Wang Boxin

Wang Boxin

Wang Boxin (1779-1873) was born in Luoshan town of Jianli, Hubei Province, and was a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. He was born as a Jinshi in the imperial examination. He was once the head of Guangxi Qing official Department of the Ministry of punishment. Later, he resigned and returned home. He has been in Jingnan Academy for more than 20 years. So he wrote "Daojiang Sanyi" and other academic monographs. His academic thought is practical and practical. Among them, the discussion on river management has been studied to benefit the villagers, which is a great good.

brief account of the author's life

Wang Boxin was born in 1779 in Luoshan Town, Honghu, a scholarly disciple. His great grandfather, Wang BingDao, was the vice president of Hubei Province in 1765. Grandfather Wang Wenmo, Yi Yangsheng. His father read a lot of books, especially in the study of history. He was a Fengzhi official in the Qing Dynasty. Wang Boxin has been studying with his father since he was a child. He is brilliant and never forgets. Later, he went to a higher school for further study and devoted himself to the study of classics and history. He wrote "Shu Yan 17 chapters" for Yi Yang Sheng. In 1843, Wang Boxin was elected to the Central Committee, and in the middle of the next year, he was promoted to the Ministry of punishment. However, he was poor in Confucian classics and had no intention of official career. After one year in office, he took the words of "there is an old mother in the family, no one to support" and begged to return. After returning home, he worked hard in "Jingnan academy", giving lectures and writing books at the same time. He has done a lot of research on harnessing rivers. His book "three comments on guiding the river" is a concentrated exposition of his water control thought and strategy. He took Dayu as his teacher in flood control, and advocated Dredging "because of the one he had guided". He wrote in the book "three discussions on guiding the river" that "in the past, the river was controlled by dredging, leaving more holes and openings, so the flood was small. In the later, the river was mainly controlled by setting dykes to prevent water, so the flood was frequent.". In the book, he also put forward specific measures to harness the Jingjiang River, mainly widening the hudu estuary, using the waterways of Gongan and Shishou in Hubei Province and Lixian and Anxiang in Hunan Province to guide the river into Dongting, which is quite consistent with Wang Bai's discussion. In 1848, Gongan County, Shishou county and Songzi County on the South Bank of Jingjiang River and xuejiatan County under the jurisdiction of Jianli County on the North Bank of Jingjiang river burst. Wang Bai knew this and went to the field for investigation. After returning home, he wrote "continued discussion on guiding the river", advocating "don't plug the breach, so as to separate and kill the situation". The book reads: "the end of the night, there will be a place to go, a county, the end of the flow, since then, an Yi.". In 1849, the Jingjiang River was flooded again. Gaojiatao in Songzi county and xiachewan in Jianli County burst their dikes. Wang Bo's mind and body are near the dike, and he wrote the second part of Daojiang Xuyi. It puts forward that "don't plug the breach, follow the trend and guide it, so that the water and the soil will be different according to their nature without adultery, and there will be success.". "As soon as success is achieved, people will settle down in Jiang'an, fill up polder and increase fertilizer, and rent and tax can be recovered.". These brilliant expositions, unfortunately, were not adopted by the current Dynasty, but provided valuable reference for the later governance of Jingjiang River. In 1852, when the Taiping army was established, Wang Boxin, in the name of "maintaining Confucianism", set up local regiment training in an attempt to confront the Taiping army. In the winter of that year, the Taiping army conquered Yuezhou and led the shipowners to yanglinshan, Jianli County. They stationed in Luoshan and ordered Wang Boxin to be arrested. Wang Peimu fled to the mountains of Hunan Province. In a quiet environment, she wrote with great concentration. At that time, Zeng Guofan led the boat division of Xiang army out of Dongting to attack Yuezhou. Zeng Guofan set out from Yuezhou, occupied Luoshan, and called Wang Boxin. He once praised Wang's poems and often praised them. Since then, Wang Boxin became acquainted with Hunan generals Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang, Li Mengqun and others. In 1855, Hu Linyi was the governor of Hubei Province, and Wang Boxin wrote a letter, asking for the elimination of the malpractice of water transport. The book takes Jianli as an example, saying: "grain is not only converted into rice, but also silver, but also abundant and coupons. The price reduction of each load of grain is set at six strings, and it is not allowed to convert or increase the price at will." In 1862, the Qing government issued an imperial edict to ask for advice. Wang Boxin wrote 10 Confucian classics and expostulations, such as "Xinchen, Mingshi, Mubei, Bianyan, Zhengyu, Qixin, Xuanli, daosu, Guangyi". He also wrote 8 memorials, including "guangshiru, pingyuyu, pujiefang, kaiteke, xiajinling, beiqinjin, xuanwaili, kuanzisuan", and entrusted Zhang Liangji, governor of Yungui, to represent him. All of them were appreciated by the Empress Dowager Cixi. According to the mission, 10 classics will be kept in Hongde hall, and the "kaiteke" and "kuanzisuan" in 8 memorials will be handed over to the Ministry for discussion, while the rest will be kept in the middle for reference. At this time, Wang Boxin was famous for his deep study of Confucian classics. Li Mengqun, governor of Anhui Province, recommended Wang Boxin, but he couldn't make a speech with his mother. Later, Yan Shusen, the acting governor of the lake, recommended it to the official of Jingyan. As a teacher of Confucian classics for emperor Tongzhi, he still refused to accept his mother because she was over 90 years old. At the end of 1866, Zuo Zongtang was ordered to go to Shaanxi and Gansu provinces to pacify the local unrest (mainly suppressing the Western Nien army and the local Hui uprising Army), and he stayed in Wuchang temporarily on the way. In his prime, Wang Boxin once traveled to Qinlong to "learn a little bit about its mountains and rivers". At this time, he wrote to Zuo Zongtang, pointing out that "for the sake of Qinlong, it is not only a fierce battle, but also a great strategy to deal with it.". Wang Boxin suggested: "don't ask for quick war, don't rush to war. You must eat enough military essence before you can enter the war. " In the use of military, we should be restrained. We can only "look at those who are especially sharp and cunning among them" and "if we can't punish the rest of them completely", we should "wait until they are afraid to be appeased". As for those who are appeased, we can choose a place to be resettled, "listen to Li and go back to the village, don't mix with the Han people"; we can also "simplify the good people of the other ethnic group, make them compatible with each other, and add restraint, so that there is no more disturbance.". Wang Boxin thinks: "such can guarantee 100 years nothing." Wang Boxin's views had an important influence on Zuo Zongtang's army in Shaanxi and Gansu. In March 1867, Zuo Zongtang left Wuchang for Huangpi, and Wang Boxin went to Huangpi to have a long talk with him. Zuo Zongtang later said that since then, Wang Baixin has been inspired by the idea of "three ways of advancing troops and persisting in the slow advance and urgent war". In 1873, Wang Bai died of heart disease at home. In 1878, Zuo Zongtang recovered the whole territory of Xinjiang except Yili. He was the second Marquis of kejing. When he heard that Bai Xin was ill and died, Shangshu said: "Wang Boxin is very knowledgeable and familiar with the situation of mountains and rivers. Please send his deeds to the history museum and record them in the history books." In order to show preferential treatment, the imperial court issued an imperial edict.

