Gùshǐ

Gushi lay in southeastern Henan, in the Huai River country around the Shi River. Its administrative ties shifted during the early Ming reconstruction of provincial government. In 1371 it was attached to Fengyang Prefecture in Southern Metropolitan territory; in 1381 it passed to Runing Prefecture under Henan. Under the Qing, the elevation of Guangzhou to an independent department in 1724 placed Gushi within that jurisdiction.

The county also produced families whose influence extended through the imperial examinations and official service. Wu Qijun, born in Gushi in 1789, came from such a household: his father and elder brother held high scholarly offices, and the family's residence was known as Gongbao Di. Wu passed the provincial examination in 1810 and became the top palace-examination graduate in 1817. His official career and botanical interests connected this county with wider networks of learning. Gushi's early nineteenth-century history thus included a local scholarly lineage whose members moved between their native place and the institutions of the Qing state.