Wu Changhua

Wu Changhua

Wu Changhua (1779-1840) is a native of Shangyuan county (Nanjing City), Jiangsu Province.

Exploration of the Hui nationality

Wu Changhua, who ranked first and third in the Jiaxu examination in 1814, was a member of the Hui nationality in Nanjing. This is the first Hui nationality to explore flowers in China's imperial examination system. In listening to the rain, Fuge of the Qing Dynasty was highly praised as "the beginning of the Dingjia sect". Moreover, in 267 of the Qing Dynasty, there were two Hui people who served as the governor of Yipin. One was ma Xinyi, who served as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang and the governor of Liangjiang. The other was Wu Changhua.

Jinling family

Wu family is a Hui family in Jinling of Ming and Qing Dynasties. Wu Ru, the forefather of Wu family, moved to Nanjing from Samarkand, Central Asia in the early years of Ming Dynasty. Wu Changhua lived in a family where both Islam and Confucianism were important since he was a child. He regarded Confucian classics, four books and five classics, Koran and hadith as sages' books. Wu zunliang, Changhua's great grandfather, was born during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. Jinling tongzhuan is called "to replace the ancient spring mirror". He is a famous connoisseur and collector of antiques and jewels in Jinling City. He is the same uncle and brother as Wu Zunqi, a famous Islamic teacher in Qing Dynasty, Da'an and Chinese translator of Guizhen Yaodao. Wu Guangyu, Changhua's father, was a Gongsheng at the age of 18. He was a candidate for a county school. He once set up a Shengsheng hall on the Bank of the Yangtze River (Xiaguan, Nanjing). He provided boats to save the drowning and drowning people. According to the local county annals, "every year there is no living person.". He is the author of buyuanji.

Reform of maladministration

After exploring Huazhong flower, Wu Chang worked as the editor of Hanlin Academy for three years. He had four schools in Beijing. He also presided over a Zhejiang provincial examination and served as a Guangdong academic administrator. After two years of Daoguang, Wu Changhua became a foreign official and successively served as youjiangdao, Guangdong, Changlu salt transport envoy, Gansu inspection envoy and Yunnan political envoy. When he took office in a region, or a borderland area where malaria was rampant, he often ordered his staff to copy and submit the local daily grain prices of sunshine and rain, and carefully studied them. As the saying goes, "this is the foundation of people's livelihood." When he was appointed as the inspector general of Gansu Province, the Shaanxi soldiers mutinied to encircle the governor's office, and Chang Hua used his tactics to capture the mutiny leader Zheng mannian and others. Yang Yuchun, governor of Shaanxi and Gansu Province, advocated killing mutinous soldiers as much as possible. He tried to slow down the war. Only 13 people were killed in the military service, which is called a virtuous government by Shaanxi and Gansu people. In Qing Dynasty, the salt administration and the copper administration were two large groups of administrations. Wu Changhua, as Yunnan's political envoy, wrote a textual research on Yunnan's steel law, which was dedicated to innovation. He personally inspected the mines in the territory, and repeatedly asked the people of the copper factory to be exempted from the lack of working capital. In those days, the official ships transporting copper from Yunnan to the capital had to be changed in Hankou and Jiangnan. Local officials along the way were responsible for protecting the ships, but they took the opportunity to blackmail the carriers, even openly sheltered the bandits and robbed the ships to steal copper. The escorts often smuggle and sell Sichuan's private salt along the way. They benefit from the separation with local officials, and they are deeply intertwined with each other. With the support of yilibu, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Wu Changhua adopted the advice of Yuan Wenxiang, the imperial censor, and put the official copper carrier's bag directly to Tianjin, which was run by the carrier Lingyin, strictly stipulating the place, time and date of arrival along the way. This reform was a significant renovation of the copper law and salt affairs at that time, and achieved remarkable results.

No smoking in Hubei

Of course, what is worth recalling most in Wu Changhua's life is the history that he worked with Lin Zexu on the eve of the Opium War. In 1838, Wu Changhua was promoted to governor of Hubei Province. Lin Zexu was appointed governor of Huguang on April 4 and arrived in Chu on September 4. The governor's office and Fu Yuan worked together in Wuchang. Lin and Wu were old friends. They used to work together in the Imperial Academy (Lin Zao and Wu Yike stayed in the middle school), so they got along well. Although Lin Wu had only worked together in Hubei for more than 30 days, because in October of that year, Lin Zexu was ordered to see Emperor Daoguang in the capital of Jin Dynasty. According to the diary of Lin Zexu, the two people had been in touch with each other for 16 times in these short days. Sometimes they even met twice a day to discuss the grand policy of Hubei and the issue of banning smoking. In Hubei Province, the government once issued a notice to forbid the flood and drought. Don't forbid smoking among the public (all see Lin Zexu's works). In 1838, Lin Zexu, then governor of Huguang, went to the north of Jin Dynasty to see Emperor Daoguang state his strategy of banning smoking. Later, Lin Zexu released the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. The Emperor Daoguang ordered Wu Changhua, governor of Hubei Province, to appoint the governor of Huguang. Before that, Wu Changhua, governor of Hubei Province, and Lin Zexu, then governor of Huguang, jointly burned more than 10000 taels of opium and more than 3000 sticks of "hammering" cigarettes in Xingyuan school yard of Wuchang, Hubei Province, which shocked the imperial court, called out the soldiers and people of the two lakes, and expressed their gratitude. Lin Zexu's diary is a record of eighteen years in September 7th, nine months earlier than the destructed opium in Humen. Wuchang's ban on smoking has summed up experience for Humen's destructed opium. They also reviewed the soldiers in the school yard, showing the strength and confidence of banning smoking in Huguang area. Wu Changhua has no backstage or friends in his officialdom. He had been acting as governor of Huguang but failed to become a full-time official, which was also rare in the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty. Soon after, Zhou Tianjue was appointed governor of Huguang, and Wu Changhua remained governor of Hubei. After Lin Zexu left, Wu Changhua carried out Lin Zexu's proposal of banning smoking in Wuchang as usual, closed the smoking houses, punished the smokers, and made some innovations in Hubei salt and water transportation, using salt donation to set up schools and academies, and built Hanyang riverside stone dike.

Return home after dismissal

When the Opium War broke out in the 20th year of Daoguang, Zhou Tianjue, the governor of Huguang, was criticized for punishing Kong Guangyi, the magistrate of Daye County, and the court handed him over to Wu Changhua. Instead of falling into the trap, Wu tried to alleviate it. Before long, Zhou Tianjue was implicated in the crime of extorting a confession from his subordinates without punishment, and was dismissed from garrison. Although Wu Changhua had nothing to do with the case, he was dismissed for "ineffective trial". Although Zhou Tianjue, who had been in the officialdom for a long time, was appointed as the governor of water transport in the Qing Dynasty, Wu Changhua, who had no background in his official career, returned to his old hometown. The next year (1841), he died in a new house in Zhongzheng street of Jinling, and he could no longer fulfill his ambition of serving the country. Later, his son, Wu Chengqin, sighed in his inspirational poem that "fame comes from youth, while the old man is sad; how can one be ignorant of the danger of being a foreigner."