1
The Han took over a world still marked by the Warring States, and among its people were many who were bold, ruthless, and cunning. The powerful swallowed weaker neighbors and rode roughshod over whole districts; the violent and the able made themselves masters of every lane and ward. Moreover, the officials set over the people held sway across vast distances, and the population within their registers was immense. So those who held authority over common folk leaned on terror and arbitrary judgment: they wiped out entire families for alleged villainy, struck first, and asked permission only later. They indulged their own harshness and forged a reputation for inflexible terror. They brushed aside consensus, trusted only themselves, and cultivated an air of inscrutable cunning. When the law was stretched to trap the innocent and men were swept up by fury run past all bounds, the toll became literally beyond words. Corpses were heaped until the burial pits overflowed, and blood ran in streams for miles. So it was that Wang Wenshu produced underlings called “tiger-hatted” enforcers, and Yan Nian won the nickname “the butcher’s broker”—and those reputations were no idle tales. There were also men who humbled the powerful, humiliated grandees, and split skulls without flinching—acts the age could only call bold.
2
After the restoration, the legal net drew a little tighter, and clerks notorious for savagery were somewhat less common than in former times. Yet eunuchs and their in-laws ran rampant and tyrannized the empire. Matters went so far that Yang Qiu had Wang Fu’s corpse torn apart, and Zhang Jian broke open the tomb of Cao Jie. Such deeds may have gratified popular rage, but they were cruelty all the same. Because Zhang Jian was already a celebrated figure, his story is attached to the chapter on the partisan prohibition.
3
董宣字少平，陈留圉人也。 初为司徒侯霸所辟，举高第，累迁北海相。 到官，以大姓公孙丹为五官掾。 丹新造居宅，而卜工以为当有死者，丹乃令其子杀道行人，置尸舍内，以塞其咎。 宣知，即收丹父子杀之。 丹宗族亲党三十余人，操兵诣府，称冤叫号。 宣以丹前附王莽、虑交通海贼，乃悉收系剧狱，使门下书佐水丘岑尽杀之。 青州以其多滥，奏宣考岑，宣坐征诣廷尉。 在狱，晨夜讽诵，无忧色。 及当出刑，官属具馔送之，宣乃厉色曰：“董宣生平未曾食人之食，况死乎！” 升车而去。 时，同刑九人，次应及宣，光武驰使驺骑特原宣刑，且令还狱。 遣使者诘宣多杀无辜，宣具以状对，言水丘岑受臣旨意，罪不由之，愿杀臣活岑。 使者以闻，有诏左转宣怀令，令青州勿案岑罪。 岑官至司隶校尉。
Dong Xuan, whose courtesy name was Shaoping, came from Yu in Chenliu commandery. He was first recommended by Minister of Education Hou Ba, placed first in the high-ranking group, and eventually promoted step by step to Prefect of Beihai. On arriving he named the powerful local magnate Gongsun Dan as his aide for the five offices. Gongsun Dan had just finished a new house when the geomancer declared that a death was fated to occur there; Dan then told his son to murder a traveler, leave the body in the building, and so “answer” the omen. When Dong Xuan found out, he immediately seized Gongsun Dan and his sons and executed them. Over thirty members of Gongsun Dan’s lineage and their allies armed themselves, marched to the yamen, and loudly protested their innocence. Dong Xuan, recalling that Gongsun Dan had once served Wang Mang and fearing he might be in league with pirates, jailed the lot in the prison for capital cases and ordered his clerk Shuiqiu Cen to slaughter them all. The provincial authorities of Qingzhou, judging the bloodshed excessive, reported Dong Xuan and had him and Shuiqiu Cen tortured for confession; Dong Xuan was consequently cited to the capital commandant of justice. In his cell he chanted the classics day and night and never lost his composure. When his execution drew near, his staff set out a parting feast; Dong Xuan said sharply, “Dong Xuan has never eaten at another’s expense in his life—least of all on the way to his death!" With that he climbed into the cart and rode away. Nine others were condemned with him, and when the roll call would next have fallen on Dong Xuan, Emperor Guangwu sent relay riders at a gallop to commute his sentence and had him sent back to jail. An imperial messenger was sent to upbraid him for slaughtering the guiltless; Dong Xuan laid out the whole affair, declared that Shuiqiu Cen had merely obeyed his commands, that the blame lay with himself, not with Cen, and begged to die so that Cen might live. The messenger relayed his words; an edict followed, demoting Dong Xuan to magistrate of Huai county and forbidding Qingzhou to pursue charges against Shuiqiu Cen. Shuiqiu Cen eventually rose to become colonel director of retainers.
