1
張寧王徽 〈（王淵等）〉 毛弘邱弘李森魏元 〈（康永韶等）〉 強珍王瑞 〈（張稷）〉 李俊汪奎 〈（從子舜民崔升等）〉 湯鼐 〈（吉人劉槩董傑）〉 姜綰 〈（余濬等）〉 姜洪 〈（歐陽旦暢亨）〉 曹璘彭程龐泮 〈（呂獻）〉 葉紳胡獻 〈（武衢等）〉 張弘至屈伸王獻臣 〈（吳一貫余濂）〉
The biographies are of Zhang Ning and Wang Hui. Supplementary accounts: Wang Yuan and others〉 Mao Hong, Qiu Hong, Li Sen, and Wei Yuan. Supplementary accounts: Kang Yongshao and others〉 Qiang Zhen and Wang Rui. Supplementary account: Zhang Ji〉 Li Jun and Wang Kui. Supplementary accounts: nephew Shunmin, Cui Sheng, and others〉 Tang Nai. Supplementary accounts: Ji Ren, Liu Kai, and Dong Jie〉 Jiang Wan. Supplementary accounts: Yu Jun and others〉 Jiang Hong. Supplementary accounts: Ouyang Dan and Chang Heng〉 Cao Lin, Peng Cheng, and Pang Pan. Supplementary account: Lu Xian〉 Ye Shen and Hu Xian. Supplementary accounts: Wu Qu and others〉 Zhang Hongzhi, Qu Shen, and Wang Xianchen. Supplementary accounts: Wu Yiguan and Yu Lian〉
2
張寧，字靖之，海鹽人。 景泰五年進士。 授禮科給事中。 七年夏，帝從唐瑜等奏，考核南京大小諸臣。 寧言：「京師尤根本地，不可獨免。」 又言：「京衛帶俸武職，一衛至二千余人，通計三萬余員。 歲需銀四十八萬，米三十六萬，並他折俸物，動經百萬。 耗損國儲，莫甚於此。 而其間多老弱不嫻騎射之人。 莫若簡可者，補天下都司、衛所缺官，而悉汰其余。」 議格不行。
Zhang Ning, whose courtesy name was Jingzhi, came from Haiyan. He became a jinshi in the fifth year of the Jingtai reign. He was appointed as a supervising secretary in the Rites Section of the Censorate. In the summer of the seventh year, the emperor accepted the memorial of Tang Yu and others and ordered performance reviews of all officials, great and small, at Nanjing. Ning argued: "The capital is the very foundation of the state and ought not to be exempted on its own. He went on: "Salaried military posts in the capital guards run to more than two thousand men per guard—more than thirty thousand in all. Each year they consume four hundred eighty thousand taels of silver and three hundred sixty thousand piculs of grain; with other salary substitutes in kind, the cost routinely exceeds one million. Nothing depletes the national treasury more severely. Many of them are old or weak and unskilled in horsemanship and archery. It would be better to select the able, assign them to fill vacancies in regional commands and guards throughout the empire, and dismiss all the rest." The proposal was blocked and never carried out.
3
帝得疾，適遇星變，詔罷明年元會，百官朝參如朔望。 寧言：「四方來覲，不得一睹天顏，疑似之際，必至訛言相驚，願勉循舊典，用慰人心。」 帝疾不能從，而「奪門」之變作。
When the emperor fell ill, a celestial anomaly occurred at the same time, and he ordered the New Year's court assembly canceled for the following year, directing officials to attend court only on the first and fifteenth of each month. Ning urged: "Tributaries from every quarter have come to court and cannot even glimpse the Son of Heaven; in such a moment of uncertainty, alarming rumors are sure to spread. I beg Your Majesty to adhere to the established precedent and thereby reassure the people. The emperor was too ill to comply, and soon afterward came the Gate Seizure coup.
4
天順中，曹、石竊柄。 事關禮科者，寧輒裁損，英宗以是知寧。 朝鮮與鄰部毛憐衛仇殺，詔寧同都指揮武忠往解。 寧辭義慷慨，而忠驍健，張兩弓折之，射雁一發墜，朝鮮人大驚服，兩人竟解其仇而還。 中官覃包邀與相見，不往。 尋擢都給事中。
During the Tianshun reign, Cao Qin and Shi Heng seized power. Whenever a matter fell within the Rites Section's purview, Ning would pare it back, and for this Yingzong came to know his worth. Korea and the neighboring Maolian Guard were locked in a blood feud; the emperor ordered Ning to accompany Regional Commander Wu Zhong to settle the dispute. Ning spoke with eloquent moral force, while Zhong was a formidable warrior who drew two bows at once and snapped them, then brought down a wild goose with a single shot. The Koreans were deeply impressed, and the two envoys succeeded in ending the feud before returning home. The eunuch Tan Bao invited him to an audience, but he refused to go. He was soon promoted to chief supervising secretary.
5
憲宗初禦經筵，請日以《大學衍義》進講。 是年十月，皇太后生辰，禮部尚書姚夔仍故事，設齋建醮，會百官赴壇行香。 寧言無益，徒傷大體，乞禁止。 帝嘉納之。 未幾，給事中王徽以牛玉事劾大學士李賢，得罪。 寧率六科論救，由是浸與內閣忤。 會王竑等薦寧堪僉都御史清軍職貼黃，與嶽正並舉。 得旨，會舉多私，皆予外任。 寧出為汀州知府，以簡靜為治，期年善政具舉。
When Xianzong first took his seat at the Classics Lecture, Ning requested that the Expanded Meaning of the Great Learning be read and explained to him every day. That October, on the empress dowager's birthday, Minister of Rites Yao Kui followed precedent by arranging a vegetarian feast and a Daoist ritual, summoning the officials to the altar to burn incense. Ning argued that the practice was useless and damaged the dignity of the court, and he asked that it be banned. The emperor approved his advice. Before long, Supervising Secretary Wang Hui impeached Grand Secretary Li Xian over the Niu Yu affair and was punished for it. Ning led the six censorial sections in memorials on Wang's behalf, and from that time he increasingly clashed with the Grand Secretariat. About then Wang Hong and others recommended Ning as qualified to serve as vice censor-in-chief charged with purging military posts and reviewing yellow registers, naming him together with Yue Zheng. The emperor replied that the recommendations had been largely motivated by private favoritism and ordered all those named to provincial appointments. Ning was sent out as prefect of Tingzhou, where he governed with restraint and calm; within a year his administration was widely praised.
6
寧才高負誌節，善章奏，聲稱籍甚。 英宗嘗欲重用之，不果。 久居諫垣，不為大臣所喜。 既出守，益郁郁不得誌，以病免歸。 家居三十年，言者屢薦，終不復召。
Ning was highly gifted and principled, skilled at memorial writing, and enjoyed a towering reputation. Yingzong had once wished to give him greater responsibility, but the opportunity never came. He had long served in the remonstrance offices and was disliked by the senior ministers. After his provincial appointment, he grew increasingly frustrated at being unable to fulfill his ambitions and eventually retired home on grounds of illness. He lived in retirement for thirty years; censors repeatedly recommended him, but he was never recalled.
7
無子。 有二妾。 寧沒，剪發誓死，樓居不下者四十年。 詔旌為「雙節」。
He had no sons. He had two concubines. When Ning died, they cut their hair and vowed to follow him in death, living in an upper chamber and refusing to come down for forty years. The court honored them with the title "Double Chastity."
8
其冬，帝入萬妃譖，廢吳後，罪中官牛玉擅易中宮，謫之南京，徽復與淵等劾之曰：
That winter the emperor heeded the slanders of Lady Wan, deposed Empress Wu, and charged the eunuch Niu Yu with unlawfully replacing the empress, banishing him to Nanjing. Wang Hui again joined Wang Yuan and others in impeaching him, saying:
9
陛下冊立中宮，此何等事，而賊臣牛玉乃大肆奸欺！ 中宮既退，人情鹹謂玉必萬死。 顧僅斥陪京，猶全首領，則凡侍陛下左右者將何所忌憚哉？ 內閣大臣，身居輔弼，視立後大事漠然不以加意。 方玉欺肆之初，婚禮未成，禮官畏權，輒為阿附。 及玉事發之後，國法難貸，刑官念舊，竟至茍容。 而李賢等又坐視成敗，不出一言。 黨惡欺君，莫此為甚。 請並罪賢等，為大臣不忠者戒。
"Your Majesty's investiture of an empress is a matter of the utmost gravity—yet the traitorous minister Niu Yu perpetrated gross deception!" Once the empress had been removed, everyone expected Niu Yu to face execution. Yet he was merely banished to the auxiliary capital and kept his life—what restraint will those who serve at Your Majesty's side feel thereafter? The Grand Secretariat ministers, who serve as the emperor's chief advisers, treated the momentous question of establishing an heir with utter indifference. When Niu Yu first began his deceit, before the marriage rites were even completed, the ritual officials, fearing his power, simply flattered him. After the affair was exposed, the law could hardly spare him, yet the penal officials, remembering old ties, let him off lightly. Li Xian and his colleagues simply watched events unfold without raising a word of protest. Shielding the wicked and deceiving the sovereign—nothing could be worse. We ask that Li Xian and the others be punished as well, to warn ministers who fail in their duty.
10
臣等前疏請保全宦官，正欲防患於未萌。 乃處置之道未聞，牛玉之禍果作。 然往不可諫，來猶可追。 臣等不敢遠引，請以近事征之。 正統末，有王振矣，詎意復有曹吉祥。 天順初，有吉祥矣，詎意復有牛玉。 若又不思預防，安知後不有甚於牛玉者哉？ 夫宦者無事之時似乎恭慎，一聞國政，即肆奸欺。 將用某人也，必先賣之以為己功； 將行某事也，必先泄之以張己勢。 迨趨附日眾，威權日盛，而禍作矣。 此所以不可預聞國政也。 內官在帝左右，大臣不識廉恥，多與交結。 饋獻珍奇，伊優取媚，即以為賢，而朝夕譽之。 有方正不阿者，即以為不肖，而朝夕讒謗之，日加浸潤，未免致疑。 由是稱譽者獲顯，讒謗者被斥。 恩出於內侍，怨歸於朝廷，此所以不可許其交結也。 內官弟侄授職任事，倚勢為非，聚奸養惡。 廣營財利，奸弊多端。 身雖居內，心實在外。 內外交通，亂所由起，此所以不可使其子侄在外任職營立家產也。
In our earlier memorial we urged restraint toward the eunuchs precisely in order to prevent trouble before it arose. Yet no corrective policy was adopted, and the disaster of Niu Yu duly followed. The past cannot be undone, but the future may still be set right. We need not reach far back in history; recent events are proof enough. At the end of the Zhengtong reign there was Wang Zhen—who could have imagined that Cao Jixiang would follow? At the beginning of Tianshun there was Cao Jixiang—who could have imagined that Niu Yu would appear in turn? If no preventive measures are taken now, who can say that someone worse than Niu Yu will not arise later? Eunuchs seem respectful and cautious when they have nothing to do; the moment they hear of state affairs, they commit brazen fraud. When someone is to be appointed, they first trade on the appointment to claim credit for themselves; when some policy is to be enacted, they first leak it to magnify their own influence. As followers multiply day by day and their power grows, calamity is sure to follow. This is why they must not be allowed advance knowledge of state affairs. With eunuchs at the emperor's side, ministers who lack any sense of shame commonly cultivate ties with them. They send rare gifts, fawn and flatter, and are hailed as worthy men and praised to the emperor day and night. Those who are upright and unbending are branded unworthy and slandered day and night; drip by drip the emperor's suspicion is aroused. Thus those who are praised rise, and those who are slandered are driven out. Favor flows from the eunuchs while resentment falls on the court—this is why such associations must be forbidden. Nephews and younger relatives of eunuchs are given offices and rely on their patrons' power to do wrong, gathering villains and nurturing corruption. They pursue profit on every side, and their abuses are legion. Though they live within the palace, their interests lie entirely outside it. When inside and outside are linked, disorder follows; this is why their sons and nephews must not be allowed to hold office outside the palace or build up family fortunes.
11
臣等職居言路，不為茍容，雖死無悔，惟陛下裁察。
We who hold the office of remonstrance will not curry favor; we would die without regret. We beg Your Majesty to weigh our words.
12
詔謂「妄言邀譽」，欲加罪。 諸給事、御史交章論救，乃並謫州判官。 徽得貴州普安，淵茂州，寬潼川，翔寧州，鈞綏德。 奏蓋鈞筆也。 侍郎葉盛、編修陳音相繼請留，不納。 最後御史楊瑯言尤切，幾得罪。
The emperor's reply called their words false boasting meant to win praise and moved to punish them further. Supervising secretaries and censorists filed one memorial after another in their defense, but the court still demoted them all to assistant magistrates in distant prefectures. Wang Hui was sent to Pu'an in Guizhou, Wang Yuan to Maozhou, Zhu Kuan to Tongchuan, Li Xiang to Ningzhou, and Li Jun to Suide. The memorial had almost certainly been drafted by Li Jun. Vice Minister Ye Sheng and Compiler Chen Yin both pleaded in turn that the men be kept at court, but the emperor would not agree. Censor Yang Lang spoke last and most sharply of all and nearly brought punishment on himself as well.
13
微至普安，興學校教士，始有舉於鄉者。 卻土官隴暢及白千戶賄，治甚有聲。 居七年，棄官歸，言者屢薦，終以宦官惡之不復錄。 徽嘗曰：「今仕者以剛方為刻，怠緩為寬。 學者以持正為滯，恬軟為通。 為文以典雅為膚淺，怪異為古健。」 其論治，嘗誦張宣公語「無求辦事之人，當求曉事之人」，時皆服其切中。
After Wang Hui reached Pu'an, he founded schools and trained local scholars, and the district produced its first successful candidate in the provincial examinations. He turned away bribes from the native chieftain Long Chang and from the Bai chiliarch household, and his administration won wide praise. After seven years he resigned and went home. Critics at court recommended him again and again, yet the eunuchs' hostility kept him from ever being reappointed. Wang Hui once remarked, "Officials today call stern integrity harshness and call laziness leniency. Scholars treat moral firmness as obstinacy and treat easy compliance as sophistication. In writing they dismiss elegance as shallow and praise the bizarre as true classical strength. When he spoke of government he often quoted Zhang Xuangong: "Do not look for men who merely get tasks done; look for men who understand affairs." His contemporaries all agreed that he had struck the truth.
14
弘治初，吏部尚書王恕薦起陜西左參議。 逾年，謝病還，卒，年八十三。 子韋，見《文苑傳》。
Early in the Hongzhi reign, Minister of Personnel Wang Su had him recalled and appointed Left Participating Administrator of Shaanxi. A little more than a year later he resigned on grounds of illness and went home, where he died at the age of eighty-three. His son Wei is discussed in the Treatise on Letters and Arts.
15
王淵，浙江山陰人。 天順元年進士，除南京吏科給事中。 素伉直，終順天府治中。
Wang Yuan came from Shanyin in Zhejiang. He passed the metropolitan examination in the first year of Tianshun and was made a supervising secretary in the Nanjing Personnel Section. Naturally forthright and unyielding, he finished his career as assistant prefect of Shuntian.
16
朱寬，莆田人，李翔，大足人，皆天順元年進士。 李鈞，永新人，景泰二年進士。 寬為南京禮科給事中，翔兵科，鈞工科。 既被謫，寬進表入京，道卒。 翔、鈞皆以判官終。
Zhu Kuan was from Putian and Li Xiang from Dazu; both had passed the metropolitan examination in the first year of Tianshun. Li Jun came from Yongxin and had passed the metropolitan examination in the second year of Jingtai. Zhu Kuan was a supervising secretary in the Nanjing Rites Section, Li Xiang in the Military Section, and Li Jun in the Works Section. After their demotion Zhu Kuan sent in a memorial and set out for the capital, but died on the journey. Li Xiang and Li Jun both died in exile as assistant magistrates.
17
毛弘，字士廣，鄞人。 登天順初進士。 六年授刑科給事中。 成化三年夏，偕六科諸臣上言：「比塞上多事，正陛下宵衣旰食時。 乃聞退朝之暇，頗事逸遊。 炮聲數聞於外，非禁城所宜有。 況災變頻仍，兩畿水旱，川、廣兵草之余，公私交困。 願省遊戲宴飲之娛，停金豆、銀豆之賞。 日禦經筵，講求正學，庶幾上解天怒，下慰人心。」 御史展毓等亦以為言，皆嘉納。
Mao Hong, whose style was Shiguang, came from Yin. He passed the metropolitan examination early in the Tianshun reign. In the sixth year of the reign he was appointed supervising secretary in the Punishments Section. In the summer of the third year of Chenghua he joined the officials of the Six Sections in a memorial: "The northern frontier has been troubled lately; this is precisely the moment when Your Majesty ought to be laboring from dawn until night. Yet we hear that after court Your Majesty often devotes his leisure to pleasure outings. Cannon fire is heard again and again beyond the walls, which is hardly fitting for the Forbidden City. Disasters have followed one after another: both capital regions have suffered flood and drought, and Sichuan and Guangdong are still recovering from war, so state and people alike are exhausted. We beg Your Majesty to cut back on games, feasts, and drinking, and to end the distribution of gold and silver bean prizes. Attend the Classics Lecture every day and devote yourself to proper learning, so that Heaven's anger may be appeased and the people's hearts reassured." Censor Zhan Yu and others made the same plea, and the emperor praised and accepted all of it.
