The Red Cross Society of China was established in 1904. This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Red Cross Society of China. In the history of Changzhou, there is such a legendary figure who is both "the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty" and "the first president of the Red Cross Society of China". His life is inseparable from philanthropy in modern China.
Sheng Xuanhuai (November 4, 1844 - April 27, 1916) was born in Wujin County, Changzhou Prefecture, Jiangsu Province (now Changzhou City). An official in the late Qing Dynasty, a representative figure of the Westernization movement, a famous politician, entrepreneur and philanthropist, he is known as the "Father of Chinese Industry", "Father of Chinese Business" and "Father of Chinese Higher Education".
The Jiangbei Flood in the 32nd year of Guangxu (1906) (also known as the "Xuhuaihai Flood") was the most serious flood in the Jiangbei region in modern times, with as many as 7.3 million people affected. After the flood occurred, Jiangsu launched a disaster relief mechanism to provide disaster relief. However, the disaster became increasingly serious, and the victims abandoned their homes and fled south, resulting in a large-scale refugee wave. Duanfang, the governor of Liangjiang, sent an urgent telegram to Sheng Xuanhuai on September 22: "I pray that all the great philanthropists in Shang and Shanghai will help each other and continue to distribute charity relief." It was with this telegram that Sheng Xuanhuai began to take over the official relief work. Raise money, organize relief, and become a practical organizer.
Fundraising
After taking over the official relief, Sheng Xuanhuai first detained the victims in Yancheng, Haizhou, Funing, Taoyuan, Andong, Qinghe, Ganyu and other counties in Huai'an in Yangzhou, Qingjiang, Jiangning, Zhenjiang, etc. land. By the end of November, it would cost more than 700,000 taels of silver to process the stay. The flow of refugees has not stopped, with the number of refugees in Qingjiang alone reaching 348,793.
Sheng Xuanhuai realized that relying solely on foster care would not solve the problem. A more effective response was subsequently implemented, namely deporting the refugees back to their home countries. From the perspective of local stability, Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, also sent a message to Jiangbei Dao members on October 23 to "find ways to fund repatriation and provide relief." However, after the deported refugees returned home, they had neither a place to live nor food to eat, and “the money and rice required were too huge.”
The relief funds come from two sources: official funds and private donations. When the Qing government encountered natural disasters, it would generally intercept canals and issue donations (including real official donations and fictitious title donations). This time, the imperial court intercepted 300,000 taels of cash and rewarded 100,000 taels of money, but the actual official donation was not implemented. Because when the flood occurred in the 32nd year of Guangxu's reign, the Qing government was busy reforming the official system and stopped official official donations. Sheng Xuanhuai tried to get the petition jointly signed by Beijing officials from Jiangsu Province, but the Military Aircraft Department was very determined and "there is no need to discuss it."
When Sheng Xuanhuai was at a loss, he thought that the Qin-Jin donation in the 27th year of Guangxu and the Gui donation in the 31st year of Guangxu still had a surplus, so he planned to move the Qin-Jin donation and Gui donation to deal with the floods in Jiangbei.
In the matter of temporarily borrowing the remaining donations from Qin and Jin Dynasties, Sheng Xuanhuai received help from Tang Wenzhi, the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce of the People's Republic of China. After Sheng Xuanhuai and the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce jointly submitted a petition, they were able to borrow money and transfer relief. But the largest amount of relief came from the remaining donations from Guizhou, totaling more than 600,000 taels.
In addition, Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, donated 100,000 taels of silver from the public funds of the governor's office, and Chen Kuilong, the governor of Jiangsu, also donated 40,000 taels of silver under the account of patrol maintenance. In addition, various local officials donated 600,000 taels of silver themselves, from The official total amount of donations is approximately 1.82 million taels.
Compared with official funds, private donations have various channels: donating income from advertising charity performances, sending fundraising books, issuing lottery tickets, etc. The one that received private donations was Shanghai Guangrentang founded by Sheng Xuanhuai. It recorded in detail every donation between the 30th year of Guangxu and March of the 33rd year. The total amount was about 500,000 taels. At the same time, it cannot be ignored. The two enterprises, the Steamship Merchants Bureau and the Telegraph Bureau, chaired by Sheng Xuanhuai, saved a lot of transportation and communication costs for disaster relief. The Steamship Merchants Company waived transportation fees for disaster relief materials, and the Telegraph Bureau waived communication fees, and prioritized disaster relief telecom services so that the disaster situation could be communicated to Sheng Xuanhuai in the most convenient way.
The emergence of charity relief was an important event in the history of disaster relief in the late Qing Dynasty. It marked that private forces gradually became the main force in disaster relief. The relief is mainly carried out by organizing justice gentry to go to the disaster area in person, "check and release immediately", and implement on-site rescue, which avoids the disadvantages of official relief and allows disaster relief materials to be directly distributed to the people in the disaster area.
