Tian Rucheng

Tian Rucheng

Tian Rucheng (1503-1557), named Shuhe and nicknamed Yuyang, was born in a scholarly home in Qiantang (today's Hangzhou City) at the end of Hongzhi. In his biography, Qiantang county annals praises him: "since Hongzhi Zhengde, you have become the most famous artist who has raised his voice.".

Life experience

Tian Rucheng, who inherited his family studies from his childhood, is intelligent and sensitive. He not only writes excellent articles, but also writes excellent poems. His poems are mostly included in Huangming CI forest, collection of poems of past dynasties and collection of poems of Ming Dynasty.

Tian Rucheng's articles were excellent, and his scientific examination was also successful. In 1526, he was a Jinshi and was appointed as the head of the Department of punishment in Nanjing, and soon changed to wailang, a member of the Department of rites. When Tian Rucheng was in the Department of instruments and systems, he began to formulate the procedures for the emperor's southern suburbs to offer sacrifices to his parents and to cultivate and gather mulberry in Xiyuan Province, which was appreciated by Emperor Jiajing. In 1531, Emperor Jiajing released the animals in Shanglin garden for the sake of the prince. Therefore, Tian Rucheng asked for forgiveness and released the prisoners. Unexpectedly, he angered the emperor Jiajing and was dismissed from his salary for two months. He was transferred to be a memorial doctor. In the 13th year of Jiajing's reign, he was sent to Guangdong as a scholar. In the 14th year of Jiajing, he was demoted to Chuzhou, Anhui Province. The next year, he was promoted to Guizhou according to chasi Qianshi, chasinan, Shiqian and other prefectures. In 1538, he returned to his hometown from the capital. Soon after that, he received a transfer order to be promoted to Zuojiang, the chief minister of Guangxi. Tian Rucheng was ordered to take a boat south to Guangxi to perform his duties before his vacation expired. Guangxi is a multi-ethnic area, and the feudal dynasties used some special ruling methods different from the Central Plains. On the basis of the original Jimi prefectures and counties, the Yuan Dynasty set up provinces, highways, prefectures and prefectures, and set up Xuanfu, Xuanwei, Zhaozhao, Anfu and Shizong respectively. They still took the position of minority leaders as "Tusi". There are also Han officials who are called "Liuguan". Chieftains were allowed to be hereditary, but they had to pay tribute and taxes.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the chieftain system was carried out according to the story of the Yuan Dynasty. Those who came and returned from all ethnic groups were given the right to take charge of the county, the state and the county respectively because of the original official's authorization. The amount of taxes was stipulated and hereditary was allowed. However, the chieftain system was generally supervised by the official's catalogue and history books. The Ming Dynasty made a series of regulations on the appointment, promotion, punishment, tribute, enlightenment and dispatch of the chieftain. In the Jiajing period, after nearly 200 years of management, the Ming Dynasty had established a system of strict control over chieftains. However, this kind of control could not eliminate the contradiction between the chieftain and the Ming Dynasty. It often happened that the chieftain fought against the imperial court, attacked and killed each other, and disturbed the place. This not only affected the stability of the Ming Dynasty's rule in Guangxi, but also affected the collection of taxes, forcing the Ming Dynasty to change some unruly chieftains to the rule of officials. At the same time, in order to maintain their hereditary status of semi separatist regime, Tusi at all levels stubbornly retained backward customs, which increasingly became an obstacle to economic and cultural development. However, on the other hand, since Hongzhi and Zhengde, political corruption and various social contradictions have become increasingly acute. The double exploitation and oppression of the officials and the chieftains forced the people to revolt and struggle one after another, especially the uprising in Guangxi's Datengxia area, which had a large scale, a long time and a long influence. To suppress the people's uprising and defend the border areas, the Ming Dynasty had to rely more on the power of the chieftains. In the early Ming Dynasty, the rebellion between si'en and Cen, the chieftain of Tianzhou, failed to be settled for many years. It was not until the fifth year of Jiajing that the imperial court sent Wang Shouren, an important official, to Guangxi that the incident was calmed down in the form of appeasement, and relied on the chieftain soldiers to suppress the Yao people's uprising in datangxia. Therefore, while strengthening the control over chieftains, the Ming Dynasty also adopted the means of winning over, and restored the rule of chieftains to many prefectures and prefectures that had been transferred. However, no matter how to change the current situation or how to change the land, it still can not ease the social contradictions, but has a tendency to intensify. Therefore, how to govern the southwest minorities has become an urgent problem for the Ming Dynasty.

