Wu Qijun

Biography

Family Background and Early Life Wu Qijun was born into an exceptionally successful Ming-Qing lineage. Beginning with his grandfather, four generations of the Wu family produced nine jinshi degree holders, giving rise to the expression "nine jinshi from one family." His grandfather Wu Yanrui ranked fourteenth in the second class of the 1766 palace examination and rose to Provincial Administration Commissioner of Guangdong; he wrote Qingfen Shuwu Wengao. His uncle Wu Nan passed the jinshi examination in 1781, served as magistrate of Xiezhou Directly Administered Prefecture, and left Woyun Shanfang Wengao. His father Wu Xuan passed the jinshi examination in 1787 and rose to vice-ministerial posts in the Boards of War, Personnel, and Rites; his works included Zhongzhou Wenxian Kao and Dushi Biji. His elder brother Wu Qiyan ranked sixty-third in the second class of the 1799 palace examination, became Right Vice Minister of War, and wrote Tenghua Shuwu Yigao. Other relatives, including his cousin Wu Qijun, younger cousin Wu Qitai, and descendants Wu Yuanbing and Wu Lie, also became jinshi. Wu Qijun was born in 1789. At age five, his mother Lady Xu, daughter of Hanlin Academy Shujishi Xu Jiaqi, began his elementary education. At age ten he studied under his uncle at Linhuai Academy in Gushi. He was an indefatigable student who read widely and insistently pursued questions he did not understand. At age twelve, he accompanied his mother to Beijing, first studying at Qingfen Study and later entering the Imperial Academy, where his learning advanced greatly. ### Examination Success and Entry into Office In 1810, the fifteenth year of Jiaqing, Wu Qijun passed the Henan provincial examination. He initially used his juren degree to purchase appointment as a Secretariat Drafter in the Grand Secretariat. In 1817, the twenty-second year of Jiaqing, he placed first in the palace examination, becoming first-ranked jinshi and zhuangyuan, and was appointed Compiler of the Hanlin Academy. According to the source text, this was the only time a native of Henan attained the top rank during the 268 years of Qing rule over China. Two years later, Wu was appointed chief examiner for the Guangdong provincial examination. At the same time his elder brother Wu Qiyan was Education Commissioner of Shuntian Prefecture, so the brothers simultaneously held educational offices, an arrangement celebrated among scholars. ### Mourning Period and the Dongshu Botanical Garden In 1821, the first year of Daoguang, Wu Qijun was compiling the Veritable Records when his father died. His uncle died in 1823, and his mother died in 1825. The source text states that Wu remained in his home region in mourning "in 1821," wording that is preserved here because the chronology is internally unclear. During this period, he selected more than ten mu of land at Shihe Bay east of Gushi and created a botanical garden called Dongshu, or "Eastern Villa." He planted eight hundred peach trees and three thousand willows, made hibiscus hedges, and cultivated several mu of vegetables. Dongshu became an important site for his botanical research. A couplet at its gate described "ten mu of wasteland, planted with rare flowers and with vegetables; several thatched rooms, half storing farming tools and half storing books." One year a mountain flood inundated Dongshu. Wu carried provisions and traveled upstream along the Shihe River into the Dabie Mountains to investigate the causes of the flooding. He subsequently wrote Zhi Huai Shangyou Lun. In it he advocated building gates and embankments at lakes and lowlands along both sides of the Huai River trunk stream and emphasized balancing water storage with drainage. ### Rise and Fall in Official Life In 1829, after completing his mourning obligations, Wu returned to Beijing. He first served as instructor to the Shujishi and as an official of the Daily Record of Activity and Repose. In 1831 he served in the Southern Study, and thereafter held a succession of posts including Education Commissioner of Hubei, Heir Apparent's Attendant, Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, Deputy Commissioner of the Transmission Office, and Grand Secretariat Academician. In 1832 he became Education Commissioner of Hubei. In 1835 he was promoted to Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial and soon appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Transmission Office. In 1836 he was exceptionally promoted to Grand Secretariat Academician with the rank of Vice Minister of Rites. In 1837 he became Left Vice Minister of War and Education Commissioner of Jiangxi and was later transferred to Right Vice Minister of Revenue. In 1840, Wu was ordered to investigate affairs in Hubei. He substantiated accusations that Viceroy of Huguang Zhou Tianjue had made improper appointments and had been involved in cases that resulted in deaths, while Zhou's son had improperly used personnel. Zhou was dismissed and exiled to Ili, and officials below the rank of governor received various demotions. Wu served as acting Viceroy of Huguang and later received the substantive appointment of Governor of Hunan. In 1842, he suppressed the Zhong Renjie uprising in Chongyang and was formally commended. The next year he was transferred to Zhejiang but did not take up the post because a small peasant uprising broke out in Wugang. After suppressing it, he was transferred as Governor of Yunnan and acting Viceroy of Yun-Gui. In 1845 he was transferred to Fujian, then to Shanxi as governor with concurrent responsibility for salt administration. In Shanxi he reduced official expenses, reformed salt administration, and arrested opium dealers; contemporary opinion praised him as "upright and diligent." In 1846 he requested relief from office because of illness. He died in 1847 while still serving in Shanxi. On the nineteenth day of the twelfth lunar month of the twenty-sixth year of Daoguang, an imperial edict praised Wu Qijun for entering the Southern Study from the Hanlin Academy, advancing through senior central offices before serving as a governor, and for being learned, principled, and conscientious in handling affairs. The court granted him the honorary title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and the funeral honors accorded to a provincial governor. Because of Wu's reforms to Shanxi salt administration and his reputation for self-restraint and public service, the court extended special favor to his descendants. His sons Wu Yuanxi, Wu Chongen, and Wu Rongxi received substantive appointments respectively as registrar, county magistrate, and subprefect. His sons Wu Chengen and Wu Hongen and his grandson Wu Zunrang were granted juren status. The source presents this benefit to five sons and one grandson as a celebrated sign of the family's prosperity.

