Transportation Guide to the Former Residence of the Number One Scholar: Passenger buses heading towards the Red River are mainly concentrated at the Yunnan Tourist Bus Terminal (No. 663, Guanmenhang Road, 0871-7185151). There are also Kunming Bus Passenger Transport Center Station and Huangtupo Passenger Terminal. Shuttle bus is available.
The former residence of Mr. Jiagu, the No. 1 scholar of Special Science and Technology, is a Ming and Qing style residence. It is currently a key cultural relic protection unit in Yunnan Province. Yuan Jiagu's former residence was once occupied by other units. In 1994, the county government decided to move out of the unit and restored it in November of that year. It was used as the Yuan Jiagu's former residence memorial hall to display Yuan's deeds and Shiping cultural relics for tourists to visit and as a symbol of patriotism. Educational base. Built in the 11th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1885), it was built by his father Yuan Dexiang. It is a two-story wooden structure in the Qing Dynasty. The gate faces east from the west and the yard faces south from the north. A new two-story building is built to the west of the yard. There are shops along the street next to the gate, which used to be Qianli Zhen Tea Shop. After the house was built, the Yuan family moved from Gaopo Village to the county seat. In 1900 AD, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing, and Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Xi'an to avoid the chaos. After moving back to Beijing from Xi'an in 1903, he adopted the suggestions of his ministers and opened special economic examinations to attract talents from all over the world to help the country and the world. Yuan Jiagu, who lived in a small border town in Shiping, Yunnan, was recommended by Shangshu Wei Guangtao and went to the capital to take the exam.
After passing the joint examination and the palace examination, he was ranked first in the economic special subject and became the only number one scholar in Yunnan. The original Jukui Building in Kunming, the provincial capital, was renamed Zhuangyuan Building, and a plaque with the title "Dakui Tianxia" was hung. Because the entire Qing Dynasty only took three special examinations, Yuan Jiagu was promoted to the third person in the dynasty.
Yuan Jiagu was born in Shiping in 1872 to a family that was engaged in small business to make a living. He was also named Shuwu and Shupu, and in his later years he was named Pingshan Jushi. Although Yuan's father was a businessman, he attached great importance to the education of his children and purchased many books for their children to study. Yuan Jiagu studied with his elder brother since he was a child and entered school at the age of 12. He is always diligent and eager to learn. He once wrote a poem about the joy of reading: Perseverance in hard work leads to calmness, and sitting in the bookstore is not yet in full swing. The scent of smoke and seals on the window screens ward off beetles, and the wind blows through the paper tent and the sword sings like a dragon. Do not remove the green grass and think about the truth, only appreciate the tung trees and Cai Yong. Who is the friend in the high-rise building in the middle of the night? There is a bell in Zhutian Temple. It was Yuan Jiagu's spirit of studying hard that later he was selected to study at Jingzheng Academy in the provincial capital and became a top student in the academy. In the spring of 1903, he took the imperial examination and became a Jinshi. In the same year, he ranked first in economic special subjects and was awarded the title of editor of the Hanlin Academy. In 1904, he went to Japan to inspect government and academic affairs and served as a supervisor for students studying in Japan. After returning to China in 1905, he served as director of the Compilation and Library Bureau of the Faculty of Education, responsible for compiling China's unified new textbooks for primary and secondary schools. In 1909, he went to Zhejiang to serve as academic envoy and political envoy. After the Revolution of 1911, he returned to Yunnan and devoted himself to cultural education research and writing books. After the establishment of a university in Yunnan, he was hired to teach Chinese studies at the school. On December 23, 1937, Mr. Yuan Jiagu, who was worried about the country and the people and was seriously ill, passed away at the age of 66.
Yuan Jiagu is knowledgeable and prolific. He has participated in the compilation of hundreds of various chronicles such as "Manuscript of Qing History", "New Compilation of Yunnan General Chronicles" and the "Shiping County Chronicles" of the Republic of China. He has authored more than 80 volumes of various books such as "Collected Works of Woxuetang", "Collected Poems of Woxuetang", "Lianyu of Woxuetang" and "Yunnan Yi". Yuan Jiagu was highly accomplished in the creation of poetry and couplets. He was skilled in the use of various poetry styles and had superb melodic skills. He was very good at quatrains, rhymed poems, short poems, and long poems. Many excellent works have been handed down to the world. His couplets are widely preserved in scenic spots in Beijing, Zhejiang, Kunming and Yunnan, and most of them were written by himself. Yuan Jiagu's calligraphy is very famous. He learned from Ouyang Xun in his early years, and later from Wang Xizhi. He also studied Mi Fu, Yan Zhenqing and Chu Suiliang, and finally became his own. His calligraphy is tenacious and vigorous, with a handsome aura throughout. Cultural celebrity Chen Guyi commented on Yuan Jiagu's calligraphy: It is based on Wang Ou and has Chu style, so it is called Yuan Jiagu's calligraphy.
His calligraphy works are deeply loved by all walks of life and are kept as treasures. As a calligrapher, he was included in the "Dictionary of Chinese Calligraphy". Yuan Jiagu has made remarkable academic achievements in history, classics, literature, education, calligraphy, etc., and is famous in history as an important historical and cultural celebrity in Yunnan.