Volume 477 Biographies 264: Exemplary Officials 2: Chen Derong, Rui Fuchuan, Jiang Lin, Yan Yaoxi, Wang Shixiang, Lan Dingyuan, Ye Xin, Shi Zhaoting, Chen Qingmen, Zhou Renlong, Tong Hua with: Huang Shifa, Li Wei, Xie Zhongxun, Li Daben, Niu Yunzhen, Zhang Zhentao, Shao Daye, Zhou Kekai with: Zheng Ji, Kang Jiyuan, Yan Ru Si, Zhou Jihua, Wang Huizu with: Ru Dunhe, Zhu Xiudu, Liu Dashen, Wu Huancai, Ji Dakui, Shao Xiceng

陳德榮芮复傳蔣林閻堯熙王時翔藍鼎元葉新施昭庭陳慶門週人龍童華黃世發李渭謝仲坃李大本牛運震張甄陶邵大業周克開汪輝祖劉大紳吳煥彩紀大奎邵希曾}}=陳德榮=陳德榮，字廷彥，直隸安州人。康熙五十一年進士，授湖北枝江知縣。修百里洲堤，除轉餉雜派。雍正三年，遷貴州黔西知州，父憂歸。服闋，署威寧府。未幾，威寧改州，補大定知府。烏蒙土司叛，東川、鎮雄附之，德榮赴威寧防守。城陴頹圮，倉猝聚米桶，實土石，比次甃築，墉堞屹然。賊焚牛衛鎮，去城三十里，德榮日夜備戰，賊不敢逼。總兵哈元生援至，賊敗走。尋以母憂去官。服闋，授江西廣饒九南道。九江、大孤兩關錮弊盡革之。

Chen Derong, Rui Fuchuan, Jiang Lin, Yan Yaoxi, Wang Shixiang, Lan Dingyuan, Ye Xin, Shi Zhaoting, Chen Qingmen, Zhou Renlong, Tong Hua, Huang Shifa, Li Wei, Xie Zhongxun, Li Daben, Niu Yunzhen, Zhang Zhentao, Shao Daye, Zhou Kekai, Wang Huizu, Liu Dashen, Wu Huancai, Ji Dakui, and Shao Xiceng. Chen Derong, courtesy name Tingyan, was from Anzhou in Zhili. He received his jinshi degree in the fifty-first year of the Kangxi reign (1712) and was appointed magistrate of Zhijiang in Hubei. He repaired the dike at Bailizhou and abolished the miscellaneous surcharges levied for transport rations. In the third year of the Yongzheng reign (1725) he was transferred to serve as prefect of Qianxi in Guizhou, but returned home when his father died. After his mourning period ended, he served as acting prefect of Weining. Before long Weining was reduced from a prefecture to a subprefecture, and he was appointed prefect of Dading. When the native chieftain of Wumeng rebelled and Dongchuan and Zhenxiong sided with him, Derong went to Weining to organize the defense. The walls were crumbling; in haste he had rice buckets filled with earth and stone and built up in courses with brick facing, until the battlements stood firm again. The rebels burned Niugwei Town, thirty li from the city; Derong prepared for battle day and night, and the rebels did not dare approach. Regional commander Ha Yuansheng arrived with reinforcements, and the rebels were defeated and fled. Before long he left office to mourn his mother. When his mourning ended, he was appointed intendant of the Guangrao–Jiunan circuit in Jiangxi. He thoroughly rooted out corrupt practices at the Jiujiang and Dagu passes.

乾隆元年，經略張廣泗疏薦，擢貴州按察使。時群苗交煽，軍事方殷，古州姑盧硃洪文諸叛案，德榮治鞫，詳慎重輕，咸稱其情，眾心始安。及苗疆漸定，駐師與屯將吏多以刻急見能。二年，貴陽大火，德榮謁經略曰：「天意如此，當竭誠修省，苗亦人類，曷可盡殺？」廣泗感動，戒將吏如德榮言。

In the first year of the Qianlong reign (1736), Grand Coordinator Zhang Guangsi recommended him in a memorial, and he was promoted to surveillance commissioner of Guizhou. At that time the Miao were stirring one another to rebellion and military affairs were urgent; in the rebellion cases at Guzhou, Gulu, Zhu, Hongwen, and elsewhere, Derong conducted trials with careful attention to severity and leniency. All praised his fairness, and public sentiment began to calm. As the Miao frontier gradually settled, the garrison troops and colonizing officers mostly sought to prove their worth through harsh severity. In the second year a great fire broke out in Guiyang. Derong called on the grand coordinator and said, "When Heaven shows its will in this way, we should devote ourselves sincerely to self-examination. The Miao are human beings too—how can we slaughter them all?" Guangsi was moved and warned his officers and officials to heed Derong's words.

四年，署布政使，疏言：「黔地山多水足，可以疏土成田。小民難於工本，不能變瘠為腴。山荒尤多，流民思墾，輒見撓阻。桑條肥沃，亦不知蠶繅之法。自非牧民者經營而勸率之，利不可得而興也。今就鄰省僱募種棉、織布、飼蠶、紡績之人，擇地試種，設局教習，轉相仿效，可以有成。應責各道因地制宜，隨時設教。一年必有規模，三年漸期成效。」詔允行。乃給工本，築壩堰，引山泉，治水田，導以蓄洩之法。官署自育蠶，於省城大興寺繅絲織作，使民知其利。六年，疏陳課民樹杉，得六萬株。七年，貴築、貴陽、開州、威寧、餘慶、施秉諸州、縣報墾田至三萬六千畝。開野蠶山場百餘所，比戶機杼相聞。德榮據以入告，數被溫旨嘉獎。又大修城郭、壇廟、學舍。廣置棲流所，收行旅之病者。益囚糧。冬寒，卹老疾嫠孤之無衣者。親課諸生，勗以為己之學。設義學二十四於苗疆，風氣丕變。十一年，遷安徽布政使，賑鳳、潁水災，流移獲安。十二年，卒於官。

In the fourth year, while serving as acting financial commissioner, he memorialized: "Guizhou has many mountains and ample water; poor soil can be turned into farmland. Ordinary people cannot afford the cost of labor and cannot turn barren land into fertile fields. Waste mountains are especially numerous; displaced people who wish to reclaim land are constantly obstructed. Mulberry grows abundantly, yet the people do not know how to raise silkworms or reel silk. Unless those who govern the people plan and lead them, these benefits cannot be realized. We should hire from neighboring provinces people skilled in planting cotton, weaving cloth, raising silkworms, and spinning; choose land for trial planting; establish bureaus for instruction; and through mutual imitation success can be achieved. Each circuit should be charged to adapt to local conditions and provide instruction as circumstances allow. Within one year there should be a framework in place; within three years results may gradually be expected." The throne approved the proposal. He then supplied working capital, built dams and sluices, channeled mountain springs, developed paddy fields, and taught the people methods of storage and drainage. The yamen itself raised silkworms; at Daxing Temple in the provincial capital they reeled silk and wove cloth, so the people would see the profit in it. In the sixth year he reported that the people had been instructed to plant fir trees, yielding sixty thousand saplings. In the seventh year the prefectures and counties of Guizhu, Guiyang, Kaizhou, Weining, Yuqing, Shibing, and elsewhere reported thirty-six thousand mu of newly reclaimed land. More than a hundred wild-silkworm mountain sites were opened, and the sound of looms was heard in every household. Derong reported these achievements to the throne and several times received warm edicts of commendation. He also undertook major repairs of city walls, altars, temples, and school buildings. He established many shelters for vagrants to take in sick travelers on the road. He increased the grain rations for prisoners. In the winter cold he provided clothing for the aged and infirm, widows, and orphans who had none. He personally examined the students and exhorted them to study for their own sake. He established twenty-four charity schools in the Miao frontier, and local customs were greatly transformed. In the eleventh year he was transferred to financial commissioner of Anhui, where he relieved flood victims in Fengyang and Yingzhou; the displaced found security. In the twelfth year he died in office.

德榮在貴州興蠶桑，為百世之利。時遵義知府陳玉畐，山東歷城人，到郡見多檞樹，土人取為薪炭。玉畐曰：「此青萊樹也，吾得以富吾民矣。」乃購歷城山蠶種，兼以蠶師來，試育五年，而蠶大熟，獲繭八百萬，自是遵綢之名大著。正安州吏目徐階平，亦自浙江購繭種，仿玉畐行之正安，亦大食其利。遵義鄭珍著樗繭譜，以傳玉畐遺法。

Derong's promotion of sericulture in Guizhou was a benefit for generations to come. At that time Chen Yubi, prefect of Zunyi and a native of Licheng in Shandong, on arriving at his post saw many oak trees that the locals used only for fuel and charcoal. Yubi said, "These are qinglai trees—I can use them to enrich my people." He then purchased mountain silkworm eggs from Licheng and brought silk masters with them; after five years of trial cultivation the silkworms matured fully and eight million cocoons were obtained, and from then on the fame of Zunyi silk spread far and wide. Xu Jieping, a petty official of Zheng'an Subprefecture, also purchased cocoon eggs from Zhejiang and followed Yubi's method in Zheng'an, likewise reaping great profit. Zheng Zhen of Zunyi wrote the Chumu Canpu to preserve Yubi's methods for posterity.

=芮复傳=芮复傳，字衣亭，順天寶坻人，原籍江蘇溧陽。康熙四十八年進士，授浙江錢塘知縣。悉除諸無名錢，曰：「官足給饔飧而已。」有金三者，交通上官署，為奸利，立逮杖斃之，一時大快。五十八年，大旱，复傳勘實上狀，上官欲寢之，固爭曰：「律有捏災、匿災並當劾，某今日請受捏災罪。」時同城仁和民千人，跣走圍署，曰：「錢塘為民父母，仁和獨不父母我耶？」上官感動，竟以災聞。開倉行賑，复傳設粥廠二十有七。微行覘視，治胥吏之侵擾者，帑不費而賑溥。駐防營卒馳躪民田，便宜懲治，輒縛而鞭之。

Rui Fuchuan, courtesy name Yiting, was a native of Baodi in Shuntian; his original household registration was in Liyang, Jiangsu. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-eighth year of the Kangxi reign (1709) and was appointed magistrate of Qiantang in Zhejiang. He abolished all unauthorized levies, saying, "An official needs only enough to supply his meals." There was a man named Jin San who colluded with the higher yamen for illicit profit; Fuchuan had him arrested at once and beaten to death with the stick, to universal delight. In the fifty-eighth year a severe drought struck; Fuchuan investigated and reported the facts, but his superior wished to suppress the report. He protested firmly: "The law punishes both fabricating disasters and concealing them; today I ask to be charged with fabricating a disaster." At that time a thousand people from neighboring Renhe County, barefoot, ran to surround the yamen, crying, "Qiantang is parent to its people—does Renhe alone refuse to parent us?" The superior was moved and in the end reported the disaster to the court. The granaries were opened for relief, and Fuchuan established twenty-seven gruel kitchens. Making unannounced inspections, he punished yamen clerks who harassed the people; the treasury was not wasted, yet relief reached many. When garrison soldiers galloped across the people's fields, he punished them on the spot by binding and flogging them.

治績上聞，世宗特召引見，擢溫州知府。故事，貢柑，歲期至。織造封園，民以為累。复傳第取足供貢，不使擾民。府境私鹽充斥，設三團，集灶戶，平其直，私販息，官鹽不督自行。天台山東南有山曰玉環，在海中，總督李衛欲開田設治，檄复傳往勘，以徒費無益，陳請罷之。衛怒，檄他吏往，意必行。時山中田僅二萬畝，乃割天台、樂清兩縣民田隸玉環，經費不足，則捐通省官俸，又加關津一切雜稅以給之。弛山禁，漁者往來並稅，曰塗稅。既而漁者不入，山者度關納稅，亦徵其塗稅。复傳爭曰「是重稅也」，是牘凡七上。衛益怒，以為阻撓玉環墾田事，蜚語頗聞。劉統勳奉使視海塘，過溫州，語之曰：「君與李宮保，兩雄不相下，不移不屈，君之謂乎？」

When his achievements were reported to the throne, the Yongzheng Emperor specially summoned him for an audience and promoted him to prefect of Wenzhou. By precedent, tangerines were presented as tribute when the season arrived each year. The weaving manufacture sealed off the orchards, and the people regarded it as a burden. Fuchuan took only enough to meet the tribute quota and would not disturb the people further. Private salt was rampant in the prefecture; he established three cooperatives, gathered salt-makers, stabilized prices, private trafficking ceased, and official salt sold without coercion. Southeast of Tiantai Mountain lies Yuhuan Island, in the sea. Governor-General Li Wei wished to open fields and establish an administration there and ordered Fuchuan to survey the site; Fuchuan reported that the project would waste resources without benefit and memorialized requesting its cancellation. Wei was furious and sent another official instead, determined to proceed. At that time only twenty thousand mu of land on the island could be cultivated; fields were then carved from Tiantai and Yueqing counties and attached to Yuhuan. When funds proved insufficient, officials throughout the province donated their salaries, and every miscellaneous tax at passes and fords was added to support the project. The mountain prohibition was relaxed, and fishermen traveling back and forth were all taxed—this was called the "path tax." Later, when fishermen no longer came, mountain people crossing the passes paid tax and were also charged the path tax. Fuchuan protested, "This is double taxation," and submitted such memorials seven times in all. Wei grew still angrier, accusing him of obstructing the Yuhuan land-reclamation project, and slanderous rumors spread. Liu Tongxun, on an imperial mission to inspect the seawall, passed through Wenzhou and said to him, "You and Lord Li are two heroes who will not yield to each other—'if you do not move, you will not bend'—does that describe you?"

尋擢溫處道。會銅商積弊敗露，复傳持法，又揭劾知府尹士份不職，士份反誣以阻商誤銅，大吏故嫉之，遂並劾复傳。解任，總督趙弘恩質訊，坐失察關吏舞弊奪職。會高宗登極，詔仍留浙江辦銅，事竣，例得復官，以親喪歸，遂不出。家居三十餘年，卒，年九十有四。

Soon afterward he was promoted to intendant of the Wenzhou–Taizhou circuit. When long-standing abuses among the copper merchants came to light, Fuchuan upheld the law and also impeached Prefect Yin Shifen for incompetence. Shifen retaliated by accusing him of obstructing merchants and delaying copper shipments; the senior officials, who already resented him, jointly impeached Fuchuan as well. He was relieved of office; Governor-General Zhao Hong'en conducted an inquiry and stripped him of his post for failing to detect malfeasance among customs officials. When the Qianlong Emperor ascended the throne, an edict ordered him to remain in Zhejiang to handle copper affairs. When the work was finished, by precedent he could have been restored to office, but he returned home upon a parent's death and never served again. He lived at home for more than thirty years and died at the age of ninety-four.

=蔣林=蔣林，字元楚，廣西全州人。康熙五十四年進士，選庶吉士，授檢討。直南書房，十年不遷。大將軍年羹堯欲闢為幕僚，林急告歸。尋調戶部郎中，出為福建邵武知府，以事解職，詔發浙江，歷杭州、嚴州、金華三府。在杭州，值織造隆升建議改海門尖山海口，別開河以固海塘。林極言不可，曰：「能使海不潮，則役可興。否則勞民傷財，萬無成理。」上書督撫，俱不省。雍正十二年三月二十五日夜，牒下，索杭夫萬五千人，合旁郡無慮數万人。期三日集海上。林又爭曰：「田蠶方亟，期會迫，萬一勿戢，奈何？必不得已，俟蠶功畢。」隆升怒，督益急，以抗旨脅之。四月，送役往，面詰以工不可成狀。隆升益怒，留林督役以困之。冒雨撫循，泥深沒脛，役人感其誠，咸盡力。隆升复虐使，動以捶撻，眾屢譁噪。微林，事幾殆。役迄無成，隆升得罪去。乾隆初，召至京，入對，即日擢長蘆鹽運使。曩時院司歲各費數万緡，林率以儉，歲費百緡而已，羨餘悉歸公。居四年，以親老乞養。高宗曰：「世乃有不原久為長蘆運使者耶？」久之，卒於家。

Jiang Lin, courtesy name Yuanchu, was a native of Quanzhou in Guangxi. He received his jinshi degree in the fifty-fourth year of the Kangxi reign (1715), was selected as a Hanlin bachelor, and appointed reviser. He served in the Southern Studio and went ten years without promotion. When General-in-Chief Nian Gengyao wished to recruit him as a staff member, Lin urgently petitioned to return home. He was soon transferred to director in the Ministry of Revenue, then appointed prefect of Shaowu in Fujian. Relieved of office over an affair, he was sent by imperial order to Zhejiang and served successively as prefect of Hangzhou, Yanzhou, and Jinhua. While at Hangzhou, the weaving commissioner Long Sheng proposed altering the estuary at Jianshan in Haimen and cutting a new channel to strengthen the seawall. Lin argued forcefully against it, saying, "Only if the sea could be made tideless would such labor be worth undertaking. Otherwise it will weary the people and waste resources, and there is no prospect of success whatsoever." He submitted memorials to the governor-general and governor, but neither paid heed. On the night of the twenty-fifth day of the third month in the twelfth year of Yongzheng (1734), an urgent dispatch arrived demanding fifteen thousand laborers from Hangzhou, and from neighboring prefectures no fewer than tens of thousands of men in all. They were to assemble at the seashore within three days. Lin protested again: "The fields and silkworms are at a critical season, and the deadline is pressing—if the people are not restrained, what then? If it must be done, at least wait until the silkworm season is over." Long Sheng was furious and pressed the work all the more urgently, threatening him with defiance of the imperial will. In the fourth month he sent the laborers out and confronted Long Sheng in person with the reasons the work could not succeed. Long Sheng grew still angrier and detained Lin to supervise the labor himself, hoping to wear him down. He worked in the rain to comfort and guide them; mud came up to their shins; moved by his sincerity, the laborers all gave their utmost. Long Sheng again treated them cruelly, constantly flogging them, and the crowd repeatedly erupted in uproar. Without Lin, the affair would nearly have ended in disaster. When the labor ended without success, Long Sheng was punished and dismissed. Early in the Qianlong reign he was summoned to the capital, received an audience, and the same day was promoted to salt transport commissioner of Changlu. Formerly the yamen officials each spent tens of thousands of strings of cash per year; Lin practiced frugality throughout, spending only a hundred strings annually and returning all surplus to the public coffers. After four years he petitioned to retire and care for his aged parents. The Qianlong Emperor said, "In this world are there truly people who do not wish to remain salt transport commissioner of Changlu for long?" After a long while, he died at home.

