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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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Chapter 88
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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.
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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.
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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 not constant; in a moment they change owners—this is like a relay inn, and I have watched such shifts many times. 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, admired Kuangrao's integrity but disapproved of his course, and wrote him a letter: "An enlightened ruler knows you are pure, upright, and unafraid of the mighty; therefore he assigned you the office of inspector and gave you the authority of an imperial commissioner; high rank and rich stipend have already been granted you. You ought day and night to ponder the tasks of the age, uphold the law and spread moral transformation, and labor with anxiety for the empire—even if you brought profit daily and merit monthly, it would still scarcely suffice to match your office and repay his grace. Since high antiquity each sage king had his own institutions. Instead of doing the job, you lecture the throne with archaic precedents and barbed memorials—neither a way to fame nor to a long 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 quoted the Han lineage commentary on the Changes: "The Five Thearchs held the empire as a public trust; the three dynastic kings held it as a family possession; families pass it to sons, public trusts to the worthy—it runs like the four seasons; when merit is done the man departs; if the man is not right he does not keep the seat." 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. Grandee Zheng Chang pitied Kuangrao's loyalty and bluntness and his care for the state, grieving that because his words did not suit the ruler's fancy he was crushed by clerks, and submitted a memorial praising Kuangrao: "I have heard that where mountains hold fierce beasts, brambles and thorns are not gathered; where the court keeps honest men, treason finds no foothold. Metropolitan Governor Kuangrao does not seek ease in his dwelling nor fullness in his food; advancing he bears a heart anxious for the state, retiring he keeps the duty to die for principle; he has no patronage from the Xu and Shi clans above nor backing from the Jin and Zhang houses below; his office is inspection, yet he walks the straight path, making many enemies and few friends; he memorializes on state affairs, and the responsible agencies impeach him for a capital crime—I have had the fortune to follow after the grandees and my title is remonstrant; 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.
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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 governor; in impeaching wrongdoing he never swerved, and the capital made a rhyme: "Why so wide a gap—meet Zhuge!" The emperor praised his integrity and raised Feng's rank to grand coachman of the imperial household.
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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.
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祿 使 使 使
Feng submitted a memorial of apology: "Your subject Feng is dull and timid; in civil matters his words are insufficient to encourage good, in military matters insufficient to seize the wicked. Your Majesty did not measure your subject's ability yet appointed him metropolitan governor; he has had no way to prove himself, and you again raised your subject to grand coachman—office is lofty and responsibility heavy; it is not what 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."
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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 side with Feng and therefore ordered the imperial secretary by edict: "Colonel of the city gates Feng, earlier when together in court with Chamberlain for the Palace Garrison Kan and Grandee of the Palace Meng, repeatedly praised Kan and Meng's excellence. 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.
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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 Grandee of the Palace Gu Yong jointly submitted a memorial saying, "We have heard that an enlightened king extends a tolerant ear, honors remonstrance officers, opens wide the road of loyalty and uprightness, and does not punish wild or blunt words—then the hundred officials hold their posts, exhaust loyalty and counsel, fear no later disaster, the court has no flatterers, and the sovereign incurs no fault of losing 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."
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Chengdi shifted him to a lesser jail and commuted the sentence to convict logging. He finished his life in private.
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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."
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祿
After a long while the emperor wished to enfeoff his grandmother Empress Dowager Fu's cousin Shang; Chong remonstrated: "Emperor Cheng enfeoffed five maternal uncles as marquises; heaven turned red-yellow and noon grew dark, and 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 young; the great imperial grandmother personally reared Us, saving Us from swaddling clothes, teaching Us with ritual until adulthood—her favor is lush. 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 secretly observed, thought it strange, and had someone close ask Bao, "Earlier the counsellor prepared a great residence for you, yet you impeached yourself to leave—did you wish to show lofty integrity? Now both offices esteem high gentlemen and customarily do not take the chief clerk post; you have taken it, yet moving quarters pleased you greatly—how does this match your earlier conduct?" Bao said, "High gentlemen do not take the chief clerk post, yet if the counsellor thinks Bao fit and no one in the bureau objects, how can a gentleman alone hold himself aloof? 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
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 audience, Bao charged him, saying, "Today the hawk and falcon first strike—one should follow heaven's qi to take the wicked and complete the frost's execution; does your circuit have such a man?" 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 marveled that Bao's spirit had drained and knew there was a reason; therefore he said, "The governor has always borne a fearsome name; now if you dare take Zhiji, you should for the moment shut your gate and ask 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, "I share soil with Zhiji by fortune and have never borne a grudge; I only received the general's order and must do my duty. 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.
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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.
25
使
Before long Zheng Chong was imprisoned; Bao submitted a memorial saying, "I have heard that the distant do not plot against kin, the outsider does not scheme against the inner. 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 famed minister he could not bear to execute him and therefore ordered the chancellor and grand minister of works by edict: "Metropolitan Governor Bao memorializes that former Vice Director of the Masters of Writing Chong was wronged and begs to send Master of Writing Zhao Chang to prison for trial. 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."
26
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, the Duke of Shao a great worthy, yet still they did not fully agree, as the classics record, and neither side was harmed. 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 one is muddled; kindness to support a mother fails, and one schemes 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.
27
Wujiang Long.
28
使
Wujiang Long, styled Junfang, came from Lanling in the Eastern Sea. Wang Yin staffed his headquarters and pulled Long up to remonstrant. Near the end of Emperor Cheng's reign Long submitted a sealed memorial saying, "In high antiquity feudal lords were chosen to enter as dukes and ministers to reward merit and virtue; you should summon the King of Dingtao to lodge in the capital residence and thereby steady the four quarters." Chengdi did adopt the Dingtao prince; Long won Ji Province and Yingchuan. Ai made him metropolitan governor, then Bearer of the Mace.
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使 輿 便
Eunuchs hauled ten wagonloads of arsenal weapons to Dong Xian and the nurse Wang. Long memorialized: "Arsenal weapons are for public use under heaven, the state's military equipment; repair and manufacture are all measured against Grand Minister of Agriculture 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.
30
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 earlier had sound words on state peace he was demoted to chief commandant of Pei commandery and transferred to governor of Nan Commandery.
31
使
Young Wang Mang courted him; Long kept his distance. Mang used the old Lady Feng inquest to exile Long from the heartland. Shi Li and Ding Xuan had run the trial; Long had only cosigned. Mang cashiered Shi Li, Ding Xuan, and Zhao Chang to Hepu.
32
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.
33
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 he would break the law, personally visited his gate, and said to Linqing, "The tomb district is lonely and exposed—you should return in good 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 gentleman attendant Wang Linqing sat guilty of killing a man and burying him in the tomb keeper's hut, and ordered a slave to strip the temple gate drum." 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.
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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 ill he summoned assistant and chief clerk to draft his testament, saying, "Tell my son Hui: I have long eaten free rice; though in 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.
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