Information about Zhan Tianyou!

Zhan Tianyou (1861-1919) was a native of Wuyuan, Jiangxi. my country's outstanding patriotic engineer and railway engineering expert. He has loved learning since childhood. In 1872, 12-year-old Zhan Tianyou was admitted to the first batch of children studying in the United States. When he was in middle school in the United States, he devoted himself to studying natural sciences. In 1878, 17-year-old Zhan Tianyou was admitted to Yale University in the United States, where he studied civil engineering and railways and graduated with excellent grades. Returned to China in 1881. In 1888, he served as an engineer at the then China Railway Company. Within the first eighty days of his tenure, he completed the track laying task of the Tanggu to Tianjin railway, and later built the Luanhe River Bridge. In 1894, the British Engineering Research Society officially admitted Zhan Tianyou as a member. In 1905, the Qing government appointed Zhan Tianyou as the chief engineer for the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. In 1919, Zhan Tianyou became ill due to overwork and died unfortunately at the age of 58.

About the background of building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway in 1840, after the Sino-British Opium War, my country began to gradually transform from a feudal society into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. In 1895, after the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895-1895, my country was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan. Since then, the imperialist powers have intensified their economic aggression against our country by opening banks, forcing loans, investing in railways, opening mines and setting up factories. Among them, from 1895 to 1899, imperialist countries seized the right to build nearly 10,000 kilometers of railways in my country. Wherever the railways controlled by the imperialists are built, their claws of aggression will extend. Near the railway, the imperialist powers competed to build factories and mines to plunder our country's resources. By the end of the 19th century, the struggle between the great powers for railway rights became more intense, and they even used force to intimidate the Qing government. The Qing government, which originally planned to build its own railways, was helpless in the face of competition from the great powers and had to hand over the rights to build railways to foreign countries. In addition to obtaining huge economic benefits, the great powers invested in building railways in our country, but also came with various conditions, including controlling the railways and areas along the lines and transporting troops.

Zhan Tianyou

Zhan Tianyou (April 26, 1861 – April 24, 1919) English name (Jene Tien Yow), alias Juancheng, courtesy name Dachao, Guangdong A native of Nanhai, originally from Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province, he was China's first railway engineer and was responsible for the construction of the "Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway" and other projects. He is known as the "Father of China's Railways".

Zhan Tianyou was born in an ordinary tea merchant family in 1861 (the eleventh year of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty). When he was a boy, Zhan Tianyou was very interested in machines. He often made various machine models out of clay with the neighborhood children. Sometimes, he secretly disassembled the chiming clock at home, played with and figured out the components inside, and asked some questions that even adults could not answer. In 1872, Zhan Tianyou, who was only twelve years old, went to Hong Kong to apply for the "Preparatory Class for Young Children Going Abroad" organized by the Qing government. After passing the exam, my father signed a certificate for going abroad that stated, "If there is illness, life or death, everyone will take care of their destiny." From then on, he said goodbye to his parents and came to the United States to study with the ideal of learning Western "skills".

In the United States, students in the overseas preparatory class witnessed the great achievements of science and technology in North America and Western Europe, and were amazed by the rapid development of machines, trains, ships and telecommunications manufacturing industries. Some students became pessimistic about China's future, but Zhan Tianyou said with firm belief: "In the future, China will also have trains and ships." With the belief that he would study hard for the prosperity of his motherland, he studied hard and He graduated with honors from New Haven High School in 1877. In May of the same year, he was admitted to the Department of Civil Engineering of Yale University, specializing in railway engineering. During his four years at the university, Zhan Tianyou studied hard and ranked first in the graduation examination with outstanding results. In 1881, among the 120 Chinese students who returned to China, only two received degrees, and Zhan Tianyou was one of them.