18
帝從學士商輅請，改元後建言罷官者悉錄用。 弘請斷自踐阼而後，召還給事中王徽等，不許。 慈懿太后崩，詔別葬。 弘偕魏元等疏諫，未得請。 朝罷，弘倡言曰：「此大事，吾輩當以死諫，請合大小臣工伏闕固爭。」 眾許諾。 有退卻者，給事中張賓呼曰：「君輩獨不受國恩乎，何為首鼠兩端。」 乃伏哭文華門，竟得如禮。
At Academician Shang Lu's urging, the emperor reinstated everyone who had lost office for remonstrating after the reign title was changed. Mao Hong asked that only dismissals after the emperor's accession be reversed and that Wang Hui and the other supervising secretaries be recalled, but the request was denied. When Empress Dowager Ciyi died, the court ordered that she be buried apart from the emperor. Mao Hong joined Wei Yuan and others in a memorial of protest, but the emperor would not agree. After court Mao Hong spoke up: "This is a grave matter. We must remonstrate even at the cost of our lives. Let all officials, high and low, kneel at the palace gate and refuse to yield." The others agreed. When some started to pull back, Supervising Secretary Zhang Bin shouted, "Have you alone received no favor from the state? Why waver like a timid rat?" They then knelt and wept at the Wenhua Gate until the court at last granted a burial in accordance with ritual.
19
弘在垣中所論列最多，聲震朝寧。 帝頗厭苦之，嘗曰：「昨日毛弘，今日毛弘。」 前後所陳，或不見聽，而弘慷慨論議無所屈。 欽天監正谷濱受賕當除名，命輸贖貶秩。 正一真人張元吉有罪論死，詔系獄。 弘等皆固爭，終不聽。 三遷至都給事中。 得疾，暴卒。
Within the remonstrance offices Mao Hong filed more memorials than anyone else, and his voice resounded through the court and capital. The emperor grew weary of him and once remarked, "Yesterday it was Mao Hong; today it is Mao Hong again." Many of his earlier and later submissions went unheeded, yet Mao Hong continued to speak boldly and never backed down. Gu Bin, director of the Directorate of Astronomy, had taken bribes and should have been expelled, but the emperor merely ordered him to pay a fine and accept demotion. Zhang Yuanji, the Zhengyi Perfected Man, had been judged guilty and condemned to death, yet an edict merely ordered him imprisoned. Mao Hong and his colleagues protested vigorously, but the emperor would not heed them. After three promotions he became supervising secretary-in-chief. He fell ill and died suddenly.
20
邱弘，字寬叔，上杭人。 天順末進士。 授戶科給事中。 數陳時政。 成化四年春，偕同官上言：「洪武、永樂間，以畿輔、山東土曠人稀，詔聽民開墾，永不科稅。 邇者權豪怙勢，率指為閑田，朦朧奏乞。 如嘉善長公主求文安諸縣地，西天佛子劄實巴求靜海縣地，多至數十百頃。 夫地逾百頃，古者百家產也。 豈可徇一人之私情而奪百家恒產哉？」 帝納其言，詔自今請乞，皆不許，著為令。 劄實巴所乞地，竟還之民。 弘再遷，至都給事中。
Qiu Hong, whose style was Kuanshu, came from Shanghang. He passed the metropolitan examination late in the Tianshun reign. He was appointed supervising secretary in the Revenue Section. He repeatedly submitted critiques of current policy. In the spring of the fourth year of Chenghua he joined his colleagues in a memorial: "During the Hongwu and Yongle reigns, because land around the capital and in Shandong lay idle while population was thin, the throne allowed commoners to reclaim wasteland tax-free in perpetuity. Lately the powerful have abused their influence, routinely calling such land "idle fields" and filing vague petitions to seize it. The Princess of Jiashan sought land across Wen'an and neighboring counties; the Western Heaven Buddhist master Cha Shiba sought land in Jinghai County—grants running to scores or even hundreds of qing. More than a hundred qing of land once supported the livelihood of a hundred households. How can the court indulge one person's private interest and strip a hundred households of their permanent livelihood?" The emperor accepted the memorial and decreed that from then on all such land petitions were forbidden, and the rule was entered into statute. The land Cha Shiba had sought was eventually restored to the commoners. Qiu Hong was promoted again and rose to supervising secretary-in-chief.
21
六年夏，山東、河南大旱，弘請振。 因言：「四方告災，部臣拘成例，必覆實始免。 上雖蠲租，下鮮實惠。 請自今遇災，撫按官勘實，即與蠲除。」 從之。
In the summer of the sixth year a severe drought struck Shandong and Henan, and Qiu Hong asked for famine relief. He added, "Whenever disasters are reported across the realm, ministry officials cling to precedent and insist on verification before any tax relief is granted. The throne may remit taxes, but the people below rarely feel the benefit. We ask that from now on, whenever disaster strikes, the grand coordinator and regional inspector verify the facts and remit taxes immediately." The emperor agreed.
22
萬貴妃有寵，中官梁芳、陳喜爭進淫巧； 奸人屠宗順輩日獻奇異寶石，輒厚酬之，糜帑藏百萬計。 有因以得官者。 都人仿效，競尚侈靡，僭擬無度。 弘偕同官疏論宗順等罪，請追還帑金，嚴禁侈俗。 事下刑部，尚書陸瑜因請置宗順等於理，沒其貲以振饑民。 帝不許，但命僭侈者罪無赦，然竟不能禁也。
Consort Wan held the emperor's favor, and the eunuchs Liang Fang and Chen Xi competed to offer him lewd novelties; while schemers such as Tu Zongshun daily presented exotic gems and were richly rewarded, draining the treasury by millions. Some of them even won official posts through these gifts. The people of the capital followed suit, vying in luxury and imitating court privilege without restraint. Qiu Hong joined his colleagues in a memorial denouncing Tu Zongshun and his like, demanding repayment to the treasury and a strict ban on extravagant customs. The case went to the Ministry of Punishments, where Minister Lu Yu asked that Tu Zongshun and the others be prosecuted and their property seized to feed the starving. The emperor refused, merely decreeing that presumptuous extravagance would henceforth be unpardonable, yet the abuse could not be stopped after all.
23
京師歲歉米貴，而四方遊僧萬數，弘請驅逐，以省冗食。 又請發太倉米，減價以糶，給貧民最甚者。 帝悉從之。 復言：「在京百獸房及清河寺諸處，所育珍禽野獸，日飼魚肉米菽，乞並縱放，以省冗費。」 報聞。 明年使琉球，道卒。
The capital had a poor harvest and costly grain, while tens of thousands of wandering monks had gathered from all directions; Qiu Hong asked that they be expelled to cut wasteful consumption. He also asked that grain from the Taicang granary be sold at reduced prices to the poorest of the poor. The emperor approved all of it. He added, "At the imperial menagerie, Qinghe Temple, and similar sites, rare birds and beasts are fed daily on fish, meat, rice, and grain. We beg that they all be released to cut unnecessary expense." The court acknowledged the memorial. The following year, while en route on an embassy to Ryukyu, he died on the journey.
24
弘與毛弘同居言路，皆敢言，人稱「二弘」雲。
Qiu Hong and Mao Hong both served in the remonstrance offices and were equally outspoken; people called them "the Two Hongs."
25
李森，字時茂，歷城人。 天順元年進士。 授戶科給事中。 負氣敢言。
Li Sen, whose style was Shimao, came from Licheng. He passed the metropolitan examination in the first year of Tianshun. He was appointed supervising secretary in the Revenue Section. Proud and outspoken by nature, he did not shrink from remonstrance.
26
憲宗立，上疏請禁朝覲官科斂征求為民害者。 吏部尚書王翺請從其言，帝為下詔禁止。 頃之，言：「近有無功而晉侯、伯、都督者； 有無才德而位九列者； 有以畫、弈、彈琴、醫、卜技能而得官職者。 名爵日輕，廩祿日費，是玩天下之公器，棄國家之大柄也。 自今宜擇人授，毋令匪才競進。」 且請嚴軍官黜陟，核逃伍虛糧。 皆報可。 御史謝文祥以劾姚夔下獄，森偕同官救之，不納。
When the Xianzong Emperor ascended the throne, Li Sen memorialized to forbid officials attending court audiences from levying extractions that harmed the people. Minister of Personnel Wang Ao urged acceptance of the proposal, and the emperor issued an edict banning such levies. Soon afterward he wrote, "Lately men without merit have been made marquises, earls, or regional commanders; men without talent or virtue have been placed among the Nine Ministers; and men have won office through painting, go, music, medicine, or divination alone; Titles grow cheaper by the day and salaries more costly—this treats the honors of the realm as toys and throws away the state's gravest instruments of power. Henceforth appointments should go only to the worthy, and unfit men must not be allowed to scramble for office." He also asked for stricter discipline in promoting and demoting military officers and for an audit of deserters and fictitious ration rolls. The emperor approved every proposal. Censor Xie Wenxiang was imprisoned for impeaching Yao Kui; Li Sen joined his colleagues in pleading for him, but the court would not listen.
27
明年夏，日食，瓊山縣地震，森疏陳十事。 未幾，以貴幸侵奪民產，率諸給事言：「昔奉先帝敕，皇親強占軍民田者，罪毋赦，投獻者戍邊。 一時貴戚莫敢犯。 比給事中丘弘奏絕權貴請乞，陛下亦既俯從。 乃外戚錦衣指揮周彧求武強、武邑田六百余頃，翊聖夫人劉氏求通州、武清地三百余頃，詔皆許之，何其與前敕悖也！ 彼溪壑難厭，而畿內膏腴有限，小民衣食皆出於此，一旦奪之，何以為生。 且本朝百年來戶口日滋，安得尚有閑田不耕不稼？ 名為奏求，實豪奪而已。」 帝善其言，而已賜者仍不問。 山西災，山東及杭、紹、嘉、湖大水，森等請蠲振，帝並從之。
The following summer, after a solar eclipse and an earthquake in Qiongshan County, Li Sen submitted a memorial outlining ten reforms. Before long, as favored courtiers seized commoners' property, he led the supervising secretaries in a memorial: "The late emperor once decreed that any imperial relative who seized military or civilian land would be shown no mercy and that anyone who presented such land would be sent to the frontier. For a time even the great clans at court did not dare violate the rule. Only recently Supervising Secretary Qiu Hong petitioned to end land grants to the powerful, and Your Majesty graciously agreed. Yet the emperor's kin by marriage, Brocade-Guard Commander Zhou Yu, was granted more than six hundred qing in Wuqiang and Wuyi, and Lady Yisheng Liu more than three hundred qing in Tongzhou and Wuqing—and edicts approved every request. How can this be reconciled with your earlier decree? Their greed is bottomless, yet the capital districts hold only so much rich soil; the people's food and clothing all depend on it—strip it away overnight, and how are they to survive? Moreover, the population has grown steadily for a century under this dynasty; how could any land still lie fallow, neither plowed nor planted? They call it a petition, but in truth it is naked expropriation." The emperor praised the memorial, but took no action against grants already made. When Shanxi was afflicted by calamity and Shandong, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, and Huzhou were ravaged by flood, Li Sen and his colleagues petitioned for tax relief and famine relief, and the emperor granted every request.
28
時帝未有儲嗣，而萬貴妃專寵，後宮莫得進。 言者每勸上普恩澤，然未敢顯言妃妒也。 惟森抗章為言，帝心慍。 森已再遷左給事中，會戶科都給事中缺，吏部列森名上，詔予外任。 部擬興化知府，不允，乃出為懷慶通判。 未幾，投劾歸，不復出。
The emperor still had no heir, Consort Wan held his affection alone, and no other woman in the inner palace could approach him. Memorialists repeatedly urged the emperor to extend his favor broadly, but none dared name Consort Wan's jealousy outright. Only Li Sen spoke bluntly in a formal memorial, and the emperor took offense. Li Sen had already risen twice to Left Supervising Secretary; when the chief supervising secretary of the Revenue Section fell vacant, the Ministry of Personnel nominated him—and an edict sent him to provincial service instead. The ministry recommended him as prefect of Xinghua, but the throne refused and appointed him vice prefect of Huaiqing. Soon afterward he resigned and retired home, never taking office again.
29
魏元，字景善，朝城人。 天順元年進士。 授禮科給事中。 成化初，萬貴妃兄弟驕橫，元疏劾之。 四年，慈懿太后崩，將別葬。 元偕同官三十九人抗章極諫，御史康永韶亦偕同官四十一人爭之，伏哭文華門，竟得如禮。
Wei Yuan, whose style was Jingshan, came from Chaocheng. He passed the metropolitan examination in the first year of Tianshun. He was appointed supervising secretary in the Rites Section. Early in the Chenghua reign, Consort Wan's brothers grew insolent and overbearing, and Wei Yuan impeached them in a memorial. In the fourth year Empress Dowager Ciyi died, and the court planned a separate burial. Wei Yuan joined thirty-nine fellow officials in fierce memorial protest; Censor Kang Yongshao and forty-one colleagues joined the struggle, weeping prostrate at the Wenhua Gate until burial was conducted according to ritual.
30
其年九月，彗星見。 元率諸給事上言：
That September a comet appeared. Wei Yuan led the supervising secretaries in a memorial that read:
31
入春以來，災異疊至，近又彗星見東方，光拂臺垣，皆陰盛陽微之證。 臣聞君之與後，猶天之與地，不可得而參貳也。 傳聞宮中乃有盛寵，匹耦中宮。 尚書姚夔等向嘗言之，陛下謂「內事朕自裁置」。 屏息傾聽，將及半載，而昭德宮進膳未聞少減，中宮未聞少增。 夫宮闈雖遠，而視聽猶咫尺，衽席之微，謫見玄象，不可不懼。 且陛下富有春秋，而震位尚虛。 豈可以宗社大計一付之愛專情一之人，而不求所以固國本安民心哉。 願明伉儷之義，嚴嫡妾之防。 俾尊卑較然，各安其分。 本支百世之基，實在於此。
Since spring, calamities have struck one after another; now a comet has risen in the east, its light sweeping the celestial observatory—signs all of yin ascendant and yang in retreat. We are taught that the bond between sovereign and heir is like that between heaven and earth; it cannot be divided in two. Rumor says that within the palace one consort enjoys favor so great that she rivals the empress herself. Minister Yao Kui and others raised this before, but Your Majesty replied, "Palace matters are for me to decide." We have waited in silence nearly half a year, yet meals sent to Zhaode Palace have not diminished, nor have those to the empress's quarters increased. Though the inner palace seems remote, the emperor's eyes and ears are never far away; the smallest indiscretion at the bedside is written in the heavens—this should give pause. Your Majesty is still in the prime of life, yet the heir's place stands vacant. How can the fate of altars and state be left to one who monopolizes your affection, without seeking to secure the succession and reassure the people? We beg Your Majesty to uphold the bond of marriage and enforce the distinction between wife and concubine. Let rank be unmistakable and each person keep to her proper place. The dynasty's endurance for generations depends on this.
32
四方旱澇相仍，民困日棘，荊、襄流民告變。 陛下作民父母，初無儆惕，僅循故事，付部施行。 而戶部尚書馬昂，凡有奏報，遇上意喜，則曰「移所司處置」； 遇上意怒，則曰「事窒難行」； 微有利害，即乞聖裁。 首鼠依違，民更何望。 惟亟罷征稅，發內帑，遣官振贍，庶可少慰人心。
Drought and flood have struck in succession across the realm; the people's hardship grows daily; refugees in Jing and Xiang have risen in unrest. As father and mother to the people, Your Majesty has shown little alarm, merely following routine and leaving implementation to the ministries. Minister of Revenue Ma Ang, on every memorial submitted, would say when the emperor was pleased, "Refer it to the appropriate office for action"; when the emperor was angry, "The matter is blocked and cannot proceed"; and at the slightest difficulty he would beg the emperor's personal ruling. Hedging and vacillating thus, what hope can the people have? Only by halting levies at once, opening the privy purse, and sending officials to distribute relief can the people's hearts be somewhat eased.
33
陛下崇信異教，每遇生湣之辰，輒重糜資財，廣建齋醮。 而西僧劄實巴等，至加法王諸號，賜予駢蕃。 出乘棕輿，導用金吾仗，縉紳避道，奉養過於親王。 悖理亂紀，孰甚於此。 乞革奪名號，遣還其國，追錄橫賜，用振饑民。 仍敕寺觀，永不得再講齋醮，以橐國用。
Your Majesty has placed faith in unorthodox religions; on every birth or death anniversary you squander vast sums on elaborate fasting rituals. The Western monk Cha Shiba and his like have been raised to Dharma King and showered with gifts beyond count. They travel in palm-fiber litters, escorted by Golden Crow guards; officials scatter from their path; their upkeep exceeds that of imperial princes. Nothing more thoroughly overturns right order and ritual propriety. We beg that their titles be revoked, that they be sent home, that their lavish gifts be recovered, and that the funds be used to succor the starving. Further command that temples and monasteries never again hold such rites, lest they drain the treasury.
34
天下之財，不在官則在民。 今公私交困，由玩好太多，賞賚無節。 或營立塔寺，或購市珍奇。 一物之微，累價巨萬，國帑安得不絀？ 願屏絕淫巧，停罷宴遊，諸銀場及不急務悉為禁止。
The realm's wealth rests either with the state or with the people. Today both court and country are exhausted because indulgences are too many and rewards without limit. Some funds build pagodas and temples, others buy exotic luxuries. A trifle may cost tens of thousands; how can the treasury not run dry? We beg Your Majesty to renounce extravagant novelties, suspend feasts and outings, and forbid silver mines and every nonessential project.