Wu Qijun came of a family prominent since the Ming and Qing. After the Qing conquest nine men of the house over four generations passed the metropolitan examination, he himself being the provincial top graduate of Henan in the dynasty. His grandfather Wu Yanrui passed in 1766 and rose to be judicial commissioner of Guangdong; his uncle passed in 1781 and became prefect of Jiezhou; his father passed in 1787 and rose to vice minister of war and of personnel and of rites, leaving works on Henan documents and on history; his eldest brother passed in 1799 and became vice minister of war. Cousins and nephews also took the degree.

He himself served as a compiler of the Hanlin, education commissioner in Hubei and governor of Hunan, Yunnan and the Yun-Gui provinces, rising to minister of war and governor-general of Huguang. In his postings he attended to field observation and recorded the plants he saw, producing the Illustrated Investigation of Plant Names and Forms and its longer companion, the former describing more than seventeen hundred species with precise illustrations — a major work of modern Chinese botany and one of the landmark results of the transition from traditional to modern botanical study in China.

His interests were wide, extending beyond botany to epigraphy, geography and agronomy, his writings and methods holding a distinctive place in Qing scholarship.

Major Activities

Scholarly Contributions Unlike many Qing officials, Wu Qijun possessed substantial expertise in botany and mineral studies. His works included Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao, Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao Changbian, Diannan Kuangchang Tulüe, and Dianxing Jicheng Ji, all described in the source as having high scholarly value. The botanical importance of Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao arguably exceeded Wu's historical influence as a high provincial official. Its woodblock edition appeared in 1848, one year after his death. The work raised traditional Chinese botanical study to a new level and later attracted attention abroad. During the 1870s and 1880s it circulated in France and Japan and continued to be used in botany and Chinese medicine. The work contains thirty-eight juan and records 1,714 plant species, more than five hundred more than the number of plants recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica. Its plants came from nineteen Chinese provinces, giving it a geographical and taxonomic scope far broader than earlier materia medica works. Wu referred to the plant classification used in the Compendium of Materia Medica but substantially revised it. He divided plants into twelve groups: grains, vegetables, mountain herbs, wetland herbs, stone herbs, aquatic herbs, vines, fragrant herbs, poisonous herbs, flowering plants, fruits, and trees. Entries recorded names, morphology, color, properties and flavors, places of origin, and uses, with the goal of matching observed conditions. Through field investigation and textual research, he corrected many cases in which earlier written accounts did not match actual plants. In Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao, each plant description was accompanied by an illustration based on a physical specimen. Some drawings were precise enough to assist identification at the family, order, or even species level. Unlike earlier materia medica books, the work began to move beyond purely practical uses toward a botanical form close to a modern flora. It provided later researchers with valuable data, and modern botanists have continued to consult it to identify Chinese plant names and historical uses. Wu also compiled the twenty-two-juan Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao Changbian, containing 838 plants, as well as Yunnan Kuangchan Gongqi Tulüe, Diannan Kuangchang Yucheng Tu, Dianxing Jicheng Ji, Junzheng Jiyao Lu, Zouyi Cunhui, Zhi Huai Shangyou Lun, Nianyu Ge Shichao, and Tanpu. ### Political Activities While serving as a high provincial official, Wu Qijun pursued a practical statecraft ideal that emphasized diligent administration and concern for the population. He was active in criminal justice, opium suppression and resistance to Britain, fiscal and salt-administration reform, and mining management. When he became acting Viceroy of Huguang in 1840, he and Vice Minister Linkui were ordered to investigate former Viceroy Zhou Tianjue and acting magistrate Chu Yong for abuse of torture and deaths in custody. Their investigation concluded that Zhou had appointed Han Yunbang as police officer, who falsely accused civilians of banditry and provoked unrest, and that Chu had used torture while administering salt checkpoints, causing deaths. Zhou, Chu, and others were ultimately dismissed and exiled. As Governor of Hunan during the Opium War, Wu strongly opposed Britain's use of opium and military force. He enforced opium prohibitions, arrested dealers, confiscated smoking implements, and organized manpower and weapons to support resistance to the British in Fujian. As Governor of Shanxi, he likewise ordered rigorous arrests of opium dealers. While serving as Governor of Shanxi and supervising the Hedong salt administration, Wu understood the difficulties faced by salt merchants during a period of appreciating silver and depreciating copper cash. He tried to eliminate accumulated abuses and relinquished a large portion of the governor's exclusive salt-administration office allowance, recorded in the source as twelve thousand taels and also as a memorial to cut ten thousand taels, in order to relieve merchant distress. As Governor of Yunnan, he reformed mining administration in Dongchuan. By checking accounts and conducting on-site inspections, he concluded that long-standing abuses among clerks had caused false deficits in the copper administration. He advocated relaxing performance quotas to relieve mining difficulties and compiled Diannan Kuangchang Tulüe, which the source credits with revitalizing Dongchuan copper production. ### Travels and Fieldwork Wu Qijun's botanical research began during his mourning period with the creation of Dongshu, his botanical garden at Gushi, and continued throughout an official career that took him across much of the empire. Wherever he served, he investigated local plants, consulted local people, and accumulated first-hand records. He observed plants directly while also extracting relevant descriptions from older texts. After roughly thirty years of work, he completed Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao and Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao Changbian. The former is described in the source as a precursor of the modern Chinese flora and as an important work in the history of Chinese botany. Wu emphasized direct visual verification rather than uncritical reliance on hearsay. While serving in Shanxi, for example, he observed that the Shanxi Gazetteer claim that dangshen did not grow in the province contradicted actual conditions. He found that dangshen grew wild in abundance and was also cultivated. He described its vine growth, leaves, thick joints, milky root sap, autumn flowers, color, and economic cultivation. He also had seedlings dug from the mountains for cultivation and observation and compared their early growth and smell with those of alfalfa and astragalus. He compiled earlier textual accounts of plants into the twenty-two-juan Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao Changbian, which contains 838 plant entries. This provided source material for his own later research and also made historical Chinese botanical literature easier for later scholars to consult. ### Relations with Contemporaries Wu Qijun was a close associate of Lin Zexu. The two shared similar views on opium suppression and related state affairs, and Lin Zexu wrote a poem addressed to Wu, titled Chou Wu Yuzhai Shilang (Qijun).

