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卷七十七 蓋諸葛劉鄭孫毌將何傳

Volume 77: Gai, Zhuge, Liu, Zheng, Sun, Wujiang and He

Chapter 88 of 漢書 · Book of Han
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1
Volume 77: Biographies of Gai, Zhuge, Liu, Zheng, Sun, Wujiang, and He—the forty-seventh series.
2
Gai Kuangrao.
3
殿
Gai Kuangrao, styled Cigong, came from Wei Commandery. He earned his classics degree as the commandery literary officer, then entered the court as a gentleman on the filial-incorrupt roster. An "upright conduct" nomination and a top policy paper won him the remonstrant's post and acting charge of the household colonelcy at the inner gate. He impeached Zhang Anshi's son Pengzu, gentleman attendant at court and marquis of Yangdu, for failing to dismount at the palace hall gate, and linked the charge to Anshi's occupying office without real benefit. Pengzu had in fact dismounted; Kuangrao was convicted of wrongly impeaching a great minister and was demoted to colonel of the palace guards.
4
使 使 使
Before Kuangrao, the guard colonel had to kowtow to the commandant of guards and was treated like a messenger boy for shopping runs. On day one he reopened the statute book and replaced the kowtow with a ranked salute for men under him on escort duty. When the commandant tried to send him on a private chore, he walked to the yamen gate and entered a written refusal on the books. The imperial secretariat censured the commandant of guards, and guard officers no longer privately detailed the colonel or marshal for errands. Colonels and marshals stopped the deep bow, filed written leave before each shift, and the ritual line was drawn for good.
5
殿 使使 使
Fresh to the colonelcy he shortened his robe, belted on a long sword, toured every barrack, tasted the gruel, nursed the sick himself, and paid doctors out of his own pocket. When the year-end muster came and the emperor feasted the retiring guards, thousands begged on their knees to serve another tour under Kuangrao. Xuan made him a palace grandee and sent him circuit-riding as moral inspector; his promotions and sackings matched what the court wanted to hear. As metropolitan governor he denounced wrongdoing without swerving, great and small alike; the commandant of justice applied the law to only half his memorials, yet ministers, imperial in-laws, and clerks on duty in Chang'an all feared him and dared not break the law—the capital grew clean.
6
西
The whole peerage turned out for Xu Bo's housewarming; Kuangrao stayed home. Xu had to coax him in; he climbed the west steps and sat alone on the host's east—the seat reserved for a peer. Xu poured the wine himself and said, "Our late guest is Lord Gai." Kuangrao said, "Pour sparingly—I turn wild after a few cups." The marquis of Wei laughed and said, "Cigong is mad while sober—what need of wine?" All who sat there fixed their eyes on him and looked down on him. Tan Changqing of the empress's palace danced a monkey-and-dog farce; the hall howled with laughter. Kuangrao was displeased; he lifted his eyes to the rafters and sighed, "How splendid! Yet wealth and honor are never constant; in an instant they pass to another. They are like a relay lodge, through which I have seen many people come and go. Only caution keeps a man long in his seat—my lords, will you never learn?" He walked out and filed charges against Tan for doing a monkey act while holding ministerial rank—a breach of ritual. The emperor meant to punish Tan until Xu Bo smoothed it over.