After returning to China, Zhan Tianyou was enthusiastically preparing to contribute the skills he had learned to the railway industry of the motherland. However, the Westernization officials of the Qing government were superstitious about foreign countries and blindly relied on foreigners when building railways. They ignored Zhan Tianyou's professional expertise and sent him to the Fujian Naval Academy to learn how to sail a sea-going ship. In November 1882, he was sent to the flagship "Yangwu" as a pilot to command drills. In 1883, the Sino-French War broke out. The following year, the long-planned French fleet entered the Min River one after another and was ready to move. However, He Ruzhang, the capitulating shipping minister in charge of the Fujian Navy, ignored him and even ordered: "You are not allowed to fire first, and those who violate the rules will be killed even if they win!" At this time, Zhan Tianyou privately ordered the "Yangwu" to Captain Zhang Cheng said: "A lot of French warships have come with ulterior motives. Although we have received orders not to fire first, we must not fail to take precautions." Due to Zhan Tianyou's warning, the "Yangwu" was very Be alert and ready for battle. When the French fleet launched a surprise attack, Zhan Tianyou braved fierce artillery fire and calmly and tactfully directed the "Yangwu" to go left and right; avoiding the enemy's artillery fire, he seized the fighter plane and hit the French command ship "Volta" with its tail cannon. ", the French naval expedition commander Guba almost died. Regarding this naval battle, Zi Lin Xi Bao, founded by a British businessman in Shanghai, had to marvel in its report: "Westerners did not expect that the Chinese would fight so bravely. The five students on the 'Yangwu' warship , Zhan Tianyou’s performance was the most courageous.

He was fearless in the face of powerful enemies, and at critical moments of life and death, he remained calm and summoned up the courage to rescue many people in the water..."

From the postwar period to 1888, Zhan Tianyou experienced several After many twists and turns, he was transferred to China Railway Company as an engineer. This was the beginning of his dedication to China's railway industry.

Not long after he took office, Zhan Tianyou encountered a test during the construction of the Tianjin-Yuzhou Railway from Tianjin to Shanhaiguan. To reach the Luanhe River, we wanted to build a railway bridge across the Luanhe River. The Luanhe River bed was very sandy, and the water was rising rapidly. The iron bridge was originally designed by a British engineer who was said to be the best in the world, but it failed; Japanese engineers tried to contract the work, but it didn't work. In the end, German engineers were asked to take action, but they were soon defeated. Zhan Tianyou asked the Chinese to do it themselves. The British in charge of the project had no choice but to agree to Zhan Tianyou. Try it.

Zhan Tianyou is a serious and down-to-earth person. After analyzing and summarizing the reasons for the failure of the three foreign engineers, he wore work clothes and conducted field surveys with the workers at night, in the dark. He also carefully studied the geological structure of the Luanhe River bed, analyzed and compared repeatedly, and finally determined the location of the bridge piers, and boldly decided to use a new method - the "pressure caisson method" to construct the bridge piers. Zhan Tianyou succeeded in the construction of the Luanhe River. The bridge was completed. This incident shocked the world: a Chinese engineer actually solved a big problem that three foreign engineers could not complete. 1905 After Zhan Tianyou won the first battle, he faced a more severe test. In 1998, the Qing government decided to build my country's first railway, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway (Beijing to Zhangjiakou). Both Britain and Russia wanted to intervene. However, due to the strong opposition of the Chinese people, their attempt failed. The British and Russian envoys said in a threatening tone: “If the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is built by Chinese engineers themselves, it has nothing to do with Britain and Russia. "They thought that this way, China would not be able to build this railway. At this critical moment, Zhan Tianyou took over this arduous task without hesitation and was fully responsible for the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. When the news came, some empires The communists and British newspapers said sarcastically: "The engineers in China who can build this railway are not yet born in their mothers' wombs! If the Chinese want to build their own railways without relying on foreigners, it will take at least fifty years, if not a dream. "They even attacked Zhan Tianyou as "arrogant" and "overestimating his capabilities" for serving as the general office and chief engineer. Zhan Tianyou resisted the pressure and insisted not to appoint a foreign engineer, and said: "China has a vast land and rich resources, and it is difficult to work all the way." I feel ashamed that I have to rely on outsiders! "China has woken up. The Chinese want to use their own engineers and their own money to build railways." ”

