Zeng Guofan was an important politician, military figure, and writer of the late Qing Dynasty, the founder and commander of the Xiang Army; together with Hu Linyi, he was called "Zeng Hu", and together with Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong, he was called "the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty". Under his efforts, the Qing Dynasty once had a situation of "Tongzhi Zhongxing", and his personal achievements also achieved the peak of his career. From 1860 to 1872, Zeng Guofan, who had entered his later years, served three times as the governor of Liangjiang, who was in charge of the military and civilian affairs of Jiangsu (including present-day Shanghai), Anhui and Jiangxi. At this time, Yangzhou was an important city under the jurisdiction of the Viceroy of Liangjiang, and Zeng Guofan in his later years also formed an indissoluble relationship with Yangzhou, and was reflected in the economic, political, cultural and other aspects.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > to rectify the two Huai salt industries and develop Yangzhou's economy</h1>
In ancient times, Yangzhou was an important place for salt transportation and sales, and the salt industry also became an important pillar of Yangzhou's economy. During his term as Governor of Liangjiang, Zeng Guofan actively rectified the Lianghuai salt industry centered on Yangzhou, so that Yangzhou, which had just suffered the impact of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, could recover economically and gain unanimous praise from all walks of life.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Lianghuai salt industry implemented the "gang salt system" for a long time, that is, the government granted a certain salt monopoly right to a certain area to a specific salt merchant. These salt merchants had to pay taxes on an annual basis and sell off the salt they received, otherwise their monopoly would be cancelled and their family property would have to offset the taxes they owed. The specific amount of salt received for sale is determined annually by the government according to the production and sales of salt in the Lianghuai region, and is designated as a "program book". In addition to paying taxes in accordance with the regulations, salt merchants also have to bear various nominal apportionments and "retribution" (that is, providing funds to the government free of charge), and the number is unlimited. In order to pass on the burden, salt merchants continue to increase the price of salt. The cost of living has risen, and people have turned to buying private salt, and the sale of official salt has become increasingly difficult. The salt merchants were unable to survive, and the taxes paid were reduced, which seriously affected the national revenue.
In the eighth year of Qing Guangxu (1882), the Inspector of Zhejiang Yancao Issued a Salt License
In this situation, the relevant reforms began to be launched. In 1832, Tao Shu, who was then the governor of Liangjiang, began to change the "Gang salt system" to "ticket salt system", stipulating that 400 kilograms of salt was a lead and 10-100 citations were 1 vote. Anyone only needs to underwrite 1 ticket to apply for the sale of table salt. This allowed many small traders to participate in the sale of table salt, intensifying competition. As a result, the cost and price of official salt were greatly reduced, and private salt was soon unprofitable. Official salt is selling well again, and in some areas it is even in short supply. The two Huai salt industries were brought back to life.
In 1851, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War broke out. The Taiping Army occupied Wuchang and Shanghai, and the Yangtze River route was blocked for more than ten years. This greatly reduced the area where the two Huai salt merchants could transport and sell salt, and many merchants did not dare to sell salt anymore. By the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, the lianghuai salt had become extremely weak. In view of this, Zeng Guofan decided to rebuild the salt distribution system and revitalize the Lianghuai salt industry, and adopted a series of measures.
First of all, it is to raise the threshold of operation. For the "ticket salt system", Zeng Guofan believes that it is a good and effective method, so he retains its basic content and allows everyone to participate in the application for salt sales qualifications. However, at the same time, he raised the threshold of operation and tilted towards the powerful salt merchants. In Zeng Guofan's view, the small salt merchants have limited strength, and it is difficult to ensure the transportation and sales of salt in remote areas with long distances and limited demand. Only by relying on the solid salt merchants can we ensure the smooth flow of salt transportation in various places, so as to rebuild the salt transportation and marketing system. But because they have just experienced the devastation of war, there are very few such big salt merchants. To motivate them, they must be guaranteed to make significant profits. Therefore, Zeng Guofan set the basic target of salt sales that must be completed at 30,000 catties. Thus, while everyone is still allowed to participate in the sale of salt, the threshold is so high that only a few large traders are eligible to sell. In fact, this achieved the effect of "gang salt system" in the form of "ticket salt system" and re-established the monopoly position of the big salt merchants, that is, Zeng Guofan's so-called "implicit gang law in the ticket salt".
