Chen Botao

Chen Botao

During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, several people surnamed Chen in Guangdong proposed to build a provincial ancestral hall for the Chen family in Guangzhou. Chen families from all over the country responded warmly and donated generously. In 1892, good news came from the capital: a son of Chen surnamed was named tanhualang. This is the icing on the cake for the ancestral hall under construction. The clansmen were so surprised that they could not help but be overjoyed: the effect of temple building was so effective! So a bigger fundraising campaign began. In 1894, the grand and exquisite Chen ancestral hall was completed. This ancestral hall is the famous Chen ancestral hall today. The son of Chen surnamed, who is visiting flowers in high school, is Chen Botao, a native of Fengyong, Zhongtang Town, Dongguan City. He is also one of the advocates of building Chen ancestral hall.

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Chen Botao (1855-1930) was named Xianghua and Zili. In his later years, he changed his name to Yongtao and was also named Zhenyi in Jiulong. He was born in Fengyong, Dongguan Zhongtang, and visited flowers in the Qing Dynasty. At the age of 6, Chen Li was a teacher. At the age of 10, he read the five classics thoroughly. Later, he studied in sulao College of Luofu Mountain. Scholar in the first year of Guangxu (1875). In 1879, he won the first place (Jieyuan) in the rural examination, and then went to Beijing to attend the examination. Because of the death of his grandmother and father, he went back to his hometown. In the following years, he provided for his mother and siblings with his teaching income. In 1892, Ren ChenKe was a Jinshi, and won the third place in the imperial examination (Exploring flowers). He was awarded the Imperial Academy editor, wenyuange school manager, and Wuying hall assistant editor. Later, he served as assistant editor and chief editor of the National History Museum. political career in 1895, he served as deputy examiners of Yunnan, Guizhou and Shandong provincial examinations. In the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1900), the Allied forces of the eight countries captured Tianjin, and he returned to the South with his family. In February of the next year, when Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Xi'an with Emperor Guangxu, he left Dongguan for Xi'an to "drive.". The battle of gengzi was negotiated and returned to Beijing with the emperor. After that, he once served as a student envoy in Jiangning. In June 1906, he was sent to Japan to study education. After returning to China, he founded a dialect school in Nanjing to learn foreign languages and a Jinan school to recruit overseas Chinese students to study in Nanjing. In 1908, he served as Jiangning's political envoy. Xuantong two years (1910) in May, abandoned the official return. The next year, he was the general president of education in Guangdong Province. In September of the same year, the revolutionary army conquered Guangzhou, and he fled to Kowloon, Hong Kong. In February 1913, he moved to guanfuchang, Jiulong, where he lived, and later wrote. He regarded himself as a relic of the Qing Dynasty, avoided living in Kowloon, and called himself "Jiulong Zhenyi". As a child, he dabbled in ancient books and learned from them. He was good at collecting unofficial history, barnyard officials, memorials, anthologies and other documents of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He had a large collection of books. In his later years, in accordance with his will, he donated books to "sulaoguan", so there was a "daotong library" in Luofu Mountain. His calligraphy is neat and good at regular script. He is the author of Gualu Wencheng, Gualu Shicheng, Yuan Dynasty Dongguan adherents record, Ming Dynasty Guangdong adherents record, Ming Dynasty Dongguan Sanzhong biography, filial piety theory, Wumei village poetry review, Yuan Dushi's manuscript, etc., and participated in the compilation of Dongguan county annals. During his residence in Jiulong, he collected song Wangtai's works in Jiulong and compiled song Taiqiu song. Printed with judetang series. Chen Botao studied at the age of five and studied under Chen Li, a famous university in Guangdong history, at the age of six. He was diligent and intelligent in his youth, and could recite the five classics at the age of ten. One day, two of his father's friends, Fang Wenbing (one of the four gentlemen of Baogong temple in Dongguan), and Fang Yingxi, came to visit and drink at night. When they saw bertao reading at night, they wrote a couplet called bertao Ying Ying. Bo Tao Ying Sheng said that "the moon rings are high when drinking at three o'clock.". After hearing this, Fang Wenbing said to Ying Xi, "this is my son-in-law.". Fang Yingxi married the Chen family and gave his second daughter Xu to Chen Botao. youth at the age of 21, Chen Botao became a scholar and won the first place in the local examination at the age of 25. Chen Li, the teacher, presented a couplet to Chen Botao, encouraging him that "the article is as high as Luo Fuding, and kediliandeng will be the number one scholar.". Unfortunately, this was not a prophecy. In the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Chen Botao came back to take the examination and was the first in the palace examination. However, in the examination paper, he wrote "xuanfusi" as "xuanweisi", so he was pressed out of the tenth place. Fortunately, Weng Tonghe, the number one scholar of Xianfeng Dynasty and the Minister of the Ministry of household, argued for him and called him a scholar of accumulated learning. Therefore, he ranked the third and became the only wentanhua in the history of Dongguan. middle age after that, Chen Botao, a 38 year old tanhualang, has just begun his amazing life. "Happy horse hoof disease", followed by the first is happy sigh. No matter what changes China was facing at that time, as an individual, Chen Botao was outstanding among all living beings: he was appointed to explore flowers, and was edited by Hanlin Academy. Later, he successively served as