Personal Relations

• Father: Wu Xuan, Right Vice Minister of Rites
• Paternal uncle: Wu Nan, magistrate of Xiezhou Directly Administered Prefecture
• Elder brother: Wu Qiyan, Right Vice Minister of War
• Cousin: Wu Qijun
• Younger cousin: Wu Qitai
• Sons: Wu Yuanxi, Wu Rongxi, Wu Chongen, Wu Chengen, Wu Hongen
• Nephews: Wu Jixi and Wu Yuanbing
• Grandson: Wu Zunrang ### Teachers and Friends - Mother, Lady Xu, daughter of Hanlin Academy Shujishi Xu Jiaqi: provided his elementary education
• Paternal uncle Wu Nan: became his teacher when Wu was ten
• Lin Zexu: close friend who shared his views on opium suppression and related government affairs ### Ruler and Subject - Daoguang Emperor: praised Wu as learned, principled, and conscientious in handling affairs ### Colleagues - Zhou Tianjue: former Viceroy of Huguang; Wu's investigation substantiated charges of improper appointments, after which Zhou was dismissed and exiled to Ili
• Linkui: vice minister who joined Wu in investigating Zhou Tianjue's case

Historical Assessment

Qing and Contemporary Assessments - The Daoguang Emperor praised him as "learned and upright, conscientious in handling affairs" and granted him the honorary title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and gubernatorial funeral honors, according to the Veritable Records of the Qing.

• Contemporary opinion called him "upright and diligent" for cutting administrative expenses, reforming salt administration, and arresting opium dealers while Governor of Shanxi, according to the Draft History of Qing: Biography of Wu Qijun.
• The court extended special favor to his descendants in recognition of his integrity and devotion to public service, benefiting five sons and one grandson. ### Late Qing and Republican Period - The German scholar Emil Bretschneider praised the illustrations in Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao as carefully executed and at times sufficiently accurate for identification at the family, order, or even species level.
• During the 1870s and 1880s, the work circulated in France and Japan and attracted attention in international botanical circles; it continued to be important in botany and Chinese medicine.
• The book was repeatedly reprinted in China and widely cited, and modern botanists often used it to identify Chinese plant names and historical uses. ### Modern Period - Modern botanical scholarship generally regards Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao as a precursor of the modern Chinese flora and an important work in the history of Chinese botany.
• The work moved beyond the traditional materia medica emphasis on properties and uses to focus more strongly on morphology, ecological habits, geographical distribution, and propagation, and is therefore presented in the source as marking a transition toward botany as a more independent field.
• Wu's work has been seen as a bridge between traditional materia medica and modern botany.
• In November 1986, the Henan Provincial People's Government designated Wu Qijun's tomb a key protected cultural site at the provincial level. In September 2000, Wu Qijun's former residence and the Wu clan shrine at Gushi were designated associated cultural properties of the tomb.