In August 1905, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway officially started construction, and the intense exploration and line selection work began. Zhan Tianyou personally led the students and workers, carrying benchmarks and theodolite, running around the rugged mountains day and night. One evening, the strong northwest wind roared in the Badaling area, making people unable to open their eyes. The survey team was eager to finish the work, fill in the measured numbers, and climb down from the rock wall. Tianyou took the book and looked at the filled-in numbers, and asked doubtfully: "Is the data accurate?" "Absolutely," the survey team member replied seriously: "The first requirement of technology is precision, and there cannot be any. There is a bit of vagueness and rashness. Statements such as 'probably' and 'almost' are not allowed in the mouths of engineering personnel. "Then, he carried the instrument on his back, braved the wind and sand, and arduously climbed up the rock wall again. He surveyed again carefully and corrected an error. When he came down, his lips were blue from the cold.

< p>Soon, exploration and construction entered the most difficult stage. In the area of ​​Badaling and Qinglongqiao, with overlapping mountains and overhanging rocks, four tunnels had to be opened, the longest of which was more than a thousand meters long. Zhan Tianyou decided after precise measurements and calculations. The segmented construction method is adopted: the north and south ends of the mountain are dug simultaneously, and a large well is opened in the middle of the mountain, and then the holes are dug in the north and south ends. This not only ensures the construction quality, but also speeds up the progress of the project. At that time, a large amount of stones were dug manually with spades, and the spring water had to be picked out one by one. As the chief engineer, Zhan Tianyou had no pretensions. He dug stones and carried water with the workers, covered in mud. With sweat on his face, he also encouraged everyone: "The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is the first railway we built with our own people and our own money. The eyes of the world are looking at us, and it must succeed!" "Regardless of success or failure, it is by no means our own success and failure, but the success and failure of our country!" ”

In order to overcome the difficulty of driving on steep slopes and ensure that the train can safely climb Badaling, Zhan Tianyou was ingenious and creatively used the principle of “return lines” to design a herringbone line in the Qinglong Bridge section of the steep mountainous area. , thereby reducing the excavation of the tunnel and lowering the slope. When the train arrives here, it works with two high-power locomotives to ensure that the train goes uphill safely.

Zhan Tianyou once proposed " "Low cost, good quality, and quick completion" are the three requirements. After several struggles by the workers, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was finally opened to traffic in September 1909. It was originally planned to be completed in six years, but it was completed ahead of schedule in only four years. The cost was only one-fifth of the foreign estimate. Some European and American engineers praised Zhan Tianyou after taking a tour, but Zhan Tianyou said modestly: "This is the power of the more than 10,000 employees of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, not me. The credit and glory of an individual should belong to everyone. ”

After the completion of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Zhan Tianyou succeeded as the supervisor and chief engineer of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.

At this time, the United States decided to award him a doctorate in engineering and asked him to go to the United States to attend the awarding ceremony in person. In order to fully participate in the construction of the motherland's railway, he gave up this honor.

After the Revolution of 1911, in order to revitalize the railway industry, Zhan Tianyou and his colleagues established the Chinese Engineering Society and was elected as the president. During this period, he devoted a lot of effort to the training of young engineering and technical personnel. In addition to setting an example with his own behavior, he also encouraged young people to "research academically intensively and invent with inventions" and asked them to "do not compromise oneself, favor others, and do not seek fame." And fishing for reputation. Dealing with things with sincerity, without asking for personal gain, and setting oneself with treasures as an example."

Zhan Tianyou has been engaged in the railway industry for more than 30 years, which is different from almost every railway in my country at that time. degree of relationship. In his later years, he became ill due to overwork and unfortunately died of illness in 1919. Comrade Zhou Enlai once spoke highly of Zhan Tianyou's achievements and said that he is "the glory of the Chinese people".