4
Later, when outlaws like Xia Xi threw Jiangxia into chaos, the court named Dong Xuan prefect of the commandery. At the frontier he issued a circular: “The court thinks its prefect can catch traitorous bandits, which is why I have been given this post. I have now massed troops on the border; when you read this order, consider carefully how you may keep yourselves safe.” When Xia Xi and his fellows heard this, panic overtook them; they surrendered at once and scattered. A kinsman of the Yin consort clan served as commandant; Dong Xuan treated him with contempt and lost his post as a result.
5
后特征为洛阳令。 时湖阳公主苍头白日杀人，因匿主家，吏不能得。 及主出行，而以奴骖乘，宣于夏门亭候之，乃驻车叩马，以刀画地，大言数主之失，叱奴下车，因格杀之。 主即还宫诉帝，帝大怒，召宣，欲箠杀之。 宣叩头曰：“愿乞一言而死。” 帝曰：“欲何言？” 宣曰：“陛下圣德中兴，而从奴杀良人，将何以理天下乎？ 臣不须箠，请得自杀。” 即以头击楹，流血被面。 帝令小黄门持之，使宣叩头谢主，宣不从，强使顿之，宣两手据地，终不肯俯。 主曰：“文叔为白衣时，臧主匿死，吏不敢至门。 今为天子，威不能行一令乎？” 帝笑曰：“天子不与白衣同。”」 因敕强项令出。 赐钱三十万，宣悉以班诸吏。 由是搏击豪强，莫不震栗。 京师号为“卧虎”。 歌之曰：“枹鼓不鸣董少平。”
He was later specially called to office as magistrate of Luoyang. At that time a household slave of the Princess of Huyang had murdered someone in daylight and then taken refuge in her mansion, beyond the clerks’ reach. When she rode out with the killer as her side attendant, Dong Xuan ambushed her at the Summer Gate watchpost, halted her team, seized the bridle, traced lines on the earth with his blade while shouting her misdeeds aloud, forced the slave from the cart, and beat him to death on the spot. She hurried to the palace to denounce him; the emperor flew into a rage, summoned Dong Xuan, and meant to club him to death. Dong Xuan kowtowed and said, “Grant me one word before I die.” The emperor asked, “What is it?” Dong Xuan replied, “Your Majesty’s sagely power brought the house back from ruin; if a slave may slaughter the guiltless, how are you to govern all under Heaven? I need no beating from you; let me kill myself.” He then dashed his head against a column until his face ran with blood. The emperor told a young eunuch to hold him back and ordered Dong Xuan to bow in apology to the princess; he would not. They tried to press his head down, but he planted both hands on the floor and never lowered his brow. The princess cried, “When Wenshu was still a commoner, he concealed fugitives for me, and no bailiff dared knock at my door. Now that he is Son of Heaven, can his power not reach a single county magistrate?” The emperor smiled and said, “The Son of Heaven is not a commoner.” He then told the “stubborn-necked magistrate” to withdraw. He awarded three hundred thousand cash; Dong Xuan handed every coin to his subordinates. After that, whenever he moved against the powerful, they quaked with fear. The capital dubbed him the “crouching tiger.” A ditty ran: “You never hear the drum while Dong Shaoping is in charge.”
