1
Hong Rukui, styled Qinxi, came from Hanyang in Hubei. He passed the provincial examination in the twenty-fourth year of the Daoguang reign (1844). Early in the Xianfeng period he qualified as an Imperial College instructor and, upon completing his term, was selected for a county magistracy. He joined Zeng Guofan's military staff. In the early Tongzhi years successive commendations advanced him to a Jiangnan circuit-intendant post. As superintendent of the grain bureau, he supplied provisions for garrison troops and inter-provincial military assistance funds. He also managed repayment of the foreign loans raised for the Western campaigns, handling more than twenty million taels in turnover while reconciling accounts rigorously and refusing to evade controversy. Under Guangxu, when Shen Baozhen governed the Two Jiangs, he leaned on him more than anyone else. Shen governed in a stern, forceful style; whenever illness kept him on leave he repeatedly asked the throne to let Rukui act for him, and Rukui's standing grew accordingly. When the court called for talent, senior officials lined up to recommend him. In the fifth year of Guangxu he was specially promoted to salt transport commissioner of Guangdong. Transferred to the Two Huai salt administration, he pruned waste, founded charity granaries, and dredged Yangzhou's city canal. He was on the verge of major achievements when the Three Pailou case broke out in Nanjing.
2
Earlier a body had been found dumped near the bamboo grove at Three Pailou. Rukui had Vice-Commander Hu Jinzhuan trace the case to the monk Shaozong and others, accused of murdering a man surnamed Xie in a feud; the victim was also said to be surnamed Xue, and even his name shifted with each retelling, so Rukui asked for a rehearing. Shen treated it as fratricide among secret-society members and had the defendants executed at once. More than three years on, the real killers Zhou Wu, Shen Baohong, and others were caught for murdering Zhu Biao—the timing and location matched perfectly. When word reached the throne, Minister Lin Shu and Vice Minister Xue Yunsheng were dispatched to Jiangnan to reinvestigate on the spot. Jinzhuan was found guilty of abusive punishment and wrongful conviction and sentenced under statute. Rukui was punished for negligent supervision—stripped of office and banished. Shen had already died and was spared further proceedings. The court then warned every province to handle criminal cases with greater care and barred military officers from sitting in on civilian trials thereafter. Rukui reached his place of banishment, was pardoned and sent home soon after, but fell suddenly ill and died. Early in the Xuantong reign, Governor-General Duan Fang memorialized his record in office and had his former rank restored.
3
Yang Zonglian, styled Yifang, came from Wuxi in Jiangsu. Late in the Xianfeng era, while holding a vice-director post in the Ministry of Revenue, he organized home-district militia from his native place. When Qian Dingming went to Zeng Guofan to request troops, Zonglian went with him. When Li Hongzhang marched east with relief forces, Zonglian led his former units as guides and won repeated victories. During Liu Mingchuan's campaign against Jiangyin, Zonglian held Yangshe with his Lianzi Battalion. When rebels attacked, he led the Sha Corps and drove them back. The Sha Corps were riverbank militia who had banded together for self-defense; famed for fighting skill, they were feared by every rebel band. In the assault on Wuxi he commanded the vanguard. He fought a pitched battle with the rebel leader Huang Zicheng, stormed the north gate by night, and took the city. In the combined assault on Changzhou he directed operations at the west gate, threw a pontoon bridge across, and rode ahead alone. His horse bolted and threw him into the river; he scrambled up, mounted another horse, pressed on, led his men in hand-to-hand fighting up the wall, and captured Chen Kunshu. After Jiangnan was pacified he followed Li Hongzhang against the Nian rebels as head of the camp affairs office. Wherever armies marched they commandeered official carts and burdened officials and civilians alike; Zonglian created a transport battalion that stockpiled everything campaigns needed so supplies were always ready. Other armies copied his system and found it indispensable. Merit accumulated until he was promoted to circuit intendant.
4
In the eleventh year of Tongzhi he served as acting intendant of the Jing-Yi-Shi circuit in Hubei but was impeached and removed. When Li Hongzhang founded the Beiyang Military Academy he had Zonglian recalled to head it, and the school turned out many capable officers. In the sixteenth year of Guangxu (1890) he was appointed intendant of the Tong-Yong circuit in Zhili. When the capital region was stricken by severe floods, he directed relief work and was authorized to disburse funds and grain at his discretion. He then launched a major waterworks program, repairing the Chaobai, Qinglong, Ji, North, Tonghui, and Yongqing rivers. By dredging channels and building embankments he reclaimed tens of thousands of mu of rich farmland, and local gentry and commoners set up monuments in his praise. He left office to observe mourning. Called back to service, he served as intendant of the Hedong circuit in Shanxi, acted as provincial treasurer and provincial judge in turn, and was then appointed Changlu salt transport commissioner. In the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu (1900), when the allied armies attacked Tianjin, he led Changlu militia onto the walls in a stubborn defense. A shell splinter shattered his left shin and blood pooled around him, yet he bandaged the wound and kept command. After the city fell he fought street by street and was wounded again in the right thigh. He was ordered to Baoding to run the grain bureau, then accompanied Li Hongzhang to the capital for peace negotiations. When matters were settled he was granted third-rank metropolitan official status. Soon afterward he asked to retire on grounds of illness and died.
