1
Lu Runxiang, whose courtesy name was Fengshi, came from Yuanhe in Jiangsu. His father Maoxiu was an accomplished physician; he is treated in the Biography of Arts and Techniques. In the thirteenth year of the Tongzhi reign, Runxiang took first place in the top tier of the jinshi examination and was made a Hanlin Compiler. In the early Guangxu years he was repeatedly appointed chief examiner, serving twice each in Hunan and Shaanxi. He was posted to the Southern Library and in time was promoted to Reader-in-Waiting. He was dispatched as educational commissioner of Shandong. After completing mourning for his father, he was again made Chancellor of the Directorate of Education and presided over the examinations in Jiangxi. When his mother fell ill, he asked leave to care for her and went home. In the twenty-fourth year he was recalled as Chancellor, promoted to Grand Secretariat academician, and acted as Vice Minister of Works. When the Empress Dowager and the Emperor fled west, he hurried to join the court in exile, was named Vice Minister of Rites, and became a lecturer at the imperial classics lecture. He was raised to Left Censor-in-Chief, put in charge of the Medical Bureau, presided over the Shuntian provincial exams, served as deputy chief examiner for the metropolitan finals, and acted as Minister of Works.
2
In the thirty-second year he was appointed to the commission revising the official system. Soon after, the Ministry of Works was cut, and he retained his ministerial rank while also taking charge of the Shuntian prefecture. The following year he became Minister of Personnel and a minister with responsibility for government affairs, saying: "With the sale of offices, the civil service had become a jumble and some appointees who governed the people scarcely knew written norms; he therefore set examination rules for officials from prefect downward, barred assignment to those who failed, and founded an Official Learning Hall to train them." A descendant of the Tang statesman Lu Zhi, Runxiang once submitted his collected writings to the throne, applying them to current affairs. His main point was: "Old regulations must not be followed blindly, but new policies also had to be carried out with careful judgment. Unless one studies the country's own history as a guide to change, reforms will only meet obstruction and may even do harm that grows worse over time."
3
宣統元年，協辦大學士，由體仁閣轉東閣大學士，充弼德院院長。 皇帝典學，充毓慶宮授讀，兼顧問大臣。 疏陳：「曲阜篤生聖人之地，今新建曲阜學堂，必須闡明經術，提倡正學。 若雜聘外人，異言異服，喧賓奪主，將來聖教澌滅，亦朝廷之憂。」 又陳：「釐訂官制，宜保存臺諫一職。 說者謂既有國會，不須復有言官。 豈知議員職在立法，言官職在擊邪。 議院開會，不過三月，臺諫則隨時可以陳言。 行政裁判，系定斷於事後，言官則舉發於事前。 朝廷欲開通耳目，則諫院不可裁； 諸臣欲鞏固君權，則亦不可言裁。 即使他時國會成立，亦宜使該院獨立，勿為邪說所淆。」 又言：「遊學諸生，於實業等事學成而歸者，寥寥可數，而又用非所學。 其最多者惟法政一科。 法政各國歧異，悉就其本國人情風俗以為製。 今諸生根柢未深，於前古聖賢經傳曾未誦習，道德風尚概未聞知，襲人皮毛，妄言改革； 甚且包藏禍心，倡民權革命之說，判國家與君主為兩途，布其黨徒，潛為謀主。 各部院大臣以為朝廷銳意變法，非重用學生不足以稱上旨，遂乃邪說诐行，遍播中外，久之必致根本動搖，民生塗炭。」
In the first year of Xuantong he was made Associate Grand Secretary, moved from the Hall of Literary Brilliance to the Eastern Pavilion, and was appointed president of the Bide Academy. When the emperor undertook his formal studies, he became tutor in the Yuqing Palace and also served as an advisory minister. In a memorial he wrote: "Qufu is the land where the Sage had truly been born, and the new Qufu Academy must expound the classics and uphold orthodox learning. If foreigners were hired indiscriminately, with alien speech and dress, guests would displace the host, and in time the Sage's teaching would fade—a danger the court itself should fear." He also urged: "In revising the official system, the censorial and remonstrance offices should be kept. Some argued that once a parliament existed, there was no need for remonstrating officials. Yet the duty of parliamentarians is to legislate, while that of remonstrators is to attack wrongdoing. Parliament sat for only three months, but censors and remonstrators could speak at any time. Administrative courts ruled only after the fact, whereas remonstrators exposed abuses beforehand. If the court wished to keep its ears open, the remonstrance bureau could not be abolished; and if ministers wished to strengthen the sovereign's power, they likewise must not propose abolishing it. Even when a national assembly was eventually established, that bureau should remain independent and not be swept away by heterodox opinion." He also warned: "Of students sent abroad, only a handful returned having mastered practical fields such as industry, and even they were not employed in what they had learned. The great majority studied only law and government. Law and government differ from country to country; each nation shapes its system to its own customs and habits. These students' roots were shallow: they had never studied the classics of the ancient sages, knew nothing of moral culture, picked up foreign surface learning, and rashly preached reform; some even harbored treacherous designs, preached popular rights and revolution, separated the state from the sovereign, spread their factions, and secretly plotted rebellion. Ministers, believing the court was bent on reform and that only by favoring returned students could they please the throne, let heterodox and crooked doctrines spread at home and abroad until, in time, the foundations would shake and the people would suffer."
