1
丁日昌，字禹生，廣東豐順人。 以廩貢生治鄉團，數卻潮州寇。 選瓊州府學訓導。 錄功敘知縣，補江西萬安，善折獄。 坐吉安不守，罷免。 參曾國籓戎幕，复官。 李鴻章治軍上海，檄主機器局，積勳至知府。 江寧既下，除蘇松太道。 鴻章倚以辦外交，事有鉤棘，徐起應付，率皆就範。 調兩淮鹽運使，淮鹽故弊藪，至則禁私販，糾貪吏，鬯運道，歲入驟增。 同治六年，擢布政使，授巡撫。 江南戎燼後，庶政不緝，日昌集流亡，除豪猾，設月報詞訟冊，定錢漕科則，下其法各省； 又以州縣為親民官，疏請設局編刻牧令諸書。 八年，奉敕訓勉臣工，日昌條上六事，曰：舉賢才，汰虛冗，益廉俸，選書吏，輸漕粟，變武科，言合旨要。 遭憂歸。
Ding Richang, whose courtesy name was Yusheng, came from Fengshun in Guangdong. While still a licentiate on stipend, he organized village defense corps and repeatedly drove off raiders from Chaozhou. He was appointed instructor at the Qiongzhou prefectural school. Rewarded for his service, he was slated for a magistracy and posted to Wan'an in Jiangxi, where he proved adept at settling legal disputes. He lost his post when Ji'an fell to the enemy. He entered Zeng Guofan's headquarters as a staff officer and regained his official rank. Li Hongzhang's campaign in Shanghai brought him orders to run the machine works; his accumulated service eventually earned him the rank of prefect. Once Nanjing had been captured, he was made intendant of the Suzhou–Songjiang–Taicang circuit. Li Hongzhang leaned on him for diplomacy. Even knotty negotiations, which Ding handled with deliberate calm, usually ended within acceptable limits. Transferred to commissioner of Liang-Huai salt, he found a trade riddled with corruption. He suppressed smuggling, punished venal officials, and opened the transport channels, and revenue jumped within the year. In Tongzhi year six he rose to provincial treasurer and was then made governor. Jiangnan lay in ruins after the war, and government had fallen slack. Ding resettled refugees, broke the power of local bullies, required monthly reports on lawsuits, standardized land-tax and grain quotas, and had his methods adopted province by province. Believing that county and prefectural magistrates were the officials who truly touched people's lives, he asked the court to establish a bureau to edit and publish handbooks for local rule. In year eight the emperor issued a lecture to his officials; Ding answered with six reforms—recruit talent, eliminate redundant posts, raise honest stipends, improve clerical selection, secure canal grain, and overhaul military examinations—each point striking the throne's concerns. He left office to observe mourning for a parent.
2
光緒元年，起授福建巡撫，兼督船政，辭，不允。 既蒞事，會霪雨，城內水逾丈，躬散賑，口煦手拊，卵翼備至，全濟災民數十萬。 眾感泣，僉曰：「活我者，丁中丞也！」 時台灣生番未靖，遂力疾渡台，自北而南，所至扶服蟻伏。 惟鳳山轄境，悉芒社及獅頭、龜紋諸社素梗化，遣兵討平之，為立善後章程，皆遵約束。 中路水埔六社不諳樹藝，僱漢民代耕，謂之「租坰」。 復令有司計口給銀米，教之耕作； 廣設義學，教之識字。 又罷台屬漁戶稅。 擬築鐵路，開礦產，移關稅釐榷造船械，台民漸喁喁望治矣。 還閩，移疾去，吏民啼泣遮道。
Guangxu year one brought recall as Fujian governor with concurrent charge of the Foochow Navy Yard. He tried to decline; the court refused. Soon after he assumed office, weeks of rain put more than ten feet of water inside the city walls. He went out himself to distribute relief, speaking softly and laying hands on the afflicted with almost maternal care, and kept several hundred thousand people alive. People wept with gratitude and said as one, "Vice-Governor Ding is the man who saved our lives!" Taiwan's indigenous peoples were still unsettled, so despite illness he crossed the strait. Moving from north to south, he brought district after district to submission. Only in Fengshan, where the Mangshe and the Lion's Head and Tortoise-Pattern communities had long defied Qing rule, did he need force. Once pacified, he set lasting regulations and kept every village under discipline. Six Shuipu villages in the interior knew nothing of agriculture; he hired Han tenants to till their land under the arrangement called "rented fields." He told local officials to issue silver and grain by household and teach the people how to farm. He opened charity schools across the region and taught literacy. He lifted the fishing tax levied on Taiwan's coastal households. He drafted plans for railways and mines, redirected customs and likin receipts to naval construction, and the Taiwanese began to look to his administration with rising hope. When he returned to Fujian and resigned citing illness, magistrates and commoners alike wept and barred his carriage from leaving.
3
四年，疾稍間，被命赴福州，理烏石山教案。 先是道光間，英人就山築室傳教，疆吏不能爭，以山在城外，飾詞入告。 厥後佔地愈廣，閩人忿，幾釀變。 日昌撫閩，與力爭，議易以城外電局空地。 未及行，遽解職，英人佔如故。 閩人不能忍，聚眾毀教堂，英使責難亟，至是命日昌往按。 鉤稽舊案，獲教士侵地左證，與英領事往復詰辯，卒徙教堂城外，閩人鑱石刊績焉。 逾歲，還裡。 明年，詔加總督銜，令駐南洋會辦海防，水師統歸節度。 復命充兼理各國事務大臣，以疾辭，不許。 八年，卒，卹如製。
In year four, as his health improved slightly, the court ordered him to Fuzhou to settle the Black Rock Hill missionary affair. Under Daoguang, British missionaries had built on the hill; provincial officials, unable to resist, told Beijing the site lay outside the city—an outright fiction. The mission's footprint kept expanding; Fujianese anger mounted and violence nearly broke out. As Fujian governor, Ding fought the encroachment and proposed swapping the hill for open ground near the telegraph bureau outside the wall. Before the exchange could take effect he was suddenly dismissed, and British occupation continued unchanged. Fujianese patience snapped; a mob wrecked the church. London protested fiercely, and the court now sent Ding to investigate. Ding combed the archives, secured evidence of missionary land-grabs, debated the British consul point by point, and at last relocated the church beyond the walls. Grateful Fujianese cut stone to commemorate the deed. A year later he went home. The following year the throne gave him governor-general rank and stationed him in the south to coordinate coastal defense, placing the entire fleet under his direction. He was also named concurrent Minister of Foreign Affairs; he begged off on grounds of illness, but the court would not release him. He died in year eight; the court granted the prescribed mourning honors.
4
日昌性孝友，撫吳日，母黃年九十矣，迎養署中，孺慕如兒時。 兄寢疾，藥饍躬侍，兄止之，則引李勣焚須事為喻。 好藏書，成持靜齋書目五卷，世比之范氏天一閣、黃氏百宋一廛雲。 子五人，惠康最著，好學，多泛覽，有丁徵君遺集。
Ding was devoted to family. While governing Jiangsu, he brought his ninety-year-old mother Huang into the yamen and cared for her with a child's tenderness. When his elder brother fell ill he personally prepared medicine and meals. His brother protested; Ding answered by citing how Li Ji once burned his beard to cure his sovereign. A passionate bibliophile, he compiled the five-volume catalogue of his Chijing Studio collection, which contemporaries ranked beside Fan Qin's Tianyi Pavilion and Huang Pilie's Hundred Song Studio. Of his five sons, Huikang was best known—a wide reader who left the Collected Works of Mr. Ding the Recluse.
5
卞寶第，字頌臣，江蘇儀徵人。 咸豐元年舉人。 入貲為刑部主事，累遷郎中、浙江道監察御史。 軍興，官吏多避罪冒功，奏請檢視各省兵糧數目、攻守要害，及失陷收復時日功罪，以資稽覈； 其有獲罪之員，藉事開復保升，宜嚴定限制。 又言：「苗沛霖、王來鳳乍服乍叛，宜專意主剿。」 上皆韙之。 同治元年，遷禮科給事中，劾江北水師總統黃彬侵釐通賊，督辦軍務侍郎勝保貪蹇，提督成明擁兵同州畏葸無戰志，一時推為敢言。 擢順天府府丞，遷府尹，捕巨盜王景漋等。 五年，乞開缺養親，不允。 出為河南布政使，擢福建巡撫。 時粵寇初平，游勇土匪肆掠，疏請就地正法，報可。 九年，再乞終養，許之。
Bian Baodi, courtesy name Songchen, came from Yizheng in Jiangsu. He passed the provincial examinations in Xianfeng year one. He bought his way into the Ministry of Punishments as a principal secretary, rose to vice-director, and became a supervising censor on the Zhejiang circuit. As war spread, officials often dodged blame while inflating merit. He asked the throne to audit each province's troop rolls, grain stores, strategic points, and the exact dates of defeats and recoveries so rewards and punishments could be checked. Men already punished who used fresh incidents to win reinstatement or promotion, he said, must face tighter limits. He also urged: "Miao Peilin and Wang Laifeng sway between surrender and revolt—the policy must be extermination, not appeasement." The emperor endorsed every point. Tongzhi year one brought promotion to supervising secretary of rites. He impeached Huang Bin, Yangtze naval commander, for stealing likin and aiding rebels; Grand Secretary Sheng Bao for greed and obstruction; and General Cheng Ming for hoarding troops at Tongzhou without fighting spirit. He was hailed as a fearless censor. Promoted to vice prefect and then prefect of Shuntian, he captured the bandit chieftain Wang Jingzhan and his gang. In year five he asked to resign and care for his parents; the court refused. He left the capital as Henan treasurer and was soon made Fujian governor. The Taiping rebellion had barely ended in the south; demobilized troops and bandits looted at will. He secured imperial approval to execute the worst offenders locally without delay. In year nine he again asked to retire and nurse his parents to the end; this time the court agreed.
