Striving For Peace And Administering Internal Affairs

Jiamei Zhou (1834-1886), another name is Xiao-tang, born in Yixing county of Jiangsu province, made Jinshi in the ninth year of reign of emperor Xianfeng,he had ever worked for the Libu,the Tsungli Yamen,the Shuntianfu,theBingbu,the Hubu,the Duchayuan and so on,especially in the Tsungli Yamen and the Shuntianfu were longer than others.During working for the Tsungli Yamen, Jiamei Zhou was full of foresight and strategic vision in dealing with foreign affairs, at the same time he could stress the principle without losing flexibility,so he was seen as right-hand man by minister Wen Xiang and Yi Xian. During working as the Shuntianfu provincial governor, he was an honest official, concerned about people's lives, and he had a strong thinking about Confucian virtue ethics , so he was a typical representative of feodal traditional bureaucracy.Specifically, Jiamei Zhou in the following matters played an important role.In foreign affairs, Jiamei Zhou was promoted quickly from Zhangjing to assistant management of Zhangjing,chapter of Zhangjing, and then to minister.As an important government official, he was responsible for poviding commendations and drafting documents for government.For examples, he actively advocated that China should send envoys abroad, communicated with Western;he involved in the negotiation for Cuba laborers, and drafted the treaty to protect laborers; on the issue of dealing with religious cases, about Sichuan case ,he handled the problems by writing a personal letter to Prince Gong Yixian ,and advocated the same for evryone,Jiamei Zhou had a positive recommendations in Tianjin case ,too; when Japanese invaded Taiwan, he augued with Japan representatives,and refused their unreasonable demands;then he gave proposals to strengthen marine defense building, established the modern navy,his proposals for the parties were concerned to adopt frequently.In internal affairs, Jiamei Zhou became Shuntianfu provincial governor in the forth year of reign of emperor Guangxu, added up to three times. During his duty time in office ,he actively prepared all kinds of goods for resisting natural disasters,financed field victims to return home, at the same time he advocated to assist in other provinces' disasters ,particularly in Shuntian large flood in the ninth year of reign of emperor Guangxu, he made careful arrangements, flexible commond and multi-financing,so he had outstanding contributions to save a lot of hungery people' lives . In government affairs, he positively reformed, rectificated of local governments and developed production; In justice and public order, he gave a lot of attention to the trial, improved prison governance, strengthened arrest and so on, so these could stable social order.In the culture and education, he attached great importance to the development of the feudal cultural and education, rebuilded Shuntian Fuxue and Jintai Shuyuan, leaded to construct "Guangxu Shuntianfu records " and so on. In the restoration and development of feudal traditions ,Jiamei Zhou worked hard, to spare no effort, he was loved and remenbered by Shuntian people.In short, in the face of internal and external problems of the complicated situation, Jiamei Zhou was full of contradictions in his thoughts. On the one hand, in dealing with foreign affairs, he could make use of modern foreign knowledge flexibly to handle of foreign diplomatic disputes correctly , and safeguarded national interests of the Chinese nation, these hard work brougt a good international environment.He had contributed to the modernization of China's diplomacy.On the other hand, he improved people's livelihood and paid attention to ethics,he could maintain feudal order correctly, his thoughs were rich in the feudal traditional concept.Based on a case study Jiamei Zhou, hoping to achieve two objectives: First, to demonstrate that Chinese experienced twists and turns from traditional to modern society, so encouraging future generations, and promoting reform and social progress; Second, through an inspection of the state of mind of an Westernization official, showing the mental state of the Westernization Movement groups, so that people can gain a profound experience about that era.