundred li from the county seat; in the Kangxi reign officials had proposed an assistant magistrate there, but clerks blocked it as inconvenient to themselves. Rong petitioned again; the provincial treasurer routed documents straight to the county, bypassing the prefecture. Enraged, Rong interrogated the county clerks, uncovered their collusion, and secured orders to punish them and post an official at Huafu. The village elders sighed, "Without Lord Jin, we would have worn ourselves out on the roads and died!" In the spring of the thirteenth year drought struck Fujian; rice reached a thousand cash per dou; the provincial authorities ordered Rong to stabilize prices through government grain sales. Rong persuaded wealthy households to sell grain and issued stamped permits for merchants to buy it; he also asked that restrictions on shipping Taiwan rice to the mainland be relaxed; and popular sentiment calmed. He also restored the Confucian temple's ritual instruments and increased academy stipends, completing each project in turn. He was promoted to intendant of the Taiwan circuit. He was appointed intendant of the Shaanxi salt and courier circuit. He served concurrently as acting provincial treasurer and surveillance commissioner. Transferred to the Zhejiang grain circuit, he fell out with Governor Chen Xuepeng, who denounced him as slow and incompetent; Rong retired at his former rank. He died at the age of seventy-three.
11
張維寅，字子畏，直隸南皮人。 乾隆元年進士，授戶部江南司主事。 江南賦役甲天下，支銷留解，端緒毛櫛。 維寅綜覈精密，猾吏不能欺。 遷吏部員外郎，考選監察御史，補掌貴州道。 劾奏閩督誘人受賕而坐之罪，失政體，上是之，為通行飭戒。 簡雲南迤東道，至，改補驛鹽。 滇鹽無成法，維寅一一調之，使井官、煎戶、運夫、鋪商無偏累，滇人稱便。 歲節縮歸公銀七千兩。 以前官累，左遷知府。 於時東川官設牛馬站，通百色，銅往鹽返，謂可省費。 既奏行，而路險阻，車摧折，牛馬多死，銅鹽耗失。 維寅奉勘得實，以事不可已，請夷路用車，險僱夫役，貲出爐息，無溢費，且不擾民，從之，獲濟。 署鶴慶、永北，補臨安，調首郡，兼楚雄。 值地震為災，躬勘鶴慶、劍川、浪穹、麗江、昌門賑，活災氓每數万計。 遷督糧道，整頓銅廠，代償前官虧帑，待罪得脫。 調浙江鹽道，未數月，調福建汀漳龍道。 閩俗獷悍，痛懲以法，擒巨猾，散夥黨，健訟鬥狠之風為息。 察冤決疑，人稱神明。 舉卓異，入覲，上獎慰甚至。 復之官，病卒。
Zhang Weiyin, whose courtesy name was Ziwei, came from Nanpi in Zhili. He received his jinshi degree in the first year of the Qianlong reign and was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue's Jiangnan bureau. Jiangnan's tax and corvée burdens led the empire; disbursements, retentions, and remittances branched into countless threads. Weiyin audited accounts with meticulous care, and crafty clerks could not fool him. Promoted to vice director in the Ministry of Personnel, he passed the censorial examination and was assigned to the Guizhou circuit. He impeached the Fujian governor-general for entrapping men into taking bribes and then prosecuting them—an abuse of authority the emperor endorsed and circulated as a warning to all officials. Selected for the Yunnan Yidong circuit, he was reassigned on arrival to the courier and salt intendant post. Yunnan salt lacked settled regulations; Weiyin rebalanced every levy so well officials, refiners, carriers, and retailers were no longer unevenly burdened, and Yunnan folk praised the reform. Each year he saved seven thousand taels of silver for the public coffers. Held liable for a predecessor's deficits, he was demoted to prefect. At that time Dongchuan officials established ox-and-horse relay stations linking to Baise, shipping copper out and salt back, claiming it would cut expenses. Once the plan was approved, the route proved treacherous: carts broke down, draft animals died in droves, and copper and salt were lost in transit. Weiyin investigated and confirmed the losses; since the route could not be abandoned, he proposed grading the road for carts, hiring porters on steep sections, funding the work from smelter profits without extra levies or troubling the people. The court agreed, and transport was restored. He served as acting prefect of Heqing and Yongbei, was appointed prefect of Lin'an, then transferred to the provincial capital while also overseeing Chuxiong. When an earthquake struck, he personally inspected relief in Heqing, Jianchuan, Langqiong, Lijiang, and Changmen, saving tens of thousands of victims on each circuit. Promoted to grain superintendent, he reorganized the copper works, repaid a predecessor's treasury shortfall from his own funds, and escaped punishment. Transferred to the Zhejiang salt circuit, he was moved again within months to the Fujian Ting-Zhang-Long circuit. Fujian was notoriously lawless; he punished ruthlessly by law, seized major ringleaders, broke up gangs, and the culture of aggressive litigation and brawling subsided. He exposed wrongful convictions and resolved doubtful cases; people hailed him as uncannily just. Cited for outstanding service, he was received in audience and the emperor praised him with unusual warmth. He resumed his post but soon died of illness.