7
使祿
He was rigidly upright and of lofty integrity; his ambition was to serve the public good. His family was poor. He drew a clerk's pay and spent half of it buying informers in the streets. His son marched to the northern line on foot while he held the capital's highest police post—that was the man's standard. Yet he savored prosecutions, made enemies of every magnate, and lectured the throne until it smarted. Because he was a scholar, the emperor treated him with indulgence, yet he was never promoted further. Juniors leapt past him to the Nine Ministers while he stewed, convinced his integrity should have won him more. Wang Sheng, attendant to the heir, esteemed Kuangrao's integrity but disapproved of this conduct, and wrote him a letter: "An enlightened ruler knows that you are pure, upright, and just, and that you do not fear the mighty. For this reason he assigned you an office of inspection and gave you the authority of an imperial commissioner; high rank and generous stipend have already been granted to you. You should think day and night about the duties of the present age, uphold the law, proclaim moral transformation, and toil anxiously on behalf of the empire. Even if each day brought benefit and each month brought achievement, it would still scarcely be enough to be worthy of your office and repay his grace. Since high antiquity each sage king had his own institutions. Now you do not simply attend to your office; instead you wish to correct the Son of Heaven with remote precedents from high antiquity, and you repeatedly submit unwelcome, hard-to-hear words that scrape against those at his side. This is not the way to spread a good name or preserve your life. Today's ministers know every loophole in the code; they can polish the emperor's prose and pin any fault on you—imitate the safe Qu, not the dead Wu Zixu, or you will gamble a life you cannot replace. The noble man stands straight without snapping, bends without crawling. The Greater Odes says: "Be bright and wise, and you will keep your skin." Even a madman's rant may hold a line the sage keeps. Please read this with care." Kuangrao ignored the letter.
8
退
Kuangrao submitted a sealed memorial saying, "Today the sage way is gradually abandoned, Confucian learning does not prevail; mutilated convicts are treated as the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao, and statutes are taken for the Odes and Documents." He also cited the Han family's Commentary on the Changes, saying: "The Five Thearchs treated the empire as an office; the Three Kings treated the empire as a family possession. A family is transmitted to sons, while an office is transmitted to the worthy. It is like the turning of the four seasons: when one's work is complete, one departs; if the right person has not been found, one does not occupy the position." The emperor read it as slander and bounced the paper to the high ministers. The Bearer of the Mace read the passage as a call for the emperor to yield the throne—capital treason. Remonstrance Grandee Zheng Chang pitied Kuangrao's loyal bluntness and his concern for the state, and grieved that because his words on affairs did not suit the ruler's wishes, he had been attacked and broken by clerical officials. Zheng Chang submitted a memorial praising Kuangrao, saying: "I have heard that where mountains hold fierce beasts, brambles and greens are not gathered; where the court keeps honest men, treason finds no foothold. Metropolitan Commandant Kuangrao does not seek comfort in his dwelling or fullness in his food. When he advances, he carries a heart anxious for the state; when he withdraws, he holds to the duty of dying for principle. Above, he has no patronage from the Xu and Shi clans; below, he has no backing from the Jin and Zhang houses. His office is one of inspection, and he follows the straight path, making many enemies and few friends. He submits memorials on affairs of state, and the responsible agencies impeach him for a capital crime. I have had the fortune to serve among the grandees, and since my office bears the name of remonstrance, I dare not be silent." The emperor would not listen and sent Kuangrao down to the clerks. He opened his own throat below the northern watchtower; the capital wept.
9
Zhuge Feng.
10
祿
Zhuge Feng, styled Shaoji, came from Langye. He passed the classics track as literary officer and was known as a lone straight arrow. Gong Yu took him on staff and nominated him as palace clerk. Emperor Yuan promoted him to Metropolitan Commandant. When exposing and impeaching wrongdoing, he avoided no one, and people in the capital made a saying of it: "Why such distance? You have met Zhuge!" The emperor praised his integrity and raised Feng's rank to grand coachman of the imperial household.
11
Xu Zhang the favorite in-law ran wild; his clients broke laws in his name. Feng tried to arrest Xu Zhang in the street, blocked the carriage, raised his baton, and shouted, "Down from the cart!" He intended to seize him. Xu Zhang lashed his horses; Feng gave chase. Xu slipped inside the palace gate and threw himself on the emperor's mercy. Feng filed his own report; the emperor stripped his baton. From Feng onward the capital censor carried no imperial staff.
