Jishan Jiwang Temple | The Qing court paid compensation and begged for forgiveness, local governments raised funds to pray for farming

|The Qing court paid compensation and begged for forgiveness, while the local government raised funds for farming. In 1842, the annual grain revenue of Jishan County in northern China was equivalent to about 42,000 taels of silver. In August of the same year, the Qing government signed a contract in Nanjing to pay the British a total of 21 million taels of silver. Li Jingchun, the magistrate of Jishan, presided over the restoration of the Jiwang Temple, spending about 10,000 taels of silver, but there was no approval from the central government.
The magistrate paid 500 taels of silver for maintenance (similar to today's year-end bonus), and the rest was raised by local gentry and elders (handicraftsmen, rural people, and officials of all ranks in the county, ranging from silver to bricks, wood, and stone). It took half a year to raise the money. The magistrate confidently wrote the poem: "This temple is as close as heaven and earth." (Now seen on the west wall of the offering hall of Jiwang Temple)
The following summer, in the countryside of the south, due to excessive taxation, a Hakka named Hong who failed the imperial examination began to persuade people to worship God. The collapse of the empire began.
Nine years later, Li Jingchun resigned as the magistrate of Jishan County and returned to his hometown of Jianshui, Yunnan. His long-term career as an official in other places allowed him to unlock the modern national snack - Yunnan Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles, by using the outsider's way of eating one bowl for soup and another bowl for rice noodles.

Post by Benjamin Cox Matthew | May 31, 2024