Xue Fucheng

Xue Fucheng

Xue Fucheng (1838-1894), a native of binyanli, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, was named Yonghe. Modern essayist, diplomat, one of the main leaders of Westernization Movement, the initiator of capitalist industry and commerce. Born in a scholarly family and official family. Influenced by the times since childhood, he studied extensively and devoted himself to practical learning. He didn't do poetry and Fu, didn't learn regular script, and despised Ba Gu in particular.

Xue Fucheng wrote many books in his life, including four volumes of Yong'an Wenbian, two volumes of sequel, four volumes of waibian, four volumes of Yong'an overseas Wenbian, fourteen volumes of my humble opinion on Chiyang, six volumes of diaries of four diplomatic missions, six volumes of sequel, notes of Yong'an, two volumes of memorials of mission and ten volumes of official documents of mission. Basically, Xue Fucheng's works have been included in the complete works of Yong'an. His "Diary of envoys" and its sequel have been included in the "going to the world series".

Life of the characters

Early experience

On April 12, 1838, Xue Fucheng was born in a scholarly family in binyanli, Wuxi. Xue Xiang, his father, had been an official educator for 12 years. In 1847, he became a professor in Zhenjiang. Xue Xiang was especially good at writing eight part essay. His style of writing was unique, and he was called "Xue Diao" at that time. He was highly praised by eight part writers. Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang claimed that they could succeed in the imperial examination, which benefited from Xue Xiang's articles.

In the 25th year of Daoguang (1845), Xue Xiang was also a Jinshi, ranking 271. He was appointed professor of Zhenjiang University and later promoted to magistrate of Anfu county, Hunan Province. Xue Fucheng's mother, Gu's, takes on the heavy responsibilities of the family because her husband has been away for a long time. She is a typical good wife and mother who manages the household affairs, respects her parents in law, takes good care of her children and treats her neighbors well. Xue Fucheng went to a private school at the age of six. His first teacher was Gu Hongsheng, who was in his eighties. When I come home from school, my mother always urges me to do my homework. No matter how hard it is, I always have to study until midnight.

In 1850, Xue Fucheng's family went to Zhenjiang to reunite with his father. At the age of 12, Xue Fucheng studied eight part essay in Zhenjiang government education department. As a young man, he had no idea of the changes of the world after the Opium War. His dream was to be a scholar in China, a chengjuren, a Jinshi in China, and a dianhanlin in the imperial examination. The next year, his father left Zhenjiang to serve as county magistrate in Anfu county, Hunan Province. Xue Fucheng, his mother, sister, brother and brother returned to his hometown in Wuxi.

In the first year of Xianfeng (1851), the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising broke out in Guangxi, and its power immediately extended to the Yangtze River Basin. In the third year of Xianfeng (1853), the Qing government occupied Nanjing. The Manchu Dynasty was shocked, and Xue Fucheng, who was deeply buried in stereotype, was also shocked. Xue Fucheng was surprised to realize that he did not grow up in the prosperous world of singing and dancing, but met the chaotic world of collapse.

In 1856, when the second Opium War broke out, the British and French allied forces began to wreak havoc in Guangzhou and coastal areas. The Qing army had no way to deal with it. The internal and external troubles made Xue Fucheng even more thrilling. At this time, facing the situation of internal and external troubles, a new trend of saving the practical learning of Confucian classics was set off in the society. Under the fresh wind, Xue Fucheng was determined to study the practical learning of Confucian classics in order to meet the needs of the country in employing people one day. Therefore, on the one hand, he prepared for the examination, on the other hand, he studied the reasons for China's success and failure in the past two thousand years, and studied the art of war, battle array, astronomy, yin and Yang, and geographical situation.

In the spring of 1858, he and his younger brother Xue Fubao both passed the examination of scholar. Soon, Xue Fucheng, the eldest brother of wailang, who was a member of the Ministry of industry in Beijing, returned to Wuxi to visit his relatives. Xue Fucheng and Xue Fuchen went to Hunan to visit their father. Unexpectedly, soon after they arrived in Hunan, their father died of illness, and they were busy with their father's affairs. Due to the unclear accounts of his father in the county magistrate's office, brother Xue Fucheng had to spend a long time in Hunan in order to clear up the public funds owed by his father in his office.

In the spring of the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), before Xue Fucheng brothers finished their work, they got the news that the Jiangnan camp collapsed and the Taiping army went straight to the Soviet Union and Changzhou. Worried about the accident in Wuxi, the brothers had to rush back to their hometown. Along the way, there were many wars and crises. At this time, Wuxi had been occupied by Taiping rebels. Her mother and her family had fled from their hometown, while her aunt's family died in the turmoil. The elder brother Xue Fuchen was caught by the Taiping army again. Because the Taiping Army didn't know his identity, he was released. Later, the brothers crossed the Yangtze River and arrived in Dongxiang, Baoying, Northern Jiangsu Province, where they found their separated family. His father died, his family suffered, and one after another made Xue Fucheng really feel the pain of social unrest. In the same year, the Allied forces of Britain and France set fire to Yuanmingyuan and stormed into Beijing. Emperor Xianfeng fled from the palace and rushed to Rehe. Yi Xin signed an unequal treaty of humiliation with the great powers. Xue Fucheng was very worried because of his deep difficulties. Xue Fucheng felt that he had to study hard and have real ability to retrieve the dazzling time change. From then on, he paid more attention to the key to the success and failure of the chaos in ancient and modern times, and through the opportunity of going to Beijing for an examination and traveling to Kaifeng and other places, he understood the sufferings of the people and investigated the accumulated social disadvantages. However, Xue Fucheng put his energy on practical learning and often failed in the imperial examination.