6
光緒八年，起湖南巡撫。 平江方雪璈，龍陽曹小湖，安鄉周萬益、張景來，皆盜魁也，陰結徒黨，號「哥老會」。 寶第悉置之法。 署湖廣總督。 法人侵越南，詔偕巡撫彭祖賢治江防，築砲台田家鎮南北岸各三座，繪具圖說上之。 時議建樊口石閘。 寶第以謂：「樊口內有梁子諸湖，袤延八百里，水皆無源，江入其中，瀦為巨浸。 以民情論，重在堵江水之入，不在洩內水之出。 以地勢論，江水驟失此渟瀦八百里地，則下游堤防必致衝決。 請緩建石閘，而漸除樊口內窪田額賦。」 得旨允行。
Guangxu year eight recalled him as Hunan governor. Fang Xueyao of Pingjiang, Cao Xiaohu of Longyang, and Zhou Wanyi and Zhang Jinglai of Anxiang were bandit leaders who formed secret societies calling themselves the Elder Brothers. Bian had every one of them executed. He acted as governor-general of Huguang. When France invaded Vietnam, he and Hunan governor Peng Zuxian were ordered to strengthen Yangtze defenses. Bian built three gun platforms on each bank at Tianjiazhen and sent illustrated plans to the court. Officials were debating a stone floodgate at Fankou. Bian argued: "Inside Fankou lie the Liangzi lakes, eight hundred li across. They have no independent source; when the Yangtze pours in, the whole basin becomes a vast inland sea. For the people, the priority is keeping river water out, not draining lake water out. Geographically, if the river suddenly lost eight hundred li of storage, levees downstream would certainly fail. He asked to postpone the stone sluice and gradually lift land-tax quotas on flooded fields inside Fankou." The throne approved.
7
十一年，還湖南巡撫任。 法人款成，寶第上言：「各國通商，因利乘便，須具臥薪嘗膽之志，為苞桑陰雨之謀。」 因條上求才、裕餉、船政、器械四事。 又言：「國家財用，歲出大宗，莫如兵勇並設。 直省旗綠各營兵額七十七萬，每年薪糧銀一千數百萬兩。 養兵既多，費餉尤巨。 兵多則力弱，餉巨則國貧。 粵逆初起金田，僅二千人。 廣西額兵二萬三千，土兵一萬四千。 乃以三萬七千之兵，不能擊二千之賊，廣西兵不可用，他省可推。 其後發、捻、田、苗等匪，悉賴湘、淮營勇勘定，綠營戰績無聞。 大亂甫夷，伏莽未盡，兵不得力，勇難驟撤，於是歲支勇糧一千餘萬。 賦入有常，豈能堪此耗費？ 查綠營馬兵每月一兩九錢，戰兵一兩四錢，守兵九錢零。 月餼無多，必謀別業，遂弛專操，軍情瞬變，調發遷延。 臣擬請裁額並糧，以兩額挑養一兵。 如額兵一萬，半為駐守，半赴巡防，互相邏戍，共習辛勤，常則計日操演，變則隨時援應。 副參任營官，都守充哨弁，室家無累，而後紀律可嚴。 此宜變通營製者一也。 兵擬減額，原設將弁亦應核減。 綠營將弁歲領廉俸雜項，職大者可抵百兵數十兵，小者亦抵十餘兵。 自來積弊，隱匿空糧，攤扣月餉，左右役使，無非額兵。 裁汰之議，自非將弁所樂。 擬請先裁將弁以並營，營兵必多，乃漸裁兵，老弱事故缺出停補，俟空千名，即補精壯五百，綠營不足，簡撥營勇，作為練軍。 不啟兵眾之疑，自無阻撓之慮。 此宜逐漸辦理者又一也。 目前兵尚未練，勇已議裁，若欲節餉，則裁勇不足資緩急，裁兵為有備而無患。」 下部議行。 十四年，擢閩浙總督，兼管福建船政。 十八年，以疾解職，卒於家。
In year eleven he resumed the Hunan governorship. After the French treaty, Bian wrote: "Foreign trade lets every power take advantage; we need the resolve of King Goujian—sleeping on brushwood, tasting gall—and plans as if disaster were always one season away." He followed with four programs: talent, revenue, shipbuilding, and weapons. He added: "Among state expenditures, nothing matches the cost of keeping both Green Standard troops and volunteer braves on the rolls. Provincial banner and Green Standard establishments list 770,000 men and consume more than ten million taels a year in pay and grain. So many men on payroll make the ration bill enormous. Mass armies weaken fighting power; massive pay drains the treasury. The Taiping began at Jintian with barely two thousand fighters. Guangxi fielded 23,000 regulars and 14,000 local militia. Yet 37,000 soldiers could not defeat 2,000 rebels. If Guangxi's army was useless, other provinces were no better. Later the Taiping, Nian, Tian, and Miao rebellions were crushed by Hunan and Huai volunteer corps; the Green Standard won no fame in battle. The great rebellions had barely ended and bandits still lurked; regulars were useless and braves could not be disbanded overnight, so brave rations alone exceeded ten million taels yearly. Tax income is fixed—how can the state sustain such waste? Green Standard cavalry receive 1.9 taels a month, combat soldiers 1.4, garrison troops barely 0.9. Pay so low forces other trades; drill slackens; armies that should move at once arrive late. I propose cutting nominal rolls and merging pay so two paper slots fund one real soldier. Take ten thousand men on paper: half garrison, half patrol, rotating posts, training daily in peace, responding instantly in crisis. Let deputy generals command camps and colonels lead squads; men without families at their heels can be held to strict discipline. That is the first reform the camp system needs. If soldier quotas shrink, officer posts must shrink too. Green Standard officers draw stipends worth dozens of soldiers' pay at the top ranks and more than ten at the bottom. Long abuse hides phantom rolls, skims monthly pay, and turns nominal soldiers into officers' servants. Officers naturally hate talk of cuts. Cut officers first and merge camps; when each camp holds more real men, thin the rolls; stop replacing dead or aged men until a thousand slots are empty, then fill five hundred with the strong; where Green Standard fails, draft braves into drill corps. Done this way, troops will not suspect a purge and resistance will fade. That is the second reform to phase in slowly. Today regulars are untrained while braves face cuts. To save money, cutting braves leaves no reserve; cutting regulars keeps defense without disaster." The ministries approved and carried it out. Year fourteen made him governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang with charge of the Foochow Navy Yard. In year eighteen he resigned for illness and died at home.
8
寶第有威重，不為小謹，騶從甚盛，所至誅鋤奸猾，扶槙良願，民尤感之。 子緒昌，戶部七品小京官。
Bian carried weight and scorned petty etiquette, traveling with a large escort. Everywhere he executed rascals and backed honest folk, and the people loved him for it. His son Xuchang served as a seventh-rank secretary in the Board of Revenue.
