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Wu Qijun
Top graduate of 1817 and provincial governor from Gushi in Henan whose illustrated Researches on the Names and Realities of Plants records over 1,700 species
On an observatory terrace at night, a large bronze armillary sphere stands on a stone base while two people stand with their backs turned facing the view; stars are joined into constellation lines overhead, and a sundial and tiered dripping water vessels stand at the right.
Also known as Zi Jishen · Hao Yuezhai · Hao Jilan
Wu Qijun, courtesy name Jishen, with the literary names Yuezhai and Jilan, came from Gushi in Henan. He took first place in the palace examination of 1817, entered the Hanlin Academy as a compiler, served as an education commissioner, and in the Daoguang reign became vice minister of revenue. From 1840 he was governor in turn of Hunan, Yunnan, Fujian, Shanxi and other provinces, and wherever he went he gathered plants, questioned farmers and gardeners, and had artists draw specimens from life. He died in office in 1847; the next year the Shanxi governor Lu Yinggu printed in Taiyuan his Researches on the Names and Realities of Plants (Zhiwu mingshi tukao) in thirty-eight chapters, describing more than 1,700 plants, together with a twenty-two-chapter compilation of older textual records. While in Yunnan he also wrote an illustrated account of the province's copper mines and smelting, Diannan kuangchang tulue.
Life and times
Dates 1789 CE–1847 CE