1
=洪汝奎=洪汝奎，字琴西，湖北漢陽人。 道光二十四年舉人。 咸豐初，考取官學教習，期滿以知縣用。 參曾國籓軍事。 同治初，洊保至江南道員。 總理糧台，供應防軍及他省協餉。 又籌還西征洋債，出入逾二千萬，綜核名實，不避嫌忌。 光緒中，沈葆楨為兩江總督，尤倚任之。 葆楨治尚威猛，因疾在告，輒疏請汝奎代治事，聲望益起。 會詔求人才，大臣交章論薦。 五年，特擢廣東鹽運使。 調兩淮，裁冗費，建義倉，濬揚州城河。 方欲大有為，而江寧三牌樓之獄起。
Hong Rukui. 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 relief subsidies. 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
先是有棄屍三牌樓竹園旁，汝奎令參將胡金傳偵獲僧紹宗等仇殺謝姓男子，又稱薛姓，名亦屢易，汝奎請覆訊。 葆楨以會匪自相殘，即置大辟。 逾三年，得真盜週五、沈鮑洪等殺硃彪事，時地悉合。 事聞，命尚書麟書、侍郎薛允升往江南即訊，金傳坐濫刑失入，治如律； 汝奎失察，褫職遣戍； 葆楨以前卒，免議。 於是朝旨申戒各行省慎重刑獄，並禁嗣後武員毋庸會鞫。 汝奎至戍所，未幾赦歸，遽病卒。 宣統初，總督端方疏陳其治行，復原官。
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
=楊宗濂=楊宗濂，字藝芳，江蘇無錫人。 咸豐末，以戶部員外郎在籍治團練。 時錢鼎銘乞師於曾國籓，宗濂偕行。 及李鴻章以援師東下，宗濂率舊部為軍導，屢著戰績。 劉銘傳進剿江陰，宗濂率濂字營守楊舍。 賊來犯，宗濂領沙團擊卻之。 沙團者，起於江岸集眾自衛，以技勇名，賊皆畏之。 攻無錫，宗濂任前鋒。 與賊酋黃子澄鏖戰，夜奪北門入，拔其城。 合攻常州，宗濂督戰西門，架浮橋，獨騎先進。 馬驚逸，墮河，躍起易騎再進，揮兵肉薄登，遂擒陳坤書。 江南平，隨鴻章移師剿捻，總理營務處。 軍興所至索官車，吏民交困，宗濂創立車營，行軍所需，預為儲峙，隨時無不備。 諸軍仿其制，皆稱便。 積功擢道員。
Yang Zonglian. 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
同治十一年，權湖北荊宜施道，被劾罷。 鴻章創北洋武備學堂，奏起宗濂總其事，成材甚眾。 光緒十六年，授直隸通永道。 時畿輔大潦，宗濂主賑事，假便宜發緡粟。 復大治水利，修潮白、青龍、薊運、北運、通惠、永清各河。 疏渠樹防，闢膏腴數万頃，士民刊碑頌德。 以憂歸。 再起，為山西河東道，歷權布政使、按察使，遷長蘆鹽運使。 二十六年，聯軍犯天津，宗濂督蘆勇登陴固守，飛丸裂左脛，血流如沈，猶裹創治軍。 城陷，巷戰，又傷右股。 命駐保定督糧台，旋隨鴻章入都議和。 事定，賞三品京堂。 未幾，以病乞休，卒。
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 Luzhou 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
=史樸=史樸，字蘭畦，直隸遵化州人。 以進士用知縣，分廣東，歷惠來、乳源、南海等縣，所至有威惠。 潮陽盜鄭段基殺前令，樸蒞任，立捕誅之。 晉羅定知州，留省捕劇盜劉亞才及餘盜九百，並置諸法。 粵省海盜久為患，樸航海往剿，降盜魁張十五仔等，盡散其黨數千，有不受撫者剿平之，擢知府。 剿英德土匪，遇伏佛岡，沒深澗，罣木得不死。 賊踵至，睨之，曰：「史公也！」 爭引出，跪進飲食。 樸責以大義，數且詈，誓絕粒。 賊益敬畏，羅拜感泣，原縛渠自效。 會救至，舁之歸。 詔革職，仍令自效。 匪平，復故官。
Shi Pu. 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 prefect 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
粵東匪起，省城戒嚴。 守獵德砲台，連破沙灣、茭塘、新灶各賊巢，賞孔雀翎，知肇慶府。 梧州被圍，督兵往援，拔其眾還軍封川，且戰且守。 會英人陷廣州，大府不遑西顧。 樸與賊相持五閱月，大小數十戰，殺賊數千人。 其後賊大至，會提督昆壽水陸並進，大戰封川江口，連捷殲賊，軍遂復梧州。 晉道員，再權肇羅道。 同治二年，移廣州，攝按察使，旋署糧儲道。 樸在粵前後垂四十年，善治盜，尤善用人。 南海隸為盜誣，特出之，後督捕得其死力。 撫瓊盜，易名入伍，多死敵。 省圍乏餉，出勸募，立集百萬金。 賊初起，獨主撫，及踞梧，則主剿，皆得其機宜。 光緒二年，以籌解西征協餉，加鹽運使。 鄉舉重逢，賞二品服。 四年，卒。
