Li Ciming

Li Ciming

Li Ciming (1830-1894) was a famous model at the beginning of his life. He changed his name from hou to AI Bo. He was named Chun Ke. His room name was Yue Man Tang. In his later years, he signed "Yue man old man". Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) Xiguo Xiachuan village. Officials and scholars in late Qing Dynasty.

Guangxu Jinshi six years, the official to Shanxi road supervision censor. I don't want to evade the power when I write a few letters. My diary has been kept for more than 30 years, and my reading experience has been included. He is knowledgeable, inherits the Han Studies of Qianlong and Jiaqing, and studies classics and historiography. He is good at parallel prose and is known as "the Royal Army of the old literature".

Yuemantang diary, which contains several million words, is a treasure house of literature, history and scholarship. It is rated as "inheriting Tinglin's rizhilu" and "not willing to be zhijinwu, but willing to read all the books of Li Gongshu." The other three are yuandulu diary, Weng Tonghe diary and xiangqilou diary.

Life of the characters

Li Ciming was a brilliant young man, diligent in thinking and learning, and well read. At the age of twelve or thirteen, Wu Qingfang, a master of Sinology and a scholar, paid great attention to his poetic charm. He was known as "the most talented person in Yue Zhong". He was not proud of his official career in his whole life. He took part in the northern and Southern Rural examination 11 times, and all of them failed. In the ninth year of Xianfeng (1859), he traveled north to the capital and donated money to the doctor of the Ministry of household. Unexpectedly, he was deceived, lost his money and lost his capital. His mother sold off her property to fulfill her ambition, and her family declined.

Tongzhi nine years (1870), 41 years old before the mid-term. Guangxu six years (1880), 51 years old began to Jinshi, make up the Ministry of household Jiangnan Si Zilang. For this reason, he specially engraved a resume, self mocking, saying: "Daoguang gengxu maocai, Xianfeng Geng Shen Mingjing, Tongzhi Gengwu Juren, Guangxu Gengchen Jinshi." In the 16th year of Guangxu (1890), Bushan Xidao supervised the censor. During his term of office, he inspected Beicheng and supervised the streets. They dare to express their opinions when they are in trouble, and they don't avoid the powerful and influential people. They even talk about Zang Fu face to face. Therefore, they are often hated and slandered by others.

In 1894, when he was defeated in the Sino Japanese War of 1894, he died of hemoptysis at the age of 66. Mr. Yuan Xingyun commented with emotion: "his character, his words and his knowledge can be called, and it is not to be lightly discussed."

Anecdotes of characters

A loser in the examination room

Li CI Ming was gifted and hardworking. When he was a teenager, he was able to compose poems for adults. His literary name was well-known in the countryside, and he was one of the "three little poets in Yuezhong". The other two are Wang Xingcheng and Chen Shanshi. However, his luck in the exam was not good, and he failed repeatedly in the exam. First, he failed four times, and then he was admitted as a scholar at the age of 22.

Later, after 20 years, he failed 11 times and was elected at the age of 42. Finally, after ten years and three failures, he finally won the examination at the age of 52.

On the same day of sorrow and happiness

When Li Ciming was 14 years old, his grandmother was seriously ill. He married his cousin Ma Shuren, who was five years older than him. The original intention is to "celebrate", but the wedding has just been completed, so my grandmother died that day. This regret has always been a shadow in Li Ciming's heart, which makes him and his wife maintain the same feelings as his sister and brother, and also affects his future love life.

Cool girl

Li Ciming is a woman. In the fifth year of Tongzhi, he "bought a song Niang as his concubine with 400 yuan of gold". In the early years of Guangxu, he borrowed money to buy two concubines, one of which cost 188 liang of silver. There were many servants in his family. When he was the poorest, his family often employed three or four servants, two maids, a watchman, a cook and a coachman. Although "down and out", there must be a car.

In the Qing Dynasty, officials were not allowed to go whoring, but they could "take advantage", that is to say, they could associate with actors and actresses, so it became a common practice for officials to make friends with actors. Li Ciming is quite good at this. He often asks actors to accompany him at banquets, and sometimes he goes to live under the actors. Zhu Xiafen, a famous actor in Beijing, who is Mei Lanfang's grandfather Mei Huixian's entrance disciple and is known as "number one in Huabang", is his best.

Regret having no children

Under the pressure of family succession, Li CI Ming had three concubines at the age of 37, 40 and 59, but he still failed to give birth to a son and a half. For this reason, he has been haunted. Later, he often lingered in romantic places. It is said that because he often went to brothels and saw all the beauties in the world, he had a tendency of bisexuality. But also infected with the "good man" addiction.

Become addicted to books

Li CI Ming's fortune was not good, and he was not very proud in officialdom. His income was limited. He spent a lot of money living in Beijing and often borrowed money to live on. However, according to Wu Zhenzhi's analysis of the income and expenditure of Mr. Li Ciming in his diary of yueman hall, it is found that the biggest expense of his monthly expenses is to buy books. In his diary, he often records the story of crazy shopping in the book market. Buying books, reading books and collecting books have become the most proud and happy thing for him from childhood to old age.

