In the spring of 1902, the Southern Supervisory Committee of the United States sent a missionary Han Mingde to Huzhou with gifts and other gifts, and found Zhu Maoqing, the commander of Gui'an County, who was then a member of Huzhou.

Han Mingdedao: Your Excellency, the church intends to purchase land in your place to build a church and a hospital for the church.

Zhu Maoqing looked at a large number of gifts on the table and said with a smile: It's a good thing, a good thing. Officials are welcomed. You said that there is a piece of idle land, which is a piece of land located in the north gate of Huzhou City: "Island". I don't know what you think?

Han Mingde said: The place recommended by the county magistrate must be good. It is not too late to make a decision after our visit on the ground.

Zhu Maoqing also said: According to the regulations of the late Qing Dynasty Church for the purchase of land, the transaction of the land with the owner must obtain the consent of the landowner, and it is legal to sign the resale contract and hand it over to the government for tax sealing. In this way, the government will appoint a person to assist you in negotiating the sale and purchase of land with the above-mentioned landowners.

Han Mingde said with a smile: It's for the county to bother.

Zhu Maoqing laughed and said: It's a matter of official duties. It is also a privilege for officials to be able to work for you.

Accompanied by an assignee, Han Mingde inspected the site and found that there was some wasteland in the island area.

To Zhu Maoqing: This wasteland is also intended to be bought together.

Zhu Maoqing said with a smile: That's not simple, let's issue a notice: declare the church's willingness to buy land, ask the owner of the land to come and declare, and then, if no one declares, just report the ownerless land to the governor of Zhejiang.

A notice was posted in Camel Bridge, South Street, North Gate and other places: If there is some wasteland in the island area, and the church has the intention to buy it, the owner of the land shall come to declare within 30 days after the notice is posted, and it will be disposed of as ownerless wasteland after the deadline. The notice was issued twice in a row, and ordinary passers-by just looked at it, and no one came to claim the land for months.

Based on this, Zhu Maoqing believed that the more than 10 acres of land were ownerless wasteland, which was collected for local public use, and reported to Ren Daorong, the governor of Zhejiang at the time, to approve the filing of the case, and resold it to the Southern Supervision Committee at a valuation of 400 yuan. However, he didn't know, and he didn't investigate on the spot, these more than ten acres of wasteland were actually the foundation of the Fuxue Zun Jing Pavilion.

On Zhu Maoqing's desk, there were a lot of gifts.

Han Mingde said with a smile: There is Lord Lao County, and the purchase of land is considered to be settled. However, the contemptible people always felt that the place was too small, and we could not buy the wasteland next to it to replace the land of Yan Cao's second ancestral hall, so that the church and the hospital could form a whole, and it would also be convenient for future management.

Zhu Maoqing glanced at the gifts on the table, and said with a smile: What you said is also reasonable. However, it is necessary to find someone to testify, so as not to be difficult to say when you get it.

Han Mingde said: Nai also makes.

As a result, Shi Youbin and Liu Shouchun, the general manager of Qian, signed a pledge for the land exchange contract, and with the consent of Zhu Maoqing, they were stamped and written into the notice.

As a result, the land purchase process was completed.

In 1903, after Ding Xie succeeded him as the magistrate, he could not fulfill his duties, that is, he stamped and released the other tax deeds of the church.

......

According to the land exchange deed signed by Shi and Liu, Han Mingde sent someone to demolish the surviving Cao Xiaozi Temple, and rebuilt another one in the open space on the left.

Han Mingde then called a large group of people to fill in the land, build a wall, and enclose the foundations of the old Jingyi Pavilion, Yizhi Pavilion, and Shooting Garden, as well as some of the wasteland.

The demolition of the ruins of the two shrines of loyalty and filial piety to build houses and churches is a metaphor for the digging of the ancestral graves of Confucianism. It was not until this time that the Huzhou gentry realized the seriousness of the problem, and it became the main topic of conversation among Huzhou people before and after dinner.

......

Hearing this news, the Huzhou gentry were indignant.

In a teahouse in the Huzhou Mansion Temple, several Huzhou gentry were drinking tea and discussing.

One way: It is unreasonable for foreigners to come to us and dig up the graves of our ancestors.