12
祿 使 使 使
Feng submitted a memorial of apology, saying: "Your subject Feng is dull and timid. In civil matters I am not capable enough to encourage the good; in military matters I am not capable enough to seize the wicked. Your Majesty did not weigh whether your subject was capable, but appointed me Metropolitan Commandant. Before I had any means to prove myself, you again raised your subject's rank to Grandee of Splendid Light. The office is lofty and the responsibility heavy; it is not a position your subject should hold. He feared dying before he had earned his keep and being mocked as a salary thief. He swore he would gladly die if he could first spike a traitor's head on the market wall. Commoners keep faith unto death while great officers fawn and factionalize, he said—private profit had swallowed public duty. That filth had risen to heaven, he argued, which was why omens multiplied and the people starved. He called it proof of ministerial treason and said he was ashamed without end. Honest men risk death because they serve the throne, not themselves. He thanked the emperor for a letter from Master of Reading Yao: the censor must praise good and punish evil, not seize every case. Stay in the middle way and heed the classics. He said the grace overwhelmed him. He begged for a private audience to unburden his grievance." The emperor refused.
13
使
Feng again submitted a memorial saying, "I have heard that Boqi was filial yet cast off by kin, Wu Zixu loyal yet executed by his ruler, Duke Yin merciful yet killed by his younger brother, and Shuwu the younger brother yet killed by his elder brother. For men of such conduct and Qu Yuan's talent still could not display themselves and met execution—does it not suffice for reflection! If I may kill my body to settle the state and accept execution to clarify the ruler, your subject truly wishes it. I only fear there will be no help from above, that I will be thrust aside by a crowd of wicked men, letting slanderers succeed, blocking the road of the straight, disheartening loyal ministers and sealing wise men's mouths—this is what your foolish subject fears."
14
祿祿 祿祿
Feng arrested and tried people in spring and summer; those in office spoke much of his faults. Demoted to gate colonel, he struck back with charges against Zhou Kan and Zhang Meng. The emperor did not consider Feng right, and therefore issued a formal edict to the imperial secretary: "Feng, Colonel of the City Gates, formerly, when Chamberlain for the Palace Garrison Kan and Grandee of the Palace Meng were at court, repeatedly praised the excellence of Kan and Meng. It recalled his harsh tenure as censor and said the throne had spared him a jail term by demoting him to the gates. He had never searched his own conscience. Now he smeared the same men he had praised—evidence of bad faith. The edict spared the cane and stripped him to commoner status." He died at home.
15
祿 使
Liu Fu belonged to the Hejian royal lineage. A filial-incorrupt nomination made him magistrate of Xiangben. A policy memorial won him an audience and a jump to grandee remonstrant. It happened that Emperor Cheng wished to establish Honorable Lady Zhao as empress and first issued an edict enfeoffing her father Lin as a full marquis. Fu submitted a memorial saying, "I have heard that what Heaven favors it first endows with talismanic omens; —Heaven's anger shows first in disasters; that is how the spirits speak. Even Wu and Zhou trembled at small omens, he argued—how much more should a childless age fear heaven's warnings. He begged the emperor not to make a dancing-girl empress when the altars still lacked an heir. Village wisdom says rotten timber cannot be a ridgepole and a lowborn woman cannot mother the realm. He said every market knew the match was ill-omened while the court stayed silent. He said his clan tie obliged him to speak even at the cost of his life." Chengdi jailed him in the harem's secret jail without telling the ministers why.
16
祿
Thereupon Left General Xin Qingji, Right General Lian Bao, Chamberlain for Ceremonies Shi Dan, and Palace Grandee Gu Yong jointly submitted a memorial saying, "We have heard that an enlightened king extends a tolerant hearing, honors the offices of remonstrance and dispute, opens wide the path for loyal and upright men, and does not punish reckless or uncompromising words. Only then can the hundred officials in office exhaust their loyalty and offer all their plans without fearing later disaster; the court has no flatterers, and the sovereign has no guides who would lead him from the Way. They said Liu Fu must have touched a nerve to rise so fast from county magistrate. They pleaded ignorance of court taboo for a newcomer from the provinces. Small slips deserved patience; capital crimes deserved a public trial. They cited Confucius turning back from the Yellow River when Zhao Jianzi killed his worthy. With omens piling up, they said, the throne should widen its ear, not narrow it. Jailing a remonstrant would terrify every honest voice in the empire. If the charge were murky, rumor would poison trust from gate to gate. A royal remonstrant should not rot in a harem lockup. They warned that silencing Liu Fu would teach every official to hold his tongue. They begged the emperor to reconsider."
