Huang Weixuan

Huang Weixuan

Huang Weixuan (1828-1873), a native of Yinxian County, was named Zi Mu and Jie Ru. He is the descendant of Huang Sheng, the governor of Mingzhou in the late Tang Dynasty, and is his 34th grandson. Dong Pei said that Huang's family "from Wu and Yue to the present Dynasty, Cao Lang, the Minister of state, and the Minister of prefectures and states had been in charge for more than 900 years. The long history of the family has never preceded Huang's.

Learn about Westernization

Huang Degang, Huang Weixuan's father, turned out to be a "literary boy" who studied for the exam. Later, seeing that there was no way out, he went to lvying and became the general manager of the former camp of Zhejiang Province. In 1841, he was transferred to Cixi Garrison and took part in the anti British struggle. The Huang family was originally a well-off family. The early death of his father cut off the family's financial resources. Huang Weixuan is a man with a strong sense of responsibility. In 1844, Ningbo was opened as a port, and foreign trade flourished. Huang Weixuan was determined to join the ranks of Chinese and foreign trade, "riding a boat, traveling in Ryukyu, traveling in Japan, skillfully and skillfully". From this we can see that he has been to Ryukyu and Japan to do business. In his youth, he learned a lot about Westernization through his maritime trade activities. "Actuarial method, be familiar with current affairs. The family is based on the sea, and the generation of assessors, sailors, craftsmen, and interpreters choose to learn from them. They are not proficient in the sea, the western languages, and the skillful instruments. They are useful to the world. " This shows that Huang Weixuan is a Westernization talent trained from his practical work.

Fujian shipping administration

As a descendant of a soldier, Huang Weixuan could not only do business, but also fight. In April 1862, the Qing army prepared to attack the Taiping Army in Ningbo. Huang Weixuan's strategy of defending Taoism painting was to start from the sea, which was affirmed by Zhang Jingqu of ningshaotai Daotai. In May, Huang Weixuan "supervised the artillery ship, blasted the sea, cut the pass, and went straight to Yongjiang, burned its fort, covered its city, and pulled it out.". Cixi in the West and Fenghua in the south. Then, Huang Weixuan "returned to the commander-in-chief, and the western division attacked the provincial wall.". In March 1864, after the whole Zhejiang Province was pacified, Huang Weixuan was awarded the title of "four grades" and "blue plume" by virtue of his military achievements. Some people are envious and call Huang Weixuan a prisoner. At that time, Zuo Zongtang, the new governor of Zhejiang Province, was strict with his subordinates and was furious after receiving the report. After the truth came out, Huang Weixuan was appreciated by Zuo Zongtang. At the end of October 1865, Zuo Zongtang was promoted to governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. Huang Weixuan, as a staff member, accompanied him to southern Fujian as an alternate fellow. Zuo Zongtang was determined to build a shipyard and opposed Mawei as a base. He went to the court and was approved. Let the French officers riyige and Deke Beibei take charge of the shipyard. In September 1866, just when Mawei shipyard was to be officially opened, the imperial court wanted to appoint Zuo Zongtang as governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. Before leaving, he recommended Shen Baozhen, the former governor of Jiangxi Province, who was in charge of the system of Marquis of Fujian Province, as Fuzhou's shipping administration, with riyige as the chief supervisor and dekebei as the Deputy Supervisor. At the same time, he found seven capable officials, such as Huang Weixuan, to assist Shen. In November, Zuo left office. in the seven member shipping administration committee, "the officials or other officials are not allowed to work in person.". Because Huang Weixuan didn't have a real job, he helped Shen Baozhen run the factory and became Shen's "right-hand man". Fujian shipbuilding Bureau factory "started in September of the fifth year of Tongzhi and completed in July of the seventh year. It is planned to build more than 80 yamou, Changwu and foreign houses.". In October 1870, Huang Weixuan wrote "the completion of Fujian shipyard". In November 1871, it became the second volume of "my humble opinion on Westernization". Because of the shipping administration bureau in Fujian, there are many foreigners and Westernization activities. Huang Weixuan, who is well versed in Westernization affairs, is the main participant. "He created shipping administration, electric wires, fast guns, sharp guns, mines and torpedoes, all of which are in advance of service. In Fujian Province, where there are negotiations with foreigners, the big government always refers to the foreign affairs, but the size is not easy. Fortunately, it is a disgrace to the people. Therefore, my colleagues are familiar with the foreign affairs. It is a pity that it has not been handed down.

Let Taiwan know

Huang Weixuan had economic ability, was familiar with foreign affairs, and had a long history of knowledge. He was recommended by Shen Baozhen and others. In October 1871, he was a real Taiwan coastal defense fellow. Due to the numerous affairs of Fujian Shipping Administration Bureau, he took office as late as January 1873. Huang Weixuan is willing to do things. As soon as he took office, he began to investigate the sufferings of the people. That year, it was a time of famine in Taiwan, and the price of rice rose greatly. He was determined to sell rice at a fair price. He sent people to investigate the location of the rice fleet, and then released the news that there was no rice in Taiwan. After hearing the news, rice merchants rushed to Taiwan one after another. Within a few days, "ten thousand boats gathered," so the price of rice in Taiwan was stable. there are 170 Aboriginal societies in Taiwan, known as fanshe. Due to various factors, indigenous people do not attach much importance to education. He established 12 private schools to promote culture and education. I want to change the cultural level of Taiwan Aborigines through education. There are many fires in Taiwan. He introduced a popular folk fire-fighting organization, Shuilong Association, to fight fires. After more than three months, all kinds of wastes have been put into practice, and the prestige has been greatly shaken. Unfortunately, it was not long before I received an order to transfer to Beijing, "the people of Taiwan asked to stay, but they were not invited to go to the third place. Instead, they burned incense and knelt down for more than ten miles. He also established a ancestral hall to repay his virtue.