During the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Zhan Tianyou formulated various railway engineering standards and submitted a letter to the government requesting them to be adopted nationwide. The 4-foot-8-inch semi-standard rail still used in China, the Janney Coupler (also known as Jiangni Coupler, Zheng's Coupler, created by American Eli Janney), etc. were all proposed by Zhan Tianyou. In addition, Zhan Tianyou also focused on the training of railway talents, formulated a regulation for the promotion of engineers, made clear provisions on the assessment and requirements of engineering personnel, and stipulated that engineers' salaries should be linked to assessment results. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway has trained many Chinese engineering personnel, and the assessment regulations formulated by Zhan Tianyou have also become imitations for other Chinese railways.

After the completion of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Zhan Tianyou was awarded a Jinshi in Engineering by Xuantong and served as an examiner for overseas students. In 1910, he served as the Prime Minister and Engineer of the Guangdong Commercial Office of the Guangdong-Hankong Railway Corporation. In 1912, he concurrently served as the Han-Guangdong-Sichuan Railway Committee Office and was responsible for the construction of the Guangdong-Han and Sichuan-Han Railways. Since then, he has settled at No. 9 Eha Street (now No. 51 Dongting Street) in the Russian Concession in Hankou. In the same year, the "Chinese Society of Engineers" was established and he was elected as the first president. After the founding of the Republic of China, he was appointed by the government as the technical supervisor of the Ministry of Communications in 1913. In 1914, he was awarded the second-class Baoguang Jiahe Medal. In 1916, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by the University of Hong Kong. In early 1919, he was ordered to Vladivostok and Harbin to serve as the Chinese representative at the Allied Powers Supervisory Far Eastern Railway Conference. He returned to Hankou due to illness in April and died of illness on April 24 at the age of fifty-nine.

Zhan Tianyou and his wife Tan Juzhen are buried near Qinglongqiao Railway Station on Jingzhang Road. In 1922, a bronze statue of Zhan Tianyou was erected at Qinglongqiao Railway Station. In 1987, the Zhan Tianyou Memorial Hall was built nearby.

On the occasion of commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, the people of Zhangjiakou will always remember Zhan Tianyou, the chief architect of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. In 2005, a statue of Zhan Tianyou was built in the square of Zhangjiakou South Station.

Zhan Tianyou

A native of Nanhai, Guangdong (now Guangzhou). The western name is Tianyou. Jim (used when studying in the United States). He studied in the United States at the age of 12 and was one of the first batch of international students sent by China. After graduating from Yale University in 1881, he returned to China and taught at the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, Guangdong Museum of Education, and Marine Division School. Later, he presided over the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. It was completed and opened to traffic in 1909, becoming the first self-built railway in my country. His books include "Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway Project Minutes", "Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway Standard Drawing", "Huaying Engineering Vocabulary" and other books.

Zhan Tianyou never paid attention to the difficulties in the project, but the man-made obstacles made Zhan Tianyou extremely worried and angry. There was a man named Guangzhai in Qinghe, who was a former Taoist priest and a relative of the royal family Zaize. He was powerful in both the government and the public. The railway happened to pass through his cemetery, so he led the crowd to cause trouble and stopped the project. He privately offered heavy bribes and demanded a diversion. The Postal and Communications Department didn't dare to ask. To the north is the tomb of King Zheng, to the south is the tomb of the eunuchs, and to the west is the tomb of Nala's father, Gong Gui. It would take a lot of time and money to completely change the route. Zhan Tianyou regarded taking bribes as a shameful thing and would never change his ways. He actually fought hard to stay or leave. In the end, because the five ministers were bombed while abroad, Zai Ze was too frightened to hear about foreign affairs. Only then did Guangzhai agree to pass through his tomb wall because he lost his backer.

The Nala family spent tens of millions of dollars every year to repair the Summer Palace, but they were unwilling to pay for road construction. The funds for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway depended entirely on the surplus from the railways inside and outside Guanhai, but this money was controlled by the British HSBC Bank. When the second section of the project was entering, HSBC deliberately made things difficult and delayed the payment of wages, causing delays in work. Zhan Tianyou was not good at cooperating with the powerful, and he was even more ashamed to cater to foreigners, so he was extremely angry.