6
He served five years in that county. He died in harness at the age of seventy-four. The court sent an inspector to his home; all they saw was a hemp sheet over the body, his wife and children weeping beside it, a few measures of barley, and a single rickety cart. The emperor was stricken and said, “Dong Xuan was honest—I learned it only when he was gone!" Because Dong Xuan had once borne rank at two thousand piculs, he was given the mottled ribbon and buried with ceremonies fit for a high minister. His son Dong Bing was made a gentleman of the palace and eventually became prefect of Qi.
7
Fan Ye, courtesy name Zhonghua, hailed from Xinye in Nanyang commandery. In his younger days he had been Guangwu’s companion on the road. Early in the Jianwu reign he was called up as attendant censor, advanced to commandant of Hedong, and received an audience in the Cloud Terrace. Long before, when Guangwu was still unknown, he had been held at Xinye over some matter; Fan Ye, then a market inspector, sent a hamper of food, and the emperor cherished the deed ever after, later presenting him with dishes from the palace kitchen and clothing from the imperial wardrobe. He joked, “One hamper of snacks bought you a commandant’s commission—fair trade?” Fan Ye kowtowed and demurred. On reaching his post he wiped out powerful houses such as that of Ma Shi Kuang. Robbery ceased, and both officials and townsfolk stood in awe of him. After some years he became governor of Yang province and instructed the populace in farming, arboriculture, and household economy. He governed for over a decade, then ran afoul of the statutes and was reduced to chief of Ji canton.
8
When Wei Ao had been crushed and the Longyou frontier was still restless, Fan Ye was named prefect of Tianshui. His rule was fierce; he loved the legalism of Shen Buhai and Han Fei and judged guilt or innocence on the spot. Those who broke his bans rarely emerged from jail alive; officials, townsfolk, Qiang, and Hu alike dreaded him. Lost goods were left untouched in the street. Wayfarers arriving after dark heaped their packs beside the road, saying, “This is for Lord Fan to guard.” A song in Liang province ran: “The roamer knows bitter want; the toiling man is Heaven’s rich, better face a tigress in her lair than walk into Fan’s headquarters in Ji, if he laughs loud, you are dead for certain; if he glares in fury, you might still be spared. Alas, our prefect Lord Fan—would that we never crossed your path again!” He served fourteen years and died in office.
9
During Yongping, Emperor Ming looked back on Fan Ye’s record at Tianshui, decided no successor had equaled him, and ordered a million cash sent to his household. His son Fan Rong was brilliantly gifted, devoted to Huang-Lao thought, and refused a career in government.
10
Li Zhang, courtesy name Digong, came from Huai in Henei commandery. For five generations his forebears had borne rank at two thousand piculs. Li Zhang studied the Yan school’s Gongyang commentary, excelled in the canon, instructed disciples, and worked his way through posts in various provinces and commanderies. While Guangwu served as grand marshal and was bringing Hebei to heel, he called Li Zhang to his staff in charge of river works, and Zhang rode with him on many expeditions.
11
After Guangwu mounted the throne, Li Zhang became magistrate of Yangping. In those days magnates of Zhao and Wei commonly mustered private forces, and Zhao Gang, a powerful clan of Qinghe, threw up a fortified stockade on the county line, outfitted troops, and terrorized the countryside. Li Zhang’s first move was to host a feast and politely summon Zhao Gang. Zhao Gang came with a patterned sword, a feathered robe, and over a hundred armed retainers. Li Zhang drank with him awhile, then suddenly drew his blade and struck off Zhao Gang’s head while hidden troops cut down every follower; he raced to the fort, stormed it flat, and peace returned to the district.
