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列傳二百三十六
Biographies 236
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[Biographies of] Xi Liang, Zhou Fu, Lu Yuanding, Zhang Cengyang, Yang Shixiang, and Feng Xu
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Xi Liang, whose courtesy name was Qingbi, belonged to the Bayuete clan and was a Mongol bannerman of the Bordered Blue Banner. He became a metropolitan graduate in 1874 and was assigned as a county magistrate in Shanxi, where his successive posts at the prefectural and county level were marked by policies that benefited the people. Early in the Guangxu reign, when Shanxi was stricken by severe drought, Xi Liang oversaw relief again and again: every household was checked, every disbursement was paid out in full, and the people came to esteem him for it. In 1894, Shandong Governor Li Bingheng had him transferred to serve as prefect of Yizhou, after which he was promoted intendant of the Yan-Yi-Cao-Ji Circuit. Soon after he took office, the Big Sword Society in Shan County rose in disturbance. He hurried there at the head of a detachment, posted notices to the crowd, seized only the ringleaders, recovered the society's membership rolls, and burned them in public; awed by this, the rebels all melted away. He was moved to the Jining Circuit in Shanxi and then promoted to provincial judicial commissioner. After a transfer to Hunan, he was elevated to provincial treasurer.
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In 1900 the Boxer uprising brought catastrophe, and the capital stood in grave peril. Jointly commissioned by the Huguang governor-general and the governors of Hubei and Hunan, Xi Liang led troops from those provinces to escort the court into Shanxi and was at once appointed governor of the province. Peace talks were still unsettled when foreign forces crossed into Shanxi. Xi Liang reasoned that with the empress dowager and emperor sheltered in Shaanxi, the peace negotiations had to be watched—but securing Shanxi and shielding the road to Shaanxi could not be slighted either. He ordered all units to hold their defenses firmly, sent commissioners across the border to offer gifts to the foreign armies, and adjusted his response as events unfolded—so that, fortunately, the province escaped harm. Only after the treaty was signed did Shanxi stand down from full alert.
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調湖北巡撫，復開缺。 旋授河南河道總督。 以事簡，奏請裁歸巡撫兼理，詔允行。 調補河南巡撫，兼管河工。 豫省吏治久隳，劾去道府以次數十人，政紀肅然。 泌陽教案事起，立派兵馳捕首犯，被擾難民，無分民教，一律撫卹。 調熱河都統。 熱河本就蒙地設治，向沿舊習，不講吏事，尤患多盜。 錫良首請改制，設立求治局，綜理吏治財政； 開辦圍場荒地，以興墾務； 整飭巡防，專意緝捕，匪風始戢。 又以熱境地廣官少，奏請升朝陽縣為府，並增設阜新、建平、隆化三縣，熱河自此始有吏治。
He was transferred to serve as governor of Hubei, then left the post open again when moved elsewhere. He was soon appointed director-general of Henan river conservancy. Finding the post's duties light, he memorialized to abolish it and fold river work into the governor's portfolio; the throne approved. He was reassigned as governor of Henan and also took charge of river conservancy. Henan's officialdom had long been corrupt; he impeached and dismissed dozens of officials from circuit intendant down through the prefectural ranks, and administrative discipline was sharply restored. When the Biyang missionary-case affair broke out, he at once sent troops to hunt down the ringleaders and compensated every refugee who had suffered—Christian or not—without distinction. He was transferred to the post of Rehe lieutenant-general. Rehe had been governed as administration on Mongol territory, where old customs prevailed, civil routine was neglected, and banditry was especially rife. Xi Liang was the first to press for institutional reform, establishing a Bureau for Seeking Good Government to coordinate civil administration and revenue; opened waste land in the imperial hunting grounds to promote reclamation; reorganized patrol forces and focused on arrests until banditry finally abated. Because Rehe was vast yet thinly staffed, he memorialized to elevate Chaoyang County to a prefecture and to add the counties of Fuxin, Jianping, and Longhua—marking the point at which Rehe finally acquired a real civil administration.