12
顧光旭，字晴沙，江蘇無錫人。 乾隆十八年進士，授戶部主事。 晉員外郎，主鹽筴，兩淮解銀，輒掛欠百之十五。 光旭謂：「各省庫平皆部較頒，何獨兩淮歷久如是？ 是銀庫多索也。」 白於長官除免之。 擢御史。 二十四年，直隸、山東大水。 次年春，疏曰：「上年兩省災，截漕發帑加賑。 近見流民扶老攜幼入京，春來尤甚。 五城米廠飯廠人倍增，詢之，近京數百里，毀屋伐樹，賣男鬻女，老弱踣頓，不可勝計。 耳目所及如此，其外可知。 伏思救荒無奇策，惟督撫及有司親民之官實心實力方克有濟。 各州縣未嘗不施賑，或委任佐貳，或假手胥吏，或設廠遠離村鎮，窮民奔走待食，或得或不得。 良法美意，一入俗吏之手，沾實惠者十不及五。 一二賢有司撫循周至，則他境流民聞風畢集，轉難措手。 此督撫不能真實愛民，下亦以應付塞責，一切皆屬具文。 請敕下隨地撫綏，毋致流移失所。 疏導積水，以工代賑，借給牛種，以資耕作。 有流民有礦土，尉即重治督撫州縣之罪。 來京饑民，已領廠賑。 一年之計，在於東作。 無力自回者給貲遣送，其本籍無倚賴者歸大興、宛平安輯，勿令棲流無著。 又每遇水旱，司、道、府親勘，先以供應煩州縣，所委佐貳，亦滋擾累，請嚴參重處。」 奏入，上善之。 命赴京畿察勘，疏消文安、大城積水。 樂亭民擁閧縣門，撫定之，馳章請加賑。 歷寶坻、灤州，盧龍，兩月竣事。 遷給事中。
Gu Guangxu, whose courtesy name was Qingsha, came from Wuxi in Jiangsu. He received his jinshi degree in the eighteenth year of the Qianlong reign and was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. Promoted to vice director, he oversaw salt affairs; Lianghuai remittances routinely showed a fifteen-percent shortfall. Guangxu said, "Every province's treasury scale-weights are set by the ministry—why has Lianghuai alone suffered this chronic shortfall? The silver vault is exacting too much." He reported to his superiors and had the excess levy abolished. He was promoted to supervising censor. In the twenty-fourth year of the reign, Zhili and Shandong were struck by severe floods. The following spring he memorialized: "Last year both provinces suffered disaster; the Court diverted grain tribute and opened the treasury for extra relief. Yet I now see refugees entering the capital supporting the elderly and leading children, and since spring the influx has grown worse. Crowds at the Five Cities grain and soup kitchens have doubled; inquiry shows that for hundreds of li around the capital people are tearing down houses, felling trees, selling sons and daughters, and the old and weak are collapsing in the roads beyond count. If conditions within sight are this dire, the suffering farther afield may be imagined. I submit that famine relief has no miracle cure: only when governors-general, governors, and magistrates who truly care for the people work with genuine devotion can relief succeed. Every county distributes relief in name, yet some delegate to deputies, some leave it to clerks, some open kitchens far from villages; the poor rush about for food and may or may not be fed. Once a good policy reaches a corrupt clerk, fewer than half those in need receive real help. Where one capable magistrate administers relief well, refugees from neighboring districts flock in, making his task harder still. This shows governors-general and governors do not truly care for the people; subordinates merely go through the motions, and every measure becomes paperwork. I ask that the throne order local comforting so people are not driven from their homes. Drain standing water, employ work-for-relief projects, and lend oxen and seed so fields can be planted. Wherever vagrants appear or land is left waste, the Court should immediately hold the responsible governor-general, governor, prefect, and magistrate to stern account. Refugees who reached the capital have already received kitchen relief. The year's livelihood depends on the spring planting. Those too poor to return home should receive travel funds; those with no kin in their native districts should be settled in Daxing and Wanping, not left homeless wanderers. Moreover, whenever flood or drought strikes, intendants and prefects tour the scene in person, burdening counties with hosting their entourages; the deputies they send add further harassment. I ask that such officials be impeached and punished severely." The emperor received the memorial and commended it. He was ordered to inspect the capital region and drained the standing water at Wen'an and Dacheng. When Leting townsfolk stormed the county yamen, he calmed them and urgently memorialized for additional relief. He worked through Baodi, Luanzhou, and Lulong and finished in two months. He was promoted to supervising secretary.