=閻堯熙=閻堯熙，字涑陽，河南夏邑人，原籍山西太原。康熙四十五年進士，五十二年，授直隸藁城知縣。滹沱常以秋溢，築堤樹木椿，以捍其衝，夾岸種柳，堤固，水不為患。雍正元年，調南宮，擢晉州知州。州瀕滹沱河，河決徙道，盪析民居。堯熙為籌安集，民免於患，扶攜老稚來謝。堯熙曰：「此朝廷恩，我何與？」令望闕拜，人給百錢，以資裹糧，散錢十萬，咸感泣曰：「真父母也！」怡賢親王奉使過境，聞其名，奏循良第一。擢山東青州知府，未之官，改授浙江嘉興。俗健訟，良懦不得直。訟府，下縣，或不理，奸猾益無忌。堯熙始至，日受狀三百。比對簿，自請息者二百餘，庭折數十，各得其情。豪民張某稔惡，訊實，杖殺之，民皆稱快。屬縣賦重，名目糾紛，裡胥因緣為奸。民完如額，官不知，民亦不自知，官累以缺賦課殿去。堯熙巡行清理，民始知額，歲無逋賦。

Yan Yaoxi, courtesy name Suyang, was a native of Xiayi in Henan; his original household registration was in Taiyuan, Shanxi. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-fifth year of the Kangxi reign and in the fifty-second year was appointed magistrate of Gaocheng in Zhili. The Hutuo River often overflowed in autumn; he built dikes and drove wooden piles to withstand the flood, planted willows along both banks, and the embankment held firm so the water no longer caused harm. In the first year of the Yongzheng reign he was transferred to Nangong and promoted to prefect of Jinzhou. The prefecture bordered the Hutuo River; when the river burst its banks and changed course, it swept away the homes of the people. Yaoxi planned relief and resettlement so the people were spared disaster; the elderly and children came leaning on one another to thank him. Yaoxi said, "This is the court's grace—what have I to do with it?" He had them face the palace gate and bow; each person received a hundred cash for travel provisions; he distributed a hundred thousand cash in all, and all wept with emotion, saying, "A true parent to the people!" Prince Yixian, passing through on an imperial mission, heard of his reputation and memorialized him as the foremost exemplary official. He was promoted to prefect of Qingzhou in Shandong but never took up the post and was reassigned to Jiaxing in Zhejiang instead. Litigation was rampant locally, and the honest and weak could not obtain justice. When cases were sent from the prefecture to the counties, some were left unhandled, and the cunning grew ever bolder. When Yaoxi first arrived, he received three hundred petitions each day. Comparing the petitions with the registers, more than two hundred litigants voluntarily withdrew their suits; he settled dozens in open court, each according to its true merits. A powerful man surnamed Zhang, long steeped in wickedness, was found guilty on investigation and beaten to death; the people all rejoiced. The subordinate counties bore heavy levies with tangled item names, and village clerks took advantage to commit fraud. The people paid in full as required, yet the magistrate did not know it, nor did the people themselves realize it; magistrates were repeatedly demoted for shortfalls in tax delivery. Yaoxi toured the counties and cleared up the accounts; the people first learned the proper quotas, and thereafter there were no arrears each year.

海鹽縣塘工不就，總督李衛聽浮言，欲開引河洩潮。堯熙言：「滷水入內河，田皆傷，非等壞廬舍、糜帑金已也。」議遂罷。營弁緝私鹽，縱其梟，持他人抵罪。堯熙言其誣，總督不聽，庭爭再三，總督乃自勘，釋之，愈以賢堯熙。累擢湖北按察使、四川布政使，皆持大體，有惠政。乾隆七年，卒於官。

In Haiyan County the seawall work would not succeed; Governor-General Li Wei, listening to irresponsible talk, wished to open a diversion channel to release the tide. Yaoxi said, "If brackish water enters the inner rivers, all the fields will be ruined—this is not merely a matter of damaging houses and wasting public funds." The proposal was then abandoned. Garrison officers suppressed private salt but indulged the ringleaders while having innocent people bear the guilt. Yaoxi stated they had been falsely accused; the governor-general would not listen until Yaoxi argued repeatedly in open court; the governor-general then investigated in person, released the victims, and esteemed Yaoxi all the more. He was repeatedly promoted to surveillance commissioner of Hubei and financial commissioner of Sichuan; in each post he upheld broad principles and enacted benevolent policies. In the seventh year of the Qianlong reign he died in office.

堯熙質直，好面折人過，雖上官不少避。然勇於從善，在川籓多得成都知府王時翔之助，人兩賢之。

Yaoxi was plainspoken and direct, fond of confronting others' faults to their faces, and did not shrink even from superiors. Yet he was bold in following what was right; in Sichuan he gained much assistance from Chengdu Prefect Wang Shixiang, and people praised both men.

時翔，字皋謨，江蘇鎮洋人。為諸生，績學未遇。雍正六年，世宗重選守令，命中外官各舉一人，同州人沈起元，官興化知府，以時翔應詔，即授福建晉江知縣。時福建吏治頹廢，遣使按視，多更諸守令有司，頗尚操切。晉江民好訟，時翔至，曰：「此吾赤子，忍以盜賊視乎？」一以寬和為治。坐堂皇，呴呴作家人語。曲直既判，令兩造釋忿，相對揖，由是訟者日衰。觀風整俗使劉師恕按泉州，委時翔鞫疑獄二十餘事，語人曰：「晉江長者，決獄又何精敏也！」尋調政和，又調甌寧。

Wang Shixiang, courtesy name Gaomo, was a native of Zhenjiang in Jiangsu. As a licentiate he pursued learning diligently but did not meet with success in the examinations. In the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign the emperor emphasized selecting prefects and magistrates and ordered officials throughout the empire each to recommend one person; Shen Qiyuan of the same prefecture, then prefect of Xinghua, recommended Shixiang in response to the edict, and he was immediately appointed magistrate of Jinjiang in Fujian. At that time administration in Fujian was decadent; an imperial envoy was sent to inspect, and many prefects and magistrates were replaced, with a tendency toward harsh severity. The people of Jinjiang were fond of litigation; when Shixiang arrived he said, "These are my own children—how can I treat them as bandits?" He governed entirely with leniency and harmony. He sat in the main hall and spoke gently in the tones of family conversation. Once right and wrong were decided, he ordered both parties to release their anger and bow to each other; from this litigation daily declined. Liu Shishu, commissioner for reforming local customs, inspected Quanzhou and entrusted Shixiang with trying more than twenty doubtful cases; he told people, "The elder of Jinjiang—how keen and sharp his judgments are!" Soon he was transferred to Zhenghe, then to Ouning.

擢漳州府同知，駐南勝。南勝民族居峒中，多械鬥。有賴唱者，糾眾奪犯，匿險自固。時翔親入山諭之曰：「汝諸賴萬人，奈何庇一人而以死殉耶？為我縛唱來即無事。」唱不得已自縛出，始如律。瀨子坑民葉揚煽亂，時翔謂緩之可一紙定，或張其事，大吏檄入山剿之。事平，意不自得，乞病歸。

He was promoted to subprefect of Zhangzhou Prefecture, stationed at Nansheng. The native peoples of Nansheng lived in mountain stockades and frequently fought with weapons. There was one Lai Chang who gathered a crowd to seize a prisoner and hid in rugged terrain to hold fast. Shixiang personally entered the mountains and admonished them, saying, "You Lai number ten thousand men—why shelter one man and die for him? Bind Chang and bring him to me and there will be no trouble." Chang had no choice but to bind himself and come out; only then was the law applied. Ye Yang of Laizikeng stirred up disorder; Shixiang said that if handled gently it could be settled with a single document, but someone exaggerated the affair and the grand coordinators ordered a punitive expedition into the mountains. When the affair was settled he was ill at ease and petitioned to return home on grounds of illness.

乾隆元年，以薦起山西蒲州府同知，擢成都知府。以廉率屬，善審機要。錢價騰，布政使榜平其直，市大譁。時翔方在假，召成都、華陽二令曰：「市直當順民情，抑之，錢閉不出，奈何？」言於布政撤其榜，錢價尋平。

In the first year of the Qianlong reign, on recommendation he was appointed subprefect of Puzhou in Shanxi and promoted to prefect of Chengdu. He led his subordinates with integrity and was skilled at judging what was essential. The price of cash rose sharply; the financial commissioner posted notices to level the price, and the market erupted in uproar. Shixiang was then on leave; he summoned the magistrates of Chengdu and Huayang and said, "Market price should follow the people's wishes—if you suppress it, cash will not circulate; what then?" He spoke to the financial commissioner, who withdrew the notices, and the price of cash soon stabilized.

議徙涼州兵於成都，拓駐防城，當奪民居二千家。時翔檢故牘，請曰：「城故容兵三千，現兵一千五百，尚虛其半。第出現所侵地足矣，奚拓為？」已而涼州兵亦不果徙。成都當康熙時，人稀穀賤，旗兵利得銀。至雍正以後，生聚多，穀貴，又原得穀。或徇其意，令民受銀，購穀給兵。未幾，漢兵亦欲仿行，時翔曰：「旗兵例不出城，語言與土人殊，故代購。漢兵皆土著，奚代為？」二事亦賴布政力主其議得止。

It was proposed to transfer troops from Liangzhou to Chengdu and expand the garrison city, which would require seizing two thousand civilian dwellings. Shixiang searched the old records and petitioned, "The city originally could hold three thousand troops; present troops number only fifteen hundred—half the space still stands empty. Simply recover the land presently occupied—that is enough; why expand?" Before long the transfer of Liangzhou troops also did not take place. In Chengdu during the Kangxi period people were sparse and grain was cheap; banner soldiers preferred to receive silver. From the Yongzheng period onward the population grew and grain became dear; they again wished to receive grain. Some indulged their wishes and had the people accept silver and purchase grain to supply the troops. Before long the Han troops also wished to follow suit; Shixiang said, "Banner troops by regulation do not leave the city; their speech differs from the natives, hence grain is purchased on their behalf. Han troops are all natives—why purchase on their behalf?" These two matters also relied on the financial commissioner vigorously upholding the proposals to halt them.

至七年，江南、湖廣災，巡撫奏運蜀米四十萬石濟之。湖廣急米，來領運，江南則否。巡撫乃檄下縣餽運，舳艫蔽江，商賈不通，成都薪炭俱絕。時翔謂江南運可緩，徒病蜀。請獨運楚，而聽商人自運江南。時堯熙既沒，竟無用其言者。時翔在成都，屢雪疑獄，時稱神明。九年，卒。

By the seventh year, disasters struck Jiangnan and Huguang; the governor memorialized to transport four hundred thousand piculs of Sichuan rice for relief. Huguang urgently needed the grain and came to take charge of transport; Jiangnan did not. The governor then ordered the counties to supply transport; boats covered the river and merchants could not pass; in Chengdu even fuel and charcoal were cut off. Shixiang said Jiangnan transport could be delayed and would only harm Sichuan. He requested transporting only to Huguang and allowing merchants to transport to Jiangnan on their own. By then Yaoxi had already died, and in the end no one adopted his proposal. Shixiang in Chengdu repeatedly cleared doubtful cases and was at the time called divine in judgment. In the ninth year he died.

=藍鼎元=藍鼎元，字玉霖，福建漳浦人。少孤力學，通達治體，嘗泛海考求閩、浙形勢。巡撫張伯行器之，曰：「藍生經世之良材，吾道之羽翼也。」

Lan Dingyuan, courtesy name Yulin, was a native of Zhangpu in Fujian. Orphaned young, he studied diligently, mastered principles of governance, and once crossed the sea to investigate the terrain of Fujian and Zhejiang. Governor Zhang Boxing valued him and said, "Student Lan is fine timber for governing the age—a wing to our way."

康熙六十年，台灣朱一貴倡亂，鼎元從兄南澳鎮總兵廷珍率師進討，多出贊畫，七日台灣平。復從廷珍招降人，殄遺孽，撫流民，綏番社，歲餘始返。著論言治台之策，大意謂：「土地有日闢、無日蹙，經營疆理，則為戶口貢賦之區；廢置空虛，則為盜賊倡亂之所。山高地肥，最利墾闢。利之所在，人所必趨。不歸之民，則歸之番與賊。即使內亂不生，寇自外來，將有日本、荷蘭之患，不可不早為措置。」時議者謂台灣鎮當移澎湖，鼎元力言不可，大吏採其說，見諸施行。鼎元復為台灣道條十九事，曰「信賞罰、懲訟師、除草竊、治客民、禁惡俗、儆吏胥、革規例、崇節儉、正婚嫁、興學校、修武備、嚴守禦、教樹畜、寬租賦、行墾田、复官莊、卹澎民、撫土番、招生番。」後之治台者，多以為法。

In the sixtieth year of the Kangxi reign, Zhu Yigui raised rebellion in Taiwan; Dingyuan's cousin Tingzhen, regional commander of Nan'ao, led troops to attack; Dingyuan largely planned the campaign, and in seven days Taiwan was pacified. He again followed Tingzhen in receiving those who surrendered, exterminating remnant rebels, comforting displaced people, and pacifying aboriginal communities; only after more than a year did he return. He wrote a treatise on governing Taiwan, stating in general, "Land may daily be opened but never daily shrinks; if frontiers are managed, it becomes a region of households and tax revenue; if left vacant and abandoned, it becomes a place where bandits and rebels arise. The mountains are high and the soil fertile—most favorable for reclamation. Where profit lies, people will surely rush. If it does not go to the people, it will go to the aborigines and bandits. Even if internal disorder does not arise, when invaders come from outside there will be trouble from Japan and Holland—measures must be taken early." At the time debaters held that the Taiwan garrison should be moved to Penghu; Dingyuan strongly stated this was impossible; the grand coordinators adopted his view and put it into practice. Dingyuan also drafted nineteen items for the Taiwan circuit, namely: trust rewards and punishments, punish litigation masters, eliminate grass theft, govern guest settlers, prohibit evil customs, warn yamen runners, abolish irregular fees, esteem frugality, correct marriage customs, establish schools, repair military preparedness, strictly defend frontiers, teach forestry and livestock, lighten land tax, carry out land reclamation, restore official estates, relieve Penghu people, pacify native tribes, and recruit aboriginal peoples. Later governors of Taiwan mostly took these as their model.

雍正元年，以選拔入京師，分修一統志。六年，大學士硃軾薦之，引見，奏陳時務六事，世宗善之。尋授廣東普寧知縣，在官有惠政，聽斷如神。集邑士秀異者講明正學，風俗一變。調權潮陽縣事，歲薦飢，多逋賦，減耗糧，除苛累，民爭趨納。妖女林妙貴惑眾，寘之法。籍其居，建棉陽書院。以忤監司罷職，總督鄂彌達疏白其誣，徵詣闕。逾年，命署廣州知府，抵官一月，卒。

In the first year of the Yongzheng reign, selected for advancement he entered the capital and took part in compiling the unified gazetteer. In the sixth year Grand Secretary Zhu Shi recommended him; he was received in audience and memorialized on six matters of state; the Yongzheng Emperor approved. Soon he was appointed magistrate of Puning in Guangdong; in office he enacted benevolent policies and judged cases with uncanny insight. He gathered the outstanding scholars of the county to expound orthodox learning, and local customs were wholly transformed. Transferred temporarily to handle affairs in Chaoyang County; that year famine was reported and many taxes were in arrears; he reduced wastage in grain transport and abolished harsh exactions; the people competed to pay. The sorceress Lin Miaogui deluded the masses and was punished by law. Her residence was confiscated and the Mianyang Academy was built there. Because he offended the surveillance commissioner he was dismissed; Governor E'erduo memorialized clearing him of false accusation and he was summoned to court. After more than a year he was ordered to serve as acting prefect of Guangzhou; one month after reaching his post he died.

鼎元尤善治盜及訟師，多置耳目，劾捕不稍貸，而斷獄多所平反，論者以為嚴而不殘。志在經世，而不竟其用。著鹿洲集、東征集、平台紀略、棉陽學準、鹿洲公案傳於世。

Dingyuan was especially skilled at governing bandits and litigation masters; he placed many informants, impeached and arrested without leniency, yet in trying cases often reversed wrongful convictions; critics held him strict but not cruel. His aim was to govern the age, yet he did not fully realize his capacity. He authored the Luzhou Collection, Dongzheng Collection, Pingtai Jilue, Mianyang Xuezhun, and Luzhou Gong'an, which circulate in the world.

=葉新=葉新，字惟一，浙江金華人。康熙五十一年，順天舉人。從蠡縣李恭受業，立日譜自檢，尤嚴義利之辨。雍正五年，以知縣揀發四川，授仁壽縣。有與鄰縣爭地界者，當會勘，鄉保因閽人以賄請，新怒，悉下之獄。勘畢，各按其罪，由是吏民斂手奉法。

Ye Xin, courtesy name Weiyi, was a native of Jinhua in Zhejiang. In the fifty-first year of the Kangxi reign he became a provincial graduate of Shuntian. He studied under Li Gong of Lixian, kept a daily record for self-examination, and was especially strict in distinguishing righteousness from profit. In the fifth year of the Yongzheng reign he was selected as magistrate and sent to Sichuan, appointed to Renshou County. When people from neighboring counties disputed their boundaries and a joint survey was ordered, village wardens tried to bribe the gatekeepers. Ye Xin was furious and had every one of them thrown in jail. After the survey was completed, each man was punished according to his offense, and from then on officials and commoners alike kept their hands to themselves and obeyed the law.