4
又疏陳財用枯竭，請酌停新政，謂：「今日之害，先由於督撫無權，漸而至於朝廷無權。 庫儲之困難，寇賊之充斥，猶其顯而易見者也。 鎮兵之設也，所用皆未經歷練之學生，韜略則紙上空談，作用則徒取形式，甚至持不擊同胞之謬說。 一旦有事，督撫非但不能調遣，甚且反戈相向，其不可用明矣。 則莫如停辦鎮兵，仍取巡防隊而整理之。 審判之立也，所授皆未曾聽訟之法官，黑白混淆，是非倒置。 舊時諳練之老吏，督撫不得用之，散遣州縣捕役，以緝盜責之巡警。 巡警無能也，且不過省會及通商口岸有巡警，豈能分佈鄉閭？ 將來必至遍地皆盜，人民無可控訴。 則莫如停辦審判，仍以聽斷緝捕歸之州縣。 諮議局之設也，所舉皆不諳掌故之議員，逞臆狂談，箝制當道，督撫莫能禁之。 於是藉籌款之名，魚肉鄉里，竊自治之號，私樹黨援。 上年資政院開議，竟至戟手漫罵，藐視朝廷。 以辯給為通才，以橫議為輿論，蜩螗沸羹，莫可究詰。 則莫如停辦國會，仍以言事責之諫院。 學堂之設也，所聘皆未通經史之教員，其沿用教科書，僅足啟發顓蒙，廢五經而不讀，禍直等於秦焚。 暑假、星期，毫無拘束，彼血氣未定者，豈不結黨為非？ 又膳學費百倍於前，致使貧寒聰穎之士流，進身無路。 則莫如停辦中小學堂，仍用經策取士。 凡此皆於財政有關，而禍不僅在財政，使不早為之所，必至權柄下移，大局不可收拾。」 疏上，多不報。 時建設立憲內閣，宰輔擁虛名而已。
He also memorialized that the treasury was drained and asked that new policies be scaled back, arguing: "The present harm began with governors losing power and gradually extended until the court itself had none. Empty coffers and rampant banditry were only the most visible signs. The new territorial armies employed untrained students whose strategy was paper talk and whose operations were mere form, some even preaching the absurd idea that soldiers must not fire on their own countrymen. When crisis came, governors could not deploy them and might even face mutiny—it was plain they were useless. Better to abolish the territorial armies and restore and reorganize the old patrol forces. The new courts appointed judges who had never tried a case, confounding right and wrong. Experienced former clerks could no longer be used; county constables were dismissed, and bandit suppression was left to the new police. The police were inept, and existed only in provincial capitals and treaty ports—how could they reach the countryside? Soon bandits would overrun the land and the people would have nowhere to seek redress. Better to abolish the new courts and return trials and arrests to the prefectures and counties. The provincial assemblies elected men ignorant of precedent who indulged reckless talk, hamstrung officials, and could not be restrained even by governors. They preyed on the countryside in the name of fundraising, usurped the banner of self-government, and built private factions. When the Political Consultative Assembly met the year before, members had pointed fingers and hurled abuse, showing contempt for the throne. Eloquence passed for talent and reckless talk for public opinion; the uproar was like boiling soup, beyond any reckoning. Better to suspend parliament and again entrust remonstrance to the censorial bureau. The new schools hired teachers ignorant of the classics; their textbooks could barely instruct beginners; to abandon the Five Classics unread was a disaster equal to the Qin book-burning. Summer vacation and weekly holidays left students wholly unrestrained; would hot-blooded youths not form factions and make trouble? Board and tuition cost a hundred times more than before, shutting poor but gifted scholars out of advancement. Better to close the primary and secondary schools and again select officials by classical examination. All these bore on finance, yet the harm was not financial alone; unless checked early, power would drain downward and the realm would slip beyond control." Most of these memorials went unanswered. A constitutional cabinet was then being formed, but the chief ministers held only empty titles.
5
After the Wuchang mutiny, imperial troops took Hanyang and Wuchang seemed about to fall. A new cabinet was formed; Prime Minister Yuan Shikai sought peace to end the war, secured an edict from Empress Dowager Longyu, and proclaimed a change of polity to the empire—and so the abdication decree came down. Runxiang resigned his tutoring post on grounds of age and failing sight; by edict he was still to oversee the Yuqing Palace at his former salary and was made Grand Guardian. Two years later he died of illness at seventy-five; he was posthumously made Grand Tutor with the posthumous name Wenduan.
6
Runxiang was easygoing and unpretentious in company; even in high rank he dressed and lived as he had as a student. When upheaval came he grew melancholy, brooding inwardly while showing nothing outwardly. When his illness turned grave he sat upright all day with closed eyes, neither speaking nor eating, and died after several days.