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In 1903 he was promoted governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang and transferred to serve as acting governor of Sichuan. While officials debated borrowing foreign capital for the Sichuan railway, Xi Liang insisted on a Chinese-run project: he convened the local gentry, memorialized for a dedicated bureau, raised merchant and public subscriptions, and levied an annual three-percent surcharge on provincial land tax called "rent shares." Within a few years subscriptions passed ten million taels—the largest fund ever raised for a domestically financed railway in China. In 1904 the court debated tightening control over Tibet; Tibetans grew fearful, and Feng Quan, the assistant commissioner in Lhasa, was murdered. Xi Liang urgently ordered Provincial Commander Ma Weiqi to lead a punitive campaign and directed Jianchang Intendant Zhao Erfeng to follow with reinforcements. Batang was taken, and Xi Liang then ordered Zhao to press on against Litang. Near Litang, Sangpi Monastery built fortifications to resist; Zhao Erfeng invested it for six months, cut off its water supply, and finally stormed it successfully. With Sangpi Monastery subdued, the Tibetan tribes submitted one after another. From Dartsedo westward through Chamdo, Pari, Xiangcheng, Dêgê, and beyond, county administration was extended over several thousand li of newly organized territory; reclamation, mining, schools, and wider instruction followed, and the frontier peoples gradually turned toward civilization.
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In 1907 he was transferred to governor-general of Yunnan and Guizhou. Yunnan's military establishment had long decayed and arms were especially scarce. He raised a modern army, founded a military academy, purchased rifles and artillery, and reorganized the old defense battalions—giving Yunnan its first new-style force. Opium was a major Yunnan crop and its land tax a main revenue source, yet Xi Liang boldly memorialized to ban cultivation outright. Of all provincial anti-opium measures, Yunnan's was the strictest. Along Yunnan's southern border with Vietnam, bandits crossed at Hekou, killed officials, and raided the frontier. He immediately sent columns by separate routes to cut them off; within days the disturbance was ended. Western Yunnan had dozens of native chieftains who grew more arrogant by the day. Pacification Commissioner Diao Anren had visited Japan, where foreigners addressed him as royalty; he was especially haughty and reckless. When he heard proposals to replace native chieftain rule with direct administration, he was ready to stir up trouble. Xi Liang first sent investigators to explain the stakes, and ordered every eligible chieftain to complete succession promptly so as to reassure them. Diao Anren, awed and moved, sent his brother to prostrate himself in tears and pledge repentance, and the frontier remained quiet.
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宣統元年，授欽差大臣，調東三省總督。 東省自日俄戰罷，俄佔北邊，日踞南境，局勢日危。 錫良蒞任，即疏陳：「東三省逼邇京畿，關係大局。 遼東租借之約，十三年即滿期，請朝廷主持，上下一心，以天下全力赴之，以贖回遼東半島為歸，否則枝枝節節為之，恐其不能及也。」 疏入，不省。 錫良又以東三省兩鄰分據，非脩大支干路，不足以貫串脈絡，因擬修錦州至璦琿鐵路。 顧須橫貫南滿、東清，必非日、俄所原，尤非密借強國外款，不能取均勢而策進行。 適美國財團代表遊歷來奉，遂與密訂借款包修草約。 三日議定，電奏請旨速正式簽定，即日、俄再爭，已落後著。 乃部議梗緩，復機事不密，事竟報罷。 及日俄協約，東事益急。 錫良以救亡興政，均非款莫辦，再請商借二千萬兩，以千萬設銀行； 其馀，半以移民興墾，半以開礦築路。 仍不省。 錫良慮東省危急情形，朝廷尚未深悉，乃請入覲面陳。
In 1909 he was appointed imperial commissioner and transferred to governor-general of the Three Eastern Provinces (Manchuria). After the Russo-Japanese War, Russia held the north of Manchuria and Japan the south, and the region grew more precarious by the day. On taking office Xi Liang at once memorialized: "The Three Eastern Provinces lie hard against the capital and bear on the fate of the empire. The Liaodong lease expires in thirteen years. I beg the throne to take the lead, unite court and country, and commit the empire's full strength to recovering the Liaodong peninsula. Otherwise, if we tackle it piecemeal, I fear we shall not finish in time." The memorial went in and received no response. Xi Liang argued that with Russia and Japan dividing the region, only a major trunk line could tie Manchuria together, and proposed a railway from Jinzhou to Aihui. Yet the line would cross southern Manchuria and the Chinese Eastern Railway—something neither Japan nor Russia would welcome—and could advance only by secretly borrowing from a great power to balance their interests. An American syndicate representative happened to be touring Manchuria, and Xi Liang secretly drew up a draft loan-and-construction agreement with him. Terms were settled in three days; he telegraphed Beijing to authorize formal signing at once—otherwise, even if Japan and Russia fought over the line again, China would already be one move behind. Ministerial deliberations dragged, the plan leaked, and the project was finally abandoned. After the Russo-Japanese agreement, the eastern crisis grew still more acute. Xi Liang held that national salvation and reform alike required capital, and again proposed borrowing twenty million taels—ten million for a bank; the rest to be split between colonization and reclamation on one hand and mining and railways on the other. Again the court took no notice. Fearing that the court did not fully grasp Manchuria's peril, Xi Liang asked leave to present the case in person at audience.