署嘉定州，故有沒水田，多逋賦。新視曠土可耕者，召民墾闢，以新科抵賦額，舊逋悉免。時仁壽採木，部匠倚官為暴，民勿堪，糾眾相抗，縣以變告，檄新往治之，抵匠頭及首糾眾者於法，餘釋不問。遷工卩州知州，再遷夔州府同知，署龍安及成都知府。又署瀘州知州，訟者至，立剖決，滯獄一空。治瀘兩載，俗一變焉。新自授夔州同知，閱五載，始一蒞任。尋又署保寧、順慶兩府，擢雅州知府，母憂歸。

While serving as acting magistrate of Jiading Prefecture, he found fields that had long lain submerged under water and carried heavy tax arrears. Ye Xin identified fallow land that could be farmed, summoned the people to reclaim it, applied the new assessments against the old tax quotas, and remitted all outstanding arrears. At the time Renshou was harvesting timber, and ministry craftsmen abused official backing to terrorize the people until they could bear it no longer and rose up together. The county reported a disturbance and sent Ye Xin to deal with it. He punished the head craftsman and the ringleaders under the law and released the rest without further inquiry. He was promoted to magistrate of Gongzhou, then transferred again to vice-prefect of Kuizhou Prefecture, and served as acting prefect of Long'an and Chengdu. He later served as acting magistrate of Luzhou, where litigants who came before him had their cases decided on the spot until the backlog of pending suits was completely cleared. After two years governing Luzhou, the local customs were wholly transformed. From the time Ye Xin received appointment as vice-prefect of Kuizhou, five years passed before he finally took up the post even once. He soon served again as acting prefect of Baoning and Shunqing, was promoted to prefect of Yazhou, and then returned home to observe mourning for his mother.

乾隆十年，服闋，補江西建昌。修盱江書院，招引文士與講論學術。复南城黃孝子祠，以勵民俗。十三年，南豐令報縣民饒令德謀反，令德好拳勇，令以風聞遣役往偵，誤探其仇，謂謀反有據，遂往逮令德，適他往，乃逮其弟繫獄。令德歸，自詣縣，受刑誣服，雜引親故及鄰境知識為同謀，追捕蔓及旁郡。新得報，集諸囚親鞫，株連者已七十餘人，言人人殊。新詰縣役捕令德弟狀，役言初至其家，獲一篋，疑有金寶匿之。及發視，無所有，棄之野。令聞，意篋有反跡，訊以刑。妄稱發篋得簿劄，納賄毀之矣。令謂實然，遂逼令德誣服。新於是盡釋七十餘人縲線，命隨往南昌。戒之曰：「有一逋者，吾代汝死矣。」及至，七十餘人則皆在。謁巡撫，具道所以，巡撫愕不信，集才能之吏會勘，益雜逮諸所牽引，卒無據，而巡撫已於得報時遽上奏。朝命兩江總督委官就讞，新為一一剖解得白，所全活二百餘人。

In the tenth year of the Qianlong reign, after his mourning period ended, he was appointed magistrate of Jianchang in Jiangxi. He restored the Xujiang Academy and invited literary men to join him in discussing scholarship. He restored the Huang Filial Son Shrine in Nancheng to encourage proper local conduct. In the thirteenth year, the magistrate of Nanfeng reported that a county man named Rao Lingde was plotting rebellion. Lingde was fond of boxing and martial prowess. Acting on rumor, the magistrate sent runners to investigate; they mistakenly looked into his enemy, declared the rebellion proven, and went to arrest Lingde. He happened to be away, so they seized his younger brother and threw him in jail. When Lingde returned, he presented himself at the yamen, was tortured into a false confession, and randomly named relatives, friends, and acquaintances from neighboring districts as co-conspirators until the dragnet spread into adjoining prefectures. When Ye Xin received the report, he gathered the prisoners for personal interrogation. More than seventy people had already been implicated, and no two accounts matched. Ye Xin questioned the county runners about how Lingde's brother had been arrested. They said that on first reaching the house they had seized a box, suspecting gold and treasure were hidden inside. When they opened it and looked inside, there was nothing there, so they threw it away in the open country. When the magistrate heard of this, he assumed the box had held evidence of rebellion and had the runners tortured for answers. They falsely claimed that opening the box had revealed documents and letters, which had been destroyed after bribes changed hands. The magistrate took this for the truth and forced Lingde into a false confession. Ye Xin then released all seventy-odd prisoners from their bonds and ordered them to accompany him to Nanchang. He warned them: "If even one of you is missing, I will die in your place." When they arrived, all seventy-odd men were there. He went before the governor and explained the whole affair. The governor was astonished and refused to believe him, gathered capable officials for a joint review, and indiscriminately arrested still more of those who had been named—yet in the end no evidence was found. By then, however, the governor had already rushed a memorial to the throne upon first receiving the report. The court ordered the Governor-General of Liangjiang to appoint officials to review the case on the spot. Ye Xin explained each point in turn until the accused were cleared, saving more than two hundred lives.

十七年，調贛州，有贛縣搶奪拒捕之獄，值改例，新舊輕重懸殊。新謂事在例前，當依舊比，爭之不得。復以寧都民獄事，與同官持異同，不得直，謝事閉門候代。上官慰喻，不從，遂以任性被劾免歸。欣然曰：「今而後可無疚於心矣！」家居十餘年，卒。

In the seventeenth year he was transferred to Ganzhou, where a case of robbery and resisting arrest in Gan County coincided with a revision of the penal code, so that the old and new punishments differed sharply in severity. Ye Xin argued that because the offense predated the new code, the old precedents should apply, but he could not prevail. Then, in a civilian case in Ningdu, he again found himself at odds with his colleagues and unable to obtain justice, so he resigned his duties, shut his doors, and waited to be replaced. His superiors tried to comfort and persuade him, but he would not yield and was impeached for obstinacy and dismissed to return home. He said with satisfaction, "From now on I can live without guilt in my heart!" He lived at home for more than ten years, then died.

=施昭庭=施昭庭，字筠瞻，江蘇吳縣人。康熙五十四年進士，授江西萬載知縣。地僻多山，客民自閩、粵來，居之累年，積三萬餘人，號曰「棚民」。溫尚貴者，台灣逸盜也，亦處山中。雍正元年，福建移捕盜黨急，尚貴謀為變。始昭庭之至也，以棚民為慮，厚禮縣人易廉野使偵之。廉野積粟貸棚民，不取息，或免償，得棚民心。其才者嚴林生、羅老滿，從廉野遊，盡得山中要領。尚貴將舉事，廉野以聞，昭庭、林生、老滿率勇敢三百人待之。尚貴有眾二千肆掠，昭庭曰：「賊易破也，然慮其擾傍縣。」撫賊諜使誑尚貴趨萬載。乃張疑兵於山徑，賊不敢入，由官道來。預設伏叢棘中，伺賊過，突出擊殺。賊數中伏，疑駭，逆擊之，一戰獲尚貴。尚貴起二日而敗，又二日而撫標兵至。

Shi Zhaoting, courtesy name Yunzhan, was a native of Wuxian in Jiangsu. A jinshi in the fifty-fourth year of the Kangxi reign, he was appointed magistrate of Wanzai in Jiangxi. The district was remote and mountainous. Migrant settlers from Fujian and Guangdong had lived there for years until their numbers exceeded thirty thousand; they were called "shed dwellers." Wen Shanggui, an escaped pirate from Taiwan, also hid in the mountains. In the first year of the Yongzheng reign, as Fujian stepped up its hunt for the bandit gang, Shanggui plotted an uprising. When Zhaoting first took office, he was worried about the shed dwellers and handsomely rewarded a local man named Yi Lianye to spy on them. Lianye stored grain and lent it to the shed dwellers without interest, sometimes forgiving repayment altogether, and won their trust. Among the able men were Yan Linsheng and Luo Laoman, who worked with Lianye and came to know every important feature of the mountains. When Shanggui was about to rise, Lianye reported it. Zhaoting, together with Linsheng and Laoman, led three hundred brave men to await him. Shanggui had two thousand men rampaging through the countryside. Zhaoting said, "The bandits are easy to defeat, but I fear they will ravage neighboring counties." He won over a bandit spy and had him trick Shanggui into hurrying toward Wanzai. He then posted decoy troops along the mountain paths so the bandits dared not enter them and came instead by the main road. He laid ambushes in the thickets, waited for the bandits to pass, then burst out and struck them down. Many of the bandits walked into the ambush, panicked and suspicious, and though they counterattacked, Shanggui was captured in a single battle. Shanggui had been in rebellion for only two days before he was defeated; two days later the provincial troops arrived.

初，棚民與市人積嫌，事起，道路洶洶，指目棚民。昭庭以免死帖與諸降者，取棚民不從賊者結狀，兵至搜山，不戮一人。巡撫初到官，張其事入奏，既見縣申狀不合，欲改之，昭庭不可。又謂棚民匿盜從亂，今雖赦之，必驅歸本籍。昭庭曰：「棚民種植自給，非刀手老瓜賊之比。歷年多，生齒眾，間與居民爭訐細故，不必深懲。今亂由台灣逸盜，而平盜悉資棚民。」力請：「覈戶口，編保甲，泯其主客之形，寬其衣食之路，長治久安，於計便。」總督查弼納許之，巡撫尋亦悟，如昭庭策，棚民乃安。事聞，世宗諭九卿曰：「知縣以數年心力辦賊，巡撫到官幾日，豈得有其功耶？」獨下總督疏，議敘，以主事知州用。尋引疾歸，卒於家。

The shed dwellers and townspeople had long nursed grievances against one another, and when trouble broke out the roads buzzed with accusation and every eye turned on the shed dwellers. Zhaoting issued certificates sparing the lives of those who surrendered, collected sworn statements from shed dwellers who had not joined the bandits, and when troops came to search the mountains, not one person was killed. The governor had only just taken office and inflated the affair in a memorial to the throne. When he saw that the county report did not match his account and wanted to revise it, Zhaoting refused. The governor also argued that the shed dwellers had sheltered bandits and joined the rebellion, and that even though they were pardoned, they must be driven back to their native districts. Zhaoting replied, "The shed dwellers grow their own food. They are not armed ruffians or petty melon thieves. They have lived here for many years, their numbers have grown, and they occasionally quarrel with local residents over trifles. That does not call for harsh punishment. Today's trouble came from an escaped Taiwan pirate, and putting down the bandits depended entirely on the shed dwellers." He strongly petitioned: "Verify household registers, organize them into mutual-responsibility units, erase the distinction between locals and newcomers, and give them room to earn their living. That is the surest path to lasting peace." Governor-General Cha Yinna approved the plan; the governor soon came round as well, and by following Zhaoting's policy the shed dwellers were finally settled. When the affair was reported, Emperor Shizong told the Nine Ministers, "The magistrate spent years of effort suppressing the bandits. How can a governor who has been in office only a few days claim the credit?" Only the governor-general's memorial was forwarded for honors, and Zhaoting was recommended for appointment as a department director with the rank of prefect. Soon afterward he retired on grounds of illness and died at home.

=陳慶門=陳慶門，字容駟，陝西盩厔人。雍正元年進士。從鄠王心敬講學，養親不仕。母王趣之，乃謁選。七年，授安徽廬江知縣，修建文廟，規制悉備。大濬城壕。置義田二百畝有奇。贍養煢獨，立社倉四所，積穀以貸平民。縣民舊習，止知平疇種稻，高阜皆為棄壤。因市牛具，仿北方種植法，躬督墾闢，遂享其利。

Chen Qingmen, courtesy name Rongsi, was a native of Zhouzhi in Shaanxi. A jinshi in the first year of the Yongzheng reign. He studied under Wang Xinjing of Hu and stayed home to care for his parents rather than enter official service. His mother Wang pressed him to serve, and he then went to await appointment. In the seventh year he was appointed magistrate of Lujiang in Anhui, where he rebuilt the Confucian temple to full standard. He undertook a major dredging of the city moat. He set aside more than two hundred mu of charitable fields. To support the orphaned and destitute, he established four community granaries and stored grain to lend to common people. By local custom people planted rice only on flat fields, while higher ground was left as waste land. He bought oxen and farm tools, introduced northern planting methods, personally supervised reclamation, and the people soon reaped the benefit.

尋署無為州事。州瀕江，上下二百里，率當水沖，前人築壩四，常沒於水。慶門於鮑魚橋、匋魚口二處，樹椿編竹，實土為坦坡；又取亂石填擲水中，水停沙淤，久而成洲，民免墊溺之患。又署六安州，舊有水塘，議者欲墾塘以為田，將絕灌溉之利。慶門力言於上官，事乃寢。

He soon served as acting magistrate of Wuwei Prefecture. The prefecture lay along the river, and for two hundred li upstream and downstream the banks were constantly threatened by flood. Earlier officials had built four dikes, but they were often washed away. At Baoyu Bridge and Taoyukou, Qingmen drove piles, wove bamboo mats, and packed them with earth to form gentle slopes; he also had rubble thrown into the water. The current slowed, sand accumulated, and in time new land formed, sparing the people from being swept away and drowned. He later served as acting magistrate of Lu'an Prefecture, where old ponds stood. Some proposed converting them into fields, which would have destroyed their value for irrigation. Qingmen argued forcefully before his superiors, and the proposal was dropped.

十一年，擢亳州知府，俗悍，好群鬥，倚蠹役，表里為姦。慶門廉得其魁黨，先後杖遣數百人。又好訟，仿古鄉約法，使之宣導排解。勤於聽斷，日決數十事。不數月，澆風一變。州瀕湖，地窪下，用秦中收淀之犁法，督民挑濬，地下者漸高，水歸其壑，農田賴焉。母憂歸。

In the eleventh year he was promoted to prefect of Bozhou, where the people were violent, prone to gang fights, and protected by corrupt clerks who worked with them inside and out. Qingmen investigated the ringleaders and their gangs and, one after another, flogged and banished several hundred of them. The people were also litigious, so he revived the ancient village covenant system and had local leaders preach and mediate disputes. Diligent in hearing cases, he decided dozens of suits every day. Within a few months the corrupt local ways were wholly transformed. The prefecture bordered a lake on low ground. Using the Qin region method of draining ponds with plows, he supervised dredging until the lower land gradually rose, water returned to its proper channels, and the farmland prospered. He returned home to observe mourning for his mother.

乾隆元年，服闋，以大臣薦，補四川達州知州。境環萬山，歲常苦旱，教民種旱稻，始無艱食之憂。鄰郡巴州，桑柘素饒，乃買桑遍植，教以分繭繅絲之法，獲利與巴州等。時川東多流民，官廩不給，遂釐剔腴田之被隱佔者，為義產以贍之，全活甚眾。建宣漢書院，聘名流教授，文風漸振。未幾，乞病歸。著仕學一貫錄，世以儒吏稱之。

In the first year of the Qianlong reign, after his mourning ended and on the recommendation of a senior official, he was appointed magistrate of Dazhou in Sichuan. The district was encircled by mountains and suffered drought year after year. He taught the people to plant drought-resistant rice, and at last they were freed from fear of hunger. Neighboring Bazhou was rich in mulberry and paper mulberry, so he bought mulberry trees, planted them widely, and taught the people how to sort cocoons and reel silk until their profits matched those of Bazhou. At the time eastern Sichuan was full of displaced people and the official granaries could not feed them. He investigated concealed encroachments on fertile land, set up charitable estates to support the refugees, and saved a great many lives. He founded the Xuanhan Academy, engaged distinguished scholars to teach there, and local literary culture gradually revived. Before long he asked to retire on grounds of illness and returned home. He wrote Records of Consistent Learning in Office and Study, and posterity honored him as a Confucian official.

=週人龍=週人龍，字云上，直隸天津人。康熙四十八年進士，授山西屯留知縣。興學賑荒，有聲。調清源，境內洞渦、嶑峪諸河入汾，常有水患，濬渠築堰，民賴之。歷忻州直隸州知州、蒲州知府。蒲郡瀕黃河，河水遷徙無常。山、陝兩省民隔河爭地，訟數十年不結。人龍請於大吏曰：「臨河灘地，當以河為界。河東遷，則山西無地之糧歸陝西；河西遷，則陝西無地之糧歸山西。糧隨地起，不缺正賦。因地納糧，無累民生。山、陝沿河二千餘裡，凡兩省湮沒之地，令地方官照糧查地，按地過糧。除鹵咸者照例題請免徵，其餘水退之地，招令沿河民認糧承種，庶事無偏枯，爭訟可息。」大吏從其議，至今便之。

Zhou Renlong, courtesy name Yunshang, was a native of Tianjin in Zhili. A jinshi in the forty-eighth year of the Kangxi reign, he was appointed magistrate of Tunliu in Shanxi. He promoted education and famine relief and won a strong reputation. Transferred to Qingyuan, he found that the Dongwo, Gaoyu, and other rivers within the district emptied into the Fen and caused frequent floods. He dredged channels and built dikes, to the people's great benefit. He served successively as magistrate of Xinzhou Direct Prefecture and prefect of Puzhou. Puzhou bordered the Yellow River, whose course shifted without warning. People of Shanxi and Shaanxi disputed land across the river, and lawsuits dragged on unresolved for decades. Renlong petitioned the senior officials, saying, "For land along the river's edge, the river itself should be the boundary. When the river shifts east, grain tax owed on land that no longer exists in Shanxi should go to Shaanxi; when it shifts west, grain tax owed on land that no longer exists in Shaanxi should go to Shanxi. Tax follows the land, and the regular levy is never shorted. Grain dues would follow the land itself, without burdening people's livelihoods. Along more than two thousand li of the Shanxi and Shaanxi riverbanks, for all submerged lands in both provinces, local officials should trace holdings according to existing grain registers and reassign tax obligations to match the actual land. Saline tracts would be memorialized for exemption as usual; all other lands reclaimed as the waters receded would be offered to riverside farmers to accept the attached grain dues and take up cultivation — so that neither province would be unfairly burdened and the endless lawsuits might finally cease. The provincial authorities adopted his proposal, and the arrangement has served well ever since.

雍正初，有言丁糧歸地，便於無力之丁，不便於有田之家。人龍駁之，略曰：「有田者，尚以輸納為艱，豈無田者反易？君子平其政，焉得人人而悅之？今不悅者，不過紳衿富戶；而大悅者，乃在煢煢無告之小民。若因其控告而不行，則豪強得志，而窮民終於無告。此議在當日未行則已耳，今行之數年，勢難中止。窮民狃於數年樂利，必不安於一旦變更。且富民少而窮民多，不當以彼易此。」議上，事乃定。以憂去官。

Early in the Yongzheng reign, critics argued that merging the poll tax into the land tax would help landless commoners but would disadvantage families who owned fields. Renlong rebutted them, writing in essence: "If even landowners already struggle to meet their tax payments, how could those with no land find the burden easier? A gentleman sets policy straight — he cannot please every individual. Those displeased today are only the gentry and wealthy households; while those who rejoice most are the poorest commoners, alone and without anyone to speak for them. If the reform were abandoned because of their complaints, the powerful would triumph and the poor would remain utterly without recourse. Had the policy never been adopted, that would be one matter; but now that it has been in force for several years, it would be difficult to stop. The poor, having grown accustomed to years of relief, would not accept a sudden reversal. Besides, the wealthy are few and the poor are many — one must not sacrifice the many for the few." When his memorial reached the throne, the matter was decided. He left office to mourn a parent.

