Within Changping County north of Beijing stood a Prince of Pingxi's Residence. Mention the Prince of Pingxi, and many people might immediately think of Wu Sangui. He had crushed the rebel king Li Zicheng in the great battle at Shanhai Pass, and later launched the "Revolt of the Three Feudatories" in protest against the court's order to abolish the fiefdoms.
Yet Wu Sangui guarded Yunnan and Guizhou. The Prince of Pingxi's Residence he built stood on Wuhua Mountain in Kunming. The place had originally belonged to Mu Ying, a founding Ming dynasty general. Though Mu Ying's title was merely marquis, he had single-handedly overseen the southwest, governed with generosity, and won the people's deep affection. His residence was therefore "unlawfully" built as a prince's residence by the common folk, only falling into Wu Sangui's hands around the transition from Ming to Qing.
Even though it was already a prince's residence, the Prince of Pingxi still felt its layout was too modest to display his prestige. He spent lavishly expanding it again and again, decorating it with precious building materials and rare flowers and plants until it became the height of Luxury.
Yunnan was rich in copper mines and, aside from Japan, was another major source of supply. During his tenure in Yunnan, Chen Hongmou had once overseen the copper mines. When Chen Hongmou took office, Yunnan had roughly two hundred schools, though most served no real purpose. While revitalizing these existing schools, he also relied on local elites to establish many more, in principle admitting both Han Chinese and other ethnic groups without distinction.
As the number of schools grew, more teachers were needed. Chen Hongmou had passed the metropolitan examination in the first year of Yongzheng's reign, placing in the third tier. He studied the learning of the two