35
至兩京文武大臣，不乏奸貪，爭為蒙蔽。 陛下勿謂其位高而不忍遽去，勿謂其舊臣而姑且寬容。 宜令各自陳免，用全大體。 其貪位不去者，則言官糾劾。 而臣等濫居言路，無補於時，亦望罷歸，為不職戒。
Among civil and military ministers of both capitals, many are corrupt and compete to shield one another. Do not spare them because their rank is high, nor indulge them because they are long-serving ministers. Let each offer his resignation, that the integrity of government may be preserved. Those who cling to office despite corruption should be impeached by the censorate. We who hold remonstrance posts without merit likewise beg dismissal, as a warning to the unworthy.
36
帝優詔褒答之，然竟不能用。
The emperor replied with a gracious edict of praise, yet in the end adopted none of their recommendations.
37
元屢遷都給事中，出為福建右參政。 巡視海道，嚴禁越海私販。 巨商以重寶賂，元怒叱出之。 母憂歸，廬墓三年，服除，起江西參政，卒。
Wei Yuan rose repeatedly to supervising secretary-in-chief, then was appointed Right Administrative Commissioner of Fujian. He inspected the coastal routes and strictly banned unauthorized overseas trade. Wealthy merchants tried to bribe him with costly gifts; Wei Yuan rebuked them furiously and sent them away. After his mother's death he retired to mourn at her tomb for three years; when the mourning period ended he was recalled as Administrative Commissioner of Jiangxi, and died in office.
38
康永韶，字用和，祁門人。 舉於鄉，入國學，選授御史。 成化初，巡按畿輔，劾尚書馬昂抑市民地。 四年偕同官胡深、鄭己等爭慈懿太后山陵事。 彗星見，復偕同官上言八事，大旨與元前疏相類。 兩京大臣考察庶寮，去留多不當。 永韶等復劾大臣行私，且摘刑部主事余誌等十二人罪，為誌所訐，俱下詔獄。 永韶謫順昌知縣，再調福清、惠安。 久之，有薦其知天文者，中旨召還，授欽天監正，進太常少卿，掌監事。 永韶為御史有直聲，及是乃更迎合取寵，占候多隱諱，甚者以災為祥。 陜西大饑，永韶言：「今春星變當有大咎，賴秦民饑死，足當之，誠國家無疆福。」 帝甚悅，中旨擢禮部右侍郎，仍掌監事。 坐歷多訛字，落職歸。
Kang Yongshao, whose style was Yonghe, came from Qimen. He passed the provincial examination, entered the National University, and was selected as a censor. Early in Chenghua, while touring the capital districts, he impeached Minister Ma Ang for seizing commoners' land. In the fourth year he joined colleagues Hu Shen, Zheng Ji, and others in the struggle over Empress Dowager Ciyi's burial. When the comet appeared, he again joined his colleagues in a memorial on eight points, substantially echoing Wei Yuan's earlier submission. When senior ministers of both capitals evaluated junior officials, many decisions of retention and dismissal were unjust. Kang Yongshao and his colleagues again impeached the ministers for favoritism and named twelve offenders, including director in the Ministry of Punishments Yu Zhi; Zhi struck back with accusations, and all were imprisoned by imperial order. Kang Yongshao was demoted to magistrate of Shunchang, then reassigned to Fuqing and Huian in turn. Long afterward someone recommended his knowledge of astronomy; an imperial rescript recalled him, appointed him Director of the Directorate of Astronomy, promoted him to Vice Minister of Rites, and put him in charge of the directorate. As a censor Kang Yongshao had enjoyed a reputation for blunt honesty; now he courted favor instead, concealing celestial warnings and even treating calamities as good omens. When Shaanxi was stricken by famine, Kang Yongshao declared: "The stellar change this spring portends great disaster; thanks to the Qin people starving to death, the omen is fully answered—truly boundless fortune for the state." The emperor was delighted and by rescript promoted him to Right Vice Minister of Rites while he retained charge of the directorate. When the official calendar was found riddled with errors, he was dismissed and sent home.
39
胡深，定遠衛人。 天順未進士。 既爭慈懿太后山陵事，復與同官陳宏、鄭己、何純、方昇、張進祿上疏請斥奸邪，痛詆學士商輅、尚書程信、姚夔、馬昂。 帝不納。 翌日給事中董旻、陳鶴、胡智亦劾輅等，疏呈御前。 故事，諫官彈章非大廷宣讀則封進，未有不讀而面呈者。 帝不悅，曰：「大臣進退有體，旻等敢不循舊章亂朝儀耶？」 輅等乞休，帝惟聽昂去。 夔憤甚，連疏求去。 深、旻等復合辭攻，而詆夔甚力。 帝怒，下深等九人獄。 先是，御史林誠亦嘗劾輅，不納，引病去，帝並屬誠吏。 毛弘等皆論救，輅亦請寬之，乃各杖二十，復其官。 未幾，深坐按陜時杖殺訴冤者，謫黔陽丞，稍遷郁林知州，卒。
Hu Shen came from Dingyuan Guard. He passed the metropolitan examination in the final years of Tianshun. After the struggle over Empress Dowager Ciyi's burial, he joined colleagues Chen Hong, Zheng Ji, He Chun, Fang Sheng, and Zhang Jinlu in a memorial demanding the expulsion of corrupt ministers, savagely attacking Academician Shang Lu and Ministers Cheng Xin, Yao Kui, and Ma Ang. The emperor would not heed them. The next day supervising secretaries Dong Min, Chen He, and Hu Zhi also impeached Shang Lu and his colleagues, presenting the memorial directly before the throne. By custom, censors' impeachments were sealed and forwarded unless read in open court; never before had one been handed to the emperor in person without public reading. The emperor was displeased and said, "Ministers rise and fall by established procedure—do Dong Min and his fellows dare disregard precedent and disrupt court ritual?" Shang Lu and the others begged to retire; the emperor allowed only Ma Ang to resign. Yao Kui was furious and submitted memorial after memorial demanding dismissal. Hu Shen, Dong Min, and the others renewed their assault in concert, heaping abuse on Yao Kui. The emperor in anger imprisoned Hu Shen and eight others. Earlier Censor Lin Cheng had impeached Shang Lu without success and retired on grounds of illness; the emperor now handed Lin Cheng over to the judicial authorities as well. Mao Hong and others pleaded for mercy; Shang Lu also asked leniency; each man received twenty strokes of the bastinado and was restored to office. Soon afterward Hu Shen was found guilty of beating a petitioner to death while touring Shaanxi; he was demoted to assistant magistrate of Qianyang, later promoted to prefect of Yulin, and died there.
40
鄭己，山海衛人。 成化二年進士。 巡按陜西，請蠲邊地逋賦，分別邊兵，命壯者戰守，老弱耕牧，章下所司。 定西侯蔣琬鎮甘肅，己欲按其罪，語泄，為所劾，戍宣府。 己性矜傲，時論不甚惜。
Zheng Ji came from Shanhai Guard. He passed the metropolitan examination in the second year of Chenghua. While touring Shaanxi he petitioned to remit overdue border taxes and reorganize frontier troops so the able-bodied fought and garrisoned while the old and weak farmed and herded; the memorial was referred to the appropriate offices. When Marquis of Dingxi Jiang Wan commanded Gansu, Zheng Ji sought to prosecute him; word leaked out, Jiang Wan impeached him in turn, and he was banished to garrison duty at Xuanfu. Zheng Ji was proud and overbearing, and public opinion did not much lament his fall.
41
董旻，樂平人。 成化二年進士。 歷吏科都給事中。 為吏所訐，下詔獄，謫石臼知縣。 孝宗時，卒官四川參議。
Dong Min came from Leping. He passed the metropolitan examination in the second year of Chenghua. He rose to supervising secretary-in-chief of the Personnel Section. Clerks struck back with accusations; he was imprisoned by imperial order and demoted to magistrate of Shijiu. Under Emperor Xiaozong he died in office as Administrative Commissioner of Sichuan.
42
強珍，字廷貴，滄州人。 成化二年進士。 除涇縣知縣。 請減額賦，民德之。 擢御史。
Qiang Zhen, whose style was Tinggui, came from Cangzhou. He passed the metropolitan examination in the second year of Chenghua. He was appointed magistrate of Jing County. He petitioned to reduce the assessed land tax, and the people were grateful. He was promoted to censor.
43
初，遼東巡撫陳鉞啟釁召敵，敵至，務為蔽欺。 巡按御史王崇之劾鉞，鉞大恐。 謀之汪直，誣逮崇之下詔獄，輸贖，調延安推官。 及直、鉞用兵，方論功而敵大入，中官韋朗、總兵官緱謙等匿不以聞。 珍往巡按，請正鉞罪。 兵部尚書余子俊等奏鉞累犯重辟，不當貸。 帝弗從。 未幾，指揮王全等誘殺朵顏衛人，珍發其狀，全等俱獲罪。 直方自矜有大功，聞珍疏怒。 適巡邊還，鉞郊迎五十里，訴珍誣已，直益怒，奏珍所劾皆妄。 詔遣錦衣千戶蕭聚往勘，械赴京。 比至，直先榜掠，然後奏聞，坐奏事不實，當輸贖。 詔特謫戍遼東，而責兵部及言官先嘗劾鉞者。 居三年，直敗，復珍官，致仕。
Early on, the Liaodong grand coordinator Chen Yue had provoked conflict and drawn the enemy in; when they came, he did everything he could to cover it up. The touring investigating censor Wang Chongzhi impeached Chen Yue, and Chen was terrified. Chen colluded with the eunuch Wang Zhi to have Chongzhi seized on false charges and thrown into the imperial prison; after paying a redemption fine, Chongzhi was relegated to an administrator's post at Yan'an. When Wang Zhi and Chen Yue took the field, merit was still being debated when the enemy launched a major incursion; the eunuch Wei Lang, the regional commander Gou Qian, and others suppressed the news and never reported it. Qiang Zhen conducted a touring investigation and asked that Chen Yue be punished according to law. The Minister of War Yu Zijun and others submitted that Chen Yue had committed capital crimes repeatedly and should not be spared. The emperor refused. Before long, Commander Wang Quan and others had treacherously killed men of the Duoyan Guard; Qiang Zhen exposed the crime, and Wang and his accomplices were all punished. Wang Zhi was then congratulating himself on great achievements; when he heard of Qiang Zhen's memorial, he flew into a rage. Wang Zhi had just returned from inspecting the frontier; Chen Yue went fifty li out to meet him and pleaded that Qiang Zhen had falsely accused him. Wang grew still angrier and submitted that every charge in Zhen's memorials was groundless. The court ordered the Jinyi Guard officer Xiao Ju to go and investigate; Qiang Zhen was put in fetters and sent to Beijing. By the time he reached the capital, Wang Zhi had him beaten on the rack first and only then reported to the throne; he was found guilty of lodging false accusations and ordered to pay a redemption fine. An edict specially banished him to garrison duty in Liaodong and blamed the Ministry of War and the remonstrance officials who had earlier impeached Chen Yue. Three years later, when Wang Zhi fell, Qiang Zhen was restored to office and then retired.
44
弘治初，起山東副使，擢大理少卿。 明年，以右僉都御史巡撫宣府。 時緱謙已罷，珍奏留謙才力可用。 給事中言謙數失機，珍不應奏保，遂改南京右通政。 尋以母老乞休，久之卒。
At the start of the Hongzhi reign he was recalled as administrative vice commissioner of Shandong and promoted to vice president of the Court of Judicial Review. The following year he was appointed right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Xuanfu. Gou Qian had already been dismissed; Qiang Zhen memorialized that Qian's talents were still worth employing. A supervising secretary objected that Gou Qian had repeatedly missed his chance; Qiang Zhen should never have recommended him, and Zhen was accordingly transferred to right vice commissioner of communications at Nanjing. He soon petitioned to retire on grounds that his mother was elderly, and died some time later.
45
王瑞，字良璧，望江人。 成化五年進士。 授吏科給事中。 嘗於文華殿抗言內寵滋甚，詞氣鯁直。 帝震怒，同列戰栗，瑞無懼色。 十五年疏請天下進表官各陳地方利病，帝惡其紛擾，杖之。
Wang Rui, whose style was Liangbi, came from Wangjiang. He passed the metropolitan examination in the fifth year of Chenghua. He was appointed supervising secretary in the Ministry of Personnel section. Once in the Wenhua Hall he spoke out against the swelling ranks of palace favorites, his tone blunt and unyielding. The emperor was furious; his colleagues shook with fear, but Rui's face betrayed no alarm. In the fifteenth year he memorialized that every official bearing provincial reports to court should speak to local strengths and abuses; the emperor disliked the uproar and had him beaten.
46
湖廣、江西撫、按官以所部災傷盜起，請免有司朝覲。 瑞等言：「歲侵民困，由有司不職，正當加罪，乃為請留。 正官既留，則人才進退，何由審辨？ 是朝覲、考察兩大典，皆從此廢壞矣。」 帝然其言，即命吏部禁之。 進都給事中，言：「三載黜陟，朝廷大典。 今布、按二司賢否，由撫、按牒報，其余由布、按評覆。 任情毀譽，多至失真。 舉劾謬者，請連坐。」 十九年冬，瑞以傳奉冗員淆亂仕路，率同官奏曰：「祖宗設官有定員，初無幸進之路，近始有納粟冠帶之制，然止榮其身，不任以職。 今幸門大開，鬻販如市。 恩典內降，遍及吏胥。 武階蔭襲，下逮白丁。 或選期未至，超越官資； 或外任雜流，驟遷京職。 以至廝養賤夫、市井童稚，皆得攀援。 妄竊名器，逾濫至此，有識寒心。 伏睹英廟復辟，景泰幸用者卒皆罷斥。 陛下臨禦，天順冒功者一切革除。 乞斷自宸衷，悉皆斥汰，以存國體。」 御史寶應張稷等亦言：「比來末流賤伎妄廁公卿，屠狗販繒濫居清要。 文職有未識一丁，武階亦未挾一矢。 白徒驟貴，間歲頻遷，或父子並坐一堂，或兄弟分踞各署。 甚有軍匠逃匿，易姓進身； 官吏犯贓，隱罪希寵。 一日而數十人得官，一署而數百人寄俸。 自古以來，有如是之政令否也？」 帝得疏，意頗動。 居三日，貶李孜省、淩中等四人秩，奪黃謙、錢通等九人官。 人心快之。
The grand coordinators and investigating censors of Huguang and Jiangxi, citing disasters and rising banditry in their jurisdictions, asked that local officials be excused from the annual court audience. Rui and others said: "Years of hardship have worn the people down because officials are derelict—they ought to be punished, yet you ask to keep them in post instead. If chief officials are retained, how can the court judge who should rise and who should fall? In that way the two great institutions—the court audience and triennial evaluation—would both be wrecked. The emperor agreed and at once ordered the Ministry of Personnel to forbid such exemptions. Promoted to chief supervising secretary, he said: "The triennial review of appointments is one of the court's great institutions. Today the merit of the provincial administration and surveillance commissioners is reported by grand coordinators and investigating censors, while everyone else is judged only through their review. Praise and blame given at whim often cease to reflect reality. He asked that officials who made mistaken recommendations or impeachments be punished by joint liability. In the winter of the nineteenth year, Rui—because supernumerary appointees were corrupting the civil service—led his colleagues in a memorial: "Our founding ancestors fixed the number of offices and left no path of favoritism; only lately did the system of buying grain for cap and belt appear, and even then it honored the buyer alone without giving him duties. Now the gate of favor stands wide open, and offices are traded like goods in a market. Imperial favors issued from within the palace reach even clerks and runners. Hereditary military commissions descend even to men with no prior rank. Some advance beyond their seniority before their turn for selection has come; others in minor provincial posts are suddenly moved into capital offices. Until even stable boys, lowborn men, market children, and street youths can all climb by patronage. They usurp titles of honor without warrant; excess has gone so far that thoughtful men are heartsick. We have seen that when Emperor Ying regained the throne, everyone Jingtai had favored by chance was eventually cast out. When Your Majesty ascended the throne, every Tianshun-era claimant of false merit was swept away. We beg that Your Majesty decide from your own judgment and dismiss them all, to preserve the dignity of the state. The investigating censor Zhang Ji of Baoying and others also said: "Lately the lowest trades presumptuously fill the ranks of dukes and ministers; butchers and silk peddlers crowd the most sensitive offices. Some civil officials cannot recognize a single character; some military officers have never drawn a bow. Commoners are suddenly ennobled and promoted several times within a year; sometimes father and son sit in one hall together, or brothers hold separate offices at once. Some military artisans flee and hide, change their names, and win promotion; corrupt officials conceal their crimes and court favor instead. In a single day dozens win office; in a single bureau hundreds draw salaries without serving. Since antiquity, has any dynasty issued orders like these? When the emperor received these memorials, he was somewhat moved. Within three days he reduced the rank of Li Zisheng, Ling Zhong, and four others, and stripped Huang Qian, Qian Tong, and nine others of their offices. Public opinion rejoiced.
