Xu Yuanwen

Xu Yuanwen

Xu Yuanwen

(1634-1691)

Gongsu

, No

Li Zhai

From Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. He is the younger brother of Xu Qianxue and Xu Bingyi in Tanhua. The three brothers are all official and famous. They are known as "sanxu in Kunshan" and "jiyiju" in zhaihao.

In 1659, Emperor Shunzhi named Xu Yuanwen as "the best scholar". He was awarded the crown belt, Mangfu, riding the Royal horse, etc., and was given the Imperial Academy to write. In the 18th year of Kangxi's reign, he became the president of the history of Ming Dynasty and recommended Wan Sitong to the Bureau of history. He was promoted to the Imperial Academy to offer sacrifices to the emperor, and served as an official at the banquet. Kangxi praised him: "Xu Yuanwen is a sacrificial wine. He is strict and serious. The Manchurian children who don't lead the religion often add blame and everyone is in awe. Later generations can't reach it. " Later, he served as the censor of zuodou, the official to the Bachelor of wenhuadian and the master of Hanlin Academy.

In 1690, the year after the Treaty of nebuchu was signed, in order to establish the boundary stele, the Qing government engraved the Treaty on the stele in Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Latin and Russian. Xu Yuanwen embellished the inscriptions in Chinese according to Shi Lu Ben, preceded by Xu Yuanwen's preface. There are six Chinese versions of Xu Yuanwen, which are recorded in the general annals of the Qing Dynasty, the classics of the Qing Dynasty and the Sino Russian charter. Xu Yuanwen, together with his elder brothers Xu Qianxue and Xu Bingyi, are all Jinshi scholars, and they are very famous. They are known as "three Xus in Kunshan". Gu Yanwu once said to Xu Yuanwen, "if you have the heart to understand the country and run the wild, then you can climb mountains and rivers; if you have the strategy to help the world and the people, then you can discuss the present through archaeology."

In the 29th year of Kangxi (1690), Fu lata, the governor of Jiangnan Jiangxi Province, impeached Xu Qianxue and his younger brother Xu Yuanwen for 15 illegal acts and was dismissed. On July 27, he died of "palpitation and hematemesis" at the age of 58. He is the author of hanjingtang collection and deshuyuan poetry collection.

Life of the characters

Young people's ambition

Xu Yuanwen was very fond of reading and learning when he was young. At the age of 14, he was admitted as a local student by examination. His books are mainly six classics (namely, Shi, Shu, Li, Yi, Chun Qiu, Le). He also often reads the works of various schools of thought, trying to understand the truth and apply it to the world. As for "juzijiayan", we should read it selectively. At that time, Wuzhong area, where Kunshan was located, inherited the tradition of Donglin Party's restoration in the late Ming Dynasty, and the association was popular with literary communication. The three brothers Xu Yuanwen also made an appointment to organize a literary society, which was named "Shenwen" and later changed to "jiyiju". They loathed the old folk songs and advocated ancient learning. For a time, all kinds of articles about learning followed the style of Xu brothers. In 1654, Xu Yuanwen was elected in the middle school entrance examination. Shunzhi 16 years (1659), in the palace examination and high school Jinshi first. At that time, he was only 21 years old. Emperor Fulin of Shunzhi summoned Xu Yuanwen at the gate of qianqingmen to comfort him. Because the empress Fu Lin happily said to empress dowager Xiaozhuang, "this year I won a good champion in Qing Dynasty. "The purpose is to give Xu Yuanwen a crown belt and a boa suit, and appoint Xu Yuanwen to write for the Academy. Xu Yuanwen was summoned by Emperor Shunzhi many times during his tenure in the Imperial Academy. Once he followed emperor Shunzhi to Xiyuan. Emperor Shunzhi gave him a ride on the Royal horse. He specially wrote down "Kong Zhuan Mei Ma Jinmen Shi". I only rely on the poem of "carving insects for Wu Huang" to remember this. One day, Xu Yuanwen followed emperor Shunzhi to visit the abbot of sengzhai banana garden and asked him for Buddhist classics. Afterwards, Xu Yuanwen did not express his gratitude to the abbot. Emperor Shunzhi was not hard for him, but said: "this man has a great opinion. I personally selected him to be the number one. "The daily affairs of the Imperial Academy are very simple, so Xu Yuanwen used his spare time to study knowledge. He not only studied poetry and prose, but also made great efforts to understand history, seek the origin and sum up the historical experience that can be used for reference.