5
Shi Pu, styled Lanqi, came from Zunhua in Zhili. A metropolitan graduate appointed magistrate, he was posted to Guangdong and served in Huilai, Ruyuan, Nanhai, and other counties, earning respect and goodwill everywhere he went. The Chaoyang bandit Zheng Duanji had murdered the previous magistrate; as soon as Pu took office he had him captured and executed. Promoted to department magistrate of Luoding, he stayed in the provincial capital to round up the notorious bandit Liu Yacai and nine hundred accomplices, all of whom were punished under law. Guangdong had long suffered from pirates; Pu took to the sea to suppress them, induced chiefs such as Zhang Shiwuzi to surrender, dispersed their bands of several thousand followers, and wiped out those who refused to submit, earning promotion to prefect. While campaigning against Yingde bandits he was ambushed at Fogang, fell into a deep ravine, and survived only by catching hold of a tree. The bandits caught up, looked him over, and cried, "It's Master Shi!" They competed to escort him out, knelt before him, and offered food and drink. Pu lectured them on duty and honor, listed their crimes and reviled them, and swore to take no food. The bandits were awed all the more, bowed in rows with tears, and offered to bind their leaders and serve under him. When rescuers arrived they carried him home. An edict removed him from office but still required him to redeem himself through service. Once the rebels were pacified he was restored to his former rank.
6
When rebels rose in eastern Guangdong the provincial capital was placed under martial law. He held the Liede battery, broke rebel strongholds at Shawan, Jiaotang, and Xinzao in succession, was awarded a peacock feather, and was appointed prefect of Zhaoqing. When Wuzhou was besieged he marched to its relief, withdrew his force to Fengchuan, and fought a holding action. When the British captured Guangzhou the provincial authorities could spare no attention for the west. Pu held the rebels at bay for five months in several dozen engagements and killed several thousand of them. When rebels later arrived in force, Regional Commander Kun Shou advanced by land and water together with him; they fought a major battle at the mouth of the Fengchuan River, won successive victories that destroyed the rebel force, and recovered Wuzhou. He was promoted to circuit intendant and again served as acting intendant of the Zhao-Luo circuit. In the second year of Tongzhi he was transferred to Guangzhou, acted as provincial judge, and soon served as grain commissioner. Pu spent nearly forty years in Guangdong in all, was masterful at suppressing banditry, and above all knew how to use men. A Nanhai subordinate was falsely accused of banditry; Pu had him released, and the man later served him with unstinting loyalty in bandit suppression. He pacified Qiong bandits by enrolling them under new names; many died fighting for the government. When the besieged provincial capital ran short of funds, he went out to solicit donations and at once raised a million taels. When the rebels first rose he alone favored conciliation; once they held Wuzhou he favored suppression—in each case he chose the right moment. In the second year of Guangxu (1876) he was given the additional post of salt transport commissioner for arranging Western-expedition relief funds. When the provincial examination cycle came round again he was granted second-rank court dress. In the fourth year of Guangxu he died.
7
Shi Kekuan, styled Shengyuan, came from Liuhe in Anhui. During the Xianfeng era he and his elder brother Kexie organized home-district militia against the rebels. When Taihu fell his brother Kexie was killed in action. Kekuan helped recover Taihu and Susong, lifted the siege of Liuhe, and was recommended from his post as Imperial College assistant registrar for appointment as magistrate. Early in Tongzhi, when Liu Mingchuan campaigned against the Nian and then the western Muslims, he always took Kekuan along to run supply transport and the camp affairs office. For his service he was promoted to prefect. Under Guangxu, when Li Hongzhang governed Zhili, he was put in charge of the engineering bureau and river works; he regulated the Hutuo, cut a thirty-li relief channel at Zhujia Mouth in Xian county, and sent the water to the sea along the old Ziya River course. Li Hongzhang reported his achievements and had him appointed Qinghe circuit intendant; the people set up a monument in his praise. He was soon impeached on another matter, removed from office, and retired home.
8
Shen Baojing, styled Zhongwei, came from Jiangyin in Jiangsu. He passed the provincial examination in the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858). His father Yaoyun was a subprefect in Hubei; when Wuchang fell he cursed the rebels and was killed. Baojing moved in and out of rebel-held territory searching for his father's remains; only after three years did he secure proof of death in service, winning an imperial pension and a memorial shrine. When Li Hongzhang commanded at Shanghai he recruited Baojing to his staff, and merit accumulated until he reached circuit-intendant rank. In the eleventh year of Tongzhi (1872) he was appointed intendant of the Guang-Rao-Jiu-Nan circuit in Jiangxi. When the British minister concluded the Yantai treaty, its terms would have let steamships moor at Hukou in Jiangxi to load and unload cargo; Baojing argued this would harm Jiujiang customs revenue and fought the proposal until the Zongli Yamen annulled it. He was promoted to provincial judge and acted as provincial treasurer. In the seventh year of Guangxu (1881) he was transferred to Fujian as provincial treasurer. When the Sino-French conflict broke out the situation was acute: the city gates were shut, money shops and grain markets closed, and the populace was on the verge of riot. Baojing went out to reassure the people, released three hundred thousand taels from the treasury to steady the market, and calm was restored. He was impeached on another matter and removed from office; though his rank was soon restored, he never returned to public life. Among his writings are Expositions on the Mencius, Selected Essentials of Han Feizi, and the Inner and Outer Compilations of the Yiyun Hall.