Living in Zengmu

In 1865, opportunities finally came to Xue Fucheng. In the summer of the same year, in view of the fact that the Qing government failed repeatedly in the process of suppressing the Nien army, the famous general who was in charge of the suppression of Nien army was also killed by the Nien army, so the Qing government ordered Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang, who had just suppressed the peasant uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, to direct the Hunan army to go north to suppress Nien. Zeng Guofan was a representative of the Westernization school who learned from the West and was regarded as one of the "four famous officials of the late Qing Dynasty".

Zeng Guofan was good at recruiting talents, and many people also wanted to be attached to him, so his shogunate gathered a group of well-known sages at that time. Zeng Guofan led his army to the north to suppress twist, and along the way he posted the list of recruiting talents. Xue Fucheng admired Zeng Guofan very much and thought that this was an excellent opportunity to join him. So he elaborated on his thinking of social problems over the years and the way to solve social crisis, and wrote more than 10000 words of shangzeng houshu, which concentrated on eight countermeasures of "cultivating talents, reclaiming land, invigorating Garrison administration, controlling bandits, clarifying officials, enriching people's livelihood, raising coastal defense, and changing times".

On June 28, when Zeng Guofan's boat passed by BAOYING along the canal, accompanied by his elder brother Xue Fuchen, he braved the wind and rain to meet Zeng Guofan and handed over the Wanyan Book respectfully. Zeng Guofan read his letter and admired it. He felt that Xue Fucheng was good at discussing things and was expected to become a family's opinion in the future. He told the people around him that Xue Fucheng should be trained in the future and immediately recruited Xue Fu to become his own staff. From then on, Xue Fucheng followed Zeng Guofan to travel north and south, and met with a group of talented and ambitious staff. Zeng Guofan loved go very much. Every morning, he invited Xue Fucheng, who had the same hobby, to play chess with him. He not only learned chess skills, but also paid attention to the exchange of ideas about military and national plans such as "military affairs, salary affairs, official affairs, and cultural affairs".

After seven years, because of his "hard work" and "military merit", Xue Fucheng was recommended by Zeng Guofan and became a five grade alternate tongzhi (alternate Zhizhou, not a real job) wearing glass roof and eight boa and five boa robes. Xue Fucheng thinks that today's world affairs are nothing more than "military affairs, salary affairs, official affairs, and literary affairs". Although they specialize in literary affairs, they should take charge of the overall situation and know everything. The shogunate is just like the area where the shogunate is able to cultivate talents. Through the years of Zeng Guofan's advice and the exchanges among his colleagues, together with his own hard work, Xue Fucheng believed that he, who had long been proficient in "literary affairs", could expect to be responsible for "military affairs, salary affairs, and official affairs". He hoped that he could step out of the office of the staff, seek real jobs, assume important tasks, and do a vigorous and grand career, just like many of his colleagues who have been widely used by the imperial court for many years.

However, on March 12, 1872, Zeng Guofan died in Nanjing, and his staff went to different places. Xue Fu was not employed by the imperial court because he was not qualified, had no talent, and had no backing. After helping Zeng Guofan's eldest son attend the funeral, he hired two carriages to drive to Suzhou with his precious books and manuscripts.

Xue Fucheng passed through his hometown Wuxi, but he was also a stranger. He arrived at Suzhou book company in a hurry to take up his writing career. In response to the imperial edict, Chen Yan planned Li Mu of Beiyang. Xue Fucheng was not proud of coming to Suzhou, but he still paid attention to the society. He found that the surrounding areas of Suzhou, once known as "paradise on earth", are now empty, expensive and difficult to make a living. He learned that all over the country, people's lives are more miserable than Suzhou. He was worried to see that China's sea and land borders had been forced by powerful enemies. He could not help but exclaim: "Alas, China does not seek self-improvement, how can it be good after it!" Xue Fucheng thinks that in this era of upheaval, we must strive for change, set up westernization, and learn from the West. Xue Fucheng thinks that until now, the imperial court is still blindly following the old ways, emphasizing that "political affairs can not be carried out without rules" and "talents can not enter without qualifications". The literati and officials still spend time on stereotyped writing, test notes, and small regular script, and use them instead of using them So he made a fuss and thought it was Madman's rave, so he attacked it. In the long run, foreign countries will become stronger and China will become weaker, and the consequences will be unimaginable. Xue Fucheng hoped that the imperial court would spare no effort to set up westernization and strive for self-improvement and wealth. However, he was not qualified to write to the court. Xue Fucheng is waiting patiently

Chinese PinYin : Xue Fu Cheng