13
尋出為甘肅寧夏知府，調平涼。 三十五年，大旱，請賑，初為上官所格。 光旭親察災戶，亟發銀米，煮粥以賑，鄰縣飢者率就之。 時災黎鬻妻子，道殣相望，光旭巡視山僻，賦詩曰：「輪蹄鳥道羊腸路，溝壑鳩形鵠面人。」 又曰：「產破妻孥賤，腸枯草木甘。」 誦者感動。 自夏至次年三月始雨。 平涼、隆德、固原、靜寧各設粥廠二，饑民日增。 慮入夏疫作，給每口兩月糧，遣使歸耕。 時已擢涼莊道，總督文綬任以河東賑事，一切錢糧聽支取，知府以下聽調遣。 分八路比戶清勘，刊發三連票備考覈。 發姦摘伏，官吏惕息。 竟事無中飽，民獲更生。
He was soon appointed prefect of Ningxia in Gansu, then transferred to Pingliang. In the thirty-fifth year a severe drought struck; his request for relief was initially blocked by superiors. Guangxu personally inspected disaster households, quickly issued silver and grain, and opened porridge kitchens; hungry people from neighboring counties flocked to him. Victims were selling wives and children; corpses lined the roads. Touring remote mountain hamlets, Guangxu wrote: "Wheels clatter on trails narrow as a bird's flight, sheep's-gut steep; in gullies stand bodies like doves, faces like starving swans." And again: "Estates ruined, wives and children sold cheap; bellies empty, even wild plants taste sweet." All who heard the verses were moved. From midsummer until the third month of the following year no rain fell. Pingliang, Longde, Guyuan, and Jingning each opened two porridge kitchens as the number of refugees grew daily. Fearing summer epidemics, he issued two months' grain per person and sent people home to farm. By then he had been promoted to intendant of Liangzhuang; Governor Wen Shou put him in charge of relief east of the river, with full authority over funds and grain and command over prefects and lower officials. He divided the region into eight routes, surveyed household by household, and printed triplicate tickets for audit and verification. He ferreted out fraud and hidden abuses, and officials trembled into silence. The work was completed without embezzlement, and the people gained a new lease on life.
14
三十七年，金川用兵，文綬調四川總督，疏請光旭隨往，司三路餽餉，署按察使。 蜀民失業無賴者，多習拳勇，嗜飲博，浸至劫殺，號為啯嚕子，至是益眾。 嚴捕治之，改悔者發為運丁，頗收其用。 以秋審失出，罷職，留治糧餉。 四十年，金川平，駐西路臥龍關經理凱旋兵十餘萬，帖然無擾。 事竣，乞病歸，年未五十。
In the thirty-seventh year, war broke out in Jinchuan. When Wen Shou was transferred to governor-general of Sichuan, he memorialized asking Guangxu to accompany him to manage supplies along three routes, with Guangxu serving as acting provincial surveillance commissioner. Many idle and unruly people in Sichuan took up boxing, gambling, and drinking, eventually turning to robbery and murder; they were called Gulu bandits, and their numbers swelled at this time. He cracked down on them severely; those who repented were enrolled as transport couriers and proved quite useful. He was removed from office after wrongly releasing a prisoner at the autumn assizes, but was kept on to continue managing grain supplies. In the fortieth year, after Jinchuan was pacified, he stationed himself at Wolong Pass on the western route to manage the return of more than a hundred thousand victorious troops, which passed through without incident. When the work was done, he resigned on grounds of illness and went home, not yet fifty years old.