服闋，補湖北安陸。數月，擢江西督糧道，未行，江水決鍾祥三官廟堤及天門沙溝垸，招集鄰縣民，諭以利害，同築禦。踴躍荷畚鍤至者數万人，親冒風雨，率以施工。或勸其「已遷官，何自苦」，人龍曰：「助夫由我招至，我去即散矣。伏汛一至，民何以堪？」閱兩月工成，安陸人屍祝之。江西漕糧徵運素多弊，嚴立規條，宿蠹一清。乾隆十年，乞病歸，卒。

When his mourning ended, he was posted to Anlu in Hubei. Within months he was promoted to grain intendant of Jiangxi, but before he could leave, the Yangtze breached the dikes at the Three Officials' Temple in Zhongxiang and at Shagou Yuan in Tianmen. He summoned laborers from neighboring counties, explained what was at stake, and led them in building defenses together. Tens of thousands came eagerly bearing hoes and shovels; he personally braved wind and rain to direct the work. Some urged him: "You have already been transferred — why torment yourself?" Renlong replied: "I summoned these workers; if I leave, they will disperse at once. When the summer flood arrives, how will the people endure it?" Two months later the work was complete, and the people of Anlu venerated him as they would a tutelary spirit. Transport and collection of grain tribute in Jiangxi had long been riddled with abuses; he imposed strict regulations and swept away entrenched corruption. In the tenth year of the Qianlong reign (1745), he retired on grounds of illness and died at home.

=童華=童華，字心樸，浙江山陰人。年未冠為諸生，長習名法家言，出佐郡邑治。雍正初，入貲為知縣。時方修律例，大學士硃軾薦其才，世宗召見，命察賑直隸。樂亭、盧龍兩縣報飢口不實，華倍增其數。怡賢親王與硃軾治營田水利，至永平，問灤河形勢，華對甚晰，王器之。尋授平山知縣，邑災，不待報，遽出倉粟七千石貸民。擢真定知府，權按察使。以前在平山發粟事，部議免官，特詔原之。

Tong Hua. Tong Hua, courtesy name Xinpu, was from Shanyin in Zhejiang. He became a licentiate before coming of age; as he matured he studied legalist administrative practice and went out to assist in local government. Early in the Yongzheng reign he purchased appointment as a county magistrate. While the legal code was being revised, Grand Secretary Zhu Shi recommended his abilities; the Yongzheng Emperor summoned him and sent him to inspect famine relief in Zhili. Leting and Lulong counties had underreported the number of famine victims; Hua doubled their figures. Prince Yixian and Zhu Shi were overseeing land reclamation and waterworks; when they reached Yongping and inquired about the Luan River, Hua answered with such clarity that the prince took him in high regard. Soon afterward he was appointed magistrate of Pingshan; when disaster struck the county, he immediately released seven thousand shi of grain from the public granary to lend to the people, without waiting for authorization. He was promoted to prefect of Zhending and concurrently served as acting surveillance commissioner. Because of his unauthorized grain release at Pingshan, the Board recommended his dismissal, but the emperor issued a special edict pardoning him.

怡賢親王奏以華理京南局水利，華度真定城外得泉十八，疏為渠，溉田六百畝，先後營田三百餘頃。滏陽河發源磁州，州民欲獨擅其利。自春徂秋，閉閘蓄水，下游永年、曲周滴涓不得。時改州歸直隸，以便控制。華建議仿唐李泌、明湯紹恩西湖三江兩閘遺規，計板放水，數縣爭水之端永息。華又以北人不食稻，請發錢買水田穀運通倉，省漕費，民得市稷黍以為食，從之。

Prince Yixian memorialized to put Hua in charge of Southern Bureau waterworks; Hua surveyed outside Zhending and found eighteen springs, dredged them into irrigation channels covering six hundred mu, and over time reclaimed more than three hundred qing of land. The Fuyang River rises in Cizhou, whose residents sought to monopolize its water. From spring through autumn they closed the sluice gates to hoard the water, so that downstream Yongnian and Quzhou received scarcely a drop. The prefecture had recently been transferred to Zhili to make control easier. Hua proposed following the Tang precedent of Li Bi and the Ming precedent of Tang Shao'en at West Lake — regulating release by sluice boards — so that water disputes among the counties would end for good. Hua also argued that northerners did not eat rice, and requested funds to purchase paddy grain for transport to the Tong Granary, saving tribute transport costs so that people could buy millet and sorghum instead; the proposal was approved.

調江蘇蘇州，會清查康熙五十一年以來江蘇負課千二百餘萬，巡撫督責急，逮捕追比無虛日，華固請寬之。巡撫怒曰：「汝敢逆旨耶？」對曰：「華非逆旨，乃遵旨也，上知有積欠，不命嚴追而命清查，正欲晰其來歷，查其委曲，或在官，或在役，或在民，或應徵，或應免，了然分曉，奏請上裁，乃稱詔書意。今奉行者不顧名思義，徒以十五年積欠立求完納，是暴徵，非清查也。今請寬三月限，當部居別白，分牒以報。」巡撫從其請，乃盡釋獄系千餘人，次第造冊請奏。時朝廷亦聞江南清查不善，下詔切責，如華言。

He was transferred to Suzhou in Jiangsu just as an audit revealed more than twelve million taels in back taxes accumulated since the fifty-first year of Kangxi. The governor-general pressed the recovery urgently, with arrests and coercive collection day after day; Hua firmly petitioned for leniency. The governor-general fumed: "Do you dare defy the imperial will?" He replied: "I am not defying the emperor but following him. His Majesty, knowing of these arrears, did not order harsh collection but an audit — precisely to trace their origins and examine the circumstances: whether the debt lies with officials, clerks, or commoners; whether it should be collected or remitted. Only when everything is clear should we memorialize for the throne's decision — that is the edict's intent. Those implementing the order ignore what 'audit' actually means and simply demand immediate payment of fifteen years of arrears — that is extortion, not investigation. Grant me three months, and I will sort out each case within the department and report separately. The governor-general granted his request, released more than a thousand prisoners, and began compiling registers for memorial to the throne. The court had likewise heard that the Jiangnan audit was being mishandled and issued an edict of stern rebuke — just as Hua had argued.

浙江總督李衛嘗捕人於蘇，華以無牒不與，衛怒，蜚語上聞。世宗召見，責以沽名幹譽，對曰：「臣竭力為國，近沽名；實心為民，近幹譽。」上意解，命往陝西以知府用。署肅州，佐經略鄂爾泰屯田事，鑿通九家窯五山，引水穿渠，溉田萬頃。以忤巡撫被劾罷官。乾隆元年，起福州知府，調漳州。頗好長生術，招集方士，習丹家言，复劾罷歸。數年卒。

Zhejiang Governor-General Li Wei once came to Suzhou to seize someone; Hua refused without an official warrant. Wei was furious and sent slanderous reports to the throne. The Yongzheng Emperor summoned him and accused him of courting fame. He replied: "In serving the state with all my strength, I may appear to court fame; in serving the people with a true heart, I may appear to invite praise." The emperor's anger softened, and he sent Hua to Shaanxi as prefect. As acting prefect of Suzhou in Gansu, he assisted Commissioner-General Ortai in land reclamation, opening Jiujia Yao and Wushan, cutting channels to bring in water, and irrigating ten thousand qing of land. He offended the governor-general, was impeached, and dismissed from office. In the first year of the Qianlong reign (1736) he was recalled as prefect of Fuzhou and then transferred to Zhangzhou. He grew fond of immortality practices, gathered alchemists, and studied elixir lore — and was again impeached and sent home. He died several years later.

華剛而忤時，屢起屢蹶。在蘇州，民德之尤深，以比明知府況鍾。當世宗治畿輔營田時，所用者多一時賢守令，有黃世發，名與華相媲雲。

Hua was upright and defiant of the times; he rose and fell again and again. In Suzhou the people revered him above all others, comparing him to the renowned Ming prefect Kuang Zhong. When the Yongzheng Emperor promoted land reclamation in the capital region, he drew on many capable local officials of the day — among them Huang Shifa, whose reputation matched Hua's.

世發，字成憲，貴州印江人。康熙三十五年舉人，授直隸肅寧知縣。舊例，錢糧加一二作耗銀，世發亦收之而不自用，雜派畝銀三四錢悉除之。縣有役事，若修學校、繕城垣及上官別有攤派，即以耗銀應。河間府檄修府城，親齎餱糧，出錢僱役，不以擾社甲。視民如家人，教以生計。坑鹼荒地，令穿井耕種。綠城植桑柳樹萬株，凡水車、蠶箔、糞灌、紡績，悉為經畫。復辟護城廢地，穿池種稻以導之。建社學，教以孝親敬長，贖官田九十餘畝，以其租為學者膏火。旬三日集諸生講學會文，士有自鄰縣來學者。雍正三年，水災，大吏遣官履勘，世發不能得其意，被劾罷。士民呼籥挽留，特詔复官，加四品銜。已，晉授按察使兼直隸營田觀察使，巡行勸民農桑，察水利可興者。所至剴切宣諭，民多興起。修堤墾田，變汙下為沃壤。最後開易州水峪田，經營年餘，以勞卒。

Huang Shifa, courtesy name Chengxian, was from Yinjiang in Guizhou. He passed the provincial examination in the thirty-fifth year of the Kangxi reign (1696) and was appointed magistrate of Sunning in Zhili. By custom, one or two parts were added to tax payments as meltage silver; Shifa collected this surcharge but never kept it for himself, and abolished all miscellaneous per-mu levies of three or four cash. Whenever the county faced labor obligations — repairing schools or city walls, or other assignments from superiors — he covered the costs from the meltage fund. When Hejian Prefecture ordered repairs to the prefectural city, he personally brought provisions, hired labor with his own funds, and never shifted the burden onto the community tithing registers. He treated the people as his own family and taught them how to make a living. On alkaline wasteland he had wells dug so that farming could begin. He planted ten thousand mulberry and willow trees around the city walls and systematically organized water wheels, silkworm trays, fertilization, irrigation, and spinning. He reclaimed abandoned land within the moat, dug ponds, and planted rice to improve the soil. He founded a community school to teach filial piety and respect for elders, redeemed more than ninety mu of official land, and used the rent to fund students' lamp oil and supplies. Every ten days he gathered scholars for lectures and composition exercises; students came from neighboring counties to study. In the third year of the Yongzheng reign a flood struck; senior officials sent investigators, and Shifa, failing to satisfy them, was impeached and dismissed. Scholars and commoners clamored to keep him; a special edict restored him to office and granted him fourth-rank insignia. Soon afterward he was promoted to surveillance commissioner and concurrently Zhili land-reclamation intendant, touring the region to promote farming and sericulture and to identify waterworks worth developing. Wherever he went he preached earnestly, and the people responded in large numbers. He repaired dikes, reclaimed land, and turned foul low ground into rich farmland. His last project was opening farmland at Shuiyu in Yizhou; after more than a year of labor he died from exhaustion.

=李渭=李渭，字菉涯，直隸高邑人。父兆齡，康熙中官福建閩清知縣，以廉能稱。渭，康熙六十年進士，授內閣中書，遷刑部主事。雍正二年，出為湖南岳州知府，詔許密摺奏事。忤大吏，左遷武昌府同知，未之任，丁母憂。服闋，授四川嘉定知府，復以爭冤獄忤上官。渭曰：「吾官可棄，殺人媚人不為也。」奉檄賑重慶水災，多所全活。父憂歸。

Li Wei. Li Wei, courtesy name Lüya, was from Gaoyi in Zhili. His father Zhaoling had served as magistrate of Minqing in Fujian during the Kangxi reign and was known for integrity and competence. Wei received his jinshi degree in the sixtieth year of the Kangxi reign (1721), was appointed a secretary in the Grand Secretariat, and was later transferred to a clerkship in the Ministry of Punishments. In the second year of the Yongzheng reign (1724) he was appointed prefect of Yuezhou in Hunan, with permission to submit secret memorials directly to the throne. After offending senior officials he was demoted to sub-prefect of Wuchang, but before assuming the post he left to mourn his mother. When his mourning ended he was appointed prefect of Jiading in Sichuan, and again offended his superiors by contesting a wrongful conviction. Wei declared: "I would surrender my office, but I will not execute the innocent to please my superiors." Dispatched to relieve the Chongqing flood, he saved many lives. He returned home to mourn his father.

後補河南彰德，萬金渠源出善應山，環府城，入洹河，灌田千數百頃，山水暴發易淤。渭履勘濬治，增開支河，建閘啟閉，定各村分日用水，歲以有秋。漳河當孔道，舊設草橋於臨漳，道回遠，移於豐樂鎮，行旅便之。雪武安民班某誣殺族兄獄。林縣富室毆人死，賂屍屬以病死報。渭驗屍腿骨盡碎，治如律。舉卓異。

Later he was posted to Zhangde in Henan. The Wanjin Canal rose on Mount Shanying, wound around the prefectural city, and emptied into the Huan River, irrigating more than a thousand qing — but flash floods from the hills silting it easily. Wei surveyed the canal on foot, dredged and repaired it, opened branch channels, built sluice gates, allotted each village its days for drawing water — and the region enjoyed good harvests year after year. The Zhang River crossed a major thoroughfare; a pontoon bridge had stood at Linzhang on a roundabout route. He moved it to Fengle Town, to travelers' great convenience. He cleared a man surnamed Ban in Wu'an who had been falsely convicted of murdering a clansman. In Lin County a wealthy man beat someone to death and bribed the victim's family to report the death as illness. Wei examined the corpse, found the leg bones shattered, and punished the killer according to law. He was recommended as an outstanding official.

乾隆九年，擢山東鹽運使，時議增鹽引，渭以增引則商不能賠，必增鹽價，商、民且兩病，持不可。十二年，山東大水，大吏檄渭勘災，至益都、博興、樂安諸縣，餓莩載途，而有司先以未成災報，已入告，難之；乃請以藉作賑，異日免追，民乃蘇。十三年，就遷按察使，折獄平。嘗曰：「古人言求其生而不得，今俗吏移易獄詞，何求生不得之有？然如死者何！此婦寺之仁，非持法之正。」

In the ninth year of the Qianlong reign (1744) he was promoted to salt transport commissioner of Shandong. When officials proposed raising salt quotas, Wei argued that merchants could not absorb the cost and prices would rise — harming both merchants and the public — and refused to agree. In the twelfth year (1747) a great flood struck Shandong. Senior officials ordered Wei to survey the damage. In Yidu, Boxing, Le'an, and other counties, corpses of the starved lined the roads — yet local officials had already reported that no disaster had occurred, and their memorials were on record, which made corrective action awkward. He requested distributing relief through the tax registers, with repayment waived afterward, and the people were saved. In the thirteenth year he was promoted to surveillance commissioner; his rulings were even-handed. He once said: "The ancients spoke of striving to preserve a man's life yet failing; today corrupt officials simply alter trial records — where is the struggle to save life? But what of the dead! That is the mercy of the weak-hearted, not the justice of the law."

尋遷安徽布政使，禁革徵糧長單差催法，以杜詭寄。調山東，墾荒，令客民帶完舊欠，免鄰保代賠逃戶之累，民便之。為政持大體，不吝出納，不輕揭一官，馭吏嚴而不念舊過。十九年，卒於官。子經芳，乾隆中官至湖北施南知府，亦廉謹守其家風。

Soon afterward he was transferred to administrative commissioner of Anhui, abolished the grain-tax chief and runner collection system, and curbed fraudulent tax registration. Transferred to Shandong, he promoted land reclamation, requiring migrant settlers to clear old arrears while freeing neighboring guarantors from liability for absconded households — to the people's great relief. He governed with an eye to essentials, spent freely when the public good required it, impeached no official on slight grounds, and kept his staff in strict order while refusing to nurse old grudges. In the nineteenth year of his reign he died at his post. His son Jingfang, under Qianlong, rose to prefect of Shinan in Hubei and upheld the same frugal, upright household tradition.

=謝仲坃=謝仲坃，字孔六，廣東陽春人。雍正元年舉人，登明通榜。初官長寧教諭，乾隆初，擢授湖南常寧知縣，峻卻餽遺。履鄉自裹行糧，嚼生萊菔供饌。月兩課士，以節行相勸勉。調平江，再調衡陽。前令李澎徵漕米浮收斛面，糧儲道謝濟世發其奸。時巡撫許容方以浮收誣劾濟世，總督孫嘉淦亦徇巡撫意，故濟世與澎並免。言官論奏，朝命侍郎阿里袞往按。署糧道倉德又因布政使函囑改換衡陽浮收詳文，據以上揭，詔責切究。事急，澎則盡出賄贈簿以脅上官，阿里袞重興大獄，欲出澎浮收罪，與濟世俱复官。仲坃乃重治澎丁役，以決罰過當被劾罷官。逾年，特起為衡山知縣。以讞巴陵獄，巡撫與按察使互奏，奉旨引見，擢荊州府通判。又以歸州縱盜冤良之獄，自巡撫按察以下皆被重譴，仲坃承審時，堅不會印，特旨召對。擢常德府同知，歷署襄陽、寶慶、宜昌、武昌、永順、岳州、永州七府知府，護衡永郴桂道。正躬率屬，屏絕請託，暇輒延耆士論學不倦。

Xie Zhongxun. Xie Zhongxun, styled Kongliu, was from Yangchun in Guangdong. He passed the provincial examinations in the first year of Yongzheng (1723) and was placed on the Mingtong supplementary list. He began as an instructor at Changning; early in Qianlong he was promoted to magistrate of Changning in Hunan, where he flatly refused all presents. When touring the district he carried his own provisions and ate raw radishes to get by. Twice each month he tested the local scholars and urged them toward moral discipline. He was transferred to Pingjiang, and then to Hengyang. The former magistrate Li Peng had skimmed tribute grain by padding the measure; Grain Intendant Xie Jishi uncovered the scheme. Governor-General Xu Rong was then falsely impeaching Xie Jishi for the same overcharging, and Governor Sun Jiagan went along; both Xie Jishi and Li Peng lost their posts. Censorial officials debated the case in memorials, and the throne dispatched Vice Minister Ali Gun to conduct an inquiry. Acting Grain Intendant Cang De, on written orders from the provincial treasurer, rewrote the Hengyang overcharge report and forwarded it upward; the emperor ordered a rigorous investigation. When matters came to a head, Li Peng produced his ledger of bribes to intimidate his superiors; Ali Gun reopened the case on a grand scale, aiming to absolve Li Peng of overcharging and restore both men to office. Zhongxun thereupon punished Li Peng's runners and retainers with unusual severity; impeached for excessive penalties, he was removed from office. The following year he was specially recalled to serve as magistrate of Hengshan. After his ruling in the Baling case set the governor-general and surveillance commissioner at odds in competing memorials, he was summoned to audience and promoted to assistant prefect of Jingzhou. In the Guizhou case, where bandits had been set free and the innocent condemned, officials from the governor-general and surveillance commissioner on down were heavily censured; Zhongxun, presiding at retrial, steadfastly refused to seal the verdict and was summoned for a special audience with the emperor. Promoted to sub-prefect of Changde, he acted in turn as prefect of seven prefectures — Xiangyang, Baqing, Yichang, Wuchang, Yongshun, Yuezhou, and Yongzhou — and administered the Heng-Yong-Chen-Gui circuit. He led by personal example, barred all favor-seeking, and in his spare time never tired of gathering elder scholars to discuss the classics.