47
明年正月，太監尚銘罷斥，而其黨李榮、蕭敬等猶用事。 瑞等復奏劾之，不從。 瑞居諫垣十余年，遷湖廣右參議，謝病歸，卒。
In the first month of the following year the grand eunuch Shang Ming was dismissed, but his allies Li Rong, Xiao Jing, and others still held power. Rui and others memorialized again to impeach them, but the emperor refused. Rui served in the remonstrance offices for more than ten years, was transferred to right administrative commissioner of Huguang, retired on grounds of illness, and died.
48
李俊，字子英，岐山人。 成化五年進士。 除吏科給事中，屢遷都給事中。 十五年，帝以李孜省為太常寺丞，俊偕同官言：「孜省本贓吏，不宜玷清班，奉郊廟百神祀。」 會御史亦有言，乃改上林監副。
Li Jun, whose style was Ziying, came from Qishan. He passed the metropolitan examination in the fifth year of Chenghua. He was appointed supervising secretary in the Ministry of Personnel section and was repeatedly promoted until he became chief supervising secretary. In the fifteenth year the emperor appointed Li Zisheng vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices; Jun and his colleagues said: "Zisheng was originally a corrupt official. He ought not stain the pure ranks or preside over sacrifices to the hundred spirits at the suburban altars and temples. Investigating censors spoke as well, and Li was reassigned as vice director of the Imperial Park.
49
時汪直竊柄，陷馬文升、牟俸遣戍。 帝責言官不糾，杖俊及同官二十七人，御史王濬等二十九人。 當是時，帝耽於燕樂，群小亂政，屢致災譴。 至二十一年正月朔申刻，有星西流，化白氣，聲如雷。 帝頗懼，詔求直言，俊率六科諸臣上疏曰：
At that time Wang Zhi held power in secret and had Ma Wensheng and Mou Feng framed and banished to the frontier. The emperor blamed the remonstrance officials for failing to impeach Wang and had Jun and twenty-seven colleagues beaten, along with investigating censor Wang Jun and twenty-nine others. At that time the emperor was lost in feasting and music; petty men threw government into disorder, and heaven sent warning after warning. In the twenty-first year, at the third quarter of the first day of the first month, a star streaked westward, dissolved into white vapor, and thundered like an explosion. The emperor was shaken and issued an edict calling for blunt counsel; Jun led the officials of the six sections in a memorial that read:
50
今之弊政最大且急者，曰近幸幹紀也，大臣不職也，爵賞太濫也，工役過煩也，進獻無厭也，流亡未復也。 天變之來，率由於此。
The greatest and most urgent abuses in government today are these: palace favorites who violate discipline; great ministers who neglect their duties; titles and rewards dispensed too freely; labor service imposed too heavily; tribute offered without end; and refugees not yet restored to their homes. Heavenly warnings come, as a rule, from these causes.
51
夫內侍之設，國初皆有定制。 今或一監而叢一二十人，或一事而參五六七輩； 或分布藩郡，享王者之奉； 或總領邊疆，專大將之權； 或依憑左右，援引憸邪； 或交通中外，投獻奇巧。 司錢谷則法外取財，貢方物則多端責賂，兵民坐困，官吏蒙殃。 殺人者見原，僨事者逃罪。 如梁芳、韋興、陳喜輩，不可枚舉。 惟陛下大施剛斷，無令幹紀，奉使於外者悉為召還，用事於內者嚴加省汰； 則近幸戢而天意可回矣。
Inner attendants were established at the founding of the dynasty under fixed regulations. Today one bureau may hold a cluster of ten or twenty men, or one task may involve five, six, or seven groups; some are posted through the provinces and enjoy stipends fit for a king; some command the frontier and monopolize a great general's authority; some cling to the emperor's side and draw in the crafty and wicked; some traffic between court and country and present strange contrivances as gifts. Those who manage revenue extort wealth beyond the law; those who present local products demand bribes by every means—soldiers and civilians suffer, and officials are ruined. Murderers are pardoned; troublemakers escape punishment. Men such as Liang Fang, Wei Xing, and Chen Xi are too many to list. Only if Your Majesty acts with firm resolve—stopping their violations of discipline, recalling every eunuch sent on outside missions, and strictly cutting back those who hold power within— will palace favorites be restrained and heaven's intent turned back.
52
今之大臣，其未進也，非夤緣內臣則不得進； 其既進也，非依憑內臣則不得安。 此以財貿官，彼以官鬻財，無怪其漁獵四方，而轉輸權貴也。 如尚書殷謙、張鵬、李本，侍郎艾福、杜銘、劉俊，皆既老且懦。 尚書張鎣、張瑄，侍郎尹直，大理卿田景旸，皆清論不愜。 惟陛下大加黜罰，勿為姑息，則大臣知警而天意可回矣。
Among today's great ministers, before they rise, none can advance without currying favor with inner attendants; and after they rise, none can keep his place without relying on inner attendants. They trade wealth for office and office for wealth—no wonder they plunder the realm and ship their gains to the powerful. Ministers such as Yin Qian, Zhang Peng, and Li Ben, and vice ministers such as Ai Fu, Du Ming, and Liu Jun, are all old and timid. Ministers Zhang Ying and Zhang Xuan, vice minister Yin Zhi, and Court of Judicial Review president Tian Jingyang all speak uprightly but displease those in power. Only if Your Majesty dismisses and punishes them severely, without indulgence, will great ministers take warning and heaven's intent be turned back.
53
夫爵以待有德，賞以待有功也。 今或無故而爵一庸流，或無功而賞一貴幸。 祈雨雪者得美官，進金寶者射厚利。 方士獻煉服之書，伶人奏曼延之戲。 掾史胥徒皆叨官祿，俳優僧道亦玷班資。 一歲而傳奉或至千人，數歲而數千人矣。 數千人之祿，歲以數十萬計。 是皆國之命脈，民之脂膏，可以養賢士，可以活饑民，誠可惜也。 方士道流如左通政李孜省、太常少卿鄧常恩輩，尤為誕妄，此招天變之甚者。 乞盡罷傳奉之官，毋令汙玷朝列，則爵賞不濫而天意可回矣。
Titles exist to honor the worthy; rewards exist to honor merit. Today titles are sometimes given without cause to worthless men, and rewards without merit to court favorites. Those who pray for rain win fine offices; those who present gold and jewels reap heavy profits. Daoist masters present books on elixirs of immortality; actors perform sprawling entertainments. Clerks, runners, and attendants all draw official salaries without warrant; actors, monks, and Daoists also stain the civil ranks. In a single year supernumerary appointees may reach a thousand; within a few years there are several thousand. Their salaries amount to hundreds of thousands of taels each year. All of this is the lifeblood of the state and the fat of the people—wealth that could nourish worthy scholars and keep starving people alive. It is a grievous waste. Daoist masters such as left vice commissioner of communications Li Zisheng and vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices Deng Chang'en are especially absurd; they above all summon heaven's warnings. We beg that all supernumerary offices be abolished and kept from staining the court ranks; then titles and rewards will no longer be lavished without warrant and heaven's intent will be turned back.
54
今都城佛剎迄無寧工，京營軍士不復遺力。 如國師繼曉假術濟私，糜耗特甚，中外切齒。 願陛下內惜資財，外惜人力，不急之役姑賜停罷，則工役不煩而天意可回矣。
Buddhist monasteries in the capital never see work cease; soldiers of the capital garrison are driven without rest. The state preceptor Ji Xiao, for example, used religious pretenses for private gain and wasted resources on a shocking scale; men inside and outside the court gnash their teeth at him. We ask that Your Majesty cherish the treasury within and labor without, and for now suspend every non-urgent project; then forced labor will no longer burden the realm and heaven's intent will be turned back.
55
近來規利之徒，率假進奉以耗國財。 或錄一方書，市一玩器，購一畫圖，制一簪珥，所費不多，獲利十倍。 願陛下洞燭此弊，留府庫之財為軍國之備，則進獻息而天意可回矣。
Of late, men who scheme for profit routinely cloak their greed in false tribute presentations, draining the national treasury. A copied medical text, a trinket, a painting, a hairpin or earring—little is spent, yet the profit may be tenfold. We ask that Your Majesty see through this abuse, keep treasury funds for military and state needs, and let such presentations cease; then heaven's intent will be turned back.
56
陜西、河南、山西赤地千里。 屍骸枕籍，流亡日多，萑苻可慮。 願體天心之仁愛，憫生民之困窮，追錄貴幸鹽課，暫假造寺資財，移振饑民，俾茍存活，則流亡復而天意可回矣。
In Shaanxi, Henan, and Shanxi the land lies barren for a thousand li. Corpses lie heaped upon one another, exiles grow daily, and outlaw bands are a growing menace. We ask that Your Majesty embody heaven's compassion, pity the people's distress, recover salt revenues granted the privileged, temporarily divert funds for temple building to famine relief, and keep the starving barely alive; then the exiles will return and heaven's intent will be turned back.
57
夫天下譬之人身。 人主，元首也； 大臣，股肱也； 諫官，耳目也； 京師，腹心也； 藩郡，軀幹也。 大臣不職則股肱痿痹，諫官緘默則耳目塗塞，京師不職則腹心受病，藩郡災荒則軀幹削弱，元首豈能宴然而安哉？ 伏望陛下聽言必行，事天以實。 疏斥群小，親近賢臣。 咨治道之得失，究前代之興亡。 以聖賢之經代方書，以文學之臣代方士。 則必有正誼足以廣聖學，讜論足以究天變。 而手足便利，耳目聰明，腹心安泰，軀幹強健，元首於是乎大明矣。
The realm may be compared to the human body. The sovereign is the head; great ministers are the arms and legs; remonstrating officials are the eyes and ears; the capital is the belly and heart; the provinces are the trunk. When ministers neglect their duties the limbs grow numb; when remonstrators fall silent the senses are stopped; when the capital fails the heart is stricken; when the provinces suffer famine the trunk is enfeebled—how then can the head rest at ease? We beg that Your Majesty heed counsel and act upon it, and serve heaven in deed, not show. Keep petty men at a distance and draw worthy ministers close. Inquire into what has succeeded and failed in governance, and study how former dynasties rose and fell. Let the classics of sages replace occult manuals, and men of letters replace recipe masters. Then upright doctrine will broaden the sage's teaching, and honest counsel will probe heaven's warnings. Then the limbs will be nimble, the senses keen, the heart at peace, the trunk strong, and the head will shine forth in full clarity.
58
帝優詔答之。 降孜省上林丞，常恩本寺丞，繼曉革國師為民，令巡按御史追其誥敕。 制下，舉朝大悅。 五月，俊出為湖廣布政司參議。 弘治中，屢官山西參政，卒。
The emperor answered with a gracious edict. Li Zisheng was demoted to director of the imperial parks, Deng Chang'en to his former temple post, Ji Xiao stripped of the title state preceptor and reduced to commoner status, and touring censors were ordered to recover their patents of appointment. When the decree was issued, the whole court rejoiced. In the fifth month Li Jun was posted out as vice commissioner of the Hunan provincial administration commission. Under Hongzhi he rose repeatedly to vice commissioner in Shanxi, and there died.
59
汪奎，字文燦，婺源人。 成化二年進士。 為秀水知縣，擢御史。 二十一年，星變，偕同官疏陳十事，言：
Wang Kui, courtesy name Wencan, was a native of Wuyuan. He became a presented scholar in the second year of Chenghua (1466). He served as magistrate of Xiushui, then was promoted to censor. In the twenty-first year of Chenghua, when a celestial anomaly occurred, he joined his colleagues in a memorial setting forth ten matters, which read:
60
建言貶謫諸臣，效忠於國，宜復其職。 妖僧繼曉結中官梁芳，耗竭內藏，乞治芳罪，斬繼曉都市。 傳奉官顧賢等皆中官恒從子而冒錦衣，李孜省小吏而授通政，宜盡斥以清仕路。 尚書殷謙、李本，侍郎杜銘、尹直，皆素乏清譽，尚書張鵬、張鎣、張瑄，侍郎杜謙、艾福、馬顯、劉俊，大理卿宋欽，巡撫都御史魯能、馬馴，皆老懦無能，侍郎談倫奔競無恥，巡撫趙文博粗鄙妄為，大理卿田景旸素行不謹，宜令致仕。 鎮守、守備內官視天順間逾數倍，作威福，淩虐有司。 浙江張慶、四川蔡用得逮治四品以下官，尤傷國體，宜悉撤還。 內外坐營、監槍內官增置過多，皆私役軍士，辦納月錢，多者至二三百人。 武將亦皆私役健丁，行伍惟存老弱。 勛戚、內官奏乞鹽利，滿載南行，所至張欽賜黃旗，商旅不行，邊儲虧損，並宜嚴禁。 陜西、山西、河南頻年水旱，死徙大半，山、陜之民僅存無幾。 宜核被災郡縣，概與蠲除。 給事張善吉先坐罪謫官，考績至京，昏夜乞憐，得授茲職，大玷清班，宜罷斥。 山、陜、河、洛饑民多流鄖、襄，至骨肉相啖。 請大發帑庾振濟，消弭他變。」 當是時，帝以災變求言，奎疏入，雖觸帝忌，未加譴。 無何，有御史失儀，奎當面糾，退朝乃奏。 帝以其怠緩，杖之於廷。 居數月，復出為夔州通判，討平雲陽劇賊。
Officials who spoke up and were demoted have served the state faithfully; they should be restored to office. The sorcerer-monk Ji Xiao colluded with the eunuch Liang Fang and drained the inner treasury; we ask that Fang be punished and Ji Xiao beheaded in the capital marketplace. Supernumerary appointees such as Gu Xian are eunuchs' hangers-on who wear brocade-guard rank without warrant; Li Zisheng was a petty clerk yet made vice commissioner of communications—all should be dismissed to clear the path of office. Ministers Yin Qian and Li Ben and vice ministers Du Ming and Yin Zhi have long lacked clean reputations; ministers Zhang Peng, Zhang Ying, and Zhang Xuan, vice ministers Du Qian, Ai Fu, Ma Xian, and Liu Jun, chief grand coordinator Song Qin, and grand coordinators Lu Neng and Ma Xun are old, timid, and incapable; vice minister Tan Lun is shamelessly ambitious; grand coordinator Zhao Wenbo is crude and reckless; chief grand coordinator Tian Jingyang's conduct has long been unseemly—all should be ordered to retire. Eunuch garrison and defense commanders now outnumber those of the Tianshun reign several times over; they wield arbitrary power and bully civil officials. Zhang Qing in Zhejiang and Cai Yongde in Sichuan have arrested and tried officials of the fourth rank and below, gravely wounding the dignity of the state; they should all be recalled. Eunuchs attached to camps inside and outside the capital have been multiplied far beyond need; all privately impress soldiers and exact monthly payments from them, some keeping as many as two or three hundred men. Generals too privately impress sturdy youths for their households, leaving only the old and weak in the ranks. Meritorious kin and palace eunuchs petition for salt monopolies and travel south with laden boats, displaying imperial yellow banners wherever they go so that merchants cannot pass and border stores are depleted—all of this should be strictly forbidden. Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan have suffered flood and drought year after year; more than half the people are dead or displaced, and scarcely any remain in the mountain districts and Shaanxi. The stricken commanderies and counties should be surveyed and taxes broadly remitted. Supervising secretary Zhang Shanji was first convicted and demoted; when he came to the capital for his performance review he begged for mercy by night and won this post, gravely staining the pure ranks—he should be dismissed. Starving people from the mountain districts, Shaanxi, the Yellow River basin, and Luoyang streamed into Yun and Xiang, until kin ate kin. We beg that the treasury be opened wide for famine relief, lest other calamities follow. At that time the emperor, moved by celestial warnings, had called for candid counsel; when Kui's memorial arrived, though it touched the emperor's sore points, he was not punished. Before long a censor breached court decorum; Kui rebuked him to his face but filed his memorial only after court had adjourned. The emperor judged him dilatory and had him beaten in court. Several months later he was again posted out as subprefect of Kuizhou and put down fierce bandits in Yunyang.
61
孝宗立，量移敘州同知。 以薦，擢成都知府。 歲饑多盜，振救多復業。 三遷廣西左布政使。 弘治十四年以右副都御史巡撫貴州。 未浹歲，普安賊婦米魯作亂，被劾致仕。 正德六年卒。
When Xiaozong came to the throne, Kui was transferred laterally to assistant prefect of Xuzhou. On recommendation he was promoted to prefect of Chengdu. In famine years banditry was rife, but relief work brought many back to their trades. After three promotions he became left administration commissioner of Guangxi. In the fourteenth year of Hongzhi (1501) he was appointed grand coordinator of Guizhou with the rank of right vice censor-in-chief. Before a year had passed the bandit woman Milu of Pu'an rose in rebellion; impeached, he was forced to retire. He died in the sixth year of Zhengde (1511).
62
從子舜民，字從仁。 成化十四年進士。 授行人，擢御史，出按甘肅。 劾中官將帥失事，陳邊計，章數十上。 先是，奎杖闕下，舜民扶掖之，帝聞而怒。 至是，奏獄情詞不當，貶蒙化衛經歷。
His nephew Wang Shunmin, courtesy name Congren. He became a presented scholar in the fourteenth year of Chenghua (1478). He was appointed courier, then promoted to censor and sent to investigate Gansu. He impeached eunuchs and generals for their failures, set forth border strategy, and submitted dozens of memorials. Earlier, when Kui was beaten beneath the palace gate, Shunmin had supported him; the emperor heard of it and was enraged. Now, because a memorial on a prison case used improper wording, he was demoted to administrative aide of the Menghua Guard.