personal works

Poetry works

Wang Boxin has been a lecturer in "Jingnan University" for more than 20 years, and has been engaged in writing for a long time, with rich achievements. It is said in the synopsis of renewing Siku Quanshu that "Bai Xinxu is moral and can write articles, and the three Chu people can speak about it.". He is modest and not proud of his studies. Scholars and celebrities from all over the country are coming to the hospital to seek advice. His main works are Daojiang Sanyi (Volume 1), baizhutang (Volume 53) and Luozhou (Volume 20). He is not only good at Scripture, but also good at poetry. Li and Du, who were the masters of poetry in the early Qing Dynasty, followed by the Han and Wei dynasties. The author thinks that "the poems of Han, Wei, Tang, song and Ming have their own ways.". "The Han and Wei dynasties came from prosperity, so they went back and forth from the middle, and the purpose was the furthest; the Tang Dynasty came from sound, so they resisted falling diseases, and the tune was the most permanent; the Song Dynasty came from reason, so they were close and detailed, and their interest was increasingly new; the Ming Dynasty came from style, so they looked up to the government, and became poor.". He has written one volume of Zishou's poems and eight volumes of baizhutang's poems. In the collection of poems in the late Qing Dynasty, there are also his poems, such as five poems of manxing, traveling in the blue clouds, dispersing sorrow in the bitter rain, songs of Zhang junmen, Yiling Liqiu, songs of climbing Liupan Mountain, songs of Pinggu villa, and songs of Congtai, etc. People at that time said: "Bai Xin's poems are magnificent, affectionate and unrestrained. Don't open a door and go straight to the seat of Du Xiaoling. There is no such work after Tianbao.".

Compiling county annals

In his later years, Wang Boxin refined the study of heaven, history and geography. He compiled 24 volumes of Huanggang county annals by Daoguang, 28 volumes of Donghu county annals by Tongzhi, 16 volumes of Yichang Prefecture annals by Tongzhi, 28 volumes of Hanyang county annals by Tongzhi, 18 volumes of Dangyang county annals by Tongzhi, 14 volumes of Linxiang county annals by Tongzhi, and 10 volumes of Jianli County annals by Tongzhi. They are highly praised by the local people, and now people learn from them. The existing Jianli County annals, published in the 11th year of Tongzhi, is the last county annals compiled by Wang Boxin in his later years. It contains five steles, records, books, articles and four poems, which are not only deeply touching, but also sincere. Jianli River suffered the most. In the late Qing Dynasty, the river burst year after year. He was very concerned about the East defense of Jianli. He also wrote a poem with seven rhythms under the title of "the river is still strong at douluobu". It is said in the poem that the autumn of Minshan Mountain brings in the great power of Dongting, and there are many witches in Guizhou, Guangdong and Pakistan. outside the dust and soil, the mountains float in the late waves. The village and the city of Xiaoheng compete for rice, but they are in a dry and barren place. He witnessed the mainstay of Tao Tao's thoughts, and several of them were worthy of Zhang Chuangong. When he ascended the small Luoshan mountain, which was less than ten feet high, he watched the river surge and thought that the water of Dongting originated in Minshan Mountain, and the water of Guizhou, Guangdong, Wuba and Wanliu gathered here. The autumn water and the long sky become one, as if they are outside the dust and earth. The mountains stand in the river and lake surrounded by the big water, and the potential is floating in the late waves. Fearing that the year of famine would come again, the villagers scrambled to buy rice in Luoshan town. As a scholar living in a cottage, I had to starve behind closed doors. How many people can be the mainstay of the river defense? Reading this, we can see that he has his own picture about the situation of mountains and rivers, and he hopes that someone can manage the river disaster. It shows that he has deep feelings of worrying about the people in his later years.

Chinese PinYin : Wang Bai Xin