仲坃官湖南先後三十年，長於折獄，大吏倚重。歷奉檄鞫獄二百餘，多所平反，以直戇名。乾隆三十七年，在永州議改淮引食粵鹽，格於例不行，遂以目疾請告。解組日，貧如故，卒於家。

Zhongxun spent some thirty years in Hunan altogether, distinguished for unraveling difficult cases on which the province's highest officials came to depend. Commissioned to retry more than two hundred cases over the years, he reversed many wrongful convictions and earned a name for blunt, uncompromising honesty. In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (1772), while at Yongzhou, he proposed switching from Huai to Guangdong salt, but existing regulations blocked the change; he then retired citing failing eyesight. When he laid down office he was as poor as when he had taken it up, and he died at home.

=李大本=李大本，字立齋，山東安丘人。雍正十三年舉人。乾隆九年，銓授湖北棗陽知縣，改湖南益陽。居官自奉儉約，勤於吏事。益陽人不知蠶，大本教之樹桑，後賴其利。調長沙，遷寶慶府理瑤同知。所隸通水峒有苗僧行賈臨桂，知縣田志隆見之，意為賊黨。吳方曙者，從馬朝桂謀叛，時方繪圖懸購者也。僧畏刑誣服，又訊朝桂所在，妄言在峒中。廣西巡撫定長立上奏，率兵出，命大本從行。大本曰：「僧言真偽不可知，大兵猝至，苗必駭，且生變，請潛訪之。」既而白僧言實妄，巡撫疑未釋，复欲以兵往，大本力諫乃止。後廷訊苗僧果誣如大本言。

Li Daben. Li Daben, styled Lizhai, was from Anqiu in Shandong. He passed the provincial examinations in the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735). In the ninth year of Qianlong (1744) the Board of Personnel assigned him magistrate of Zaoyang in Hubei, then transferred him to Yiyang in Hunan. He lived sparingly and threw himself into the work of government. The people of Yiyang knew nothing of sericulture; Daben taught them to plant mulberry trees, and afterward they prospered from the trade. He was transferred to Changsha, then promoted to sub-prefect for Yao affairs under Baqing Prefecture. In his jurisdiction at Tongshui Pass a Miao monk peddling goods reached Linggui; Magistrate Tian Zhilong took him for an accomplice of bandits. Wu Fangshu had joined Ma Chaogui's plot to rebel — the very fugitive whose likeness was then being posted and priced. Terrified of torture, the monk confessed to crimes he had not committed; pressed for Ma Chaogui's whereabouts, he invented a story that the rebel was hiding in the pass. Guangxi Governor Ding Changli memorialized the throne and marched out with troops, ordering Daben to accompany the campaign. Daben said, "We cannot know whether the monk speaks truth; if an army descends suddenly the Miao will panic and trouble will follow. I ask permission to investigate quietly." He soon reported that the monk had lied; the governor's suspicions lingered and he again wanted to march, but Daben argued him down. Later, at an imperial hearing, the Miao monk was indeed shown to have confessed under duress, exactly as Daben had maintained.

橫嶺峒苗乏食，籥官求粟，大本多方賑之。復為苗民籌生計，請於上官曰：「橫嶺峒自逆渠授首，安插餘苗，因惡其人，故薄其產，每口授田才三十欑至四十欑。每欑上田穫米六升，中田五升，下田四升，得米無多。又峒田稍腴者盡與堡卒，極惡者方畀苗民，歲入不足，男則斫柴易米，女則★L9蕨為粉，給口食。年來生齒日繁，材木竭，米價益昂，飢餓愁嘆，深可憐憫，恐不可坐視而不為之所。現有入官苗田一千三百四十八畝，舊募漢民佃種，出租供餉，姦良不一，屢經淘汰。請視苗民家貧丁眾者書諸簿，有漢佃應除者，即書簿之苗丁次第受種，出租如故，則苗民得食而餉亦無虧，乃補救之一端。」議上，不許。後巡撫陳宏謀見之，曰：「此識時務之言也。」將陳其事，會他遷，未果。二十一年，題請升授知府，因病足歸，卒於家。

When the Miao at Hengling Pass ran short of food and the pass officer appealed for grain, Daben found many ways to feed them. He also sought a livelihood for the Miao, writing his superiors: "After the rebel leader surrendered at Hengling Pass and the remaining Miao were resettled, hatred kept their allotments miserly — only thirty to forty kuan of land per person. A kuan of top-grade land yields six sheng of rice, middling land five, poor land four — scarcely enough to live on. The better fields in the pass went entirely to garrison troops; only the worst scraps were left to the Miao. Income fell short year after year — men felled firewood to barter for rice, women pounded fern root into flour to fill their mouths. Population has swelled, timber is gone, and rice grows dearer by the year; hunger and despair are heartbreaking. We cannot stand by and do nothing. There are 1,348 mu of confiscated Miao land now farmed by Han tenants recruited to pay rents toward military supplies; good and bad tenants have been sifted out again and again. Register the poorest Miao households with the most mouths; where a Han tenant should be removed, let the Miao on the register take the plot in turn, paying the same rent — so the Miao gain food and supplies lose nothing. It is at least a start." The proposal went up and was denied. Later Governor Chen Hongmou read the memorial and said, "This is the speech of a man who understands his age." He was about to take it up when he was transferred elsewhere, and the plan died. In the twenty-first year he was recommended for promotion to prefect; crippled by leg ailment he went home and died there.

=牛運震=牛運震，字階平，山東滋陽人。雍正十一年進士。乾隆元年，召試博學鴻詞，不遇。尋授甘肅秦安知縣，開九渠，溉田萬畝。縣北玉鍾峽山崩塞河，水溢為災。運震率丁夫開濬，凡四日夜，水退。緣山步行，以錢米給災戶。縣聚曰西固，去治二百餘裡，輸糧苦運艱，多積逋。運震許以銀代納，民便之。先是巡檢某誣馬得才兄弟五人為盜，前令弗察，得才自刎死。其兄馬都上控，令又誘而斃之獄。其三人者將解府，運震鞫得其情，昭雪之。又清水縣某令冤武生杜其陶父子謀殺罪，上官檄運震覆治，驗死者得自刎狀，以移屍罪其陶而釋其子。他訟獄多所平反。

Niu Yunzhen. Niu Yunzhen, styled Jieping, was from Ziyang in Shandong. He passed the metropolitan examinations in the eleventh year of Yongzheng (1733). In the first year of Qianlong (1736) he was called to the special erudite-learning examination but was not chosen. He was soon appointed magistrate of Qin'an in Gansu, where he opened nine canals and irrigated ten thousand mu. North of the county a landslide at Yuzhong Gorge dammed the river and sent floodwaters raging through the land. Yunzhen mobilized corvée labor to dredge the channel; in four days and nights the waters fell. He walked the mountain paths on foot, distributing cash and grain to stricken households. The settlement cluster of Xigu lay more than two hundred li from the county seat; grain transport was arduous and tax arrears piled up. Yunzhen allowed payment in silver instead of grain, to the people's great relief. Earlier a patrol inspector had falsely accused the five Ma Decai brothers of banditry; the previous magistrate never looked into it, and Decai cut his own throat. His elder brother Madu appealed to higher authority; the magistrate lured him back and had him beaten to death in jail. The three surviving brothers were bound for the prefectural yamen when Yunzhen examined the case, learned the truth, and cleared them. Again, a Qingshui magistrate had wrongly convicted the military licentiate Du Qitao and his son of plotting murder; ordered to retry the case, Yunzhen found the dead man had killed himself, convicted Qitao of moving the body to frame another, and released the son. In other suits and criminal cases he overturned many unjust verdicts.

官秦安八年，惠農通商。暇則行視郊野，鑄農具，教民耕耨。稱貸販褐戶，不求其息。設隴川書院，日與諸生講習，民始向學。兼攝徽縣，又攝兩當縣，舍於三縣之中，曰大門鎮，以聽訟。徽縣多虎，募壯士殺虎二十六，道始通。調平番，值縣境五道峴告饉，捐粟二百石以賑，民感之。人輸一錢，製衣銘德，運震受衣返幣。固原兵變四掠，督撫皆至涼州，檄召運震問方略。運震請勿以兵往，但屯城外為聲援，令城內捋出亂者。游擊某執三百餘人，眾忷懼，運震請釋無辜，入城慰喻。斬三人，監候四人，餘予杖徒有差，反側遂安。有忌者摭前受萬民衣事，劾免官。貧不能歸，留主皋蘭書院，教學得士心。及歸，有走千里送至灞橋者。

For eight years at Qin'an he enriched the farmers and opened commerce. In his spare time he walked the fields, cast farm tools, and taught the people how to plow and weed. He lent money to peddlers of homespun brown cloth and asked no interest in return. He founded Longchuan Academy, lectured the students daily, and the people at last turned toward books. He also acted for Huixian and Liangdang, keeping court at Damen Town midway among the three counties. Huixian swarmed with tigers; he recruited brave men who killed twenty-six of them, and the roads were safe again. Transferred to Pingfan, he gave two hundred shi of grain when Wudao Pass reported famine, and the people were deeply grateful. Each person gave one cash; they had a robe made bearing his praises. Yunzhen accepted the robe but returned the money. When Guyuan garrison troops mutinied and looted on four fronts, the governor-general and governor both reached Liangzhou and summoned Yunzhen for advice. Yunzhen urged that no troops enter the city, but camp outside as a show of force while those inside handed over the ringleaders. A brigade commander seized more than three hundred men; panic spread through the crowd. Yunzhen asked that the innocent be freed, then entered the city to reassure the people. Three were beheaded, four held for execution, the rest beaten and sentenced to penal servitude in varying degrees, and the disturbance subsided. A jealous rival dredged up his acceptance of the people's robe and impeached him out of office. Too poor to travel home, he remained to head Gaolan Academy, where his teaching won every student's loyalty. When he at last set out for home, some walked a thousand li to see him off at Ba Bridge.

運震居官，不假手幕下，事輒自治。所至嚴行保甲，鬥爭訟獄日即於少。遇人幹訟，必嚴懲。治盜尤嚴，曰：「邊鄙風俗疵悍，不如此，則法不立；令不行，民不可得而治。且與其輕刑十人，不如重處一人而九人畏，是懲一而恕九也。」罷官歸後，閉門治經，搜考金石，所著經義、史論、文集及金石圖，皆行於世。嘗主晉陽、河東兩書院，所造多名雋士，世稱「空山先生」。

In office Yunzhen never handed work to his secretaries; he managed everything himself. Wherever he served he enforced the baojia system rigorously, and brawls and lawsuits dwindled day by day. Anyone who stirred up lawsuits he punished without mercy. He was fiercest against banditry, saying, "On the frontier people are wild and hard; unless we govern this way the law has no force; orders go unheeded and the people cannot be ruled. Better to punish one man harshly and make nine afraid than to treat ten lightly — that is punishing one to warn nine." After his dismissal he shut his doors, immersed himself in the classics, and combed through epigraphy; his commentaries, historical essays, collected writings, and rubbings all found readers. He later headed the Jinyang and Hedong academies, trained many brilliant men, and was known in his age as Master Kongshan.

=張甄陶=張甄陶，字希週，福建福清人。舉鴻博，補試未合格罷。大學士硃軾、侍郎方苞薦修三禮，辭，而請受業於苞。乾隆十年，成進士。時方許極言直諫，甄陶對策，困極陳時務。選庶吉士，授編修，尋改授廣東鶴山知縣。歷香山、新會、高要、揭陽，皆劇邑，所至有聲。疆田疇，修堤圩，弛戶蠔蜆之禁，增建書院、社倉，平反冤獄，詰捕盜賊，為政務無怫逆於民。以憂去官，服除，起授雲南昆明，弗獲於上官，坐事免。主講五華書院，尹壯圖、錢灃皆其弟子。复移掌貴州貴山書院，課士有法。總督劉藻疏薦，詔加國子監司業銜。晚以病歸閩，主鼇峰書院。以經義教閩士，於是咸通漢、唐注疏之學。在滇時著經解百餘卷。方甄陶之補外，人咸惜之。大學士陳世倌贈以明呂坤呻吟語，甄陶讀其實政錄而慕之，在粵作學實政錄，見其書者，咸曰：「循吏之言也。」

Zhang Zhentao. Zhang Zhentao, styled Xizhou, was from Fuqing in Fujian. He entered the erudite-learning examination but failed the supplementary test and was sent home. Grand Secretary Zhu Shi and Vice Minister Fang Bao recommended him to help compile the Three Rites; he declined and asked instead to study under Fang Bao. In the tenth year of Qianlong (1745) he passed the metropolitan examinations. The court then encouraged blunt counsel; in his examination essays Zhentao poured out his views on public affairs without reserve. Chosen as a Hanlin bachelor and appointed compiler, he was soon sent out as magistrate of Heshan in Guangdong. He served at Xiangshan, Xinhui, Gaoyao, and Jieyang — all notoriously hard posts — and won a name at every one. He opened land, repaired dikes, lifted the ban on household oyster and clam harvests, built academies and community granaries, righted wrongful cases, and hunted bandits — governing always in harmony with the people's wishes. He resigned for mourning; when the mourning period ended he was posted to Kunming in Yunnan, fell out with his superiors, and was dismissed after an incident. He lectured at Wuhua Academy, where Yin Zhuangtu and Qian Feng were among his pupils. He then took charge of Guishan Academy in Guizhou, where he tested students by rigorous, well-ordered methods. Governor-General Liu Zao recommended him by memorial, and an edict conferred on him the rank of Vice Director of the Imperial Academy. In his later years, ill, he returned to Fujian and headed Aofeng Academy. Teaching Fujian scholars through classical exegesis, he opened their eyes to the commentarial traditions of Han and Tang. During his years in Yunnan he wrote more than a hundred juan of commentary on the classics. When Zhang Zhentao was sent out to serve in the provinces, everyone lamented the loss. Grand Secretary Chen Shiguang presented him with Lü Kun's Ming-dynasty Groaning Words. Zhentao read its Records of Actual Governance and was inspired to write his own Study of Records of Actual Governance in Guangdong. Everyone who read it declared: "This is how an exemplary official speaks."

=邵大業=邵大業，字在中，順天大興人，舊籍浙江餘姚。雍正十一年進士，乾隆元年，授湖北黃陂知縣。初到官，投訟牒者坌至，不移晷，決遣立盡。吏人一見問姓名，後無不識，眾莫敢弄以事。有兄弟爭產訟，皆頒白，貌相類。令以鏡鏡面，問曰：「類乎？」曰：「類。」則進與為家人語曰：「吾新喪弟，獨不得如爾兩人白首相保也。」二人感動罷去。蛟水壞城，當壞處立，誓以殉，水驟止，拯溺餔飢，完堤岸，民得免患。總督以其名上聞，會父憂去。

Shao Daye. Shao Daye, courtesy name Zaizhong, was from Daxing in Shuntian; his original household register was in Yuyao, Zhejiang. He received his jinshi degree in the eleventh year of the Yongzheng reign (1733) and, in the first year of Qianlong (1736), was appointed magistrate of Huangpi in Hubei. As soon as he took office, petitioners flooded in with lawsuits; before the sun had moved a hand's breadth from noon, he had decided and dispatched every case. After asking his name once, the clerks never failed to recognize him again, and no one dared to play games with the business of the court. Two brothers were suing over an inheritance; both were white-haired and looked much alike. He had them look into a mirror and asked, "Do you look alike?" They answered, "We do." He then stepped forward and spoke to them like family: "I have just lost a younger brother and cannot enjoy what you two have — growing old together, each keeping the other safe." Deeply moved, the two brothers withdrew and abandoned the lawsuit. When catastrophic floods breached the city wall, he stood at the break and vowed to die with it; the waters suddenly subsided. He rescued the drowning, fed the hungry, restored the dikes and banks, and the people were spared further harm. The governor-general submitted his name to the throne, but he then departed when his father died.

服闋，授河南禹州知州，調睢州。頻澇，請糶請賑，民以免患。濬惠濟河，以俸錢更直，擢江南蘇州知府。松江盜獄久不決，株連瘐斃者眾，奉檄鞫治。見群犯皆斷脛折踝，蹙然曰：「爾等亦人子，迫飢寒至此，猶茹刑顛倒首從，誣連非罪人，何益於爾？」有盜幡然曰：「官以人類待我，我不忍欺。」獄辭立具。

When his mourning ended, he was appointed prefect of Yuzhou in Henan and then transferred to Suizhou. Floods came again and again; he petitioned for grain release and famine relief, and the people were spared disaster. He dredged the Huiji River, covering labor costs from his own salary, and was promoted to prefect of Suzhou in Jiangnan. A robbery case in Songjiang had dragged on for years; many of those implicated had wasted away and died in custody. Ordered to investigate, he took up the case. Seeing the prisoners with shattered shins and broken ankles, he said with anguish: "You too are someone's sons. Driven by hunger and cold to this, you still endure torture while leaders and followers are reversed and the innocent are dragged in — what good does that do you?" One of the robbers blurted out: "The magistrate treats me like a human being — I cannot bear to lie to him." The case record was completed at once.