9
Zhu Qiang, styled Yunfu, came from Baoshan in Jiangsu. Early in Tongzhi he joined the campaign against Nanhui. The besieged rebels offered to surrender on condition that someone enter the city to seal the pact; no one dared go until Qiang volunteered, entered, accepted their surrender, and the city then fell. He soon purchased a subprefect post and rose step by step to circuit intendant. Li Hongzhang, minister for the northern coast, took a strong interest in his abilities. Warships built at the Fuzhou Naval Yard proved unsuitable, and the court was asked to shift to merchant shipping instead. Qiang and his younger brother Qizhao proposed a joint official-merchant steamship company; Li Hongzhang memorialized the plan and appointed Qiang general manager. Censor Dong Junhan impeached him for taking on more than he could manage; Li Hongzhang was ordered to investigate but still strongly backed the venture. Officials and merchants then opened the company, sold shares, and bought out the foreign-run Russell & Company steamship line to protect China's shipping interests. Within a few years the results were striking. Early in Guangxu, when Zhili and Shanxi were stricken by famine, he spent his own fortune on relief work until illness overtook him. Li Hongzhang specially appointed him acting Tianjin customs intendant; he died three days later. The throne granted generous posthumous honors and the rank of vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
10
His younger brother Qizhao, styled Yifu. He purchased a magistracy and rose step by step to circuit intendant. He served repeatedly in Jiangsu and Zhejiang grain transport. Once the China Merchants Company was running, he secured the fixed grain-transport subsidy for steamship carriage by sea, giving the company a firm financial base. He again served as acting Yongding River intendant, touring the dikes up and down the river to learn every advantage and defect. During a sudden summer flood he once went three days and nights without sleep, personally directing emergency repairs, and averted a breach; the people were deeply grateful. He expanded the Tianjin Telegraph School and turned out more graduates than ever. When a naval medical school was being planned, Qizhao donated forty mu he had bought in the Tianjin French concession as its site—typical of his public spirit. He died soon afterward and was posthumously made a Grand Secretariat bachelor.
11
宗源瀚，字湘文，江蘇上元人。 少佐幕，洊保至知府。 光緒初，官浙江，歷署衢州、湖州、嘉興府事，敏於吏事，判牘輒千言。 在湖州濬碧浪湖，興水利。 時太湖漊港淤塞，前守楊榮緒疏濬無功，會有疏陳治法者，下郡，源瀚乃議大興工役，所規畫甚備。 榮緒回任，卒成之，補嚴州。 兵後凋敝，多溫、台客民寄墾，習於剽劫，廉治其魁，遣散歸者六千人。 治嚴五載，煦嘔山民，穿渠灌田，引東、西湖以洩新安江之暴漲，旱潦不害。 每巡行田野，勸民力穡。 調寧波，通商事繁。 有戈鯤者，素豪猾，為英國領事主文牘，積為奸利病民。 源瀚發其罪狀，牒上大吏及南、北洋大臣，逐鯤海外。 法國兵船犯浙洋，源瀚從寧紹台道薛福成籌海防，多所贊畫，數有功。 晉道員，署杭嘉湖道。 二十年，日本構兵，調溫處道，沿海戒嚴，處以鎮靜，清內匪，捕誅盜渠十餘人，疆圉晏然。 又三年，卒於官。
Zong Yuanhan, styled Xiangwen, came from Shangyuan in Jiangsu. As a young man he served on official staffs and rose through successive recommendations to prefect. Early in Guangxu he served in Zhejiang, acting in turn for the prefectures of Quzhou, Huzhou, and Jiaxing; sharp in administration, his written judgments often ran to a thousand words. In Huzhou he dredged Bilang Lake and promoted irrigation works. The Lou ports of Lake Tai were then silted shut; the previous prefect Yang Rongxu had dredged in vain. When a memorial on remedies reached the prefecture, Yuanhan proposed a major works program with meticulous planning. Yang Rongxu returned and finally completed the project; Yuanhan was then appointed to Yanzhou. The region lay devastated after the wars; many settlers from Wenzhou and Taizhou had reclaimed land and turned to banditry. He punished their leaders and sent six thousand home. For five years he governed Yanzhou, caring for hill people, cutting irrigation canals, and using the East and West Lakes to discharge Xin'an River floods, so drought and flood did little harm. On his tours of the countryside he urged the people to work their fields diligently. He was transferred to Ningbo, where treaty-port business was heavy. A man named Ge Kun, long domineering and cunning, served as chief clerk to the British consul and had amassed illicit profits at the people's expense. Yuanhan exposed his crimes, reported him to superior officials and the coastal ministers, and had him expelled from the country. When French warships threatened Zhejiang waters, he worked with Ning-Shao-Tai intendant Xue Fucheng on coastal defense, contributing much sound advice and winning repeated credit. He was promoted to circuit intendant and served as acting Hang-Jia-Hu intendant. In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894), when Japan went to war, he was transferred to the Wen-Chu circuit. Though the coast was on alert, he kept order, suppressed internal bandits, executed more than ten ringleaders, and the frontier stayed calm. Three years later he died in office.