15
里居遇災，助賑一如在官時。 主東林書院數十年，聚生徒講論道義，繼其鄉顧憲成、高攀龍之緒。 著響泉集。
During his retirement, whenever disaster struck, he gave to relief efforts as generously as he had in office. For decades he directed the Donglin Academy, gathering students to discuss ethics and moral principle in the tradition of his fellow townsmen Gu Xiancheng and Gao Panlong. He wrote the Xiangquan Collection.
16
沈善富，字既堂，江蘇高郵人。 乾隆十九年進士，選庶吉士，授編修。 典江西、山西鄉試。 撰制誥，辦院事，纂修國史、續文獻通考，勤於其職。 出為安徽太平知府，在官十有六年，尤盡心災賑。 三十四年，大水，坐浴盆經行村落，得賑者五十萬口。 當塗官圩決，密勸富家出糶，禁轉掠，使各村自保。 有告某家不糶者，笞之，曰； 「汝奉何明令使富家出粟耶？」 民乃定。 三十六年，泗州水，大吏檄善富往賑之，釐戶口之弊，民受其惠。 值大疫，設局施藥施瘞，絕葷祈禳。 前後課屬縣種柳數百萬株，官路成陰。 埋暴十餘萬棺。 時傳妖人割發，搜捕令下，諸郡騷然，獨太平不妄捕一人。 兄弟訟，察其詞出一手，杖主訟者。 兄弟悔悟如初。 師弟互訐陰事，取案前文卷盈尺火之。 曰：「爾詞必有稿，可上控郡守焚案，不汝靳。」 兩造皆泣，訟乃息。 貴池有爭地訟於部者，視舊牘，得成化二十一年閏四月官契，念愚民安知閏，檢明史七卿表，得是年閏四月文，據以定讞。
Shen Shanfu, whose courtesy name was Jitang, came from Gaoyou in Jiangsu. He passed the jinshi examination in the nineteenth year of the Qianlong reign, entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor, and was appointed a compiler. He served as chief examiner for the provincial examinations in Jiangxi and Shanxi. He drafted imperial edicts, managed Hanlin affairs, and helped compile the national history and the Continuation of the Comprehensive Examination of Documents, performing his duties with tireless diligence. He was appointed prefect of Taiping in Anhui, where he served sixteen years and devoted himself above all to disaster relief. In the thirty-fourth year a great flood struck; traveling village to village by tub, he reached five hundred thousand people with relief. When the official dyke at Dangtu burst, he quietly urged wealthy households to sell grain, banned looting, and helped each village organize its own defense. When someone reported that a household was refusing to sell grain, he had the accuser beaten and said: "By what official decree are you forcing wealthy families to sell their grain?" The people then calmed down. In the thirty-sixth year Sizhou was flooded; provincial authorities ordered Shen Shanfu to manage relief, corrected abuses in household registration, and the people benefited. During a major epidemic he opened relief stations to distribute medicine and bury the dead, abstained from meat, and prayed for deliverance. Over the years he ordered subordinate counties to plant millions of willows until the official roads were lined with shade. He arranged burial for more than a hundred thousand unburied corpses. When rumors spread that sorcerers were cutting people's hair, search orders threw every commandery into turmoil, but Taiping alone arrested no one unjustly. In a lawsuit between brothers, he saw that both petitions had been written by the same hand and punished the instigator. The brothers reconciled as before. When a teacher and disciple accused each other of private wrongdoing, he burned a foot-thick stack of earlier case documents. He said: "You surely kept drafts of your petitions. Appeal to the prefect if you want the case burned—I will not stop you." Both parties wept, and the lawsuit ended. A land dispute from Guichi reached the ministry; examining old records, he found an official contract dated the intercalary fourth month of the twenty-first year of Chenghua. Knowing common people would not understand intercalary months, he checked the Ming History's table of the seven ministers, confirmed that year had an intercalary fourth month, and settled the case accordingly.