9
塗宗瀛，號朗軒，安徽六安人。 以舉人銓江蘇知縣。 曾國籓督兩江，檄主軍糈，累保授江寧知府。 同治九年，擢蘇松太道。 明年，遷湖南按察使。 湘民故健訟，都察院歲所下獄輒逾百數。 宗瀛為立條教，允首悔，懲誣告，並嚴定審理功過章程，弊乃稍革。 晉布政使，仿硃子社倉法，建立長沙府倉。 光緒三年，拜廣西巡撫。 苗、瑤、倮儸獷悍梗化，檄所屬廣建學塾，刊孝經、小學諸書，使之誦習； 又自撰歌詞以勸戒之。 時晉、豫大旱，移撫河南，割取俸餘萬二千金助賑，招流亡，給籽種，老穉無依者，設廠收養，強有力者任工作。 世與曾國荃賑晉並稱雲。
Tu Zongying, known as Langxuan, came from Lu'an in Anhui. After passing the provincial exams he was appointed a Jiangsu county magistrate. When Zeng Guofan governed Jiangnan, Tu was ordered to manage army grain and, on repeated recommendation, became prefect of Jiangning. Tongzhi year nine raised him to intendant of the Suzhou–Songjiang–Taicang circuit. The following year he became Hunan's judicial commissioner. Hunanese were famously litigious; the Censorate each year forwarded more than a hundred cases to jail. Tu set rules allowing first offenders to repent, punished false accusers, and tied magistrates' performance reviews to fair trials, and the worst abuses eased. Promoted to treasurer, he modeled Zhu Xi's community granary system and built the Changsha prefectural storehouse. Guangxu year three made him Guangxi governor. Miao, Yao, and Lolo peoples were fierce and defied assimilation; he ordered schools built everywhere, printed the Classic of Filial Piety and Elementary Learning, and required recitation. He also wrote moral songs of his own to instruct them. When drought struck Shanxi and Henan, he was transferred to Henan, donated twelve thousand taels of salary for relief, resettled refugees, distributed seed, sheltered the helpless, and put able-bodied men to work. Contemporaries ranked his Henan relief beside Zeng Guoquan's work in Shanxi.
10
七年，調湖南巡撫。 撫標兵譁變，懲四人而事定。 及擢總督，又有武漢教匪之亂，捕誅數十人，亦遂安堵。 言官先後糾彈，事下彭玉麟，坐才力竭蹶，纟圭吏議。 無何，御史陳啟泰劾宗瀛務封殖，仍下玉麟按覆，玉麟後白其誣。 時左宗棠督江南，欲規复淮鹽、減川引，宗瀛以減川增淮，關川省數十萬鹽丁運夫生計，因抗疏力爭，言：「按年減運，則未運者將盡化為私。 縱使湖北置兵徼循，而巫峽流急，鹽船下駛，瞬息百里，兵少力不能制，多恐滋生事端。 且鄂餉無著，下拂輿情，上虧國帑。」 辭愷切。 未幾，稱疾乞休歸。
In year seven he returned as Hunan governor. When the provincial banner troops mutinied, he executed four ringleaders and order returned. After he became governor-general, Wuhan's sectarian rebels rose; he captured and executed dozens, and the city calmed. Censors repeatedly impeached him; Peng Yulin investigated, judged his strength spent, and recorded a demerit against him. Soon Censor Chen Qitai accused Tu of hoarding wealth; Peng Yulin reviewed the case again and eventually cleared him. Zuo Zongtang then governed Jiangnan and wanted to restore Huai salt at Sichuan's expense. Tu argued that shifting quota would ruin hundreds of thousands of Sichuan salt workers and carriers, and memorialized fiercely: "Annual cuts in legal transport will simply turn the remainder into smuggling. Even with Hubei patrols, the Wu Gorge current sweeps salt boats a hundred li in minutes—too few troops to control, and violence would follow. Hubei's revenue would collapse, public anger would rise, and the treasury would lose." His memorial was passionate and persuasive. He soon resigned citing illness and went home.
11
初，宗瀛從廷棟講學，為刊遺集，以理學稱。 家居十餘載，以徐延旭獲譴，追坐舉主，下部察議。 二十年，卒，年八十三。
Early in life Tu had studied under Ting Dong, published his teacher's works, and was known as a Neo-Confucian scholar. After a decade in retirement, Xu Yanxu's disgrace implicated Tu as his patron, and the ministries opened an inquiry. He died in year twenty at eighty-three.
12
黎培敬，字簡堂，湖南湘潭人。 咸豐十年進士，選庶吉士，授編修。 同治三年，出督貴州學政。 阻寇弗能進，乃從劉岳昭借軍數十，竟達貴陽。 時總督勞崇光、巡撫張亮基不相協，軍事益壞。 培敬上書言狀，朝廷始獲聞邊事。 黔苗俶擾，謳誦寂寥。 培敬曰：「士氣不伸，人心所繇不靖也。」 於是出入寇氛，按試州縣，雖危棘不緩期，貴州士民始復知文教。 道黔西，晤道員岑毓英，與語，知其諳戎事，遂請以滇中軍屬之。 培敬秩滿，以太常寺卿石贊清薦，命權布政使。 其時寇患方亟，賊酋潘名桀守龍里，久不下。 培敬曰：「今附郭百里，倉廩猶實。 不因以為資，若轉藉寇，吾屬必為所虜矣！」 因說提督出城取龍里，逾歲，克之。 旋复貴定，名桀遁去，黔軍克捷自此始。 詔嘉之，予實授。 繇是東定都勻，北靖開、修，南平陳喬生，西除林自清，蒞黔數載，境內悉平。
Li Peijing, courtesy name Jiantang, came from Xiangtan in Hunan. He passed the metropolitan examination in Xianfeng year ten, entered the Hanlin Academy, and became a compiler. Tongzhi year three sent him as Guizhou education commissioner. Bandits blocked his route; he borrowed dozens of soldiers from Liu Yuezhao and at last reached Guiyang. Governor-General Lao Chongguang and Governor Zhang Liangji feuded, and the military situation worsened. Li wrote frankly about conditions, and Beijing first learned the truth about the border. Miao unrest had silenced scholarship and public morale in Guizhou. Li said, "When scholars' morale collapses, the people's hearts cannot stay calm." He toured districts even amid banditry, held examinations on schedule despite danger, and slowly restored Guizhou's faith in education. In western Guizhou he met Circuit Intendant Cen Yuying, recognized a military mind, and asked that Yunnan forces be placed under him. When his term ended, Minister of Rites Shi Zanqing recommended him to act as provincial treasurer. Banditry was acute; chieftain Pan Mingjie held Longli and would not fall. Li warned, "Within a hundred li of the capital, granaries are still full. If we fail to use that grain and instead feed the rebels, we ourselves will be their captives!" He persuaded the commander to march out, take Longli, and after a year the city fell. Guiyang was recovered, Pan Mingjie fled, and Guizhou's counteroffensive began. The throne praised him and confirmed his appointment. He then pacified Duyun in the east, Kai and Xiu in the north, Chen Qiaosheng in the south, and Lin Ziqing in the west; within years all Guizhou was calm.
13
光緒改元，擢巡撫。 繼曾璧光後，益嚴吏治。 以上疏請釋前總督賀長齡處分並予諡建祠，鐫秩罷歸。 五年，起四川按察使。 時丁寶楨督蜀，課吏嚴。 培敬至，寶楨出郊迎，曰：「此吾貴州賢使君也！」 培敬以巡撫降官，絕無慍意，孜孜治事。 寶楨數薦其賢。 六年，擢漕運總督。 漕督雖閒職，然膴仕，培敬誓不以自污，公費所餘，以之修驛館，建兵房，增書院餐錢，興釋奠禮器，官煤、利濟諸局亦賡續告成，人無敢干以私。 七年，授江蘇巡撫。 未上，疾作，遂告歸。 明年，卒，優詔賜卹，諡文肅，予貴陽、清江浦建祠。
At the Guangxu succession he became governor. After Zeng Biguang he tightened official discipline further. He memorialized to restore former governor-general He Changling and build him a temple; the court demoted him and sent him home. Year five recalled him as Sichuan judicial commissioner. Ding Baozhen governed Sichuan with stern discipline toward officials. When Li arrived, Ding met him outside the city, saying, "Here is my worthy commissioner from Guizhou!" Though demoted from governor, Li showed no resentment and worked tirelessly. Ding repeatedly recommended his talent. Year six made him Director-General of Grain Transport. The grain transport post was prestigious and lucrative, but Li refused to soil his hands. Surplus funds went to post roads, barracks, academy stipends, ritual vessels, and the official coal and charity bureaus; no one dared solicit private favors. Year seven appointed him Jiangsu governor. Before he could take office, illness forced retirement. He died the next year; the court granted lavish mourning, posthumous title Wensu, and temples at Guiyang and Qingjiangpu.