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Prince Chun was regent, constitutional government was being prepared, and court debate favored centralization. Xi Liang first memorialized for a real constitution, arguing: "Constitutional government means that high and low alike live under law—we must first uproot selfishness. If we offer a sham constitution while squeezing the people, wealth will fail and loyalty dissolve—and the nine-year timetable may end like Persia's constitutional experiment." He also urged an end to sending grandees abroad on ceremonial inspection tours that foreigners mocked, and instead to choose princes for serious study overseas. He memorialized again against centralization: "The court delegates power to governors just as governors delegate to prefects and magistrates—without the latter, no governor can run a province. If a handful of ministry officials must govern all twenty-two provinces, frontier governors become ornaments, morale collapses, and army and people fall apart. In an emergency the center cannot see or hear, and the provinces cannot act—the harm would be grave." None of these memorials was answered. When he reached the capital and spoke to the regent in person, his words were especially blunt—and still went unheeded. He asked to resign and was again refused.
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Korea had just been annexed by Japan. Seeing the crisis tighten, Xi Liang sought to strengthen popular loyalty by strengthening popular resources: under the pretext of bandit suppression he set up rural pacification bureaus and trained reserve constables by military drill—in effect a militia. Alarmed by the danger, the people of Fengtian rushed to enlist; within a year he had tens of thousands, and the province was effectively armed. Soon a plague broke out on the Russian border and spread along the Chinese Eastern Railway; in less than ten days it covered Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Russia and Japan both sought to intervene, but Xi Liang insisted that epidemic control was purely a domestic matter, imposed strict measures, and extinguished the outbreak in three months. Physicians from eleven countries came to Fengtian to study the outbreak; Xi Liang chaired an international plague conference at the provincial government, winning widespread praise.
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As governor of the East, Xi Liang tightened civil administration and military discipline, cleaned up finances, reformed the salt monopoly, and addressed Banner livelihood—with notable results. Yet he watched internal troubles and foreign threats worsen daily; most of his plans for the northeast had failed, court politics decayed, and popular loyalty ebbed with nothing he could do to stop it—so he repeatedly pleaded illness to resign. In 1911 he was finally allowed to leave office for medical leave.
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When the Wuchang revolt broke out he was summoned to court, which had planned to send him to command in Shanxi and Shaanxi and also to lead a separate force to defend the capital. Enemies slandered him, however, and he was reassigned instead as Rehe Military Lieutenant-Governor (dutong), which he took up despite grave illness. After the abdication edict he pleaded that his illness was beyond bearing and was permitted to retire. He remained bedridden for six years, refusing medicine to the end, and died at sixty-six; his posthumous title was Wencheng (Cultivated Sincerity).
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Xi Liang was upright and unyielding; from his first magistracy he stood on his own without patrons. He hated corruption fiercely; wherever he served he impeached incompetent officials without mercy; he would not accept a single cash of ill-gotten money; and he never offered gifts to the powerful—so, it was said, they constantly obstructed him.