12
13
Xu Qingzhang, styled Xingzhai, came from Shanyin in Zhejiang. He began on Du Xing'a's staff, rose through recommendations to magistrate, served in Kuandian, Gaiping, and Yizhou in Fengtian, and was promoted to subprefect of Xingjing. Wherever he served he left a record of good government. He often walked the markets in disguise; when he met litigants he would judge their disputes on the spot and send them home. He promoted repair of the poorhouse and took in the destitute. Local custom delayed spring planting; Qingzhang gathered villagers and taught that farm work must follow the seasons. The people took his lesson to heart, and the saying "plant one day early, harvest ten days early" is still remembered.
14
In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894) he was transferred from Fenghuang subprefecture to be department magistrate of Liaoyang. The Sino-Japanese War was then at its height, and county after county in the province's southeast fell to the enemy. Only Liaoyang, the gateway to Mukden, held firm thanks to preparations made in advance. He raised funds, trained troops as the Eastern Garrison Army, and fortified the border. From Liaoyang through Xiuyan, Haicheng, and Fuxian he organized militia from 3,600 villages into a force of tens of thousands, with Xu Zhen of Miandong as drill leader, trained in military discipline. When Japanese troops arrived, Qingzhang told the people, "The enemy is upon us! Relief has not arrived. Make your own plans; you need not die with me. If I die, that is my duty!" Stirred by his words, they all asked to fight, repeatedly defeated Japanese detachments, and took more than a hundred prisoners. They fought and held out for five months. Chang Shun and Yike Tang'a, then commanding the front, both relied heavily on him, and the throne repeatedly commended his service. The western part of the prefecture had suffered floods for years; he again raised relief funds and saved countless lives. Talented and proud, Qingzhang governed with a mix of leniency and severity; the people feared him like autumn frost yet loved him like winter sun, and called him "Clear-Sky Xu." After peace was made he was promoted to prefect of Qingyang in Gansu and then to the Ganliang circuit, but illness from overwork brought him to his death in office.
15
Xu Zhen, styled Pinqing, came from Liaoyang. Upright and resourceful, when Japanese troops invaded Liaodong he alone led militia to hold Jidong Pass, blocking the enemy at a strategic defile. Qingzhang had made him drill leader, but regular commanders grew jealous and ordered the militia disbanded, weakening the defense; yet the Jidongyu militia became famous at home and abroad. After the war he was recommended for county registrar for his service against the enemy. When the Boxer movement broke out he again organized militia across hundreds of villages and hunted down bandits wherever they appeared, regardless of jurisdiction. He successively suppressed bandit attacks on Teng'ao Fort and Huangou. During the Russo-Japanese War he strictly maintained neutrality and gave neither side any advantage. Governor-General Zhao Erxun praised his militia work, writing that he "took no government funds above and no private levies below, but solely through loyalty protected the countryside and saved countless lives." Through successive recommendations he rose to prefect. When the Wuchang uprising broke out, bandits gathered mobs and stirred disorder in the name of revolution. Knowing Zhen's loyal courage, Erxun appointed him to the patrol defense battalion
16
幫統，分防遼陽、海城、岫岩、本溪四城，地方賴以安謐。 尋以巡防改編陸軍，遂辭職。 卒後，州人建專祠祀之。
as assistant commander, garrisoning Liaoyang, Haicheng, Xiuyan, and Benxi, on which the region's peace depended. When the patrol force was reorganized into the regular army he resigned. After his death the people of the prefecture built a shrine in his honor.
17
Kuai Guangdian, styled Liqing, came from Hefei in Anhui. His father Demo has a biography among the conscientious officials. Precocious as a child, he was writing poetry at eight. Following his father to a post in Jiangnan, he studied with many leading scholars of the day, and his reputation grew steadily. In scholarship he stressed the great principles of the classics, with the Six Scripts and mathematics as foundations; in philology he sought semantic categories to link the disciplines and used double initials to explain loan characters. He had a formidable memory, was a sharp debater, and was especially versed in bibliography and historical lore. In debate his citations were so comprehensive that no opponent could exhaust his arguments.