兼署蘇松太道，尋攝布政使事，大吏交章薦。十六年，高宗南巡，御舟左右挽行，名嘏須纖。大業語從臣，除道增纖必病民，非所以宣上德意，遂改單纖。會積雨，治吳江帳殿未就，總督劾大業觀望。及乘輿至，則供備已具，然大業卒因左遷。

He concurrently served as intendant of Su-Song-Tai Circuit; soon he was acting provincial treasurer, and senior officials submitted joint recommendations on his behalf. In the sixteenth year, the Gaozong Emperor made his southern tour; thick tow ropes called gua-xu ropes were rigged on both sides of the imperial barge. Daye told the officials in attendance that clearing roads and adding tow ropes would only burden the people and was no way to proclaim the emperor's benevolent intent; the thick ropes were therefore replaced with single lines. Rain fell without letup, and the temporary palace at Wujiang was still unfinished; the governor-general impeached Daye for dragging his feet. By the time the imperial carriage arrived, all preparations were complete — yet Daye was demoted all the same.

尋授河南開封知府，屬縣封丘民被控侵占田畝，及勘丈，非侵占，而畝浮於額。大業考志乘，河南賦則，自明萬曆改並，中地十畝，作上地七畝；下地十畝，作上地三畝。上官以昔為下則，今則膏腴，議加賦。大業曰：「此河沖淤積，百姓以墳墓田廬所易之微利也。今日為退灘淤地，異日即可為沙壓水沖。冬春播種，夏秋之收穫不可知。上年河決，屋宇未盡葺，流亡未盡复，遽增歲額，何以堪？」旋從部議試種三年，次年果沒入水，乃止。未幾，以河溢，降江南六安州知州，又以盜案鐫級。引見，再還江南，署江寧府。

He was soon appointed prefect of Kaifeng in Henan. In Fengqiu, one of his subordinate counties, peasants were accused of encroaching on farmland; on resurvey there was no encroachment, but the measured acreage exceeded the registered quota. Daye consulted local gazetteers and Henan's tax registers and found that since the Ming Wanli consolidation, ten mu of middle-grade land were counted as seven mu of upper-grade land; and ten mu of lower-grade land as three mu of upper-grade land. His superiors argued that land once taxed at the lower rate was now rich soil and proposed raising the assessment. Daye said: "This is land built up by river silt — the small profit people traded for graves, homesteads, and fields. Today it is reclaimed shoal; tomorrow it may be buried under sand or swept away by flood. They sow in winter and spring, but whether there will be an autumn harvest is anyone's guess. Last year the river broke its banks; houses are not yet fully rebuilt and refugees have not all returned — how can they bear a sudden increase in the annual quota?" Following the ministry's plan for a three-year trial planting, the land was submerged the very next year, and the proposed increase was abandoned. Before long, after river overflow, he was demoted to magistrate of Lu'an Prefecture in Jiangnan and further reduced in rank over a theft case. After an audience with the emperor, he returned once more to Jiangnan and served as acting prefect of Jiangning.

二十八年，授徐州知府，府城三面瀕黃河，西北隅尤當衝，雖有重堤，恃韓家山埽為固。大業按視得蘇公舊堤，起城西雲龍山，迄城北月堤，長三里，湮為民居，復其舊。越歲，韓家山埽幾潰，民恃此堤以無恐。复濬荊山橋河，於水利宣洩，規畫盡善。治徐七年，間有水患，不病民。三十四年，坐妖匪割辮事罷職，謫戍軍台，數年卒。

In the twenty-eighth year he was appointed prefect of Xuzhou. The city bordered the Yellow River on three sides, with the northwest corner most exposed. Though there were major dikes, safety depended on the Hanjiashan embankment works. Daye inspected the site and found an old dike built by Su Dongpo, running three li from Yunlong Mountain west of the city to Yue Dike north of the city — buried under houses. He restored it. The following year the Hanjiashan works nearly gave way; the people relied on this dike and were unafraid. He also dredged the Jingshan Bridge River; for drainage and flood control, the design was thoroughly sound. He governed Xuzhou for seven years; though floods came from time to time, the people were not ruined. In the thirty-fourth year he was dismissed over the sorcerer-rebel queue-cutting affair, exiled to a military colony, and died there several years later.

大業所至以勸學為務，因黃陂二程子祠建義學，葺睢州洛學書院，集諸生親為之師焉。

Wherever Daye served, he made promoting learning his chief concern: at Huangpi he built a charity school at the shrine to the Two Chengs; at Suizhou he restored the Luoxue Academy; he gathered students and taught them himself.

=周克開=周克開，字乾三，湖南長沙人。乾隆十二年舉人。十九年，以明通榜授甘肅隴西知縣。調寧朔，縣屬寧夏府，並河有三渠，曰漢來、唐延、大清，皆引河入渠灌田。唐延渠所經地多沙易漫，克開治之使深狹，又頗改其水道，渠行得安。渠有石竇，洩水於河，以備旱澇，民謂之暗洞。時暗洞崩塞，渠水不行，上官欲填暗洞而竭唐延入漢來，以便寧夏縣之引河，寧夏利而寧朔必病。克開恐夏、秋水盛無所宣洩，時新水將至，不可待。克開請五日為期，取故渠及廢閘之石，晝夜督工，五日而暗洞复，兩縣皆利。大清渠長三十餘裡，鑿自康熙間，久而石門首尾壞，民失其利，克開亦修之，皆費省而工速。再以卓異薦，擢固原知州，父憂去。服闋，補洮州。

Zhou Kekai. Zhou Kekai, courtesy name Qiansan, was from Changsha in Hunan. He passed the provincial examination in the twelfth year of the Qianlong reign (1747). In the nineteenth year of Qianlong (1754), he was appointed magistrate of Longxi in Gansu through the Mingtong register. He was transferred to Ningshuo, a county under Ningxia Prefecture. Along the river were three canals — Hanlai, Tangyan, and Daqing — all drawing Yellow River water into channels to irrigate the fields. The Tangyan Canal ran through sandy ground prone to silting and overflow; Kekai deepened and narrowed it and substantially altered its course until the canal ran safely. The canal had stone sluices to discharge water into the river as a safeguard against drought and flood; the people called them "dark tunnels." The dark tunnels had collapsed and the canal was blocked; superiors wanted to fill them and divert all Tangyan water into Hanlai to ease Ningxia County's river draw — a gain for Ningxia but a loss for Ningshuo. Kekai feared that in summer and autumn, when the waters rose, there would be no outlet; with the new flood about to arrive, there was no time to wait. Kekai asked for five days, took stone from old channels and abandoned sluices, and drove the work day and night; in five days the dark tunnels were restored and both counties benefited. The Daqing Canal, more than thirty li long, had been dug in the Kangxi era; in time the stone gates at both ends collapsed and the people lost its benefit. Kekai repaired them as well — all at modest cost and with speed. Recommended again for outstanding merit, he was promoted to prefect of Guyuan; he then left office when his father died. When his mourning ended, he was assigned to Taozhou.

尋擢貴州都勻知府。從總督吳達善、侍郎錢維城治貴州逆苗獄，用法有失當者，力爭無少遜。調貴陽，亦以強直忤巡撫宮兆麟，因公累解職。引見，复授山西蒲州知府，調太原。清釐積獄，修復風峪山堤堰，障山潦，導之入汾，民德之。擢江西吉南贛寧道，署布政使，以王錫侯書案被議。高宗知其賢，發江南，以同知用。會南巡，克開署江寧府，迎駕，授江西九江知府，尋擢浙江糧儲道。

He was soon promoted to prefect of Duyun in Guizhou. While assisting Governor-General Wu Dashan and Vice Minister Qian Weicheng in handling the Guizhou Miao rebellion cases, he forcefully contested every improper application of the law without yielding an inch. Transferred to Guiyang, he also offended Governor Gong Zhaolin with his uncompromising character and was dismissed over official matters. After an audience with the emperor, he was reappointed prefect of Puzhou in Shanxi and then transferred to Taiyuan. He cleared backlogged cases and restored the Fengyu Mountain dikes and barrages to block mountain floods and channel them into the Fen River; the people were deeply grateful. He was promoted to intendant of Ji-Nan-Gan-Ning in Jiangxi and acted as provincial treasurer, but was implicated in the Wang Xihou dictionary case. The Gaozong Emperor knew his worth and sent him to Jiangnan to serve as a sub-prefect. During the southern tour, Kekai served as acting prefect of Jiangning to receive the imperial carriage; he was then appointed prefect of Jiujiang in Jiangxi and soon promoted to grain intendant of Zhejiang.

時巡撫王亶望貪黷，屬吏多重徵以奉上官。克開至，誓不取一錢，請於巡撫，約與之同心。亶望姑應之，心厭克開，乃奏克開才優，請移治海塘，於是調杭嘉湖道。會改建海岸石塘，總督欲徙柴塘近數百丈以避潮，克開曰：「海與河異，讓之則潮必益侵，無益也。」乃止。年餘，以督工勞瘁卒。

At the time Governor Wang Tanwang was venal; subordinates levied heavy taxes to curry favor with their superiors. When Kekai arrived, he swore to take not a single coin and asked the governor to pledge that they would work in concert. Tanwang assented for the moment but inwardly detested Kekai; he memorialized that Kekai's talent was outstanding and asked to transfer him to manage sea dikes — and so Kekai was moved to Hang-Jia-Hu Circuit. When stone seawalls were being rebuilt, the governor-general wanted to shift the brushwood revetment several hundred zhang landward to avoid the tide. Kekai said: "The sea is not a river — yield to it and the tide will only advance further; there is no benefit in this." The plan was abandoned. A little over a year later, he died of exhaustion from supervising the construction.

克開在寧朔治水績最著，生平治獄多平反。禮儒士，嘗以私錢興書院。歿無餘貲，天下稱清吏。當時守令以興水利著者，又有鄭基、康基淵、言如泗，後有周際華。

Kekai's water-control achievements at Ningshuo were his most notable; throughout his life he reversed many wrongful convictions. He honored scholars and once founded an academy with his own money. He died without surplus wealth, and all under Heaven called him an upright official. Among the magistrates and prefects then famed for promoting waterworks were also Zheng Ji, Kang Jiyuan, and Yan Rusi; later came Zhou Jihua.

基，字築平，廣東香山人。以諸生入貲為知縣。乾隆間銓授安徽鳳臺縣，東鄉有通川三：曰黑濠，曰濕泥，曰裔溝。匯潁上、蒙城諸縣水以達淮，歲久盡湮，秋潦輒成巨浸。侍郎裘曰修奉使治淮、潁諸水，獨不及鳳臺。基具牘陳利害及工事甚悉，曰修允其請。基察土宜，穿故渠，三河交暢。釃上游諸水以通淮流，不逾時工成。魯松灣地遠淮而卑，頻患潦，捐俸倡築堤障，遂成膏腴。調定遠，舉卓異，擢壽州知州。安豐塘，古芍陂也。塘圮，基審覈舊制，繕復之，為水門三十六，為閘六，為橋一。其旁則為堨、為堰、為圩，啟閉以時，汙萊盡闢。嘗循行阡陌，見沙地磽確多不治，教民種薯蕷，佐菽麥，俾無曠土。壽州不知蠶織，而地多椿樗，可飼蠶。購蠶種，教民飼之，農桑並興。其後遇旱，獨鳳臺、壽州秋成稔於他縣，以水利修也。遷泗州直隸州知州。賑水災，飢而不害。擢江蘇淮安知府，淮安為眾水所聚，於城東濬澗市河，於北開漁濱山字河，於西開護城河，壅滯悉通，民便之。

Ji, courtesy name Zhuping, was from Xiangshan in Guangdong. As a licentiate he purchased appointment as magistrate. During the Qianlong reign he was assigned to Fengtai in Anhui. In the eastern township were three connecting streams: Heihao, Shini, and Yigou. They gathered waters from Yingshang, Mengcheng, and other counties to reach the Huai; over the years they silted up completely, and autumn floods became vast inundations. Vice Minister Qiu Yuexiu was commissioned to manage the Huai and Ying waters but did not extend his work to Fengtai. Ji submitted a detailed petition on the benefits, harms, and engineering involved; Qiu Yuexiu granted his request. Ji studied local soil conditions, reopened the old channels, and the three streams flowed freely once more. He diverted upstream waters to connect with the Huai current, and the work was finished in no time. Lusong Bay lay far from the Huai and low in elevation, often suffering floods; he donated his salary to lead dike construction, and the land became fertile. Transferred to Dingyuan, cited for outstanding merit, he was promoted to magistrate of Shouzhou Prefecture. Anfeng Pond was the ancient Quepi Reservoir. The pond had collapsed; Ji verified the old design and restored it — thirty-six water gates, six sluice gates, and one bridge. Alongside were embankments, weirs, and polders, opened and closed on schedule; marsh and wasteland were fully reclaimed. Walking the fields one day, he saw sandy barren land largely left uncultivated; he taught the people to plant sweet potatoes alongside beans and wheat so that no land lay idle. Shouzhou had no tradition of sericulture, but the land had many ailanthus and chinaberry trees suitable for feeding silkworms. He purchased silkworm eggs and taught the people to raise them; agriculture and sericulture flourished together. Later, during drought, Fengtai and Shouzhou alone enjoyed autumn harvests richer than other counties — because their waterworks had been kept in repair. He was transferred to magistrate of Sizhou Prefecture. He relieved flood disasters; though the people went hungry, they were not ruined. Promoted to prefect of Huai'an in Jiangsu, he found a city where many waters converged; he dredged the Jianshi River east of the city, opened the Yubin Shanzi River to the north and a moat to the west — clearing every blockage to the people's benefit.

基博覽前史，於河渠水利圖經，丹鉛殆遍，施行輒有成效。乾隆四十一年，擢江南守巡道，命甫下而卒。

Ji read widely in earlier histories and annotated nearly every map and classic on rivers and water control; whenever he put a plan into action, it succeeded. In the forty-first year of Qianlong he was promoted to Jiangnan circuit intendant, but the appointment had barely been issued when he died.

基淵，字靜溪，山西興縣人。乾隆十七年進士，歸班銓授河南嵩縣知縣。舊傍伊水有渠十一，久湮絕。基淵按行舊址，勸民修復。山澗諸流可引溉者，皆為開渠。渠身高下不一者，分段設閘以蓄洩之。田高渠下者，則教為水車引溉。凡開新、舊渠十八，灌田六萬二千餘畝。巡撫上其事，優詔議敘，尋以憂去。服闋，授甘肅鎮原，調皋蘭，擢肅州直隸州知州。洪水渠岸峻易崩，基淵度勢於南石岡引鑿渠口，以避衝陷之害。野豬溝有荒田，無水久廢。基淵詢訪耆舊，加寬柳樹閘龍口，別開子渠。界荒田為七區，招民佃種，區取租十二石，給各社學，名曰新文渠。州東南九家窯，鑿山後渠開屯田，舊駐州判主之，久之田益薄瘠，民租入不足支官役；基淵請汰州判，改屯昇科，為籌歲修費，民於是有恆產。

Jiyuan, courtesy name Jingxi, was from Xing County in Shanxi. He received his jinshi degree in the seventeenth year of Qianlong (1752) and, after returning to the roster, was assigned magistrate of Song County in Henan. Formerly eleven canals lay beside the Yi River, but they had long been obliterated. Jiyuan toured the old sites and urged the people to restore them. Every mountain stream that could be put to use for irrigation, he turned into a channel. Where the channels ran at uneven heights, he divided them into sections and fitted each with sluice gates to hold or release the water as needed. For land that stood above the waterline, he taught the farmers to lift water with wheels for irrigation. Altogether he opened eighteen channels, old and new, watering more than sixty-two thousand mu of farmland. The provincial governor memorialized his work; the throne responded with a commendatory edict and consideration for promotion. Before long he left office to observe mourning. When his mourning ended, he was posted to Zhenyuan in Gansu, then transferred to Gaolan and promoted to magistrate of Suzhou Directly Governed Prefecture. The Hongshui Channel had steep banks that collapsed easily. Jiyuan read the lay of the land and cut the intake at South Stone Ridge so the current would not smash the works. Wild Boar Ditch held abandoned fields that had lain waste for years without water. Jiyuan questioned the old residents, widened the sluice at Willow Tree Gate, and cut a branch channel. He parceled the wasteland into seven districts, brought in tenant farmers, set the rent from each district at twelve shi for the community schools, and called the new works the Xinwen Channel. Southeast of the prefectural seat at Jiujia Yao, a channel had been cut through the hills to open military colonies, with a deputy prefect long stationed to supervise them. In time the soil grew thin and barren, and the tenants' rent no longer covered official costs; Jiyuan petitioned to abolish the deputy prefecture, converted the colony fields to regular taxable land, and set aside funds for yearly upkeep, so the people at last had land they could count on.

基淵治官事如家事，博求利病。在嵩縣，植桑教蠶，出絲甲於他邑。以無業之地，建社學三十二所。在肅州，開郊外廢灘，種楊十餘萬株。遍諭鄉堡種樹，薪樵取給，建社學二十一所。又於金佛、清水兩鄉建倉，以免徵糧借囤民房之累。革番、民採買需索，皆有實惠。四十四年，擢江西廣信知府，卒於官。

Jiyuan ran public affairs as he would his own household, and looked everywhere for what hurt the people and what might help them. At Song County he planted mulberry and taught sericulture; the silk it produced outranked that of every neighboring district. On idle ground he erected thirty-two community schools. At Suzhou he reclaimed derelict flats beyond the city walls and planted more than a hundred thousand poplars. He instructed every township and stockade to plant trees so fuel would be close at hand, and founded twenty-one community schools. He also built granaries in the townships of Jin Fo and Qingshui, sparing the people the burden of storing tax grain in their own houses. He abolished the squeeze placed on Tibetans and Han alike when government purchases were made, and the people felt a genuine benefit. In the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779), he was promoted to prefect of Guangxin in Jiangxi and died still in post.

