Yan Ruyi’s Ching-shih Thought And Achievements

Yan Ruyi,a well-known scholar of public opinion and local officials during the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns of the Qing Dynasty,Bingwen,No.Paradise,No.Suting,and Xupu people in Hunan.Yan Ruyi,as a local official at the grass-roots level,served as an official in southern Shaanxi for nearly twenty years,and contributed his whole life to the development of southern Shaanxi.Yan Ruyi’s important historical position is that he is a model of local officials in the Qing Dynasty,which is Ching-shih.Yan Ruyi experienced Qianlong,Jiaqing,Daoguang three dynasties,witnessed the rise and fall of Qianjia period.During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns,the country was faced with many crises,including the rebellions of Miao and Bailian religions,and the foreign sea bandits.At that time,most scholars did not pay attention to the people’s livelihood,to study simple learning as a matter of ability.It is in this period,Yan Ruyi inherited the tradition of Hunan Neo-Confucianism,advocated the use of specific and practical.Yan Ruyi reads books mainly in the form of Ming,and his composition takes‘ethics and discipline’ and ‘ancient and modern governance of chaos’ as his own.As a teacher,he takes virtue as the first.As a supporter of Cheng and Zhu Neo-Confucianism,he always takes ‘cultivating uniformity and governing peace’ as his own responsibility.On their own moral strict requirements,push oneself and others,the desire to be civilized aesthetic customs,reconstruction of social moral order.Combining his own understanding of history with specific practical problems,put forward feasible governance plan.As a scholar,Yan Ruyi,on the basis of on-the-spot investigation,read a large number of books and wrote books such as Overview of seedling prevention and Border defense of three provinces to provide reference for local governance.As an official,Yan Ruyi participated in the Ping Miao Rebellion and the Ping Bai Lian Rebellion,and put forward various plans such as strengthening the walls and clearing the wild,building fort villages and Tuntian.In dealing with the aftermath of the rebellion,Yan Ruyi took people’s livelihood as a major plan,developed economy and set up water conservancy;Advocate morality,in order to improve the people,teaching first,reshape the local order.Yan Ruyi’s Ching-shih style has played an exemplary role in Tao Shu,He Changling,Wei Yuan,Tang Jian,and even Zeng Guofan,Zuo Zongtang and other people.Therefore Yan Ruyi is not only a model of Confucian classics in Qianlong and Jiaqing dynasties,but also a pioneer of Hunan Confucian classics.