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12 Glories of Long Service: Grand Secretary in Beijing, 1835–8 In 1835, when Ruan Yuan was seventy-two sui, he was recalled to Bejing, whereby ending a career of more than thrity years in the provinces. Until 1838 when he retired to Yangzhou he remained in the capital, enjoying the life and status of a first rank senior official. His schedule was not demanding, and, although not in the inner court, his offices were in or near the Forbidden City. He held the title Grand Secretary, with the portfolio of Superintendent of the Board of War, concurrently also Senior President of the Censorate and Senior Professor of the Hanlin Academy. Meanwhile, his other assignments included being Reader of the Palace Examination in 1836. He attended to other administrative and ceremonial matters as well, all of which wielded very little power, but gave him a great deal of pleasure and prestige, nevertheless. Grand Secretary Ruan Yuan had held the title Acting Grand Secretary since 1833. He was informed of his transfer to Beijing as Grand Secretary through an imperial edict dated 31 March 1835 (DG 15/3/3).1 Meanwhile, he was instructed to remain in Kunming while his successor as Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, Yilibu, then Governor of Yunnan, went to the capital for an imperial audience. Each grand secretary enjoyed an additional designation of the name of a palace (dian 殿) or pavilion (ge 閣) in the Forbidden City. Ruan Yuan’s designation was Grand Secretary of the Pavilion of Sympathetic Benevolence (Tiren Ge 體仁閣) 1A.2 1. JJLF-DG062408 (DG12/12/13 [1833/2/2]), Grand Council copy of memorial from Ruan Yuan, Assistant Grand Secretary and Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou. 2. Authorities on the institution of Grand Secretariat or the Forbidden City do not appear to consider the designation to a particular ‘throne hall’ or ‘pavilion’ significant. At the time of Ruan Yuan’s appointment, the Sympathetic Benevolence Pavilion title was vacated by transferring the 262 Ruan Yuan, 1764–1849 The position of Grand Secretary, despite lacking in real political power by Daoguang’s time, still made Ruan Yuan one of the most prominent officials at court. Having an office in the Forbidden City meant that he was to be one of the major ‘advisory officials’ (fuchen 輔臣), at the emperor’s beck and call day and night, and in person.3 Ruan Yuan’s journey from Kunming to Beijing must have been arduous since it took place in the heat of the summer, once again. His son Konghou, who had just arrived from Yangzhou where he had gone to bury his mother, accompanied his 71-year-old father. They left Kunming on 3 July (DG15/6/8) and arrived in Beijing on 11 October (DG15/8/20), spending a little more than three months on the road.4 There was no record on how they travelled, or indeed the route they took, except a brief note in the Diziji that they had ‘travelled northward’.5 There has been an indirect reference that they had made a detour through Yangzhou although Ruan Yuan’s own record was silent on this point. It is reasonable to conjecture that they had travelled by boat down the Yangzi at a leisurely pace, and stopped somewhere from time to time to recoup their energies, and presumably they visited Yangzhou. A passage in Lenglu Zashi (冷蘆雜識, miscellaneous intelligences from a cold hut), first printed in 1856, by Lu Yitian (陸以湉), a metropolitan graduate of 1836, claimed that Ruan Yuan had stopped in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu, to visit Lin Zexu, who was at that time governor of the province. Ruan Yuan brought current holder, Pan Shi’en, to another. There is no documentary evidence that this was a sentimental gesture on the part of the emperor. Zhu Gui, Ruan Yuan’s mentor, had been Grand Secretary of this pavilion. The pavilion is located on the eastern wall of the central part of the Forbidden City, about ten minutes walk to the Grand Secretariat; conversations with Chan Long (陳朗). See Forbidden City (紫禁城) 19 (March 1983), p. 23. See also Guochao Gongshi Xubian (國朝宮史續編), compiled by Qing Gui (慶桂) and others of the Jiaqing reign (Beiping reprint 1932) 27:5b–6. This work is referred in subsequent notes as Palace History. Also Fu Ge (福格, d. 1856), Tingyu Congtan (聽雨叢 談), Beijing (1984 edition), p. 24. This work was printed from a manuscript copy in the collection of the late Fu Zengxiang (傅曾湘). Fu Ge was a penname. His surname was...

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