如泗，字素園，江蘇昭文人，言子七十五世孫。乾隆三年，高宗臨雍，如泗以賢裔陪祀，賜恩貢生，充正黃旗官學教習。十四年，銓授山西垣曲知縣，城濱黃河，修石堤以捍水。亳河故有數渠，复於上游濬之，分以溉田，民稱「言公渠」。調聞喜，涑水湍急，舊渠多圮，別濬新渠，食其利者五村。舉卓異，擢保德直隸州知州。新疆軍興，徵調過境，值歉歲，如泗經畫曲當，民無所累。陝西巡撫明德聞其能而薦之，乞養歸。父喪除，補解州。白沙河在城南，地如建瓴，南決則害鹽池，北決則壞城。如泗請於大吏，用鹽帑修築兩岸石堰，長五里。又姚暹渠本以護鹽池，民田不能灌溉。故事，商民分修，商盡諉之於民，力爭，乃仍舊貫。二十九年，擢湖北襄陽知府。如泗愛士恤民而治盜嚴，在解州，民間夜不閉戶。襄陽素為盜藪，聞其至，盜皆遠遁。三十四年，因失察屬員罷職。尋以皇太后萬壽祝嘏復原官，遂不出。嘉慶十一年，卒於家，年九十一。光緒中，祀名宦。

Rusi, styled Suyuan, came from Zhaowen in Jiangsu and was a seventy-fifth-generation descendant of Master Yan. In the third year of Qianlong (1738), when the Gaozong Emperor lectured at the Imperial Academy, Rusi took part in the sacrifice as a worthy descendant of a sage. He was granted status as an En tribute student and served as instructor at the Banner School of the Plain Yellow Banner. In the fourteenth year of Qianlong (1749), he was appointed magistrate of Yuanqu in Shanxi. The county seat stood on the Yellow River, and he built stone dikes to hold the flood back. The Bo River had once had several irrigation channels. He dredged them again upstream and split the flow to water the fields, and the people called the work "Lord Yan's Canal." Transferred to Wenxi, he found the Suishui swift and the old channels mostly in ruins. He cut a new channel, and five villages shared the benefit. Rated outstanding in his evaluations, he was promoted to magistrate of Baode Directly Governed Prefecture. When the Xinjiang campaign began and requisitioned troops passed through during a bad harvest, Rusi managed the arrangements so carefully that the people were not crushed by the burden. Provincial Governor Mingde of Shaanxi heard of his talents and recommended him, but Rusi asked leave to nurse his parents and went home. When his mourning for his father was complete, he was posted to Xiezhou. The Baisha River ran south of the city across ground steep as a tilted water jar: a breach to the south would wreck the salt pans, and one to the north would ruin the walls. Rusi petitioned his superiors to spend salt revenue on stone dikes along both banks, five li long. The Yao Xian Canal had been built chiefly to shield the salt pans, so the people's fields could not be watered from it. By precedent merchants and commoners were to share upkeep, but the merchants tried to push the whole burden onto the people. Rusi fought the matter through until the old practice was restored. In the twenty-ninth year of Qianlong (1764), he was promoted to prefect of Xiangyang in Hubei. Rusi loved scholars, cared for the people, and dealt harshly with thieves. At Xiezhou people left their doors unbolted at night. Xiangyang had long been a robbers' den, but when word spread that he was coming, the outlaws fled far away. In the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong (1769), he was dismissed for lax supervision of a subordinate. Soon afterward he was restored to rank on the empress dowager's birthday celebration, but he never took office again. In the eleventh year of Jiaqing (1806), he died at home at the age of ninety-one. In the Guangxu reign he was entered in the shrine of distinguished officials.

際華，字石籓，貴州貴築人。嘉慶六年進士，授內閣中書，親老乞改教職。歷遵義、都勻兩府教授，以薦擢知縣。道光六年，授河南輝縣。百泉出縣北蘇門山，衛河之源也。其西諸山水經縣南入衛，曰峪河；其北諸澗水歷縣東入新河，曰東石河。新河者，自縣北鑿渠引衛河，至縣南復入衛，又稱玉帶河，皆資疏洩、利灌溉。時並淤塞，遇水輒苦漂溺。際華履視溝、渠，出俸錢率民醵貲濬峪河，修紅石堰，疏新河。鑿東石河六十餘丈，堅築其岸。諸渠綺交脈注，潦患以息。課民種桑四萬株，教之育蠶，他樹亦十五萬株，於是邑有絲絮、材木之利。蘇門故多名賢祠宇，咸新之，修明祀事，以勵風教焉。

Jihua, styled Shifan, was from Guizhu in Guizhou. He passed the jinshi examination in the sixth year of Jiaqing (1801) and was appointed a secretary in the Grand Secretariat. When his parents aged, he asked to be moved to an educational post. He served in turn as director of studies in Zunyi and Duyun, and on recommendation was promoted to magistrate. In the sixth year of Daoguang (1826), he was appointed magistrate of Huixian in Henan. The Hundred Springs rise from Sumen Mountain north of the county and are the source of the Wei River. The streams and rivers to the west run south of the county into the Wei; this is the Yu River. The ravine waters to the north flow east of the county into the Xin River; this is the East Stone River. The Xin River was a canal cut north of the county to draw from the Wei and return to it south of the seat; it was also called the Jade Belt River. All these channels served both drainage and irrigation. By then they were all choked with silt, and whenever the rains came the people were drowned in flood. Jihua inspected the ditches and channels on foot, spent his own salary, and led the people in raising funds to dredge the Yu River, repair the Red Stone Weir, and open the Xin River. He cut more than sixty zhang from the East Stone River and firmly rebuilt its banks. The channels crisscrossed and fed one another like woven silk, and the flood trouble ended. He set the people to planting forty thousand mulberry trees and taught them to raise silkworms; other trees numbered a hundred and fifty thousand besides. The district thereafter profited from silk and timber. Sumen had long held shrines to many worthies; he restored them all, put the sacrifices in good order, and thereby upheld local moral teaching.

署陝州直隸州知州。自澠池入陝，道硤石五十餘裡，險惡為行旅所苦。際華別開平道，往來者便之。迴避，改授江蘇興化縣。當裡下河之下游，水患尤急。際華議開攔江壩以洩湖、河之水，鹽官及商皆力爭，以為壩開則水南下溜急，於鹽舟牽挽不便。際華曰：「彼所爭者，十四里牽挽之勞，以較揚州東七縣田廬場灶之漂溺，蠲免賑恤之煩費，輕重何如？」總督林則徐韙其議。調江都，兼署泰州，毀淫祠百餘區，改為義學。則徐疏薦之，尋告歸，卒於家。

He served as acting magistrate of Shanzhou Directly Governed Prefecture. From Mianchi into the pass, the route through Xia Gorge ran more than fifty li — steep, cruel, and a misery to travelers. Jihua cut a level road, and those who traveled back and forth found the way easier. Recused on a conflict-of-interest ruling, he was reassigned as magistrate of Xinghua in Jiangsu. The county stood at the lower end of the Lixia River country, where flood danger was especially severe. Jihua proposed opening a river-blocking dam to drain lake and river water. Salt officials and merchants fought the plan, saying that if the dam opened the current would race south and make towing salt boats harder. Jihua said: "They are quarreling over fourteen li of towing — set that against the drowned fields, homes, salt pans, and hearths across the seven eastern counties of Yangzhou, and against the cost and trouble of remissions and relief. Which weighs more?" Governor-General Lin Zexu endorsed his plan. Transferred to Jiangdu, he also served concurrently as acting magistrate of Taizhou. He tore down more than a hundred improper shrines and turned them into charity schools. Lin Zexu memorialized recommending him. Before long Jihua asked to retire and died at home.

先是輝縣及興化民皆不習織，際華輒自出貲置織器教之，轉相授，於是二縣有衣被販貿之利，至今賴之。輝縣請祀名宦祠。

Earlier the people of Huixian and Xinghua did not know how to weave. Jihua again and again paid out of his own purse for looms and taught them the craft; the skill passed from hand to hand until both counties profited in cloth and trade — a benefit they still rely on today. Huixian petitioned to honor him in the shrine of distinguished officials.

=汪輝祖=汪輝祖，字龍莊，浙江蕭山人。少孤，繼母王、生母徐教之成立。習法家言，佐州縣幕，持正不阿，為時所稱。乾隆二十一年成進士，授湖南寧遠知縣。縣雜瑤俗，積逋而多訟，前令被訐去，黠桀益肆挾持；又流丐多強橫。輝祖下車，即捕其尤，驅餘黨出境。民納賦不及期，手書諭之曰：「官民一體，聽訟責在官，完賦責在民。官不勤職，咎有難辭；民不奉公，法所不恕。今約每旬以七日聽訟，二日較賦，一日手辦詳。較賦之日亦兼聽訟。若民皆遵期完課，則少費較賦之精力，即多聽訟之功夫。」民感其誠，不踰月而賦額足。

Wang Huizu. Wang Huizu, styled Longzhuang, was from Xiaoshan in Zhejiang. Orphaned while still young, he was brought up by his stepmother, Lady Wang, and his birth mother, Lady Xu. He studied legal practice, served as adviser in prefectural and county offices, stood straight and would not bend, and won praise in his day. He passed the jinshi examination in the twenty-first year of Qianlong (1756) and was appointed magistrate of Ningyuan in Hunan. The county was mixed with Yao custom, burdened with tax arrears, and rife with lawsuits. The previous magistrate had been impeached and driven out, and cunning ruffians grew bolder in bullying others; and many wandering beggars were violent and overbearing besides. The moment Huizu took office he seized the worst offenders and drove the rest from the district. When the people fell behind on taxes, he wrote them a personal notice: "Official and subject are one body. Hearing cases is the official's duty; paying taxes is the people's. If an official neglects his post, he can hardly escape blame; if the people refuse their public duty, the law will not pardon them. Hereafter each ten-day period will be divided thus: seven days for hearing cases, two for comparing tax rolls, one for drafting reports by hand. On tax-comparison days I shall hear cases as well. If everyone pays on time, I shall spend less effort on comparison and more on hearing cases. The people were moved by his sincerity, and within a month the tax quota was met.

治事廉平，尤善色聽，援據比附，律窮者，通以經術，證以古事。據漢書趙廣漢傳鉤距法，斷縣民匡學義獄；據唐書劉蕡傳斷李、蕭兩氏爭先隴獄；判決皆曲當，而心每欿然。遇匪人當予杖，輒呼之前曰：「律不可逭，然若父母膚體，奈何行不肖虧辱之？」再三語。罪人泣，亦泣。或對簿者，反代請得免，卒改行為善良。每決獄，縱民觀聽。又延紳耆問民疾苦、四鄉廣狹肥瘠、人情良莠，皆籍記之。

He governed with integrity and fairness, and was especially skilled at reading men's faces. When the statutes ran dry he cited precedents and analogies; where the law reached its limit he appealed to the classics and proved his points with ancient examples. Following the interrogation method of Zhao Guanghan in the Book of Han, he decided the case of the county man Kuang Xueyi; following the biography of Liu Zhen in the Book of Tang, he decided the dispute between the Li and Xiao clans over precedence at an ancestral tomb; every judgment was just, yet his heart was always heavy. When a wrongdoer was to be flogged, he would call him forward and say: "The law cannot be escaped — yet this body is your parents' gift. How can you bear to act unworthily and disgrace it? He would say this again and again. The offender wept, and he wept with him. Sometimes those facing judgment pleaded on another's behalf to spare him punishment; in the end the guilty reformed and became decent men. Whenever he decided a case he let the people watch and listen. He also summoned gentry elders to discuss the people's hardships, the breadth, narrowness, fertility, and barrenness of the four townships, and the good and bad in local character, and recorded it all in registers.

寧遠例食淮鹽，直數倍於粵鹽，民食粵私，大吏遣營弁偵捕，輝祖白上官，以鹽愈禁則值愈增，私不可縱，而食淡可虞，請改淮引為粵引。未及報，輝祖即張示：「鹽不及十斤者聽。」偵弁謂其縱私，輝祖揭辨，總督畢沅嘉之，立弛零鹽禁，時偉其議。兩署道州，又兼署新田縣，皆有惠政。以足疾請告，時大吏已疏調輝祖善化，又檄鄰邑獄，因足疾久不赴，疑其規避，奪職。歸里，閉戶讀書，不問外事。值紹興西江塘圮，巡撫吉慶強輝祖任其事，帑節工堅，時稱之。舉孝廉方正，固辭免。

Ningyuan was supposed to consume Huai salt at several times the price of Guangdong salt. The people ate smuggled Guangdong salt instead, and high officials sent military officers to spy and seize it. Huizu explained to his superiors that the tighter the prohibition the higher the price, that smuggling could not be winked at yet famine from salt shortage was to be feared, and asked that Huai permits be changed to Guangdong permits. Before an answer came back, Huizu posted a notice: "Salt in amounts under ten jin shall be allowed." The spy officers accused him of condoning smuggling. Huizu answered them in a public statement, and Governor-General Bi Yuan praised him and at once relaxed the ban on retail salt. People admired his proposal at the time. He twice served as acting prefect of Daozhou and also concurrently as acting magistrate of Xintian, and everywhere he left benevolent rule behind. He asked leave on account of foot ailment. By then his superiors had already memorialized to transfer him to Shanhua and ordered him to take up a case in a neighboring county. Because he long failed to go on account of his illness, they suspected evasion and removed him from office. He went home, shut his doors to read, and paid no attention to outside affairs. When the Xijiang embankment at Shaoxing collapsed, Provincial Governor Ji Qing pressed Huizu to take charge. The budget was tight and the work sound, and people praised it at the time. Recommended as Filial and Incorrupt, he firmly refused.

輝祖少尚氣節，及為令，持論挺特不屈，而從善如轉圜。所著學治臆說、佐治藥言，皆閱歷有得之言，為言治者所宗。初通籍在京師待銓，主同郡茹敦和，論治最契。同時硃休度並以慈惠稱。

Huizu had honored integrity since youth. As magistrate his views were upright and unyielding, yet he took good advice as easily as a wheel turns. His works Xuezhi Yishuo and Zuozhi Yaoyan were hard-won words drawn from experience, and those who speak of governing still look to them as guides. When he first entered the official rolls and waited in the capital for appointment, he stayed with Ru Dunhe, a fellow townsman; their talk of governance found the deepest accord. At the same time Zhu Xiudu was also known for kindness and benevolence.

敦和，字三樵，浙江會稽人。初嗣婦翁李為子，佔籍廣東。乾隆十九年成進士，歸本宗，授直隸南樂知縣。慎於折獄，於片紙召兩造，立剖曲直，當笞者薄責之，民輒感悔自新。擇清白謹願者充社長、裡正，令密陳利弊，以次行之。縣當豬龍河之衝，察河源委，於開州、清豐之間審地形高下，因勢利導，水不為患。地多茅沙鹽咸，教以土化之法，廣植雜樹。鄉民以麥稭編笠為生，敦和勸種桑。

Dunhe, courtesy name Sanqiao, was from Kuaiji in Zhejiang. At first he was adopted as son by his father-in-law, surnamed Li, and was registered in Guangdong. In the nineteenth year of the Qianlong reign (1754) he passed the jinshi examination, returned to his original clan, and was appointed magistrate of Nanle in Zhili. He was careful in deciding cases. With a single slip of paper he would summon both parties, immediately discern right from wrong, and lightly punish those due for the bamboo; the people would invariably be moved to repent and reform. He selected men of clean character and cautious disposition to serve as village heads and ward chiefs, had them report benefits and harms in secret, and carried out reforms one by one. The county lay on the Zhulong River's course. He traced the river's source and flow, studied the terrain between Kaizhou and Qingfeng, and guided the water according to its natural tendencies so that it no longer caused disaster. The land was mostly sandy, saline, and salty; he taught methods of soil improvement and widely planted assorted trees. The villagers made their living weaving hats from wheat straw; Dunhe encouraged them to plant mulberry trees.

調大名，漳水患劇，旁有渠河，敦和謀開渠以殺其勢。適內遷大理寺評事，不及上請。乃手書揭城門，勸民刻期集河干，親為指示，民具畚鍤來者以萬計。經旬而渠成，後利賴之。尋復出為湖北德安府同知，署宜昌知府，緣事降秩。卒，祀直隸名宦祠。子棻，以一甲一名進士官至兵部尚書。

Transferred to Daming, where the Zhang River's floods were severe, he found a canal nearby and planned to open a channel to reduce the river's force. He was soon transferred inward to serve as reviewing officer of the Court of Judicial Review and did not have time to submit the memorial. So he wrote a notice by hand and posted it at the city gate, urging the people to gather at the riverbank on a set date; he personally directed the work, and residents bringing spades and baskets numbered in the tens of thousands. Within ten days the channel was completed, and afterwards the people benefited from it for generations. Soon afterward he was again sent out as sub-prefect of De'an Prefecture in Hubei and served as acting prefect of Yichang; because of some matter he was demoted in rank. He died and was enshrined in the shrine of renowned officials of Zhili. His son Fen passed the jinshi examination as top of the first class and rose to minister of war.

