1
=李朝儀=李朝儀，字藻舟，貴州貴築人。 道光二年進士，授直隸平谷縣，歷署饒陽、三河。 咸豐初，遷大興京縣，署南路同知，補東路同知，皆有治聲。 時海防戒嚴，築寧河、北塘、大沽諸砲台，工堅費核，平餘銀鉅萬，悉以入官，晉秩知府。 十年，署順德。 捻匪北竄，朝儀率鄉勇出禦，嚴陣以待，砲折大旗，迄不動。 益使遊騎左右馳突為疑兵，賊來則擊之，退則寂守，久之，賊引去。 同治四年，署廣平，敗賊馬甿橋，悉收難民入城，料賊必復至，儲糧械為城守備。 已而賊眾數万果逼城，不敢犯，城獲全。 五年，補大名。 馬學孟者，故捻黨也，善戰，有勇力。 既投誠，充團總，濬、滑、內黃數縣民多附之，其黨有殺人者，遠近因傳學孟叛矣。 朝儀馳入其居，曉譬利害，學孟悟而泣，原繳械請罪，遂夷其寨，赦勿問。 後朝儀與賊戰，得學孟死力，故不敗。
Li Chaoyi, whose courtesy name was Zaozhou, came from Guizhu in Guizhou. He passed the jinshi examination in the second year of the Daoguang reign and was posted as magistrate of Pinggu in Zhili, later serving in acting charge of Raoyang and Sanhe. Early in the Xianfeng era he was moved to Daxing Jing County, acted as subprefect of the Southern Circuit, and then took the Eastern Circuit post permanently, winning praise for sound administration in every assignment. While coastal defenses were on high alert, he oversaw batteries at Ninghe, Beitang, Dagu, and other sites. The fortifications were sturdily built and costs tightly checked; a surplus of many tens of thousands of taels he handed over in full to the treasury, and he was promoted to prefect. In the tenth year of the reign he acted as magistrate of Shunde. When Nian rebels drove north, Chaoyi led local militia to meet them. He held his men in tight formation; though artillery shattered the main banner, the line never broke. He also sent mounted scouts to wheel about on both flanks as a feint: strike when the enemy advanced, hold quietly when they fell back. In time the rebels withdrew. In the fourth year of Tongzhi he acted at Guangping, routed the enemy at Ma'eng Bridge, brought every refugee inside the walls, and—expecting another attack—stockpiled grain and arms for a siege. Soon tens of thousands of rebels did surround the city, but they dared not assault it, and the town was saved. In the fifth year he received a permanent appointment as magistrate of Daming. Ma Xuemeng had once been a Nian rebel—an able fighter, bold and strong. After he surrendered he became a militia captain, and many people in Jun, Hua, Neihuang, and neighboring counties rallied to him. Some of his men committed murder, and rumor soon spread that Xuemeng had turned rebel again. Chaoyi rode straight to his home and reasoned with him about the stakes. Xuemeng broke down in tears, offered to turn in his arms and accept punishment; Chaoyi dismantled the stronghold and granted a full pardon. Later, in battles with the rebels, Chaoyi had Xuemeng's unstinting service—and so never lost.
2
八年，授永定河道，署按察使。 先後任河道八年，勤於職守，痛革河工積弊，課兵種柳，資工用焉。 遷山東鹽運使，尋擢順天府尹。 京畿靡薄，朝儀廉勤率之，捕劇盜，抑豪強，絕請託，期年風習一變。 光緒七年，卒官。 朝儀治河績尤著，民立祠固安祀之。
In the eighth year he was named commissioner of the Yongding River and acted as provincial judge. He held river office for eight years in all, worked tirelessly, and rooted out entrenched corruption in hydraulic projects. He had troops plant willows to supply materials for the works. He was moved to Shandong salt commissioner, then soon elevated to Intendant of Shuntian. The capital district had grown lax; Chaoyi led by example with integrity and industry, arrested notorious bandits, checked the mighty, and refused every favor—within a year the whole tone of the region had shifted. He died in office in the seventh year of Guangxu. His record on the rivers was especially distinguished; the people raised a shrine at Gu'an in his honor.
3
=段起=段起，字小湖，湖南清泉人。 初入貲助餉，敘道員。 咸豐初，佐廣西左江道王普相幕，數陳兵事。 普相薦諸巡撫勞崇光，俾將百人，從解全州圍。 別寇鄧正高乘虛襲永州，窺衡州，起單騎馳諭降其眾。 貴州叛苗犯懷遠，起討平之。 奉檄率所部援江西，謁曾國籓於軍中，國籓未之奇也。 時賊踞建昌，久不下。 起夜率四百人撲其壘，克之，乘勝复德安，國籓乃納其軍。 七年，從劉騰鴻、李續宜攻瑞州，騰鴻戰死，起亦被重創，卒克之。 八年，援浙，解衢州圍，還攻景德、浮梁，並克之。 明年，陳玉成犯景德，起扼其衝，賊不得逞。 出家財募勇，遣別將率以援浙，數有功。 巡撫王有齡疏調起赴浙將水陸軍，會以前功加鹽運使銜，留江西以道員補用。 十一年，李秀成犯廣豐，遂圍廣信。 起嬰城固守，伺間出擊賊，敗之，賊遂引去，加布政使銜。 同治元年，授江西督糧道，仍留治軍。 二年，克鄱陽、彭澤，給瑚松額巴圖魯名號。
Duan Qi, courtesy name Xiaohu, was from Qingquan in Hunan. He first gained rank as a circuit intendant by donating funds for army provisions. Early in Xianfeng he joined the staff of Wang Puxiang, the Left River intendant of Guangxi, and often submitted plans for the campaigns. Puxiang recommended him to Governor La Chongguang, who gave him command of a hundred men to help lift the siege of Quanzhou. Another rebel leader, Deng Zhenggao, struck at Yongzhou and menaced Hengzhou. Qi rode in alone and talked his followers into surrender. When Guizhou Miao rebels attacked Huaiyuan, Qi marched against them and restored order. Ordered to Jiangxi with his troops, he presented himself to Zeng Guofan in camp—but Zeng was not impressed. Rebels held Jianchang, and the city had long resisted capture. Qi led four hundred men in a night assault on their camp, took it, and pressed on to recover De'an. Only then did Zeng take his force into his own command. In the seventh year he joined Liu Tenghong and Li Xuyi in the assault on Ruizhou. Tenghong fell in battle and Qi was badly wounded, but the city was taken in the end. In the eighth year he went to aid Zhejiang, broke the siege of Quzhou, then turned back to take Jingde and Fuliang. The following year, when Chen Yucheng struck at Jingde, Qi held the choke point and the rebels could not break through. He spent his own money to raise troops and sent a subordinate with them to Zhejiang, where they won repeated victories. Governor Wang Youling asked that Qi be sent to Zhejiang to command combined land and river forces. For his earlier service he received the salt-commissioner rank, but he remained in Jiangxi as a circuit intendant. In the eleventh year Li Xiucheng attacked Guangfeng and then laid siege to Guangxin. Qi defended the walled city stubbornly, sallied when he saw an opening, routed the enemy, and the rebels withdrew. He was awarded the provincial treasurer rank. In the first year of Tongzhi he was named Jiangxi grain commissioner while continuing to command troops. In the second year he captured Poyang and Pengze and received the Baturu title Hüsonggo.
4
三年，始赴任。 時軍事漸定，議撤兵。 起條上兵弁安置之策，巡撫沈葆楨疏請頒行，武職借補及收標考課，著為令。 四年，鮑超軍索餉譁潰，起聞變馳視，遇前隊，傷頤，有識者大呼曰：「段糧道也！」 皆棄兵拜，起反覆開譬，變乃定。 尋兼署按察使。 江西、閩、浙之交，有山綿亙千里，故為盜藪，久封禁。 賊未平時，民往往入山避亂，久之生息日繁。 至是或頗言粵寇餘孽窟穴其中，詔三省會剿，起疑之，輕騎週曆詢訪，悉其狀，牒大吏疏請弛禁，民德之，立生祠祀焉。 六年，以疾歸。 邑大饑，傾貲賑贍，全活逾萬家。 光緒二年，再授江西督糧道，調江南徐州道。 六年，兩廣總督張樹聲調治海防，擢廣東鹽運使。 八年，卒於官。
Only in the third year did he take up the civil post in person. The fighting was winding down, and officials debated demobilization. Qi drew up a detailed plan for placing officers and soldiers after demobilization. Governor Shen Baozhen memorialized for its adoption, and rules on provisional military appointments, mustering, and examinations were codified. In the fourth year Bao Chao's troops mutinied over unpaid wages. Qi rode to the scene at once, ran into the vanguard, and was struck in the face. Someone who knew him cried out, 'It is Commissioner Duan of the grain bureau!' The men dropped their weapons and bowed. Qi reasoned with them at length until the riot subsided. He soon acted concurrently as provincial judge. Where Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang meet, mountains run for a thousand li—a former bandit refuge that had long been closed to settlement. While rebellion still raged, refugees had often fled into those hills; in time their numbers grew. Now some claimed Taiping remnants were hiding there, and the throne ordered a joint campaign by three provinces. Qi was skeptical; he toured the region on horseback, learned the truth, and petitioned to reopen the mountains. Grateful settlers raised a shrine to him while he still lived. In the sixth year he went home ill. When famine struck his home district, he spent his fortune on relief and saved more than ten thousand households. In the second year of Guangxu he was again named Jiangxi grain commissioner, then transferred to the Xuzhou circuit in Jiangnan. In the sixth year Zhang Shusheng, governor-general of Liangguang, put him in charge of coastal defense and promoted him to Guangdong salt commissioner. He died in office in the eighth year.
