Xiong Xiling was born in 1870. Phoenix in western Hunan is simple in folk customs and underdeveloped in education. When Xiong Zhaoxiang, Xiong Xiling's father, joined the army, Zeng Guofan, a Hunan scholar, founded the Xiang Army in Hunan. He advocated that literati should govern the army and the people should be governed by Neo-Confucianism, and asked soldiers to "get on the horse to kill thieves and dismount to practice foot soldiers", so he emphasized that teaching and learning became a common practice in Hunan.
In this atmosphere, on the one hand, Xiong strengthened his self-cultivation, on the other hand, he made great efforts to cultivate his eldest son, Xiong Xiling, hoping that he would become a successful scholar and shine brilliantly in the future. Therefore, Xiong Xiling received strict family education and devoted himself to study.
Xiong Xiling got lost in fenghuang town at the age of six. It is said that he "knows everything", and it took him only three or four days to learn the three-character classics by heart. Because of his outstanding talent and hard work, Xiong Xiling was famous as a "Hunan prodigy" in his youth.
When Xiong Xiling was 7 years old, he returned to his grandfather's house in Xiong Mansion, Zhijiang County, Yuanzhou with his father. A solid family environment laid the foundation for his study.
After studying hard in a private school for many years, Xiong Xiling won a scholar at the age of 65,438+084,65,438+04, which was not only a great honor for the Xiong family, but also rare in Xiangxi at that time. So Xiong Xiling's parents sent him to Xiushui College in Zhijiang County for further study.
1888, Zhu was appointed as the magistrate of Yuanzhou. He once served as a magistrate in many places in Hunan, and he "has the right to speak politically", especially advocating learning and educating talents, which won the respect of Hunan gentry. After Zhu took office, he learned that the style of study in Yuanzhou was sluggish, so he decided to start with revitalizing local education.
In order to cultivate useful talents, Zhu Guangzhao invited famous scholars to teach, and the teachers were strong. Xiong Xiling immediately took the exam. It was here that Xiong Xiling's eyes opened wide. In addition to making great progress in his knowledge of classics and history, he also likes history and geography in particular, which eventually became the basis of his achievements.
1890, Xiong Xiling ranked first in Hunan province, so he transferred to Changsha Xiangshui School for further study. 189 1 year, Xiong Xiling took the provincial and township examinations, and the evaluation of the marking officer was that "the frontier was wild, unprecedented, followed by others, and the three Hunan provinces were promising". At this time, Xiong Xiling was in the prime of life and became a minor celebrity in Sanxiang.
1892, Xiong Xiling took the Jinshi exam and won. However, because the court exam required a pavilion at that time, Xiong Xiling's calligraphy was not good, so I decided not to take part in the court exam for the time being, and went back to practice calligraphy until the next court exam. In this way, by the time of 1894, Xiong Xiling was finally admitted to the top of the high school, and was appointed as Jishi Shu of the Academy of Academies, becoming an out-and-out "Phoenix" in western Hunan.
The following year, talented woman Zhu married her half-sister Zhu to her beloved Xiong Xiling. This virtuous lady became Xiong Xiling's bosom friend in her life.
Xiong Xiling, who was enjoying the spring breeze, had no time to sketch out his bright future, and the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 broke out. Xiong Xiling painfully found that reading seemed useless. Just at this time, Wu Dadian, the governor of Hunan Province, played on the court and ordered the Xiang army to fight in the DPRK. The Qing court immediately agreed.
Xiong Xiling immediately intended to join the army, but before long, Xiang was defeated on the battlefield against Japan. This tragic failure awakened Xiong Xiling from his dream, and he quickly turned to the camp demanding political reform.
1896, Xiong Xiling wrote a letter to Zhang Zhidong, then the leader of the Westernization School and the governor of the two lakes, strongly demanding political reform and reform. He himself formally joined the army and was appointed by Zhang Zhidong as the general manager of the Hunan-Hubei Business Office.
In this post, Xiong Xiling realized the disadvantages of the army at that time, so he wrote "Military System", urging the reform of the military system to enhance the fighting capacity of the Qing army.
This military work was regarded by people at that time as "a comprehensive study of Chinese and foreign military affairs in ancient and modern times" and as "the loss of China's new reform army".
But the environment was not yet mature, so Xiong Xiling had to wait for new opportunities. At this time, with the support of Governor Chen Baozhen, Xiong Xiling's hometown launched a vigorous reform movement, which gave him a new stage.
At that time, the focus of Hunan Reform Movement was "prosperity" and "wealth". Xiong Xiling thinks that it is important to be rich and strong, but in the autumn of national disaster, strengthening the army is a necessary guarantee. He suggested setting up a gun factory in Hunan.
Chen Baozhen attaches great importance to this suggestion. He thought that Xiong Xiling was a rare talent who understood the New Deal, so he tried to dig Xiong Xiling to work in Hunan.
In this way, in the autumn of 1896, Xiong Xiling joined the camp of Hunan Reform Movement. At the beginning, Xiong Xiling was entrusted with the task of building a gun factory. At that time, Hunan's finance was tight, and the establishment of an arsenal was a resource-consuming undertaking. However, the urgent task is to improve the outdated equipment of Hunan army.
