Zhu Ciqi

Zhu Ciqi

Zhu Ciqi (1807-1881) was born on August 22 of the lunar calendar. His name is Zhigui and haozixiang. He is known as Mr. Jiujiang in the world. He was born in Nanhai County, Guangfu Prefecture, Guangdong Province (now Nanhai District, Foshan City). He was a famous scholar in Guangdong Province in the Qing Dynasty. Calligraphy is full of strength and strength, but it refuses to be written by others. It has been handed down all over the world. There are many works about life. Most of them are manuscripts, diaries, etc., which are burned on the deathbed. Though he wields his hair at will, he is very strong and beautiful. Jian Chaoliang collected his poems and essays and compiled them into 10 volumes of Mr. Zhu Jiujiang's collection. Together with Jian Chaoliang and Kang Youwei, Zhu Ciqi formed Jiujiang school, an important school of Confucianism in Guangdong. They proposed the combination of Confucian classics and historiography, and strengthened the independence of historiography.

Life of the characters

Take it easy

Zhu Ciqi was quite famous in his youth. In 1811, at the age of four, Zhu Ciqi went to a family school, whose teacher was Zhu Xianglin. At the age of five, he was able to use "great man and tiger changing" to fight "Laozi Longzhong" appropriately, showing his edge. When he was seven years old, he began to write poems. When he was twelve years old, he wrote a poem of "huangmuwan viewing the sea", which made Ruan Yuan, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, sigh with Ouyang Xiu's praise of Su Shi: "I should let you go!" When he was in Yuehua academy, he wrote "Xinsong" Fu: "the building materials may not be seen by thousands of people, but they will be different when they listen to the wind". The meaning is extraordinary and the words are startling.

However, Zhu Ziqi's struggle in the imperial examination field was rather bumpy. In 1828, 1832 and 1837, he took part in the rural examination three times and failed. Especially in the third time, the most important first of the three rural examinations, his poems and essays have been selected as the "recommended volume", but in the subsequent one, he used historical allusions as a supplement, which the examiner did not understand for a moment, and thought his essays were careless. However, when he handed out the paper, the examiner noticed his name and regretted that he was not a wise bole. Many people also regretted for him. He himself took it lightly. A friend wrote a letter to compare his exquisite fan with the fact that he couldn't meet a beautiful woman. He sympathized with his lack of talent. However, he wrote a group of humorous poems to reply to his friend. His calm and free will can be seen in his wit.

In those years when he failed in the local examination, Zhu Ciqi was selected as an excellent student by Nanhai county school three times. He had the opportunity to take the "Yougong" examination and enter the Imperial College. At that time, many people even paid a lot of money to buy the qualification of excellent student. He got it with his reputation, but he refused every time. I'd rather be second than third.

In 1839, he went to the countryside for an examination. Cheng Juren and his elder brother Zhu Shiqi were elected in the same list. After the mid-term examination, he failed again and again in the previous three examinations. However, he got rid of the bondage of the imperial examination in spirit, inspired himself with the idea of being a Confucian and practicing Taoism, studying hard and being cautious. He did not spend all his time on the contents of the four books, but read as many documents as he could, such as the rules and regulations of the dynasty, biographies of famous scholars and officials. In 1842, Chen's ancestral hall opened in Nansha, Jiujiang, South China Sea.

In 1847, already in his 40s, he was selected and became a "Gongshi". The palace examination is only one day, and it is about tactics. Before sunset that afternoon, invigilators began to urge the Gongshi to hand in their papers. Many people didn't finish them and asked for a delay. Zhu didn't finish answering, but he handed in the paper immediately. At that time, an official of Nanhai nationality admired Zhu Ciqi very much. Seeing that he didn't finish his answer, he quietly followed him and called him, hoping that he would come back and finish the examination paper. Zhu Ciqi pretended not to hear and left without looking back. He is adamant that a scholar should have integrity at all times.

In 1852, he successfully settled the dispute between the northern Shanxi border people and the Mongolian flag leader, and served as the deputy magistrate of Xiangling County in Shanxi Province with outstanding achievements.

More than half a year as an official

In 1847, Zhu Ciqi became a Jinshi and distributed it to Shanxi Province as "instant county magistrate". For a man who has been struggling in the imperial examination field for decades, this is undoubtedly a very peaceful and happy thing. However, he told those who came to congratulate him that an official must give orders from the superior and present his feelings from the inferior, and work for the country and the people. "It's not easy to talk about it."? What he thought of was the difficulty of being an official, rather than the personal greed of "three years of Qing Dynasty magistrate, one hundred thousand snowflakes silver". He went to the post alone without his family. He planned to visit pan duo, the chief examiner of the mid-term examination, around Kaifeng. Because pan duo worked in Shanxi for a long time, he wanted to consult the political situation and public opinion of Shanxi. However, in order to avoid the suspicion of getting through the office with the help of teachers, he resolutely changed his mind and did not visit.

In 1852, the zazazak tribe in Inner Mongolia fought with the border people in northern Shanxi for farming, killing and injuring more than 700 people, preparing for revenge. The Shanxi authorities also planned to send troops to suppress the border people. Zhu Ciqi advocated a peaceful settlement, and personally went to the two sides to show his righteousness, and finally calmed down the quarrel.

