Cultural exhibition promotes traditional morality in Nanyang

The Department of Culture, Radio, Film, TV, Press and Publication of the city of Nanyang, Henan province put on an exhibition recently in the city's Magistrate Museum to salute two famous upstanding officials of old Nanyang — Zhao Xinchen and Du Shi — and to make a wider group of people familiar with their good character.

It gave examples of their outstanding deeds, their integrity, their behavior to the people and their honesty in performing their duties and responsibilities. Records show that Zhao and Du were prefecture chiefs. Zhao held the position during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) and he dedicated himself to agriculture by building water infrastructure and encouraging farming, and issued laws to punish corrupt officials while the city became a center of riches. Du, governing during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220), focused on tax relief and social fairness so that hardly any household at that time had worries about their income.

The exhibition also urged modern officials to model themselves on Zhao and Du in their daily performances by pursuing a purer administration, and carrying on the great tradition of morality and culture in old Nanyang. There were also local calligraphers and painters on hand to create paintings on the spot to express their affection for the two upright officials.

Calligrapher at work at the exhibition site. [Photo/Nanyang Daily]