63
弘治初，遷知東莞，未上，擢江西僉事。 善讞獄，剖析如流。 其清軍法，後人遵守之。 改雲南屯田副使。 田為勢要奪者，厘而歸之官。 麓川遺孽思祿渡金沙江，據孟密，承檄撫定之。 母憂歸。 服除，適淮、揚大饑，以故官奉命振濟。 用便宜發粟，奏停不急務，活饑民百二十萬人，流冗復業者八千余戶。 進福建按察使。 盜竊福清縣庫，或誣其怨家，已成獄。 舜民廉得真盜，脫三十人於死，抵誣者罪。 歲旱，禱不應。 躬蒞福州獄，釋枉系輕罪者，所部有司皆清獄，遂大雨。 歷河南左、右布政使。 正德二年以右副都御史撫治鄖陽。 甫一月，罷天下巡撫官，改蒞南京都察院，道卒。
Early in Hongzhi he was appointed magistrate of Dongguan, but before he took up the post he was promoted to vice commissioner in Jiangxi. He was skilled at judging cases, unraveling them with fluent clarity. His regulations for clearing the military rolls were observed by later generations. He was transferred to vice commissioner for garrison fields in Yunnan. Land seized by the powerful he surveyed and restored to official control. Silu, a remnant of the Lucuan line, crossed the Jinsha River and seized Mengmi; on receipt of his commission he pacified the region. He returned home upon his mother's death. When his mourning ended, a great famine struck the Huai and Yang regions, and in his former capacity he was ordered to administer relief. Exercising discretionary authority he released grain, memorialized to suspend non-urgent projects, kept 1.2 million famine victims alive, and saw more than eight thousand displaced households return to their trades. He was promoted to surveillance commissioner of Fujian. When the Fuqing county treasury was robbed, some accused their personal enemies, and the case had already been closed. Shunmin's investigation uncovered the real thieves, spared thirty men from execution, and punished the false accusers. During a drought year his prayers for rain went unanswered. He went in person to the Fuzhou prisons, released those wrongly held on light charges, and ordered every subordinate jurisdiction to clear its jails; then heavy rain fell. He served in turn as left and right administration commissioner of Henan. In the second year of Zhengde (1507) he was appointed to govern Yunyang with the rank of right vice censor-in-chief. Barely a month later grand coordinators were abolished empire-wide; he was reassigned to the Nanjing Censorate and died on the journey.
64
奎性簡靜，不茍取與，以篤實見稱。 而舜民好學砥行，矯矯持風節，尤負時望。
Kui was plain and reserved, scrupulous in his dealings, and praised for steadfast integrity. Shunmin loved learning and cultivated his conduct, holding his principles with conspicuous firmness, and enjoyed exceptional esteem among his contemporaries.
65
方星變求言時，九卿各條奏數事，率有所避，無甚激切者，唯奎與李俊等言最直。 而武選員外郎崔升、彭綱，主事蘇章，戶部主事周軫，刑部主事李旦皆有言。 升、章言宦官妖僧罪，請亟誅竄，而尚書王恕今伊、傅，不宜置南京。 綱斥李孜省、繼曉，請誅之以謝天下。 軫亦請誅梁芳、李孜省，並汰內侍，罷方書。 旦陳十事，且言：「神仙、佛老、外戚、女謁，聲色貨利，奇技淫巧，皆陛下素所惑溺，而左右近習交相誘之。」 言甚切。 帝以方修省，皆不罪。 後以吏盜鬻舊賜外蕃故敕事，下綱、章吏，貶之外。 而密諭吏部尚書尹旻出旦等，且書六十人姓名於屏，俟奏遷則貶遠惡地。 旦乃與給事中盧瑀、秦昇、童同日俱謫。 部臣見遠謫者多，有應遷者輒故遲之。 升、軫遂得免。
When the celestial anomaly prompted the call for counsel, the nine ministers each submitted several items, but mostly hedged their words and none spoke with great force; only Kui and Li Jun and a few others were most blunt. Vice director of the Bureau of Military Appointments Cui Sheng and Peng Gang, section chief Su Zhang, section chief of revenue Zhou Zhen, and section chief of justice Li Dan also spoke up. Sheng and Zhang denounced the crimes of eunuchs and sorcerer-monks and begged swift execution and banishment; they also argued that Minister Wang Su, a man fit to be Yi Yin or Fu Yue to the throne, should not be left in Nanjing. Gang denounced Li Zisheng and Ji Xiao and asked that they be executed to appease the realm. Zhen likewise demanded the execution of Liang Fang and Li Zisheng, a reduction of palace attendants, and an end to occult manuals. Dan set forth ten matters, adding: "Immortals, Buddhist and Daoist adepts, consort kin, female petitioners, music and women, wealth and gain, strange arts and lavish crafts—these are what Your Majesty has long been steeped in, while those close at hand egg one another on to lead you deeper. His words were exceedingly blunt. The emperor, then observing a period of self-restraint, punished none of them. Later, when clerks were found to have stolen and sold old imperial edicts bestowed on foreign tribes, Peng Gang and Su Zhang were implicated through their subordinates and demoted to posts abroad. Yet he secretly instructed Minister of Personnel Yin Min to post Li Dan and others out, and wrote sixty names on a screen, ordering that whenever a transfer memorial arrived those men be sent to remote and harsh posts. Li Dan was banished on the same day as supervising secretaries Lu Yu, Qin Sheng, and Tong. Seeing how many had been sent to distant posts, the personnel officials deliberately delayed transfers for those on the list. Cui Sheng and Zhou Zhen thus escaped demotion.
66
崔升，字廷進，本樂安人。 父為彰德庫大使，因家焉。 成化五年進士。 由工部主事改兵部。 稍遷延安知府，四川參政。 守官廉，居常服布袍，家童拾馬矢給爨。 家居三十年，年八十八卒。 子銑，自有傳。
Cui Sheng, courtesy name Tingjin, was originally from Le'an. His father served as Zhangde treasury commissioner, and the family settled there. He became a presented scholar in the fifth year of Chenghua (1469). He moved from the Ministry of Works to the Ministry of War as section chief. He rose gradually to prefect of Yan'an and vice commissioner in Sichuan. He served with integrity, wore plain cloth robes in daily life, and had his servants gather horse dung for the cooking fire. He lived in retirement for thirty years and died at eighty-eight. His son Cui Xian has a separate biography.
67
彭綱，清江人。 與蘇章、周軫、秦昇、童皆成化十一年進士。 貶永寧知州，改汝州。 鑿渠溉田數千畝。 再遷雲南提學副使。
Peng Gang was a native of Qingjiang. He, Su Zhang, Zhou Zhen, Qin Sheng, and Tong all became presented scholars in the eleventh year of Chenghua (1475). He was demoted to prefect of Yongning, then transferred to Ruzhou. He dug irrigation canals and watered several thousand mu of farmland. He was again promoted to vice commissioner of education in Yunnan.
68
蘇章，余幹人。 貶姚安通判，再遷延平知府。 有政績。 終浙江參政。 周軫，莆田人，副使瑛從子。 後進郎中，終山東運使。
Su Zhang was a native of Yugan. Demoted to subprefect of Yao'an, he was later transferred to prefect of Yanping. He achieved solid results in office. He ended his career as vice commissioner in Zhejiang. Zhou Zhen, a native of Putian, was the nephew of Vice Commissioner Ying. He later rose to bureau director and ended as transport commissioner of Shandong.
69
李旦，字啟東，獻縣人。 成化十七年進士。 貶鎮遠通判，未幾卒。
Li Dan, courtesy name Qidong, was a native of Xian county. He became a presented scholar in the seventeenth year of Chenghua (1481). Demoted to subprefect of Zhenyuan, he died before long.
70
盧瑀，鄞縣人。 成化五年進士。 為刑科給事中，疏蠲淮、揚逋課十余萬，清西北勒市戰馬宿弊。 嘗觸帝怒，杖之。 遷工科都給事中，與昇、皆因星變陳言，獲譴。 瑀貶長沙通判，終廣平知府。
Lu Yu was a native of Yin county. He became a presented scholar in the fifth year of Chenghua (1469). As supervising secretary in the penal section, he memorialized to remit more than 100,000 taels of arrears in Huai and Yang and to clear long-standing abuses in the northwest forced-market trade in war horses. He once provoked the emperor's anger and was beaten in court. Promoted to chief supervising secretary in the works section, he joined Sheng and Tong in speaking out when the stars changed and was punished. Yu was demoted to subprefect of Changsha and ended as prefect of Guangping.
71
秦昇，南昌人，貶廣安州同知。 童，蘭溪人，貶興國州同知，終袁州知府。
Qin Sheng, a native of Nanchang, was demoted to assistant prefect of Guang'an. Tong, a native of Lanxi, was demoted to assistant prefect of Xingguo and ended as prefect of Yuanzhou.
72
是時，崔升以請召王恕忤旨，而工部主事王純亦以諫罷王恕被杖謫官。 純，仙居人。 成化十七年進士。 貶思南推官。 弘治中，屢遷湖廣提學僉事。 湯鼐，字用之，壽州人。 成化十一年進士。 授行人，擢御史。
At this time Cui Sheng offended the throne by asking that Wang Su be recalled, and Wang Chun, a section chief in the Ministry of Works, was beaten and banished for remonstrating against Wang Su's dismissal. Wang Chun was a native of Xianju. He became a presented scholar in the seventeenth year of Chenghua. He was demoted to judicial aide of Sinan. Under Hongzhi he rose repeatedly to vice commissioner of education in Huguang. Tang Nai, courtesy name Yongzhi, was a native of Shouzhou. He became a presented scholar in the eleventh year of Chenghua. He was appointed courier, then promoted to censor.
73
孝宗嗣位，首劾大學士萬安罔上誤國。 明日，宣至左順門。 中官森列，令跪。 鼐曰：「令鼐跪者，旨耶，抑太監意耶？」 曰：「有旨。」 鼐始跪。 及宣旨，言疏已留中。 鼐大言：「臣所言國家大事，奈何留中？」 已而安斥，鼐亦出畿輔印馬，馳疏言：「陛下視朝之余，宜禦便殿，擇侍臣端方謹厚若劉健、謝遷、程敏政、吳寬者，日與講學論道，以為出治之本。 至如內閣尹直、尚書李裕、都御史劉敷、侍郎黃景，奸邪無恥，或夤緣中官進用，或依附佞幸行私。 不早驅斥，必累聖明。 司禮中官李榮、蕭敬曩為言官劾罷，尋夤緣復入。 遂摭言官過，貶竄殆盡，致士氣委靡。 宜亟正典刑，勿為姑息。 諸傳奉得官者，請悉編置瘴鄉，示天下戒。 且召致仕尚書王恕、王竑，都御史彭韶，僉事章懋等，而還建言得罪諸臣，以厲風節。」 報聞。
When Xiaozong came to the throne, he first impeached Grand Secretary Wan An for deceiving the sovereign and harming the state. The next day he was summoned to the Left Gate of Compliance. Eunuchs stood in dense ranks and ordered him to kneel. Nai said, "He who orders Nai to kneel—is that an edict, or the eunuchs' wish? They replied, "There is an edict." Only then did Nai kneel. When the edict was read, it said his memorial had been kept within. Nai protested loudly: "What your servant addressed were great affairs of state—how can they be shelved? Soon Wan was dismissed. Nai was also sent to inspect horses in the capital region and hurriedly memorialized: "After holding court, Your Majesty should attend the informal hall, choose upright and careful ministers such as Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Cheng Minzheng, and Wu Kuan, and study and discuss the Way with them daily as the foundation of good governance. As for Grand Secretary Yin Zhi, Minister Li Yu, Censor-in-chief Liu Fu, and Vice Minister Huang Jing—they are wicked and shameless, some advancing through eunuch patronage, others clinging to favorites to pursue private ends. If they are not driven out soon, they will surely burden Your Majesty's rule. The palace eunuchs Li Rong and Xiao Jing had once been impeached and dismissed by remonstrating officials, yet soon found their way back through patronage. They then seized on the faults of remonstrating officials and banished them nearly to extinction, withering scholarly morale. They should be punished at once by proper law; do not indulge them. All supernumerary appointees who gained office should be posted to malarial regions as a warning to the realm. Recall retired ministers Wang Su and Wang Hong, Censor-in-chief Peng Shao, Vice Commissioner Zhang Mao, and others, and restore officials punished for speaking up, to strengthen public integrity." The memorial was received.
74
弘治元年正月，鼐又劾禮部尚書周洪謨，侍郎倪嶽、張悅，南京兵部尚書馬文升，因言：「少傅劉吉，與萬安、尹直奸貪等耳。 安、直斥，而吉獨進官，不以為恥。 請大申黜陟，明示勸懲。」 又劾李榮、蕭敬，而薦謫降進士李文祥為臺諫。 尚書王恕以盛暑請輟經筵，鼐極言不可，語侵恕。
In the first month of the first year of Hongzhi (1488), Nai again impeached Minister of Rites Zhou Hongmo, Vice Ministers Ni Yue and Zhang Yue, and Nanjing Minister of War Ma Wensheng, adding: "Junior Mentor Liu Ji is no better than Wan An and Yin Zhi in wicked greed. An and Zhi were dismissed, yet Ji alone kept rising and felt no shame. We ask that promotions and demotions be enforced broadly, with clear reward and punishment. He again impeached Li Rong and Xiao Jing and recommended the demoted presented scholar Li Wenxiang for a remonstrance post. When Minister Wang Su asked to suspend the classics lecture because of the summer heat, Nai vehemently objected, his words bordering on insult to Su.
75
當是時，帝更新庶政，言路大開。 新進者爭，欲以功名自見。 封章旁午，頗傷激訐，鼐意氣尤銳。 其所抨擊，間及海內人望，以故大臣多畏之，而吉尤不能堪。 使人啖御史魏璋曰：「君能去鼐，行僉院事矣。」 璋欣然，日夜伺鼐短。 未幾，而吉人之獄起。
At that time the emperor was renewing government and the path of candid counsel lay wide open. New appointees strove to make their names through bold action. Memorials poured in, often harsh to the point of injury; Nai's tone was especially sharp. His targets sometimes included men of national renown, so many senior ministers feared him, and Ji especially could not endure him. He sent someone to entice Censor Wei Zhang, saying, "If you can remove Nai, you will be made vice commissioner of the censorate. Zhang accepted gladly and day and night watched for faults in Nai. Before long the case of Ji Ren arose.
76
吉人者，長安人。 成化末進士，為中書舍人。 四川饑，帝遣郎中江漢往振。 人言漢不勝任，宜遣四使分道振，且擇才能御史為巡按，庶荒政有裨。 因薦給事中宋琮、陳矞、韓鼎，御史曹璘，郎中王沂、洪鐘，員外郎東思誠，評事王寅，理刑知縣韓福及壽州知州劉概可使，而巡按則鼐足任之。 璋遂草疏，偽署御史陳景隆等名，言吉人抵抗成命，私立朋黨。 帝怒，下人詔獄，令自引其黨。 人以鼐、璘、思誠、概、福對。 璋又嗾御史陳璧等言：「璘、福、思誠非其黨，其黨則鼐、概及主事李文祥、庶吉士鄒智、知州董傑是也。 概嘗饋鼐白金，貽之書，謂夜夢一人騎牛幾墮，鼐手挽之得不仆，又見鼐手執五色石引牛就道。 因解之曰：『人騎牛謂朱，乃國姓。 意者國將傾，賴鼐扶之，而引君當道也。』 鼐、概等自相標榜，詆毀時政，請並文祥、智、傑逮治。」 疏上，吉從中主之，悉下詔獄，欲盡置之死。
Ji Ren was a native of Chang'an. A presented scholar at the end of Chenghua, he served as a secretarial receptionist. When Sichuan suffered famine, the emperor sent Bureau Director Jiang Han to administer relief. Critics said Han was unequal to the task; four envoys should relieve famine by separate routes, and capable censors should be chosen as grand coordinators so that relief might be effective. He recommended supervising secretaries Song Cong, Chen Yu, and Han Ding, Censor Cao Lin, bureau directors Wang Yi and Hong Zhong, vice director Dong Sicheng, judicial reviewer Wang Yin, judicial magistrate Han Fu, and Shouzhou prefect Liu Gai, and said Nai alone was fit to serve as grand coordinator. Zhang then drafted a memorial, forging the names of Censor Chen Jinglong and others, accusing Ji Ren of resisting the imperial command and forming a private faction. The emperor was enraged, sent him to the imperial prison, and ordered him to name his accomplices. Informants named Nai, Lin, Sicheng, Gai, and Fu. Zhang then instigated Censor Chen Bi and others to say, "Lin, Fu, and Sicheng are not his faction; his faction is Nai, Gai, section chief Li Wenxiang, Hanlin bachelor Zou Zhi, and prefect Dong Jie. Gai had once given Nai silver and sent a letter saying he dreamed of a man on an ox nearly falling, Nai catching him so he did not fall, and then seeing Nai with a five-colored stone leading the ox onto the road. He explained: "A man riding an ox suggests Zhu—the dynastic surname." He meant the state would totter and rely on Nai to steady it, and that he was leading you onto the right path. Nai, Gai, and others had praised one another and denounced current policy; he asked that Wenxiang, Zhi, and Jie be arrested and punished as well. When the memorial was submitted, Ji backed it from within; all were sent to the imperial prison, and he sought to put them all to death.