5
=丁壽昌=丁壽昌，字樂山，安徽合肥人。 少為裡塾師，粵寇擾淮南，遂集里中子弟勒以兵法，築寨自保。 同治初，率偏師從李鴻章東征，轉戰蘇、松間，由知縣晉秩知府。 隨潘鼎新攻浙江，克乍浦，攝乍浦同知。 又隨克嘉興，晉道員。 進攻湖州，戰於晟舍鎮，賊憑河為險。 壽昌鳧水破其兩壘，諸軍隨擊，立克之，湖州賊遂不振。 論功，加按察使銜。 六年，率師從劉銘傳剿捻，迭敗之黃安、鄧州。 賊南竄沭陽，霖雨，平地水數尺，捻酋任化邦竄渡沭水而西。 壽昌先解衣率將士徒涉，伐木為梁濟軍，既濟，乃斷梁。 眾知無退路，奮擊破賊，追斬化邦贛榆城下。 詔以道員簡放，加布政使銜。 又戰濰縣，擒捻酋李芸等，給西林巴圖魯勇號，記名按察使。
Ding Shouchang, courtesy name Leshan, was from Hefei in Anhui. As a young man he taught in a village school. When the Taiping rebellion swept Huainan, he gathered local youths, trained them in tactics, and built a fortified camp for their defense. Early in Tongzhi he led a detachment under Li Hongzhang's eastern campaigns, fighting across Suzhou and Songjiang, and rose from magistrate to prefect. With Pan Dingxin he campaigned in Zhejiang, captured Zhapu, and served as acting subprefect there. He then helped take Jiaxing and was promoted to circuit intendant. In the advance on Huzhou they fought at Shenshe, where the rebels used the river as their defense. Shouchang swam the river and stormed two enemy forts; the main force followed and carried the day, and the rebels at Huzhou never recovered. For his service he received the provincial judge rank. In the sixth year he campaigned with Liu Mingchuan against the Nian, defeating them repeatedly at Huang'an and Dengzhou. The rebels fled south toward Shuyang. Heavy rains left several feet of water on the plain, and Nian chief Ren Huabang slipped across the Shu River to the west. Shouchang stripped and waded across first with his men, then felled trees for a bridge to bring the army over—and cut the bridge behind them once they had crossed. With no way back, the men fought desperately, routed the enemy, and ran down Ren Huabang beneath the walls of Ganyu. He was appointed a regular circuit intendant by imperial order and given the provincial treasurer rank. At Weixian he captured Nian leaders including Li Yun, received the Baturu title Xilin, and was placed on the register for provincial judge.
6
八年，天津民、教構釁，命壽昌率銘軍四千馳赴津、沽備非常。 遂署天津道，尋實授。 時人情洶懼，譌言繁興。 壽昌處以鎮靜，扶良詰姦，屬境安堵。 救火會董積憤西教，適大火，相約不救教堂。 壽昌聞警奔赴，略無畛域。 會董感其誠，乃施救。 梁家園河堤將圮，壽昌親執畚立水中，眾益奮築，堤獲全。 設廠以賑流民，廬灶籓溷悉有程式。 會遭父喪，士民奔走籥留者萬人，堅請終制。 服除，詔赴天津總理營務，兼充海防翼長。 光緒四年，署津海關道，擢按察使，署布政使，以勤慎稱。 六年，卒官。 賜卹，贈太常卿，於天津建立專祠。
In the eighth year the Tianjin massacre inflamed tensions; Shouchang was ordered to rush four thousand Ming-brigade troops to Tianjin and the coast against any emergency. He acted as Tianjin circuit intendant and soon received the post in full. Panic ran high and rumors multiplied. Shouchang kept his composure, protected the law-abiding and pursued wrongdoers, and the district grew calm. The fire-company leaders nursed a grudge against Western missionaries. When a major blaze broke out, they agreed among themselves not to fight the church fire. Hearing the alarm, Shouchang raced to the scene and showed no partiality whatsoever. Moved by his sincerity, the fire-company leaders joined the rescue after all. When the Liangjiayuan dike began to give way, Shouchang took a basket himself and stood in the water; the workers redoubled their efforts and the embankment held. He set up relief camps for refugees, with fixed standards for shelters, kitchens, and sanitation. When his father died, ten thousand townspeople begged him to stay and complete mourning there rather than leave office. After mourning he was ordered to Tianjin to oversee military camps and to serve concurrently as deputy chief of coastal defense. In the fourth year of Guangxu he acted as Jinghai customs intendant, was promoted to provincial judge, and served as acting provincial treasurer, earning a name for diligence and care. He died in office in the sixth year. The court granted condolence gifts, posthumously made him Grand Master of the Imperial Clan, and ordered a private shrine built for him at Tianjin.
7
=曾紀鳳=曾紀鳳，字摯民，湖南邵陽人。 以諸生從軍，洊保知縣。 駱秉章督四川，調領湘果後營。 同治元年，石達開竄踞敘州雙龍場，分軍陷高縣。 紀鳳從按察使劉岳昭赴援，戰城下，克之。 又迭敗之吊黃樓、羅家坳，涉水先驅奪賊壘。 達開連營三十，與橫江為犄角。 紀鳳毀橫江西岸賊巢，遂薄雙龍場。 計招賊黨為內應，而潛軍襲其後。 達開奔燕子灘，邀於橫河，半渡，擊之，遂竄滇境。 三年，從克正安，進圍綏陽，屢戰有功，晉知府。 尋調廣東，又調貴州，並任軍事。 十年，與總兵鄧千勝克麻哈，擒楊阿保，晉道員。
Ceng Jifeng, courtesy name Zhimin, was from Shaoyang in Hunan. A licentiate who took up arms, he was repeatedly recommended for magistrate rank. When Luo Bingzhang was governor of Sichuan, Jifeng was assigned to lead the rear battalion of the Hunan army. In the first year of Tongzhi, Shi Dakai seized Shuanglongchang in Xuzhou and sent columns to take Gaoxian. Jifeng marched with Provincial Judge Liu Yuezhao to relieve the city, fought beneath the walls, and recovered it. He won further victories at Diaohuanglou and Luojia'ao, wading rivers at the head of the column to storm rebel camps. Dakai held thirty linked camps, using the Heng River as a defensive angle. Jifeng destroyed rebel bases on the west bank of the Heng, then closed on Shuanglongchang. He won over enemy collaborators inside the camp while sending troops in a stealth attack from the rear. Dakai fled toward Yanzitan; Jifeng intercepted him on the Heng and struck while his force was mid-crossing, driving him into Yunnan. In the third year he helped take Zheng'an and besiege Suiyang, fought with distinction, and was promoted to prefect. He was soon transferred to Guangdong, then to Guizhou, holding military command in both. In the tenth year he and Brigadier Deng Qiansheng took Mahu, captured Yang Abao, and he was promoted to circuit intendant.
8
十一年，會諸軍剿平苗民之梗化者。 貴州下游東西驛道，苗在其南，漢民在其北。 自咸豐時，行旅阻隔，垂二十年，至是始通。 紀鳳辦理善後，自黃平以上歷清平、平越、麻哈、貴定二百餘裡，建碉七十，分立四屯，各設屯官，戍卒六百分守之。 墾荒供餉，責以巡緝。 姦宄無所容，流民聞風踵至。 十二年，古州苗叛，擾清江，旁寨響應。 紀鳳率碉兵會諸軍進剿，擒其酋長，撫良苗百數十寨。 黔疆略定，賜黃馬褂。 光緒元年，授貴西道，巡撫黎培敬深倚之，薦可大用。 擢按察使，晉布政使。 十二年，調雲南布政使，剿倮黑及大戛寨夷，加頭品頂戴。 因請以其地改土歸流，邊隅以安。 十五年，乞養歸，尋卒。
In the eleventh year he joined allied forces in pacifying rebellious Miao. On the east-west post road in lower Guizhou, Miao lived to the south and Han settlers to the north. Travel on the route had been cut off since Xianfeng—nearly twenty years—until now it opened again. Jifeng managed the pacification: along more than two hundred li from Huangping through Qingping, Pingyue, Mahu, and Guiding he built seventy blockhouses, organized four garrison districts each with its own officer, and stationed six hundred troops to hold the line. The garrisons reclaimed land to feed themselves and were charged with patrol duty. Wrongdoers found no refuge, and refugees flocked in upon hearing the news. In the twelfth year the Guzhou Miao rose, raided Qingjiang, and neighboring villages joined them. Jifeng led garrison troops from the blockhouses in a joint campaign, captured the rebel chiefs, and brought more than a hundred loyal Miao villages back under control. With the Guizhou frontier largely pacified, he received the yellow riding jacket. In the first year of Guangxu he was named intendant of Guixi Circuit. Governor Li Peijing relied on him heavily and recommended him for higher office. He was promoted to provincial judge, then to provincial treasurer. In the twelfth year he was transferred to Yunnan as provincial treasurer, campaigned against the Luoblack and Yi of Dajia Stockade, and received the first-rank cap button. He petitioned to replace native chieftain rule with regular administration, and the frontier was pacified. In the fifteenth year he retired to care for his parents and died soon after.