14
崧駿，字鎮青，瓜爾佳氏，滿洲鑲藍旗人。 咸豐八年舉人，由兵部筆帖式累遷郎中。 同治六年，出知廣東高州府，以憂解。 服除，起授山東沂州府，歷廣西按察使、直隸布政使、漕運總督。 光緒十二年，巡撫江蘇，調浙江，所至興利除弊。 以南糧改折色，吏民交困，並減旗營民糧、織造匠糧，令州縣糶價以供漕，弊乃革。 十五年，浙患水祲，奏請免漕，發帑賑之，而於京、協諸餉仍從容籌解，复集貲購米實倉儲。 杭、嘉、湖三府暨蘇、松、常、太諸水源出於潛天目山附近，苕溪南北二湖為分洩地，歲久淤塞，用工賑法，招集流民疏濬之。 其杭、嘉、湖、紹諸塘岸堰徬，靡不次第修治，民賴其利。 十七年，卒於官。
Song Jun, courtesy name Zhenqing, of the Guwalgiya clan, was a Manchu of the Bordered Blue Banner. He passed provincial exams in Xianfeng year eight and rose from War Ministry clerk to director. Tongzhi year six made him Gaozhou prefect in Guangdong; he left on mourning. After mourning he served as Yizhou prefect in Shandong, then Guangxi judicial commissioner, Zhili treasurer, and grain transport director-general. Guangxu year twelve made him Jiangsu governor, then Zhejiang governor; everywhere he sought public good. Converting southern grain tribute to cash had squeezed officials and people alike. He cut banner and artisan grain quotas and required counties to sell grain at market rates for transport, ending the worst abuses. Year fifteen brought Zhejiang floods; he exempted tribute grain, opened treasury relief, still met Beijing and cooperative payments, and bought grain to refill granaries. Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, and Taicang all draw water from the Tianmu range; the north and south Tiaoxi lakes had silted shut. He used work-for-relief to mobilize refugees and dredge them. Dikes and sluices across Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, and Shaoxing were repaired in sequence, to the people's lasting benefit. He died in office in year seventeen.
15
崧駿以清廉自矢，於國計民生服念不忘。 撫江、浙績尤著，民請祠之，得旨俞允。 子昆敬，戶部郎中。
Song Jun pledged himself to integrity and never forgot revenue or people's welfare. His work in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was especially praised; locals won approval for a memorial temple. His son Kunjing served as a director in the Board of Revenue.
16
崧蕃，字錫侯，崧駿弟也。 咸豐五年舉人，初入貲為吏部郎中。 光緒五年，京察一等，簡四川鹽茶道，屢署按察使，保薦卓異。 十一年，授湖南按察使，遷四川布政使。 十七年，擢貴州巡撫。 廣西寇陸亞漋煽亂西林，與貴州接壤，崧蕃遣將扼冊亨要隘，邊患遂平。 調雲南巡撫，擢雲貴總督。 檢視防營缺額積弊，劾副將雷家春，並自請議處，革職留任。
Song Fan, courtesy name Xihou, was Song Jun's younger brother. He passed provincial exams in Xianfeng year five and bought his way into the Board of Personnel as a director. Guangxu year five brought top capital inspection rank, appointment as Sichuan salt controller, repeated stints as judicial commissioner, and outstanding merit rating. Year eleven made him Hunan judicial commissioner, then Sichuan treasurer. Year seventeen promoted him to Guizhou governor. When Guangxi rebel Lu Yahuan stirred Xilin on the Guizhou border, Song Fan sealed the Ceheng passes and ended the threat. He became Yunnan governor, then Yunnan-Guizhou governor-general. Reviewing phantom rolls in frontier garrisons, he impeached Deputy Commander Lei Jiachun, asked the court to punish himself as well, and was stripped of rank but kept at work.
17
二十六年，奏請陛見，值拳匪肇亂，命留京會辦城防事。 旋扈駕至太原，飭還本任。 行次，調陝甘總督。 於城南建立大學堂，分兩齋，東齋考文，西齋講武。 而修濬寧夏七星渠，尤為民所利賴。 寧郡堤工，創自乾隆時，魚鹽之利甲通省，後漸湮廢。 中衛縣令王樹棻素講求水利，崧蕃檄令勘工，自七星渠上接白馬通灘，流濬通深百八十餘裡，灌田六萬餘畝，磽確變為沃壤，逃亡復業。 又以渠水分自黃河，勢洶湧，春夏山水驟發，與黃流渾合，泥沙雜下，旋濬旋塞。 乃仿古人暗洞激水法，凡傍山之渠，架油鬆成洞，覆以石板，山水流石上，而渠水潛行洞中。 又度地勢築高堤，導山水使入黃河，並於渠口築進水、退水兩壩，使黃流曲折入渠，不致衝漫。 工竣，數經暴水，卒不圮。 設農務局，招墾荒地，如平羅、渭源諸縣，先後報墾數百千畝。 舊有機器局，漸次擴張。 凡興作實事求是，不惟其名。 三十一年，調閩浙總督，未上，以疾卒，追贈太子少保。 子外務部主事豫敬，以員外郎補用。
Year twenty-six he memorialized for an audience in Beijing; when the Boxers rose he was ordered to stay and manage capital defenses. He soon escorted the court to Taiyuan, then was sent back to his province. En route he was transferred to Shaanxi-Gansu governor-general. South of the provincial city he founded a university with an east hall for classics and a west hall for military science. He dredged Ningxia's Qixing Canal, a boon the people long relied on. Ningxia's dikes dated to Qianlong, when fish and salt profits led the province, but they had decayed. Zhongwei magistrate Wang Shufen knew hydraulics; Song ordered a survey, linked the Qixing Canal to Baima Tongtan, dredged 180 li, irrigated 60,000 mu, turned wasteland fertile, and brought refugees home. Because the canal drew Yellow River water with violent current, spring and summer floods mixed silt in and clogged the channel as fast as men cleared it. He copied ancient siphon tunnels: along mountain channels he built pine-lined tunnels capped with stone so floodwater ran overhead while irrigation water ran beneath. He built high dikes to divert mountain floods into the Yellow River and intake and spill dams at the mouth so river water entered the canal gently. After completion, repeated floods never destroyed the works. He opened an agricultural bureau and sponsored reclamation; Pingluo, Weiyuan, and other counties reported hundreds of thousands of mu opened. Existing arsenals were gradually enlarged. In every project he sought results, not reputation. Year thirty-one transferred him to Fujian-Zhejiang governor-general; he died before taking office and was posthumously made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. His son Yujing of the Foreign Ministry was promoted to vice director.
18
邊寶泉，字潤民，漢軍鑲紅旗人。 同治二年進士，授編修。 十一年，補浙江道監察御史。 大學士李鴻章總督直隸，奏清苑麥秀兩歧。 寶泉疏論之曰：「祥瑞之說，盛世不言。 臣來自田間，麥有兩歧，常所親見。 地氣偏厚，偶然致此，何足為異？ 漢章之時，以嘉穀芝草，改元章和，何敞猶據經義面折宋由、袁安。 至馬端臨文獻通考，乃舉歷代祥瑞，統曰'物異'。 夫祥且為異，今以無異之物而謂之祥，可乎？ 上年畿輔水災甚鉅，迄今沒水田廬猶未盡出； 永定河甫經蕆工，北岸又潰； 邊軍未撤，民困未蘇。 鴻章身膺重寄，威望素隆，當效何敞之公忠，懲宋由、袁安之導媚。 皇上御極之初，庶吉士嚴辰散館考試，曲意頌揚，奉旨嚴飭。 今鴻章為督撫大吏，非草茅新進可比，乃亦務為粉飾，於治道人心關係尤鉅。 應請降旨訓飭。」 是時鴻章又以永定河合龍，奏獎工員勞勚，奏上而河復決，寶泉又疏請撤銷保案。 鴻章新建大功，寶泉再疏彈之，鴻章亦不以為忤，天下兩賢之。 遷戶科給事中。
Bian Baoquan, courtesy name Runmin, was a Han bannerman of the Bordered Red Banner. He passed the metropolitan examination in Tongzhi year two and became a Hanlin compiler. Year eleven made him supervising censor on the Zhejiang circuit. Li Hongzhang, governing Zhili, reported double-eared wheat in Qingyuan as an omen. Bian memorialized in reply: "Prosperous ages do not traffic in omens. I come from farming country; double-eared wheat is common. Rich soil sometimes produces it by chance—nothing miraculous. Under Emperor Zhang of Han, lucky grain and lingzhi prompted a reign-title change, yet He Chang still rebuked flatterers Song You and Yuan An to their faces with classical argument. Ma Duanlin's Wenxian Tongkao lists every dynasty's omens under the heading 'strange phenomena.' If even true omens count as oddities, how can we call an ordinary stalk auspicious? Last year the capital region suffered terrible floods; flooded fields and homes have not fully recovered. The Yongding River works had just been finished when the north bank broke again. Border troops remain in the field and the people are still destitute. Li Hongzhang holds heavy responsibility and great prestige; he should imitate He Chang's blunt loyalty and reject flatterers like Song You and Yuan An. Early in the reign, Hanlin graduate Yan Chen's examination essay flattered the throne and drew a stern rebuke. Li is a governor-general, not a novice scholar, yet he too ornaments reports—a matter that touches governance and public trust. The throne should issue a reprimand." About then Li also reported the Yongding River joined and rewarded engineers; the memorial arrived and the river broke again, and Bian asked to revoke the commendations. Li had just won great credit; Bian impeached him again, yet Li took no offense, and the world praised both men. He became supervising secretary of the revenue section.