When a flood occurred in the 32nd year of Guangxu's reign, Sheng Xuanhuai was the imperial envoy to handle commercial affairs and was stationed in Shanghai. This provided him with geographical convenience in organizing Jiangnan righteous gentry to personally go to the disaster area for relief. However, at the beginning of organizing the righteous gentry from Jiangnan to go to Jiangbei, many righteous gentry were resistant and unwilling to go to Jiangbei. Why is
in such an embarrassing situation? These Jiangnan righteous gentry had just returned from running relief projects in Hunan. They did have objective reasons for physical fatigue and relapse of old illnesses, but in fact there was another reason, namely the problem of "raising people" (the righteous gentry's criteria for selecting sextons). Sheng Xuanhuai and Yi Shen had different standards in selecting sextons.
Tang Xijin has served as the magistrate of Andong County for 17 years since the 14th year of Guangxu (1888). He has organized many disaster relief efforts and has rich experience in disaster relief. During this process, Tang Xijin trained a group of local students with experience in disaster relief, so Tang Xijin hoped to use local students as vergers. Sheng Xuanhuai, on the other hand, hoped to appoint "his own people", that is, he would select sex officials from Jiangnan instead of local people. This kind of contradiction and conflict can be seen from Tang Xijin's letter to Sheng Xuanhuai on September 15, the 32nd year of Guangxu: "In the 14th and 15th years of the Jin Dynasty, most of the household inspectors used local students, but those who lived in the west were transferred to the inspectors. When the boss is in the south, he will send envoys to investigate the north, and the distance to his home ranges from a hundred to two or three hundred miles, which is enough to avoid the disadvantages of showing favoritism. "That is to say, as long as the local soldiers are used appropriately, there will be no problem. The phenomenon of "favoritism and fraud" will occur. Sheng Xuanhuai has always disagreed with the use of local people as relief workers because he formed a set of inherent thoughts during the practice of relief operations: using residents from the disaster area as intermediaries to assist Jiangnan righteous gentry in relief operations can easily lead to fraud. A compromise was for the Jiangnan Yishen to choose Jiangnan students as sextons.
But in the face of disaster, Sheng Xuanhuai, Tang Xijin, and Lian Zhaoyong quickly put this issue aside and agreed to follow Tang Xijin's employment policy. After Sheng Xuanhuai organized the mobilization, there were still more than 140 Jiangnan gentry and students who went to Jiangbei for disaster relief. Among them were figures who were very active in the history of disaster relief in the late Qing Dynasty: Liu Kangxia, Liu Xian, Han Jingyao, Fan Fulin and others. It was Sheng Xuanhuai's organization and coordination, and Jiangnan Yishen personally went to the disaster area, worked tenaciously, and was not afraid of the disaster, which made the disaster situation in Jiangbei stabilize.
Government and charity relief
During the floods in the 32nd year of Guangxu's reign, the "Regulations on the Cooperation of Government and Justice Relief in the North and South of the Yangtze River" appeared, which marked the "merger" of government relief and charity relief. The most direct reason for Sheng Xuanhuai's proposal to jointly organize the government and charity was the specific difficulties that arose during the Jiangbei floods.
First of all, during the transportation of grain, an extremely unreasonable situation occurred. Sheng Xuanhuai used China Merchants' ships to transport the disaster grain north along the canal. On the way, the Shuyang Bureau "detained the wheat relief boat for more than 20 days, and provided the hungry people with vegetables and cooked bean cakes. They also donated two coins per catty,... each card Just finish the job as usual." This was something Sheng Xuanhuai had not expected, because Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, had previously sent a message to the bureaus in the north of the Yangtze River: "Any rice shipped to Xuhai, Huai'an and other places, regardless of whether it is official or commercial, with or without a license, will be exempted from paying taxes." And also encouraged businessmen and civilians to move forward. Sheng Xuanhuai immediately sent a message to Duan Fang, requesting "Strictly order all checkpoints in the north of the Yangtze River to temporarily exempt grain taxes, and release them as they come without any obstruction." Duan Fang was also angry and asked "the General Administration of Taxation to find out and replace him and wait for his participation." The effect of punishing one person as a warning to others was immediately apparent, and until the end of the disaster relief, nothing like this happened again.
Secondly, after Jiangnan Yishen arrived in the disaster areas, they were also deeply troubled about how to provide relief. If the number of households listed in the official relief package is checked and released evenly, the relief funds will inevitably be insufficient; and if the relief method is "checked and released" according to the method, the disaster area is so wide and time-consuming, it is easy to cause starvation.
Third, refugees in disaster-stricken areas frequently become agitated, dissatisfied with the government, and gather in crowds to cause trouble. In addition, it is difficult for Sheng Xuanhuai to decide how to distinguish between the extremely poor and the sub-poor, and the criteria for providing relief to large and small households. These issues all involve whether disaster relief can be carried out smoothly and whether production and living order in the disaster-stricken areas can be quickly restored.