休度，字介斐，浙江秀水人。乾隆十八年舉人，官嵊縣訓導，以薦授山西廣靈知縣。值大荒疫，流亡過半，休度安撫招徠。糧籍舊未清，履勘勸耕，一年而荒者墾，三年而無曠土。糧清賦辦，獲優敘。尤善決獄，劉杷子妻張，以夫出，飢欲死，易姓改嫁郭添保。疑郭為略賣，詰朝手刃所生子女二而自剄。休度詣驗，婦猶未絕，目郭作聲曰：「販，販！」察其無他情，讞定，杷子乃歸。眾曰：「汝欲知婦所由死，問硃爺。」休度語之狀，並及其家某事某事。杷子泣曰：「我歸愆期至此，勿怨他人矣。」稽首去。薛石頭偕妹觀劇，其友目送之。薛怒，刃傷其左乳，死。自承曰：「早欲殺之，死無恨。」越日，复詰之曰：「一刃何即死也？」薛曰：「刃時不料即死。」曰：「何不再刃？」薛曰：「見其血出不止，心惕息，何忍再刃？」遂以誤殺論，減戍。休度嘗曰：「南方獄多法輕情重，北方獄多法重情輕，稍忽之，失其情矣。」待人以誠，人亦不忍欺。周知民情，訴曲直者，數語處分，民皆悅服。數年囹圄一空，舉卓異。嘉慶元年，引疾歸，縣人懇留不得，乞其「壺山垂釣」小像勒諸石。歿後，祀名宦。

Xiudu, courtesy name Jiefei, was from Xiushui in Zhejiang. A provincial graduate in the eighteenth year of the Qianlong reign (1753), he served as instructor at Sheng County; through recommendation he was appointed magistrate of Guangling in Shanxi. During a great famine and epidemic, more than half the population fled; Xiudu comforted them and summoned the displaced to return. Old grain registers had never been cleared up; he went out to inspect the land and urged farming. Within a year wasteland was reclaimed; within three years there was no untilled soil. Once the grain registers were cleared and tax duties fulfilled, he received a commendation for outstanding service. He was especially skilled at deciding cases. Liu Pazi's wife Zhang, because her husband was away and she was starving to death, changed her surname and remarried Guo Tianbao. Suspecting that Guo had abducted and sold her, the next morning she killed with her own hand the two children she had borne and slit her own throat. Xiudu went to examine the scene. The woman was not yet dead; she fixed her eyes on Guo and cried out, "Trafficker! Trafficker! Having ascertained that there was no other motive involved, he settled the verdict, and Pazi then returned home. The crowd said, "If you want to know why your wife died, ask Master Zhu. Xiudu told him what had happened, and also mentioned certain matters concerning his household. Pazi wept and said, "My delayed return brought this about—let no one else be blamed. He bowed his head and departed. Xue Shitou went with his sister to watch an opera; a friend watched them leave with his eyes. Xue flew into a rage and stabbed him in the left breast; the man died. He confessed of his own accord: "I had long wanted to kill him—death brings no regret. The next day Xiudu questioned him again: "How could one stroke of the blade kill him immediately? Xue said, "When I stabbed him, I did not expect he would die at once. Xiudu said, "Why did you not strike again? Xue said, "Seeing the blood flow without stopping, my heart faltered—I could not bear to strike again. Accordingly he was sentenced under the category of unintentional killing, with commuted penal servitude. Xiudu once said: "In the south, cases often involve light penalties for heavy offenses of passion; in the north, cases often involve heavy penalties for light offenses of passion. Neglect this even slightly and the true circumstances are lost. He treated people with sincerity, and they could not bring themselves to deceive him. Thoroughly acquainted with the people's circumstances, when litigants came seeking judgment he disposed of matters in a few words, and the people all submitted gladly. Within a few years the prisons stood empty, and he was recommended as exceptionally meritorious. In the first year of the Jiaqing reign (1796), citing illness he returned home. The county people pleaded in vain for him to stay and asked that his small portrait "Fishing on Mount Hu" be carved in stone. After his death he was enshrined among renowned officials.

休度博聞通識，尤深於詩，以其鄉硃彝尊、錢載為法。任校官時，採訪遺書，得四千五百餘種，撰總目上諸四庫。大學士王杰為學政，任其一人以集事，時盛稱焉。

Xiudu was broadly learned and deeply insightful, especially accomplished in poetry, taking as his models the natives of his region Zhu Yizun and Qian Zai. While serving as a school official, he collected and investigated lost books, obtaining more than 4,500 titles, compiled a general catalog, and submitted it to the Siku Library. Grand Secretary Wang Jie, serving as provincial education commissioner, entrusted the whole undertaking to him alone, and at the time this was widely praised.

=劉大紳=劉大紳，字寄庵，雲南寧州人。乾隆三十七年進士，四十八年，授山東新城知縣。連三歲旱，大紳力賑之。調曹縣，代者至，民數千遮道乞留，大吏為留大紳三月。及至曹縣，旱災更重於新城。大紳方務與休息，河督檄修趙王河決堤，集夫萬餘人，以工代賑，兩月竣事，無疾病逃亡者。既又檄辦河工稭料三百萬，大紳以時方收斂，請緩之。大吏督責益急，將按以罪，請限十日，民聞，爭先輸納，未即期而數足。一日巡行鄉間，有於馬後議穀賤銀貴開徵期迫者，大紳顧語之曰：「俟穀得價再輸未遲也。」語聞於大吏，怒其擅自緩徵，遣能吏代之。民慮失大紳，爭輸賦，代者至，已畢完。大吏因責徵累年逋，久倘不足，終以代者受事。民益恐，晝夜輸將，不數日得三萬餘兩。初，大紳以忤上官意，自劾求去，民環署泣留，相率走訴大吏。適大吏有事泰山，路見而諭止之，不得去。至是密自申請，民知之，已無及，乃得引疾歸。

Liu Dashen. Liu Dashen, courtesy name Ji'an, was from Ningzhou in Yunnan. A jinshi in the thirty-seventh year of the Qianlong reign (1772), in the forty-eighth year (1783) he was appointed magistrate of Xincheng in Shandong. For three consecutive years there was drought; Dashen exerted himself to provide relief. Transferred to Cao County; when his replacement arrived, several thousand people blocked the road begging him to stay, and the provincial authorities kept Dashen for three months. When he reached Cao County, the drought disaster was more severe than at Xincheng. Dashen was just beginning to give the people rest when the river commissioner ordered repairs to a breach in the Zhao Wang River dike. He assembled more than ten thousand laborers and used work-relief in place of famine relief; within two months the project was finished, with no sickness or flight among the workers. Soon afterward another order came to procure three million bundles of straw for river works. Dashen, noting that the harvest season was just beginning, requested a postponement. The provincial authorities pressed him all the more urgently and were about to charge him with an offense. He asked for a limit of ten days; when the people heard of this, they vied to deliver the material, and before the deadline the quota was met. One day while making the rounds in the countryside, he overheard people behind his horse discussing how grain was cheap, silver dear, and the tax collection deadline pressing. Dashen turned and said to them, "Wait until grain fetches a good price before paying—it will not be too late. When word of this reached the provincial authorities, they were enraged that he had on his own authority postponed collection and sent a capable official to replace him. The people, fearing they would lose Dashen, vied to pay their taxes; by the time his replacement arrived, collection was already complete. The provincial authorities therefore charged him with years of accumulated arrears in tax collection; when the delay stretched long and the amount still fell short, in the end the replacement official bore the consequences. The people grew still more alarmed and delivered payments day and night; within a few days more than thirty thousand taels were collected. Earlier, because Dashen had offended his superiors, he submitted a self-accusation asking to leave office. The people surrounded the yamen weeping and begging him to stay, and went in groups to petition the provincial authorities. It happened that the provincial authorities were occupied with affairs at Mount Tai; they saw the petitioners on the road and ordered them to stop, and Dashen could not leave. At this point he secretly submitted his own request; when the people learned of it, it was already too late, and he was finally able to return home citing illness.

五十八年，病起，仍發山東，補文登。值新城修城，大吏徇士民請，檄大紳督工，逾年始竣，尋以曹縣舊獄被議，罷職遣戍。新城、曹縣民為捐金請贖，得免歸。嘉慶五年，有密薦者，詔以大紳操守廉潔、兼有才能，辦理城工、渡船二事，民情愛戴，引見，復發山東，攝福山，補朝城。大水，大紳以災報，大吏駁減其分數，民感大紳，雖未獲減徵，亦無怨謗者。大紳又力以病求去，移攝青州府同知，尋擢武定府同知。捕蝗查賑，並著勞勚。以母老終養歸，遂不出。卒，祀名宦祠。

In the fifty-eighth year (1793), recovered from illness, he was again sent to Shandong and appointed to Wendeng. When Xincheng was repairing its walls, the provincial authorities yielded to the gentry and common people's request and ordered Dashen to supervise the work; after more than a year it was completed. Soon afterward, because of an old case at Cao County, he was censured, dismissed from office, and sent into exile. The people of Xincheng and Cao County contributed money to petition for his ransom, and he was released to return home. In the fifth year of the Jiaqing reign (1800), someone submitted a confidential recommendation. An edict noted that Dashen's conduct was incorruptible and that he combined talent with ability; in his handling of the wall construction and ferryboat projects the people's sentiments were devoted to him. Summoned for audience, he was again sent to Shandong, served as acting magistrate of Fushan, and was appointed to Chaocheng. During a great flood, Dashen reported the disaster; the provincial authorities rejected his assessment and reduced the relief quota. The people were grateful to Dashen; even though they did not receive reduced taxes, none spoke in resentment. Dashen again strongly petitioned to leave on grounds of illness, was transferred to serve as sub-prefect of Qingzhou Prefecture, and soon was promoted to sub-prefect of Wuding Prefecture. In locust-catching and disaster relief inspection he likewise distinguished himself through arduous service. Because his mother was aged, he returned home to care for her until her death and did not take office again. He died and was enshrined in the shrine of renowned officials.

大紳素講學能文章，在官公暇，輒詣書院課士。嘗訓諸生曰：「硃子小學，為作聖階梯，入德塗軌。必讀此書，身體力行，庶幾明體達用，有益於天下國家之大。」於是士知實學，風氣一變。

Dashen had long been devoted to learning and was skilled at literary composition; during leisure hours in office he would go to the academy to examine the students. He once instructed the students: "Master Zhu's Elementary Learning is the ladder to sagehood and the path into virtue. You must read this book and practice it in body and deed; only then may you clarify principle and apply it usefully, to the great benefit of all under Heaven and the state. Thereupon the scholars understood practical learning, and local custom was transformed.

=吳煥彩=吳煥彩，字蘊之，福建安定人。乾隆二十五年進士，授山東範縣知縣。民苦充牌頭。吏列多名進，以次需索，煥彩革其弊。清河水溢為災，其岸左高右卑，因開五頃窪，以瀉其東南；築福金堤，以防其西北；歲得麥田四萬畝。啇地民苦納租，欲請免而格於例，代輸租之半，教之種番薯，民困乃紓。三十九年，壽張逆匪王倫作亂，距範縣四十里，煥彩修城籌守禦，力清保甲，凡村落大小，人民賢愚可指數。有孟興璧者，與黃昌吉等有隙，上變列三十餘人，朝命侍郎高樸與巡撫往察治。使者出牒示，煥彩曰：「某已死，某為某之父，某之子皆良民，呼之即至。」使者欲以兵往，煥彩曰：「兵至，愚民非死即走，無可訊，咎將誰執？」煥彩夜抵村中呼告之，皆呼冤。煥彩曰：「惟無其事，必出就訊，亟從我去。不然，禍立至。」民皆裹糧從。使者按籍，少二人，煥彩曰：「一已死，一外出，已命其兄招之。」言未畢，有跪門外者，則已來矣。訊之皆誣，遂坐告變者。巡撫曰：「知縣者，知一縣事，君可謂之知縣矣。知縣者，民之父母，君可謂之民之父母矣。」以卓異薦，擢湖北鶴峰知州。地本苗疆，改流未久，姦宄雜居。煥彩勤於聽訟，積弊一清。土司族裔，每借祖墳詐人財，懲治之，澆風自息。民樸陋不知書，設義塾，資以膏火，至五十三年，始有舉於鄉者。後以病歸，鶴峰請祀名宦，範縣亦為建生祠。年逾八十，卒。

Wu Huancai. Wu Huancai, courtesy name Yunzhi, was from Anding in Fujian. A jinshi in the twenty-fifth year of the Qianlong reign (1760), he was appointed magistrate of Fan County in Shandong. The people suffered under compulsory service as pai headmen. Officials would register many names and demand fees in sequence; Huancai abolished this abuse. The Qing River overflowed and caused disaster; its banks were higher on the left and lower on the right, so he opened the Wuqing depression to drain the southeast; and built the Fujin Dike to block the northwest; gaining forty thousand mu of wheat fields each year. The people of Shangdi suffered under rent payments; they wished to petition for exemption but were blocked by regulation. Huancai paid half their rent on their behalf and taught them to plant sweet potatoes, and the people's hardship was eased. In the thirty-ninth year (1774), the rebel Wang Lun of Shouzhang rose in revolt forty li from Fan County. Huancai repaired the walls and prepared defenses, vigorously reorganized the baojia system, and could account for every village, large or small, and every person, worthy or foolish. A man named Meng Xingbi, who had a grudge against Huang Changji and others, submitted a secret report listing more than thirty people. The court ordered Vice Minister Gao Pu and the provincial governor to go investigate. The envoy produced the warrant for inspection. Huancai said, "So-and-so is already dead; so-and-so is so-and-so's father; so-and-so's son—all are law-abiding people. Summon them and they will come at once. The envoy wished to send troops. Huancai said, "When troops arrive, the common people will either die or flee—there will be no one to question. Who will bear the blame? That night Huancai went to the villages and summoned the people to hear their grievances; all cried out their innocence. Huancai said, "Since there is no truth to the charges, you must come out to be questioned—come with me at once. Otherwise disaster will come immediately. The people all packed provisions and followed him. The envoy checked against the register and found two people missing. Huancai said, "One is already dead; one is away from home—I have ordered his elder brother to summon him. Before he had finished speaking, someone was kneeling outside the gate—it was the man, already arrived. On examination all charges proved false, and the accuser was punished. The governor said, "A magistrate is one who knows the affairs of a whole county—you may truly be called a magistrate. A magistrate is the parent of the people—you may truly be called the parent of the people. Recommended as exceptionally meritorious, he was promoted to prefect of Hefeng in Hubei. The territory had originally been Miao frontier country; direct administration had only recently been imposed, and evildoers of all sorts lived side by side. Huancai was diligent in hearing cases, and longstanding abuses were entirely cleared away. Relatives of the local tusi chieftains had a habit of using claims to ancestral graves to swindle people out of their money; once he prosecuted the practice, that venal custom died away. The people were rough and illiterate; he set up charity schools and subsidized their study expenses, and by the fifty-third year someone from the district had finally passed the provincial examinations for the first time. He later resigned and went home on account of illness. Hefeng petitioned to have him honored in the shrine of distinguished officials, and Fan County erected a living shrine in his memory as well. He was over eighty when he died.

=紀大奎=紀大奎，字慎齋，江西臨川人。乾隆四十四年舉人，充四庫館謄錄。五十年，議敘知縣，發山東，署商河。會李文功等倡邪教，誘民為亂，訛言四起。大奎集縣民，諭以禍福，皆驚悟。鄰郡惑者聞之，亦相率解散。補丘縣，歷署昌樂、棲霞、福山、博平，民皆敬而親之。父憂歸。嘉慶中復出，授四川什邡縣。或謂：「什邡俗強梗，宜示以威。」答曰：「無德可懷，徒以威示，何益？」奸民吳忠友據山中聚眾積粟，講清涼教。大奎躬率健役，夜半搗其巢，獲忠友，餘眾驚散。下令受邪書者三日繳，予自新，民遂安。擢合州知州，道光二年，引疾歸。年八十，卒，祀合州名宦。

Ji Dakui. Ji Dakui, styled Shenzhai, was from Linchuan in Jiangxi. He passed the provincial examinations in the forty-fourth year of the Qianlong reign (1779) and worked as a copyist at the Siku Quanshu project. In the fiftieth year of Qianlong (1785), his record qualified him for a magistracy; he was posted to Shandong and served as acting magistrate of Shanghe. About then Li Wengong and his followers were preaching a heretical sect and inciting the people to revolt, and wild rumors spread everywhere. Dakui summoned the people of the county and explained to them the consequences of their choices; they were shaken awake and saw reason. Misguided people in neighboring districts heard what had happened and likewise abandoned the movement in droves. He was assigned to Qiu County and later served in turn as acting magistrate of Changle, Qixia, Fushan, and Boping, winning the respect and affection of the people wherever he went. He went home to observe mourning for his father. During the Jiaqing reign he returned to government service and was appointed magistrate of Shifang in Sichuan. Some advised him: "The people of Shifang are notoriously hard and unyielding; you ought to rule them with a firm hand." He answered: "If you have no virtue to inspire loyalty, what good does it do to rely on intimidation alone?" A local ruffian named Wu Zhongyou had taken to the hills, where he gathered followers, stockpiled grain, and spread the Qingliang sect. Dakui personally led a band of sturdy runners on a midnight raid of their hideout, captured Zhongyou, and the remaining followers fled in panic. He decreed a three-day amnesty for anyone holding heretical texts to turn them in and start afresh, and the people settled down. He was promoted to prefect of Hezhou, and in the second year of the Daoguang reign (1822) he resigned on grounds of ill health. He died at eighty and was honored in the shrine of distinguished officials at Hezhou.

=邵希曾=邵希曾，字魯齋，浙江錢塘人。乾隆五十四年舉人，嘉慶中，官河南知縣。歷權通許、盧氏、鄢陵、西華、沈丘、太康、扶構、淮寧、新鄉，皆有聲。滑縣教匪之役，司糧台。及匪平，訊鞫俘虜，治餘匪，凡良民被脅者皆得釋，保全甚眾。晚授桐柏，民苦盜，令村集建棚巡更，鄉數家出一人為門夫，有警環集，無事歸業。訪捕強暴者繩以法，積匪率遠徙。慎於折獄，皆速結，訟日以稀。朔望蒞學，集諸生講論，增書院膏火，親課之如師。道光六年，邑人王四傑始登進士第，自明初以來所未有。募錢萬緡，建義學。凡經塾三，蒙塾十五。擇其秀者入書院肄業，文教興而悍俗漸化。在任十年，民安之。老病，大吏不令去，卒於官。

Shao Xiceng. Shao Xiceng, styled Luzhai, was from Qiantang in Zhejiang. He received his juren degree in the fifty-fourth year of the Qianlong reign (1789) and during the Jiaqing era served as a magistrate in Henan. He served in turn as acting magistrate of Tongxu, Lushi, Yanling, Xihua, Shenqiu, Taikang, Fugou, Huaining, and Xinxiang, earning a fine reputation at every post. During the campaign against the sect rebels at Huaxian, he ran the grain-supply commissary. After the rebellion was suppressed, he interrogated captured rebels and prosecuted those still at large; every innocent civilian who had been forced to join was released, saving a great many lives. Late in his career he was posted to Tongbai, where banditry was rampant. He ordered each village to erect patrol sheds and organize night watches, with one watchman contributed by every few households in each hamlet; at the first alarm they would rally together, and when all was quiet they went back to their work. He hunted down violent criminals and punished them according to law, and most of the entrenched outlaws moved far away. He was meticulous in judging cases and brought them all to a swift conclusion, and day by day litigation grew rarer. On the first and fifteenth of each lunar month he visited the county school, assembled the students for lectures, increased funding for the academy, and personally examined them as a teacher would. In the sixth year of the Daoguang reign (1826), a local man named Wang Sijie became the first person from the county ever to attain the jinshi degree — an achievement without precedent since the founding of the Ming. He raised ten thousand strings of copper cash and founded charity schools. In all he established three schools for classical study and fifteen for elementary instruction. He chose the brightest students to pursue advanced study at the academy; as learning took root, the district's rough ways gradually softened. During his ten years in office the people lived in peace and contentment. When age and illness overtook him, his superiors refused to accept his resignation, and he died still in post.

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