17
Chengdi shifted him to a lesser jail and commuted the sentence to convict logging. He died at home.
18
Zheng Chong of Gaomi was tied by marriage to the Wang clan for generations. His grandfather bought resettlement at Pingling. His father served Gong Yu as a clerk famed for straight dealing. He rose from literary clerk to the chancellor's carriage office. His brother Zheng Li was schoolmates with Fu Xi. Fu Xi's grand marshalship lifted Zheng Chong to vice president of the secretariat under Ai. At first Ai listened to his blunt visits. Whenever he was seen dragging leather sandals, the emperor laughed and said, "I recognize Minister Zheng's shoe sound."
19
祿
After some time, the emperor wished to enfeoff Shang, the cousin of his grandmother Empress Dowager Fu. Chong remonstrated, saying: "When Emperor Cheng enfeoffed his five maternal uncles as marquises, Heaven turned red-yellow and the daylight darkened; at noon, black vapor appeared in the sun. Two Fu cousins already held marquisates. One was the Zhao empress's father— —the other had risen through the three dukes and still looked defensible. A third Fu marquis with no excuse would break precedent and anger heaven, he said. He quoted masters on the price of reversing yin and yang. He quoted Zhou's warning against pleasure-drunk kings. He said short-lived emperors paid for yin excess. He offered his own life to cancel the omen." He snatched the edict scroll and stood up in open defiance. Empress Dowager Fu raged and said, "How can there be a Son of Heaven yet be wholly controlled by one minister!" The emperor thereupon issued an edict saying, "We were orphaned while young, and the great imperial grandmother personally reared Us, brought Us safely out of swaddling clothes, and instructed and guided Us with ritual until We reached adulthood. Her favor and grace have been abundant. He quoted the Odes on boundless debt to a parent. He said earlier honors to the Fu line still felt inadequate. Fu Shang was the grand empress's half-brother and the nearest kin left. The edict enfeoffed Fu Shang at Ruchang and rewrote the older shrine title."
20
He crossed the emperor again over Dong Xian's favor and paid for it. Office politics gave him a neck ulcer; he dared not ask to retire. Zhao Chang struck when Zheng was out of favor, alleging clan conspiracy. The emperor reproached Chong, saying, "Your gate is like a market of men—why do you wish to restrain the ruler?" Zheng answered, "The gate is busy; the heart is still as water—investigate me." Ai jailed him until he died under interrogation.
21
簿 使 簿 簿 簿
Sun Bao of Yingchuan entered service through the classics. Zhang Zhong wanted him to tutor his son and built him a private lodging. Sun Bao resigned on principle; Zhang Zhong recalled him but nursed a grudge. Sun Bao took the chief-clerk post, sacrificed to the kitchen god, and invited the neighbors in. Zhong observed this in secret, found it strange, and had someone close to him ask Bao, "Earlier the counsellor prepared and cleared a large residence for you, yet you impeached yourself and left. Was this because you wished to display lofty integrity? Now in the two offices, men of lofty character customarily do not become chief clerks. You have already taken the post, and were very pleased to move residence. How does this accord with your earlier conduct?" Bao said, "Men of lofty character do not become chief clerks, but if the counsellor considers Bao suitable and no one in the whole office says this is wrong, how can a gentleman alone exalt himself? The other day your lord's son wished to study letters, and you moved Bao close by. Ritual says pupils come to the teacher, not the reverse— the Way cannot be bent—what harm if the person bends? Moreover, when one has not encountered refusal, one may do anything—how much more the chief clerk!" Zhang Zhong apologized with a recommendation to the court. He rose to deliberation gentleman, then remonstrant.