19
先是都御史胡家玉疏陳丁漕積弊，語侵巡撫劉坤一，坤一覆奏家玉逋賦未完，且私書囑託公事。 寶泉复劾：「坤一藉詞箝制地方長吏，此端一開，啟天下輕視朝廷之漸。」 疏入，坤一下部議處。
Earlier Censor-in-Chief Hu Jiayu had exposed grain-tax abuses, implicating Governor Liu Kunyi; Liu replied that Hu still owed taxes and had privately lobbied on official business. Bian impeached again: "Liu Kunyi uses rhetoric to intimidate local magistrates; that opens the way for governors to slight the throne." The memorial reached Beijing and Liu was referred to the ministries for discipline.
20
光緒三年，出為陝西督糧道，再遷布政使。 九年，擢陝西巡撫。 尚書閻敬銘議陝西收放糧米改徵折色，寶泉持不可，以謂：「穀數有定，今改折色，所收必有減於昔而民始樂從，所放必加多於前而兵乃足用。 入不敷出，一時強為彌補，後將何所取償？ 昔歲大饑，終賴道倉儲粟，多所全活。 今並此而去之，恐饑饉洊臻，益無可恃。」 上韙其議。 十二年，調河南巡撫，移疾歸。
Guangxu year three sent him as Shaanxi grain commissioner, then treasurer. Year nine made him Shaanxi governor. Minister Yan Jingming wanted Shaanxi grain receipts paid in cash; Bian objected: "Grain quotas are fixed; cash collection will yield less than grain while troops need more— income will not cover outlay; temporary fixes will leave nothing for the next crisis. Past famines were survived only because transit granaries still held grain. Remove that reserve and the next famine will find nothing to rely on." The emperor sided with him. Year twelve transferred him to Henan governor; he soon resigned for illness.
21
二十年，即家起閩浙總督。 閩鹽逋課積八十餘萬，前任奏報，率皆飛灑他項為挹注。 寶泉至，盡發其覆，乃有停釐補課之奏。 船政舊設大臣，後以總督兼之。 寶泉特疏請復故制，且條上造船、購料、延教師、籌經費四事，而不私其權，人嘉其廉讓。 二十四年，卒於官，贈太子少保。
Year twenty recalled him from retirement as Fujian-Zhejiang governor-general. Fujian salt owed more than eight hundred thousand taels; predecessors had papered over arrears by shifting charges elsewhere. Bian exposed every cover-up and memorialized to suspend likin surcharges until arrears were paid. The Foochow Navy Yard once had its own minister; later the governor-general held it concurrently. He asked to restore the separate minister and listed shipbuilding, supplies, instructors, and funding without hoarding authority; contemporaries praised his integrity. He died in office in year twenty-four and was posthumously made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.
22
於廕霖，字次棠，吉林伯都訥廳人。 進士，改庶吉士，授編修。 從大學士倭仁問學。 光緒初，俄羅斯議還伊犁，廕霖疏劾崇厚擅許天山界地數百里。 及崇厚被逮，有為之遊說者，复嚴疏劾之，且劾樞臣畏葸欺罔。 六年，授贊善，累遷中允。 八年，出為湖北荊宜施道。 是秋淫雨，漢水溢，檄所屬開倉賑濟。 又濬紫貝淵上游，改閘為壩，疏支流，洩積潦，水患始息。 新荊州書院，設經義、治事兩齋，生徒雲集，講舍至不能容。 擒斬盜魁李人奴等，餘黨屏息。 宜昌民教構訟，法領事袒教民，挾兵艦至，廕霖不為動，後卒無事。 英商漏宜昌關稅，既覺，乃納賕請免，不許； 請補稅，許之。 英商歎其廉。
Yu Yinlin, courtesy name Citang, came from Boduna in Jilin. He passed the metropolitan examination, entered the Hanlin Academy, and became a compiler. He studied under Grand Secretary Woren. Early in Guangxu, when Russia negotiated the return of Yili, Yu impeached Chonghou for ceding hundreds of li of Tianshan territory without authority. When Chonghou was arrested, lobbyists intervened; Yu memorialized again and also accused the Grand Council of cowardice and deceit. Year six made him a tutor in the heir apparent's establishment; he rose to junior mentor. Year eight sent him as intendant of the Jing-Yi-Shi circuit in Hubei. That autumn the Han River flooded; he ordered granaries opened for relief. He dredged Zibei Bay upstream, converted the sluice to a dam, cleared branch channels, drained the backlog, and the floods eased. He rebuilt Jingzhou Academy with halls for classics and practical administration; students overflowed the dormitories. He captured and executed bandit chief Li Rennu; the gang fell silent. At Yichang a Chinese-Christian lawsuit drew the French consul and gunboats; Yu stood firm and the crisis passed. An English merchant evaded Yichang customs; caught, he offered a bribe and was refused. He was allowed to pay the back taxes. The merchant praised his integrity.
23
十一年，擢廣東按察使。 廣東素多盜，至白晝劫掠衢市。 廕霖言於總督張之洞，奏請就地正法，報可。 順德廩生簡明亮有學行，緣事繫獄，察其枉，立出之。 十二年，遷雲南布政使，丁母憂。 服闋，改授台灣布政使，未行，會弟編修鍾霖以前在籍與廕霖同辦賑務，為奸商湯連魁誣控獲譴，廕霖具疏辨。 詔遣大臣即訊，頗得連魁行賄狀，然廕霖猶坐是落職，廢居京師。
Year eleven made him Guangdong judicial commissioner. Guangdong had always been bandit-ridden; robbers struck market streets in broad daylight. Yu told Governor-General Zhang Zhidong and won approval for summary execution on the spot. Shunde scholar Jian Mingliang, a man of learning, was jailed on false charges; Yu saw the injustice and freed him immediately. Year twelve transferred him to Yunnan treasurer; he left on mourning for his mother. After mourning he was named Taiwan treasurer; before leaving, his brother Zhonglin, who had helped with relief at home, was framed by merchant Tang Liankui; Yu memorialized in his defense. The court sent a grand minister to investigate, proved Tang's bribery, yet Yu still lost his post and lived in retirement in Beijing.
24
二十年，日本戰事起，命往奉天襄依克唐阿軍。 請募兵二萬自效，詔許募萬人，分四軍，與民團相應援。 明年，和議成，總督張之洞、山東巡撫李秉衡交章論薦，詔賞三品頂戴。 署安徽布政使，至則清釐田賦，杜絕欺隱，增墾田萬八千餘畝，撙節庫儲至二百萬金。 二十三年，德人索膠州灣，又脅朝廷罷李秉衡，廕霖奮然曰：「是尚可為國乎！」 上疏極論王大臣不職，因附陳修省五事，不報。 二十四年，擢湖北巡撫。 之洞為總督，頗主泰西新法，廕霖龂龂爭議，以為：「救時之計，在正人心、辨學術，若用夷變夏，恐異日之憂愈大。」 之洞意迂之，然仗其清正，使治吏事。 湖北財賦倚釐金，廕霖精心綜核，以舉劾為激揚，歲入驟增數十萬。
Year twenty, when war with Japan broke out, he was ordered to Fengtian to assist General Yi Ketang'a. He offered to raise twenty thousand troops at his own expense; the court allowed ten thousand in four corps cooperating with militia. After peace the next year, Zhang Zhidong and Shandong governor Li Bingheng recommended him; the court granted third-rank rank. As acting Anhui treasurer he cleared land tax fraud, added more than eighteen thousand mu of reclaimed land, and built treasury reserves to two million taels. Year twenty-three Germany seized Jiaozhou Bay and forced Li Bingheng's dismissal; Yu cried, "Can this state still be saved?" He memorialized fiercely on incompetent ministers and proposed five reforms for the provinces; the court did not answer. Year twenty-four made him Hubei governor. Zhang Zhidong as governor-general pushed Western reforms; Yu argued that saving the age required rectifying hearts and scholarship, and that replacing Chinese ways with foreign ones would deepen tomorrow's troubles. Zhang thought him stubborn but trusted his integrity for administrative work. Hubei revenue depended on likin; Yu audited it carefully, using promotion and dismissal as leverage, and annual receipts jumped by hundreds of thousands of taels.
25
二十七年，調撫河南。 時兩宮西狩，德、法兵日謀南下，而河北莠民往往仇殺教民，廕霖檄彰衛懷道馮光元捕誅首惡數人。 德、法兵至順德，聞教案已結，乃還。 二十八年，調湖北。 會詔裁缺，改廣西。 廷議廕霖不善外交，复降旨開缺，假居南陽。 三十年，卒。
Year twenty-seven transferred him to Henan governor. While the empress dowagers toured the west and German and French armies threatened the south, Hebei mobs killed Christians; Yu ordered Feng Guangyuan to execute the ringleaders. German and French troops reached Shunde, learned the missionary case was closed, and withdrew. Year twenty-eight returned him to Hubei. When the court cut posts he was shifted to Guangxi. Officials judged Yu poor at diplomacy; another edict removed him and he lived at Nanyang. He died in year thirty.