17
四十六年，擢河東鹽運使。 鹽池受淡水，歉產，商運蒙古鹽多勞費。 及鹽產復盛，弊多商困。 善富曰：「鹽池自古為利，不當廢革。 若聽民自販，必致蒙鹽內侵。 商人之力，不患寡，患不均。 其弊有三：奸商棄瘠據肥，一也； 費浮地遠，夥攫其利，二也； 僉代之期，貧富倒置，三也。」 乃總三省引地為三等均之。 復以道路遠近順配為五十六路，鬮分簽掣之，於是賂絕弊清。 後乾隆末廢商運，蒙鹽果內侵，至嘉慶十一年，仍復舊制，皆如所預計。 所至興學愛士，人文蔚起。 以母老乞終養，居鄉多善舉。 著味鐙齋詩文集。
In the forty-sixth year he was promoted to salt transport commissioner for Hedong. Fresh water entered the salt ponds and yields fell; merchants hauling Mongolian salt faced heavy costs and labor. Once salt production recovered, abuses multiplied and merchants were hard pressed. Shen Shanfu said: "The salt ponds have been a source of profit since ancient times and should not be abandoned. If private trade is allowed, Mongolian salt will inevitably flood in. Among merchants the problem is not too few hands but unequal distribution. There are three abuses: unscrupulous merchants abandon poor allotments and seize rich ones—first; distant routes with high costs let partners monopolize the profit—second; and rotation schedules invert rich and poor—third." He then consolidated the salt allocation territories of three provinces into three equal grades. He then assigned fifty-six routes by distance, distributing them by lottery, and bribery ceased and abuses were cleared. Later, at the end of the Qianlong reign, merchant transport was abolished and Mongolian salt did flood in as he had predicted; by the eleventh year of Jiaqing the old system was restored, exactly as he had foreseen. Everywhere he served he promoted learning and nurtured scholars, and local culture flourished. When his mother grew old he requested leave to care for her, and in retirement he undertook many charitable works. He wrote the Collected Poetry and Prose of the Wei Deng Studio.
18
方昂，字坳堂，山東歷城人。 乾隆三十六年進士，授刑部主事，累晉郎中。 會秋讞更新例，凡金刃殺人，概為情實。 昂分別其輕重，固爭不得，後高宗特旨改正。 坐是為同僚所忌，淹滯十年。 又數上書與長官爭，長官慍之，卒重其人。 以薦出為江西饒州知府。 安南阮光平入覲，驛傳所經，多飾供帳。 昂曰：「國家以威德服四夷，非誇以靡麗。」 戒所屬勿與。 擢江蘇蘇松道，已受代將行，營弁緝鹽，波及良善，眾洶洶不平。 營弁以民變告，且徵兵，昂曰：「新守與民未習，民勿信。」 自出曉諭，捕倡首者置法，申請上官褫營弁職，事即定。 至任，有尼之者，遂謝病去官。
Fang Ang, whose courtesy name was Aotang, came from Licheng in Shandong. He passed the jinshi examination in the thirty-sixth year of the Qianlong reign, entered the Ministry of Punishments as a principal clerk, and rose to department director. When autumn case review adopted new regulations, every murder committed with a blade was classified as a capital offense. Fang Ang distinguished between serious and minor cases and argued against the blanket rule without success; later the Qianlong Emperor issued a special edict correcting the policy. For this his colleagues resented him, and he languished in the same post for ten years. He repeatedly submitted memorials disputing his superiors, who grew angry yet ultimately came to respect his integrity. Recommended for promotion, he was appointed prefect of Raozhou in Jiangxi. When Nguyen Quang Binh of Annam came to pay tribute, post stations along his route were lavishly decorated. Fang Ang said: "The empire wins over foreign peoples through power and virtue, not by dazzling them with extravagance." He ordered his subordinates not to contribute. Promoted to intendant of Suzhou and Songjiang, he was finishing his handover when military officers conducting a salt crackdown ensnared innocent people, and public outrage boiled over. The officers reported a popular uprising and requested troops; Fang Ang said: "The incoming prefect is unknown to the people and will not be trusted." He went out personally to announce the government's position, arrested the ringleaders and punished them, and petitioned to dismiss the officers; the disturbance was quickly settled. After taking office, obstruction from rivals led him to resign citing illness.