Preside over academic politics

Since the early Qing Dynasty, the phenomenon of arrears of money and grain in Jiangnan has been very serious. In the early years of Kangxi, the emperor ordered the local governor to strictly investigate and punish according to the inspection envoys. Jiangning governor Zhu Guozhi made a detailed investigation and got a figure: Suzhou (the government governs Suzhou, Jiangsu), Songjiang (the government governs Songjiang, Shanghai), Changzhou (the government governs Changzhou, Jiangsu) and Zhenjiang (the government governs Zhenjiang, Jiangsu). There were 13517 civil and military officials and gentry who did not pay enough money and food. Xu Yuanwen is also among them. According to the practice, Xu Yuanwen should be punished, demoted and transferred to luanyiwei. Xu Yuanwen took this matter as an excuse to ask for leave to go home and explain the whole story. After four years, the matter was finally clarified and Xu Yuanwen's original position was restored. In 1669, Xu Yuanwen was appointed as the chief examiner of Shaanxi provincial examination. During his hosting of Shaanxi provincial examination, he paid attention to the selection of talents. Most of those who were admitted were intellectuals from the lower landlord class or poor people, who had no political support. They were very influential in Shaanxi. Some people in Shaanxi even said, "the reason why scholars can study hard is that Xu Yuanwen presided over the provincial examination this time It started. "Then he moved to the Secretary's college. In the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Xu Yuanwen was promoted to the position of emperor Guozijian as a sacrificial wine official. He said: "since ancient times, the rise and fall of talents depends on the rise and fall of schools. Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, the imperial college students have been carefully selected and cultivated, so there are a large number of talented people. Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the policy of advocating the emperor's virtue has been carried out. However, the only way to enter the Imperial College every year is to pay tribute except for the official shade. Few students are recommended by the government, state and county schools, and most of them are decadent, so it is difficult to become useful. "He asked that, according to the old rules of Shunzhi's eighth and eleventh years, every province should select a group of top students in two or three or five years and send young people with excellent character and learning to the Imperial College. In accordance with the method of Shunzhi time, he requested to set up provincial and rural examinations, and take some Deputy students to be sent to Taixue. In this way, the outstanding talents from all over the world are gathered in Taixue, which is of great benefit to the cultivation of practical talents. His suggestion was adopted and put into effect. As for the donation, Xu Yuanwen said that it was because the military salaries needed to pacify the rebellion of the "San Francisco" (Wu Sangui, Shang Zhixin, Shang Kexi's son, Geng Jingzhong) were too large and urgent, and the imperial court had to take expedient measures. He asked to wait until the recovery of Yunnan, immediately issued an imperial edict to stop donating. He pointed out that donation has caused four major disadvantages: (1) there is nothing more important for the government to cultivate talents than quality, while donation has caused mediocrity and miscellaneous of officials; (2) the examination presided over by the government is the right way to enter the Imperial College. When you pass the Imperial College, you have to study three subjects in nine years. And the donors, regardless of the number of years, donate with the test. This has resulted in a strict attitude towards the bachelor who has passed the examination on the right way, while giving priority to the scholars who have donated to Taiwan. In this way, it is bound to "frustrate the heart of the poor, and make the rich proud. "(3) the concept of quality and the way of examination have been confused, and there is no precedent to remove the incompetent poor students, so it is difficult to carry out the examination, and the style of bachelor's degree is becoming increasingly weak; (4) over the years, the assessment officials of the Ministry of official affairs have been granted titles, and there are no less than thousands of staff members who need to be appointed as assistants of prefectures and counties. There are many disadvantages in the way of entrance examination, and the day of filling the vacancy is far away. But as soon as he was appointed, he would wear official clothes, take a car and a sedan chair, and look like an adjutant Taiye, flaunting the village. Such a chaotic election system is really worrying. In the last few days, the emperor ordered the Ministry of officials to discuss and finally decided that the donation should be stopped except for the river work. " Xu Yuanwen served as the Imperial College for four years. During his tenure, various rules and regulations were conscientiously observed and implemented, and his style of study was corrected. He also worked with other scholars to teach students. Xu Yuanwen was elegant and learned. His explanation was fluent and clear, and his voice was loud. All the students admired him. After he left the Imperial College, Emperor Kangxi once said to the officials, "Xu Yuanwen is a serious man who is offering sacrifices to wine. If the Manchu children don't study hard, they must be reprimanded or even lashed. Up to now, the supervisors are still afraid of him. It's rare to see such a person in the future. "

Accompanying and reading

In the 13th year of Kangxi (1674), Xu Yuanwen was promoted to the post of cabinet bachelor and Minister of rites, and vice president of the revision of Taizong Shilu. In April of the second year, he was appointed as the master of the Imperial Academy and the Minister of the Ministry of rites. Every day in Hongde hall, he was praised by Emperor Kangxi. When Xiong Ci was appointed as the official of Jingyan, he said, "it's not the way of Yao and Shun, it's not the Confucian classics.". "He was highly praised for the study of Confucius, Mencius, Cheng and Zhu, and regarded it as the criterion of thinking and behavior. At this time, Emperor Kangxi was 22 years old, and the Confucianists that the officials talked about could not meet his requirements. He wanted to know the lessons of the success and failure of the dynasties. He said to them, "the purpose of my tireless study is to understand the principles and help the country. I hope that I can practice the principles I have learned. It is not what I pursue to just talk about the principles. "One day, Emperor Kangxi said to Xu Yuanwen," the four books have been explained many times, and they are well versed in the meaning of the text. Every view of Zizhitongjian records in detail the gains and losses of the previous generation. It is very seedy to run the country and manage the people, and it should be explained with the four books. ". So Xu Yuanwen chose the examples about the moral character of the monarch and the way of governing the country and the people from the compendium of Tongjian, and asked the Imperial Academy to write the lectures separately. He personally reviewed them and read them for Emperor Kangxi in order. The wise and studious Emperor Kangxi was still dissatisfied, so he stipulated that after the lecturers finished speaking, he would also explain and exchange views with each other. Xu Yuanwen was very happy about this. In his speech, he adopted the comments of the Confucianists, combined with his own views, made full use of reasoning, and made his point prominent, with a clear point of view. At the end of this year's lecture, Xu Yuanwen presented the lecture notes to Emperor Kangxi, hoping that the emperor would read them frequently and have a better understanding. Emperor Kangxi was very satisfied with Tongjian, which was taught by Xu Yuanwen and others. He praised them for reading all the chapters in detail. It is of great help to his knowledge and administration.

Chinese PinYin : Xu Yuan Wen