9
=儲裕立=儲裕立，字鶴樵，湖南靖州人。 從軍貴州，累保知縣。 同治初，苗亂熾，迭克天柱、清江，晉知府。 十年，署古州同知。 兵後彫攰，群苗伺釁出沒。 裕立修戰備，撫遺黎，民氣漸復。 仍統軍先後收復台拱、丹江、凱里諸城，擢道員。 光緒三年，下游肅清，論功，賞黃馬褂。 督治善後，築城堡百二十七，建義塾百三十九。 八年，思南災，裕立往賑，遍歷災區，日稽錢粟出入，無假借，實惠及民。 時遵義焚教堂，民情洶洶。 裕立馳往撫諭，與法人往復詰難，事得解。 尋署貴西道，再歷貴東糧儲。 二十一年，卒，賜卹如例。
Chu Yuli, courtesy name Heqiao, was from Jingzhou in Hunan. He served in the Guizhou campaigns and was repeatedly recommended for magistrate rank. Early in Tongzhi, as the Miao rebellion raged, he captured Tianzhu and Qingjiang in succession and was promoted to prefect. In the tenth year he acted as subprefect of Guzhou. The region lay in ruins after the fighting, and Miao bands lurked nearby, raiding whenever they saw an opening. Yuli restored defenses, comforted the survivors, and gradually revived the people's spirits. Still in command, he recovered Taigong, Danjiang, Kaili, and other towns in turn and was promoted to circuit intendant. In the third year of Guangxu the lower Guizhou region was cleared; for his service he received a yellow riding jacket. He oversaw reconstruction, building 127 fortresses and founding 139 charity schools. In the eighth year, when Sinan suffered disaster, Yuli went to administer relief. He toured every affected area, audited grain and funds daily without favor, and saw that aid reached the people. About then a church was burned at Zunyi and public feeling ran high. Yuli rushed there to calm the people and debated the matter with the French until the crisis was settled. He soon acted as Guixi intendant and later held the Guidong grain-supply post again. He died in the twenty-first year and received the usual condolence grants.
10
=徐鐵珊=鐵珊，字紹裴，徐氏，漢軍正白旗人。 咸豐中，由筆帖式議敘知縣。 從欽差大臣勝保討捻山東，單騎入賊壘，招降捻匪劉占考，散其黨數万。 敘功，以直隸州選用。 同治初，發甘肅，署通渭。 值回亂，一歲九被圍，嬰城固守，卒得全。 日供軍糧萬斤，民不堪命。 鐵珊規減其半，民感德。 及去任，攀轅不得行。 迭攝平番、皋蘭、中衛諸邑，所至輒輕賦役，輯流亡，修城堡，除蠹胥。 總督上其治狀，擢寧夏知府，未之任，調蘭州。 議建貢院，與陝西分試，自光緒紀元始。 是年，署甘涼道，武威、永昌、鎮番三邑共一渠，民爭水械鬥，久不決。 鐵珊為開支渠，別子母水，設徬刊石，立均水約，輪日灌溉，民大悅，為立祠渠上。 地宜牧，因畜羊三千頭，歲以蕃息，用給貧民無告者。 十三年，擢河陝汝道，擒巨盜李復岐等，置諸法。 建陝州書院以課士，文風始振。 閿鄉城北濱河，南臨澗水，歲屢圮，議築石壩殺水勢，艱於鑿運，竟得石閿底鎮激湍中，工遂成。 十六年夏，淫雨河漲，陝城不沒者數版。 民謂官能捍患，恃以不恐。 鐵珊复築石堤，四月畢工，身親其役，竟以勞卒。 士民請建專祠，詔賜卹。
Tie Shan, courtesy name Shaopei, of the Xu clan, was a Han bondservant of the Plain White Banner. During the Xianfeng era he rose from Grand Secretariat clerk to magistrate by merit. With Imperial Commissioner Sheng Bao he campaigned against the Nian in Shandong, rode alone into the enemy camp, persuaded Nian leader Liu Zhankao to surrender, and disbanded tens of thousands of his followers. For his service he was appointed a department magistrate in Zhili. Early in Tongzhi he was posted to Gansu as acting magistrate of Tongwei. During the Muslim uprising the city was besieged nine times in a single year. He held the walls stubbornly and the town survived. The army demanded ten thousand jin of grain a day, and the people could not endure it. Tie Shan cut the levy in half, and the people were deeply grateful. When he left office, the people clung to his carriage and would not let him go. He served in turn at Pingfan, Gaolan, Zhongwei, and other posts. Everywhere he went he eased taxes and labor service, resettled refugees, repaired fortifications, and purged corrupt officials. The governor-general reported his achievements; he was promoted to prefect of Ningxia but was transferred to Lanzhou before taking up the post. He proposed building an examination hall so Gansu could hold provincial exams separately from Shaanxi, beginning in the first year of Guangxu. That year, as acting intendant of Ganliang, he faced a long-standing feud: Wuwei, Yongchang, and Zhenfan shared one canal, and farmers fought over water with weapons. Tie Shan dug branch canals, divided main and subsidiary flows, set stone markers, drew up a water-sharing agreement with rotation by day, and won the people's joy—they raised a shrine to him beside the canal. The region was suited to grazing, so he kept three thousand sheep; their annual increase he used to support the destitute. In the thirteenth year he was promoted to the Heshanru circuit and captured the notorious bandit Li Fuqi and his gang, who were punished by law. He founded an academy at Shanzhou to train scholars, and local literary culture began to revive. North of Minxiang the city fronted the Yellow River and the southern wall faced a torrent that breached the banks yearly. A stone dam was proposed to break the current; quarrying and transport were hard, but stone was finally secured at the bottom of Min Gorge to anchor the rapids, and the work succeeded. In the summer of the sixteenth year heavy rains swelled the river until only a few courses of Shan city's walls stood above the flood. The people believed the officials could hold back disaster and took courage from it. Tie Shan rebuilt the stone embankment, finished the work in the fourth month, labored alongside the workers himself, and died of exhaustion. Scholars and townspeople petitioned for a private shrine; the throne granted condolence gifts.
11
=桂中行=桂中行，字履真，江西臨川人，先世賈貴州，遂佔籍鎮遠。 為諸生。 咸、同間，積軍功，為知縣安徽，署合肥、蒙城、阜陽。 曾國籓率師徵捻，檄中行察勘蒙城圩寨。 蒙城故捻藪也，中行單騎歷諸圩，曉以利害，擇良幹者為圩長。 堅壁清野，寇無所掠。 禮接耆老賢士，從詢方略。 得通捻奸民簿記之，誅其魁桀數十人，豪猾斂跡。 歲餘，威化大行。 民陷賊及遠徙者，相率還歸。 以功晉知府。 調江蘇，筦揚州正陽釐榷。 光緒元年，署徐州，以祖母憂去官。
Gui Zhonghang, courtesy name Lüzhen, was from Linchuan in Jiangxi. His family had traded in Guizhou for generations and registered as natives of Zhenyuan. He held licentiate status. Between the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns he won military honors, became a magistrate in Anhui, and served in acting charge of Hefei, Mengcheng, and Fuyang. When Zeng Guofan marched against the Nian, he ordered Zhonghang to survey the fortified villages of Mengcheng. Mengcheng had long been a Nian stronghold. Zhonghang rode alone from stockade to stockade, explained the stakes, and appointed capable men as village heads. With fortified villages and cleared countryside, the rebels had nothing to loot. He treated local elders and scholars with respect and sought their counsel. He obtained ledgers of locals colluding with the Nian, executed dozens of ringleaders, and the local bullies fell silent. Within a year his authority was firmly established. People who had joined the rebels or fled the region returned in droves. For his service he was promoted to prefect. He was transferred to Jiangsu to manage the Zhengyang transit tax at Yangzhou. In the first year of Guangxu he acted at Xuzhou but left office to mourn his grandmother.
12
三年，宣城、建平民教閧，焚毀教堂。 總督沈葆楨強起中行往治，中行謂：「民倡亂當治如律，然民所以亂，由教堂侵其地。 今當令民償教堂財，而教堂還民地。」 持數月，卒如中行議。 內艱歸，服闋，檄治皖南墾務。 皖南兵燹後，客民佔墾不輸賦，至是清丈田畝，無問主客。 客民噪，捕斬其魁，乃聽命。 三歲事竣，增賦鉅萬。
In the third year riots between commoners and missionaries at Xuancheng and Jianping destroyed churches. Governor Shen Baozhen pressed Zhonghang back into service to handle the crisis. Zhonghang said: 'Rioters must be punished by law—but they rioted because the church had seized their land. The people should pay for church property destroyed, and the church should return the land.' After months of negotiation, the settlement followed Zhonghang's proposal. He went home to mourn his mother; when mourning ended he was ordered to oversee land reclamation in southern Anhui. After the wars in southern Anhui, migrant settlers had opened land without paying taxes. Zhonghang ordered a full land survey without favoring either locals or newcomers. When the migrants protested, he arrested and executed their leader, and the rest submitted. In three years the work was finished and annual revenue rose by tens of thousands of taels.