19
病痊，復出署松太道。 閩，廣洋盜竄入吳淞，總督、巡撫、提督會師於寶山。 昂建議曰：「衢山與大小羊山，江、浙之分界，港汊叢雜，盜船隨處可寄椗。 一得風潮之便，倏忽出沒，猝不及防。 當其乘風而來，迎擊之時，彼順而我逆； 及其趁潮而退，追擊之，則我後而彼先：是使盜常憑胜勢也。 請於要隘多設伏，俟其至，則縱使過，而躡其後； 遇其退，則扼不使前，以待後隊之追剿。 盜雖黠，無能為也。」 從其議，盜果大摧。 補江寧鹽巡道。 緝訟師，剔衙蠹，戢強暴，弭盜賊，尤以砥礪風俗為先，屏絕酬酢。 同官聞其風采，咸重之。 嘉慶三年，擢貴州按察使，八閱月，遷江寧布政使。 未久，以病乞歸。
Once recovered, he returned as acting intendant of Songjiang and Taicang. Fujian and Guangdong sea pirates infiltrated Wusong, and the governor-general, governor, and provincial military commander assembled forces at Baoshan. Fang Ang proposed: "Qushan and the large and small Yangshan islands mark the boundary between Jiangsu and Zhejiang; the waterways are tangled, and pirate vessels can anchor anywhere. Once they catch favorable wind and tides, they appear and vanish before defenses can react. When they sail in with the wind, defenders must meet them head-on while the pirates have the advantage; when they retreat with the tide, pursuers lag behind—giving pirates a constant tactical advantage. I recommend posting ambushes at key chokepoints: let pirates pass through, then follow from behind; when they retreat, block their advance so rear forces can close in. Even clever pirates will be helpless." His plan was adopted, and the pirates suffered a major defeat. He was appointed salt patrol intendant for Jiangning. He suppressed litigation brokers, eliminated yamen parasites, restrained the violent, quelled banditry, and above all set about refining local customs, cutting off all social entertaining and courtesies. Colleagues who witnessed his rigor all held him in high regard. In the third year of Jiaqing he was promoted to provincial surveillance commissioner of Guizhou, and eight months later transferred to provincial administration commissioner of Jiangning. Before long he resigned and returned home on grounds of illness.
20
昂剛勁勤職。 其歸也，上曰：「此人可惜！」 尋卒。
Fang Ang was stern, resolute, and diligent in duty. When he left office, the emperor said: "This man is a loss!" He died soon afterward.
21
唐侍陛，字贊宸，江蘇江都人，巡撫綏祖孫。 乾隆中，以廕生授南河山盱通判。 歷任宿虹、銅沛、里河、外河同知。 以治河績考最，擢湖北鄖陽知府，母憂去官。 四十七年，服闋，會河決青龍岡，屢築屢圮，大學士阿桂督治，以侍陛習河事，疏調赴工。 阿桂方與總河議改河之策，決計於侍陛，侍陛曰：「今全河下注，非土埽所能當； 欲逆挽歸正道，難矣。 但於南岸上游百里外開引河，則不與急流爭，其全勢易掣。 以逸待勞，此上策也。」 於是定計開蘭陽引河，至商丘歸正河，以侍陛總其事。 工成，被詔嘉獎。
Tang Shibi, whose courtesy name was Zanchen, came from Jiangdu in Jiangsu and was the grandson of Governor Suizu. During the Qianlong reign he entered service through hereditary privilege as assistant prefect at Nanhe, Shan, and Huai. He served successively as sub-prefect at Suqian and Hongze, Tongshan and Peixian, the inner canal, and the outer canal. Recognized for outstanding river-control work, he was promoted to prefect of Yunyang in Hubei but left office upon his mother's death. In the forty-seventh year, after mourning ended, the Yellow River breached at Qinglong Hill with repeated failed repairs; Grand Secretary Agui took charge and requested Tang Shibi's transfer, citing his river expertise. Agui was debating river diversion strategies with the director-general when he decided to consult Tang Shibi, who said: "With the entire river pouring through, earthen fascines cannot hold it; forcing the current back to the proper channel would be nearly impossible. Instead, open a diversion channel a hundred li upstream on the south bank; that avoids competing with the rapid current and more easily draws off the full force. Using steady effort against rushing water—this is the best approach." They decided to open the Lanyang diversion channel returning to the proper riverbed at Shangqiu, with Tang Shibi directing the work. When the project was completed, he received imperial commendation.