Imperialism always wants to seize this road. As soon as the project started, the Japanese Keijiro Amamiya wrote to Yuan Shikai, saying: The Chinese are unable to build this road, so it is safer to hire Japanese technicians. The Englishman Jinda also came to argue for Japan. Zhan Tianyou flatly refused on the grounds that he would never use any foreigner on this road. After the Juyongguan tunnel project started, groups of foreigners often came to spy on it in the name of hunting. They hoped that the project would fail so that they could take advantage of others' danger. Zhan Tianyou gave this voice to the Chinese with outstanding results.

1 In August 1905, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway officially started construction, and the intense exploration and line selection work began. Zhan Tianyou personally led the students and workers, carrying benchmarks and theodolite, running around the rugged mountains day and night. One evening, a strong northwest wind roared with sand and rocks in the Badaling area, making people unable to open their eyes. The survey team was anxious to finish their work, fill in the measured numbers, and climb down from the rock wall. Zhan Tianyou took the book, looked through the numbers filled in, and asked doubtfully: "Are the data accurate?" "Absolutely", the survey team member replied.

Zhan Tianyou said solemnly: "The first requirement of technology is precision, without any vagueness or rashness. Terms like 'probably' and 'almost' are not allowed in the mouths of engineers." Then, he carried the instrument on his back and braved the wind and sand. , struggled to climb up the rock wall again, carefully surveyed it again, and corrected an error. When he came down, his lips were blue from the cold.

Soon, exploration and construction entered the most difficult stage. In the Badaling and Qinglongqiao area, there are overlapping mountains and steep cliffs. Four tunnels need to be opened, the longest of which is more than a thousand meters long. After precise measurements and calculations, Zhan Tianyou decided to adopt a segmented construction method: he dug from the north and south ends of the mountain at the same time, opened a large well in the middle of the mountain, and then dug in the well to the north and south ends. This not only ensures the quality of construction, but also speeds up the progress of the project. When digging a hole, a large amount of stones must be dug manually with spades, and the spring water must be picked out one by one. As the chief engineer, Zhan Tianyou has no pretensions. He digs stones and carries water together with the workers. Sludge's face was sweaty. He also encouraged everyone: "The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is the first railway we built with our own people and our own money. The eyes of the world are looking at us. We must succeed!" "Whether we succeed or fail, it is never ours." The success and failure of our country are the success and failure of our country!”

Zhan Tianyou’s ancestors came from Wuyuan to Guangdong

Zhan Tianyou is the fourth son of the Zhan family in Lukeng Village, Wuyuan County! Ten generations of descendants. The thirty-seventh generation of the Zhan family and the great-grandfather of Zhan Tianyou, Zhan Wanbang, named Wenxian, was born in the tenth year of Qianlong (1745 AD). Zhan Wanbang's father, Zhan Jinqian, was a businessman and opened a grocery store called "Dachang" in his hometown. He gave birth to eight children, Zhan Wan ranked third on the list. Due to the large number of children and high expenses, the grocery store was not enough for the family, and the Zhan family was heavily in debt, so the brothers had to split up to make a living on their own. Zhan Wanbang was quite ambitious. After his parents passed away, he decided not to leave his ancestral inheritance and move his family to Gaohu Mountain in Xiacun to live elsewhere. Since he had read several medical books when he was young, he decided to practice medicine. During the prosperous period of Qianlong, the people got a respite from the long-term wars, agriculture developed, and commerce gradually prospered. The sales of Wuyuan tea are increasing day by day, and it has traveled across the ocean, becoming one of the most popular drinks among the middle and upper classes in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. At that time, Wuyuan green tea was processed locally and then shipped to Guangzhou port for export. Due to low charging prices and high export sales prices, many tea merchants have made a fortune. Zhan Wanbang was also moved and sold a batch of tea to Guangdong.

