Xu Zonggan

Life

Xu Bangzhi held the genealogical designations of seventh-generation ancestor and great-great-grandfather, while Xu Renzi was his great-grandfather; his wife was Liu Zhenbao, his father-in-law Liu Xianpei, his brothers were 徐宗祥, 徐宗陵, and 徐宗鍇, and Shen Jiqing was an affinal relation. His children included the eldest son 徐毓庚, second son 徐毓泰, third son 徐毓清, fourth son 徐毓海, and the daughters 徐大妮, 徐二妮, 徐姍, and 徐娟. Other relationships included the nephews 徐毓河 and 徐毓寰, the clan relatives 徐毓岱 and 徐毓恆, the granddaughter 徐同, the son-in-law 丁勳, and the maternal cousins 李少山 and 崔榮森.

He first held the status of shengyuan, or licentiate; he ranked fourth among the provincial tribute degree holders and sixth in the jinshi listing. In the twenty-fifth year of the Jiaqing reign (1820), he obtained the jinshi degree, was sent to Shandong as a county magistrate, and served in Qufu, Wucheng, and Tai'an, as well as serving as assistant prefect of Tai'an. His other appointments included prefectural magistrate of Gaotang, Linqing, and Jining; prefect of Yanzhou, Baoning, and Zhangzhou; and posts in the Ting-Zhang-Long Circuit, the Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commission, and as Fujian Surveillance Commissioner. His appointment as Taiwan Circuit Intendant is variously dated to the 27th year of the Daoguang reign (1847) and to April of the 28th year (1848); after Yao Ying's departure, he continued many of Yao's plans.

Administration in Taiwan

In Taiwan, Xu pursued administration by testing names against realities. He worked on defense against foreign threats, the suppression of opium, fiscal and tax administration, the accumulation of reserves, the establishment of tuntian units, and the opening of Indigenous lands; after British probing of Taiwan, he also formulated defensive measures. With the Green Standard Army in decline, garrison soldiers often lodging in civilian homes and playing with weapons, Xu imposed controls, rebuilt barracks, and separated soldiers from civilians. He also proposed recruiting troops in Penghu, modifying naval administration, and clearing criminal cases, and many of his proposals were considered practicable.

Six Shuishalian Indigenous communities had long sought incorporation, but the court, judging the region remote and dangerous, maintained the existing prohibition. Xu appealed to the governor-general, invoked a precedent from the 53rd year of the Qianlong reign, and requested the initial establishment of tuntian units to facilitate administration; the request was approved, and offices were subsequently established. In the fourth month of the third year of the Xianfeng reign (1853), Lin Gong, Hong Tai, and others rose in revolt and captured Taiwan and Fengshan counties. Xu defended them with the local people, combining defensive and punitive measures; when 噶瑪蘭廳 was later disturbed again, he also led troops to suppress it. In the fourth year of the Xianfeng reign (1854), he was promoted to Fujian Surveillance Commissioner but was impeached by the Fujian governor Wang Yide and removed; soon summoned to the capital, he was ordered to assist with the suppression of banditry in Henan.

Later career and posthumous honors

In the fourth month of the first year of the Tongzhi reign (1862), Xu was promoted to governor of Fujian. In 1864, Taiping forces led by Li Shixian and Wang Haiyang entered Fujian from Guangdong and advanced on Zhangzhou; Longyan and Yunxiao fell in succession, and Xu joined Zuo Zongtang, the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang, in suppressing them. Xu died of illness in office in 1866. Zuo Zongtang and the Fuzhou general Yinggui memorialized him as a conscientious administrator whose honesty and benevolence had won popular support and whose achievements were evident wherever he served; the court granted honors and relief and bestowed the posthumous name Qinghui. In 1868, he was enshrined in the Fujian Shrine for Eminent Officials.

Writings and educational work

His writings included 《斯未信齋文稿》 and 《斯未信齋文編》 in twelve juan, with the latter title also appearing as 《斯文信齋文編》; other works were 《斯未信齋詩錄》, a self-compiled chronology, 《斯未信齋雜錄》 in six juan, and 《斯未信齋語錄》 in three juan. Xu compiled 《治臺必告錄》 in five juan from earlier achievements in governing Taiwan and notable statements and arguments on Taiwan affairs, and gave it to 丁曰健; Ding supplemented it with three further juan and published it, making it an important work on the governance of Taiwan.

Learned and versatile, and respectful toward worthy men, Xu made the revival of education a priority while serving as Taiwan Circuit Intendant. He gathered licentiates at Haitung Academy, instructed them in self-preservation, conduct, the accumulation of virtue, cultivation of vital energy, resolve, and concentration, and encouraged them in reading and composition; many of his students became accomplished. His educational principle was that interpreting the classics formed the foundation of practical learning and that the ability to compose fu marked a versatile author. He selected refined and well-formed eight-legged essays for 《東瀛試牘》, and compiled the exercises of 33 students in interpretation of the classics, historical discussion, and old and recent poetic and prose forms as the two-juan 《瀛洲校士錄》, with 27 essays in the upper juan and 91 poems and fu in the lower juan, to encourage them. 《瀛洲校士錄》 has a Xianfeng xinhai (1851) block-printed edition; 《虹玉樓詩選》 was divided into “虹玉樓詩帖選” and “古今體試草附,” and its cover stated that it was carved in Daoguang gengxu (1850) to reward students, with no charge for workmanship.