7
世續，字伯軒，索勒豁金氏，隸內務府滿洲正黃旗。 光緒元年舉人，以議敘主事歷內務府郎中，擢武備院卿，授內閣學士。 二十二年，為總管內務府大臣，兼工部侍郎。 二十六年，各國聯軍入京，兩宮西狩，適遭父喪，命留京辦事。 即日縗墨詣聯軍請保護宮廷，日為宮中備飲饌，並保壇廟。 晉理籓院尚書，調禮部。 兩宮回鑾，賞黃馬褂，轉吏部，兼都統。 內務府三旗甲米向歸吏胥代領折價，名曰「米折」，所得甚微。 世續商之倉場，飭旗丁自領，眾感實惠。 纂呈四書圖說，特旨褒嘉。 三十年，以吏部尚書協辦大學士，尋授體仁閣大學士。 三十二年，命為軍機大臣。 歷轉文華殿大學士，充憲政編查館參預政務大臣。 念八旗生計日艱，奏設工藝廠，俾習工藝贍身家。 德宗崩，議繼體，世續獨言國事艱危，宜立長君，不能用。
Shi Xu, whose courtesy name was Boxuan, belonged to the Suoluhojin clan and was registered with the Internal Affairs Office in the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner. He passed the provincial examination in the first year of Guangxu, rose through the Internal Affairs Office from clerk to director, was promoted to Director of the Armory, and became a Grand Secretariat academician. In the twenty-second year he was made Grand Minister of the Internal Affairs Office and concurrently Vice Minister of Works. In the twenty-sixth year, when the allied powers entered Beijing and the Empress Dowager and the Emperor fled west, he was mourning his father and was ordered to stay in the capital to manage affairs. That same day, still in mourning dress, he went to the allied commanders to seek protection for the palace, supplied the court with food daily, and guarded the altars and temples. He was promoted to Minister of the Court of Colonial Affairs and then transferred to the Ministry of Rites. When the Empress Dowager and the Emperor returned, he was given the yellow riding jacket, moved to the Ministry of Personnel, and also served as banner general. Grain stipends for the three Internal Affairs banners had long been collected by clerks at cut rates under the name "rice conversion," leaving the recipients very little. Shi Xu arranged with the granary that banner soldiers collect their grain in person, to everyone's real benefit. He compiled and presented Illustrated Explanations of the Four Books and received special imperial praise. In the thirtieth year, as Minister of Personnel he became Associate Grand Secretary and soon Grand Secretary of the Hall of Literary Brilliance. In the thirty-second year he was appointed to the Grand Council. He was later transferred to Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall and served as a minister with responsibility for government affairs on the Constitutional Research Commission. Seeing banner livelihoods grow harder by the day, he memorialized to open craft workshops so bannermen could learn trades to support their families. When Emperor Guangxu died and succession was debated, Shi Xu alone urged that in such peril an older ruler should be chosen; his advice was rejected.
8
At the beginning of the Xuantong reign he asked to retire on grounds of illness. In the third year he was recalled to his former posts and again served as Grand Minister of the Internal Affairs Office. When abdication was discussed, Shi Xu was the first to endorse it. The empress dowager ordered negotiations on favorable terms for the abdication and appointed him Grand Guardian. He took charge of repairs to the Chongling Mausoleum and was promoted to Grand Tutor. During the 1917 restoration he feared he would be implicated and strongly opposed it. When events turned urgent he entered the palace as night guard and carried burial garments with him. Funds were tight year after year and the burden was especially heavy; he saw the Veritable Records of Guangxu through from start to finish, and when the work was done he was too ill to rise. He died in the xinyou year, aged sixty-nine. He was posthumously made Grand Preceptor with the posthumous name Wenduan.
9
伊克坦，字仲平，瓜爾佳氏，滿洲正白旗人，西安駐防。 光緒十二年進士，以編修歷至都察院副都御史，充滿蒙文學堂監督。 有請達海從祀文廟者，伊克坦以達海創定國書，繙譯經史，有功聖教，允宜附祀，即為代奏，略言：「學官立於漢京，而配享實始於唐代，宋、元以來，迭有增祀，大率以闡明聖學，有功經訓為斷。 漢儒許慎，特因說文解字，功在經籍，專隆升祔。 我太祖高皇帝、太宗文皇帝指授文臣創立國書，傳譯經史，宣布文教，尤極千古未有之盛。 夫國書字體，創自文臣額爾德尼及噶蓋等，而仰承聖意，匯集大成，詳定頒行者，實唯儒臣達海。 達海以肇造貞元之佐，擅閎通著述之才，歷相兩朝，瞻言百里。 其初奉命詳定國書，重加圈點，發明音義； 又以國書漢字對音未全，於十二字頭之外有所增加，而國書之用乃廣。 复定兩字切音之法，較之漢文切音，更為精當，而國書之制乃備。 繙譯經典，昭示群倫，功不在傳經諸儒下。 崇德十年，既蒙賜諡文成，康熙九年，复奉賜文立碑，隆德報功，永受恩澤。 旋有學士阿理瑚奏請從祀文廟，禮臣復奏，以為創造國書，一藝之長，不當從祀，未經議準。 查達海詳定國書字體，實禀太宗指示而成。 作者為聖，述者為明，非唯羽翼六經，抑且昭示百世。 部議謂僅一藝之長，實未深知大體。 達海於聖經有表章之力，於後學有津逮之功。 方今宗學、旗學兼重國書，並奉旨特設滿蒙文學堂於京師，奉省亦經奏立八旗滿蒙文中學堂。 揆諸古者釋奠祭師之誼，達海應得附祀，核與漢儒許慎從祀之例亦屬相符。 仰懇俯準達海附祀文廟，並請敕建專祠於盛京，以昭矜式。 查盛京東門外尚有達海塋墓，榛莽荒蕪，碣碑剝落，並請敕下所司修治看護，用示朝廷崇尚實學、藎念儒臣之至意。」