13
九年，補徐州。 值水災，興工賑，修堤埝二百餘裡。 又濬邳州艾山河，築宿遷六塘埝，水患除，民以不飢。 治徐十二年，課農勸士，盜賊衰息。 擢岳常澧道，數月，遷廣西按察使，復調湖南。 二十年，卒。 中行所至有聲，官江南最久，民尤愛戴之。 附祀徐州曾國籓祠。
In the ninth year he received a permanent appointment at Xuzhou. When floods struck, he launched relief projects and repaired more than two hundred li of dikes. He dredged the Ai Hill River at Pizhou and built the Liutang embankment at Suqian, ending the floods and keeping the people fed. He governed Xuzhou for twelve years, promoted farming and learning, and crime dwindled. He was promoted to the Yuechangli circuit, then within months became provincial judge of Guangxi and was transferred again to Hunan. He died in the twentieth year. Zhonghang won renown wherever he served; he spent the longest time in Jiangnan, where the people loved him most. He was given a place in Zeng Guofan's shrine at Xuzhou.
14
=劉含芳=劉含芳，字薌林，安徽貴池人。 同治初，李鴻章率師東征，從克蘇州，司運糧械。 後隨徵捻，積功至道員。 鴻章督直隸，命含芳治軍械天津。 得西洋利器，省覽機括，久之悉通其意。 鴻章方拓北洋軍備，於西沽建武庫，廣收博儲，以肄將士，擴充機器、製造兩局，募工仿構，創設電氣水雷學堂，編立水雷營，皆以含芳董其役。
Liu Hanfang, courtesy name Xianglin, was from Guichi in Anhui. Early in Tongzhi he joined Li Hongzhang's eastern campaign, helped take Suzhou, and managed supply transport. He later campaigned against the Nian and rose to circuit intendant by merit. When Li Hongzhang became governor-general of Zhili, he put Hanfang in charge of ordnance at Tianjin. He studied Western arms, examined their mechanisms, and in time mastered how they worked. As Li Hongzhang built up Beiyang defenses, Hanfang directed his projects: the arsenal at Xigu, expanded Machinery and Manufacturing bureaus, workshops copying Western designs, a naval torpedo school, and torpedo battalions.
15
光緒七年，詔求人才，以鴻章薦，交軍機處存記。 時海軍初立，造船塢旅順，含芳兼領沿海水陸營務處。 十四年，署津海關道，授甘肅安肅道，留治海防。 尋調山東登萊青道，監督東海關，十九年，始之任。 含芳自隨鴻章至天津，凡十四載，屯旅順十一載，至是雖領一道，猶隸於北洋。
In the seventh year of Guangxu the throne called for talent; on Li Hongzhang's recommendation Hanfang was registered with the Grand Council. When the navy was first formed and the dockyard built at Lüshun, Hanfang also headed the coastal defense office. In the fourteenth year he acted as Jinghai customs intendant and was appointed to Gansu Ansu Circuit but was kept at his coastal-defense duties. He was soon transferred to the Denglaiqing circuit in Shandong to supervise the East Sea Customs, taking up the post in the nineteenth year. Hanfang had followed Li Hongzhang to Tianjin for fourteen years and spent eleven at Lüshun; even as a circuit intendant he remained under Beiyang command.
16
二十年，遼東兵事起，海陸軍屢挫，旅順、威海相繼陷。 登萊青道駐煙台，敵軍日逼。 俄報軍艦沒於劉公島，寧海亦陷，敵前鋒距煙台十餘裡。 時巡撫李秉衡亦駐師煙台。 西國諸領事言巡撫在，則敵攻之急，於租地不便，巡撫乃退萊州。 領事復言含芳，含芳曰：「巡撫大臣也，可去。 某守土吏，去何之？ 今死此矣！」 因置鴆二盂案上，與其妻郝冠服坐待，意氣堅定，民恃無恐。 有潰卒數千，持兵噪呼求食。 含芳單騎馳諭，處以空營，重為編伍，不原留者厚給遣之，皆出私財。 初，西人聞潰兵，甚戒嚴，俄而散遣，殊出不意，咸稱道之。 和議成，奏派渡海勘收還地。 始威海、旅順、大連灣皆荒島，含芳瘁心力營構十餘年，所成險塞，至是見盡毀矣，因憤慨流涕，以疾乞歸。 卒，贈內閣學士。
In the twentieth year war broke out in Liaodong. Land and sea forces suffered repeated defeats, and Lüshun and Weihai fell in turn. The Denglaiqing intendant was based at Yantai as the enemy drew nearer day by day. News came that the fleet was destroyed at Liugong Island and Ninghai had fallen; enemy vanguards were barely a dozen li from Yantai. Governor Li Bingheng had also stationed troops at Yantai. Western consuls said that with the governor present the enemy would press the attack and endanger the treaty ports, so Li withdrew to Laizhou. The consuls then spoke to Hanfang. He replied: 'The governor is a high minister and may leave. I am the local magistrate—where would I go? I will die here!' He set out two cups of poison on his desk, and he and his wife Hao sat in full dress waiting. His resolve steadied the people. Several thousand routed soldiers appeared, armed and clamoring for food. Hanfang rode out alone to address them, quartered them in empty barracks, reorganized the ranks, and paid those who would not stay to leave—all from his own purse. Westerners had been alarmed at news of the routed troops; when they were quietly dispersed, all praised Hanfang's handling. After peace was signed he was ordered to cross the sea and survey the recovered territories. Weihai, Lüshun, and Dalian Bay had once been barren islands; Hanfang had spent more than a decade building their defenses, now utterly destroyed. He wept in grief and retired on grounds of illness. He died and was posthumously made a Hanlin academician.
17
=陳黌舉=陳黌舉，字序賓，安徽石埭人。 少從其鄉陳艾遊，以諸生為曾國籓所識拔。 李鴻章督師，令主辦行營支應。 或謂「大軍轉餉關天下，往者輒命大臣，今以諸生任耶」？ 卒用不疑。 自粵亂作，海內困軍餉。 黌舉曰：「餉糜則斂重，戰久則餉虧，兵不潰，民且寇矣。」 乃釐訂條款，杜絕冒濫。 軍行數載，餉節民和，平捻之功實基此。 鴻章移直隸籌海防，凡砲台、船塢、製造、電報及疏河、屯田諸役，需費尤鉅，皆倚之以辦。 先後綜軍糈二十餘年，一介不苟。 將吏服其廉潔，雖被裁抑，無怨言。 直、晉大災，兼籌賑務，廢寢忘食，稽核勤摯，人不忍欺。 以私款歸實濟，全活以億萬計，眾皆德之。 旋以積勞病卒。 初由訓導累功至知府，詔贈道員。 與含芳同附祀鴻章祠，入祀淮軍昭忠祠，並祀鄉賢。
Chen Hongju, courtesy name Xubin, was from Shidi in Anhui. As a youth he studied under his townsman Chen Ai; as a licentiate he won Zeng Guofan's notice and patronage. When Li Hongzhang took command, he put Hongju in charge of field headquarters logistics. Some objected: 'Army supply concerns the whole empire—past appointees were great ministers. You would entrust this to a mere licentiate?' Li used him anyway, without hesitation. Since the Taiping rebellion, the empire had been crushed under the burden of military pay. Hongju said: 'Waste in pay means heavier taxes; long war means empty coffers. If the army does not mutiny, the people will rise as rebels.' He drew up strict regulations and stamped out fraud. For years the armies marched with controlled pay and contented civilians—the foundation of victory over the Nian lay here. When Li moved to Zhili to build coastal defenses, Hongju managed the vast expenses of batteries, dockyards, factories, telegraph lines, river works, and garrison farms. For more than twenty years he managed army funds without taking a single improper gift. Officers respected his integrity; even when he cut their allowances, they did not complain. During great famines in Zhili and Shanxi he also ran relief work, working day and night with meticulous audits that no one dared cheat. He spent private funds on real relief and saved countless lives; the people were deeply grateful. He soon died of illness brought on by overwork. He had risen from instructor to prefect by merit; the throne posthumously granted him circuit intendant rank. He was honored alongside Hanfang in Li Hongzhang's shrine, the Huai Army martyrs' shrine, and the local worthies' temple.
18
黌舉子惟彥，亦見重於鴻章，命繼司軍計。 由大理寺丞累保知府，官貴州，歷開州、婺川，調守黎平。 首革票差催糧，遏龍世渭逆謀，破鴨販彭三等血案，遠近驚為神明。 鄰邑有訟，往往越境就訴。 興學育才，並創立體仁堂養老恤孤，勸工習藝，政聲頗著。 巡撫疏為良吏第一，以道員改江蘇，總釐捐，任督銷。 去弊化私，以廉直稱。 旋授湖南財政監理官，复委辦兩淮鹽政，創設淮南公所，歲增至二百萬。 歸，與弟惟壬於縣境修巨橋跨舒溪，亙六十餘丈，便行旅。 邑人私諡曰慈惠。 [一]
Hongju's son Wei Yan also won Li Hongzhang's trust and succeeded his father as army paymaster. Rising from vice-president of the Court of Judicial Review to prefect by repeated recommendation, he served in Guizhou at Kaizhou and Wuchuan before transferring to Liping. He abolished corrupt tax runners, foiled Long Shiwei's conspiracy, solved the notorious duck-peddler murders, and won awe throughout the region as a judge of uncanny insight. Litigants from neighboring counties often crossed borders to bring cases before him. He promoted schools, founded the Tiren Hall for the aged and orphans, encouraged trades training, and won a strong reputation for good government. The governor ranked him the finest official in the province; he was transferred to Jiangsu as circuit intendant to oversee transit levies and sales. He rooted out corruption and was known for integrity. He was soon named Hunan fiscal supervisor, then entrusted with Lianghuai salt administration; he founded the Huainan office and raised annual revenue to two million taels. At home he and his brother Wei Ren built a great bridge more than sixty zhang long across the Shu Stream for travelers. Locals gave him the private posthumous title Kind and Beneficent. Editorial marker for note one following.
