A Short Story of the Qing Dynasty

In the summer of the 26th year of the Daoguang period (1846), Mrs. Chen, Wei Yuan's mother, died of illness. According to Qing regulations, parents must go to the official mourning system. At this time, he was so poor that he didn't even have the money to transport the coffin back, so he had to stay at a friend's house and borrow money from friends and relatives to make ends meet. In August of this year, he said in a letter to his friend Hu Yunzhi (Lin Yi): "...... brother half loaded Dongtai, only because of the canal by the former tired, compensation pads four thousand gold, ...... which is particularly urgent, dozens of mouths of the family hanging chime, and the first coffin! To this day, Dongtai, can not be shifted, the embarrassment of his life has not tasted ...... ", his poor and straitened circumstances can be imagined, and later, Wei Yuan to get the help of friends and relatives, in order to transport his mother's coffin to Jurong County, Tan Lianshan burial, when leaving Dongtai, Dongtai City, the people of the city of the old and the young to see off.

Daoguang twenty-eight years (1848) torrential rains, the lake soared, the river governor Yang Yizeng ready to start the canal dike Zhaoguan, Zhongxin, Nanguan and other five dams to release the water, then seven counties of the Lixiahe area rice will be ripe, if you open the dam, so that the Gaoyou Lake, Lake Hongze Lake water downstream, the Lixiahe area will be a country of zephyrs, will soon be to the hands of the grain of rice is also grain, Wei Yuan, who was the county magistrate of Xinghua, and immediately to the river Governor Request a delay in the opening of the dam, was not approved. He personally rushed to the Governor's office, hit the drums and bells, the Governor Lu Jianying please come out to sit in the town of disaster relief, Wei Yuan is running in the storm, directing the seven counties to pick soil protection dike. With the intensification of the storm, the situation is very critical, the river governor Yang Yizeng for the protection of the official position to open the dam, see the acres of rice paddies will be submerged, Wei Yuan will withstand the wind and rain, fell on the river dam and cried out in pain, said: "to the people's lives for the people, to open the dam to let the water wash me away first." People who witnessed this scene were moved. Since the morning, the huge waves repeatedly rushed up the dike, more than 100,000 civilian workers to guard. Such a spectacular flood scene, has been insisted on until the evening wind and rain to stop, the Governor of the two rivers to support the then 56-year-old Wei Yuan lamented: "Sincerity to the gold stone for open, do not believe that." Wei Yuan back to the Yamen, come to meet the gentry with incense, firecrackers, sent a large plaque, inscribed "Huaiyang protection" four big words, hanging in the county office in the center. After the fall of this year, Xinghua, Dongtai and other seven counties got a big harvest, the people called their rice "Wei Gong Rice", and the canal dike "Wei Gong Dike". 1850, Wei Yuan was appointed as the Salt Transportation Haizhou Division Transportation Judge, and he raised more than two hundred thousand taels of silver for the repair of Gaoyou and Baoying dikes. In 1851, Wei Yuan was appointed as the governor of Zhili State, not many years, and awarded the governor of Gaoyou State, focusing on cultivation of talents, Gaoyou, the years of science and technology are cut off, Wei Yuan took office, rebuild the academy. In the fall of this year, the countryside test list out, civil and military students, the Chinese eight people. Should be a little use it `