In the autumn of 1852, he served as magistrate of Xiangling county. During his tenure, he devoted himself to serving the people, never seeking personal interests for himself. Xiangling and Linfen border, the two counties rely on water irrigation. The powerful monopolized the water source, and often those who had water had no land, and those who had land had no water. As a result, they fought with each other and raised many big prisons. After Zhu Ciqi arrived at the post, he took more than 100 prisoners lightly. He formulated the method of "land with grain, water with land". Together with Linfen county magistrate, he determined that the two counties should take half of the river water and raise funds to build channels and assign special personnel to manage them. Since then, fighting has subsided and production has developed.

According to records, he made remarkable achievements during his term of office. First of all, Zhu Ziqi pretended to be ill and failed to hand over to the original county magistrate when he learned that the thief had escaped from prison. On the other hand, he sent out a large sum of money to investigate the whereabouts of the thief and arrested the escaped prisoner on the day he took office. Secondly, when he took office, he learned that wolves killed people and animals frequently in some places within his jurisdiction, and the people hated and feared wolves, believing that they were "gods" and could not be killed. Zhu went to the local shrine to pray in person, asking the God to drive out the wolves within ten days, otherwise he would push down the statue and set fire to the temple. The masses were so shocked that they were afraid that Zhu Ciqi would do so. They rushed into the action to fight the wolf and finally put an end to the wolf. In addition, he also made a series of fruitful achievements in rectifying water conservancy, persuading students to accumulate millet, forbidding collecting people's wealth, forbidding intermarriage with the same surname (intermarriage with close relatives), and practicing strict economy in the Yamen.

In 1853, when he was ready to leave his post, the people of Xiangling wrote to the governor of Shanxi to beg him to stay. But the people's request was rejected. On the day he left Xiangling, the farmers put down their farming, all the shops closed, and thousands of Xiangling people saw their good county magistrate off. In the second year after Zhu Ciqi left, Xiangling people raised funds to build the ancestral hall of Zhu Shijun for him. In history, there are not many officials who have been commemorated by people's ancestral temples. Few of them have been worshipped by people's ancestral temples in their lifetime. However, it is unprecedented that officials have been so loved and remembered by people in only half a year. Zhu Ciqi won the praise of the people by practicing the simple and simple truth that being an official is to do practical things for the people.

In 1853, he completed a brief example of the record of the words and deeds of the famous ministers of the state.

Lishan had a far-reaching influence

In 1855, Zhu Ciqi resigned and returned to the south. He received apprentices and lectures at the foot of Lishan in his hometown. Kang Youwei, Jian Chaoliang, Huang Luyi and so on all went out of his family. He advocated to be rational and practical, regardless of the Han (learning) and song (learning), originally Confucius, but to save the people. Lectures are based on "four elements" (sharing filial piety, advocating integrity, changing temperament, checking prestige), "five learning" (classics, history, anecdotes, nature, and chapters), so as to achieve the norms of sincerity, prudence, self-restraint, and practice.

In 1856, he taught in xuezunjingge, Nanhai County, Guangzhou. Later, because of the British invasion of Guangzhou, he left Guangzhou and returned to Jiujiang township.

In 1858, he began to give lectures at the ancestral hall of Chen's family at the foot of Nanli mountain in Jiujiang township.

According to Zhu Ziqi's students Jian Chaoliang, Kang Youwei and Ling Heshu, we can know that Zhu Ziqi has the following characteristics in his theory. One is to emphasize mastery. At that time, when it was generally said that "one classics, one history, one article, one economics", Zhu Ciqi clearly opposed the narrowness of specializing in one classics and one subject, and emphasized the origin of knowledge and the integration of knowledge. He was against the complicated textual research of Sinology in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and also against the empty and esoteric talk of the mind learning in the song and Ming Dynasties. He tried to explain the true features of Confucianism to the students in an easy and honest way. He advocated that the opinions of Sinology and song learning should be swept away, and all should belong to Confucius. Zhu Ciqi also pointed out that the purpose of reading is to cultivate morality and practice. We should pay attention to the cultivation of individual body and mind, rather than just focusing on the Eight Legged, eight rhymes and eight methods.

Although Zhu Ciqi was not influenced by Western learning because of the limitation of his time and environment, he was keenly aware of the disadvantages of the mainstream theory at that time. He longed for the emergence of a large number of generalists with high integrity and excellent ability to cope with the internal and external troubles at that time and take on the important task of the world. His efforts and wishes were realized by his students and postgraduates. Zhu Ciqi finally put his students Kang Youwei and others on the cusp of the confluence of new and old ideas.

In 1862, Zhu Ciqi was appointed, but he said he was ill.

In 1876, Kang Youwei was his teacher.

Zhu Ciqi devoted himself to learning and also paid attention to state affairs. During the Opium War, he wrote poems denouncing Qishan as a traitor. In 1876, Li Hongzhang signed the "Yantai treaty" because of the murder of British embassy staff Ma Jiali, which contained the content of sending staff to Britain to apologize. Zhu Ciqi thought that it was "undermining the prestige of China and growing the anger of outsiders", and was very angry.

In 1881, in July of the lunar calendar, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi gave a commendation to the imperial court, adding the title of five grade Minister of capital. He died on December 19 at the age of 75.

literary works

Zhu Ciqi wrote a lot of works in his life, mainly including the records of the words and deeds of the famous ministers of the state, the biography of the hermits of the state, the origin and development of sexology, the records of the five historical facts, Jincheng, and Mongolian information

Chinese PinYin : Zhu Ci Qi