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Zhao Erxun

Late Qing bannerman and provincial governor-general who, after 1914, headed the Qing History Office and directed the Draft History of Qing.

Also known as Hao Cishan · Director of the Qing History Office

Roles: Provincial GovernorsHistorian

Zhao Erxun, styled Cishan, was a Han-martial bannerman of the Plain Blue Banner who earned his jinshi in 1874. In the last decades of the Qing he served as a senior provincial official, including Military Governor of Shengjing and Governor-General of Huguang and of Sichuan, and in 1911 became Governor-General of the Three Northeastern Provinces. In 1914 Yuan Shikai appointed him Director of the Qing History Office, where he led a team of about a hundred scholars. The manuscript was hastily completed in 1927, the year he died, and was printed the next year as the Draft History of Qing, its title signalling an unfinished text; the work bears his name as chief compiler.

Life and times

1844BornQing Republican Era
1927 CEDied

Works

Literature · Prose542
Literature · Sayings8
1. Neither Proud Nor Boastful of His MeritQingIdiom in the Draft History of Qing on the Daoguang Emperor: merit without boasting
2. Orders Obeyed and Prohibitions HeededQingIdiom in the Draft History of Qing on Li Wei: orders carried out, bans obeyed
3. Wholly Public and Free of Self: The Last Qing EdictsQingIdiom found in the Draft History of Qing: perfectly public-minded, without selfish aims
4. In Accord with Heaven and the People's WillQingIdiom rooted in the Book of Changes: a change of rule that answers Heaven and the people
5. Memorising Whatever Passes Before One's EyesQingIdiom from the Draft History of Qing: the young Qianlong could recite what he read once
6. +3 more
  1. Of Two Harms, Take the LesserQingLine from the Qing abdication edict of 1912: of two harms, choose the lighter
  2. Troops Prized for Quality, Not NumbersQingLine from the Draft History of Qing: Zeng Guofan on elite troops over numbers
  3. A True King's Army Is Like Timely Rain: Zuo Zongtang in XinjiangQingLine from the Draft History of Qing: a righteous army welcomed like timely rain