Tian Ru's achievements came to Guangxi in this situation. At that time, Zhao Kai, the local officials of Longzhou and Li Huan, the local officials of Pingxiang in Zuojiang area of Guangxi, fought with their clansmen to attack the official position and successively killed the chieftains granted by the imperial court to stand on their own. At the same time, after he usurped the throne, he spied on Chinese territory and secretly sent people to collude with Zhao Kai and Li Huan. The situation is very serious. If we fail to deal with the rebellion of local officials in Longzhou, it will lead to a border war. Tian Rucheng and Weng Wanda, the Deputy envoys of Guangxi's Yicha division, both believed that Zhao Kai and Li Huan killed their masters and supported themselves. They just wanted the imperial court to appoint them as chieftains. They didn't intend to rebel, so they didn't collude with Mo publicly. If the imperial court launched a military campaign, Zhao and Li would fall to Mo Dengyong openly; if they admitted the legalization of their succession, it would encourage the local officials to fight for their positions and kill each other. Tian Rucheng and Weng Wanda designed to stabilize Zhao Kai and Li Huan, and then waited for an opportunity to capture and kill them. The Dragon decided to make a mess. This not only stabilized the two states, but also prevented the infiltration of Mo Dengyong's forces. Tian Rucheng's political ability made him enjoy certain prestige among his colleagues. At that time, Mao Bowen, a counsellor of Yunnan military affairs with the title of Yushi of Youdu, once praised him as "a man who knows how to plan, how to think, how to publicize and how to gain knowledge".

Tian Rucheng then followed Weng Wanda to suppress the Yao uprising in datangxia. He suggested that Weng Wanda use both soft and hard methods: appease the local officials by making vows, let them work for the Ming Dynasty; suppress the uprising with the local officials. He also put forward the general plan of governance after pacifying the uprising.

In the 19th year of Jiajing (1540), Tian Rucheng was promoted to the vice envoy of Fujian Province and left Guangxi. After 20 years of Jiajing's reign, he returned to his hometown with illness and did not return to office. Tian Rucheng didn't have a long time as an official. He was only a Beijing official for two times in 15 years. Since he was banished from the imperial court, he was no longer used by the imperial court. He was repeatedly sent to the remote areas of Guizhou and Guangxi. He has been to Nanhai, Yelang, Guilin and other places. Everywhere he went, he visited ancient and modern times to find the source of mountains and rivers, to visit Zhou Fang, to analyze the authenticity of border situation, and to judge the priority of military affairs. Although Tian Rucheng was tired of frontier life, he was always loyal to the imperial court. Therefore, when he was an official in Guizhou and Guangxi, Tian Rucheng paid close attention to the situation of the people, paid attention to the official affairs, carefully studied the governance strategy, and actively served to maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Due to his personal experience, Tian Rucheng gradually formed his views on how to govern the southwest ethnic minorities. However, because of his low official position, he could neither directly write to the emperor nor put his opinions into practice, so he turned to writing for reference. As early as on his way to Guangxi, he made the wish of "chasing Chen's trace in the past, sighing for laizi forever" and "regretting for the past, but fortunately for today's travel". After that, he wrote a review of his experiences in Guangxi and Guizhou. When he returned to his hometown, Chen Xizhai, the chief minister of Zhejiang Province, found these manuscripts. He praised them for their detailed examination, which was beneficial to the official administration, and encouraged Tian Rucheng to collate and publish them. In the summer of the 37th year of Jiajing (1558), the Tian family named these manuscripts in the name of "the chronicle of Yanhe".

Although Tian Rucheng had no significant political achievements in his life, his poems made him gain a high reputation in the literary world. According to Qian Qianyi of the Qing Dynasty, his works, known as Bocha at that time, have more than 160 volumes. The famous ones are "the West Lake Tour", "the chronicle of Yanhe", "Wuyi tour chant" and so on.

Tian Rucheng not only has profound attainments in literature, but also has insight in history. He highly praised Sima Qian for his ability to "travel far to the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, and write wantonly" historical records ". I feel that although I am not as talented as Sima Qian, I have been an official for more than ten years. I can also record what I have heard and seen for future generations. Therefore, "in his spare time, he will unfold the history of books, not only to learn more about current affairs. I have collected all the anecdotes, and I am glad to write them as notes. When he dismissed from office, he traveled around Hushan, "because of the scenic spots and attached to the deeds, Hongxian big and small, one by one and Cuan.". "Although the style does not follow the predecessors, but the words must be core and true.". He combined his political opinions with his vivid description of historical events, and wrote many works, which made people understand not only the local conditions and customs, scenic spots, but also the origin of anecdotes and the strategy of "governing the country and stabilizing the people". His representative work in this field is Yanhe Jiwen.

Main works

Ru Cheng is erudite and has written many works. His works, the chronicle of Yan and he and a brief account of Long Ping, give a detailed account of the living customs of the brothers and nationalities in the southwest border. He also wrote Liao Ji, Tian Shuhe Ji and Wuyi Youyong. After his dismissal, he wandered in the West Lake, looked at the mountains and lakes, and was familiar with the legacy of the first dynasty. On this basis, 24 volumes of "West Lake Tour records" and 26 volumes of "West Lake Tour records" were compiled. The former records the scenic spots of the West Lake and the latter records the anecdotes of the Southern Song Dynasty. It also recorded the famous poems about the West Lake. The summary of the general catalogue of Siku Quanshu is commented as: "although it is a book in the name of sightseeing, it records more about the victories of lakes and mountains, but it is more about the song and Yuan Dynasties." Because the places of interest are attached with deeds, they are large and small, and can be examined one by one. They can not only be widely seen and heard, but also be referred to in the literature. "

Chinese PinYin : Tian Ru Cheng