26
廕霖晚歲益潛心儒先性理書，雖已貴，服食不改儒素，硃子書不離案側，時皆稱之。
In later years Yu immersed himself in Neo-Confucian texts; though honored, he dressed and ate as a plain scholar, kept Zhu Xi on his desk, and won universal praise.
27
饒應祺，字子維，湖北恩施人。 幼穎悟好學，試作渾天儀，旋轉合度。 年十二，入邑庠，益究心經世學。 咸豐九年，粵寇石達開自湘、鄂犯蜀，道恩施，應祺率鄉團助城守。 由候選訓導議敘國子監學正。 同治元年，舉於鄉，揀選知縣，援例為主事，分刑部。 父卒，廬墓側。 服闋，陝甘總督左宗棠檄參軍幕。 以克金積堡、巴燕戎格諸處功，擢知府。 光緒三年，署同州知府。 時秦、晉亢旱，赤地千里，饑民洶洶，遮道不得前。 應祺諭之曰：「此來賑汝飢耳！ 譁變者殺無赦。」 乃捐俸錢為官紳倡，弛重糶禁，旬日得糧七十餘萬石，又截留他省糧運以助不繼。 復為招流亡，定墾章，給牛種，蠲雜稅。 歲稍轉，教民興水利，勤樹植，設義倉，行保甲。 又規复豐登書院，創修府志，文化蔚興，士民為立生祠。
Rao Yingqi, courtesy name Ziwei, came from Enshi in Hubei. As a boy he was clever and studious; a armillary sphere he built turned with correct measure. At twelve he entered the county school and deepened his study of statecraft. Xianfeng year nine, Taiping general Shi Dakai invaded Sichuan through Hunan and Hubei, passing Enshi; Rao led militia to help defend the city. For his service he was rewarded with the rank of National University academician. Tongzhi year one he passed provincial exams, was selected as magistrate, bought into the Ministry of Punishments as principal secretary. When his father died he mourned at the tomb. After mourning, Zuo Zongtang ordered him into his headquarters. Merit at Jinjibu and Bayan Rongge won him promotion to prefect. Guangxu year three he acted as Tongzhou prefect. Shaanxi and Shanxi were in severe drought; red earth stretched a thousand li; starving people blocked his path. Rao told them, "I have come to feed you! Anyone who rioted would be killed without mercy." He donated his salary to lead officials and gentry, relaxed grain-sale bans, gathered seven hundred thousand shi in ten days, and diverted other provinces' grain shipments. He resettled refugees, set reclamation rules, gave oxen and seed, and exempted miscellaneous taxes. When the year improved he taught irrigation, urged tree planting, opened charity granaries, and enforced baojia. He restored Fengdeng Academy, revised the prefectural gazetteer, revived local culture, and the people built him a living shrine.
28
左宗棠疏薦應祺守絕一塵，才堪肆應，請以道府簡補。 十年，授甘州知府。 陝西自軍興，兵差旁午，設裡局董之，凡四十一廳州縣大困。 上命巡撫邊寶泉赴陝查辦，疏留應祺理其事。 應祺量道路衝僻定收支之數，分別兵流，掃浮汰冗，歲省數十萬兩。 是年冬，抵甘州任，賑饑勸學，設織紡局、孤嫠所，革徵草之弊，复七斤一束舊章。 十一年，遷蘭州道。 瀕行，士民攀轅留行，多泣下者。 旋署按察使。 嚴搶嫠為婚之禁，擒督署差弁及鄉人楊營弁置之法。 手訂清理庶獄章程，以詔群吏，視其功過而黜陟之。
Zuo memorialized that Rao's integrity was spotless, his talent broad, and asked that he be promoted to intendant or prefect. Year ten made him Ganzhou prefect. Since the northwest wars, military courier bureaus had burdened all forty-one prefectures and departments in Shaanxi. The court ordered Governor Bian Baoquan to investigate Shaanxi; Bian kept Rao to handle the bureau. Rao set receipts by road priority, separated military and civilian traffic, cut waste, and saved hundreds of thousands of taels yearly. That winter he took Ganzhou, ran famine relief and schools, opened textile mills and orphanages, reformed grass-collection abuses, and restored the seven-jin bundle rule. Year eleven transferred him to Lanzhou circuit intendant. Leaving office, scholars and commoners clung to his carriage, many weeping. He soon acted as judicial commissioner. He banned forced remarriage of widows and punished the governor's runners and local bully Yang Ying. He drafted rules for clearing backlog cases, judged officials by results, and promoted or dismissed accordingly.
29
十五年，調新疆喀什噶爾道，改鎮迪道，兼按察使銜。 十七年，署新疆布政使； 十九年，實授。 新疆兵燹後，民物凋弊，地多荒棄。 伊犁故腴壤，回屯舊八千戶，四不存一。 應祺建議伊犁將軍給新裁錫伯、索倫兵牛糧，使之屯種； 給新裁察哈爾、厄魯特兵羊馬，使牧放； 並招致關內災民，按丁授地，實行寓兵於農之法。 羅布淖爾者，舊史所稱星宿海也，漢為且末、尉犁、婼羌諸國地，東西廣千六百餘裡，南北袤千里或數百里，自陽關道梗，其地遂成甌脫。 應祺建議巡撫築蒲昌城，設英格可力善後局、卡克里克屯防局，招徠漢回客纏，通道置驛，建堡濬渠，教以耕織。 又請改防軍為標營，定額徵糧石每年折色之法，畫一錢法。
Year fifteen sent him to Kashgar circuit in Xinjiang, then Zhendi circuit with judicial commissioner rank. Year seventeen he acted as Xinjiang treasurer. Year nineteen confirmed the appointment. After Xinjiang's wars, population and wealth lay in ruins and much land was abandoned. Yili had been fertile farmland; of eight thousand old Hui farming households, fewer than a quarter remained. Rao proposed that the Yili general give newly demobilized Xibe and Solon soldiers grain and cattle to farm. Give demobilized Chahar and Olot troops sheep and horses for herding. Also recruit inland famine refugees, allot land by household, and implement true military-colonist farming. Lop Nur was the Star Sea of old histories, Han-era territory of Shanshan, Weili, and Ruoqiang—1,600 li east-west, up to a thousand li north-south; when the Yang Pass route closed it became a vacuum. Rao proposed building Puchang City, frontier bureaus at Yinggekeli and Kaklik, attracting Han and Hui settlers, posts and forts, canals, and farming and weaving. He also asked to reorganize defense troops into banner camps, fix grain collection in cash equivalents, and unify currency.
30
俄領事原議駐吐魯番，後求移駐省垣，將軍、巡撫難之。 應祺謂：「此不必爭。 我所應爭者，洋商稅則須與華商一律，同時議定。 新省毗連英、俄，陸路進口地不一，北道伊犁，南道喀什，應設關，各以本道為監督； 塔城、烏什、葉爾羌應設分卡，歸各道兼轄。」 均如議行。 南路初設領署，應祺貽書伊塔、喀什兩道曰：「交鄰之道，莫先於自治。 我之用人行政，使彼族聞而敬服，則遇事不至以非禮相要，此為折衝禦侮第一要義。 飲食往還，平時貴以情誼相聯。 至華洋訴訟，必先得華民是非曲直實情而後與之爭，庶可關其口而奪之氣。 一詞稍偽，彼將執以相例，而全案皆虛矣。 情以籥之，理以盾之，又其次也。」 新疆向受協餉，每苦款絀，應祺開源節流，數年庫儲逾百萬。
The Russian consul had agreed to Turfan, then demanded the provincial capital; the general and governor resisted. Rao said, "That is not worth fighting. What we must fight for is equal tax treatment for foreign and Chinese merchants, fixed in one treaty. Xinjiang borders Britain and Russia with many overland trade routes—Yili in the north, Kashgar in the south; each needs a customs office under its circuit intendant. Tacheng, Ush, and Yarkand need branch stations under those intendants." The court approved all points. When southern consulates opened, Rao wrote the Yita and Kashgar intendants: "Neighbor relations begin with governing ourselves well. If our administration earns respect, foreigners will not bully us—that is the first defense against insult. In peacetime, bind them with hospitality and personal ties. In mixed lawsuits, establish the Chinese party's facts first, then argue—only then can you silence them. One false detail becomes their precedent and the whole case collapses. Appeal to sentiment if you must, to principle if you can—that is second best. Xinjiang had always relied on subsidies and often ran short; Rao raised revenue and cut spending until treasury reserves passed a million taels within years.