22
Hongjia banditry won him the Yi Province governorship. The Guanghan governor was Wang Yin's weak nephew Hu Shang. Sun Bao hiked into the hills and told bands they had been misled. Chieftains surrendered and he sent them back to their farms. He confessed to bending an edict while asking that Hu Shang bear the blame as ringleader. Hu Shang struck back, claiming some freed men deserved death. Hu Shang went to jail; Sun Bao fell for sparing capital offenders. Yi locals petitioned that Wang Yin had railroaded him. The court recalled him to Ji Province, then to the chancellor's inspectorate.
23
使 西
The emperor's uncle Wang Li used Li Shang of Nanyang to grab hundreds of qing of marsh and wasteland, then asked the court to pay for it. The throne ordered fair payment at inflated prices topping one hundred million cash. Sun Bao sent a chancellor's investigator, exposed the fraud, and impeached Li and Shang for deceiving the throne. Li Shang died in prison. Wang Li escaped punishment, but when his brother Wang Shang died the emperor skipped him and made Wang Gen Grand Marshal instead. With Yi unrest spreading, the court sent the famed Sun Bao to Guanghan as a two-thousand-picul administrator with thirty jin of gold. He quieted the tribes and won local praise.
24
穿
Next he took the capital governorship. He courted his old clerk Hou Wen with feasts and treated him as an equal. Hou Wen accepted a clerkship and got guest-of-honor treatment. On Beginning of Autumn he named Hou Wen eastern circuit inspector. When Wen entered to see him, Bao instructed him, saying, "Today the hawks and falcons first strike. One should follow the qi of Heaven, seize the wicked, and complete the punishment of severe frost. Is there such a man in your circuit?" Wen looked up and said, "If there is none I dare not accept the office empty." "Whom do you mean?" asked Sun Bao. "Du Zhiji of Baling," said Hou Wen. "Who else?" asked Sun Bao. "When wolves sit the road," Hou Wen said, "you do not hunt foxes." Sun Bao said nothing. Du Zhiji was tied to Chunyu Zhang and Xiao Yu. Sun Bao feared Hongyang and needed Chunyu Zhang—who had just asked him to spare Du Zhiji—so he could not touch Hou Wen's target. Wen was surprised that Bao's spirit had ebbed, and knew there was some reason for it. He therefore said, "Your Excellency has always had a fearsome reputation. Now, if you dare to take Zhiji, you should for the moment close the office and ask about nothing else. A quiet year would restore the governor's name. Move on other cases only after Du fell, he warned, or the city would howl Sun Bao down." Sun Bao said, "Understood." Du Zhiji walled himself in, bored a postern, and hoed his garden until Hou Wen vouched for him. Wen said, "Zhiji and I are fortunately from the same region, and I have never held the slightest grudge against him. I have merely received the general's order, and by my role must face him directly. Reform would win mercy; hiding would bring worse trouble." Du kept clean; Sun Bao brought no case that year. Du Zhiji died the next winter. Three years in the capital won praise. Chunyu Zhang's fall swept Sun Bao and Xiao Yu out with him. Hou Wen went home and died. Du Cang eclipsed his father's fame in the bravo lists.
25
使 使 祿
Ai recalled him to censor, then metropolitan governor. Fu's faction had forced Lady Feng of Zhongshan to suicide; opinion called it a frame. Bao memorialized requesting reinvestigation; Empress Dowager Fu raged and said, "The emperor set up the metropolitan governor to spy on me! She said the Feng case was closed and Sun Bao only meant to smear her. I will try him myself," she said." Ai folded and jailed Sun Bao. Tang Lin defended Sun Bao and was demoted to a desert outpost. Fu Xi and Gong Sheng forced a compromise through the empress dowager.