18
光緒九年進士，授檢討。 典貴州鄉試，與其副不相下，以狂倨見譏，然榜發稱得士。 充會典館圖繪總纂，精密勝於舊。 中東兵起，發憤上書，不報，遂乞假歸。 總督劉坤一聘主尊經書院講席。 光典念國勢弱，在列諸人惟鄂督張之洞有大略，又嘗所從受業師也，因往說之洞慎選才俊，習武備，為異日革新庶政之用。 之洞韙之，卒不果，而聘為兩湖書院監督。 二十四年，敘會典館勞，以道員發江南，創辦江寧高等學堂。 大學士剛毅按事江南，司道百餘人同詣謁，獨延光典密室縱談國事，語切直。 剛毅大憾，即議裁高等學堂。 光典力爭，不能得，拂衣去。 坤一兩解之，檄赴鹽城丈樵地，樵地者，故鹽場葦蕩也。 年餘得可耕之地七萬五千頃，收入荒價亦鉅萬。 領正陽關督銷局，歲增銷官引百數十萬。 會之洞代坤一為總督，以江南財匱，用不足，議增貨釐。 光典謂增新釐則病商，毋寧整齊鹽課。 之洞因奏陳兩淮鹽事衰旺，謂：「北鹽視正陽銷數，南鹽視儀棧出數。 光典為江南治鹽第一，督正陽既有績，請使主儀棧。 期三年，成效必可睹。」 詔允之。 光典既蒞事，以輪船駐大江三要區，首金、焦，次三江口，次沙漫洲，輔以兵艇，私梟斂跡。 始儀棧出數不足四十萬引，比三年，增引十餘萬，歲益課釐銀百五十餘萬。 乃益增募緝私兵隊，日夕訓練成勁旅，又於十二圩設學堂，建工廠，遂隱然為江防重鎮。
He passed the metropolitan examination in the ninth year of Guangxu (1883) and was appointed a Hanlin reviser. As chief examiner for Guizhou he clashed with his deputy and was criticized for arrogance, yet when the results were announced he was praised for selecting true talent. As chief map compiler for the Collected Statutes project, his work surpassed earlier editions in precision. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out he submitted an impassioned memorial; unanswered, he took leave and went home. Governor-General Liu Kunyi engaged him to lecture at the Zunjing Academy. Seeing the nation's weakness, Guangdian judged that only Hubei Governor Zhang Zhidong—once his teacher—had a broad vision, and went to urge him to select talented youths and train them in military affairs for future reform. Zhang approved the plan but it never came to fruition; he nevertheless appointed Guangdian superintendent of the Liang-Hu Academy. In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898) his work on the Collected Statutes was recognized, he was sent to Jiangnan as circuit intendant, and he founded the Jiangning Higher School. When Grand Secretary Gangyi inspected Jiangnan, more than a hundred officials paid their respects together; he alone took Guangdian into a private room for a frank discussion of national affairs. Gangyi took great offense and immediately proposed abolishing the higher school. Guangdian argued in vain and resigned in protest. Kunyi mediated twice and sent him to Yancheng to survey former salt-field reed marshes. In little more than a year he identified seventy-five thousand qing of arable land and brought in tens of thousands in reclamation fees. As head of the Zhengyang Pass salt distribution bureau he increased annual official salt sales by more than a million taels. When Zhang Zhidong replaced Kunyi as governor-general, Jiangnan's treasury was empty and officials discussed raising commodity transit dues. Guangdian argued that new transit dues would hurt merchants and that it would be better to reform the salt tax. Zhang therefore memorialized on the Two Huai salt trade, saying, "Northern salt is measured by Zhengyang sales, southern salt by Yizhan output. Guangdian is Jiangnan's foremost salt administrator; having succeeded at Zhengyang, I ask that he be put in charge of Yizhan. Within three years the results will be plain." The throne approved. Once in office he stationed steamships at three key points on the Yangtze—Jin and Jiao, Sanjiang Mouth, and Shamanzhou—backed by patrol boats, and private salt smugglers vanished. Yizhan output had begun below four hundred thousand salt tickets; within three years sales rose by more than a hundred thousand tickets, adding more than 1.5 million taels a year in tax and transit revenue. He expanded the anti-smuggling force, drilled it into a crack unit, and founded a school and factories at Shierwei, making the post a key Yangtze defense hub.
19
In the thirty-second year of Guangxu he inspected the Huai-Yang coastal circuit and was given the additional rank of provincial judge. When Baoying famine victims looted grain, the magistrate secretly fled. Guangdian happened to arrive by boat and earnestly talked the crowd into dispersing. When Yangzhou reported similar looting, he found a corrupt clerk had secretly stirred up the crowd and had him arrested at once. Superior officials were furious and meant to prosecute the case to the end, but Guangdian's intervention spared the people further punishment. When the Grand Canal flooded, he ordered river officials to raise the dikes while he moored at Gaoyou to supervise. As sluice emergencies mounted, superiors followed precedent, measured the water by season, and ordered the gates opened; he refused. After more than a month he opened two sluices, and only at the end of the seventh month the third; the six lower-river counties then brought in their harvest. He argued that the Huai-Hai disaster zone was too vast for soup kitchens, which would draw starving crowds, waste funds, and breed disorder; broad cash relief would work better. He disagreed with Provincial Treasurer Jichang, and when summoned to the capital to discuss bureaucratic reform he left his post. Later northern Jiangsu relief funds ran short while expenses were wasted, exactly as Guangdian had predicted.