12
He was raised to prefect of Qiansheng, then cited for excessive slaughter in suppressing bandits, jailed, and stripped of office. The same year he became attendant censor and was posted as prefect of Langye. Then the magnates of Anqiu in Beihai—Xia Changsi and his confederates—rose in revolt, jailed Prefect Chu Xing, and occupied Yingling. Li Zhang heard the news, immediately mobilized a thousand men, and rode to strike them. His aides warned him, “A prefect may not cross his border, and you have no orders to call out soldiers.” Li Zhang clutched his sword and roared, “Rebels have kidnapped the governor—how can I stand by? If I die putting down outlaws, I will not regret it.” He led his force to Anqiu, enlisted daredevils to torch the gates, fought Xia Changsi, cut off his head, claimed over three hundred enemy heads, and drove home five hundred-odd cattle and horses. When Chu Xing was back in his yamen, he memorialized the whole affair; the emperor had every prize shared out to reward the officers and men. Li Zhang was later found guilty of misreporting land surveys used for taxation, but on account of his past service the court merely handed him over to the Minister of Justice for judgment instead of harsher punishment. A little over a month later he was released from torture and sent home. The court called him back to office, yet he sickened and died before he could take up the post.
13
14
永平中，补南行唐长。 到官，晓吏人曰：“朝廷不以长不肖，使牧黎民，而性仇猾吏，志除豪贼，且勿相试！” 遂杀县中尤无状者数十人，吏人大震。 过博平令。 收考奸臧，无出狱者。 以威名迁齐相，亦颇严酷，专任刑法，而善为辞案条教，为州内所则。 后坐杀无辜，复左转博平令。
During the Yongping reign he was posted as chief of Nanxingtang canton. On arrival he told his staff and the populace: “The throne did not give me this magistracy for my mediocrity, to care for the common folk; I loathe slippery underlings and mean to destroy powerful criminals—so do not try my patience!” With that he put several dozen of the county’s worst offenders to death, and everyone in the yamen quaked. He went on to serve as magistrate of Boping. He jailed and tortured corrupt criminals until not one emerged from custody alive. His fearsome reputation won him promotion to chancellor of Qi; he was likewise severe, leaning entirely on the criminal code, yet he was a master of written charges and regulations that the whole province imitated. He was later stripped of rank for slaughtering the guiltless and sent back down to magistrate of Boping.
15
建初中，为勃海太守。 每敕令到郡，辄隐闭不出，先遣使属县尽决刑罪，乃出诏书。 坐征诣廷尉，免归。
During Jianchu he was named prefect of Bohai commandery. Whenever an imperial order arrived, he would seal it away, send runners through every county to clear the jails of condemned men, and only then let the edict be read aloud. He was cited to the capital commandant of justice, removed from office, and returned to private life.
16
Zhou Xu was honest but poor, and he often molded sun-dried bricks to feed himself, the damaged text of the chapter leaving the exact word unreadable; Emperor Zhang took pity, restored him as a gentleman of the court, and twice advanced him to chancellor of the Zhaoling marquis’s estate. The commandery aide, terrified of Xu’s strictness, tried to humiliate him by planting a mutilated corpse at the courthouse gate before daybreak. Hearing of the stunt, Xu walked directly to the body. He behaved as though he were speaking with the dead man. Peering closely, he noticed rice awns in the corpse’s mouth and eyes; he whispered to the gatekeeper, “Exactly who has been hauling hay through this gate?” The gateman said, “Only the commandery aide.” He asked his escort, “Do many people out there think I am chatting with a corpse?” They answered, “The commandery aide thinks so.” He seized the aide and pressed him until he admitted, “I killed no one—I dragged in a body from the roadside.” From then on no one tried to fool him again.