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周馥，字玉山，安徽建德人。 初侍李鴻章司文牘，累保道員。 光緒三年，署永定河道。 初，天津頻患水，馥迭治津沽入海金鐘河、北運筐港減河及通州潮白河，設文武汛官資防守。 並言天津為九河故道，不洩則水患莫瘳，請就上游闢減河而開屯田，南運下游分水勢。 部議格不行。 後提督周盛傳開興濟減河，屯田小站，實本馥議。 丁艱，服除，署津海關道。 朝鮮初通商，馥與美提督薛裴爾議草商約保衛之，首稱朝鮮為中國屬邦，固以防侵奪也，而樞府削之。 馥私歎曰：「分義不著，禍始此矣！」 九年，兼署天津兵備道，俄真除津海關道。 中法事起，鴻章命赴海口編民舶立團防。 鴻章之督畿輔也，先後垂三十年，創立海軍，自東三省、山東諸要塞皆屬焉。 用西法制造械器，輪電路礦，萬端並舉，尤加意海陸軍學校。 北洋新政，稱盛一時，馥贊畫為多。 醇親王校閱海軍，嘉其勞，擢按察使。 再署布政使。 築永定河北岸石堤衛京師，盧溝南減水石壩工尤鉅，自是河不溢。
Zhou Fu, whose courtesy name was Yushan, came from Jiande in Anhui. He began as a secretary to Li Hongzhang and rose by successive promotion to circuit intendant. In 1877 he served as acting director of the Yongding River conservancy. Tianjin had long suffered floods; Zhou Fu repeatedly worked on the Jinzong outlet to the sea, the Kuanggang diversion on the Grand Canal, and the Chaobai River at Tongzhou, posting civil and military flood-control officers along them. He argued that Tianjin lay in the old channel of the Nine Rivers and could not be relieved unless excess water was diverted upstream through new canals, with garrison farms opened and the Grand Canal current split downstream. The Board rejected the plan. Later Provincial Commander Zhou Shengchuan opened the Xingji diversion and garrison farms at Xiaozhan—implementing Zhou Fu's proposal. After mourning his father he served as acting intendant of the Tianjin Maritime Customs. When Korea first opened to trade, Zhou Fu drafted a commercial treaty with American Commodore Shufeldt that explicitly called Korea a Chinese dependency—a safeguard against foreign seizure—but the Grand Council struck that clause. Zhou Fu sighed in private: "When rights and obligations are left unclear, calamity starts here!" In 1883 he also served as acting Tianjin military preparedness intendant, and soon received a regular appointment as Tianjin customs intendant. When the Sino-French War broke out, Li Hongzhang sent him to Haikou to organize merchant shipping into local defense corps. Li Hongzhang governed the metropolitan region for nearly thirty years, founded the navy, and brought fortresses from Manchuria and Shandong under its command. He introduced Western arms manufacture, steam, telegraph, railways, and mining on a broad scale, and paid special attention to naval and military academies. The Beiyang reforms were celebrated as a golden age, and Zhou Fu had a hand in much of the planning. When Prince Chun inspected the navy he commended Zhou Fu's work and promoted him to provincial judicial commissioner. He served again as acting provincial treasurer. He built a stone dike on the north bank of the Yongding to protect the capital, including a massive flood-reduction dam south of Lugou Bridge, and the river ceased to overflow.
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When war broke out with Japan, Zhou Fu ran the forward camp supply office, traveling between Andong, Liaoyang, and Motianling to support the generals, regroup stragglers, and keep provisions flowing. After peace was signed he resigned and went home. Li Hongzhang recommended him, and he was appointed provincial treasurer of Sichuan. On taking office he graded officials' performance, expanded silver coinage, and built up grain reserves. Fearing missionary disputes, he drafted instructions on keeping peace between converts and the general population and sent them to every prefecture and county. Soon the Boxer rising brought the allied powers inland; Li Hongzhang became peace negotiator and governor of Zhili, and Zhou Fu was transferred as Zhili provincial treasurer. He first accompanied Li Hongzhang to Beijing to settle missionary cases in the capital region; after several months he went to Baoding to take up the treasurer's seal. French troops had earlier reached Baoding, killed former Provincial Treasurer Ting Yong, and occupied the provincial yamen. When they learned Zhou Fu was coming, they lined up to welcome him outside the city and escorted him into the yamen. After watching his administration for some time without complaint, they gradually withdrew. After Li Hongzhang's death he served as acting governor of Zhili.