deputy examiners of Yunnan, Guizhou and Shandong provincial examinations, school manager of wenyuange, editor of wuyingdian, chief editor of National History Museum, and first-class consultant of constitutional compilation and inspection Museum. Although there is no high office, Chen Botao, who is not good at ingratiating himself, can also be called Qingyun upright. Even under the impact of the defeat in the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the reform movement of 1898, Chen Botao remained unmoved. The old man, gengzi, was in chaos, the Eight Allied forces captured the capital, and Guangxu and Cixi fled in a panic. As early as 1898, he witnessed the humiliation of Li Hongzhang's signing of the "special clause on the expansion of Hong Kong's boundaries" on behalf of China and the British side, which forced him to rent 235 islands in the new territories and Hong Kong for 99 years. After the two palaces returned to Beijing, Chen Botao took up the post of nanshufang. Later, he was sent to Japan to investigate academic affairs. After returning to China, he served as Jiangning academic envoy. Chen Botao attached great importance to Sinology. He once went around, lobbying and persuading Chinese at home and abroad to run schools with Chinese capital in order to revitalize China. In 1906, Chen Botao assisted duanfang, the governor of Liangjiang at that time, to establish the first school for overseas Chinese students in Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties. The purpose was to cultivate the Chinese language and Mandarin of overseas Chinese students. It was named by Chen Botao - Jinan school, which is the predecessor of today's Guangzhou Jinan University. Chen Botao, in his capacity as a school promotion envoy, also served as the supervisor of Jinan school, and personally formulated the school regulations and budget. His deep relationship with Chinese education can be seen from this. Chen Botao lived in seclusion in Hong Kong for 20 years. His greatest contribution was to set up Xuehai bookstore with Lai Jixi and others, to give lectures, to spread the quintessence of Chinese culture, and to advocate the practice of righteousness, so as to save the stagnant Chinese culture at that time. Together with Chen Botao, Chen wangzeng, Su Zhigang, Feng Boan and Luo yuanxie, Lai Jixi lobbied the gentry and businessmen in Hong Kong to buy classics. Chen Botao and Lai Jixi gave lectures in turn every week. At first, he rented Ginny Road, collected books in the first half and lectured in the second half. The collection is open to the public every day. Soon after, he was sponsored by gentry merchants for HK $40000 or HK $50000. Later, he bought a foreign building at 18 Banham Road, central, with a lecture hall on the first floor, a collection of books on the second floor, and a rental on the other floor. He collected more than 40000 books. In 1963, all the books were moved to the Central Library of Hong Kong for further construction. Chen Botao's contribution to Dongguan lies in his collation of Dongguan literature. In particular, he wrote Dongguan county annals after six years. Chen Botao had a lot of works, including 98 volumes of Dongguan county annals (with 4 volumes of Shatian annals attached), 4 volumes of Shengchao adherents in eastern Guangdong, 2 volumes of song adherents in Dongguan, 2 volumes of biography of Dongguan Wuzhong in Ming Dynasty, 15 volumes of supplement to Chen qinxuan and Luo Fu annals, 3 volumes of filial piety theory, 3 volumes of Yuan Dushi's manuscript and 4 volumes of Gualu Wencheng. Among his many works, Dongguan county annals and records of the adherents of the victorious Dynasty in eastern Guangdong are the most valuable. During Chen Botao's stay in Hong Kong, he organized dozens of people to interview and quote in detail. He imitated the style of Ruan Wenda's Guangdong general annals and modern southern annals and compiled them again. It took six years to compile them. "Dongguan county annals" is not only the most historical records of Dongguan, but also his greatest contribution to the local people in Dongguan, "the most historical records of Dongguan". Up to now, it is still an important document to refer to the past history of Dongguan, and it is a rare historical document treasure. Today's Dongzheng road in Dongguan is the birthplace of Chen Botao. Dongzheng Road, formerly known as dongmenzheng street, got its name because it was facing dongmenchenglou. Since the expansion of Dongguan City in the 14th century in the Hongwu Period of the Ming Dynasty, this road has existed for more than 600 years. Dongzheng road was originally a 4-meter-wide Mashi Road, which was expanded to a 12 meter wide cement road in the late 1950s. The first section of Luxi road was originally called "bangyanfang". In the Ming Dynasty, Liu cunye of Dongguan built a stone archway at the entrance of the street, which was engraved with the word "bangyanfang", hence the name of the road. The memorial archway was destroyed in the middle of last century, and the road was also called Dongzheng road after it was widened. Now Dongzheng road also includes 19 lanes on the north side. Speaking of the 19th lane, there are many articles in it. According to the records of place names of Dongguan City, the 19th lane was built by Li Zuoji, a rich gentry in Dongguan in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. It is said that Li Zuoji built 18 houses of the same style and specification here, and built 18 roof beams on the same night, forming 19 alleys, so it was named 19 alleys. Now when you walk in, you can still see the style of the 19th lane. The alleys crisscrossed with the word "well" are only wide enough for two people to pass side by side. The houses on both sides are all green bricks and red tiles. Now, No. 24 and No. 26 of Dongzheng Street are said to be tan Huadi, the former residence of Chen. Now, Tan Huadi no longer exists. House 24 is still rented, while room 26 is vacant. At that time, Chen's house on the north side of Tanhua was still there. It was a three-way compound, the innermost one

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