17
The court called him up as magistrate of Luoyang. On his first day he demanded the names of the truly powerful houses; his clerks offered petty neighborhood thugs; Xu roared, “I meant great in-laws like the Ma and Dou clans—do you think I waste my time on cabbage sellers?” His subordinates took the hint and competed to outdo one another in severity. Consort kinsmen walked on tiptoe, and the capital fell quiet. Dou Du, the queen’s brother and a yellow-gate gentleman, was riding home from the palace after dark when post chief Huo Yan stopped him at the “Halt Debauchery” watch; a slave scuffled with the guards, Huo Yan drew steel on Dou Du himself, and reviled him without restraint. Dou Du reported the incident to the emperor. The emperor ordered both the colonel director of retainers and the governor of Henan hauled before the secretariat for a scolding, then sent armored guards to arrest Zhou Xu and throw him into the commandant’s imperial jail. After a few days he was bailed out. The court knew Zhou Xu enforced the statutes and despised corruption, and that he bowed to no palace favorite, yet his savagery overshot decency and censors impeached him again and again; in the eighth year of the reign he was dismissed for good.
18
He later rose to palace assistant imperial clerk. At Emperor He’s accession, Grand Tutor Deng Biao argued that Zhou Xu’s tenure had been too bloody for him to police the capital region. He was stripped of rank and sent back to his farm. Later the Dou family dominated the government, and Dou Du’s brothers settled every petty score with a corpse. Zhou Xu gave up hope of survival, bolted his gate, and waited for the blow to fall. Yet Dou Du and his kin, despite their long-standing resentment toward Zhou Xu, recognized his rectitude and never dared harm him.
19
In Yongyuan five he was recalled as palace assistant imperial clerk. The Dou faction had been cut down, but the Marquis of Xiayang □ (the name is lost in the manuscript) still held a post at court. Zhou Xu loathed the man and wrote: “I have read how Zang Wenzhong served his ruler—he honored the respectful as a son cares for his parents, and struck down the disrespectful as a hawk strikes small birds. Look at the Marquis of Xiayang □: born of mean families, bent on wickedness, unread in the canon, he throws up lecture halls, recruits scholars as a screen, and secretly collects ruffians. He mocks celestial authority, affronts the Liu house, and circulates forged petitions about imperial progresses and feng-shan rites to confuse the people—conduct that deserves death—while officials shield him for private gain instead of serving the realm. A thin rill, given time, swells into a river; a brand’s flame, however small, can yet scorch the plain; we walk on frost by slow degrees—will you not cut this evil short? Recall the turmoil when Lü Chan monopolized power, remember Wang Mang’s usurpation, steady the altars on high, and quiet the fears of the common people below.” About then Marquis Gui returned to his estate, and Zhou Xu was shifted to colonel director of retainers.
20
六年夏，旱，车驾自幸洛阳录囚徒，二人被掠生虫，坐左转骑都尉。 七年，迁将作大匠。 九年，卒于官。
That summer’s drought brought the emperor in person to Luoyang to inspect convicts; two prisoners bore worm-eaten wounds from torture, and Zhou Xu was demoted to chief commandant of cavalry for it. The next year he became court architect. He died in harness in the ninth year.
21
Huang Chang, courtesy name Shengzhen, hailed from Yuyao in Kuaiji commandery. His family had been poor and obscure. He lived beside the county school, watched the students rehearse academy etiquette, fell in love with scholarship, and took up the classics. He learned statutes and precedents and became the commandery’s clerk of decisions. An inspecting censor spotted him on tour, was deeply impressed, and took him on as an aide.
22
He was later named magistrate of Wan, ruled with a heavy hand, and delighted in digging up concealed wrongdoing. A thief stole his carriage umbrella; Huang Chang said nothing at first, then had confederates raid the chief constable’s house where the loot was hidden, seized the entire family, and executed them all in one sweep. Powerful houses shook with fear and hailed him as uncannily perceptive.
23
Recommended for administrative talent, he rose to prefect of Shu. His predecessor Li Gen was aged and incompetent, and the people had piled up grievances. When Huang Chang arrived, over seven hundred plaintiffs waited at the yamen; he judged every suit until each party walked away satisfied. He captured a bandit chief in secret, forced him to write out every strong-arm man in the commandery with his address, then launched simultaneous roundups so that none slipped away. Career criminals and arch-villains bolted for neighboring provinces.