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 arrived in force, Regional Commander Kun Shou advanced by land and water, 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
=史克寬=史克寬，字生原，安徽六合人。 咸豐中，與兄克諧辦鄉團禦賊。 太湖陷，克諧殉。 克寬從克太湖、宿松，解六合圍，以國子監典簿保知縣。 同治初，劉銘傳剿捻，移征西回，皆挾克寬與俱，為司饋運及營務處。 敘功，擢知府。 光緒中，李鴻章督畿輔，檄董工程局，掌河事，治滹沱，於獻縣硃家口闢減河三十里，循子牙河故道入海。 鴻章上其績狀，因奏任清河道，民立石頌其德。 旋以他事被劾奪職，遂歸。
Shi Kekuan. 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
=沈保靖=沈保靖，字仲維，江蘇江陰人。 咸豐八年舉人。 父燿鋆，湖北通判，武昌陷，罵賊被害。 保靖出入賊中覓遺骸，三載始得死事狀，得賜卹立祠。 李鴻章督師上海，招參幕事，積功至道員。 同治十一年，授江西廣饒九南道。 時英使訂約煙台，議於江西湖口輪舟停泊起卸貨物，保靖以有礙九江關稅務，力爭之，總署卒廢約。 擢按察使，攝布政使。 光緒七年，遷福建布政使。 法越事起，方事急，城閉，錢米歇業，居民洶洶將為亂。 保靖出諭，發庫款三十萬以濟市面，人心始定。 以他事被劾奪職，旋复官，遂不復出。 所著有讀孟集說、韓非子錄要、怡雲堂內外編等。
Shen Baojing. Shen Baojing, styled Zhongwei, came from Jiangyin in Jiangsu. He passed the provincial examination in the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858). His father Yao Jun 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
=硃其昂=硃其昂，字云甫，江蘇寶山人。 同治初，從軍攻南匯。 城賊原降，要一人入盟，無敢往者，其昂毅然請入受其降，城始下。 旋納貲為通判，累至道員。 北洋大臣李鴻章頗奇其才。 福州船政造軍艦不適用，奏改商船。 其昂與其弟其詔創議官商合辦，請設輪船招商局，鴻章上其事，遂檄為總辦。 御史董俊翰劾以力小任重，下鴻章查覆，仍力贊其成。 於是官商合力開局集股，並收並外人所設旗昌輪船公司以保航權。 數年，成效大著。 光緒初，直、晉災，其昂輸私財力任賑撫，以勞致疾。 鴻章特委權津海關道，越三日卒，詔優恤，贈光祿寺卿。
Zhu Qiang. 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
其詔，字翼甫。 納貲為知縣，累至道員。 歷充江、浙漕運事。 輪船招商局既成，復請以額定漕運費給輪船代為海運，局基始固。 再權永定河道，時出巡河堤上下，務盡其利弊。 遇伏汛暴漲，嘗三晝夜不交睫，親督弁兵搶護，始免潰決，民皆德之。 擴充天津電報學堂，成材益廣。 時方議辦海軍醫學堂，其詔复捐自置天津法租界地四十畝為校址以成之，其急公好義類如此。 未幾，卒，贈內閣學士。
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=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. 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
源瀚優文學，尤精輿地，所繪浙江輿圖世稱之。
Yuanhan was accomplished in letters and especially skilled in geography; the map of Zhejiang he drew has been widely praised.