31
二十一年，河、湟回煽亂，蔓延甘、涼諸郡，其別股萬餘謀西竄。 上命應祺署新疆巡撫，應祺檄提督牛允誠防安西、玉門諸處，拒寇境外。 回酋劉四伏果竄玉門之昌馬，遇允誠軍，戰數不利，盡棄輜重，逾雪山西逸。 應祺遣參將李金良要之紅柳峽，生擒劉四伏，降其眾八千，安置於羅布淖爾，設軍鎮撫。 同時庫車回謀起事，寧遠回亦以爭新教相仇殺，洶洶思變。 應祺皆先期撲滅，故四伏無內應，卒就殲。 上嘉其功，實授巡撫。
Year twenty-one Hui rebels in He-Huang spread through Gansu and Liangzhou; more than ten thousand planned to flee west. The court named Rao acting Xinjiang governor; he ordered General Niu Yuncheng to hold Anxi and Yumen and keep rebels outside the border. Hui chief Liu Sifu fled to Changma in Yumen, fought Niu Yuncheng several times, abandoned his baggage, and fled over the snowy mountains. Rao sent Major Li Jinliang to Hongliuxia, captured Liu Sifu alive, accepted eight thousand surrendering followers, and settled them at Lop Nur under military guard. Meanwhile Kuche Hui plotted revolt and Ningyuan Hui fought over the new teaching, unrest boiling everywhere. Rao crushed each plot early, so Liu Sifu had no allies inside and was destroyed. The emperor praised his service and confirmed him as governor.
32
應祺以新疆僻處國西北隅，密邇強俄，士卒眾而器械窳，生齒繁而司牧少，不足以固吾圉，乃購快槍萬枝於德國，而設機器廠製造子彈，奏設左右翼馬隊為游擊師。 又開辦于闐、塔城金礦，墾荒田，開渠井，廣興實業，凡有利於民生者，皆次第舉。 自是地利盡闢，兵備有資，較初建行省時迥異矣。
Rao saw Xinjiang in the northwest corner beside Russia, with many troops but poor weapons and few officials to govern them. He bought ten thousand German rifles, opened a munitions factory, and memorialized for left and right mobile cavalry divisions. He opened gold mines at Yutian and Tacheng, reclaimed land, dug canals, and promoted every enterprise that helped livelihood. Land was opened, arms supplied, and Xinjiang looked utterly different from the day the province was founded.
33
拳匪亂起，俄兵自薩馬進逼邊卡，應祺會總督魏光燾、伊犁將軍長庚仿東南各省，與各領事結互相保護之約，俄兵乃退。 議成，應祺應詔陳言，略謂：「古今中外治法務在求實。 舊章非無可守，守之不以實，成法亦具文； 新法非不可行，行之不以實，良法亦虛飾。 心之實不實，宜於行事之實不實驗之。」 逾年，詔設武備學堂，編立常備、續備、巡警各軍。 應祺主操練用新法，器械用新式； 人惟求舊，必樸實勤奮久於戰陣者，方可入選。 上疏極論之，並謂：「中國習洋操三十年，一敗於日本，再敗於聯軍，為務虛名而貽實禍之證。」 所言皆切中時弊。
When the Boxers rose, Russian troops advanced from Sama; Rao joined Wei Guangtao and Yili General Chang Geng in mutual-protection treaties with consuls, as southeastern provinces had done, and the Russians withdrew. After the agreements he memorialized: "Chinese and foreign governance, ancient and modern, must seek what is real. Old rules can work if enforced in earnest; without earnestness they are empty paper. New methods can work if implemented in earnest; without earnestness they are mere show. Whether the heart is sincere shows in whether deeds are sincere." A year later the court founded military preparatory schools and organized regular, reserve, and patrol forces. Rao held that drill should use new methods and new weapons. But men must be plain, diligent veterans of real campaigns. He memorialized fiercely: "China has drilled in foreign style for thirty years, lost once to Japan and twice to the allied armies—proof that empty forms bring real disaster." Every word struck the age's disease.
34
而尤龂龂於界約，不少遷就。 帕米爾高原，國境也，有高宗御製平寇碑，立於蘇滿。 英、俄交覷其地，而俄人先竊據之。 應祺官布政使時，商之巡撫，以理退俄兵，遣軍戍焉。 俄人悔失計，日聒於總署，要我撤兵。 應祺持不可，謂：「我自守門戶，其理直。 我退則英必至，英來則俄又必爭，是息事而益多事也。」 後竟如應祺言。 坎人求租種莎車屬喇斯庫穆荒地，應祺謂：「坎本我屬，宜示懷柔。 其在玉河卡倫外者，可允其租墾，納賦比於華人； 其在玉河東北屬邊內者，宜卻之，防後患。」 總署與英使議界約，以坎部讓與印度，而塔墩巴什帕米爾及喇斯庫穆全境皆讓與中國。 應祺抗言：「喇本我地，不得謂之讓。」 而俄人轉謂中國以喇地讓與英人，利益宜均，以兵威相脅。 應祺飭屬嚴備邊，而以議租原委及議約界限詳諭之，俄人始無辭。
He was especially stubborn on border treaties and would not yield. The Pamir plateau is Chinese territory; Qianlong's pacification stele still stands at Suman. Britain and Russia both coveted it; Russia seized it first. As treasurer he persuaded the governor to argue Russia down and garrison the Pamirs. Russia regretted the move and daily pressed the Grand Council to withdraw Chinese troops. Rao refused: "We guard our own gate; our cause is just. Withdraw and Britain arrives; Britain arrives and Russia contests again—yielding breeds more quarrels." Events later proved him right. Kashgaris sought to lease Lasikumu wasteland near Yarkand; Rao said, "They are our subjects and deserve kindness. Those outside the Yarkand frontier post may lease land and pay tax like Chinese. Those inside the northeast border of the Yarkand River should be refused to prevent future trouble." The Grand Council negotiated with Britain, ceding Kashgar districts to India while Tadunbash Pamir and all Lasikumu went to China. Rao protested: "Lasikumu was always ours—it is not a cession." Russia then claimed China had ceded Lasikumu to Britain and demanded equal benefit, threatening force. Rao fortified the border and explained the lease and treaty limits in detail until Russia had no reply.
35
應祺官西疆久，闢地安民，屢請建官設治以資鎮撫。 二十八年，复疏言：「新疆自光緒四年改建行省，土地日闢，戶口日繁，原設州縣，轄境遼遠，非增設府廳，不足治理。 西四城喀什噶爾道：疏勒州為極邊重要，請升為府； 距府百八十里之排素巴特地屬唐伽師城，改為伽師縣； 莎車地廣而腴，英商麕集，請升為府：府南為澤勒普善河，增設澤普縣； 府西南色勒庫爾為古蒲犁國，實坎巨提出入要路，又與英、俄接壤，請設蒲犁分防通判； 距于闐縣四百里之洛浦莊，增設洛浦縣； 嗎喇巴什廳為古巴爾楚地，改為巴楚州。 東四城阿克蘇道：溫宿州為南疆要衝，請升為府； 舊城巡檢升為溫宿縣； 距縣四百八十里之柯爾坪，增設柯坪縣丞； 焉耆府南六百三十里布古爾分防巡檢為古之輪台，請分設輪台縣； 卡克里克縣丞，其地為古婼羌國，改設婼羌縣； 庫車廳土地廣沃，請改為州； 州南沙爾雅增設沙雅縣。 北路阜康縣之濟木薩縣丞，富庶逾於縣，舊驛名孚遠，升為孚遠縣； 距吐魯番二百四十里之闢展巡檢地為古鄯善國，升為鄯善縣； 昌吉縣所屬之呼圖壁巡檢向收錢糧，請改為縣丞。 計升設府三，改直隸州二，增通判一、縣九、縣丞二。」 又奏增設鄉試中額二名，會試中額一名，暨各府學官學額，先後皆議行。 是年，調安徽巡撫，行抵哈密，病卒，賜卹如例。
Rao governed the western frontier for years, opening land and settling people, repeatedly asking for new administrative units. Year twenty-eight he memorialized again: "Since Xinjiang became a province in Guangxu year four, land and population have grown until old counties are too vast to govern. In the Kashgar circuit's four western districts, Shule on the farthest border should become a prefecture. Paisuabad, 180 li from the prefecture, was Tang-era Gashi—make it Gashi County. Yarkand's fertile lands attract English merchants—promote it to prefecture; south along the Zelepu River add Zepu County. Southwest Selekur, ancient Puli and the Kashgaris' main route, bordering Britain and Russia, needs a Puli sub-prefect. Luopu village, 400 li from Yutian, becomes Luopu County. Maralbeshi department, ancient Balchu, becomes Bachu prefecture. In the Aksu circuit's four eastern districts, Wensu, the southern frontier's hinge, should become a prefecture. The old-city patrol post becomes Wensu County. Kelpin, 480 li away, gets a county magistrate. Bugur sub-prefect, 630 li south of Yanqi, was ancient Luntai—establish Luntai County. Kaklik county magistrate's territory, ancient Ruoqiang, becomes Ruoqiang County. Kuche department's broad fertile land should become a prefecture. South of the prefecture along Sharya add Shaya County. Jimusa magistrate under Fukang was richer than the county; the old post Fuyuan becomes Fuyuan County. Zhan post inspector's land, 240 li from Turfan, ancient Shanshan, becomes Shanshan County. Hutubi patrol under Changji, which collected grain tax, becomes a county magistrate. In all: three new prefectures, two upgraded departments, one sub-prefect, nine counties, two county magistrates." He also asked for two more provincial examination seats, one metropolitan seat, and school quotas for each prefecture—all approved. That year he was transferred to Anhui governor; at Hami he died; mourning followed regulation.