77
刑部尚書何喬新、侍郎彭韶等持之，外議亦洶洶不平。 乃坐概妖言律斬； 鼐受賄，戍肅州； 人欺罔，削籍； 智、文祥、傑皆謫官。 吏部尚書王恕奏曰：「律重妖言，謂造作符讖類耳。 概書詞雖妄，良以鼐數言事不避利害，因推詡之。 今當以妖言，設有如造亡秦讖者，更何以罪之？」 帝得疏意動，命姑系獄。 既而熱審，喬新等言：「概本不應妖言律。 且概五歲而孤，無兄弟，母孫氏守節三十年，曾被旌，老病且貧。 概死，母必不全，祈聖恩矜恤。」 乃減概死，戍海州。
Minister of Justice He Qiaoxin and Vice Minister Peng Shao held firm, and public opinion seethed with outrage. Gai was sentenced under the law on heterodox speech to be beheaded; Nai was convicted of taking bribes and banished to Suzhou; Ji Ren was convicted of deception and struck from the registry; Zhi, Wenxiang, and Jie were all demoted. Minister of Personnel Wang Su memorialized: "The law on heterodox speech targets the fabrication of omens and prognostications. Gai's letter was wild, but it arose because Nai had repeatedly spoken without regard for personal risk, and Gai had praised him for it. If this is heterodox speech, what charge would apply to one who forged a prophecy of Qin's fall? Moved by the memorial, the emperor ordered them held in prison for the time being. At the summer judicial review, Qiaoxin and others said, "Gai should never have been charged under the law on heterodox speech. Moreover Gai was orphaned at five and had no brothers; his mother of the Sun clan had kept her chastity for thirty years, had been honored by the state, and was now old, ill, and poor. If Gai dies, his mother cannot survive; we beg imperial mercy. Gai's death sentence was commuted and he was banished to Haizhou.
78
槩，濟寧人。 成化二十年進士。 除壽州知州，毀境內淫祠幾盡，三年教化大行。 弘治初上言：「刑賞予奪，人主大柄，後世乃有為女子、小人、強臣、外戚所攘竊者，由此輩心險術巧，人主稍加親信，輒墮計中。 愛者，乘君之喜而遊言以揚之； 惡者，乘君之怒而微言以中之，使賢人君子卒受曖昧而去。 卿相缺人，則遷延餌引，待有交通請屬軟美易制之人，然後薦用。 其剛正不阿者，輒媒孽而放棄之，俟其氣衰慮易，不至大立異同，乃更收錄。 巧計既行，刑賞予奪雖名人主獨操，實一出於其所簸弄。 迨黨立勢成，復恐一旦敗露，則又極意以排諫諍之士。 務使其君孤立於上，耳無聞，目無見，以圖便其私，不至其身與國俱敗不止。 故夫刑賞予奪，必由大臣奏請、臺諫集議而後可行。 或有矯誣，窮治不輕貸，則讒佞莫能間，而權不下移矣。」 考績赴都，遂遇禍，竟卒於戍所。
Liu Gai was a native of Jining. He became a presented scholar in the twentieth year of Chenghua (1484). Appointed prefect of Shouzhou, he destroyed nearly all improper shrines in the prefecture; within three years moral instruction flourished. Early in Hongzhi he memorialized: "Punishment, reward, grant, and denial are the sovereign's great prerogatives; later ages have seen them seized by women, petty men, powerful ministers, and consort kin—because such people are treacherous and crafty, and once the ruler trusts them even slightly, he falls into their schemes. Those the ruler favors ride on his joy and ply him with flattering words; those he hates ride on his anger and use subtle words to strike home, until worthy men leave office under a cloud. When high offices lack appointees, they delay and bait, waiting for men with connections and patronage who are pliable and easy to control, then recommend them. The upright and unyielding they slander and cast aside, then take back only when their spirit has weakened and they no longer pose a serious challenge. Once their schemes succeed, punishment and reward are said to rest with the sovereign alone, but in truth they issue from their manipulation. When their faction is entrenched, fearing exposure, they do their utmost to drive out remonstrating officials. They strive to isolate the ruler above, deaf and blind, to serve their private ends, and do not stop until they and the state fall together. Therefore punishment and reward must pass through ministers' memorials and remonstrators' collective deliberation before they may be enacted. If accusations are false, pursue them relentlessly; then slanderers cannot intervene and power will not slip away. When he came to the capital for his performance review he met disaster and died in exile.
79
鼐既戍，無援之者，久之始釋歸。
After Nai was banished, no one spoke for him; only after a long time was he released to return home.
80
董傑，涇縣人。 成化末進士。 鼐之論暑月輟講也，傑方謁選，亦抗疏爭，由是知名。 授沔陽知州，甫數月，逮系詔獄，謫四川行都司知事，歷遷河南左布政使。 所在盡職業，為民所懷。 正德六年，江西盜起，巡撫王哲兵敗召還，擢傑右副都御史代之。 未幾卒。
Dong Jie was a native of Jing County. He passed the jinshi examination at the end of the Chenghua reign. When Tang Nai argued against suspending summer lectures, Jie was awaiting his official posting and likewise submitted a defiant memorial; he became well known from this. Appointed prefect of Mianyang; after only a few months he was seized and held in the imperial prison, demoted to registrar of the Sichuan Regional Military Commission, and eventually rose to Left Administrative Commissioner of Henan. Wherever he served he fulfilled his duties fully and won the people's affection. In the sixth year of Zhengde bandits rose in Jiangxi; Grand Coordinator Wang Zhe was defeated and recalled, and Jie was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief in his place. Before long he died.
81
璋既為吉心腹，果擢大理寺丞。 坐事下獄，黜為九江同知，悒悒死。
Zhang, having become Liu Ji's confidant, was indeed promoted to vice commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review. Implicated in an offense, he was imprisoned, demoted to subprefect of Jiujiang, and died in dejection.
82
姜綰，字玉卿。 弋陽人。 成化十四年進士。 由景陵知縣擢南京御史。 弘治初，陳治道十事。 又言午朝宜論大政，毋泛陳細故，皆報聞。
Jiang Wan, styled Yuqing. He was a native of Yiyang. He passed the jinshi examination in the fourteenth year of Chenghua. From magistrate of Jingling he was promoted to censor at Nanjing. Early in the Hongzhi reign he memorialized on ten matters of governance. He also urged that the midday audience should address major policy, not minor details; the court took note.
83
二年二月，南京守備中官蔣琮以蘆場事下綰覆按，琮囑綰求右己。 綰疏言：「琮以守備重臣與小民爭利，假公事以適私情。 用揭帖而抗詔旨，揚言陰中，脅以必從。 其他變亂成法，厥罪有十。 以內官侵言官職，罪一。 妒害大臣，妄論都御史秦纮，罪二。 怒河閘官失迎候，欲奏罷之，罪三。 受民詞不由通政，罪四。 分遣腹心，侵漁國課，罪五。 按季收班匠工銀，罪六。 擅收用罷閑都事，罪七。 官僚忤意，輒肆中傷，罪八。 妄奏主事周琦罪，欺罔朝廷，罪九。 保舉罷斥內臣，竊天子威柄，罪十。」 事下南京三法司。 既，復特遣官覆治以奏。
In the second month of the second year, Nanjing garrison eunuch Jiang Cong was referred to Wan for reinvestigation in the reed-field case; Cong asked Wan to rule in his favor. Wan memorialized: "As a senior garrison eunuch, Cong contends for profit with commoners and uses public business for private ends. He used informal notes to defy imperial edicts, threatened covert retaliation, and coerced others into compliance. His other violations of law amount to ten crimes. An inner eunuch encroaching on remonstrators' duties—first crime. Jealous attacks on great ministers, rashly denouncing Grand Coordinator Qin Hong—second crime. Angered that river-lock officials failed to receive him, he sought to have them dismissed—third crime. Accepting commoners' petitions without the Office of Transmission—fourth crime. Sending trusted agents to encroach on state revenue—fifth crime. Collecting seasonal silver from rostered artisan labor—sixth crime. Arrogantly employing dismissed idle secretaries—seventh crime. Slandering officials who displeased him—eighth crime. Falsely memorializing on Director Zhou Qi's crimes and deceiving the court—ninth crime. Recommending dismissed inner eunuchs and usurping the Son of Heaven's authority—tenth crime." The case was referred to the Three Offices of Justice at Nanjing. Officials were then specially dispatched to reinvestigate and report.
84
先是，御史余濬劾中官陳祖生違制墾後湖田，湖為之淤。 奏下南京主事盧錦勘報。 錦故與祖生有隙。 而給事中方向嘗率同官繆樗等劾祖生及文武大臣不職狀，又因雷震孝陵柏，劾大學士劉吉等十一人，而詆祖生益力。 祖生銜向切骨。 時向方監後湖黃冊，祖生遂揭向、錦實侵湖田。 詔下法司勘。 勘未上，而琮為綰所劾。 於是琮、祖生及吉合謀削錦籍，謫向官，復逮綰及同官孫纮、劉遜、金章、紀傑、曹玉、譚肅、徐禮、余濬，給事中繆樗，赴京論鞫，皆謫為州判官。
Earlier, Censor Yu Jun had impeached eunuch Chen Zu Sheng for illegally reclaiming land behind the lake, which caused the lake to silt up. The memorial was referred to Nanjing Director Lu Jin for investigation. Jin had long borne a grudge against Zu Sheng. Supervising Secretary Fang Xiang had led Miu Chu and others to impeach Zu Sheng and negligent ministers; he also impeached Grand Secretary Liu Ji and ten others after lightning struck a cypress at Xiaoling, denouncing Zu Sheng with particular force. Zu Sheng bore Xiang a mortal grudge. While Xiang was supervising the rear-lake land register, Zu Sheng exposed Xiang and Jin for encroaching on lake land. An edict ordered the judicial offices to investigate. Before the report was filed, Cong was impeached by Wan. Cong, Zu Sheng, and Ji then conspired to strip Jin of his registry, demote Xiang, and seize Wan together with fellow censors Sun Hong, Liu Xun, Jin Zhang, Ji Ji, Cao Yu, Tan Su, Xu Li, Yu Jun, and supervising secretary Miu Chu for trial at the capital; all were demoted to prefectural assistant prefects.
85
綰謫判桂陽，量移寧國同知，遷慶遠知府。 斬劇賊韋七旋、韋萬妙。 其黨糾賊數萬攻城，綰堅守，檄民兵夾擊，破走之。 東蘭諸州蠻悉歸侵地。 總督劉大夏奇其材，薦為右江兵備副使。 思恩知府岑濬逐田州知府岑猛，綰獻策總督潘蕃。 蕃令與都指揮金堂合諸路兵大破賊，思恩平。 綰條二府形勢，請改設流官，比中土，廷議從之。 綰引疾還。 俄起河南按察使，尋復以疾歸，卒於家。
Wan was demoted to assistant prefect of Guiyang, transferred to subprefect of Ningguo, and promoted to prefect of Qingyuan. He beheaded the fierce bandits Wei Qixuan and Wei Wanmiao. Their followers mustered tens of thousands to attack the city; Wan held firm, called up militia to strike from both sides, and routed them. The tribal chiefs of eastern Lan all returned the seized lands. Grand Coordinator Liu Daxia admired his ability and recommended him as Vice Commissioner for Military Affairs of the Right River. Si'en Prefect Cen Jun drove out Tianzhou Prefect Cen Meng; Wan offered strategy to Grand Coordinator Pan Fan. Fan ordered him to join Commander Jin Tang and allied forces in a great victory over the rebels, pacifying Si'en. Wan outlined the situation of the two prefectures and urged appointing regular officials as in the interior; the court agreed. Wan cited illness and returned home. Soon he was appointed Surveillance Commissioner of Henan, but again retired on illness and died at home.
86
余濬，慈溪人。 成化十七年進士。 孝宗初，疏請永除納粟入監令。 又劾浙江鎮守中官張慶、廣東鎮守中官韋眷，因薦王恕堪內閣，馬文升、彭韶、張悅、阮勤、黃孔昭堪吏部。 後湖之勘，自濬啟之。 貶平度州判官，終知府。
Yu Jun was a native of Cixi. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventeenth year of Chenghua. Early in Emperor Xiaozong's reign he memorialized to abolish permanently the purchase of grain for admission to the Directorate of Education. He also impeached Zhejiang garrison eunuch Zhang Qing and Guangdong garrison eunuch Wei Juan, and recommended Wang Shu for the Grand Secretariat and Ma Wensheng, Peng Shao, Zhang Yue, Ruan Qin, and Huang Kongzhao for the Ministry of Personnel. The rear-lake investigation began with Jun. Demoted to assistant prefect of Pingdu, he ended his career as prefect.
87
方向，字與義，桐城人。 成化十七年進士。 謫雲南多羅驛丞，歷官瓊州知府。 入覲時，仆私市一珠，索而投諸海。
Fang Xiang, styled Yiyi, was a native of Tongcheng. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventeenth year of Chenghua. Demoted to registrar of Duoluo courier station in Yunnan, he rose to prefect of Qiongzhou. On presenting himself at court, a servant privately bought a pearl; he seized it and threw it into the sea.
88
繆樗，字全之，溧陽人。 成化十一年進士。 孝宗初，陳時政八事。 因劾大學士尹直等，時號「敢言」。 終營州判官。
Miu Chu, styled Quanzhi, was a native of Liyang. He passed the jinshi examination in the eleventh year of Chenghua. Early in Emperor Xiaozong's reign he presented eight matters of current policy. He also impeached Grand Secretary Yin Zhi and others, and was known at the time as "daring in speech." He ended his career as assistant prefect of Yingzhou.
89
孫纮，字文冕，鄞人。 成化十四年進士。 謫膠州判官，遷廣德知州，卒官。 纮少貧，傭書市肉以養母。 既通籍，終身不食肉。
Sun Hong, styled Wenmian, was a native of Yin county. He passed the jinshi examination in the fourteenth year of Chenghua. Demoted to assistant prefect of Jiaozhou, he was transferred to magistrate of Guangde and died in office. Hong was poor in youth and hired out as a copyist to buy meat to support his mother. After entering official service he never ate meat for the rest of his life.
90
劉遜，安福人。 成化十四年進士。 謫澧州判官，遷武岡知州。 岷王不檢下，遜裁抑之，又欲損其歲祿。 王怒，奏於朝，征下詔獄，貶四川行都司斷事，歷湖廣副使。 劉瑾征賄不得，坐缺軍儲被逮，已而釋之。 再坐斷獄稽延，罰米百石。 先是，榮王乞辰州、常德田二千頃、山場八百里、民舍市廛千余間，遜與巡撫韓重持勿予。 至是，瑾悉予之。 部議補遜瓊州副使，瑾勒令致仕。 瑾誅，起官，歷福建按察使。
Liu Xun was a native of Anfu. He passed the jinshi examination in the fourteenth year of Chenghua. Demoted to assistant prefect of Li, he was transferred to magistrate of Wugang. The Prince of Min did not restrain his household; Xun curbed them and also sought to reduce his annual stipend. The prince was angered and memorialized to the court; Xun was summoned to the imperial prison, demoted to judicial officer of the Sichuan Regional Military Commission, and later rose to Vice Commissioner of Huguang. Liu Jin demanded bribes and received none; on a charge of shortfall in military provisions Xun was seized, then soon released. Again, for delay in judging cases, he was fined one hundred piculs of grain. Earlier the Prince of Rong had requested two thousand qing of Chenzhou and Changde fields, eight hundred li of mountain estates, and more than a thousand dwellings and market stalls; Xun and Grand Coordinator Han Chong firmly refused. Now Jin granted them all. The ministry proposed appointing Xun Vice Commissioner of Qiongzhou; Jin forced him to retire. After Jin was executed, Xun was recalled and served as Surveillance Commissioner of Fujian.
91
金章等無他表見。
Jin Zhang and the others left no further record of distinction.
92
姜洪，字希範，廣德人。 成化十四年進士。 除盧氏知縣。 單騎勸農桑。 民姜仲禮願代父死罪，洪奏免之。 征拜御史。
Jiang Hong, styled Xifan, was a native of Guangde. He passed the jinshi examination in the fourteenth year of Chenghua. He was appointed magistrate of Lushi. He rode out alone to encourage farming and sericulture. The commoner Jiang Zhongli offered to die in his father's place; Hong memorialized to spare the father. He was summoned and appointed censor.
93
洪性廉直，身後喪不能舉。 天啟初，追謚莊介。
Hong was upright by nature; after his death his family could not afford his funeral. At the beginning of the Tianqi reign he was posthumously honored with the epithet Zhuangjie.
94
歐陽旦，安福人。 成化十七年進士。 由休寧知縣擢御史。 嘗請逐劉吉，罷皇莊。 歷湖廣僉事、浙江副使，終南京右副都御史。
Ouyang Dan was a native of Anfu. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventeenth year of Chenghua. From magistrate of Xiuning he was promoted to censor. He once memorialized to expel Liu Ji and abolish imperial estates. He served as Huguang intendant and Zhejiang vice commissioner, and ended as Right Vice Censor-in-Chief at Nanjing.
95
曹璘，字廷暉，襄陽人。 成化十四年進士。 授行人。 久之，選授御史。
Cao Lin, styled Tinghui, was a native of Xiangyang. He passed the jinshi examination in the fourteenth year of Chenghua. He was appointed liturgical attendant. After some time he was selected and appointed censor.
