Jiao Hong’s Honor
Zhu Yuanzhang named Gaozu Jiao Hong
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the flames of peasant uprisings burned across the land of Qilu. Jiao Shuo, the great ancestor of Jiao Hong, walked out of the land where he was raised in Huayali, Guanlan Township, Rizhao County, and joined the army of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and followed the army in the southern and northern wars. He fought bravely. During the Northern Expedition following General Xu Da, he fought with the Yuan army at Baigou River (in today's Hebei Province). The Ming army won a great victory. Jiao Shuo made great achievements in this battle. He was incorporated into Zhu Yuanzhang's personal army, stationed in Nanjing, the capital of the country, and was awarded the military position of hereditary flag bearer and deputy Qianhu. From then on he settled in Jiangnan.
In the army, Jiao Shuo overcame the difficulty of low cultural foundation, studied diligently and studied military books, and was discovered by Zhu Yuanzhang who was inspecting the army.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked Jiao Shuo about his name, ancestral home, family and military achievements, and then said: "Let me change your name."
Jiao Shuo became Ming Taizu Give him a new name: Jiao Yong.
"Yong" means meritorious service. It means both reward and remembering military achievements, and it also means encouragement to not be lazy, eager to learn, and to continue to achieve military achievements.
This is indeed a great honor for a middle- and lower-level Guards officer, and it is also an honor worthy of being remembered forever in the history of the Jiao family.
Zhou Hui, a writer of the Ming Dynasty, recorded in "The Trivial Affairs of Jinling": "The Taizu and his close ministers changed their names, which is definitely an anomaly. The Emperor Fengtianmen summoned the flag bearer to guard Jiao Shuo and gave him the name Yong. This is This is even more different from the classics. This incident is first recorded in the imperial book of the flag bearer (Jiao Shuo), who is the ancestor of Mr. Taishi Danyuan."
Because the great ancestor Jiao Hong was originally from Rizhao, and his grandfathers were originally from Nanjing, when Jiao Hong called his hometown, he also had another name of his own: "Langya Jiao Hong". The spring of the 17th year of Wanli (1589) was the year of the Ming Shenzong's Ji Chou Examination. Jiao Hong rushed to Beijing to take the exam. After the palace examination, he was hand-picked by Emperor Wanli to be ranked No. 1, becoming the 72nd No. 1 scholar in the 252 years since the Ming Dynasty. Scholars on the same list include Tao Wangling, Zhu Shilu (literary, calligrapher), Ma Jinglun (censor), Yuan Keli (Minister of War), Dong Qichang (calligrapher), Feng Congwu (Minister of Industry), etc., all of whom are famous figures of the generation.
When the good news came, my hometown, Shangyuan County, Jinling, and my ancestral home, Rizhao County, Shandong, both felt great honor because such a new top scorer had been born there. According to the old practice, the prefecture and county allocated special funds to build a memorial arch in his honor.
At that time, famines occurred in Jiangnan and Shandong areas, and the victims were displaced. After Jiao Hong received the news that the two places were planning to build archways for themselves, he immediately sent letters to the county magistrates of the two places to dissuade them and suggested that the money for building the archways should be used for disaster relief to relieve local victims.
Jiao Hong wrote in the letter:
"The first two letters were obtained in handwriting, and I am deeply moved by them. Zhou Gongjian imitated the affairs, and even though he asked me to write a book to resign, he still bothered my father-in-law and his party. , You can't blame others for their crooked ears. Although the servants are unworthy, they can't benefit the villagers, so how dare they be a burden to the villagers? In the drought and famine in the place, there is only one gold to live on, but this is not enough. It's useless to waste money, so I don't dare to think of it as the second one; the ancients are immortal, they have their own place, and the servants can barely establish it. In other words, even if the work is prosperous, he must be dismissed." (See Volume 13 of Jiao Hong's "Danyuan Collection")
Jiao Hongjian resigned from Zhuangyuanfang in both places.
Faced with officials from his hometown reporting disaster relief memorials to the court, and the yamen in charge stalling, Jiao Hongli appealed to the agricultural officials and finally secured 5,000 taels of silver for Sangzi.
As for his hometown of Rizhao, in his "Letter to the Rizhao Clan", he revealed his attachment to his hometown and his apology for not being able to fulfill his filial piety due to being separated by thousands of mountains and rivers (see the "Rizhao County Chronicle" in the 11th year of Kangxi's reign, p. Page 97, "Rizhao City Chronicle" page 814).