13
=徐慶璋=徐慶璋，字興齋，浙江山陰縣人。 初佐都興阿戎幕，累保知縣，歷任奉天寬甸、蓋平、義州，晉興京同知。 所歷多善政。 常微行市中，遇有訟爭者，輒為剖其曲直而遣之。 倡修養濟院，收養貧民。 興俗春耕遲，慶璋集村氓語以農事不可違時之義，眾承其訓，有「早種一天早收十天」之諺，至今誦之。
Xu Qingzhang. 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
光緒二十年，由鳳凰廳調遼陽知州。 值中日戰亟，省東南各縣相繼淪陷。 僅遼陽為盛京門戶，賴先事籌備。 募餉練兵，號鎮東軍，沿邊設防。 自遼陽而岫嚴、海城、复縣三千六百村士民，編團數万人，以遼南靦峒徐珍為練長，勒以兵法。 日兵至，慶璋語眾曰：「敵迫矣！ 援師未集，汝等自為計，毋與我偕亡。 我死，分也！」 眾感奮，皆請殺敵，遂迭敗日兵，俘百數十人。 戰守歷五越月。 長順、依克唐阿方督戰，皆倚以為重，屢詔嘉獎。 是時州西連年水災，复募款捐濟，全活無算。 慶璋才而負氣，其平日為政寬猛兼施，眾畏之如秋霜，愛之如冬日，有徐青天之稱。 如議成，擢甘肅慶陽知府，遷甘涼道，積勞致病，卒於官。
In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894) he was transferred from Fenghuang to be prefect 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
=徐珍=徐珍，字聘卿，遼陽人。 剛正多勇略，日軍犯遼，珍獨率民團守吉洞峪，扼險堅持，敵不得逞。 慶璋既屬以練長，會將兵者忌之，飭散團眾，防務遂弛，而吉洞峪鄉團之名，乃著於中外。 事定，以抗敵出力，保用縣主簿。 拳匪亂作，珍復辦民團，聯數百村，有匪即剿捕，不分畛域。 匪攻騰鰲堡及荒溝，先後剿平之。 日俄之戰，珍嚴守中立，不稍假藉。 總督趙爾巽嘉珍功，以辦團成績上，有「上不支官款，下不取民財，徒以忠義之故，護衛鄉閭，保全無算」之語。 歷保至知府。 武昌變起，土匪假革命名嘯聚煽亂。 爾巽知珍義勇，委充巡防營
Xu Zhen. 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
=蒯光典=蒯光典，字禮卿，安徽合肥人。 父德模，見循吏傳。 光典幼慧，八歲能詩，隨父官江南，所師友多當代名儒，聞見日擴，名亦日起。 其論學務明群經大義，而以六書、九數為樞紐，治六書則必求義類以旁通諸學，識雙聲以明假借。 性強記，有口辯，尤熟於目錄掌故。 有所論難，援據該洽，莫能窮也。
Kuai Guangdian. 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
三十二年，按淮揚海道，加按察使銜。 寶應饑民劫米，令潛逃。 適光典舟至，剴切諭解之。 而揚州亦以饑民劫米告，诇知猾胥陰煽眾，即擒治胥。 大吏怒，將窮其獄，以光典言得免。 運河盛漲，光典先分檄河員增修堤，而自泊舟高郵守視。 壩險工迭出，大吏以故事，視節候測水，檄啟壩，不為動。 歷月餘啟二壩，七月杪乃啟三壩，下河六縣獲有秋。 建言淮海災區廣，宜寬籌賑金，不宜設粥廠，使災民麕集，費不貲，且生事。 與布政使繼昌議不合，會奉檄入都參議改定官制，遂去任。 後江北賑事款絀而費糜，一如光典言。
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, he quietly had them dispersed. 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=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. 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 cash 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
三十三年，授川東道。 川東，盜藪也，蒞任未浹旬，開縣寇萬餘躪旁縣，立平之。 次年，黔中盜魁劉天成結蜀邊逋寇撓川南，防軍數為所敗。 省檄練軍七營剿之，寇至，委械去。 遹聲立募精勇數百人，部以兵法，疾馳赴援，未匝月，生縛天成歸。 江北廳產煤，礦衇綿延數百里，至合州。 奸民私售龍王洞於英商，外務部與訂租約，胥江北廳礦產授之； 复要展拓至石牛溝，且蔓及兩川。 川人憤，將與英商角。 遹聲力爭之英領事，並密囑川人收石牛溝左右地。 英商以無佗地可得，得溝與洞，猶石田也，恫喝百端，不為動，卒以賤值贖回。 治渝兩載，大吏交章論薦，遽引疾歸。 當軸數招之，謝不出。 著有明逸民詩、畸廬稗說及詩集等。