Unexpectedly, business was not going well. Not only did he lose all his capital, but he also had no money to pay for his return home. He had to stay in Guangzhou and rely on support from his old friends and fellow villagers to survive. At that time, there were a large number of Huizhou merchants in Guangdong, and some Wuyuan people made a fortune in business. With their generous donations, Zhan Wanbang opened a small tea shop called "Wanfu" outside Xiguan, Guangzhou. The small tea business prospered day by day, and the debts were gradually paid off, and the remaining money was used to donate the money to an official who was a bachelor.

At this time, Zhan Wanbang was ambitious and took his son to Guangdong, determined to rely on the power of the "Thirteenth Industry" in Guangzhou to open up a bigger situation. His son Zhan Shiluan lived up to his father's expectations and assisted his father in business, and the business became more developed. Zhan Shiluan realized that one cannot do business without an official title, so he also donated an official with experience as Chief Secretary candidate, who was awarded the title of Scholar and a sixth-grade official.

When Zhan Tianyou's father Zhan Xingfan arrived, the Opium War broke out. The artillery of the British invaders destroyed the "Thirteen Industries" that had long controlled export trade, and the small foreign trade merchants in Guangzhou began to decline. Soon, Zhan's tea shop also declared bankruptcy. Zhan Xingfan's family moved from Guangzhou to Nanhai, where they studied and farmed to support their family.

On March 27, 1861, when the artillery fire of the fierce battle between the Taiping Army and the Qing government was raging, and the smoke of the British and French allied forces burning the Old Summer Palace was not yet cleared, Zhan Tianyou was born in a farmer's home in Nanhai, Guangdong.

Zhan Tianyou's journey abroad

In the sixth year of Tongzhi (AD 1867), the Hunan warlord Zeng Guofan took office as the governor of Liangjiang. Rong Hong, the first Chinese graduate from Yale University to study in the United States, presented him with a "statement" for selecting young children to go abroad to the United States. Three years later, this "Article" was finally approved by the Qing government. International students*** are divided into four batches, with a quota of 120 people, aged 12 to 15 years old. The Qing government also appointed Rong Hong to Hong Kong to preside over the recruitment work of "sending young children to study abroad".

At this time, Zhan Xingfan had a fellow villager doing business in Hong Kong, named Tan Bocun. He likes Zhan Tianyou very much. In the spring of 1871, Tan Bocun rushed from Hong Kong to Nanhai to persuade Zhan Xingfan not to give up the opportunity of Zhan Tianyou to study abroad, saying that this was an "foreign Hanlin" and an "iron rice bowl" for a lifetime. Zhan Xingfan hesitated, and it was not until Tan agreed to marry his fourth daughter (Zhan Tianyou's wife Tan Juzhen) to Zhan Tianyou that the matter was settled.

In the 11th year of Tongzhi (AD 1872), Zhan Tianyou, who was only 12 years old, went to Hong Kong to apply for the preparatory class for young children going abroad. Soon, he was admitted. When Zhan Tianyou himself recalled this period of history, he wrote: "I was twelve years old. On March 15, the 11th year of Tongzhi, I boarded a sea-fire ship from Hong Kong with Mr. Rong Hong of Xiangshan Daotai, and arrived in Shanghai on March 28. . He was recruited by the Daxian to study Tang Fanshu in the Shanghai Overseas Study Bureau. The director of Gaozhou, Chen Lanbin, taught Tang Fanshu and Master Rong. He went abroad to study on the eighth day of the seventh lunar month. He was ordered to be an official and given a robe and a hat. On the same day, I left Shanghai with Teacher Chen Lanbin and disembarked to study mechanics in Citigroup."

The second year after Zhan Tianyou arrived in the United States, he went through a period of foreign language tutoring and entered Xihaiwen Elementary School.