19
=遊智開=遊智開，字子代，湖南新化人。 咸豐元年舉人，揀選知縣。 同治初，李續宜巡撫安徽，調司釐榷，以廉平稱。 四年，署和州知州，日坐堂皇決事。 又時出巡四境，延見父老，問其疾苦。 親為諸生考校文藝，剖析經旨，教以孝弟廉讓。 期年，治化大行。 州舊由胥吏墊完糧賦，最為民病，禁絕之。 築瀕江堤防，自督工役，費節而堤堅，免水患。 補無為州，署泗州，治盜尤嚴。 曾國籓稱其治行為江南第一，移督直隸，調智開署深州。 興義學，減浮徵，民大悅。 補灤州，民苦兵車，為別籌輸送，免擾累。 俗健訟，奸民居間交構，痛懲之，其風漸息。
You Zhikai, courtesy name Zidai, was from Xinhua in Hunan. A provincial graduate of the first year of Xianfeng, he was selected for magistrate rank. Early in Tongzhi, when Li Xuyi governed Anhui, Zhikai was put in charge of transit levies and won a name for fairness. In the fourth year he acted as prefect of Hezhou and heard cases daily in the main hall. He toured the countryside, met elders, and asked about their hardships. He personally examined students' essays, explained the classics, and taught filial piety, integrity, and humility. Within a year good government took hold. Clerks had long advanced tax payments at the people's expense; he banned the practice entirely. He built river dikes under his own supervision, kept costs low while making them strong, and ended flooding. He took permanent office at Wuwei, acted at Sizhou, and was especially severe on banditry. Zeng Guofan called his administration the best in Jiangnan; when Zeng moved to Zhili he transferred Zhikai to act at Shenzhou. He promoted schools and cut excessive levies; the people were delighted. At Luanzhou, where the people suffered from military transport, he arranged separate supply routes to spare them the burden. Litigation was rampant and troublemakers stirred disputes; he punished them severely until the practice faded.
20
十一年，擢知永平府，一車一蓋，週曆下邑，得其情偽。 遇有事，牧令未及報，輒已聞知。 一日侵晨，馳至遷安獄，獄吏方私系囚求賂，即拘吏至縣庭笞之。 令始驚，起謝。 葺書院，築城垣，修郡志，皆事舉，無濫費。 瀕海產鹽，貧民資為衣食。 部牒禁私販，疏官引。 智開上言民間少一私販，即地方多一馬賊。 鹽本宜行官引，惟永平則仍舊為便，事得寢。 有巨室以析產構訟，久不決。 智開坐便室，呼兩造至，不加研鞫，自咎治郡無狀，變起骨肉，望族如此，況齊民乎？ 訟者流涕請罷。 李鴻章疏陳智開清勤端嚴，足勵末俗。 光緒六年，擢永定河道。 河患夙稱難治，智開每當搶護險工，立河乾親指揮，日週巡兩岸以為常，員弁無敢離工次者。 左宗棠議將永定河南岸改北岸以紓水患。 智開以上下游數百里，城市廬墓，遷徙不便，力爭而止。 兩以三汛安瀾邀優獎。
In the eleventh year he became prefect of Yongping. With only a cart and umbrella he toured every subordinate district and learned the truth on the ground. When trouble arose, he often knew of it before his subordinates could report. One dawn he rode to the Qian'an jail and caught a jailer extorting a prisoner; he had the man flogged in the county court at once. The magistrate, startled awake, rose to thank him. He restored the academy, rebuilt the walls, and revised the prefectural gazetteer—all completed without waste. Coastal salt production was how the poor made their living. The ministry ordered an end to private salt sales and proposed official salt tickets. Zhikai memorialized: every private salt seller driven out of business becomes a bandit. Official tickets might suit elsewhere, but Yongping was better left as before; the proposal was dropped. A wealthy family's inheritance dispute had dragged on unresolved. Zhikai called both sides to a side room without interrogation and blamed himself: 'My rule has failed if even eminent families feud like this—what of ordinary people?' The litigants wept and asked to drop the case. Li Hongzhang memorialized that Zhikai's integrity and severity could revive declining morals. In the sixth year of Guangxu he was named commissioner of the Yongding River. The Yongding had a reputation as ungovernable. At every emergency Zhikai stood on the dry riverbed directing repairs himself, patrolled both banks daily, and allowed no officer to leave his post. Zuo Zongtang proposed moving the south bank works to the north bank to ease flooding. Zhikai argued that cities, homes, and tombs lined hundreds of li of river and relocation was impossible; he fought the plan until it was dropped. Twice he won special rewards for three consecutive flood seasons without breach.
21
十一年，擢四川按察使。 攜一僕乘箯輿入蜀，密訪吏治得失，民情愛惡。 督屬清釐積案，常躬自訊結，獄訟為清。 兩權布政使。 十二年，護理總督。 重慶教案起，智開奏言是案當以根究起釁之由，先收險要及預定款目為關鍵。 非贖回險要，無以服渝民之心； 非嚴誅首犯，無以製洋人之口； 非議賠銀兩，無以為結案之具。 諗知教首羅元義激成眾怒，幾釀大變，飛檄拘之入省，民團始散。 又以元義身雖入教，仍是中國子民，自應治以中國法律。 請敕總理衙門據理與爭，勿許公使乾預。 時中外皆恐以肇釁端，智開持之益力，卒置元義於法。 薄給賠償，而案遂結。
In the eleventh year he was promoted to provincial judge of Sichuan. He entered Sichuan with a single servant in a bamboo sedan, quietly investigating official performance and public sentiment. He ordered subordinates to clear backlogged cases and often heard them himself until the courts were clear. He twice acted as provincial treasurer. In the twelfth year he acted as governor-general. When the Chongqing missionary case broke out, Zhikai argued that the key was to establish who provoked it, secure strategic points, and settle terms in advance. Without recovering strategic points, Chongqing's people would never be satisfied; without punishing the ringleaders, foreigners would never be silenced; without agreeing on indemnity, there was no way to close the case. Learning that church leader Luo Yuanyi had provoked the mob and nearly caused a catastrophe, he ordered him seized and brought to the provincial capital; only then did the militia disperse. He argued that though Luo had joined the church, he remained a Chinese subject and must be tried under Chinese law. He asked the Zongli Yamen to argue on principle and refuse ministerial interference. Both Chinese and foreigners feared war, but Zhikai held firm and executed Luo under Chinese law. A modest indemnity was paid and the case closed.
22
十四年，遷廣東布政使，署理巡撫。 劾貪墨吏，不避權要，嚴賭禁，卻闈姓例餽三十萬金。 僧寺匿匪，廢改義塾。 十六年，以老乞休。 二十一年，起廣西布政使。 為政務持大體，事有不可行，力持不變。 痛除官場積習，僚屬化之。 靈川鬧糧，省令發兵剿辦。 智開以事由激變，辦理不善，責歸縣令，民獲保全。 又念粵西地瘠，向鮮蓋藏，捐廉儲糧石，通飭各屬積穀備荒。 凡廉俸所入，悉以辦公益，無自私。 閱三年，因病罷歸，卒於家。 所至各省俱請祀名宦祠。
In the fourteenth year he became provincial treasurer of Guangdong and acted as governor. He impeached corrupt officials regardless of rank, banned gambling, and refused three hundred thousand taels in customary examination bribes. Monasteries hiding bandits were closed and turned into charity schools. In the sixteenth year he retired on grounds of age. In the twenty-first year he was recalled as provincial treasurer of Guangxi. He governed by broad principles and stood firm when he believed a policy was wrong. He rooted out entrenched official corruption, and his subordinates followed his example. When Lingchuan erupted over grain taxes, the province ordered troops to suppress it. Zhikai held that provocation and poor county administration had caused the riot; he blamed the magistrate and spared the people. Knowing western Guangxi was poor and rarely had reserves, he donated salary grain and ordered every district to build famine stores. He spent his entire salary on public works and kept nothing for himself. After three years he went home ill and died there. Every province where he served petitioned for his entry in the shrine of eminent officials.
23
=李用清=李用清，字澄齋，山西平定州人。 同治四年進士，改庶吉士，出大學士倭仁門，散館授編修。 安貧厲節，日研四子書、硃子小學，旁稽掌故，於物力豐瘠，尤所留意。 大婚禮成，加侍讀銜。 十二年，丁父憂，徒步扶櫬返葬。 服闋，入都，仍課生徒自給。
Li Yongqing, courtesy name Chengzhai, was from Pingding in Shanxi. A jinshi of the fourth year of Tongzhi, he became a Hanlin bachelor under Grand Secretary Woren and later a compiler. Poor but principled, he studied the Four Books and Zhu Xi's Elementary Learning daily, consulted historical records, and paid special attention to economic conditions. After the Grand Wedding ceremonies he received the attendant reader rank. In the twelfth year, mourning his father, he walked home on foot escorting the coffin. After mourning he returned to the capital and supported himself by teaching students.