96
孝宗嗣位，疏言：「梓宮發引，陛下宜衰绖杖履送至大明門外，拜哭而別，率宮中行三年喪。 貴妃萬氏有罪，宜告於先帝，削其謚，遷葬他所。」 帝納其奏，而戒勿言貴妃事。 頃之，請進用王恕等諸大臣，復先朝言事於大節等諸臣官，放遣宮中怨女，罷撤監督京營及鎮守四方太監。 又言：「梁芳以指揮袁輅獻地建寺，請令襲廣平侯爵。 以數畝地得侯，勛臣誰不解體，宜亟為革罷。」 疏奏，帝頗采焉。
When Emperor Xiaozong succeeded to the throne, he memorialized: "When the imperial coffin is borne forth, Your Majesty should go in mourning garb, staff in hand, and escort it to beyond the Great Bright Gate, bow and weep in farewell, and lead the palace in three years of mourning. The honored consort of the Wan clan is guilty; she should be reported to the Former Emperor, stripped of her posthumous title, and reburied elsewhere." The emperor accepted his memorial but warned him not to raise the matter of the consort. Before long he asked that Wang Shu and other leading ministers be promoted, that officials of the former reign who had spoken on matters of great principle be restored, that resentful women in the palace be released, and that eunuchs supervising the capital army and garrisoning the regions be dismissed. He also said: "Liang Fang had Commander Yuan Lu present land to build a temple and asked that Yuan inherit the marquisate of Guangping. To gain a marquisate for a few mu of land—what meritorious minister would not be utterly dismayed? This should be abolished at once." When the memorial was submitted, the emperor largely adopted his recommendations.
97
弘治元年七月上言：「近日星隕地震，金木二星晝現，雷擊禁門，皇陵雨雹，南京內園災，狂夫叫閽，景寧白氣飛騰，而陛下不深求致咎之由，以盡弭災之實。 經筵雖禦，徒為具文。 方舉輒休，暫行遽罷，所謂『一日暴之，十日寒之』者。 願日禦講殿與儒臣論議，罷斥大學士劉吉等，以消天變。 臣昨冬曾請陛下墨衰視政，今每遘節序，輒漸禦黃袞，從官朱緋。 三年之間，為日有幾，宜但禦淺服。 且陛下方諒陰，少監郭鏞乃請選妃嬪。 雖拒勿納，鏞猶任用，何以解臣民疑。 祖宗嚴自宮之禁，今此曹幹進紛紜，當論罪。 朝廷特設書堂，令翰林官教習內使，本非高皇帝制。 詞臣多夤緣以幹進，而內官亦且假儒術以文奸，宜速罷之。 諸邊有警，輒命京軍北征，此輩驕惰久，不足用。 乞自今勿遣，而以出師之費賞邊軍。」 帝得疏，不喜，降旨譙讓。
In the seventh month of the first year of Hongzhi he memorialized: "Recently stars have fallen, the earth has quaked, the metal and wood planets have appeared by day, lightning has struck the forbidden gate, hail has fallen at the imperial tombs, fire has broken out in the inner gardens at Nanjing, a madman has cried at the palace gate, and white vapor has soared over Jingning—yet Your Majesty does not deeply investigate the causes of these faults in order fully to dispel these calamities. Although the lecture sessions are convened, they are mere empty formality. They are begun only to be suspended, carried out briefly and then hastily abandoned—the very "one day of sun, ten days of cold" of the proverb. I beg that Your Majesty daily attend the lecture hall and debate with Confucian ministers, and dismiss Grand Secretary Liu Ji and others, so as to dispel heaven's warnings. Last winter your servant asked Your Majesty to conduct government in ink-black mourning dress; now at every seasonal occasion Your Majesty gradually resumes the yellow dragon robe, and attendants wear vermillion. Within the three-year mourning period, how many days are there? Your Majesty should wear only light mourning dress. Moreover, while Your Majesty is still observing the mourning seclusion, Junior Eunuch Guo Yong nevertheless requested that consorts be selected. Although this was refused, Yong is still in office—how can the doubts of officials and people be dispelled? The ancestors strictly forbade meddling with the inner palace; now this crowd clamor for advancement in disorder—they should be punished. The court specially established a lecture hall and ordered Hanlin officials to instruct inner eunuchs—this was never the High Emperor's institution. Literary officials mostly use connections to advance themselves, while inner officials also borrow Confucian learning to cloak their wickedness—the practice should be abolished at once. When the frontiers are alarmed, the court immediately orders capital troops north on campaign; this corps have long been arrogant and indolent and are not fit for service. I beg that from now on they not be dispatched, and that the cost of campaigns be used instead to reward frontier troops." When the emperor received the memorial he was displeased and issued an edict reproaching him.
98
已，出按廣東，訪陳獻章於新會，服其言論，遂引疾歸。 居山中讀書，三十年不入城市。
Thereafter he toured Guangdong as investigating censor, visited Chen Xianzhang at Xinhui, was persuaded by his teaching, and then pleaded illness and returned home. He lived in the mountains reading books and for thirty years never entered the city.
99
彭程，字萬里，鄱陽人。 成化末進士。 弘治初，授御史，巡視京城。 降人雜處畿甸多為盜，事發則投戚裏、奄豎為窟穴。 程每先機制之，有發輒得。 巡鹽兩浙，代還，巡視光祿。
Peng Cheng, styled Wanli, was a native of Poyang. He passed the jinshi examination at the end of the Chenghua reign. At the beginning of Hongzhi he was appointed censor and toured the capital region. Surrendered peoples scattered through the capital region mostly turned to banditry; when cases arose they would flee to imperial in-laws and eunuchs for shelter. Cheng each time anticipated them and checked them; whenever trouble broke out he caught the culprits. He inspected the salt administration in the two Zhe provinces; when relieved and returned, he inspected the Court of Imperial Entertainments.
100
五年上疏言：「臣適見光祿造皇壇器。 皇壇者，先帝修齋行法之所。 陛下即位，此類廢斥盡，何復有皇壇煩置器？ 光祿金錢，悉民膏血。 用得其當，猶恐病民，況投之無用地。 頃李孜省、繼曉輩倡邪說，而先帝篤信之者，意在遠希福壽也。 今二人已伏重辟，則禍患之來，二人尚不能自免，豈能福壽他人。 倘陛下果有此舉。 宜遏之將萌。 如無，請治所司逢迎罪。」 帝初無皇壇造器之命，特光祿姑為備。 帝得程奏大怒，以為暴揚先帝過，立下錦衣獄。 給事中叢蘭亦巡視光祿，繼上疏論之。 帝宥蘭，奪光祿卿胡恭等俸，付程刑部定罪。 尚書彭韶等擬贖杖還職。 帝欲置之死，命系之。 韶等復疏救，程子尚三上章乞代父死，終不聽。
In the fifth year he memorialized: "Your servant has just seen the Court of Imperial Entertainments making vessels for the Imperial Altar. The Imperial Altar was where the Former Emperor practiced fasting and performed ritual methods. Since Your Majesty ascended the throne, such things have all been abolished—why again trouble to supply vessels for the Imperial Altar? The funds of the Court of Imperial Entertainments are entirely the people's lifeblood. Even when spent appropriately one still fears burdening the people—how much more when it is poured into useless projects. Recently Li Zisheng, Jixiao, and their sort preached heterodox doctrines, and what the Former Emperor deeply trusted them for was to seek distant blessings and long life. Now the two men have already suffered capital punishment; if calamity comes, they could not even save themselves—how could they bring blessings and long life to others? If Your Majesty indeed intends this. It should be stopped while still in bud. If not, please punish the responsible officials for currying favor." At first the emperor had issued no order to make Imperial Altar vessels—the Court of Imperial Entertainments was merely preparing in advance. When the emperor received Cheng's memorial he was furious, regarding it as publicly exposing the Former Emperor's faults, and immediately had him imprisoned in the Embroidered Uniform Guard prison. Supervising Secretary Cong Lan was also inspecting the Court of Imperial Entertainments and subsequently memorialized on the same matter. The emperor pardoned Lan, stripped the salaries of Court of Imperial Entertainments Director Hu Gong and others, and handed Cheng over to the Ministry of Justice for sentencing. Minister Peng Shao and others proposed fine and beating in lieu of punishment and return to office. The emperor wished to put him to death and ordered him held in prison. Shao and others again memorialized to save him; Cheng's son Shang three times submitted memorials begging to die in his father's stead—the emperor would not listen.
101
是時巡按陜西御史嵩縣李興亦坐酷刑系獄。 及朝審，上興及程罪狀。 詔興斬，程及家屬戍隆慶。 文武大臣英國公張懋等合疏言：「興所斃多罪犯，不宜當以死。 程用諫為職，坐此戍邊，則作奸枉法者何以處之？」 尚書王恕又特疏救。 乃減興死，杖之百，偕妻子戍賓州，程竟無所減。 程母李氏年老無他子，叩闕乞留侍養。 南京給事中毛呈等亦奏曰：「昔劉禹錫附王叔文當竄遠方，裴度以其母老為請，得改連州。 陛下聖德，非唐中主可比，而程罪亦異禹錫。 祈少矜憐，全其母子。」 不許。 子尚隨父戍所，遂舉廣西鄉試。 明年，帝念程母老，放還。 其後，劉瑾亂政，追論程巡鹽時稍虧額課，勒其家償。 程死久矣，止遣一孫女。 罄產不足，則並女鬻之，行道皆為流涕。
At this time Li Xing of Song County, the touring censor of Shaanxi, was also imprisoned for cruel torture. At the court review the charges against Xing and Cheng were presented. An edict ordered Xing beheaded; Cheng and his family were exiled to Longqing. Civil and military great ministers including the Duke of Ying, Zhang Mao, jointly memorialized: "Of those whom Xing put to death, many were criminals—he should not be punished with death. Cheng performed remonstrance as his duty; to exile him to the frontier for this—then how are those who commit wickedness and pervert the law to be punished?" Minister Wang Shu again submitted a special memorial to save him. Thereupon Xing's death sentence was commuted; he was beaten one hundred strokes and exiled with wife and children to Binzhou; Cheng received no reduction at all. Cheng's mother, Lady Li, was elderly and had no other sons; she knocked at the palace gate begging to be allowed to stay and care for him. Nanjing supervising secretaries including Mao Cheng also memorialized: "Formerly Liu Yuxi, for attaching himself to Wang Shuwen, was to be banished to a distant region; Pei Du pleaded that his mother was old, and he was reassigned to Lianzhou. Your Majesty's sagely virtue cannot be compared with middling Tang rulers—and Cheng's offense is unlike Liu Yuxi's. I pray for a little compassion to preserve mother and son together." [The emperor] did not grant it. His son Shang followed his father into exile and then passed the Guangxi provincial examination. The next year the emperor, mindful that Cheng's mother was elderly, allowed her to return. Later, when Liu Jin disturbed government, he retrospectively charged that during Cheng's salt inspection he had slightly reduced the revenue quota and compelled his family to make restitution. Cheng had long been dead; only one granddaughter remained to be sent away. When their property was exhausted and still insufficient, they even sold the girl as well; passersby on the road all wept for them.
102
龐泮，字元化，天臺人。 成化二十年進士。 授工科給事中。 弘治中，中旨取善擊銅鼓者，泮疏諫。 屢遷刑科都給事中。 副使楊茂元被逮，泮率同列救之，茂元得薄譴。
Pang Pan, styled Yuanhua, was a native of Tiantai. He passed the jinshi examination in the twentieth year of Chenghua. He was appointed supervising secretary of the Ministry of Works. During Hongzhi an imperial rescript sought men skilled at striking bronze drums; Pan memorialized in remonstrance. He was repeatedly promoted to chief supervising secretary of the Ministry of Punishments. Vice Commissioner Yang Maoyuan was arrested; Pan led his colleagues to plead for him, and Maoyuan received only a light reprimand.
103
九年四月，帝以岷王劾武岡知州劉遜，命逮之。 泮率同官呂獻等言：「錦衣天子視軍，非不軌及妖言重情不可輕遣。 遜所坐微，而王奏牽左證百人，勢難盡逮。 宜敕撫、按官體勘。」 疏入，忤旨，下泮等四十二人及御史劉紳等二十人詔獄。 六科署空，吏部尚書屠滽請令中書代收部院封事。 御史張淳奉使還，恥獨不與，抗疏論之。 考功郎中儲雚亦諫，滽等復率九卿救之。 帝乃釋泮等，皆停俸三月。
In the fourth month of the ninth year, because the Prince of Min memorialized against Liu Xun, prefect of Wugang, the emperor ordered Liu seized. Pan led his colleagues Lü Xian and others in saying: "The Embroidered Uniform Guard is for when the Son of Heaven inspects the army; unless the case involves sedition or grave charges of heterodox speech, they must not be dispatched lightly. Xun's offense was minor, yet the prince's memorial implicated a hundred people as corroborating witnesses—complete arrest would be difficult. The grand coordinators and surveillance commissioners should be ordered to investigate the matter on site. When the memorial was submitted it offended the imperial intent; Pan and forty-two others, together with Censor Liu Shen and twenty others, were placed in the imperial prison. The Six Offices of Scrutiny stood vacant; Minister of Personnel Tu Yong asked that the Secretariat temporarily receive sealed memorials from the ministries and courts. Censor Zhang Chun, returning from a mission, was ashamed to be the only one left out and submitted a defiant memorial arguing against it. Bureau Director Chu Tan also remonstrated; Yong and others again led the Nine Ministers to plead for them. The emperor then released Pan and the others; all had their salaries suspended for three months.
104
中官何鼎以直言下獄，楊鵬、戴禮夤緣入司禮監。 泮等言：「鼎狂直宜容。 鵬等得罪先朝，俾參機密，害非小。」 會御史黃山、張泰等亦以為言。 帝怒，詰外廷何由知內廷事，令對狀，停泮等俸半歲。 威寧伯王越謀起用，中官蔣琮、李廣有罪，外戚周彧、張鶴齡縱家奴殺人，泮皆極論，直聲甚著。
Eunuch He Ding was imprisoned for blunt speech; Yang Peng and Dai Li used connections to enter the Directorate of Ceremonial. Pan and others said: "Ding is wildly blunt and should be tolerated. Peng and others offended the former court; to appoint them to share in state secrets—the harm is no small matter." At the same time Censors Huang Shan and Zhang Tai also spoke on this. The emperor was angry and demanded to know how the outer court learned of inner-court affairs, ordered them to confront the charges in person, and suspended Pan and others' salaries for half a year. Defender of Weining Wang Yue plotted to be reappointed; eunuchs Jiang Cong and Li Guang were guilty; maternal relatives Zhou Yu and Zhang Heqing let their household slaves kill people—Pan strongly argued against every case, and his reputation for blunt integrity was very great.
105
十一年擢福建右參政。 中官奪宋儒黃幹宅為僧庵，泮改為書院以祀幹。 遷河南右布政使。 中旨取洛陽牡丹，疏請罷之。 轉廣西左布政使，致仕。
In the eleventh year he was promoted to Right Administrative Commissioner of Fujian. A eunuch seized the residence of the Song Neo-Confucian Huang Gan for a monk's hermitage; Pan converted it into an academy to sacrifice to Gan. He was transferred to Right Provincial Administration Commissioner of Henan. An imperial rescript demanded Luoyang peonies; he memorialized asking that this be stopped. He was transferred to Left Provincial Administration Commissioner of Guangxi and then retired.
106
呂獻，浙江新昌人。 成化二十年進士。 授刑科給事中。 坐事，杖闕廷。 弘治時，詔選駙馬。 李廣受富人金，陰為地，為獻所發，有直聲。 正德中，終南京兵部右侍郎。
Lü Xian was a native of Xinchang in Zhejiang. He passed the jinshi examination in the twentieth year of Chenghua. He was appointed supervising secretary of the Ministry of Punishments. For an offense he was beaten at court in the palace courtyard. During Hongzhi an edict was issued to select imperial sons-in-law. Li Guang accepted gold from wealthy men and secretly arranged appointments—Xian exposed this and gained a reputation for integrity. In the Zhengde period he finally served as Right Vice Minister of War at Nanjing.
107
葉紳，字廷縉，吳江人。 成化末進士。 除戶科給事中，改吏科，歷禮科左給事中。
Ye Shen, styled Tingjin, was a native of Wujiang. He passed the jinshi examination at the end of the Chenghua reign. He was appointed supervising secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, and successively served as Left supervising secretary of the Ministry of Rites.