20
三十四年，命赴歐洲監督留學生。 諸生不樂受約束，輒相訾謷，歲餘謝職歸。 詔以四品京堂候補，充京師督學局長。 宣統二年，赴南洋提調勸業會，卒於江寧。
In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu he was sent to Europe to supervise students abroad. The students resented discipline and constantly quarreled; after a year he resigned and returned home. He was made a fourth-rank metropolitan official awaiting appointment and head of the capital school supervision bureau. In the second year of Xuantong he went south to direct the industrial exposition and died at Nanjing.
21
陳遹聲，字蓉曙，浙江諸暨人。 光緒十二年進士，改庶吉士，授編修。 出為松江知府，鹽梟久為患。 遹聲到官，密致其黨為導，帥健卒策疾騎踔百餘裡，掩其魁捕之，寘諸法。 松窪下，數苦潦，濬支河三十餘，並籌歲修費數万金以澤農。 以憂歸。 拳禍起，暨俗素強，與教仇。 不逞者轉相煽惑，眾至千餘，城鄉約期將為亂。 遹聲獨命輿往喻之，途與眾遌，勢洶洶，斫輿前衡深寸許，正告之曰：「吾楓橋陳某也，來活爾！」 為指陳利害。 眾悟且泣，皆羅拜，爭棄械而走。 而城中莠民忽蜂起，遹聲促官守閉城，捕其魁五人斬以徇，事立平。 縣北江藻村，賭窟也。 每歲十月，吳、越賭徒紛集，一擲累千金，破家者無算。 遹聲請於大吏，屆時縣官蒞村坐禁，著為例，數百年敝俗至此而革。 服除，以勞遷道員，入參政務、練兵、稅務諸政。
Chen Yusheng, styled Rongshu, came from Zhuji in Zhejiang. A metropolitan graduate in the twelfth year of Guangxu, he entered the Hanlin and was appointed a compiler. Posted as prefect of Songjiang, he faced a long-standing salt-smuggling problem. On taking office he sent agents undercover, led picked troops on a hundred-li forced march, surprised the ringleader, and executed him under law. The lowlands below Songjiang flooded often; he dredged more than thirty branch canals and set aside tens of thousands of taels a year for upkeep to benefit farmers. He left office to observe mourning. When the Boxer movement broke out, Zhuji folk were famously tough and hostile to missionaries. Agitators stirred one another on until more than a thousand people in town and country fixed a date to rise. Yusheng alone went out in a sedan chair to reason with them. The mob was furious and hacked the chair's front crossbar nearly through. He called out, "I am Chen of Fengqiao, and I have come to save your lives!" He laid out what they stood to gain and lose. The crowd understood, wept, bowed in rows, and threw down their weapons as they fled. Then ruffians inside the city rose; he had the gates shut, captured five leaders and executed them as a warning, and order was restored at once. Jiangzao village north of the county was a notorious gambling den. Every October gamblers from Wu and Yue gathered; a single throw could cost thousands of taels and ruin countless families. He persuaded superiors to require the magistrate to sit in the village each season and ban gambling by precedent, ending a centuries-old abuse. After mourning he was promoted to circuit intendant for his service and took part in government, military training, and tax affairs.
22
In the thirty-third year of Guangxu he was appointed intendant of the Chuandong circuit. Chuandong was bandit country; within ten days of taking office more than ten thousand rebels from Kaixian raided neighboring counties, and he suppressed them at once. The next year the Guizhou bandit Liu Tiancheng joined Sichuan border fugitives to harass the south, repeatedly defeating government troops. The province sent seven trained battalions against them, but when the bandits appeared the troops dropped their arms and fled. Yusheng raised several hundred picked men, drilled them in military discipline, rushed to the rescue, and within a month captured Tiancheng alive. Jiangbei subprefecture had coal seams stretching several hundred li to Hezhou. Corrupt locals secretly sold Dragon King Cave to British merchants; the Foreign Ministry signed a lease handing over all Jiangbei mineral rights; and the British also demanded extension to Shiniugou, encroaching on both provinces. Sichuan people were furious and on the verge of fighting the British. Yusheng fought the case before the British consul and secretly urged Sichuan people to buy up land around Shiniugou. With no other land available the British held the gully and cave—worthless ground—and tried every threat, but he stood firm until they sold the rights back cheaply. After two years in Chongqing, with superiors lining up to recommend him, he suddenly pleaded illness and retired. Those in power summoned him repeatedly, but he refused to return. Among his writings are Poems of Ming Recluses, Miscellanies of the Qilu Studio, and collected verse.