One winter was very cold, and all of Li's money was spent on ancient books. He had no money to buy coal, so he had to shiver through the cold. He stayed up late to study, to verify the case, rummaged, very hard. But he said excitedly, "Jingyi is pleasing to people, so it is!"

Geng jiezhilu

Li has a strong personality of love and hate. He often scolds people or things he doesn't like in person or immediately, so that some of his best friends, such as Zhang Zhidong, finally break up for some reason. Sometimes he would review himself in his diary, but because he didn't like to be submissive and submissive, he never changed his old habits. However, although he had a lot of stern words and deeds in life, he treated his relatives, even his servants, relatives and friends and orphans with warmth, which showed that he was a man of good disposition.

Officialdom career

On the one hand, Li's official income is very low, and there are not many other sources of income, so he is often in debt, crying and crying. When we look at his diary, we often cry that he is poor, that he is "poorer than the day", that he is "more embarrassed than the day, and that he is in debt. On the other hand, he has been pursuing a lifestyle that is not commensurate with his income level: living in a big house, using many servants and going out with cars and horses.

Since the 13th year of Tongzhi, Li Ciming has rented a luxury house, the old residence of Ji Wenchang, the former governor of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. This house is not ordinary: "there are more than 20 houses with couplets, pavilions and gardens, and flowers and trees are widely planted. It is magnificent." In the garden, there are xuancuifang, bijiaoguan, huayinglang, xiaodongpu and other places of interest.

What is more striking is that he has been addicted to the "upper class social life" of banqueting, singing and touring for many years. We can see from his diary that he spends half of every month eating out in a big restaurant. "More than half of every month has a banquet," and he often spends a lot of money on sound and color. "In the third year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, his second brother died of starvation in the countryside, but he spent more than 100 Liang on wine, food, sound and color in Beijing in one year. "Although I'm poor, I don't spend less than a hundred dollars on wine, food, sound and color. Since Tongji left home seven years ago, he has sent his younger brother only ten gold ears. "

Therefore, Li's life belongs to the type of low income and high consumption. The first reason for Li Ciming's contradictory life is of course his low income and his natural desire for enjoyment.

Li's official position has not been high, so his income is very low. The donor hollowed out his family, so the family couldn't help him. But Li's taste in life is quite high. Li Ciming was born into a landlord family. In his early years, his family had a lot of property. He had not suffered from hardship since childhood, and he lived well. Therefore, he paid attention to enjoyment all his life, "not tired of eating, not tired of eating". He was more fastidious about clothes than Zeng Guofan. For example, he wrote in his diary on April 25: "in April, he made a pearl fur mink sleeve and a silver red Jiangbian robe collar. Life clothes, no such Du Li also. The sleeves are very good. There is the wind of Chengping and dense style. The embroidered ball looks like a palace Although the robe cost him 20 liang of silver, he didn't feel sorry for it. Instead, he was quite proud of it. Xu Yishi said: "Ci Ming is a poor man. It was found in the diary, but it is quite sweet." It's true.

Li CI Ming is not only intolerant of poverty, but also despises his colleagues who "don't know how to enjoy". For example, his contemporaries, Li Yongqing, was an academician in the fourth year of Tongzhi. According to the draft of the history of the Qing Dynasty, this man was "poor and strict" and did not accept bad rules. When he went out, he would run on foot instead of taking a bus. Everyone calls him thrifty, but in his diary, Li Ciming mocks him for "having no talent but to endure hardships, to eat and clothe, to walk quickly, to build a remote county, to be a peasant and a hooligan, and not to know how to enjoy life". His value orientation can be seen.

The second reason is Li's depression. Li CI Ming became famous early and had a high self-esteem. He thought that with his talent, he would be able to win the "Golden House" as if he were searching for something. Unexpectedly, he was in a difficult life, his official career was down and down, and his ups and downs were cold. Therefore, during his many years as the head of the household department, Li Ciming was quite tired of his duties, and even "had not been able to finish the Department for many years". The reason was that he was "ashamed to associate with his youth" and "to follow the wave with the vulgar officials". His more than 20 years of Beijing official career was basically spent in disappointment, laziness, cynicism and full of complaints. So simply indulge in poetry and wine, in order to eliminate the block Lei.

Because of his bad situation, Li Ciming was "talkative and obscene", "abusive" and "argumentative and harsh". He was fond of criticizing all kinds of scandals in the officialdom at that time, and he was "abusive to all celebrities at the same time". Therefore, he won the title of "dare to speak" and was regarded as Qingliu. History said that he "did not evade the power, folded people face-to-face, and discussed Zang Fu.". However, although he hated corruption in officialdom, Li was just as keen on promotion. In the 14th year of Guangxu (1888), the government of every province was simplified,

Chinese PinYin : Li Ci Ming