Yi Ketan, whose courtesy name was Zhongping, belonged to the Guwalgiya clan; he was a Manchu of the Plain White Banner garrisoned at Xi'an. He passed the jinshi examination in the twelfth year of Guangxu, rose from Hanlin compiler to Vice Censor-in-Chief, and served as superintendent of the Manchu-Mongol Literary Academy. When a petition asked that Dahai be enshrined in the Confucian temple, Yi Ketan argued that Dahai had devised the national script and translated the classics, thus serving the Sage's teaching, and deserved collateral sacrifice; he memorialized on his behalf, noting briefly: "School officials dated to Han times but temple collateral sacrifice began in the Tang, and since Song and Yuan additions had generally honored those who expounded the Sage's learning and served the classics. The Han scholar Xu Shen had been specially elevated solely because his Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters served the study of the classics. Our Taizu and Taizong had directed civil officials to create the national script, translate the classics and histories, and spread civil culture—a splendor without parallel in history. The script itself had been devised by Erdeni, Gagai, and others, but it was the Confucian official Dahai who, following the imperial will, brought the system together, refined it, and promulgated it. Dahai had been a founding assistant of the dynasty, possessed broad literary talent, served as chief minister under two emperors, and his counsel carried great weight. At first he was ordered to refine the national script, add punctuation, and clarify pronunciation and meaning; because phonetic correspondence between Manchu and Chinese was incomplete, he added characters beyond the twelve syllabaries, greatly extending the script's use. He also devised a two-character spelling method more precise than Chinese fanqie, completing the national script as a system. In translating the classics and bringing them before all the world, his achievement was no less than that of the scholars who had handed the classics down. In the tenth year of Chongde he was granted the posthumous title Wencheng; in the ninth year of Kangxi a stele bearing the character wen was erected in his honor—virtue exalted, merit rewarded, his name forever under imperial grace. Soon after, Academician Arihu petitioned for Dahai's enshrinement in the Confucian temple; the Board of Rites replied that devising the national script was excellence in but one art and did not warrant collateral sacrifice, and the request was never approved. On inquiry, Dahai's refinement of the national script had in truth been carried out under Taizong's direction. The Sage writes; the expositor illuminates—not only did he give wings to the Six Classics, he made their light shine for a hundred generations. The ministry's ruling—that this was only a single craft—showed a failure to grasp the larger matter. Dahai had elucidated the sacred classics and opened a path for generations of students who came after. Today the imperial clan schools and banner schools alike give weight to the national script; by imperial command a Manchu-Mongol Literary Academy was specially set up in the capital, and Fengtian province has likewise memorialized to establish Eight Banner Manchu-Mongol middle schools. Measured by the ancient rite of the libation sacrifice honoring teachers, Dahai deserves collateral sacrifice; compared with the precedent of the Han scholar Xu Shen, the case is entirely in accord. I humbly beg that Dahai be granted collateral sacrifice in the Confucian temple, and that an order be issued to erect a dedicated shrine at Mukden, that all may have a model to revere. Inquiry shows that east of Mukden's outer gate Dahai's tomb still stands, choked with weeds, its stele flaking away; I also beg that the responsible offices be ordered to repair and guard it, that the court's esteem for practical learning and its deep regard for Confucian ministers may be made plain."
10
又代陳典學事宜，略言：「伏讀雍正三年世宗憲皇帝諭：'帝王禦宇膺圖，咸資典學。' 我聖祖仁皇帝天亶聰明，而好古敏求，六十餘年孜孜不倦。 又喜慶二十四年仁宗睿皇帝：'帝王之學，在於貫徹天人，明體達用，以見諸施行，與經生尋章索句者不同。' 仰見列聖相承，重視典學之至意。 我皇上睿哲性成，聰明天縱，衝齡踐祚，洪業肇基，當此春秋典學之時，實為聖敬日躋之始，伏維監國攝政王薰陶德性，輔養聖躬，慎選侍從，左右將護，亦既淵衝翕受，法戒靡遺。 唯是皇上一念之張弛，系萬機之治忽； 一朝之規制，系薄海之觀瞻。 有不得不慎之又慎者，謹為我皇上詳晰陳之：一，請崇聖學。 易端蒙養，禮重師教，書述遜敏，詩頌緝熙，聖學精微，非尋常科學範圍之所能及。 宋儒有言'帝王之學，與儒生異尚'，與我仁宗睿皇帝典學之諭用意正符。 今我皇上典學之初，應定教學科目，自應會通今古，融貫中西，不可拘於舊例。 伏乞簡派儒臣，詳細籌訂，鑑成憲，酌時宜，毋徒陳進講之空文，毋虛循延英之故事，庶足以開張聖聽，裨益亶聰，以立聖學聖治之基。 一，請擇賢傅。 舊制師傅向以大臣選充，期於老成典型，成就君德，然或入官從政，講學非其所長。 老師大儒，潛德隱而勿耀，而教育精深，尤非研究有素，不能取益。 擬請敕下內外大臣，各舉所知，勿拘資格，略仿乾隆十四年詔舉經學人員成例，擇其品端學粹、教育卓著成績者，請旨召用，隆以師傅之任，分門講教，而仍派大臣總司其成，俾專日講於經筵，不必更勞以職事。 其任彌專，其責彌重，其效彌速，使天下曉然於尊師崇儒之意，庶儒林有所矜式，而聖德日進高明矣。 一，請肅規制。 古者聖王教冑，必選端方正直、道術博聞之士，與之居處，是以習與智長，化與心成。 我皇上毓德方新，始基宜固，舊制選派內監伴讀，似不足以肅學製而廣箴規。 擬請改選王公大臣之賢子弟昕夕侍從，斅學相長，並參考學校制度，建設講堂，陳列圖書彝器，觀摩肄習，以收敬業樂群之效。 以上三事，僅舉大綱。 我皇上今日之言動起居，罔有勿敬，即異日之立政敷教，罔有勿臧，此尤根本之至計，不可不謹之於漸，而慎之於始者也。 伏念朝廷廣勵人才，振興教育，侁侁學子，爭自濯磨，皇上典學伊始，益宜宏茲遠謨，以慰天下士民之望。」