36
惲祖翼，字叔謀，江蘇湖陽人。 同治三年舉人。 以知縣累至道員，再攝武昌道。 教匪王覺一約期起事，祖翼時筦營務，乘夜率親兵掩捕之。 總督塗宗瀛疏保祖翼有濟變才，光緒十五年，授督糧道。 調漢黃德道，兼江漢關監督。 以襄河漲發易壞舟，創設襄樊報水電，樹牌鳴鉦，各船備禦，水至遂無患。 晉按察使，擢浙江布政使。 祖翼以州縣徵糧照舊折價，近年錢貴銀賤，民力不支，乃重定銀價，設櫃徵收，不得假手書役，人稱其惠。 尤盡心水利，於嘉興開泖河，疏港建閘，以資蓄洩。 於杭州浚上塘河，臨平、喬司等處農田三十餘萬畝皆獲灌溉之利。 上虞南塘舊以土築，水至輒決。 採眾議，改建石塘千一百丈，始免水患。
Yun Zuoyi, courtesy name Shumou, came from Huyang in Jiangsu. He passed provincial exams in Tongzhi year three. He rose from magistrate to circuit intendant and twice acted as Wuchang intendant. Sectarian leader Wang Jueyi set a date to rebel; Yun, managing camp affairs, led troops by night and captured him. Governor-General Tu Zongying recommended Yun's crisis talent; Guangxu year fifteen made him grain transport commissioner. He became intendant of Han-Huang-De and supervised Jianghan Customs. Because Xiang floods wrecked boats, he created the Xiang-Fan river telegraph, posted signs and gongs, and equipped every boat so floods did no harm. He rose to judicial commissioner, then Zhejiang treasurer. County grain tax still used old cash rates while silver had fallen and copper risen, crushing taxpayers. Yun reset silver prices, opened collection counters, and barred clerks—people called it a blessing. He devoted himself to hydraulics: at Jiaxing he opened the Pao River, dredged harbors, and built sluices. At Hangzhou he dredged the Shangtang River, irrigating more than three hundred thousand mu around Linping and Qiaosi. Shangyu's South Dike had been earthen and failed whenever floods came. On public advice he rebuilt 1,100 zhang of stone dike and ended the floods.
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二十六年，北京拳亂報至，祖翼獨起抑阻。 匪陷江山、常山，衢民復毀教戕官，英國欲以兵艦赴浙。 祖翼亟遴員馳往鎮撫，獲真犯抵償，潛消兵釁。 會兩江、湖廣總督與各國訂約保護南疆，電詢浙省。 巡撫劉樹棠方臥病，祖翼即迳電以浙省附約，人心以安。
Year twenty-six, when Beijing's Boxer news arrived, Yun alone moved to restrain the movement. Bandits seized Jiangshan and Changshan; Quzhou people wrecked churches and killed officials; Britain threatened warships. Yun sent officials to pacify the region, secured real culprits for compensation, and quietly averted war. When Liangjiang and Huguang governors-general made mutual-protection treaties with foreign powers, they wired Zhejiang for assent. Governor Liu Shutang lay ill; Yun wired directly that Zhejiang joined the treaty, calming public fear.
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旋擢巡撫。 以浙省防練各營積弊，疏請整飭，略言：「浙省水陸防練各營數踰制兵，陸續添募，餉實不敷。 而統領各營哨，不顧操練緝捕為何事，汲汲焉唯浮冒剋減，食弊自肥。 術愈出而愈奇，勇日雜而日弱，盜日防而日多。 今將蕩滌宿垢而作新之。 立法自上，責在督撫。 臣任事即通飭各營，與之更始。 以後如有貪劣將弁，仍敢浮冒剋減，決不姑容。 擬先勵其廉恥，而兼課其材武。 一面飭州縣查保甲，辦團練，以輔制兵之不逮； 一面遴委廉幹道府，酌帶哨勇，分往浙東西，抽點名糧，認真校閱。 遇有大股盜匪，督率營縣搜拿，務絕根株。 總期合散為聚，化惰為勤，堪備一日之緩急。 雖然，營衛小疾，疏解足矣，受病既深，斷非猛劑不治。 天下之病，無一不根於利。 統領營哨，聞見已慣，謂夫督撫所能操以繩其下者，撤之而已，參之而已。 撤之則又顧而之他，參之則已飽颺而去； 且未幾而又夤緣開復矣，未幾而以將才調用矣。 惟督以峻法，務去泰甚，庶有以振暮氣而戢貪風。 或震於各國一時之強，幾謂全恃火器，不知其本原仍在臨財廉，與士卒同甘苦。 否則未戰先潰，火器徒以齎寇，直自伐耳。 可否請旨飭下兵、刑各部，採臣治亂用重之議，嗣遇將弁贓證確鑿者，分別輕重，嚴定參革、追繳、倍罰、斬絞之例，庶軍心一振，於時局或有裨益。」 疏入，詔飭各省著為令。 未幾，丁母憂歸。 卒，卹如例。 浙人請立祠祀之。
He was soon promoted to governor. Zhejiang's defense and drill camps were riddled with abuse; he memorialized for reform: "Camp rolls exceed regulation while pay falls short. Officers ignore drill and pursuit, inflating rolls and embezzling pay. Tricks multiply while troops grow weaker; bandits are 'guarded' yet multiply. Now we must wash away old corruption and begin anew. Law must come from above; governors bear the responsibility. On taking office I immediately ordered every camp to start afresh. Any officer who still inflates rolls or embezzles will not be spared. I will first appeal to their honor, then test their martial skill. I will order counties to inspect baojia and train militia to cover what regular troops cannot. I will send honest intendants with picked troops through eastern and western Zhejiang to audit rolls and inspect drill. Large bandit bands will be hunted by camp and county forces until uprooted. The goal is to gather scattered men, turn laziness into discipline, and be ready when crisis comes. Minor camp ailments might yield to gentle remedies; this disease is too deep for anything but strong medicine. The empire's sickness has one root: profit. Camp officers long accustomed think governors can only dismiss or impeach them. Dismiss them and they find new posts; impeach them and they leave with full purses. Soon they pull strings for reinstatement; soon they are praised as military talent elsewhere. Only stern law from governors, cutting excess, can rouse morale and curb greed. Some, awed by foreign guns, forget that integrity with money and sharing soldiers' hardship remain the root. Without that, armies collapse before battle and rifles merely arm the enemy—self-defeat. May the throne order the War and Punishments ministries to adopt severe rules: when corruption is proven, fix punishments from impeachment and fines to execution—perhaps then army morale will rise and the times improve. The memorial reached Beijing; an edict made his rules binding on every province. He soon left office to mourn his mother. He died; mourning followed regulation. Zhejiang people asked for a temple in his honor.
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論曰：疆吏當承平時，民生吏治，要在因地制宜而已。 日昌、寶第皆以尚嚴著績效。 宗瀛、廕霖飾之以儒術，亦後先稱治。 培敬有為有守，崧駿兄弟所至盡職，寶泉勵清操，祖翼能濟變，並有可稱。 至應祺官關隴、新疆垂四十年，邊地初闢，治績爛然，實心實政，其勞亦不可沒雲。
The historians comment: In peaceful times frontier governors succeed by adapting policy to local conditions. Ding Richang and Bian Baodi both won fame through strict rule. Tu Zongying and Yu Yinlin added Confucian learning and were likewise praised for good government. Li Peijing was capable and steadfast; the Song brothers served faithfully; Bian Baoquan kept pure integrity; Yun Zuoyi handled crises—each deserves mention. Rao Yingqi governed Shaanxi-Gansu and Xinjiang for nearly forty years, opening the frontier with blazing achievement—sincere policy whose labor must not be forgotten.