Secondly, it is the implementation of the whole round and the method of insuring the price. At that time, salt was mainly transported by water. During the Tao Shu period, when the salt boat arrived at the dock, the salt merchant could contact the shop on the shore on their own. However, Zeng Guofan believes that this move will lead to vicious competition between small salt merchants, regardless of the cost of price reduction promotion, resulting in a decline in the profits of the entire industry. Therefore, Zeng Guofan stipulated that after the salt ship arrived at the wharf, the salt merchant must register with the management department and then assign the sales objects according to the order of registration. If a salt boat arrives too late and the shore shop has been distributed, the salt can no longer be sold. The big salt merchants have strong capital and many salt ships, and the probability of arriving at the dock on schedule and being assigned to the sales object is also large. Small salt merchants, on the other hand, face a huge risk of losing their money. Over time, small salt merchants gradually withdrew from the market. At the same time, Zeng Guofan also set a minimum selling price for salt to protect the interests of large salt merchants.
Zeng Guofan's above-mentioned measures quickly restored the distribution system of the Lianghuai salt industry, which also increased the government's financial revenue, and Yangzhou, as the center of the Lianghuai salt industry, also quickly recovered from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War. Moreover, under the impetus of Zeng Guofan, the Huai Salt General Stack, as the storage and transportation center of the two Huai Salt Industries, settled in the Twelve Wei Town of Yizheng, and led to the prosperity of the entire Yangzhou. However, in essence, Zeng Guofan's approach replaced market regulation with excessive administrative intervention, which was a retrogression to the "salt system". After that, he and Li Hongzhang jointly promoted circular ticket transportation, which further strengthened the monopoly of large salt merchants. This led to the revival of private salt, and the two Huai salt industries inevitably declined.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="98" > handling the Yangzhou teaching plan and dooming the political ending</h1>
Before the opening of the railway, water transport was the main mode of transportation in China. Located at the confluence of the Grand Canal, huaihe river and Yangtze River, Yangzhou is an important transportation hub city. Therefore, foreign missionaries valued Yangzhou very early, came to carry out religious activities, and had conflicts with the local people, which eventually led to the "Yangzhou Teaching Case" in 1868. Zeng Guofan presided over the handling of the "Yangzhou Teaching Case", and its final political end was doomed.
In 1868, the French missionary Jin Jisan opened a nursery in SanyiGe, Yangzhou. Due to the outbreak of plague and other reasons, 24 babies died in the nursery within half a year. As a result, rumors appeared among the people of Yangzhou that missionaries were secretly cooking and eating babies. In the same year, the British missionary Hudson Hudson founded the first Christian church in Yangzhou on Pishi Street.
Since rumors of missionaries eating babies had not yet been clarified, the local gentry and the populace were dissatisfied with Hudson's arrival. They took to the streets to post posters against the church, surrounded Hudson's apartment, and destroyed doors, windows, and furniture. In August, civil and military students who were taking the exam in Yangzhou joined hands with the people to besiege the Christian Church on Pishi Street. In particular, on the evening of August 22, the church was surrounded by nearly 10,000 people. Despite the chase and beatings, Hudson Dai fled to the prefect's office and demanded protection. The besiegers stormed the church and set fire to it. Hudson's six-month-pregnant wife, Maria, broke her leg while escaping from a building, and another woman suffered multiple fractures. At dawn on the 23rd, another crowd gathered at the door of Hudson's apartment. Escorted by local officials, Mr. Dai fled to Zhenjiang that afternoon. This is the "Yangzhou Teaching Case".
On September 8, the British consul in Shanghai, Meadows, traveled to Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, where he demanded that the perpetrators be punished, the church houses be rebuilt, the economic losses be compensated, and the rights of the missionaries protected. Sun Enshou, the governor of Yangzhou, said that he could only grant some of the demands, and the rest had to consult Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang.
The former site of the "Yangzhou Teaching Plan" on Pishi Street
On September 11, Madduls led the warship "Renaldo" to Nanjing to negotiate with Zeng Guofan. Later, due to the illness of the captain, Madus returned to Shanghai with the ship. As a result, the British envoy to China, Ah Liguo, directly negotiated with the Qing government and suggested that the British government use force. On November 8, Madus led four more British warships to Nanjing, issued an ultimatum to Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang, and detained a steamship funded by Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan eventually ordered the dismissal of relevant yangzhou officials, compensation for the loss of church property, and erected a stone stele in front of the church, which instructed the people to "not disturb the church and cause trouble by taking advantage of the end" and "not to act rudely when there are foreigners coming and going."
