Ding Richang

Also known as Zi Yusheng · Zi Yusheng

Ding Richang, courtesy name Yusheng, came from Fengshun in Guangdong; he became a licentiate at twenty but failed the higher examinations and entered office as a tribute student. In the last years of the Xianfeng reign he joined Zeng Guofan's staff and then followed Li Hongzhang to Shanghai to make guns, and in 1865 he helped buy an American-owned ironworks to create the Jiangnan Arsenal, becoming circuit intendant of Shanghai the same year. He went on to serve as salt controller of Lianghuai and treasurer of Jiangsu, became governor of Jiangsu in 1868, and banned a long list of popular novels and plays. Made governor of Fujian with charge of the Fuzhou shipyard in 1875, he twice crossed to Taiwan, had a telegraph line built from the prefectural city to Qihou, and proposed coal mining and three regional navies. He died in 1882; his library, the Chijing Studio, was rich in Song and Yuan editions, and its catalogue survives.