The Chronology of Mr. Gu Tinglin in Three Forms

Author: Chief Editor: Lun Ming
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1997-05-01
Features: Excerpt: Mr. Shu wrote to Pan Cigeng, "From Gengshen to Wuchen, I have read all the official reports. In Wuchen, the first year of the Chongzhen reign, the Lord was sixteen. The 'Annals of the Three Dynasties' were incomplete. After the Lord ascended the throne, the world unanimously regarded him as the leader of the rejuvenation and transformation. There was no longer the former sense of peril and urgency. At that time, when the Lord issued the 'Classic of Filial Piety' and rectified the text of 'Elementary Education,' I alone loved the Five Classics and the books on human nature and principle by the Song scholars. My grandfather further advised me that a scholar should pursue practical learning. Astronomy, geography, agriculture, water, soil, and the rise and fall of each generation should be thoroughly studied. At nineteen, my first wife, Wang Ruru from Dacang, came to live with me. At the age of seven, I compiled the 'Annals of the Imperial Academy' and saw the preface myself. In the preface to the 'Book of Benefits and Burdens of the Provinces,' it is written: 'In the autumn of Chongzhen yimao, I was dismissed from office and began to study. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Jiaoshen, the Lord was thirty-two. At the age of one, in the first month of October, it was the first month of the Shunzhi reign of the Great Qing. I composed a poem of mourning for the passing of the Lord and six poems for the annual events. The Lord's chronological poems began in March of that year. In the same year, the city of Jicheng fell to the rebels in nine days, and the Ming Zhuanglie Emperor died in the Fuzhong. On the eleventh day of April, the rebels fled westward. On the third day of May, the royal army entered the capital. The Prince Regent, the Duke of Rui, governed in the name of the Shunzhi Emperor, who was only seven years old at the time. He entered the prosperous capital in September and ascended the throne in October, establishing the capital in the city. The genealogy records that on the first day of the fourth month, the Ming Fengyang Governor Ma Shiyin and others welcomed the heir, Fu Wang Yousong, from the south, still referring to the era name Xuezheng. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the following year was designated as Hongguang, with the fourth month of Wu's genealogy. The Lord served his mother and moved to Tangshi in Changshu in April. In October, he returned to Qiandun and was robbed. In December, he moved again to Yulian in Changzhou. The Jichang Combined Chronicle records that in Yulian, from Huangjing to the northeast, it entered Youjing. Zhang's genealogy of Jingyun says: "The Lord's handwritten notes on the 'Jingyun Tower' say, 'In the absence of drunkenness, suddenly it is said that the year has changed. Is my brother now free from it? My brother, as Ma Shixue said, has a heart that is in the hundred summers and has little time in the three winters. In the past, I did not regret my actions, but now the has no use for it. Its is now like a night that allows one to set fire to the tenant's house. I have nothing left but a single beam, and my servants also gather like birds. The strong may be the constant talk of warriors, but fire attacks are the lower strategy of the military. How can the precious treasures in the pool be discussed as a fan, with hidden ill intentions day by day? The fire in the palace first alerted the eunuchs, and the gates of the tomb were destroyed. The evil of the fire spreading like a flame has reached the point of self-immolation, and the disaster has affected those around me. I am moved to tears by the paper. To my kind brother Yuan Gongren, I respectfully bow and ask if the fire set at night refers to the robbery in Qiandun. At that time, it had not yet been renamed. Yanwu had nothing to do with the case of Ye Fangheng. The Prince of Kunling, Yang Jun Chengji, responded to the imperial edict and recommended the Lord's name to the court. The imperial edict appointed him as an official in the Ministry of War. The genealogy mistakenly records that in the fifth year of Hongguang, the Lord was thirty-three years old. In the second year of Shunzhi, the capital of Jingkou, two poems on the capital, one poem on the capital, one poem on Jinling, one poem on Qianli, and one poem on the underworld were all written before May. One poem on the autumn mountain, one poem of mourning, and one poem for the burial of my mother-in-law were composed."