He also submitted a memorial on classical learning on another's behalf, stating in brief: "I have read with reverence the edict of the Xian Emperor Shizong in the third year of Yongzheng: 'When an emperor takes the realm and receives the mandate, he must rely on classical learning.' Our Sage Ancestor the Benevolent Emperor was gifted with heaven's intelligence, yet loved antiquity and sought learning with keen diligence—for more than sixty years he never flagged. And in the twenty-fourth year of Jiaqing, the Sage Emperor Renzong said: 'The emperor's learning must unite Heaven and man, grasp principle and put it to use, and be seen in what is actually done—it is not the same as scholars who hunt through chapters for isolated lines.' Thus one sees, with reverence, how successive sage emperors handed down their deepest intent to honor classical learning. Our Emperor is wise and sagacious by nature, bright with heaven's gift; he ascended the throne in tender years, the great enterprise only just begun. At this season of youth and classical study, it is truly the beginning of daily ascent in sagely reverence. The regent prince overseeing the realm has shaped his moral nature, nurtured the imperial person, chosen attendants with care, and guarded him on every side—the young emperor has already absorbed it all, and no lesson or warning has been spared. Yet a single moment's slackening or tightening in the emperor's mind bears upon whether the myriad affairs of state flourish or fail; a court's institutions bear upon how all beneath the seas regard the throne. Some things must be guarded with redoubled care; I respectfully set them out in detail for Our Emperor: First, I ask that sagely learning be exalted. The Changes begins with early nurture, the Rites honors the teacher's instruction, the Documents speaks of humility and quickness, the Odes praises bright harmony—sagely learning is subtle and profound, beyond the reach of ordinary branches of study. Song scholars said that 'the emperor's learning pursues a different end from that of the Confucian scholar'—words that match exactly the intent of Our Sage Emperor Renzong's edict on classical learning. Now, at the outset of Our Emperor's classical studies, the curriculum ought to be set: it should unite past and present and draw together Chinese and Western learning, and not be confined to old precedent. I humbly ask that learned officials be chosen and sent to draw up the plan in detail, taking established precedent as mirror and present needs as measure—neither submitting empty memorials about lectures nor going through the hollow motions of the old Yanying Hall ritual—so that the imperial ear may be opened, heaven's gift sharpened, and the foundation laid for sagely learning and sagely rule. Second, I ask that worthy tutors be chosen. Under the old system tutors were usually drawn from among grand ministers, in the hope that seasoned exemplars would complete the ruler's virtue; yet some were men of office and politics, for whom lecturing was not their strength. Old masters and great scholars keep their hidden virtue from display, yet their teaching runs deep—only those who have long pursued the subject can truly profit from them. I propose that ministers at court and in the provinces be ordered each to recommend men they know, without regard to formal qualifications, following roughly the precedent of Qianlong's fourteenth-year edict summoning specialists in classical learning; those of upright character, pure scholarship, and proven teaching merit should be summoned by imperial command, raised to the rank of tutor, and assigned to teach by subject, while a grand minister is still appointed to oversee the whole, so that they may lecture daily at the classics lecture without being further burdened with official duties. The more dedicated the post, the heavier the responsibility, the swifter the result—so that all under Heaven may plainly see the intent to honor teachers and exalt Confucian learning; then the scholarly community will have a model to revere, and sagely virtue will daily rise to greater heights. Third, I ask that regulations be tightened. In antiquity, when sage kings instructed the heir, they chose men upright and learned in the Way to dwell with him—so that habit grew with wisdom and transformation took root in the heart. Our Emperor's moral cultivation has only just begun, and the foundation ought to be made firm; the old practice of assigning eunuchs as reading companions seems insufficient to give the school system proper gravity or to broaden the scope of admonition. I propose instead that worthy sons of princes, dukes, and grand ministers be chosen to attend morning and evening, learning from one another; and, drawing on school institutions, that lecture halls be built, books and ritual vessels displayed, and study observed and practiced together, to achieve reverent devotion to learning and delight in good company. These three matters set forth only the main outline. Our Emperor's words, conduct, and daily life today are without anything irreverent; likewise, when he later establishes policy and spreads instruction, nothing will be amiss—this above all is the root plan, which must be guarded from the first and watched from the very beginning. Reflecting that the court broadly encourages talent and revives education, and eager students everywhere strive to refine themselves, at the very outset of the emperor's classical studies it is all the more fitting to expand this far-reaching design and satisfy the hopes of scholars and common people throughout the realm."