At Jiao Hong's request, Rizhao County, his hometown, diverted part of the Zhuangyuanfang silver for disaster relief. The other part was used to repair Jiao Hong's ancestral forest, build a forest protection flower wall, and purchase sacrificial fields. In addition to the annual sacrifices, he gave alms to his poor brothers of the same clan.
Ancient Temple, Ancient Tree, Hometown Tour
In the southeast of Dahuaya Village, across the river, there used to be a Huayan Temple.
It is said that Huayan Temple was built in the Tang Dynasty and has a history of about 1,380 years.
In the ancient temple, there is an ancient ginkgo tree that was also planted in the Tang Dynasty. The ancient tree has a diameter at breast height of 2.15 meters, a branch height of 6 meters, and a crown of 22 meters by 28 meters. In the list of existing ancient trees in Rizhao, based on age and diameter at breast height, it is the second largest ancient ginkgo tree after the ginkgo tree in Dinglin Temple in Fulaishan, Ju County.
Facing the current situation, the author can no longer imagine what this ancient temple looked like. I can only look for the shadow of that ancient temple from the poems and historical materials left to us by Jiao Hong more than 400 years ago.
In the 17th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1589), after Jiao Hong became the number one scholar, he served as editor of the Hanlin Academy in Beijing.
In the 18th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1590), Jiao Hong's "probation period" expired and he was allowed to visit relatives.
The first thing he had to do on the way from Beijing to Nanjing was to go back to his hometown of Rizhao to visit his relatives and pay homage to his ancestors (go to Xi's grave).
When he set foot on the land of his hometown after living in a foreign country for a long time, facing Dahuaya Village and recognizing his ancestors, Jiao Hong, the number one scholar who came back, was very excited.
He walked on the land of his hometown, wandered under the Huayan Temple and the Tang apricot tree, and wrote a five-character poem - "Huayan Temple":
"One Shang Huayan Temple, looking back at Ziqiyuan."
What Jiao Hong saw when he looked back was the land where his ancestors had grown up for generations and the place where they rested forever.
An image of Zhou Lang of the Three Kingdoms, a high-spirited, unrestrained, suave and ambitious man who is well-educated in new subjects, and his infinite attachment to his hometown in the arms of his mother in his hometown, are vividly displayed on the page. As he said in "A Letter to the Rizhao Clan", he attributed all his achievements to the virtues of his ancestors, the teachings of his parents, and also to the good Feng Shui of his hometown...
Facing the beautiful natural environment of his hometown surrounded by mountains, surrounded by mountain flowers, and beautiful mountains and waters, this new top scholar expressed his sincere love for his hometown Rizhao!
He continued to write in "Huayan Temple": The depth is close to the ravine, and the night is unexpectedly blocked... Jiao Hong's contribution to Rizhao culture
In the eighteenth year of Wanli (1590), Du Yi'an, the magistrate of Rizhao County, presided over the creation of the first "Rizhao County Chronicle" in the history of Rizhao.
For more than 400 years, Rizhao has been devastated by wars. This first county chronicle has not been found yet. Fortunately, Jiao Hong’s preface to this county chronicle was compiled during the “Kang-Qian Dynasty” of the Qing Dynasty. It has been preserved in the Kangxi and Guangxu editions of "Rizhao County Chronicles".
Jiao Hong is very concerned about the education in his hometown.
After Jiao Hong won the first prize in the examination, he maintained close contact with his hometown. In addition to helping his hometown as much as possible materially, he also devoted a lot of effort to the education of his hometown.
The "Rizhao County Chronicle" of the Qing Dynasty records in the chapter "Xiang Xian·Jiao Hong":
"Gongdu Weisang, a distant relative of the Huayali clan, kept asking questions. There are many scholars in the city. An Gongzhong and Li Gongfan have been in charge for the longest time. They have been promoted to the first rank. They have the power of Gong Zhentao and are in the scholar community." (See the Kangxi edition of "Rizhao County Chronicles", No. Page 39)
In the Ming Dynasty, there were 9 Jinshis in Rizhao County, including Jiao Hong. Among them were two students of Jiao Hong: An Chong, a native of Anjialing in Liangcheng Town, who was a Jinshi in the 35th year of Wanli (1607); Li Fan, a native of Houmazhuang, a village in the future, who was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli (1613). ) Jinshi.
