Shi Kefa
| Shi Kefa | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Shi Kefa
|
|
| Official of the Ming dynasty | |
| Born | 4 February 1601 |
| Died | 20 May 1645 (aged 44) |
| Names | |
| Traditional Chinese | 史可法 |
| Simplified Chinese | 史可法 |
| Pinyin | Shǐ Kéfǎ |
| Wade–Giles | Shih K'o-fa |
| Courtesy name |
|
| Posthumous name |
|
Shi Kefa (4 February 1601 – 20 May 1645), courtesy names Xianzhi and Daolin, was a government official and calligrapher who lived in the late Ming dynasty. He was born in Xiangfu (祥符; present-day Kaifeng, Henan) and claimed ancestry from Daxing County, Shuntianfu (順天府大興縣; in present-day Beijing). He was mentored by Zuo Guangdou (左光斗). He served as the Grand Secretary in the Ministry of War in Nanjing during the early part of his career. He is best remembered for his defence of Yangzhou from invading armies of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and was killed when Yangzhou fell to Qing forces in April 1645. The Southern Ming government granted him a posthumous name, "Zhongjing" (忠靖; means "loyal and peaceful"). Nearly a century later, the Qing dynasty's Qianlong Emperor granted Shi Kefa another posthumous name, "Zhongzheng" (忠正; means "loyal and upright".) His descendants collected his works and compiled them into a book titled Lord Shi Zhongzheng's Collections (史忠正公集).
Shi Kefa took the imperial examination and obtained a jinshi (進士) degree in 1628. He was appointed as an official in Xi'an, before subsequently serving as a yuanwailang (員外郎) and langzhong (郎中) in the Ministry of Revenue. In 1635 he followed the general Lu Xiangsheng (盧象昇) to suppress peasant revolts throughout the land. Two years later, he was promoted to yushi (御史) on the recommendation of the minister Zhang Guowei (張國維), and was also appointed as xunfu (巡撫; a type of regional governor) of Anqing, Luzhou (present-day Hefei), Taiping (near present-day Wuhu City), Chizhou (池州), and various counties in Henan, Jiangxi and Huguang provinces. In 1641, he was put in charge of the Caoyun system. In the seventh month of 1643, he was appointed as Grand Secretary of the Ministry of War in Nanjing.
...
Wikipedia