11
In the third year of Xuantong, Yi Ketan, Grand Secretary Lu Runxiang, and Vice Minister Chen Baochen were alike ordered to serve at the Yuqing Palace; they lectured morning and evening, spoke up when matters arose, and their worry and diligence only grew. At the 1917 restoration Runxiang had already died; Baochen served as a deliberative minister, and Yi Ketan alone did not contend for power or position, lecturing daily as before. When events turned against them, he vowed to give his life if danger came. Yi Ketan was loyal, upright, and far-sighted; he favored openness and sincerity and gathering many minds for the common good; yet those around him feared trouble deeply and sought only to avoid it, and at times they worked against him. Yi Ketan, worn down by grief, fell into long illness and took refuge in wine day after day. In the guihai year he died, aged fifty-eight, and was given the posthumous name Wenzhi.
12
Liang Dingfen, whose courtesy name was Xinghai, came from Panyu in Guangdong. In the sixth year of Guangxu he passed the jinshi examination and was made a Hanlin Compiler. When the Franco-Vietnamese crisis grew urgent, he memorialized impeaching Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang, but received no response. Soon afterward he was pursued on a charge of reckless impeachment; the matter was referred to the ministry for strict deliberation, and he was demoted five ranks and reassigned. When Zhang Zhidong governed Guangdong, he was invited to head the lecture chair at the Guangya Academy; when Zhang was transferred to act in the Two Jiangs, he was again invited to head the Zhongshan Academy; when Zhang returned to Hubei, Dingfen followed and served in his secretariat throughout. Zhidong vigorously pursued the new policies, schools sprang up everywhere, and on all matters of education only Dingfen was entrusted.
13
拳禍起，兩宮西幸，鼎芬首倡呈進方物之議。 初以端方薦，起用直隸州知州； 之洞再薦，詔赴行在所，用知府，發湖北，署武昌，補漢陽。 擢安襄鄖荊道、按察使，署布政使。 奏請化除滿、漢界限。 三十二年，入覲，面劾慶親王奕劻通賕賄，請月給銀三萬兩以養其廉。 又劾直隸總督袁世凱「權謀邁眾，城府阻深，能諂人又能用人，自得奕劻之助，其權威遂為我朝二百年來滿、漢疆臣所未有，引用私黨，佈滿要津。 我皇太后、皇上或未盡知，臣但有一日之官，即盡一日之心。 言盡有淚，淚盡有血。 奕劻、世凱若仍不悛，臣當隨時奏劾，以報天恩」。 詔訶責，引疾乞退。 兩宮升遐，奔赴哭臨，越日即行，時之洞在樞垣，不一往謁也。 明年，聞之洞喪，親送葬南皮。
When the Boxer calamity broke out and the Empress Dowager and the Emperor fled west, Dingfen was first to propose presenting local tribute products. At first, on Duanfang's recommendation, he was recalled as prefect of a Zhili subprefecture; Zhidong recommended him again; he was ordered to the imperial retinue, appointed prefect, sent to Hubei, acted as prefect of Wuchang, and was then appointed to Hanyang. He was promoted to the An-Xiang-Yun-Jing circuit, made surveillance commissioner, and acted as provincial treasurer. He memorialized asking that Manchu-Han distinctions be abolished. In the thirty-second year he came to court and impeached Prince Qing Yikuang to his face for pervasive bribery, asking that he be given a monthly stipend of thirty thousand taels of silver to preserve his integrity. He also impeached Zhili Governor-General Yuan Shikai: "His schemes surpass all others, his mind is deep and obstructive; he knows how to flatter and how to use men; with Yikuang's backing his authority exceeds anything a Manchu or Han frontier minister has held in our dynasty's two hundred years, and he fills key posts with his private faction. Our empress dowager and emperor may not fully know; yet as long as I hold office for a day, I will give my whole heart for that day. When his words ran out, there were tears; when his tears ran out, there was blood. If Yikuang and Shikai still do not repent, I shall memorialize impeachment whenever the occasion arises, to repay heaven's grace." An edict rebuked him; he cited illness and begged to retire. When the Empress Dowager and the Emperor passed away, he rushed to attend the mourning rites and left the next day; Zhidong was then in the Grand Council, yet Dingfen did not once go to pay his respects. The next year, on hearing of Zhidong's death, he personally escorted the funeral to Nanpi.
14
When the Wuchang affair broke out, he entered the capital again; on Zhili Governor Chen Kuilong's recommendation he was made a third-rank Beijing official awaiting appointment. Soon he received appointment as Guangdong pacification commissioner; Guangdong was already in great disorder, the roads were blocked and he could not reach it, and he fell ill vomiting blood. Twice he went to Lianggezhuang to kowtow before the hall where the Guangxu Emperor temporarily resided, sleeping in the open beside the sleeping hall and gazing up in tears. When Empress Dowager Xiaoding Jing passed away and was interred at Chongling, he escorted her with full rites; having asked to remain and guard the mausoleum, he was ordered to manage tree-planting at Chongling. Soon he was ordered to serve at the Yuqing Palace. At the 1917 restoration he was already bedridden, yet forced himself up to attend to affairs. Deeply grieved by the turn of events, he died the following year and was given the posthumous name Wenzhong.
