There are many records of folk philanthropists after the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. philanthropist, a famous philanthropist in the history of charity, and Dafeng monk in the Northern Song Dynasty can promote it. He lived in Huizong Xuanhe period in the Northern Song Dynasty, and his deeds have been recorded in the history books of China and Southeast Asian countries. His main charity is to build bridges for the benefit of the people. In the sixth year of Huizong Zhenghe in the Northern Song Dynasty (116), Buddhist masters came from Fujian to Chaoyang, Guangdong Province, and raised funds by themselves to build a Peace Bridge in Chaoyang. Time-consuming 12 years, completed at the end of Xuanhe and the beginning of Southern Song Dynasty. The local residents thanked Dade and set up a "Baode Hall" beside the bridge to worship him. Since then, charities and charitable organizations in Chaoshan area of Guangdong have flourished day by day, all of which originated from this great Buddhist good man.
Fan Zhong, the grandfather of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was a philanthropist at that time. According to the records of the later Han Dynasty, he once lent money to millions of poor families, and then all the debts of these people were cut and burned, which made the borrower very moved. There are many "pond fish and livestock" in his family. Anyone who asks for fish and livestock is responsive. During the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties, many local officials were also local philanthropists. For example, when Ba Huang proclaimed himself emperor in the Western Han Dynasty, when he was the secretariat of Yangzhou, he often encouraged small officials in rural pavilions to raise chickens and pigs, and then gave alms to those lonely and poor households. When he was the magistrate of Quanzhou, he also "helped the needy" from time to time and engaged in charity. Later, at that time, the social order was good, reaching the state of "land was given to the bank and no one answered the road". When a famous minister in the Western Han Dynasty called Xin Chen, he built water conservancy projects in Daxing County, "bowing to persuade farmers", doing good deeds and accumulating virtue, making the county rich, and was honored as "calling the father" by the people. Among the ministers and local officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were many philanthropists, such as Xuan Bing, a famous minister in Guangwudi, who was honored by the emperor as "sitting alone for three times". He was very good, but he never squandered his life, "naked" and "eating jade to eat vegetables". Instead, he gave all his wages over the years to poor relatives and widowed families, so that he died "self-sufficient". Wang Dan, another minister of Guangwudi, although "the family has a thousand dollars", gave all his wealth to the poor and won the reputation of "generosity and urgency". The most interesting thing is that whenever farming is busy, he takes food and wine to the fields to reward those who work hard.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were also philanthropists among the people who did good deeds in the local area. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, there was a "good official" named Lu Yong. Wei went out from home to help the poor every day when he was a satrap. Another good official, Yan Yinqing, was appointed as the prefect of East Taizhou in a famine year. Yin Qing used more than 1000 stones and millet to "help the poor" and saved many families in need.
The most commendable is the "senior official" of the Sui Dynasty, Gongsun Maojing. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, there was a war against Chen. During the journey, many soldiers became ill because they didn't adapt to the environment. Mao Jing treated these sick soldiers with his own salary, and more than 1000 people survived from him. Later, he was appointed as the secretariat of Daozhou, and used his salary and family property to buy a large number of chickens, pigs and calves, "to distribute the benefits to the lonely and the weak." Xin Gongyi, another famous official in Sui Dynasty, was even more moved by his charity. History shows that when he was appointed as the secretariat of Zhou Min, Sichuan, the local area was plagued with disasters and diseases, and the people were particularly afraid of getting sick. "If one person is sick, the whole family will avoid it", so that "father and son are husband and wife, and they will not give in to each other." Xin Gongyi decided to appeal to the people with his exemplary behavior. When the epidemic was serious in summer, he asked his men to carry all the patients in the country to his home with hemp boards. There are hundreds of patients, and the halls and corridors are crowded with people. He personally set up a sofa to live with patients and asked them all day long. All the wages earned during this period are used to buy medicine for patients and take care of their diet and daily life. As a result, all the patients recovered and the local bad habits changed.
There are many folk philanthropists after the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, such as philanthropist, a famous philanthropist in the history of charity, and Dafeng monk in the Northern Song Dynasty. He lived in Huizong Xuanhe period in the Northern Song Dynasty, and his deeds have been recorded in the history books of China and Southeast Asian countries. His main charity work is to build bridges for the benefit of the people. In the sixth year of Huizong Zhenghe in the Northern Song Dynasty (116), Buddhist masters came from Fujian to Chaoyang, Guangdong Province, and raised funds by themselves to build a Peace Bridge in Chaoyang. Time-consuming 12 years, completed at the end of Xuanhe and the beginning of Southern Song Dynasty. The local residents thanked Dade and set up a "Baode Hall" beside the bridge to worship him. Since then, charities and charitable organizations in Chaoshan area of Guangdong have flourished day by day, all of which originated from this great Buddhist good man. From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, Shantou became the most famous charity in the south under the influence of Master Dafeng. 1929, the local people wrote "The Monument to the Ancestor", which recorded in detail the life story of this philanthropist who lived about 1000 years ago: "Song Dafeng, the founder of Fujian, was a monk at the time of Xuanhe ... advised chaozhou people to build bridges, build roads, perform coffins, hold funerals, save people, send medicines, help the poor, and so on. Dafeng's charity thought has also spread overseas, and Dafeng Zu Temple was established in Bangkok, Thailand, and related folk charities were established. On this basis, Overseas Chinese Chongsheng University in Thailand was established in 1990s. We can say Dafeng is an international philanthropist.