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He was soon promoted governor of Shandong but ordered retained to negotiate the Tianjin–Luanzhou railway question. Although peace had been signed, foreign troops still held Tianjin and the Tianjin–Luanzhou railway under an allied council that ran local civil affairs, and repeated negotiations had failed. Zhou Fu settled the deadlock with a few words. As governor of Shandong, when the Yellow River burst at Lijin near Bozhuang, he proposed relocating residents and leaving the breach open so the river could run straight to the sea. He set up telegraph stations along the river and stockpiled stone for repairs; for more than ten years the river caused no major disaster. Germany held Jiaozhou Bay, built a railway to the provincial capital, and seized mines along the route. He memorialized to open treaty ports at Jinan and Zhoucun as a counterweight; the Germans lost heart, withdrew troops from the Jiaoji line, and returned five mines.
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Entrusted with a frontier post, Zhou Fu sought larger achievements, launching programs to enrich the people's wealth and enlighten their understanding in turn. The emperor commended him, appointed him acting governor-general of the Two Jiangs, then transferred him to govern the Two Guangs. In 1907 he asked to retire. Fourteen years later he died; his posthumous title was Queshen (Respectful Caution). Communities in Zhili, Shandong, and the lower Yangzi region all erected shrines in his honor.
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Lu Yuanding, whose courtesy name was Chunjiang, came from Renhe in Zhejiang. A metropolitan graduate of 1874, he was appointed directly as county magistrate, first assigned to Shanxi and then transferred to Jiangsu. In 1876 he served as acting magistrate of Shanyang. A local bully colluded with yamen clerks to kidnap people for sale; whenever officers came to arrest him he escaped first. At dawn Lu Yuanding set out with a grand procession as if to pay a formal visit, then suddenly turned into a private house, broke in, seized the bully, and freed dozens of kidnapped women; cheers erupted like thunder. He was appointed to Jiangning but left office to mourn. After mourning he resumed his former rank and was transferred to Shanghai. A Frenchman beat Shen Zhaolong to death; the fatal wound was concealed, and the French consul denied murder. Lu Yuanding said: "When a watch falls, the mainspring can break inside while the dial looks intact—how is this case different?" The consul had no reply. When a church was burned at Rugao, Lu Yuanding was ordered to investigate; missionaries threatened war if negotiations failed. Lu Yuanding replied: "Warships cannot reach Rugao." He was unmoved. After more than ten days of negotiation, indemnity was fixed at four thousand taels with no further demands. More than ten churches were burned north and south of the Yangzi; each case was settled on the Rugao model.
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He was transferred to serve as prefect of Taizhou. The city moat had long silted up; in a drought year the people lacked water. Lu Yuanding dredged it and relocated market stalls along the bank, showing no favor even to wealthy households. The Xiefenggang dike ran sixty li through Taizhou; in Dongtai the embankment was so low that floodwaters could not be held back. Lu Yuanding raised it to ten zhang high and proportionally wide, with the base twice as broad. When the work was done, the judicial commissioner ordered Dongtai to link its dike to Taizhou's; Lu Yuanding helped build another eleven li, and both districts were thereafter free of flooding. He was soon transferred to Shangyuan and, by precedent, became a candidate for circuit intendant.
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Governor-General Liu Kunyi recommended Lu Yuanding for higher office; in 1895 he was appointed intendant of the Huizhou-Chaozhou-Jiaying Circuit, then grain intendant of Jiangsu, and promoted to judicial commissioner. At audience with the emperor he was addressed warmly for a long time. The conversation turned to the recent war with Japan: many army rifles and ammunition were mismatched in caliber, which was one reason for defeat. The emperor told the Grand Council to warn governors to inspect their armies honestly, adding: "Do not let them think this came from Lu Yuanding and breed resentment." When a church was burned at Jiangyin, county officials arrested the ringleaders and sent them to the judicial commissioner. The Shanghai consul claimed the wrong men had been arrested; the minister in Beijing pressed the Zongli Yamen to let the consul join the trial. Lu Yuanding replied: "Joint trials have designated officers; a judicial commissioner's yamen is not the place for them." The consul said: "If there is no joint trial, I must at least see the verdict." Lu Yuanding refused. The consul asked: "What about orders from the Zongli Yamen?" Lu Yuanding answered: "Uphold the laws of the realm. An official may resign; the law cannot be bent!" The consul withdrew in annoyance. Grand Council members praised him, saying: "Otherwise we would have yielded as usual." He soon served as acting treasurer and acting governor.