15
Xu Fang, whose courtesy name was Wusheng, came from Linqing prefecture in Shandong; he was the son of Governor Yan Xu. In youth he purchased office with contributions and became a principal clerk in the Ministry of Revenue. In the tenth year of Guangxu, when the French took Langshan, Yan Xu was arrested and questioned and imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice. Fang followed him to the capital; at home he comforted his mother, abroad he visited Yan Xu in prison; he undertook all the work of carrying provisions himself, wore coarse cloth and ate plain food, and wept whenever he spoke. Yan Xu was to be exiled to Xinjiang; before leaving the capital he died, and Fang carried the coffin home for burial, walking through mud and mire—travelers on the road marveled at him as a filial son. In the twenty-sixth year he rushed to the imperial retinue at Xi'an. The next year, escorting the court on its return, he was specially promoted to vice-director of the Directorate of Education on Minister Rongqing's recommendation. When the Hubei uprising broke out, he submitted five sealed memorials in succession; none received a response. When the abdication edict was issued, he resigned his office. Soon he was ordered to serve at the Yuqing Palace; Fang had long been ill, yet forced himself through illness to take up duty. Before long he died and was given the posthumous name Zhongqin.
16
勞乃宣，字玉初，浙江桐鄉人。 同治十年進士，以知縣分直隸。 查淶水禮王府圈地，力請減租蘇民困。 光緒五年，初任臨榆，日晨起坐堂皇治官書，啟重門，民有呼籥者，立親訊之，使閽者不能隔吏役，吏役不能隔人民。 其後居官二十餘年皆如之。 曾國荃督師山海關，檄司文案。 歷南皮等縣，畿輔州縣遇道差，咸科於民有定額，而官取其贏。 乃宣任蠡縣，值謁陵事竣，贏支應錢千餘緡，儲庫備公用。 任完縣，購書萬餘卷庋尊經閣。 任吳橋，創裡塾，農事畢，令民入塾，授以弟子規、小學內篇、聖諭廣訓諸書，歲盡始罷。 先是寧津奸民陳二糾黨為州郡害，土人稱曰黑團，勢甚熾。 嘗至南皮劫殺，乃宣會防營掩捕，擒陳二及其黨數人磔於市，黑團遂絕。
Lao Naixuan, whose courtesy name was Yuchu, came from Tongxiang in Zhejiang. In the tenth year of Tongzhi he passed the jinshi examination and was assigned as a magistrate in Zhili. Investigating enclosed estates of the Liwang Mansion in Laishui, he strenuously petitioned for rent reduction to relieve the people's hardship. In the fifth year of Guangxu, on first taking office at Linyu, each morning he sat in the hall to handle official business; when the heavy gates were opened and the people called for justice, he examined cases in person, so gatekeepers could not keep clerks and runners away, nor could clerks and runners keep the people away. For more than twenty years in office afterward, he always did the same. When Zeng Guoquan commanded troops at Shanhaiguan, he was ordered to manage documents in his headquarters. Serving in Nanpi and other counties, he found that in metropolitan prefectures and counties relay expenses were levied on the people at fixed quotas while officials kept the surplus. When Naixuan served in Li county, after the tomb-visitation duties ended the surplus disbursement came to more than a thousand strings of cash, which he stored in the treasury for public use. Serving in Wan county, he purchased more than ten thousand volumes of books and housed them in the Zunjing Pavilion. Serving in Wuqiao, he founded village schools; when the farm work was done he had the people enter the schools and study the Rules for Students, the Inner Chapters of the Elementary Learning, the Amplified Instructions of the Sacred Edict, and other books, continuing until the year's end. Earlier, in Ningjin a wicked man named Chen Er had gathered a faction that preyed on the prefecture and counties; locals called them the Black Gang, and their power ran very high. They once came to Nanpi to rob and kill; Naixuan joined the defense camp in a surprise arrest, captured Chen Er and several of his followers, and had them dismembered in the market—the Black Gang was then extinguished.
17
In the twenty-fifth year the Boxers arose in Shandong and spread through Zhili and the eastern provinces; Naixuan wrote An Inquiry into the Origins of the Boxer Sect, posted it for public notice, and memorialized asking that an imperial prohibition be issued—it could not be carried out. In Jingzhou there was a bandit chief named Jie Xiaoting, reputed to be able to descend spirits. Naixuan ordered runners to arrest and punish him, letting scholars and common people surround and watch; after the bastinado he cried out and could no longer play at spirit possession; he was decapitated and displayed, and the bandits then dared not enter the district. The next year the Boxer faction entered the capital; Naixuan knew great disorder was imminent; just then he was transferred to principal clerk in the Ministry of Personnel's Records of Honors Office, and he requested urgent leave to return south; Zhejiang Governor Ren Daorong engaged him to head the Zhejiang Grand Academy. Soon he entered the secretariat of Jiang Governor Li Xingrui; Duanfang and Zhou Fu succeeded in turn, and all treated him with great respect. Zhou Fu adopted Naixuan's proposal and established a Simplified Character Academy at Jinling. Earlier Wang Zhao of Ninghe had devised Mandarin phonetic letters; Naixuan expanded them into a Combined-Sound Simplified Character Manual with fuller initials, finals, and tone marks, so that regions in Jiangsu and Zhejiang with similar speech could all use it. In the thirty-fourth year he was summoned to the capital as a fourth-rank Beijing official awaiting appointment, and served as councillor on the Constitutional Research Commission and coordinator of the Office of Government Affairs.