In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, the folk charity in southern China reached its climax. At that time, many progressive intellectuals set up local charitable organizations. On the one hand, they kept in touch, opposed the dark rule of eunuchs, and held a rally to attack corrupt politics. On the other hand, they provide effective relief to the society, sending clothes to the cold, food to the hungry, medicine to the sick, coffins to the dead, and some even raise funds to start schools for poor children. Gao Panlong, Qian Yiben, Chen Youxue, Ye Maocai, the famous leaders of Lindong School, organized the Hometown Association, which is such a folk charity. It was originally established by Yang Dongming, a native of Henan, in Yucheng, Henan Province during the Wanli period in Ming Shenzong. Later, the center moved to Wujin, Jiangsu, and the area expanded to Wuxi, Jiashan and other counties in the south of the Yangtze River. The main content of the charity of Tongshan Society is to publicize good moral habits to the society, adopt sons who are poor and filial, virtuous daughters and poor and sick people, and the funds are collectively raised by the members of Tongshan Society. The charitable activities of Tongshan Club have attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad. Japanese scholar Fumajin specially wrote a booklet "A Brief History of Tongshan Society". In the Qing Dynasty, the folk charity in the south of the Yangtze River developed on a larger scale on the basis of Tongshan Fair. According to relevant historical statistics, there are more than 120 social charitable organizations in Suzhou alone, and more than 80 charitable organizations in Shanghai. Some of these charitable organizations have set up nurseries for abandoned babies, while others have set up the so-called Yan Tang Ji and Tong Ren Tang to provide medicines for the poor free of charge. Due to the intervention of some local officials, some charitable organizations have abundant funds. During the Qianlong period, a nursery in Wuhe County owned more than 3,000 mu of land12,000 mu, and received official assistance at one time. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, charitable organizations organized by scholar-officials also gave lectures to the masses regularly and publicized their charitable thoughts. Tadao Sakai, a Japanese scholar, specializes in China's good books, focusing on the charitable culture and scholarship of Gao Panlong, a philanthropist of Lindong School in the late Ming Dynasty.
We should also mention two other philanthropists in the Qing Dynasty, one is Tao Shu and the other is the famous Lin Zexu. Tao Shu was a border official in Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty. He was an official to the governor of Liangjiang, held a high position, and was famous for hosting Fengcang in charity. From three to five years of Daoguang (1823- 1825), Tao Shu was the governor of Anhui, which coincided with a big fire. He began to consider building a private warehouse to guard against famine, and named it "a warehouse with abundant reserves", which means "enough years, but not enough years". In the fifteenth year of Daoguang (1835), Tao Shu has served as the governor twice. Finally, he and Lin Zexu, a subordinate of Jiangsu Governor at that time, built Fengbei Yicang, and the addresses were selected in Jiangning and Suzhou. At the beginning of this year, Lin Zexu built ten warehouses in Suzhou and bought grain from Wuxi. Because it is located in Changzhou, Yuanhe and Wu counties in Jiangsu Province, this folk disaster relief warehouse was named "Changyuan Wufeng Warehouse" in history. From 1835 to 1860, this warehouse effectively played the role of disaster relief in famine years. After the Opium War, Lin Zexu was exiled to Xinjiang. He once again donated money to build the Longkou Canal in Yili, the frontier, for the benefit of the people in Xinjiang, and completed his last charity for the country and the people in his life. At the end of the Qing dynasty, the five peaks in Changyuan built a grain depot, which was jointly organized by the government and the people and turned into a joint office of local gentry. The scale of charity is getting bigger and bigger. It not only provided food for famine relief, but also established the "Xieji porridge factory", and later was responsible for the relief of unemployed machine users. In the 22nd year of Guangxu in the late Qing Dynasty (1896), a "school of Confucianism and Solitude" was established for the children of poor families. Finally, a "poor workshop" was expanded to solve the employment of exiles and poor children, which is equivalent to the current technical school. In this way, Wufengcang in Changyuan has become a comprehensive charity.
From 65438 to 1990, new western thoughts were introduced into China, and some western charity thoughts were also introduced into China academic circles, which impacted our traditional charity. Zheng, a thinker in the late Qing Dynasty, listed charities in western countries in an article entitled Charity, and advocated that China should also set up western-style charity halls through the joint efforts of officials and gentry. Traditional charity in China has gradually transformed into modern public welfare undertakings.
China's traditional philanthropy has something in common with that of the western world, that is, the philanthropy in ancient China originated from the people-oriented thought of ancient Confucianism, which is consistent with the humanism advocated since the Western Renaissance. However, there are also differences between the two, that is, modern charity activities are not limited to helping the orphans, the poor and the sick, but also focus on the public, making charity not only passive but also active. Today, China's philanthropy and charity policy are changing in this direction. As a recent article in Beijing Youth Daily said, "It should not only conform to the fine virtues of the Chinese nation and the needs of China society today, but also be consistent with the world's advanced culture". This is also a new atmosphere of charity in China under the new conditions!