In the "Rizhao County Chronicle", there are two articles written by Jiao Hong that record and discuss the development of education in Rizhao.
One article is "Record of Temple Reconstruction in Rizhao County". He made a comprehensive record of the development of Confucianism in Rizhao County, especially the development of Rizhao County in the late Ming Dynasty, and described the prospects of vigorously establishing Rizhao education and promoting the development of Rizhao cultural undertakings. He hopes that one day, "I will return to my hometown" and see the prosperity and development of Rizhao culture.
The other article is "Record of Xiu Zun Sutra Pavilion in Rizhao County". Written in the forty-fourth year of Wanli (1616). It was written by Jiao Hong in his later years at the request of two other students in Rizhao, Shen Quan and Mou Guohua.
He praised the Ming Dynasty magistrates Li Wenxing, Chen Rujin and other enlightened magistrates who led the people of Rizhao for their achievements in establishing education, educating the people, and resisting Japanese pirates through the construction of educational facilities such as Zunjing Pavilion and Lunming Hall. He recorded the development of Rizhao culture and pointed out from a high position The impetuosity and bad habits of Rizhao cultural development.
Jiao Hong's "Record of the New Fire Temple" was written in the 36th year of Wanli (1608). On the one hand, it records the historical facts of the serious fire in Rizhao that year and the heavy losses. On the other hand, it praises a series of good deeds by the good friend and benevolent Shen Gong who built temples, built roads, and saved people from fire and water. Between the lines, it is full of praise and advocacy for good deeds and social customs. Since the "Rizhao County Chronicle" of the Ming Dynasty was lost, it has become a rare historical material for people to understand the customs, climate, value orientation, etc. of the Ming Dynasty. Suggestions for the development of the hometown of the number one scholar
1. List the remains of the hometown of the number one scholar as a municipal cultural relic protection unit, and strive to list it as a provincial or even national cultural relic protection unit in the future.
Recruit relevant experts, combine tourism and other planning, take into account life and production, and carry out overall planning to make forests, temples, ancestral halls, trees, monuments, roads, etc. form different functional areas and form a complete and systematic cultural relics system .
2. Build Rizhao City’s first “four-in-one” cultural monument integrating Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Western culture. The first is to restore the Buddhist relics of Huayan Temple; the second is to build Rizhao Ancient Confucian Education Wax Museum in Huayan Temple to reproduce Rizhao’s old education characteristics and Rizhao’s old customs; the third is to build an exhibition hall for the achievements of Eastern and Western learning. Preparing for the construction of calligraphy and painting art exhibition halls such as the achievement exhibition of Jiao Hong’s famous disciple Xu Guangqi, the pioneer of Western studies, the scientific exchange achievements exhibition of Eastern studies in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Rizhao Xiao School Art (Xiao Jiucheng), and the Xing School Art (Xing Shaolan, Taicang, Jiangsu); the fourth is to Taoist relics - the restoration of Huilongguan Taoist Temple in West Lake is also included in the plan.
3. Construction of Jiao Hong Memorial Hall. Exhibit his life and achievements (including his ancestors); welcome Jiao Hong back to his hometown of loess, and build the No. 1 scholar's tomb behind his ancestor's tomb. Build a veritable "Zhuangyuan Forest"; design and construct a white marble or granite bust of Jiao Hong. It is run by the public and private sector, based on the construction model of the Wen Tianxiang Memorial Hall in Beijing, and the society and descendants of the Jiao family at home and abroad raised funds to build it.
4. Establish an exhibition room for Jiao Hong’s works. Collect Jiao Hong's writings scattered throughout his life in the National Library in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Jinan, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and other overseas countries, and return them to Rizhao for display.
5. Compile and compile Shandong's first number one scholar - "Jiao Hongzhi". And strive to be included in "Shandong Zhuzi Baijia Zhi". He became an outstanding figure in Shandong introduced by Rizhao after studying Confucius, Mencius, Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Xie, Pu Songling, Qi Jiguang, Zheng Xuan... from various places.
6. Adapt Jiao Hong’s life into a TV series in due course. Market-oriented operation, domestic artists are invited to reproduce Jiao Hong's thoughts and achievements throughout his life.