18
In the first year of Xuantong an edict ordered lectures on the classics and histories to be compiled and presented in daily rotation; he memorialized asking that nurse-governesses be trained to help nurture the emperor's virtue. In the second year he was chosen by imperial command as a learned and eminent member of the Political Consultative Assembly. When the Law Codification Office submitted the new penal code, Naixuan singled out articles that undermined the relations between father and son, elder and younger, and men and women, and proposed revisions. He was appointed educational commissioner of Jiangning. In the third year he was summoned to serve as superintendent of the Capital University and concurrently as Vice Minister of Education. When abdication was settled, he asked to retire and withdrew to seclusion at Laishui. Many scholar-officials were then living in exile in Qingdao; the German Richard Wilhelm founded a Confucian Literary Society, and Naixuan was invited to head it and wrote Correct Interpretation of the Republic. At the 1917 restoration he was appointed Minister of Justice, but Naixuan was then in Qufu and declined on grounds of age and infirmity. He died at seventy-nine.
19
乃宣誦服儒先，踐履不苟，而於古今政治，四裔情勢，靡弗洞達，世目為通儒。 著有遺安錄、古籌算考釋、約章纂要、詩文稿。
Naixuan devoted himself to the Confucian forebears and practiced without laxity; he was thoroughly versed in politics ancient and modern and in conditions across the four quarters of the realm, and the world regarded him as a true scholar. His writings include Records of Tranquil Rest, Investigations into Ancient Calculation, Essentials of Treaty Compilation, and collected essays and poems.
20
Shen Cengzhi, whose courtesy name was Zipei, came from Jiaxing in Zhejiang. In the sixth year of Guangxu he passed the jinshi examination and was appointed a principal clerk in the Ministry of Justice. He was deeply filial; his mother was often ill, and he always tasted her medicines himself, going a full year without undressing to sleep comfortably, and in this way came to master medicine. He was transferred to vice-director and then promoted to director. For eighteen years in the Penal Code Office he studied books of laws and ordinances ancient and modern, tracing from the Ming Code and Song Statutes and Tang Code back to Han and Wei, and produced Collected Supplements to Han Law and Supplements to the Jin History Treatise on Punishments. Cengzhi's learning combined Han and Song traditions, but he was especially deep in historical precedent; later he specialized in the Liao, Jin, and Yuan histories, northwestern geography, and the commercial history of the southern seas. Soon he served as a secretary in the Zongli Yamen. When the Sino-Japanese peace treaty was concluded, Cengzhi proposed borrowing British funds to build railways in the three eastern provinces on his own initiative; Russia's Trans-Siberian railway had not yet even been proposed, and the plan came to nothing. After he returned home to mourn his mother, Zhang Zhidong, governor-general of the two Hu, engaged him to head the lecture chair at the Two Hu Academy.
21
When the Boxer troubles began, Cengzhi joined Sheng Xuanhuai and others in secretly planning to protect the Yangzi; despite illness he hurried to Jiangsu and Hubei, settled the great decision with Liu Kunyi and Zhang Zhidong, and had Li Hongzhang bring it to completion—the so-called "Southeast Mutual Protection Pact." Soon he returned to the capital and was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sent out as prefect of Guangxin in Jiangxi, Cengzhi governed with an eye to the people's true needs and pretenses alike, yet upheld loyalty and forbearance; affairs were well ordered and the people drew close to him. He served in succession as grain intendant and salt commissioner, was promoted to educational commissioner of Anhui, and went to Japan to study educational affairs. In the thirty-second year he acted as provincial treasurer and soon served as acting governor. Armies from Jiangsu, Hubei, and Anhui were holding joint maneuvers at Taihu just as the court went into mourning; popular feeling was agitated, the people were alarmed several times a day, and outside the city artillery and cavalry troops mutinied as well. When Cengzhi heard of it, he mounted the wall to organize the defense; he ordered Assistant Commander Yu Dahong to rush to the river defenses, the gunboat Chucai to destroy the artillery works outside the east gate, and Huang Fengqi to recover the Linghuzui powder magazine—and in a single day the disorder was quelled.
22
Cengzhi spent five years in Anhui, stressing the governance of people and honoring government by ritual; in affairs great and small he always led by example. As educational commissioner he broadened education and founded the Preserve Antiquity Academy. He also promoted practical industry and founded paper mills and other factories. When foreigners demanded a treaty to open the Tongguanshan mines, Cengzhi refused sternly. Before long Prince Zai Zhen left Anhui; the authorities ordered the provincial treasury to disburse huge sums for his entertainment, and Cengzhi refused, falling out with them. In the second year of Xuantong he returned home on grounds of illness. When the abdication edict was issued, he wept without stopping. At the 1917 restoration he was appointed Minister of Education. When events turned he went home and lay ill on the coast; in the winter of the renxu year he died at seventy-three. His writings include the Collected Essays and Poems of the Hairilou.
23
The commentators say: In the xin-ren years the world shifted and changed though no one willed it—within it Heaven surely had a hand. Runxiang, Shi Xu, and the others were not men gifted for meeting change, yet they bent body and exhausted heart to the end alike—something difficult for anyone. Naixuan and Cengzhi were both great scholars of far sight who never slackened in devotion, and in the end died worn down by grief. Alas—was this not Heaven's doing?