26
使
Before long, Zheng Chong was sent down to prison. Bao submitted a memorial saying, "I have heard that those who are distant do not plot against those who are close, and those outside do not scheme against those inside. He said a censor must not flinch from favorites. He described Zheng Chong's silent endurance under the rod. He accused Zhao Chang of dripping malice against a palace officer. He asked to put Zhao Chang on trial." When the memorial was submitted, the Son of Heaven was displeased. Because Bao was a noted minister, he could not bear to execute him, and therefore issued a formal edict to the chancellor and Grand Minister of Works: "Metropolitan Commandant Bao has memorialized that the former Vice Director of the Masters of Writing Chong was wronged, and asks that Master of Writing Zhao Chang be imprisoned and tried. The rescript called Sun Bao a state-thief for springtime slander. The tradition asks whether glib speakers do not ruin states. The line condemns the clever mouth that pulls a dynasty down. Strip Sun Bao to commoner rank."
27
祿
Wang Mang recalled him to greet the boy emperor. Under Pingdi he ran the granaries as grand minister of agriculture. A yellow-dragon omen set ministers praising Wang Mang as another Duke of Zhou. Bao said, "The Duke of Zhou was a supreme sage, and the Duke of Shao a great worthy, yet even they had disagreements, as is recorded in the classics, and neither was diminished by it. He asked whether unanimous praise while the people starved was truly a good sign." The court froze; Zhen Han cut off debate under edict. He sent men for his mother but she stayed ill at his brother's while only his wife and children traveled. Chen Chong impeached the arrangement; the three dukes held a hearing. Bao replied, "At seventy a man is confused and dim; his kindness in supporting his mother declines, and he provides instead for wife and children. It is as stated in the memorial." He took dismissal and died at home. Later Guangwudi honored the family with a post for his grandson Kang.
28
Wujiang Long.
29
使
Wujiang Long, styled Junfang, came from Lanling in the Eastern Sea. Grand Marshal and Chariot-and-Cavalry General Wang Yin controlled the Masters of Writing within and commanded troops without. Following precedent, he selected staff advisers to participate in counsel and planning, memorialized requesting Long as a staff adviser, and promoted him to Remonstrant Grandee. Near the end of Emperor Cheng's reign, Long submitted a sealed memorial saying, "In ancient times, feudal lords were selected to enter court as dukes and ministers, in order to honor merit and virtue. The King of Dingtao should be summoned and made to stay in the state residence, thereby stabilizing all quarters." Chengdi did adopt the Dingtao prince; Long won Ji Province and Yingchuan. Ai made him metropolitan governor, then Bearer of the Mace.
30
使 輿 便
Eunuchs hauled ten wagonloads of arsenal weapons to Dong Xian and the nurse Wang. Long memorialized: "The weapons in the arsenal are for public use throughout the realm; they are the state's military equipment. Repairs and manufacture are all paid out of the Grand Minister of Agriculture's funds. The privy purse feeds the harem, not the granary budget. Keeping granary coin off petty spending was how Han drew the line between palace and state. He traced how axes and arsenal issues were tied to real military duty. The Spring and Autumn canon forbade private armor to clip ministerial muscle. He said giving state arms to Dong Xian and a nurse turned public gear into private toys. He warned that arming playthings would teach the realm contempt. He quoted Confucius on the three Huan arsenals. Your subject begs to collect the weapons back into the arsenal." The emperor was displeased.
31
使
Grand Dowager Fu's buyers underpaid palace women and skimmed Bearer of the Mace maids. Wujiang Long demanded fair prices for the sales. The emperor therefore ordered the chancellor and imperial counsellor by edict: "When the rite of yielding flourishes, the dispute of Yu and Rui ceases. It scolded him for haggling with the Fu palace over slave prices. The edict called the quarrel vulgar and demoralizing." Because Long had earlier spoken of securing the state, he was demoted to commandant of Pei Commandery, and later transferred to be administrator of Nan Commandery.
32
使
Young Wang Mang courted him; Long kept his distance. When Emperor Ai died and Wang Mang took control of the government, he had Grand Minister of Works Kong Guang memorialize that Long, formerly Shepherd of Ji Province, had handled the Zhongshan Empress Dowager Feng case unjustly and trapped the innocent, and therefore should not hold office in the central region. Shi Li and Ding Xuan had run the trial; Long had only cosigned. Mang cashiered Shi Li, Ding Xuan, and Zhao Chang to Hepu.