24
Long before, while Huang Chang was still a commandery clerk, his wife went home to her parents, was taken by raiders, drifted south into Shu, and married another man. When a son from that marriage fell afoul of the law, she presented herself before Huang Chang to plead the case herself. Huang Chang suspected she was not Shu-born and questioned her background. She said, “I am Dai Cigong’s daughter from Yuyao in Kuaiji—I was once the wife of your clerk Huang Chang. On a visit home I was carried off by brigands and eventually sold here.” Huang Chang started, drew her near, and asked, “How could you know Huang Chang?” She answered, “He has a black mole on the sole of his left foot and used to say he was fated for two-thousand-dan rank.” He pulled off his boot and showed her the sole. They fell weeping into each other’s arms and remarried.
25
Four years into his tenure he was recalled to court and twice promoted to chancellor of Chen. The Peng family, old bullies of the county, raised a mansion whose upper gallery overlooked the highway. Whenever Huang Chang toured the district, the Peng women climbed that gallery to stare down at him. The display angered him; he had the women arrested, tried, and put to death.
26
又迁为河内太守，又再迁颍川太守。 永和五年，征拜将作大匠。 汉安元年，进补大司农，左转太中大夫，卒于官。
He moved on to prefect of Henei, then was raised again to prefect of Yingchuan. In Yonghe five the court named him court architect. Han’an one saw him promoted to minister of agriculture, then reduced to grand palace counselor, in which post he died.
27
Yang Qiu, courtesy name Fangzheng, came from Quanzhou in Yuyang commandery. His clan had long ranked among the great houses whose coaches filled the roads. He was skilled with the sword and the bow from horseback. His temper ran severe, and he favored the legalism of Shen Buhai and Han Fei. A commandery clerk had slighted his mother; Yang Qiu rounded up scores of young braves, murdered the man, and exterminated his household—deeds that made his name. Recommended as filially pious and incorrupt, he entered the Masters of Writing as a gentleman, mastered administrative precedent, and won steady confidence for his memorials and opinions. As magistrate of Gaotang he exceeded all bounds of harshness; the prefect had him arrested, though a general amnesty eventually cleared him.
28
He joined Grand Minister of Education Liu Chong’s staff and placed first in the high-ranking cohort. Outlaws erupted in Jiujiang and defied suppression for months on end. The three highest bureaus reported that Yang Qiu had a gift for crushing crime, and the throne made him prefect of Jiujiang. He drew up a strategy, annihilated the rebel bands, then rounded up every corrupt clerk in the commandery and executed the lot.
29
He was next promoted to chancellor of Pingyuan. He published an order: “When last I governed Gaotang I meant to scour out wickedness, and your honorable commandery repaid me with a trumped-up impeachment. Duke Huan of Qi forgave Guan Zhong’s arrow at his belt hook; Gaozu spared Ji Bu the fugitive’s guilt. Though I am a lesser man, I would not forget such magnanimity. Besides, lord and minister each have a part—who should nurse ancient grudges? Henceforth I cancel old scores and expect new loyalty from you. Anyone who keeps his criminal habits after this warning will find no mercy left.” The whole commandery stood in awe and obeyed. An empire-wide drought struck; Minister of Works Zhang Hao filed charges against magistrates who were brutal or venal, and every one named was removed. Yang Qiu’s harshness brought him before the commandant of justice, where the verdict should have stripped him of rank. Emperor Ling remembered his service in Jiujiang and instead named him gentleman consultant.
