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Shen Baozhen
Late Qing official, son-in-law of Lin Zexu, who ran the Fuzhou Navy Yard and its school, organised Taiwan's defences after the 1874 Japanese expedition, and became governor-general at Nanjing
A walled hilltop city with a tall brick gate tower stands above a pine-covered cliff, its wall running along the ridge, while a long wooden bridge crosses a wide river below and plains, islets and layered mountains stretch into the distance, with no person in view.
Also known as Zi Youdan · Zi Hanyu · Shi Wensu
Shen Baozhen, courtesy names Youdan and Hanyu, came from Houguan, present-day Fuzhou, and was both nephew and son-in-law of Lin Zexu; he passed the jinshi examination in 1847. As prefect of Guangxin in the 1850s he held the city against the Taiping armies, and in 1862 he became governor of Jiangxi. In 1867 he succeeded Zuo Zongtang as director of the Fuzhou Navy Yard, building ships and opening its school for navigators and shipwrights. When Japan landed troops in southern Taiwan in 1874, he went to the island as imperial commissioner to organise its defence and negotiate, then asked the throne to open the mountain districts, create Taipei prefecture and lift the ban on migration from the mainland. In 1875 he became governor-general of Liangjiang and commissioner for the southern ports, and he died in office at Nanjing in 1879 with the posthumous name Wensu. The shrine to Zheng Chenggong in Tainan was built at his request.
Life and times
Dates 1820 CE–1879 CE
- 1866Zuo Zongtang Founds the Fuzhou Shipyardage 46