23
潘民表，字振聲，江蘇陽湖人。 同治十二年舉人。 光緒初，數募金賑直隸、河南、山西諸行省。 十五年，山東河決，凡賑歷城、齊河、臨邑、齊東、濟陽、惠民、商河、青城、濱、霑化、海豐、陽信、蒲台十三州縣。 閱四年始竣。 災民無歸者眾，民表於歷城臥牛山建屋五百間、窩棚千間居之，使植桑麻，興耕織，疾病婚嫁，皆有資助。 別建工廠百間，義塾八所，設教養局董之。 因其規畫，歷十年之久，多有藝成自給者，乃以經費改設蒙養學堂。 十九年，賑山西大同邊外豐鎮諸廳，亦仿臥牛山成法，收集教養之，尋以州同就職山東，署恩縣，補平度，擢泰安知府。 二十八年，河決利津，詔頒內帑十萬，大吏檄民表去任專賑事。 晉道員，發陝西，筦農工商礦局。 民表諗同官縣土質宜磁，建磁窯同官，興大利。 貲竭將中輟，請兼盩厔釐榷，以羨餘助磁業，仍不給，且虧稅，計無所出，竟仰藥死，時論惜之。
Pan Minbiao, styled Zhensheng, came from Yanghu in Jiangsu. He passed the provincial examination in the twelfth year of Tongzhi. Early in Guangxu he repeatedly raised relief funds for Zhili, Henan, Shanxi, and other provinces. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu the Yellow River broke its banks in Shandong; he directed relief in thirteen prefectures and counties including Licheng, Qihe, Linyi, and Putai. The work took four years to complete. Many victims had nowhere to go; at Woniushan in Licheng he built five hundred houses and a thousand sheds, set them to mulberry planting and weaving, and aided them in sickness and marriage. He also built a hundred workshops and eight charity schools under a nurture-and-education bureau. Under his plan, within ten years many became self-supporting through craft skills, and the funds were then turned into an elementary school. In the nineteenth year he relieved Fengzhen and other subprefectures beyond Datong using the Woniushan model, then entered Shandong service as subprefect, acted in En county, filled Pingdu, and rose to prefect of Tai'an. In the twenty-eighth year the river broke at Lijin; the throne allotted a hundred thousand taels from the privy purse and ordered Minbiao to leave office for full-time relief work. Promoted to circuit intendant, he was sent to Shaanxi to head the bureau of agriculture, industry, commerce, and mining. Seeing that Tongguan county's soil suited porcelain, he built kilns there to great profit. When funds ran out he asked to take Zhouzhi transit dues as well to subsidize the kilns, but revenue still fell short and taxes were lost; with no way out he took poison, to widespread regret.
24
For more than twenty years Minbiao wore himself out in relief work; at every disaster he rushed about heedless of family, in rags and straw sandals through the mud, his face blackened with hardship, borrowing every penny himself. In office his entire salary went to repay relief debts and fund more relief. Since charitable relief became fashionable, some poor scholars grew rich after a few years' work. Men like Minbiao, unstained throughout and dying penniless, were rare indeed.
25
Yan Zuolin, styled Youzhi, came from Dantu. A Confucian scholar, he threw himself into directing relief. From the second to the thirtieth year of Guangxu he directed relief in Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhili, Guangxi, Fengtian, Shaanxi, and other provinces. He usually combined river dredging and dike repair with work-relief. Resolute and decisive, he audited accounts without waste; over time donors trusted him and gave generously. He did not cling to fixed methods but adapted relief to time and place. Provincial officials found charitable relief could break bureaucratic delay and gladly relied on men like him to get things done. He sought no office, always declined recommendations, accepted only the rank of Imperial College assistant instructor, and received repeated warm commendations from the throne. He used relief surpluses to fund charity in Yangzhou and Zhenjiang. After his death his son Liangpei gave more than two hundred thousand taels for widows, chastity awards, and famine reserves, fulfilling his wishes.
26
唐錫晉，字桐卿，無錫人。 父文源，闔門殉粵難，積尸滿井。 亂平，錫晉拾親骨，瀝血取驗，誓奉遺訓力行善。 光緒初，聞豫、晉災，始募義賑。 十四年，以恩貢授安東縣教諭。 時淮、徐、海大水，錫晉棹小舟往賑，憂勞甚，鬚髮為白。 明年，安東澇，益募金賑之。 冬，复賑山東沿海諸郡災，為置常平倉。 二十六年，兩宮西狩，關中大饑，人相食，錫晉醵金四十萬往賑，歷二州八縣，艱困不少阻。 災區廣，賑款且匱，乃單車詣行在，請於大學士王文韶，得二十萬金益之。 事竣，返安東。 坐劾安東知縣貪殘，同落職。 兩江總督端方等奏复錫晉官，改銓長洲，後以輸金助賑保道員。 三十二年，湘中災，官紳復以賑事囑。 秋，淮浦被水，流民數十萬洶聚，喻遣勿散，咸曰：「有司行賑不足恃，必得唐公。」 時錫晉臥病，猶強扶而至，眾見其來，驩曰：「吾生矣！」 乃各還歸待賑，遂以無事。
Tang Xijin, styled Tongqing, came from Wuxi. His father Wenyuan and the entire household died in the Guangdong rebellion; corpses filled their well. After order returned he gathered his family's bones, verified them by blood, and vowed to follow his father's last charge to do good. Early in Guangxu, hearing of famine in Henan and Shanxi, he began charitable relief work. In the fourteenth year of Guangxu he was appointed instructor of Andong county as a tribute student by grace. When Huai, Xu, and Hai were flooded he poled a small boat through the waters on relief work until his beard and hair turned white from strain. The next year, when Andong flooded again, he raised more funds for relief. That winter he relieved the Shandong coast and established ever-normal granaries. In the twenty-sixth year, when the court fled west and Guanzhong faced famine so severe that people ate one another, he raised four hundred thousand taels and crossed two prefectures and eight counties without flinching. When funds ran short he traveled alone to the court in exile and secured another two hundred thousand taels from Grand Secretary Wang Wenshao. When the work was done he returned to Andong. He was removed from office along with the Andong magistrate he had impeached for greed and cruelty. Governor-General Duan Fang and others had his office restored and reassigned him to Changzhou county; later he was promoted to circuit intendant for contributing to relief. In the thirty-second year, when Hunan was stricken, officials and gentry again put him in charge of relief. That autumn floods on the Huai coast drove hundreds of thousands of refugees together; though told to disperse they refused, saying, "Official relief cannot be trusted—we must have Master Tang." Though ill in bed, he forced himself to come; when the crowd saw him they cried, "We are saved!" They went home to await relief, and trouble was averted.