30
迁将作大匠，坐事论。 顷之，拜尚书令。 奏罢鸿都文学，曰：
He rose to court architect, then ran afoul of the law and was convicted. Soon afterward he became prefect of the Masters of Writing. He petitioned to shut down the Hongdu academy, writing:
31
“I learn by edict that the inner workshop is to paint likenesses with encomia for thirty-two Hongdu writers including Yue Song and Jiang Lan, the better to spur learning. The Zhuan puts it plainly: “The ruler’s every act is entered in the record. If what is written is lawless, what are later generations to make of it?” Song, Lan, and their like rose from utter obscurity—small men who hitched themselves to palace kin and great clans, cringed and flattered, and inched upward in a time that called for clarity. Some offered one fu, or a page of ornamental seal script, and won a gentleman’s post and a portrait in the gallery. Others could not compose a line, hired ghostwriters, and traded in every kind of humbug, yet each shed the mud like a cicada and walked away showered with grace. Thoughtful men clapped hands to their lips while the empire groaned. Portraits were meant to teach by example, pricking the sovereign’s conscience with models of right and wrong. I never heard that boys and charlatans, fawning in forged verse, might steal high office and hang their faces on the wall. The Imperial Academy and the Eastern Lodge already broadcast the sage’s transforming influence. I ask that the Hongdu appointments be ended and the empire’s gossip silenced.”
32
书奏不省。
The throne filed his paper away without action.
33
时，中常侍王甫、曹节等奸虐弄权，扇动外内，球尝拊髀发愤曰：“若阳球作司隶，此曹子安得容乎？” 光和二年，迁为司隶校尉。 王甫休沐里舍，球诣阙谢恩，奏收甫及中常侍淳于登、袁赦、封𦐇、中黄门刘毅、小黄门庞训、硃禹、齐盛等，及子弟为守令者，奸猾纵恣，罪合灭族。 太尉段颎谄附佞幸，宜并诛戮。 于是悉收甫、颎等送洛阳狱，及甫子永乐少府萌、沛相吉。 球自临考甫等，五毒备极。 萌谓球曰：“父子既当伏诛，少以楚毒假借老父。” 球曰：“若罪恶无状，死不灭责，乃欲求假借邪？” 萌乃骂曰：“尔前奉事吾父子如奴，如敢反汝主乎！ 今日困吾，行自及也！” 球使以土窒萌口，箠朴交至，父子悉死杖下。 颎亦自杀。 乃僵磔甫尸于夏城门，大署榜曰“贼臣王甫”。 尽没入财产，妻、子皆徙比景。
The eunuch attendants Wang Fu and Cao Jie ran wild; Yang Qiu once struck his thigh and swore, “Give me the colonel’s baton and this rabble would not last a day!” In Guanghe two he became colonel director of retainers. Wang Fu was on leave at his villa; Yang Qiu thanked the emperor at court, then filed charges to seize Wang Fu, the attendants Chunyu Deng, Yuan She, Feng (his given name is damaged in the manuscripts), Liu Yi, Pang Xun, Zhu Yu, Qi Sheng, and every kinsman serving as a local magistrate—men whose crimes called for wiping out whole clans. Grand Commandant Duan Jiong had curried favor with the clique and should die with them. They seized Wang Fu, Duan Jiong, and their confederates for the Luoyang jail, including Wang Fu’s son Wang Meng, chamberlain for the palace revenues at Yongle, and the chancellor of Pei, Wang Ji. Yang Qiu himself examined Wang Fu’s party and applied the full fivefold torments. Wang Meng begged, “We are doomed—only spare my old father the worst of the Chu rack.” Yang Qiu replied, “Your guilt is unspeakable; not even death pays the score—do you still beg indulgence?” Wang Meng snarled, “You used to serve my father and me like a house slave—how dare you bite the hand that fed you! You have me trapped today, but your own turn comes next!” Yang Qiu ordered Meng’s mouth packed with mud; the beaters fell on them until father and son perished under the clubs. Duan Jiong killed himself. Wang Fu’s corpse was dismembered and displayed at the Summer Gate under a placard: “The traitor minister Wang Fu.” Their goods went to the treasury and their families were exiled to Bijin on the southern sea.