Sheng Xuanhuai felt more and more that a large-scale disaster relief operation was struggling without the support of Jiangsu officials.But he had to persevere and could not stick to the existing model, so he planned to combine official relief and charity relief into one, use official power to handle charity relief, and actively try a disaster relief model of "righteous gentry making the decision and committee members monitoring".
After many consultations with Duan Fang, Chen Kuilong and various righteous gentry, Sheng Xuanhuai formulated the eighteen articles of the "Regulations on the Joint Relief between Officials and Righteous Reliefs in the North and South of the Yangtze River", and sent a letter to the righteous gentry, sextons, and local officials in the disaster-stricken areas on November 9th. . The core of the charter is that "gentry are appointed to check households and release money, and officials are appointed to monitor and suppress." This has the characteristics of "official supervision and gentry management". In fact, the connotation of this charter reflects Sheng Xuanhuai's own nature of integrating officials, businessmen and gentry.
"Guangxu Yuanbao Made in Shaanxi Province": Since private relief funds mainly come from Jiangnan, official relief funds are merged, and there is no mint in Shaanxi. It is a special fund. Jiangnan Province casts "Guangxu Yuanbao made in Shaanxi Province" at the right time. It will no longer be cast in the future. The "Guangxu Yuanbao Made in Shaanxi Province" cast in Jiangnan has a very important position in the history of Chinese currency system. It fully reflects the impact of folk disaster relief on the national system and later generations during that period, and witnessed the gradual development of folk disaster relief from a regional organization to a national one. The growth process of sexual humanitarian organizations also reveals the social life of the people in the late Qing Dynasty.
Post-disaster reconstruction work
Post-disaster reconstruction work began with the spring relief in the 33rd year of Guangxu. Sheng Xuanhuai put forward three guiding opinions on this: "The first is to be quick, so as not to starve to death; the second is to be strict, so as not to waste excessively; the third is to be excellent. Only then can we save Che."
In order to complete the reconstruction work thoroughly, Sheng Xuanhuai suggested to Duanfang that the following four things need to be done: "One is to lend wheat seeds so that spring wheat can be replanted. This should be done by the Indian Committee. The second day is to buy a lot of miscellaneous grains, and grain prices are more expensive. Except for sorghum and corn, which are imported and distributed from Haizhou, they should be purchased separately and transported through the canal. In order for the young men to have food and to avoid future famine, Zhang Dian should be urged to organize it this spring. On the fourth day, a money-lending bureau should be set up to pledge the land to prevent it from being sold at a low price to wealthy households. It should be jointly financed by officials and gentry. If it can be guaranteed, then borrow money to start the business. "
These four things reflect the systematic nature of Sheng Xuanhuai's thoughts on disaster relief. On the one hand, we must ensure that the victims survive the temporary difficulties, on the other hand, we must restore production and living order as soon as possible, and try to fundamentally improve the disaster resistance of the victims, because it is related to the future of the victims. survival issues are also extremely important for local security. Judging from the subsequent practice, these more active measures mainly include: water conservancy projects with work-for-relief projects, low-interest loans to farmers for grain seeds, land redemptions, etc. Among them, water conservancy projects with work-for-relief projects are the top priority. Regarding labor relief, Sheng Xuanhuai believed: "The spring relief gentry must conduct household checks to select all able-bodied men, and the righteous gentry will give them licenses to work as workers. Only the old and the weak, and women with disabilities and diseases, can be omitted, and the relief funds can be omitted to support labor." , the name is self-relief, but in fact, relief is one thing, and work is another thing, but relief is only for a short time, and work is long-lasting.” On January 8th and 15th, we held two "treats to encourage donations", raising a total of 110,000 taels of work relief funds, and Cen Chunxuan donated 5,000 gold. In this work-for-relief effort, Sheng Xuanhuai attached great importance to the role of Jiangbei local officials and wrote to Duanfang to request that the local officials be responsible for the work-relief work.
In order to ensure the smooth progress of the relief work, Sheng Xuanhuai also made adjustments to the county gentry and dispatched Feng Jiaxi and Zhu Zuyin to handle relief work. After Feng and Zhu paid a visit to Duanfang on the 11th day of the first lunar month of the 33rd year of Guangxu's reign, they went straight to Jiangbei for relief work. On the way, they wrote to Sheng Xuanhuai, saying that they would "try their best to make the matter a deputy appointment" and spare no effort.
In order to make the next spring planting go smoothly, Sheng Xuanhuai purchased 5,000 dans of American wheat seeds and 500 dans of Australian wheat seeds through the British missionary Li Deli, and loaned them to disaster victims in various counties at low interest rates. It is precisely because of such active measures that in the 33rd year of Guangxu's reign in Jiangbei, "two wheat harvests were abundant, and the autumn harvest was even brighter." The land redemption work went very smoothly in August, the reconstruction of the disaster area was basically completed, and the disaster relief work came to an end. Lu Chengdong
proofreading Faye Wong