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In 1903 he was appointed director-general of grain transport, then transferred as governor of Hunan. He was on leave when bandits rose in Guangxi and threatened Hunan, while Guizhou rebels pressed Jingzhou. Lu Yuanding took office despite illness, organized border defense, and with Governor-General Zhang Zhidong memorialized that sealing the border was less effective than helping suppress rebels across it. He raised local militia, sent Provincial Commander Liu Guangcai to guard the western front, and sent Hengyong Intendant Zhuang Gengliang into Guizhou with Intendant Huang Zhonghao to assist. Zhuang Gengliang captured Longguan Cave, and Huang Zhonghao routed fierce rebels at Tongle. He also sent Provincial Commander Zhang Qingyun to help suppress the Forty-Eight Dong in Guangxi. As order returned, the court transferred Yunnan Treasurer Liu Chunlin to Hunan with his Yunnan troops to reinforce the province. Lu Yuanding warned that the Yunnan troops were unreliable; soon afterward the rear battalion mutinied as he had predicted. A Liling secret-society plot to rebel was exposed; the conspirators confessed to revolutionary aims and implicated students in Japan. Lu Yuanding executed two, imprisoned one, and implicated no one else; public order was quickly restored.
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When debate over conscription arose, Lu Yuanding had already been transferred as governor of Jiangsu. He memorialized: "Southerners are not hardy; conscripts from the south are mostly idle townsmen unfit for soldiering. Recruits should be drawn from Huai and Xu prefectures north of the Yangzi, not limited by province." The Board rejected the proposal. Desertions followed, just as Lu Yuanding had warned. In 1903, at the metropolitan personnel review, his post was declared vacant and another official appointed. The following year he was summoned to Beijing. Speaking of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang dispute over the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway, he insisted that local gentry and people were loyal patriots without hidden motives, and the emperor was moved. He was appointed a third-rank capital official on probation to assist the Political Consultative Council. He soon asked to retire. He died at home in 1910.
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Zhang Cengyang, whose courtesy name was Xiaofan, came from Nanpi in Zhili. A metropolitan graduate of 1868, he left the Hanlin Academy to serve as prefect of Yongshun in Hunan. The prefecture lay in the Miao frontier and was considered difficult to govern. He spent his own money to raise militia against bandits and punished every offender by law; and impeached the most corrupt officials. Transferred to Zhaoqing in Guangdong, he won the people's affection, and his superiors repeatedly recommended him. In 1894 he was appointed intendant of Fujian salt administration. Fujian salt prices soared and smuggling flourished. He imposed strict regulations, memorialized to abolish surcharges to aid merchants, and still collected full regular revenue. Promoted to judicial commissioner, he resigned a year later on grounds of illness. Three years later he was recalled, impressed the court in audience, and was praised by the Empress Dowager for clarity and prudence. The same day he was named judicial commissioner of Sichuan, but before taking office was transferred to provincial treasurer of Fujian. Transferred to Guangxi, an already poor province further burdened with its share of the Boxer indemnity, finances were stretched even thinner. Zhang revised levy regulations, enforced strict audits, cut waste, dismissed nonessential officials, and kept the budget balanced.
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In 1903 he was appointed governor of Shanxi. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Japanese troops occupied southern Liaodong. Zhang proposed: "Open key points as treaty ports, conclude a secret mutual-defense alliance with Japan, and declare that internal administration would not be interfered with. The concern was that Russia, defeated by Japan, would seek compensation from China; Ili lay near the frontier and was drifting out of control, so funds and troops should be raised at once as a precaution; and construction of the Kulun–Zhangjiakou railway could be delayed to frustrate Russian designs." The argument was concise and forceful. When horse bandits led by Liu Tianyou raided the Rear Banner, Zhang mobilized troops and suppressed them.