Surveying and mapping "coastal map"

Another great contribution of Huang Weixuan during his stay in Fujian was to preside over the surveying and mapping work of "coastal map". According to its preface, it began in 1866. In order to get familiar with the maritime traffic routes, Zuo Zongtang invited Huang Weixuan to go to the coastal ports when he proposed to create Fujian shipping administration. It can be seen that this is the task assigned by Zuo Zongtang. Therefore, Huang Weixuan "is the Hankou in the west, Shanghai in the East, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the south, Yantai Niuzhuang in the North (Southern Liaoning) and the harbor branch along the island gate, which is not all around the world. He describes in detail the danger of mountains and rivers, the shallow depth of sand reefs, and the size of tides.". When Huang Weixuan came back, he expressed to Shen Baozhen the idea of "listing the outline of what he saw and measured", which was strongly supported by Shen. As a result, "uncover the purport, do not tributary", recruitment painting, drawing work under the auspices of Huang. The zhenhaibei Jinquan precision ship, which is also in the Fujian Shipping Administration Bureau, is under the control of the "quality of every manuscript". After five years of work, it was finalized in December 1872. how was this coastal illustrated book sent to the imperial palace? It should have been sent by Bei Jinquan and others in October 1869 when they sailed China's first ship, Wannianqing, to Tianjin for inspection by the imperial court. This book "coastal atlas" aroused the interest of Tongzhi emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi, "stay in China for reading", so the title page of the 1881 edition of "coastal Atlas of the imperial dynasty" was "once visited by the emperor". "Coastal map theory", also known as "coastal mountains, sand, water and reef map theory", has 32 general plans and sub plans, so it is also called "32 volumes". At present, Mr. mercury in Cixi, Ningbo has a collection. Huang Jiading should have been named when he was published. Before that, there was no word "imperial dynasty", which can be proved by Huang Weixuan's postscript "coastal illustrated postscript". In fact, as early as the 11th year of Tongzhi, it had been reduced and printed, with the postscript of "the width of the reduced version". the significance of this atlas is that it is the first actually measured navigation map of China. How is the coastal map illustrated? Zhang Meiyi said that "Huang Jun tasted the translated sea charts", which is worthy of discrimination. It took Huang Weixuan, Bei Jinquan and others five years to complete the surveying and mapping work, which they completed on their own. For example, "Surveying Zhaobaoshan in Zhenhai" in Yongjiang illustrated books fully meets the requirements of modern maps. In addition, the depth of the channel is Suzhou code, which is different from Arabic numerals in foreign countries and can be proved to be drawn independently. According to Mr. Mercury's research, the imperial coastal map is the earliest measured navigation map of China's coastal waters, which is based on the principles of modern geography for field survey, measurement and mapping. This conclusion is tenable. The British began mapping China's coastal navigation maps in the 1860s, and the Chinese also happened at that time. This coincidence is worth analyzing. In ancient China, although there were land and sea, it was mainly a land locked country. "The ancient annals are detailed, but those who survey the sea have no biography.". After the Opium War in 1840, with the expansion of maritime exchanges, both China and foreign countries paid attention to the drawing of China's coastal nautical charts. It is against this background that Huang Weixuan devoted himself to cartography. Before Huang Weixuan, the Qing Dynasty's books about the sea included Jiang Chenying's general introduction to coastal defense, Chen lunjiong's record of the world's coastal situation, Wei Yuan's Atlas of the sea, Xu Jiyu's brief introduction to Yinghuan and Li Tingyu's brief introduction to Haijiang, all of which had their own defects and could not be used for navigation practice. As a result of "surveying the sea", the publication of "coastal illustrated books" overcame the defects of the traditional book of Geography in Qing Dynasty. "Today, ships travel for half a day, and soldiers and businessmen help each other. There are tens of thousands of miles around the sea. The islands are starry and the reefs and moraines are tangled. The master of the boat is a treasure raft cloud written by Xianfeng Gong." This shows the practical value of the book to navigation and military at that time. From today's point of view, there are still some unique practical values in the book. According to Mr. mercury, the map of the eastern and western hemispheres in the earth's interpretation has three big characters "China Sea" in the current position of the South China Sea. It can be seen that it was common sense of people from all over the world at that time. In the eastern part of Taiwan, eight mountains and Taiping mountains (gonggu mountain) have appeared in coastal illustrated books. The islands in the south of Bazhong mountain and the west of Taiping mountain are Diaoyu Islands. Although they are not named, they are within the scope of China. If further research continues, there will be more new discoveries.

Eager to learn and collect more books

Although Huang Weixuan didn't take the road of imperial examination, he was eager to learn, especially paid attention to book collection, and built Yishan hall to collect books. 2334 kinds of books and 27557 volumes were collected, which shows that the scale is not small. Yishantang bibliography

Chinese PinYin : Huang Wei Xuan