One said to Liu Anjiang: Your brother Liu has an acquaintance with Han Shi, and he has worked in the Ministry of Industry and understands Qing Law, so you might as well take us to find him.

......

Han Mingde's temporary residence in Huzhou.

Han Mingde sneered and said: You are all people of insight and knowledgeable. As friends, you guys come and play, and you're welcome anytime, anywhere. For this matter, you don't need to come to me, the above-mentioned land has already been resold by the county order, and if you want to find it, you can go to the county office.

In desperation, Liu Anjiang led the Huzhou gentry to report to the Gui'an County Order, the Governor of Zhejiang, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other departments, and entrusted people to report to the inner court, among which Shen Jiaben, a Huzhou native who was then the Minister of Law Amendment, had a remarkable effect. In 1904, the imperial court issued two edicts in succession, asking the governor of Zhejiang, Nie Jizhen, to investigate the matter.

There was an edict from the imperial court, and Zhejiang Fu Nie did not dare to slack off, and quickly sent officials to the island to survey the boundary site, and successively met with the Huzhou gentry, missionaries, and the American consul in Hangzhou, Anderson (Geo

ge E.A

de

so

) and so on.

At the meeting, the Zhejiang Foreign Affairs Bureau sent Xu Dinglin, a native of Huzhou, to participate. Xu Li said confidently: The land was bought and sold by force, which ruined the culture of our nation and dug up the ancestral grave of our nation.

Han Mingde said: The land purchased by us is reasonable and legal, and the procedures are complete, and it is nonsense to force the purchase and sale.

Anderson also said: The purchased land is complete in formalities, reasonable and legal, and your accusation is not established.

No results were reached.

......

In February of the following year (1905), the Zhejiang Foreign Affairs Bureau sent Xu Dinglin to Shanghai to meet with Paul Bai, the vice consul of the United States in Shanghai, and Pan Shenwen (A.P.Pa, the representative of the Southern Supervision Council

ke

), Han Mingde, Bi Liwen (Edwa

d Pilley) and others, and missionaries Timothy Lee and Li Jiabai also mediated from the middle, and the negotiations finally made great progress, and the "Contract for the Method of Establishing the Huzhou Island Ancestral School Base" (hereinafter referred to as the Xu Dinglin Contract) was drafted. The two sides agreed that the South Supervision Committee agreed to return a total of about 15 acres of ancestral temples and other bases, plus two small plots of land in Kinan, totaling about 20 acres. However, the Church demanded that no "unclean houses" be built on the land to be returned, and that a two-foot-wide road be made to the east of the base; In addition, the Zhejiang Foreign Affairs Bureau was required to pay the church 1,000 taels to Shanghai.

......

After reading this contract, in fact, the most important foundations such as the Zun Jing Pavilion have been returned, but Liu Anjiang said: There are still inconsistencies in the words of this contract. What kind of buildings are considered "unclean"? Are the Temple of Literature and the Second Temple of Loyalty and Filial Piety "unclean"? Is it "idolatry" in the eyes of the church? Moreover, if the standard of "uncleanness" is controlled by the church, it is undoubtedly subject to the control of the gentry and is to blame everywhere. Secondly, the east gate of the church's newly built wall needs to have a road leading to the official road, which is the origin of the two-zhang-wide highway. The existence of this road does not have any benefits, but occupies the land of the ancestral temple and the temple, and it also cuts the whole land of the school into two, which is very inconvenient.

Nie Jichun was very dissatisfied with Liu Anjiang's statement, and he said: You have to do things in moderation. Xu Dinglin's contract has won back more than 20 acres of public land, which is twice as much as the previous disputed 10 acres, and the most important ancestral halls have been claimed from all over the country, and the rest can no longer be done; What's more, the contract has already been concluded by the government and the Church Council, and it is more difficult for the government to change it, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also agreed to negotiate and conclude it according to this plan.

However, at the insistence of Liu Anjiang and other Huzhou gentry, Zhefu called the Foreign Affairs Bureau to ask for continued negotiations with the US consul and to negotiate a supplementary agreement on the basis of the original contract.

However, Han Mingde could not accept the request for revision, and the negotiations eventually broke down.