33
輿
He Bing's grandfather relocated to Pingling on a clerk's salary. He rose to staff under Grand Minister of Works He Wu. He Wu sent him to tough Changling, where honesty ran so high that lost goods stayed put.
34
婿 使 西
Wang Linqing of the empress's clan ran with swordsmen and owned the city. Stripped of office, he threw bigger parties at the family tombs. Bing feared that he would violate the law, so he personally went to his gate and said to Linqing, "The area around the tomb is isolated and exposed; you should return at the proper time." "Very well," said Wang Linqing. He knew Wang had buried a body at the tomb but held his peace while Wang was newly disgraced. He nudged Wang out of the county with polite escorts instead of an arrest. He guessed Wang's pride would spark violence and readied troops. Wang's slave peeled the county drum at the gate as a taunt. He Bing led the chase himself. Wang dressed a slave as himself and slipped away in disguise. At dusk they caught up, seized and bound the capped slave; the slave said, "I am not the gentleman attendant—I am only a slave." Bing knew he had already lost Linqing and said, "Lord Wang, pressed tight, calls himself a slave—can that escape death?" He took the slave's head and nailed a notice beside the ruined drum— "Former Attendant Wang Linqing was convicted of killing a man and burying him in the tomb keeper's hut, and of ordering a slave to strip the drum at the temple gate." The county gaped at the spectacle. Wang fled; rumor mistook the slave's head for his own. Chengdi's mother wept to Ai for Wang Linqing. Ai approved the sting and moved He Bing to Longxi.
35
使 使 使 使
He took Yingchuan from the mild magistrate Yan Xu. Yan Xu ruled by shame and silence. When Mang recalled Yan Xu, hundreds of clerks wept at his leaving. The clerks said, "The governor has a lucky summons—you should not be like this." Xu said, "I grieve for the gentlemen of Yingchuan—how should I have worry for myself! —because a soft governor meant a hard replacement. Men would die when the new man arrived, he said." Yan Xu was made a roving "fine customs" commissioner. Zhong Yuan ran the secretariat and the courts together. Brother Zhong Wei had skimmed a thousand gold as a clerk. Zhong Yuan begged bareheaded for his brother. Bing said, "The crime is on the younger brother's person and your lordship's statutes—it does not lie with the governor." Zhong Yuan panicked and sent for Wei. Zhao Ji and Li Kuan fled when they heard He Bing was coming. He drafted three dockets and sent civil and military clerks after each target. He charged them: "The three men do not offend the governor—they offend the king's law and cannot go untried. Zhong Wei should be pushed through Hangu Pass if most counts predated the amnesty— —otherwise arrest him locally. Bring back Zhao and Li's heads for the market, he said." Zhong Wei stalled at Luoyang and died under the clerk's blade. Zhao and Li died abroad; He Bing spiked their heads with the indictments. Yingchuan ranked him beside Huang Ba. His family never moved into the yamen. He died in office a few years later. When he fell ill, he summoned the assistant and clerk to draft his final instructions, saying, "Tell my son Hui: In life I have long eaten without earning my keep. Although at death I should receive the statutory burial grant, do not accept it. He ordered a plain box just wide enough for the inner shell." His son obeyed. Mang made the son a frontier colonel. Later Guangwudi honored a grandson with a gentleman appointment. The appraisal says Gai Kuangrao as censor stood in court with unbending color, surpassing even the Odes' "upright officer of the state." Had he heeded Wang Sheng to the end, he would have ranked among the great ministers of old. Zhuge, Liu, and Zheng were called reckless and blind, yet their aims stood apart. Confucius said, "I have not seen the resolute." Men of such standing still bent—Wujiang in Ji Province, Sun Bao at Dingling—so what hope for ordinary men? He Bing's integrity stood second only to Yin Wenggui.
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