24
光緒三年，記名御史。 會山西奇荒，巡撫曾國荃、欽差大臣閻敬銘奏調用清襄賑務，騎一驢週曆全境，無間寒暑，一僕荷裝從。 凡災情輕重、食糧轉輸要道，悉紀之冊。 深窮病源，以為晉省罌粟花田彌望無際，必改花田而種五穀，然後生聚有期，元氣可復，上書國荃詳論之。 國荃疑晉新荒，禁煙效緩，且全國未禁，徙斂怨，說竟不行。 賑竣，卻保獎。 還京，傳補御史，引見有日矣。 法越事萌芽，張樹聲以廣西邊防奏調。 樹聲督兩廣，復調廣東任海防釐榷，洗手奉職。 七年，授惠州知府。 境故多盜，喜博，喜私鬥。 用清推誠化之，俗乃稍革。
In the third year of Guangxu he was placed on the censorial register. During Shanxi's terrible famine, Governors Zeng Guoquan and Yan Jingming called him to help with relief. He toured the entire province on a donkey in all seasons, with one servant carrying his baggage. He recorded every degree of disaster and every critical grain route in his notebooks. Probing the roots of the crisis, he concluded that Shanxi's endless poppy fields must be converted to grain before the province could recover; he wrote a detailed memorial to Zeng Guoquan. Zeng doubted that a ban would work in a province just devastated by famine, or before a national prohibition—and feared it would only breed resentment. The proposal was rejected. When relief ended he declined recommendations for reward. Back in the capital, he was slated for censorial appointment and imminent audience with the throne. As the Sino-French conflict began, Zhang Shusheng called him to Guangxi border defense. When Zhang governed Liangguang he transferred Yongqing to Guangdong coastal defense levies, where he served with scrupulous integrity. In the seventh year of the reign he was appointed prefect of Huizhou. The prefecture had long been plagued by bandits, gambling, and private feuds. Yongqing won them over with frank sincerity, and local customs gradually improved.
25
八年，遷貴州貴西道。 明年，超擢布政使，署巡撫。 實倉儲，興農利，裁冗員，劾缺額之提鎮，擒粵匪莫夢弼等置諸法。 巡閱所至，召士子講說經傳，將吏環聽，相與動容。 黔地土瘠，多種罌粟，暢行湘、鄂、贛、粵諸省，用清奏陳禁種之法，分區限年，時自出巡，刈剷菸苗。 言者疑其操之過急。 十一年秋，有旨來京候簡。 召對，猶痛陳罌粟疚國殃民狀，冀可挽回萬一。 旋命署陝西布政使，荒燹之後，休養生息，仍嚴煙禁。 十四年，復命來京候簡，遂以疾歸，主講晉陽書院凡十年。 用清嚴於自治，勇於奉公。 籓黔時，庫儲六萬，年餘存十六萬，陝庫三十萬，再期六十餘萬矣。 所至尤措意桑棉織組。 嘗濬三源縣龍渠，溉田千餘畝。 俸入不以自潤，於黔以購粟六千石，於陝購萬石，備不虞。 鄭州河決，捐工需二萬兩。 二十四年，卒。 子貴陽扶柩歸，以毀殤。
In the eighth year he was transferred to the Guixi Circuit in Guizhou. The following year he was promoted ahead of schedule to provincial treasurer and acted as governor. He filled the granaries, promoted agriculture, cut redundant posts, impeached brigade commanders who fell short of their quotas, and captured the Guangdong rebel Mo Mengbi and others, bringing them to justice. On his inspection tours he summoned local scholars to lecture on the classics; military and civil officials gathered round to listen, and all were deeply moved. Guizhou's soil was poor and poppy cultivation was widespread; the opium trade reached freely into Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, and Guangdong. Yongqing memorialized a prohibition scheme with zoned deadlines, and often toured in person to cut down poppy crops. Some critics thought he was pushing the policy too hard. In the autumn of the eleventh year he was ordered to the capital to await a new appointment. At his audience he still spoke passionately of how opium was ruining the country and destroying the people, hoping against hope to change policy. He was soon appointed acting provincial treasurer of Shaanxi. In a province ravaged by famine and war he worked to restore prosperity, while keeping the opium prohibition strictly in force. In the fourteenth year he was again summoned to the capital for appointment, but illness forced him home, where he taught at Jinyang Academy for ten years. Yongqing was austere in his private life and fearless in public service. When he governed Guizhou the treasury held sixty thousand taels; within a year he had built it to one hundred sixty thousand. In Shaanxi he inherited thirty thousand and left more than six hundred thousand. Everywhere he served he gave special attention to sericulture, cotton, weaving, and textile crafts. He once dredged the Long Canal in Sanyuan County, irrigating more than a thousand mu of farmland. He never spent his salary on himself. In Guizhou he bought six thousand shi of grain; in Shaanxi, ten thousand—stores against emergencies. When the Zhengzhou river burst its banks he donated twenty thousand taels toward labor relief. He died in the twenty-fourth year of the reign. His son Guiyang escorted the coffin home and died of grief in mourning.
26
同縣李希蓮，字亦青。 咸豐十年進士，授戶部主事，再遷郎中。 性節儉，官京曹三十年，車馬羸敝，不顧訕譏。 英、法兵入都，曹司多走避，希蓮昕夕詣署無間。 以忤肅順，乞假歸。 同治元年，起原官。 時軍興餉絀，希蓮條陳開源節流數端，恭親王奕訢韙之。 雲南報銷案發，同僚有褫職遣戍者，希蓮獨無所染。 光緒中，出為江西廣饒道，除濫稅，复徵額。 擢山東鹽運使，調長蘆。 累遷貴州按察使、陝西布政使。 戊戌政變，希蓮頗憂大亂將起，與總督陶模議籌建陪都。 及兩宮西幸，入始服其先見雲。
A fellow townsman, Li Xilian, whose courtesy name was Yiqing, passed the jinshi examination in the tenth year of Xianfeng and was appointed a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue, later rising twice to the rank of director. Frugal by nature, he spent thirty years in the capital ministries with a shabby carriage and broken-down horses, indifferent to mockery. When British and French troops entered the capital, most ministry officials fled—but Xilian reported to his office morning and night without fail. After crossing Su Shun he took leave and returned home. In the first year of Tongzhi he was restored to his former post. With war driving up costs and funds running short, Xilian submitted detailed proposals to raise revenue and cut spending; Prince Gong Yixin endorsed them. When the Yunnan accounts scandal broke, colleagues lost their posts and were exiled; Xilian alone emerged untainted. During the Guangxu era he was posted as intendant of the Guangrao Circuit in Jiangxi, where he abolished illegal levies and restored proper tax quotas. He was promoted to Shandong salt transport commissioner and transferred to the Changlu salt district. He rose in turn to surveillance commissioner of Guizhou and provincial treasurer of Shaanxi. After the coup of 1898 Xilian feared civil collapse was near and discussed with Governor Tao Mo the idea of establishing a secondary capital. When the empress dowagers fled west, people at last recognized his foresight.
27
=李金鏞=李金鏞，字秋亭，江蘇無錫人。 少為賈，以試用同知投效淮軍。 光緒二年，淮、徐災，與浙人胡光鏞集十餘萬金往賑，為義賑之始。 後遂賑直隸、山東，皆躬其役。 五年，晉秩知府。 調直隸，修西淀堤。 吳大澂督防吉林，金鏞任琿春招墾事。 界外蘇城溝墾戶數千，苦俄人侵略，相率來歸，咸得奠居。 海參威既通商，俄人援例要請東三省要地設領事，嚴拒之。 又力爭八道河民被俄焚掠，抵俄官於法。 將軍銘安以為才，疏留吉林任用。 中俄界約，自瑚布河口循琿春河至圖門江口，以海中之嶺為界嶺，以西屬中國，距江口二十餘裡立土字碑。 界圖疏略，致嶺西之罕奇、毛琛崴等鹽場置線外。 俄复於黑頂子地私設卡倫，距江口幾百里矣。 大澂使金鏞會勘，據約爭還侵地，重立界碑。 署吉林知府，整錢法，開溝洫，攤丁於地，以蘇民困。
Li Jinyong, whose courtesy name was Qiuting, came from Wuxi in Jiangsu. In his youth he was a merchant; later, as a probationary subprefect, he enlisted with the Huai Army. In the second year of Guangxu, when the Huai and Xu regions were stricken, he and Hu Guangyong of Zhejiang raised over one hundred thousand taels for relief—the first organized private charity of its kind. He later led relief efforts in Zhili and Shandong as well, personally overseeing the work in each. In the fifth year he was promoted to prefect. Transferred to Zhili, he repaired the dikes at Xidian. When Wu Dacheng took charge of Jilin's defenses, Jinyong handled colonization at Hunchun. Several thousand colonist families at Sucheng Gou beyond the border, harassed by Russian encroachment, returned en masse under his protection and were resettled. After Vladivostok opened to trade, the Russians cited precedent to demand consulates at strategic points across the Northeast; he firmly refused. He also fought hard for the people of Badao River, whose villages the Russians had burned and looted, pressing the Russian authorities to answer under law. General Ming'an recognized his ability and memorialized the court to keep him in Jilin. Under the Sino-Russian treaty the border ran from the Huhu River mouth along the Hunchun to the Tumen estuary, with a ridge in the sea as the dividing line; west of it was Chinese territory, and a boundary marker was set up some twenty li from the river mouth. The border map was imprecise, leaving salt works west of the ridge—Hanqi, Maochenwei, and others—on the wrong side of the line. The Russians then set up unauthorized border posts at Heidingzi, hundreds of li beyond the river mouth. Dacheng dispatched Jinyong to conduct a joint survey; citing the treaty he recovered the encroached territory and re-erected the boundary markers. As acting prefect of Jilin he reformed the currency, dug irrigation channels, and apportioned corvée duties to landholdings to ease the people's burden.