22
擢開歸道。 時新引河堤初成，溜逼甚險，复於儀封十六堡增開引河。 夏汛水至，果分為二派：一由新引河，一由儀封舊城之南達所增引河。 又於毛家寨增築月堤，睢汛七堡建挑水壩，水勢乃暢下，無潰決。 五十三年，署彰衛懷道。 測河勢將有變，請於銅瓦廂大堤後增築撐堤，總河蘭錫第以無故興大工難之，固請乃可。 次年夏，銅瓦工內塌，勢岌岌。 總河李奉翰新至，視河、曰：「奈何？」 侍陛曰：「待其塌多，必大決。 今當於堤之下口新築撐堤內掘開數丈，使水回溜而入。 入必淤，淤則大堤撐堤合為一。 河直注之力已殺，堤乃可保。」 從之，堤合險平。 錫第曰：「君之出奇制勝者，在前之預築撐堤也。」
He was promoted to intendant of Kaifeng and Guide. When the new diversion embankment was barely finished and the current pressed dangerously close, he opened another diversion at the sixteen forts of Yifeng. When summer floods arrived, the water split into two branches: one through the new Lanyang channel, one south of old Yifeng city to the added diversion. He also built moon embankments at Maojiazhai and spur dams at the seven forts of the Sui River, allowing the current to flow freely without breach. In the fifty-third year he served as acting intendant of Zhang, Wei, and Huai. Surveying the river, he predicted change coming and requested building support embankments behind the Tongwa Lane great dike; Director-General Lan Xidi resisted unnecessary major works until Tang Shibi persisted and won approval. The following summer the Tongwa work collapsed inward, and the situation grew perilous. The newly arrived director-general Li Fenghan looked at the river and said: "What can we do?" Tang Shibi said: "If we wait until more collapses, there will surely be a major breach. We should now build support embankments at the lower opening of the dike and excavate several zhang within to let water flow back inward in a reverse eddy. The water would inevitably deposit silt; once silted, the main embankment and the support embankment would fuse into a single barrier. The river's straight-on rush would be broken, and the dike could then be saved." They followed his plan; the embankments joined and the danger subsided. Lan Xidi said, "Your stroke of genius was the support embankment you had built in advance." End of quotation.
23
侍陛前官銅沛時，亦用放淤平險之法； 又在宿虹時，夏家馬路黃、運交逼，里河淤淺，水將沒堤，效黃河清水龍法，疏其淤而堤安； 於徐州城外增築石工，石磯嘴增爛石，城乃無患。 衛河水弱，漕艘不利，掘地引沁挾濟以助衛。 其應變弭患多類此。 嘗論治河之道曰：「河行挾沙，治法宜激之使怒而直以暢其勢，曲以殺其威。 無廢工而不可偪，無爭土而不可讓。 守此岸則慮彼岸，治上游則慮下游。」 世以為名言。 尋補山東運河道，調兗沂曹濟道。 以失察，左遷。 遂乞病歸。
While serving at Tongpei earlier, he had likewise used the method of deliberate silt release to ease dangerous conditions; At Suhong, where the Yellow and Grand Canal pressed together at the Xia family horse road, the inner channel had silted up and water threatened the dike; he adapted the Yellow River "clear-water dragon" dredging technique, cleared the silt, and secured the embankment; He added stonework outside Xuzhou and piled rubble at the stone jetty, so the city was no longer threatened. When the weak Wei River impeded grain barges, he dug channels to divert the Qin and bring Ji River water to bolster the Wei. Most of his improvisations against flood and transport crises followed this pattern. He once summed up river governance: "A river carries sand as it runs; the art is to stir its current to full force along a straight course, and bend it where its power must be broken. No work is wasted if you press hard enough; no contested ground is surrendered if you know when to yield. Guard one bank and you must think of the other; fix the upper reach and you must think of what lies below." His contemporaries treated these lines as a classic maxim. He was soon appointed grain-transport intendant of Shandong, then transferred to the Yan-Yi-Cao-Ji circuit. He was demoted for a supervisory lapse. He thereupon retired on grounds of illness.