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=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. 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 banners 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.
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民表瘁於賑務二十餘年，每遇災祲，呼籲奔走，置身家不顧，敝衣草履，躑躅泥塗，面目黧黑，非人所堪，貲斧悉自貸。 及服官，俸入悉以償賑債，充賑用。 自義賑風起，或從事數年，由寒儒而致素豐。 如民表之始終無染，歿無餘貲者，蓋不數覯。
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
=嚴作霖=嚴作霖，字佑之，丹徒人。 以儒生奮起司賑事。 自光緒二年始至三十年，歷賑山東、河南、山西、安徽、江蘇、直隸、廣西、奉天、陝西數行省。 每兼濬河修堤，以工代賑。 作霖性強毅，赴事勇決，綜覈無糜費，久而為人所信，故樂輸者眾。 其施賑不拘成法，隨時地而取其宜。 當時疆吏以義賑可矯官吏拘牽延緩積習，樂倚以集事。 作霖不求仕進，輒辭薦剡，僅受國子監助教銜，數被溫詔嘉焉。 積賑餘貲興揚州、鎮江兩郡善舉。 及歿，子良沛出二十餘萬金為卹嫠、保節、備荒等用，成其遺志雲。
Yan Zuolin. 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=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. 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. When Huai, Xu, and Hai were flooded he poled a small boat through the waters on relief work until his 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 had his office restored and reassigned him to Changzhou; 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.
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宣統三年，方籌賑江、皖，而武昌變起。 錫晉憂憤，病日劇，越歲卒。 錫晉治賑，自乙亥至辛亥，凡三十有七年，其賑地為行省八：山西、河南、江蘇、山東以及陝西、湖南，東至吉林，西至甘肅； 其賑款過百萬以上。 義賑之遠且久，無過錫晉。 歿後眾思其德，受賑各省咸請立祠祀之。
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=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. 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
春蕃敦節操，有經濟才。 自鴻章延入直幕，先後垂三十年。 歷任總督如王文韶、榮祿、袁世凱、楊士驤、端方、陳夔龍等，皆敬禮之。 雖不樂仕進，未親吏治，而論治佐政，留意民生，各郡縣皆奉為圭臬。 歿後，直人思其德，公請附祀鴻章祠。
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 hold office himself, 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
=【論】=論曰：各省監司能著聲績者，大抵多起於守令，蓋親民之效焉。 及兵事興而有事功幕職，捐例開而有輸餉助賑，雖其初不必盡親吏治，而以實心行實政，流愛於人，民之感之，亦豈有異？ 自汝奎、宗濂以至錫晉、春蕃諸人，德惠在人，後人稱之至今，不可敬哉！
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!