28
九年，署長春廳通判。 廳境為蒙古郭爾羅斯地，初招流民領墾納租，久之墾逾所領，謂之「夾荒」。 民懼增稅，因出錢免丈量，刻石紀之。 至是蒙旗复牒理籓院請丈，金鏞挾碑文謁將軍為民請命，曰：「誠知清丈則公與某各有所得，然如民何？」 將軍聞之愕然，奏罷其事。 創建書院，厚其廩餼，購書數千卷，資學者誦習。 捕斬劇盜苗青山等，境內乂安。 不時巡歷鄉僻，呼召父老，為講孝弟力田。 金鏞性坦易，口操南音，所至民愛而憚之。 以功晉道員。
In the ninth year he served as acting subprefect of Changchun. The subprefecture lay on Mongol Gorlos land. Settlers had originally been granted plots to farm and pay rent on, but over time many cleared land beyond their allotments—a practice known as "sandwiched wasteland." Fearing higher taxes, the settlers paid a fee to exempt the extra land from survey, and the agreement was carved in stone. When the Mongol banner again petitioned the Lifan Yuan for a land survey, Jinyong brought the stele inscription to the general and pleaded on the people's behalf: "I know full well that a proper survey would benefit both Your Excellency and myself—but what becomes of the people?" The general was stunned and memorialized the court to drop the survey. He founded an academy, increased student stipends, bought several thousand books, and supported local scholars. He captured and executed the notorious bandit Miao Qingshan and his gang, and the region was pacified. He often toured remote villages, gathering elders to speak on filial duty, neighborliness, and hard work on the land. Frank and unpretentious, with a southern lilt to his speech, Jinyong was loved by the people wherever he served—and feared as well. For his achievements he was promoted to circuit intendant.
29
俄侵占精奇里河四十八旗屯地，在黑龍江岸東。 金鏞爭還補丁屯至老瓜林百七十餘裡，劃河定界。 漠河者，在璦琿西，三面界俄，地產金，俄人覬覦之。 北洋大臣李鴻章議自開採，以金鏞任其事。 陸路由墨爾根入，水運由松花江入，各行千餘裡，僻遠無人。 披斬荊棘，於萬山中設三廠，兩年得金三萬。 事事與俄關涉，艱阻百端。 又開廠於黑龍江南岸札伊河旁之觀音山，皆為北徼名礦。 集商貲立公司，流冗遠歸，商販漸集，收實邊之利焉。 十六年，病卒工所。 贈內閣學士，予漠河建祠。
The Russians seized forty-eight banner colony lands along the Jingqili River, east of the Amur. Jinyong recovered supplemental colony lands for more than one hundred seventy li as far as Laogualin, fixing the border along the river. Mohe lay west of Aihun, surrounded on three sides by Russian territory. Its gold deposits had long attracted Russian interest. Li Hongzhang, minister of Beiyang affairs, decided China should mine the region itself and put Jinyong in charge. The land route ran through Mo'ergen; the water route up the Songhua—each more than a thousand li through empty wilderness. Cutting through wilderness, he opened three mines in the mountains and produced thirty thousand taels of gold in two years. Every step brought friction with the Russians; obstacles arose at every turn. He also opened mines at Guanyin Mountain on the Zhai River south of the Amur—all celebrated frontier deposits. He pooled merchant capital into a company; displaced laborers returned, traders gathered, and the border began to yield real prosperity. In the sixteenth year he died of illness at the mining site. He was posthumously made a Grand Secretariat academician, and a memorial shrine was authorized at Mohe.
30
=金福曾=金福曾，字苕人，浙江秀水人。 以諸生從軍，先侍祖父衍宗溫州教授，任籌團練助城守。 旋隨官兵肅清金、處，協守獨松關，解杭州圍。 李鴻章器其才，克蘇州，檄辦善後。 捻事起，往贊徐州道張樹聲軍務。 捻眾北竄，出防大名。 丁憂歸，福曾積功已至知縣，服闋，赴江蘇，歷署婁、南匯、吳江諸邑。 所至興學校，課農桑，理冤獄，禁溺女，勸墾沙田，開濬河道，多善政，民有去思。 光緒初，河南、山西大祲。 吳人謝家福等倡義賑，集四十餘萬金，推福曾董其事。 四年秋，至河南分賑洛陽等十二州縣。 新安、澠池災尤重，福曾創立善堂，卹嫠掩骼，收贖子女，購車馬若干輛，代疲民應役。 開渠澗，制龍骨車，興水利。 又濬洛陽、宜陽廢渠，貫通伊、洛，灌田二萬頃。 五年，賑山西虞鄉等十縣。 事竣，移賑直隸。 時直隸水患方急，持以工代賑之策。
Jin Fuceng, whose courtesy name was Tiaoren, came from Xiushui in Zhejiang. A licentiate who took up arms, he first served under his grandfather Yanzong, a Wenzhou professor, organizing militia to help defend the city. He then marched with imperial forces to pacify Jinhua and Chuzhou, helped hold Dusong Pass, and broke the siege of Hangzhou. Li Hongzhang valued his ability; after Suzhou fell he put him in charge of reconstruction. When the Nian rebellion broke out he joined Zhang Shusheng, intendant of Xuzhou, in military affairs. When Nian rebels drove north he went out to defend Daming. After mourning his father he returned to service; by then his accumulated merit had earned him magistrate rank. He went to Jiangsu and served in acting charge of Lou, Nanhui, Wujiang, and other counties. Everywhere he served he opened schools, promoted farming and sericulture, righted wrongful convictions, banned female infanticide, encouraged reclamation of tidal land, and dredged waterways. His many good policies left the people sorrowful when he moved on. In the early Guangxu years Henan and Shanxi suffered devastating famine. Xie Jiafu and other philanthropists from Jiangsu raised over four hundred thousand taels for relief and put Fuceng in charge. In the autumn of the fourth year he reached Henan and distributed relief across Luoyang and eleven other prefectures and counties. Where suffering was worst—in Xin'an and Mianchi—Fuceng opened relief halls, cared for widows, buried the dead, redeemed children sold into servitude, and bought carts and horses so exhausted villagers would not have to perform corvée labor. He dug channels, built chain-pump water wheels, and revived irrigation works. He dredged abandoned canals at Luoyang and Yiyang, linked the Yi and Luo rivers, and irrigated twenty thousand qing of farmland. In the fifth year he directed relief in ten Shanxi counties, including Yuxiang. When that work was done he shifted relief efforts to Zhili. With flooding ravaging Zhili, he pushed a work-for-relief policy.
31
七年，疏大清河，濬中亭河，培千里堤。 福曾先援例以道員候選，至是鴻章督直隸，奏留總辦籌賑局。 福曾以淀地淤塞為清河受病之源，清丈東淀無糧地，釐定葦租，規复垡船。 八年，濬東淀河道，修築天津三河頭堤。 九年，築子牙河堤，展寬正河，又別開支河王家口以洩盛漲。 十年，畿東大水，福曾疏青龍灣減河入七里海，疏筐兒港減河入塌河淀，並出北塘海口。 又開瀝水各河以洩武清、寶坻窪區積水。 十一年，濬饒陽滹沱河。 十三年，濬四女寺南運減河。 兩署永定河道，塞決口，於下口別闢新道。 又就大清河合流處別濬新河，永定河水始直達天津海河。 山東河決數為災，鴻章輒檄福曾往助工賑，親至蘇、浙募貲。 會浙西大水，巡撫崧駿复疏留福曾治工賑。 於是杭、嘉、湖三府各河次第疏瀹。 會廷議濬餘杭南湖，以福曾董其役。 明年工竣，直、魯又告災，福曾已臥病，猶力疾籌賑濟。 十八年，卒。 鴻章等疏請優恤，贈內閣學士。 福曾廉公好義，歷辦工賑十餘年，無日不勞身焦思，治行卓然。 及其歿，士民同聲惜之。
In the seventh year he dredged the Daqing and Zhongting rivers and reinforced the Qianli Dike. Fuceng had earlier qualified as a circuit intendant candidate by precedent; now, with Li Hongzhang governing Zhili, he was retained to head the relief planning bureau. Fuceng traced the Qing River's chronic flooding to silt choking the lake district; he surveyed unregistered land at Dongdian, set reed rents, and planned to restore turf boats. In the eighth year he dredged the Dongdian waterways and built the Sanhetou dike at Tianjin. In the ninth year he built dikes on the Ziya River, widened the main channel, and cut a spillway at Wangjiakou to handle flood peaks. In the tenth year catastrophic floods hit the capital's eastern districts; Fuceng dredged the Qinglongwan spillway into Qilihai and the Kuang'er Gang spillway into Tahe Lake, both emptying through the Beitang estuary. He also opened drainage channels to draw off standing water from the lowlands of Wuqing and Baodi. In the eleventh year he dredged the Hutuo River at Raoyang. In the thirteenth year he dredged the Sinu Temple spillway on the South Canal. Twice acting as Yongding River commissioner, he sealed breach points and cut a new channel at the river's lower reach. He also cut a new channel where the Daqing River joined the system, allowing Yongding waters to flow straight to the Hai River at Tianjin. When Shandong's rivers repeatedly burst their banks, Li Hongzhang repeatedly dispatched Fuceng to oversee relief and labor—and went personally to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to raise funds. When western Zhejiang suffered severe flooding, Governor Songjun again petitioned to keep Fuceng in charge of hydraulic works and relief. The rivers of Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou were then dredged one after another. When the court debated dredging South Lake at Yuhang, Fuceng was named to direct the project. The work finished the following year, but Zhili and Shandong reported new disasters. Though bedridden, Fuceng still forced himself to organize relief. He died in the eighteenth year. Li Hongzhang and others petitioned for special honors; he was posthumously made a Hanlin academician. Fuceng was upright and public-spirited. For more than ten years he ran relief and public works without a day's rest, and his administrative record was outstanding. When he died, officials and commoners alike mourned him.