24
侍陛歷官皆有聲，有功於河、淮者為多。 先是南汝光道張沖之以治河著。
Shibi won renown at every post he held, above all for service on the Yellow and Huai rivers. Earlier still, Zhang Chongzhi of the Nan-Ru-Guang circuit had been famed for river work.
25
沖之，字道淵，順天宛平人。 雍正初，以諸生舉孝廉方正，授工部主事。 遇事奮厲，於總理果親王前持議無避忌。 各行省奏追虧帑積數千萬，牘冗無實，請分別覈免之。 尋以事被謫。 乾隆初，復原官，改刑部。 累遷戶部郎中。 治事平恕。 二十六年，擢河南南汝光道。 是年秋，河決楊橋，大學士劉統勳、兆惠奉命往塞之，調沖之襄河事。 時徵秸，價騰至一莖兩錢，既大集，河員猶以多備請，官吏在事者群附和之。 沖之曰：「計工需料若干萬，今已贏矣。 災民搜括脂髓來供用，忍复乘以為利耶？」 亟白使臣，請及時楗塞，期以某日合龍，當有餘料若干萬，力持其議。 卒聽沖之減徵秫稭六千萬、麻六百萬，即責沖之董其役，果如期合龍，仍有餘料，殫數給還，以紓民力。 巡撫胡寶瑔喜曰：「吾為國家得一良總河矣！」 在官三年，治羅山獄，活誣服者四人； 修城工務覈實，有司不得緣為蠹； 民德之。 以商城獄坐徇庇，奪職，效力軍台。 逾年放歸。
Zhang Chongzhi, whose courtesy name was Daoyuan, came from Wanping in the Shuntian metropolitan district. Early in the Yongzheng reign he was nominated as a Filial and Incorrupt scholar and appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Works. He threw himself boldly into every task and spoke his mind without reserve even before Prince Guo, who oversaw state affairs. Provinces were pressing to recover tens of millions in accumulated treasury shortfalls, but the paperwork was bloated and groundless; he urged that each case be audited and remitted separately. He was soon demoted over a political dispute. Early in the Qianlong reign he was restored to office and transferred to the Ministry of Punishments. He rose through successive promotions to director in the Ministry of Revenue. He handled affairs with fairness and leniency. In the twenty-sixth year he was promoted to intendant of the Nan-Ru-Guang circuit in Henan. That autumn the Yellow River broke through at Yangqiao. Grand Secretaries Liu Tongxun and Zhaohui were dispatched to seal the breach, and Chongzhi was called in to assist. Straw was being requisitioned at prices as high as two cash per stalk. Even after ample supplies had been gathered, river officials still demanded more, and every officer on the project echoed them. Chongzhi said, "The project requires a fixed quantity of materials, and we already have more than enough. Disaster victims have already been squeezed dry to supply this work—how can we squeeze them again for profit?" He urgently reported to the commissioners, urging that the breach be sealed promptly and setting a date for closure by which surplus materials would remain; he held firmly to this position. They finally accepted Chongzhi's proposal, cutting requisitions by sixty million sorghum stalks and six million units of hemp, and put him in charge of the work. The breach was closed on schedule with materials to spare, every surplus item returned to ease the people's burden. Governor Hu Baoheng exclaimed with delight, "The state has gained an excellent Director-General of Rivers!" In three years of service he handled the Luoshan prison case and saved four men who had confessed under coercion; he audited city-wall repairs so thoroughly that local officials could not use them as pretexts for graft; and the people were grateful to him. He was dismissed for showing favoritism in the Shangcheng prison case and sent to serve at a military frontier post. A year later he was released to return home.
26
論曰：諸道本以佐布政、按察二使分領郡、縣； 乾隆中，罷參政、參議、副使、僉事，道始為專官。 士寬等皆觥觥能舉其職，侍陛尤以治河著。 觀其所設施，益於國，澤於民，雖古循吏，不是過也。
The commentators observe: Circuit intendants were originally meant to assist the provincial administration and surveillance commissioners in governing prefectures and counties. During the Qianlong reign the old ranks of administration commissioner, councillor, vice commissioner, and surveillance vice commissioner were abolished, and the circuit intendant became a specialized post in its own right. Shikuan and his colleagues were all upright men who discharged their duties well; Shibi was especially renowned for river governance. Judging by what they accomplished, they enriched the state and brought relief to the people—worthy of comparison with the model officials of antiquity, and no less.