The Biography Of Niu Yunzhen

Niu Yunzhen (1706—1758), Style Jieping, Named Zhengu, born in Ziyang in Shandong province, was a famous scholar, educator and official of the Qing Dynasty. The people politely called him "Kongshan Gentleman".Niu Yunzhen was intelligent and fond of studying at his childhood. And he could be able to write articles at his ten year's old, passed the highest imperial examination in the eleventh year of Yongzheng. In the third year of Qianlong, Niu Yunzhen was appointed the county magistrate of Qin'an in Gansu province, concurrently in charge of Hui and Liangdang. With managing effectively, he was transferred to Pingfan, concurrently in charge of Gulang and Pinggu. During the ten years in Gansu, Niu Yunzhen was wholehearted for people, diligent and respectful to work. So he was eminent for his excellent achievements. Afterwards, he was dismissed from officialdom for "Wan Min Yi". In fact, that was a wrong. Niu Yunzhen usually established academy to develop the local culture and education, when he managed one county. Then, the learners were fond of studying and brilliant students came forth in large number. Niu Yunzhen never stopped studying in his life. In his spare time, he devoted self to doing scholarly research. His works contained many subjects, including "The Book of songs", "Shangshu", "Yijing", "Chunqiu", "Analects of Confucius", "Mencius", "Shiji", "Jinshi". All of them contained Niu Yunzhen's original viewpoints.In a word, as a scholar, educator, and official, Niu Yunzhen could be called a renowned person of Qing Dynasty, either by his morality or by achievement. However, looked up in the relevant research for recent 300 years, I found Niu Yunzhen hadn't enjoyed enough favor and attention. So the special study about him is seldom seen. At present, I have found only one book named "Chronicle of Niu Kongshan". And others are simple introductory articles. What a pity both to our historical culture and to Niu Yunzhen himself! Therefore, it's necessary to make a biography of Niu Yunzhen, not only for his value, but also for the times.During my writing the thesis, I mainly referred to his "chronicle", "epitaph", "lament", all kinds of works, and so on. I sorted out and summarized these materials, arranged them to be this coherent article. The article contains seven chapters and takes politics education scholarship as focal points. There are two purposes in my thesis. One is to summarize the general situation of Niu Yunzhen's life. The other is to make more and more people understand and recognize this famous person and his value in our historical culture.