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In 1905 he was transferred as governor of Zhejiang. Western Zhejiang was rife with salt smuggling; commanding general Wu Jiayu of Jiahu colluded with smugglers, and Battalion Commander Fan Ronghua was especially lawless. Zhang took the convenient route to take office; when advisers urged an armed escort, he said: "That would provoke rebellion!" He rode alone to Jiaxing, summoned Wu Jiayu, and warned him of the consequences; Wu did not dare move. Zhang then ordered another officer to take command of Wu's troops, detained Wu east of Ningbo, punished Fan Ronghua and others, and the smugglers gradually subsided. Negotiations over the Zhejiang railway dragged on; the draft treaty had expired, yet the British consul still insisted on it. Zhang contested the case on treaty grounds, and the matter was settled.
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In 1907 Law Minister Shen Jiaben's experimental civil procedure code was issued. Zhang argued: "In China ritual teaching outweighs statute; honoring parents is enshrined in the Book of Rites. Han Confucian commentators on the Analects likewise held that moral constants must be upheld—this is true in every province, and Zhejiang cannot be an exception. Smugglers haunted western Zhejiang while banditry quietly spread in the east. A troubled country needs severe laws and even then may not prevail—how can sudden leniency restore order? Other provinces might manage this, but Zhejiang could not." He then rebutted the code article by article.
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That year the Qiu Jin affair broke out. Qiu Jin was a Zhejiang woman revolutionary who had studied in Japan, returned to teach at Shaoxing's Datong School, and plotted rebellion in secret. Zhang sent troops to arrest her at the school, found incriminating evidence, and sentenced her to death; revolutionaries protested loudly. He was transferred to Jiangsu, then soon to Shanxi, and retired citing illness. He lived in retirement for fourteen years and died at seventy-nine.
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Yang Shixiang, whose courtesy name was Lianfu, came from Sizhou in Anhui. A metropolitan graduate of 1886, he entered the Hanlin Academy and was appointed compiler. Promoted to circuit intendant, he served on the Tongyong Circuit in Zhili, became judicial commissioner, provincial treasurer of Jiangxi, and returned to Zhili. In 1905 he served as acting governor of Shandong. The river ran more than a thousand li through Shandong; the channel had silted up while the dikes were thin, and annual breaches were a major disaster. Yang believed annual breaches persisted because river officials profited from repair projects and used them to win promotion. He instituted rules: in a calm year officials could claim merit and troops received standard pay; if the river breached, officials were severely punished, could not remain on the works to redeem themselves, and officers and soldiers faced capital punishment. He inspected the dikes in person and enforced strict rewards and punishments; for several years thereafter Shandong had no major flood. Caozhou was bandit-ridden; he applied rural pacification measures and pressed arrests vigorously. German troops violated their agreement and camped at Jiaozhou and Gaomi without withdrawing. Banditry eased within months; when the powers withdrew troops from Beijing and Tianjin, Yang negotiated with German officers and secured the full withdrawal of German forces along the railway.
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In 1907 he succeeded Yuan Shikai as governor-general of Zhili. Yuan had prioritized army training and fundraising, launched many reforms, and built authority, making the Beiyang governor-general the focus of domestic and foreign attention. Yang followed him, maintained all his policies, and though finances grew exhausted and hard to sustain, he handled affairs with apparent ease and won contemporary praise. The following year he had an audience with the throne. When repair of the Yongding River was debated, Yang inspected the works and memorialized: "The river's ailments are twofold: the lower outlet is elevated and blocked, preventing discharge; and the flood-reduction dams have fallen into disrepair, leaving no channel for overflow." Below Lugou Bridge the old flood-reduction dams had silted shut; they should be rebuilt and diversion canals dredged, and he requested more than 460,000 taels from the treasury. The throne ordered the Board to deliberate.
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In 1909, when Emperor Guangxu's coffin was moved to the Western Tombs, an edict forbade levying the costs on the people. Yang resolved to reform abuses of a century and memorialized: "At the founding of the dynasty, the many surcharges of the late Ming had exhausted the people, and repeated edicts forbade cumulative exactions. The capital region remained complex and costly, so land tax stayed lighter than in other provinces, yet annual labor levies exceeded the grain tax in silver. With successive new policies, school and police costs and more were all levied on the people, and payment grew harder by the day. He proposed that officials and gentry audit annual public corvée, fix the amounts truly needed for public use, pay a cash commutation to prefectures and counties to handle themselves, and forbid reckless surcharges; with yamen runners and clerks paid official allowances. Thus long-standing abuses might be cleared and both government and people would benefit." The memorial was answered with a commendatory edict. He died in the fifth month and was posthumously made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent with the title Wenjing (Cultivated Respect).