32
熊其英，字純叔，江蘇青浦人。 以貢生就訓導。 家福集金賑河南，其英請行，始事濟源。 濟源山僻小縣也，災尤劇，多方補苴，次第以及他邑。 其英親履窮僻，稽察戶口，不避風雪，食惟麥粥、麵餅、菜羹，與饑民同苦。 初頭病瘍，足病濕，醫少愈，仍從事不肯休，遂卒於衛輝。 巡撫上聞，詔許被賑各州縣立祠祀之。
Xiong Qiying, courtesy name Chunshu, was from Qingpu in Jiangsu. A tribute student, he became a district instructor. When Jiafu raised funds for Henan relief, Qiying volunteered and began at Jiyuan. Jiyuan was a remote mountain county hit especially hard; he improvised relief there, then moved on to other districts in turn. Qiying went in person to the poorest villages, checked household registers, braved wind and snow, and ate only porridge, flatbread, and vegetable soup—sharing the hunger of the people he served. He developed sores on his head and rheumatism in his feet; though briefly improved by doctors, he refused to stop working and died at Weihui. The governor reported his death; the throne authorized shrines in every district he had relieved.
33
家福，字綏之，吳縣人。 世以行善為事。 聞豫、晉災，呼籥尤切。 義聲傾動，聞者風起。 自上海、蘇、揚及杭、湖，原助賑者眾。 日賚錢至家福門，或千金，或數千金，不一年得銀四十三萬有奇。 凡賑二十七州，繼其英往者七十四人。 家福才識為時重，於創辦電報及推廣招商輸船局事多所策畫。 李鴻章尤賞之，嘗疏薦稱有「物與民胞」之量，體國經野之才。 金福曾亦聞而歎許焉。 家福歷保至直隸州知州，卒不仕。 時又有吳江紳富沈中堅，鬻田三十頃，親往山西賑災。 亦義行之尤著者。
Jiafu, courtesy name Suizhi, was from Wuxian. His family had done charitable work for generations. When he heard of famine in Henan and Shanxi, he appealed urgently for help. His appeal stirred the region; donors responded in waves. From Shanghai, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Hangzhou, and Huzhou, many came forward to give. Money poured in daily—sometimes a thousand taels, sometimes several thousand. In less than a year he raised more than 430,000 taels. Relief reached twenty-seven prefectures; seventy-four volunteers followed Qiying into the field. Jiafu's ability was widely respected; he helped plan the telegraph service and the expansion of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. Li Hongzhang especially valued him and once recommended him as a man with compassion for all people and talent for governing the realm. Jin Fuceng, hearing of him, also expressed admiration. Jiafu was repeatedly recommended for office up to Zhili department magistrate but never served. At the time Shen Zhongjian, a wealthy gentleman of Wujiang, sold thirty qing of land and went personally to Shanxi to administer relief. He too was noted for outstanding charitable deeds.
34
=童兆蓉=童兆蓉，字少芙，湖南寧鄉人。 同治六年舉人，從軍陝西，積功晉知府。 光緒三年，署榆林。 歲祲，便宜發倉，復運粟於包頭、寧夏，單騎臨賑。 既而大疫，延榆綏道及榆林令皆遽歿，代者不至。 兆蓉一身兼攝三官，比戶存問，為具醫藥，全活甚眾。 六年，署延榆綏道。 屬郡荒僻，土僿民貧。 為拓學舍，購書勸課，教民樹藝畜牧。 治榆溪河，開渠溉田，民利之。 八年，授興安知府。 汰胥役，禁私錢。 總兵餘虎恩販錢為利，獲而毀之。 稅胥索賈人金，榜治幾死。 民間婚娶苟簡，為定禮制，禁淫祀，葺昭忠、節孝祠，以正民志。 安康令徵糧苛急，民聚而譁，兆蓉往撫諭。 總兵及釐局挾前嫌，誣為激變，遂解任。 尋得白，署漢中，逾年還本任。 川匪擾境，擒斬其渠，賊潰走。 調西安，攝督糧道，定徵糧改折，上下稱便。
Tong Zhaorong, courtesy name Shaofu, was from Ningxiang in Hunan. A provincial graduate of the sixth year of Tongzhi, he campaigned in Shaanxi and rose to prefect by merit. In the third year of Guangxu he acted as magistrate of Yulin. In a famine year he opened granaries on his own authority, brought grain from Baotou and Ningxia, and rode alone to supervise relief. Soon a plague struck; the circuit intendant and the Yulin magistrate died suddenly, and no replacements arrived. Zhaorong held three offices alone, visited every household, supplied medicine, and saved countless lives. In the sixth year he acted as Yan-Yulin-Suide circuit intendant. His jurisdiction was remote, the soil poor, and the people impoverished. He expanded schools, bought books, encouraged study, and taught farming and animal husbandry. He regulated the Yuxi River, dug irrigation canals, and the people prospered. In the eighth year he was appointed prefect of Xing'an. He purged corrupt clerks and banned private coinage. He seized and destroyed counterfeit coin sold for profit by Brigadier Yu Hu'en. When a tax clerk extorted a merchant, he had the man flogged nearly to death. He regulated weddings and funerals, banned improper cults, and restored shrines to loyal martyrs and chaste women to guide public morals. When the Ankang magistrate pressed grain collection too hard and the people rioted, Zhaorong went to calm them. The brigadier and transit-tax bureau, nursing old grudges, falsely accused him of inciting riot, and he was dismissed. He was soon cleared, acted at Hanzhong, and returned to his post after a year. When Sichuan rebels raided the border, he captured and executed their leader and the enemy fled. Transferred to Xi'an, he acted as grain commissioner and fixed a commutation system for tax grain that officials and people alike found convenient.
35
二十六年，擢浙江溫處道，先署杭嘉湖，明年乃之任。 值拳匪亂後，瑞安民楊茂奶與教堂積釁。 浙東法國主教趙保祿尤橫，挾兵船至溫州，必欲殺楊。 兆蓉力爭曰：「彼法不當死，我不能殺人以媚人。」 卒拒之，以此名聞。 颶風為災，賑糶並舉，民不乏食。 三十一年，卒於官。
In the twenty-sixth year he was promoted to the Wen-Chu circuit in Zhejiang, first acting at Hang-Jia-Hu, and took up the post the following year. After the Boxer uprising, Yang Maonai of Ruian and the local church had long-standing grievances. Bishop Zhao Baolu of eastern Zhejiang was especially domineering; he brought gunboats to Wenzhou and demanded Yang's execution. Zhaorong argued firmly: 'He does not deserve death under the law. I will not execute a man to please foreigners. He refused in the end, and won renown for it. When a typhoon struck, he ran relief and grain sales together so the people did not go hungry. He died in office in the thirty-first year.
36
=【論】=論曰：光緒初，各省重吏治，監司大吏下逮守令，皆一時之選。 朝儀以下諸人，或禦亂保民，或治盜清訟，或興學勸業，或救災卹患，莫不以民生為重。 承兵燹後，辛苦凋殘之人，得生存以至今日者，實賴於此。 「民亦勞止，汔可小休，惠此中國，以為民逑」。 誠知本哉！ [一]按：劉含芳傳所附陳黌舉傳，關內本與關外一次本無。
The commentary observes: Early in the Guangxu era the provinces stressed good government; from provincial supervisors down to district magistrates, the appointments were men of real ability. From Chaoyi downward, some quelled rebellion and protected the people, some suppressed banditry and cleared the courts, some promoted schools and industry, some relieved famine and disaster—all put the people's welfare first. After the wars, the exhausted survivors who reached the present day owed their lives in large part to such men. 'The people too have labored long; may they now rest a little. Show grace to this central land and be a true guide to the people.' This indeed is the root of governance! Editor's note: The biography of Chen Hongju appended to Liu Hanfang's biography does not appear in either the inside-the-pass or outside-the-pass first editions.