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35
At Lady Yu’s funeral the courtiers passed Wang Fu’s remains; Cao Jie wept with rage and said, “We eunuchs may tear each other apart, but we must not become carrion for curs.” He warned his fellow attendants, “We go straight into the palace together—no one detours home to his villa.” Cao Jie burst in on the emperor: “Yang Qiu was a savage underling; the three bureaus voted to cashier him, then a tiny deed at Jiujiang bought him back. A man who piles up offenses delights in mischief; he cannot hold the colonel’s rod without turning it into torture.” The emperor moved Yang Qiu to commandant of the guards. While Yang Qiu was away at the mausoleums, Cao Jie forced the prefect of the Masters of Writing to issue his transfer instantly, brooking no delay. Yang Qiu raced back, forced his way to audience, and kowtowed: “I am no saint, yet you made me your bird of prey. Killing Wang Fu and Duan Jiong only swept aside a handful of foxes; the realm has not yet seen the full reckoning I promised. Give me one more month and I will bring every jackal and kite to book.” He beat his head on the floor until blood ran. Voices from the steps roared, “Does the commandant of the guards reject the imperial command?” Three times they thundered the order before he took the seal.
36
That winter Minister of Education Liu He and Yang Qiu planned to seize Zhang Rang and Cao Jie; the eunuchs struck first with forged accusations. The story is told in full in the biography of Chen Qiu. Yang Qiu was thrown into the Luoyang jail, executed, and his wife and children driven to the border.
37
Wang Ji of Junyi in Chenliu was the adopted son of the attendant Wang Fu. Wang Fu’s life is recorded among the palace attendants. Wang Ji loved books and fame from boyhood, but his heart was pitiless. His father’s influence won him, before thirty, the chancellorship of Pei. He knew the machinery of government, settled hard cases, dug out concealed guilt, and routinely outshone other men’s advice. He made every county report venal clerks and magnates, even those who long ago had taken a jug of wine as a bribe, and struck their names from office as though the crime were fresh. He picked the most brutal bailiffs and had them kill beyond the statutes. Parents who refused to raise a newborn were beheaded and heaped in a pit with thorns. Each murderer’s body was torn apart on a cart, labeled with his crimes. The carts toured every county as a warning. When summer heat rotted the flesh, he threaded the skeletons on cords and dragged them through the commandery until onlookers fainted with fear. Five years in office cost over ten thousand lives. The other atrocities beggar enumeration. The whole region lived in dread, sure that no one was safe. Yang Qiu’s indictment of Wang Fu finally landed Wang Ji in the Luoyang jail, where he died.
38
The historian comments: In high antiquity the ward system—here the text reads Guo □—kept virtue and vice plain to see. Later ages marked criminals by dress and insignia, and the law scarcely needed blood. When the age turned mean, ruler and ruled lied to each other, moral suasion failed, and only the rack remained; “capable” cruel officials mistook brutality for justice and called their spite zeal. Such were the Han’s famous “ruthless talents.” They were fearless, sharp, masters of legal wording, swift as a gale, loud as thunder. What a distance lies between such men and the official who simply holds fast to the right! So Lord Yan sneered at Huang Ba’s soft ways, and Mi county mocked Zhuo Mao’s kindness—yet even the harshest rule could not win the day. Zhu Yi never flogged a man for show, Yuan An never extorted confessions of graft, yet villains held their tongues and the people kept the peace. Why? When terror is the tool, men scramble only to slip through the cracks; when kindness and truth are trusted, gratitude takes root. Men who obey only the lash plot the moment the lash lifts; men who are moved by grace remember their lord when he is dust. Judge the whole empire by one county, and you can tally the cost in trials and torments.
39
赞曰：大道既往，刑礼为薄。 斯人斯矣，机诈萌作。 去杀由仁，济宽非虐。 末暴虽胜，崇本或略。
The hymn runs: The great Way gone, law and ritual wear thin. Such men arise, and deceit sprouts with them. Sparing life begins in humaneness; tempering severity is not softness. Brutal methods may score a quick gain, yet the deeper root of respect is easily forgotten.