27
In the third year of Xuantong he was planning relief for Jiangsu and Anhui when the Wuchang uprising broke out. Grief and anger worsened his illness, and he died the following year. Xijin directed relief for thirty-seven years from 1875 to 1911 across eight provinces—Shanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Hunan, from Jilin in the east to Gansu in the west; and his relief funds exceeded a million taels. No charitable relief effort matched his in scope or duration. After his death every province he had helped asked to build a shrine in his honor.
28
婁春蕃，字椒生，浙江紹興人。 以貢生納貲為同知，歷保道員。 久參北洋幕府，李鴻章尤重之，常倚以治繁劇。 春蕃熟諳直隸水利，永定河常歲決，思患預防，以時消息之，河不數病。 長蘆鹽商久困增釐，春蕃務為寬大，課裕而商不撓。 尤精刑律，審覈維慎，直省遂無冤獄。 拳亂作，力主剿辦。 為總督裕祿草奏，痛陳邪術萬不可信，戰釁萬不可開，以一服八，決無幸理。 裕祿初頗信之，不能堅持，卒致敗裂。 匪以通敵誣紳富，請搜殺。 春蕃力阻，多保全。 事亟，春蕃首請召鴻章北上停戰議和。 及聯軍猝至，同僚皆走，春蕃獨留不去，艱苦謀搘拄，至一月之久。 鴻章至，复參和議，約成，辭優保。 辛亥事起，人心惶惑，春蕃夙夜籌慮，獨為地方謀保安。 焦勞益甚，猝病卒。
Lou Chunfan, styled Jiaosheng, came from Shaoxing in Zhejiang. A tribute student who purchased a subprefect post, he rose through recommendations to circuit intendant. He long served on the Beiyang staff; Li Hongzhang valued him highly and often relied on him for the hardest assignments. Chunfan knew Zhili waterworks thoroughly; though the Yongding River breached almost every year, he anticipated trouble, regulated the flow by season, and kept disasters rare. Changlu salt merchants had long suffered under added transit dues; Chunfan pursued a lenient policy so revenue stayed strong without harassing the trade. Expert in penal law and meticulous in review, he kept wrongful convictions out of the metropolitan province. When the Boxer movement broke out he strongly favored military suppression. He drafted a memorial for Governor-General Yulu arguing that Boxer magic was worthless, war must be avoided, and one power against eight could not possibly win. Yulu initially listened but could not hold the line, and disaster followed. Boxers accused local gentry and rich families of collaborating with foreigners and demanded searches and executions. Chunfan blocked them strenuously and saved many lives. As the crisis peaked he was first to urge summoning Li Hongzhang north to stop the fighting and negotiate peace. When the allied armies suddenly arrived his colleagues fled, but Chunfan stayed alone for a month, struggling to hold things together. When Li Hongzhang arrived he joined the peace talks; when the treaty was signed he declined special honors. When the 1911 revolution broke out and the populace panicked, he worked day and night to keep the region secure. Exhaustion overtook him and he died suddenly of illness.
29
Chunfan was a man of integrity with real administrative talent. From the time Li Hongzhang brought him onto the Zhili staff, he served there for nearly thirty years. Governors-general from Wang Wenshao and Ronglu to Yuan Shikai, Yang Shixiang, Duan Fang, and Chen Kuilong all treated him with respect. Though he sought no promotion and did not personally administer local government, his counsel on governance and people's welfare was the standard for every prefecture and county. After his death the people of Zhili petitioned to have him enshrined in Li Hongzhang's memorial temple.
30
The commentary observes that provincial officials who win lasting renown usually began as magistrates and prefects—the fruit of serving close to the people. When wars created staff posts for men of merit, and purchase offices brought contributors to relief work, not all had begun in routine administration; yet those who governed with sincere hearts won the people's love just the same. From Rukui and Zonglian to Xijin and Chunfan, their kindness endures among the people and posterity still praises them. Surely they are worthy of reverence!