At this juncture, Xiong Xiling thought of Liu Kunyi, a senior official of Xiang who served as governor of Liangjiang. After repeated communication and consultation by Xiong Xiling and others, Liu Kunyi allocated guns and ammunition to Hunan Province twice, equivalent to 202,000 silver dollars. Such great support has laid a good foundation for Hunan to train the new army.
Subsequently, Xiong Xiling keenly shifted his focus to industry. After repeated discussions with Ye Dehui, Jiang Dejun and others, he decided to set up machinery manufacturing industry and organize inland river shipping in Hunan as a breakthrough.
They first set up "Baochengshan Manufacturing Company". However, since the western powers forced China to open inland ports, both officials and the people are worried that once inland shipping is opened, western forces will follow suit like ghosts; In addition, inland river shipping also involves the rights and interests of Hubei Province.
But Xiong Xiling and his colleagues argued and never backed down. Finally, they persuaded Zhang Zhidong and other officials to successfully make Hunan inland river shipping a reality and resist the entry of western forces.
Since then, Xiong Xiling has made great efforts for the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in Hunan Province and the diversion of the Guangdong-Han Railway to Hunan. At this point, Xiong Xiling's military industrial talent and means of vertical and horizontal cooperation were initially recognized by the imperial court.
After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the reformists put forward the slogan of "saving the country through education" in order to save the country. In this context, Hunan has also begun to organize new schools.
As a bachelor of Hanlin from Hunan, Xiong Xiling is naturally duty-bound to run a school. Running a school in Hunan was first proposed by Jiang Dejun in 1897, but the responsibility for specific affairs was given to Xiong Xiling.
There are two important factors to promote learning, one is funding, and the other is teachers. Due to the financial shortage in Hunan, Xiong Xiling found out through various channels that it could be solved by increasing salt, so it was only natural that Liu Kunyi, governor of Liangjiang, agreed to this matter. In this way, the problem of school funds has finally been solved.
Later, Xiong Xiling resolutely resigned as the general manager of the Commercial Office, joined the Hunan Reform Movement and founded the earliest newspaper Box in Hunan, which was also Xiong Xiling's greatest contribution to the New Deal in Hunan.
1898, Xiong Xiling established the articles of association of Hunan newspaper, which stipulated that the purpose was "focusing on opening up the atmosphere and broadening knowledge", emphasizing "confidanting first" and "focusing on documentary summary".
In addition, Xiong Xiling has formulated strict and specific working systems and management methods for newspapers, so as to improve work efficiency and ensure the smooth progress of all the work of newspapers. The story was written by Liang Qichao, Tan Sitong, Tang, He, Dai Decheng and Fan Zui, with Tang as the lead writer and as a translator of western languages.
Hunan Daily was officially founded on March 7th, 1898. At that time, in addition to Liang Qichao, Tan Sitong and Tang Dynasty, Chen Baozhen, Pi, Huang Zunxian and some current affairs students all published lectures, comments or other articles in the newspaper.
The articles of association and imperial edicts of the current affairs school, Nanshe and other related organizations are also reflected in the newspapers. During this period, the newspaper operated in an orderly manner and did a good job.
After the publication of "Box", radical Fan Zui's articles, such as articles on ancient law, articles on Qicheng, and Yi Kui's "China should be weak and strong", have been published one after another, proposing that "it is necessary to change the past, not to search for it, but only to rely on Taixi to be effective" and "to change the whole new moon, to change clothes, and to learn from Taixi in all systems".
On March 29th, 1898, after reading China's On Weakness Should Be Strong, Chen Baozhen immediately told Xiong Xiling that the article was "too extreme, shocking and inappropriate" and asked Xiong to take it back and save it immediately.
However, instead of doing this, Xiong Xiling pointed out in an article published on April 1 that "Yi Jun's extreme words are indefensible, but his mourning is long-lasting. He hopes that our dynasty will resolutely change dynasties, so that we can be truly loyal and patriotic between life and death." This shows the courage and determination of the bear.
In addition, Xiong Xiling also actively founded Hunan Porcelain Company. 1904 went to Japan to inspect the industry at the beginning of this year. After the inspection, Xiong Xiling wrote to the Governor of Hunan twice, and put forward four measures of "developing schools, running companies, choosing land and benefiting the public", which were supported and approved by the government.
1905, Hunan official porcelain school with Xiong Xiling as the principal officially opened. The provincial government allocated120,000 taels of silver as the start-up expenses. The school is located in Shennongtang, Jiangwan, north of Liling City. In order to speed up personnel training, Xiong Xiling brought skilled workers into crash courses for short-term training to improve their work skills.
He also opened a "specimen showroom" in the school, displaying all the new porcelains purchased from various countries for students to imitate and learn.
In order to give students a practical place to operate, Xiong Xiling set up the "Hunan Porcelain Company" in front of the school, set up a production kiln, and implemented mechanical porcelain making, which produced fine porcelain that year. Enable students to have both theoretical knowledge and practical operation ability. According to the regulations of the school, students with excellent graduation results can stay and work in the porcelain company, which fully mobilizes students' learning enthusiasm and creativity.
From 1906 to 1907, under the guidance of famous painters and painters, the students in the artist class created five kinds of high-fire underglaze pigments, and then invented underglaze colored porcelain on the basis of traditional blue and white decoration.
This kind of porcelain leads the world with its colorful, intangible, lead-free and cadmium-free, natural corrosion resistance and never fading advantages, and has won many world gold medals. , and famous in the world.