Ministers › Statesman / Official
Du Shoutian
Qing official from Binzhou who tutored the future Xianfeng emperor for over a decade and died on a famine relief mission in 1852
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Zhi Nong · Shi Wenzheng
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Du Shoutian, courtesy name Zhinong, came from Binzhou in Shandong; in 1823 he placed first in the metropolitan examination and first in the second rank of the palace examination, and entered the Hanlin Academy. Assigned to the princes' school, he taught the fourth prince, Yizhu, for more than ten years while rising through the Grand Secretariat, the ministries of works and revenue and the Censorate to minister of works and chief tutor of the princes. The Draft History of Qing tells how, at a spring hunt in the Southern Park, Yizhu shot no arrows, saying he could not bear to harm animals in the breeding season; the answer, attributed to Du's coaching, is said to have settled the Daoguang emperor's choice of heir. When Yizhu became the Xianfeng emperor he made Du assistant grand secretary and minister of justice. Sent in 1852 to oversee famine relief in Shandong and Jiangsu, he died suddenly at Qingjiangpu at sixty-six and was given the rare posthumous name Wenzheng.
Life and times
Dates 1787 CE–1852 CE