In the process of handling the "Yangzhou Teaching Case", Zeng Guofan initially argued on the basis of reason and refused the British request. However, in the "Xilin Teaching Case" in Guangxi in 1856, the French missionary Malai who engaged in espionage was sentenced to death. Subsequently, France used this as an excuse to join forces with Britain to invade China the following year, which directly triggered the Second Opium War. Zeng Guofan feared that the "Yangzhou Teaching Case" would lead to the same consequences. Therefore, under the threat of force from the British side and the pressure of the Qing government, Zeng Guofan finally chose to compromise.
Zeng Guofan's handling of the "Yangzhou Teaching Case" was a last resort in the absence of national strength and strong support. However, in the whole process, Zeng Guofan was too weak and blindly gave in, so that he could not effectively protect the state's interests. Afterwards, Zeng Guofan also had the self-blame of "handling softly". However, instead of learning from it, he developed a "mindset". In 1870, the "Tianjin Teaching Case" occurred, and its process was almost the same as that of the "Yangzhou Teaching Case", but the scale and influence were greater. In the process of handling the "Tianjin Teaching Case", Zeng Guofan adhered to the same line of thinking as the "Yangzhou Teaching Case", still "handled it too softly", and finally ordered the main officials in Tianjin to be dismissed from their posts and filled in the army, more than twenty parties were executed or sentenced, and the Qing government had to send someone to apologize to the foreign government. This caused an uproar in public opinion throughout the country, accusing Zeng Guofan of being a "soft bone" and "eating inside and climbing outside". Zeng Guofan's first heroic name was destroyed, and he ended up with a very bad ending in politics. To some extent, all this was already doomed when it handled the "Yangzhou Teaching Case".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="99" > participated in Huainan Bookstore and developed Yangzhou culture</h1>
Yangzhou in the Qing Dynasty had a tradition of official inscriptions and had considerable influence. In 1705, Cao Yin, the Inspector of the Two Huai Dynasties, was ordered by the Kangxi Emperor to set up the Yangzhou Poetry Bureau at Tianning Temple and engrave the Quan Tang Poems. This book took only more than a year to complete, and was well written and engraved, and was later known as the "Kang Edition", which was a model of Qing Dynasty engraving. Subsequently, Cao Yin and Li Xu presided over the engraving of the Pei Wen Yun Fu (a tool book for literati in the Qing Dynasty to select words and find allusions for rhyming sentences). In 1713, the book was engraved, and the Kangxi Emperor Zhu Pi praised it as "the extreme of good carving". In 1814, the two Huaiyan zheng Akdang Ayu published the "Qingding Quan Tang Wen" in Yangzhou, which was engraved in 1818; it was also engraved with the "Qingding Mingjian". During his tenure as Governor of Liangjiang, Zeng Guofan promoted the tradition of this engraving in Yangzhou. His main act was to participate in the establishment and development of Huainan Bookstore.
Yangzhou Tianning Temple
In 1861, Zeng Guofan founded the Anqing Compilation Bureau in Anqing. After the Taiping Rebellion, the Anqing Book Company moved to Nanjing in 1864 and changed to jinling bookstore, specializing in compiling and engraving various ancient books. Under the influence of Zeng Guofan, various localities also followed suit and set up bookstores. Yangzhou's Huainan Bookstore is one of them. The bookstore was originally called Yangzhou Bookstore, but because Huainan was the old name of Yangzhou, Yangzhou used to be the residence of Huainan Province, Huainan Jiedushi and Huainan Road in history, and the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Hu chanted Yangzhou's poem "Traveling to Huainan" is also particularly popular, so it was eventually renamed Huainan Bookstore. At the same time, Yangzhou was also the seat of the two Huai salt transport embassies in charge of Huainan and Huaibei at that time. The Salt Transport Bureau is also the administrative body of the bookstore and provides financial support. Therefore, the renaming of Huainan Bookstore is more reasonable. The head of the Salt Transport Bureau, the two Huai Salt Transport Envoys, were the top bosses of the bookstore and directly inquired about the daily business of the bureau. At that time, several of the people who held the position of salt transport envoy were closely related to Zeng Guofan, and Zeng Guofan also had close ties with the Huainan Bookstore.