In the second year of Guangxu (1876 AD), Zhan Tianyou was admitted to the Seaside Middle School in Newhaven. In this year, the first railway in China, the small railway from Wusong to Shanghai, was opened to traffic. At that time, the so-called gentry who read the books of sages were shocked when they saw this huge thing. Thinking that this strange thing was destroying the landscape and endangering their own lives, they actually gathered a crowd to demolish the entire railway and throw the tracks into the lake.

The domestic environment is so bleak, but Zhan Tianyou actually chose the cursed railway major. In the fourth year of Guangxu's reign (1878), with the support of his teachers, Mrs. Nosobu and Rong Hong, he was admitted to Yale University in the United States. Entered the Department of Civil Engineering and studied Railway Engineering. I graduated three years later, ranked first in the math exam, and got a bachelor's degree. Among the one hundred and twenty official students, he was the best one and the one who would be the most loyal to what he learned.

Zhan Tianyou met Li Hongzhang

In the seventh year of Guangxu (1881), Zhan Tianyou graduated from Yale University in the United States and returned to Shanghai. On the first day he landed, he heard that Zeng Guofan had died and that Li Hongzhang, the Huai clique warlord, had taken over as Beiyang Minister. The foreign students took the ship from Shanghai to the Beiyang Minister's Office in Tianjin to report and wait for dispatch from the Qing government.

Zhan Tianyou stayed in a small inn by the Haihe River in Tianjin. The room was hot and stuffy, and he was sweating all over, making him feel increasingly restless and uncomfortable.

In those days, all the international students who had connections went there. Only Zhan Tianyou, who was born in a peasant family, had no other options and was unwilling to do so. After arriving in Tianjin, the rich classmates stayed in big hotels one after another, but he stayed in this shabby and dirty inn.

Although there was a letter in his pocket, an eight-line letter written by his most beloved teacher Rong Hong, which was addressed to a powerful person in the dynasty, Zhan Tianyou was too shy to take it out. He is Rong Hong's most proud disciple. When studying in the United States, Rong Hong encouraged Zhan Tianyou and hoped that he could be China's Ito Hirobumi. He said that Ito Hirobumi promoted Western learning and made Japan prosperous and powerful. China also needs its own Ito Hirobumi to make the country progress. Zhan Tianyou was very excited at this time, and he was determined to work hard to save the country through science.

Although Zhan Tianyou’s academic performance was outstanding, his relationship with Wu Zideng, the overseas student supervisor, became worse and worse. Wu Zideng is a well-known die-hard who believes that Chinese students studying abroad are "deviant".

A few days later, the foreign students were finally introduced to the Beiyang Minister’s Yamen by Goshiha. The person sitting in the official hall is the famous Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang glanced at the overseas students and saw that each of them had disheveled robes and untidy hats and crooked hats and braids. He thought to himself: Can the country become rich and the army strong with these student dolls? Li Hongzhang wanted to teach him a lesson, but he still held back. He thought that most of these people had contacts with the ministers of the DPRK and China, and many of them even sent eight-line letters and meeting gifts. He was very dissatisfied with one of them. He was wearing a suit and leather tie and didn't even have a pigtail. He found this person's name from the roster - Zhan Tianyou. Suddenly I remembered a few words in Wu Zideng's letter: "If we continue to let these official students... return to China after completing their studies, not only will it be of no benefit to the country, but it will also cause endless harm." Thinking of this, Li Hongzhang slapped the table and cursed: "deviant and treacherous. "No father, no king!"

Zhan Tianyou was very disgusted with Li Hongzhang's rude attitude and wanted to retort, but finally held back his words. Then, Li Hongzhang angrily picked up the tea cup, and Goshiha immediately shouted: "Send off guests--" This dramatic interview was over.

Back at the inn, Zhan Tianyou burned the eight-line book given to him by Rong Hong. A few days later, the Beiyang Yamen released the results, and Zhan Tianyou's name was at the bottom of the list. He was sent to the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau to be recruited and went to the Naval Academy to learn driving.

In this way, Zhan Tianyou learned nothing and wasted seven years.

Now, "Zhan Tianyou" is included in the compulsory education textbook as a sixth-grade primary school text.