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Feng Xu, whose courtesy name was Menghua, came from Jintan in Jiangsu. In 1886 he placed among the top three metropolitan graduates of the first class and was appointed Hanlin compiler. He repeatedly memorialized for national self-strengthening, sound fundamentals, and practical government; Emperor Guangxu approved. As chief examiner of the Hunan provincial examinations, he was praised for selecting able candidates. In 1895, rated first class in the metropolitan personnel review, he was appointed prefect of Fengyang in Anhui. Fengyang suffered floods year after year; Feng rode alone through the district, inspected each area, and scaled relief to the severity of damage so that people received real help. He also repeatedly overturned wrongful convictions in doubtful cases. Governor-General Liu Kunyi recommended him for devoted public service and twice had him act as intendant of the Fengying-Liusi Circuit. In 1901 he was transferred to judicial commissioner of Shanxi, then to Sichuan. At Guang'an Prefecture a crowd plotted to destroy a school; four were arrested and the provincial government proposed executing them under the bandit law. Feng appealed to the provincial government for trial before execution, staking his office on the point, even removing his cap and pounding the desk until his request was granted. He soon served as acting provincial treasurer, returned to Anhui, and also acted as education commissioner.
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In 1907 he was promoted governor. National affairs were deteriorating daily, and revolutionaries at home and abroad openly preached revolution. Governor En Ming was assassinated, and the public was shaken. Feng succeeded him, acted calmly, tried the case without implicating others, urged leniency toward followers, and gradually restored public confidence. He memorialized again: "Party strife has become acute and the people's livelihood is desperate. Ministers at court and abroad neither accept blame nor unite to strengthen the state; they paper over problems, cling to routine, and seek a day's peace while the empire grows more perilous by the day. Salvation lies first in matching names to realities and enforcing clear rewards and punishments—and above all in the principle that the people are the foundation of the state. Employ without hesitation ministers who honor the throne and protect the people; and punish without mercy those who harm the state and injure the people. If the government can make the realm govern itself, no one can throw it into chaos; if it can make the realm secure as a whole, no one can endanger it. The fundamental policy truly rests on this." The memorial angered many powerful courtiers. The following year he was dismissed.
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宣統二年，江、皖大水，復起為查賑大臣，出入災區，規定辦法，施及豫東，未一年，凡賑三十九州縣，放款至三百馀萬。 後復立義賑會。 連年水旱，兼有兵災，遠而推至京、直、魯、豫、湘、浙，無歲不災，無災不賑，蓋自蒞官訖致仕，逮於耄老，與荒政相終始，眾稱善人。 聞國變，痛哭失聲。 越十有五年，卒，年八十五。
In 1910, after great floods in Jiangsu and Anhui, he was again appointed relief commissioner, traveled through the disaster areas, set procedures, and extended aid into eastern Henan; within a year he relieved thirty-nine prefectures and counties and disbursed more than three million taels in loans. He later founded a charitable relief society as well. Floods, droughts, and wars followed one another from the capital through Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Hunan, and Zhejiang; scarcely a year passed without disaster or relief work. From his first office to retirement and old age, famine relief was the thread of his career, and he was widely called a good man. When he heard of the dynastic collapse, he wept until he could not speak. Fifteen years later he died at eighty-five.
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The historian comments: Early in the Guangxu reign governors held great power; by its end the court centralized authority and multiplied regulations to restrain them—administration was beyond repair. Xi Liang was upright and bore heavy responsibilities, pacifying internal troubles and resisting foreign pressure, with notable achievements. Zhou Fu was experienced, Yang Shixiang tactful, Lu Yuanding handled foreign affairs, and Zhang Cengyang debated law—all upheld integrity. Feng excelled at famine relief throughout his career. "The people are the foundation of the state"—well said indeed! Xi Liang had early warned against centralization, yet the Grand Council obstructed him in turn. When crisis came, events unfolded just as he had warned, and the world especially admired his foresight.