Printed by Jinling Bookstore
The direct founder of the Huainan Bookstore was Fang Junyi, the envoy of the two Huai salt transports. In 1869, he founded the Huainan Bookstore in Qionghuaguan Street, Yangzhou, to sort out the old collection of the Salt Transport Embassy and various official engravings of the search. The bookstore began by repairing the old engraving of the Two Quasi-Salt Laws, and then engraved and printed the classics of the dynasties and the writings of scholars in the Jianghuai region. In 1865, Li Zongxi, who was then the envoy of the two Huai salt transporters, set up the "Yangxian Pavilion". After the establishment of Huainan Bookstore, it urgently needed talents, so it invited a number of scholars in the library to be responsible for collation, editing and other matters. Therefore, without the talent reserve provided by the "Yangxian Museum", the Huainan Bookstore would be difficult to operate. Li Zongxi, who founded the "Yangxian Pavilion", served under Zeng Guofan, and his ability to serve as an envoy to the two Huai salts was also due to Zeng Guofan's protection. At the same time, Li Zongxi worked in the Jinling Bookstore founded by Zeng Guofan. The establishment of "YangxianGuan" is also not unrelated to its experience in Jinling Bookstore. Similarly, Hong Rukui, who was transferred to the lianghuai salt transport envoy in 1879, was also a subordinate of Zeng Guofan and served in the Jinling Bookstore. After he took office, he transplanted some specific systems of Jinling Bookstore to Huainan Bookstore. It was with Li Zongxi, Hong Rukui and others and Jinling Bookstore as a link that Zeng Guofan in his later years had a subtle influence on the establishment and development of Huainan Bookstore.
【Rare Books for Writing and Engraving】The Qinghuai South Book Company copied according to the original appearance of the Song edition
At the same time, Zeng Guofan also gave guidance to the specific business of Huainan Bookstore. For example, because the Jinling Bookstore was founded earlier, it had begun to take shape, its operation was standardized, and a group of scholars had gathered; therefore, Zeng Guofan sent the "Statutes of jinling Bookstore" in 1871 for the reference of Huainan Bookstore. In addition, he also paid attention to the early engraving activities of Huainan Bookstore. Huainan Book Company has engraved more than 40 kinds of books, of which the most influential is the large-character "Thirteen Commentaries on the Thirteen Classics" (a compilation of thirteen Confucian classics annotated by Ruan Yuan in the Qing Dynasty, a total of 416 volumes, which are often consulted by scholars of literature and history). The Huainan Book Company published the book with the support of Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan believed that the Commentaries on the Thirteen Classics were the basis of learning and that the version must be pure; therefore, he repeatedly stressed that it must be inscribed according to the "Dian Ben" (the version engraved by the Wuying Hall of the Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty). At the same time, in order to ensure the accuracy of the facts stated, the existing version should not be copied, but must be revised. This was done by attaching a "Survey of Proofreading" to the end of each volume, thus better handling the relationship between the transmission of the scriptures and the revision of facts. In 1871, the Huainan Book Company began to engrave the Book of Sui in the "Twenty-Four Histories", a total of 85 volumes, in accordance with the relevant requirements of Zeng Guofan. Overall, the creation and development of Huainan Bookstore has been poured into the painstaking efforts of Zeng Guofan. As a result, the bookstore became an important official publishing institution after the Yangzhou Poetry Bureau, which promoted the development of Yangzhou culture at that time.
In his later years, Zeng Guofan's actions promoted the overall development of Yangzhou and were also remembered by the people of the time. For example, the local salt merchants once wanted to repair the Famous Garden and send it to Zeng Guofan, but after being refused, they changed it to the activity center of the Xiang salt merchants in Yangzhou. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the Garden was officially changed to hunan guild hall and preserved to this day, becoming an important witness to that period of history.
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Author: Gu Yaxin, born in 1985, a native of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, Doctor of History, Teacher of School of Social Development, Yangzhou University. He is mainly engaged in the research of Chinese archival history, the history of the Communist Party of China, modern Chinese history, student ideological trends and characteristics, and has published more than 40 academic papers in various journals.
Review, Release: Zhang Yizhe