108
弘治十年，太子年七歲，猶未出閤，紳請擇講官教諭。 尋以修省，陳八事。 斥中官李廣，又劾尚書徐瓊、童軒、侯瓚，侍郎鄭紀、王宗彜，巡撫都御史劉瓛、張誥、張岫等二十人，乞賜罷斥。 而末言「去大奸」，則專劾李廣八大罪：「誑陛下以燒煉，而進不經之藥，罪一。 為太子立寄壇，而興暖疏之說，罪二。 撥置皇親，希求恩寵，罪三。 盜引玉泉，經繞私第，罪四。 首開幸門，大肆奸貪，罪五。 太常崔誌端、真人王應裿輩稱廣為教主真人，廣即代求善官，乞賜玉帶，罪六。 假果戶為名，侵奪畿民土地，幾至激變，罪七。 四方輸納上供，威取勢逼，致民破產，罪八。 內而皇親駙馬事之如父，外而總兵鎮守稱之為公。 陛下奈何養此大奸於肘腋，而不思驅斥哉！」 御史張縉等亦以為言。 帝曰：「姑置之。」 逾數月，廣竟得罪飲冘死。
In the tenth year of Hongzhi the crown prince was seven years old and still had not left the inner quarters; Shen asked that lecture officials be selected to instruct him. Shortly thereafter, on the occasion of self-cultivation and reflection, he set forth eight matters. He denounced the eunuch Li Guang and also impeached Ministers Xu Qiong, Tong Xuan, and Hou Zan, Vice Ministers Zheng Ji and Wang Zongyi, and Grand Coordinators Liu Fan, Zhang Gao, Zhang You, and twenty others in all, asking that they be dismissed. At the end he wrote "Remove the great villain," then devoted the memorial solely to impeaching Li Guang for eight great crimes: "He deceived Your Majesty with alchemical refining and presented unorthodox medicines—crime one. He set up a surrogate altar for the crown prince and promoted the doctrine of warm and sparse fertility rites—crime two. He arranged placements for imperial kin and sought favor and patronage—crime three. He diverted the Jade Spring to wind around his private residence—crime four. He was the first to open the gate of imperial favor and carried out great fraud and greed—crime five. Director of Ceremonies Cui Zhiduan and Perfected Man Wang Yingyi and their like called Guang Cult Leader Perfected Man, and Guang at once sought good offices on their behalf and begged the gift of a jade belt—crime six. Under the name of fruit households he seized commoners' land in the capital region and nearly incited open disturbance—crime seven. Tribute sent in from the four directions he took by force and coercion, driving the people to ruin—crime eight. Within, imperial sons-in-law and consorts treated him like a father; without, regional commanders and garrison eunuchs called him Lord. How can Your Majesty nurture this great villain at your very elbow and not think to drive him out!" Censor Zhang Jin and others also spoke on this. The emperor said: "For the present, set it aside." After several months Guang at last met with guilt and died from drinking poison.
109
紳又極陳大臣恩蔭葬祭之濫。 下所司議，頗有減損。 擢尚寶少卿，卒。
Shen also strongly set forth the abuses of ministers' grace-inheritance burials and sacrifices. The matter was sent down to the responsible offices for discussion, and there was considerable reduction. He was promoted to Vice Director of the Imperial Treasures and died.
110
胡獻，字時臣，揚州興化人。 弘治九年進士。 改庶吉士，授御史。 逾月，即極論時政數事，言：「屠滽為吏部尚書，王越、李蕙為都御史，皆交通中官李廣得之。 廣得售奸，由陛下議政不任大臣，而任廣輩也。 祖宗時，恒禦內閣商決章奏，經筵日講悉陳時政得失，又不時接見儒臣，願陛下追復舊制。 京、通二倉總督、監督內臣，每收米萬石勒白金十兩。 以歲運四百萬石計之，人四千兩。 又各占鬥級二三百人，使納月錢。 夫監督倉儲，自有戶部，焉用中官？ 願賜罷遣。 京操軍士自數千里至，而總兵、坐營等官各使分屬辦納月錢，乞嚴革以蘇其困。 陛下遇災修省，去春求言，諫官及郎中王雲鳳、主事胡爟皆有論奏，留中不報，雲鳳尋得罪。 如此，則與不修省何異？ 願斷自聖心，凡利弊當興革者，即見施行。 東廠校尉，本以緝奸，邇者但為內戚、中官泄憤報怨。 如御史武衢忤壽寧侯張鶴齡及太監楊鵬，主事毛廣忤太監韋泰，皆為校尉所發，推求細事，誣以罪名。 舉朝皆知其枉，無敢言者。 臣亦知今日言之，異日必為所陷，然臣弗懼也。」 疏入，鶴齡與泰各疏辨。 會給事中胡易劾監庫中官賀彬貪黷八罪，彬亦訐易。 帝遂下獻、易詔獄，謫獻藍山丞。 久之，釋易。 獻未赴官，遷宜陽知縣。 馬文升數薦於朝，遷南都察院經歷。 武宗即位，擢廣西提學僉事，遷福建提學副使，未任卒。
Hu Xian, styled Shichen, was a native of Xinghua in Yangzhou. He passed the jinshi examination in the ninth year of Hongzhi. He was transferred to Hanlin Bachelor and appointed censor. Within a month he vigorously discussed several matters of current policy, saying: "Tu Fu as Minister of Personnel, Wang Yue and Li Hui as Censors-in-Chief—all obtained their posts through dealings with the eunuch Li Guang. Guang could practice villainy because Your Majesty deliberates on government without trusting great ministers but trusts Guang and his like. In ancestral times the emperor regularly attended the Grand Secretariat to decide on memorials; the daily lecture sessions fully set forth the gains and losses of current policy; and from time to time he received Confucian ministers—I beg Your Majesty to restore the old system. Eunuchs supervising the Beijing and Tongzhou granaries, for every ten thousand shi of grain received extorted ten taels of white silver. Calculated on four million shi of annual transport, that is four thousand taels per man. They also each took two or three hundred grain-scale clerks and made them pay monthly fees. Supervision of granaries properly belongs to the Ministry of Revenue—what need is there for eunuchs? I beg that they be dismissed and sent away. Capital-garrison soldiers come from thousands of li away, yet regional commanders, camp commanders, and other officers each make their subordinates collect monthly fees—I beg strict reform to relieve their distress. Your Majesty, encountering calamity, undertook self-cultivation and reflection; last spring you sought remonstrance, and remonstrance officials together with Bureau Director Wang Yunfeng and Section Director Hu Ran all submitted discussion—but the memorials were retained at court without response, and Yunfeng soon met with punishment. If so, how is this different from not undertaking self-examination at all? I beg Your Majesty to decide from your sacred mind: whatever benefit or harm ought to be instituted or abolished, let it be carried out at once. Eastern Depot guards were originally to apprehend villains, but recently they serve only to vent the anger and avenge the grudges of inner kin and eunuchs. For example, Censor Wu Heng offended the Marquis of Shouning Zhang Heqing and Eunuch Yang Peng; Section Director Mao Guang offended Eunuch Wei Tai—all were exposed by depot guards, who pursued minute matters and framed charges against them. The whole court knew they were wronged, yet none dared speak. Your servant also knows that to speak today is to be framed by them on another day—yet your servant is not afraid." When the memorial entered, Heqing and Tai each submitted memorials in defense. At the same time Supervising Secretary Hu Yi impeached the granary eunuch He Bin for eight crimes of corruption and dereliction, and Bin also accused Yi. The emperor thereupon sent Xian and Yi to the imperial prison and demoted Xian to Assistant Magistrate of Lanshan. After a long while Yi was released. Xian had not yet taken up his post when he was transferred to Magistrate of Yiyang. Ma Wensheng repeatedly recommended him at court, and he was transferred to Secretary of the Nanjing Censorate. When Emperor Wuzong took the throne he was promoted to Assistant Regional Inspector of Education in Guangxi, transferred to Vice Regional Inspector of Education in Fujian, and died before taking office.
111
武衢，沂水人，成化二十年進士，以御史謫雲南通海主簿，終汾州知州。 毛廣，平湖人。 成化二十年進士。 其事跡無考。 胡易，寧都人。 弘治三年進士。 為吏科給事中。 華昶劾程敏政，法司白昂、閔珪據舊章令六科共鞫。 東廠劾易等皆昶同僚，不當與訊。 得旨下詔獄。 昂、珪請罪，皆停俸。 比昶獄成，易等猶被系，大臣以為言，始令復職。
Wu Heng, a native of Yishui, jinshi in the twentieth year of Chenghua, was demoted from censor to Registrar of Tonghai in Yunnan and finally served as Magistrate of Fenzhou. Mao Guang was a native of Pinghu. He passed the jinshi examination in the twentieth year of Chenghua. His deeds cannot be verified. Hu Yi was a native of Ningdu. He passed the jinshi examination in the third year of Hongzhi. He served as supervising secretary of the Ministry of Personnel. Hua Chang impeached Cheng Minzheng; the judicial offices Bai Ang and Min Gui, according to old regulations, ordered the Six Offices jointly to interrogate. The Eastern Depot impeached Yi and others as all being Chang's colleagues and unfit to join the inquiry. An edict was received sending them to the imperial prison. Ang and Gui begged punishment; all had their salaries suspended. By the time Chang's case was concluded Yi and others were still detained; great ministers spoke on their behalf, and only then were they ordered to resume office.
112
當弘治時，言官以忤內臣得罪者，又有任儀、車梁。
During Hongzhi, remonstrance officials who offended eunuchs and met with punishment included also Ren Yi and Che Liang.
113
任儀，閬中人。 成化二十三年進士，為御史。 弘治三年秋，詔修齋於大興隆寺。 理刑知縣王嶽騎過之，中使捽辱嶽，使跪於寺前。 儀不平，劾中使罪。 姓名偶誤，乃並儀下吏。 出為中部知縣，終山西參政。
Ren Yi was a native of Langzhong. He passed the jinshi examination in the twenty-third year of Chenghua and served as censor. In the autumn of the third year of Hongzhi an edict ordered fasting rituals at the Great Xinglong Temple. Magistrate for criminal adjudication Wang Yue rode past it; an inner eunuch seized and humiliated Yue and made him kneel before the temple. Yi was indignant and impeached the eunuch's crime. A name was accidentally wrong, and Yi was sent down to the officials together with the error. He was sent out as Magistrate of Zhongbu and finally served as Administrative Commissioner of Shanxi.
114
車梁，山西永寧人。 弘治三年進士，為御史。 十五年條列時政，中言東廠錦衣衛所獲盜，先嚴刑具成案，然後送法司，法司不敢平反。 請自今徑送法司，毋先刑訊。 章下，未報。 主東廠者言梁從父郎中霆先以罪為東廠所發，挾私妄言，遂下梁詔獄。 給事御史交章論救，乃得釋，終漢陽知府。
Che Liang was a native of Yongning in Shanxi. He passed the jinshi examination in the third year of Hongzhi and served as censor. In the fifteenth year he itemized current policy, among which he said that thieves captured by the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered-Uniform Guard were first subjected to severe torture until the case record was complete, and only then sent to the judicial offices, which dared not overturn the verdict. He requested that from now on they be sent directly to the judicial offices without prior torture for confession. The memorial was sent down; there was no response. The head of the Eastern Depot said Liang's uncle by marriage, Bureau Director Ting, had earlier been exposed by the depot for a crime and was speaking from private grudge with reckless words, and Liang was sent to the imperial prison. Supervising secretaries and censors jointly memorialized in rescue, and he was released; he finally served as Prefect of Hanyang.
115
張弘至，字時行，華亭人，南安知府弼子也。 舉弘治九年進士，改庶吉士，授兵科給事中。
Zhang Hongzhi, styled Shixing, was a native of Huating and son of Prefect of Nan'an Zhang Bi. He passed the jinshi examination in the ninth year of Hongzhi, was transferred to Hanlin Bachelor, and appointed supervising secretary of the Ministry of War.
116
十二年冬，陳初政漸不克終八事：「初汰傳奉官殆盡； 近匠官張廣寧等一傳至百二十余人，少卿李綸、指揮張玘等再傳至百八十余人。 異初政者一。 初追戮繼曉，逐番僧、佛子； 近齋醮不息。 異初政者二。 初去萬安、李裕輩，朝彈夕斥； 近被劾數十疏，如尚書徐瓊者猶居位。 異初政者三。 初聖諭有大政召大臣面議； 近上下否隔。 異初政者四。 初撤增設內官； 近已還者復去，已革者復增。 異初政者五。 初慎重詔旨，左右不敢妄幹； 近陳情乞恩率俞允。 異初政者六。 初令兵部申舊章，有妄乞升武職者奏治； 近乞升無違拒。 異初政者七。 初節光祿供億； 近冗食日繁，移太倉銀賒市廛物。 異初政者八。」 帝下所司。
In the winter of the twelfth year he set forth eight matters in which the early policies gradually could not be carried through to the end: "At first relay-appointment officials were nearly all eliminated; recently artisan officials such as Zhang Guangning in one relay reached more than one hundred twenty persons, and Vice Director Li Lun and Commander Zhang Qi in a second relay reached more than one hundred eighty persons. This differs from the early policy—one. At first Jixiao was pursued and punished and Buddhist monks and Buddha-sons were driven out; recently fasting rituals have not ceased. This differs from the early policy—two. At first Wan An, Li Yu, and their like were removed; morning impeachment, evening dismissal; recently on dozens of impeaching memorials, men such as Minister Xu Qiong still hold office. This differs from the early policy—three. At first a sacred instruction said that on great affairs ministers were to be summoned for face-to-face discussion; recently above and below are blocked and separated. This differs from the early policy—four. At first additionally appointed inner eunuchs were withdrawn; recently those already returned have again gone, and those already abolished have again been increased. This differs from the early policy—five. At first edicts and instructions were treated with care, and those at the emperor's side did not dare meddle rashly; recently pleas stating circumstances and begging grace are invariably approved. This differs from the early policy—six. At first the Ministry of War was ordered to cite old regulations: anyone rashly begging promotion in military office was to be memorialized and punished; recently such pleas are never refused. This differs from the early policy—seven. At first supplies from the Director of Imperial Regalia were restrained; recently superfluous eaters grow daily more numerous, and silver from the Grand Storehouse is moved to buy market goods on credit. This differs from the early policy—eight." The emperor sent it down to the responsible offices.
117
邊將王杲、馬昇、秦恭、陳瑛失機論死，久系。 弘至請速正典刑。 親王之藩者，所次舍率營⒎殿，並從官幕次，俱飾絨毯、錦帛，因弘至言多減省。 孝宗晚年，從廷臣請，遣官核騰驤四衛虛冒弊，以太監寧瑾言而止。 弘至抗章爭，會兵部亦以為言，乃卒核之。
Border generals Wang Gao, Ma Sheng, Qin Gong, and Chen Ying, having lost their opportunity, were sentenced to death and long detained. Zhang Hongzhi asked that canonical punishment be applied at once. When princes went to their fiefs, their lodging places invariably built hall and temple structures, and attendants' quarters too were all adorned with velvet rugs and brocade silks; because of Hongzhi's words much was reduced. In his later years Emperor Xiaozong, acceding to court ministers, sent officials to audit the phantom rolls of the Tengxiang Four Guards; the effort was halted on the advice of the eunuch Ning Jin. Zhang Hongzhi memorialized in protest; when the Ministry of War joined in, the audit was at last carried out.
118
武宗立，以戶科右給事中奉使安南。 還遷都給事中，母憂歸卒。
When Emperor Wuzong took the throne, he was dispatched to Annan as Right Supervising Secretary of the Revenue Section. After his return he was promoted to capital supervising secretary; he went home for mourning his mother and died there.
119
屈伸，字引之，任丘人。 成化末進士。 選庶吉士，授禮科給事中。
Qu Shen, styled Yinzhi, came from Renqiu. He received his jinshi degree at the end of the Chenghua reign. Chosen as a Hanlin Bachelor, he was appointed supervising secretary of the Ministry of Rites.
120
弘治九年詔度僧，禮部爭不得。 伸極陳三不可，不納。 京師民訛言寇近邊，兵部請榜諭。 伸言：「若榜示，人心愈驚。 昔漢建始中，都人訛言大水至，議令吏民上城避之。 王商不從，頃之果定。 今當以為法。」 事遂寢。 寇犯大同，遊擊王杲匿敗績狀。 伸率同官發之，並劾罪總兵官王璽等。
In the ninth year of Hongzhi an edict called for ordaining monks; the Ministry of Rites objected in vain. Shen argued at length for three reasons the policy must not proceed; the court would not hear him. Rumors spread through the capital that raiders were near the frontier; the Ministry of War asked to post placards of reassurance. Shen said: "If we post notices, the people will only grow more frightened. In the Jianshi era of Han, the capital was rife with rumors of a great flood, and officials debated ordering everyone up onto the walls to escape. Wang Shang refused; soon enough calm returned. We should do the same now." The proposal was abandoned. When raiders struck Datong, the guerrilla officer Wang Gao hid his defeat. Shen led his fellow remonstrators in exposing the fraud and jointly impeached the regional commander Wang Xi and others.
121
屢遷兵科都給事中。 泰寧衛部長大掠遼陽，部議令守臣遺書，稱朝廷寬大不究已往，若還所掠，則予重賞。 伸等言：「在我示怯弱之形，在彼無創艾之意，非王者威攘之道。 前日犯邊不以為罪，今日歸俘反以為功。 誨以為盜之利，啟無賴心，又非王者懷柔之道。」 帝悟，書不果遣。
He rose through several posts to chief supervising secretary of the Ministry of War. A Taining Guard chieftain raided Liaoyang on a great scale; the ministry proposed that frontier officials send a letter promising imperial magnanimity and no reckoning for past deeds, with rich rewards if the booty were returned. Shen and his colleagues wrote: "We would show weakness before them, and they would feel no corrective punishment—this is not how a sovereign awes and drives off enemies. Yesterday a border raid went unpunished; today returning captives is hailed as merit. To teach them that robbery pays and to stir up the lawless is no kingly policy of winning men by kindness." The emperor saw the force of the argument, and the letter was never sent.
122
已，劾鎮守中官孫振、總兵官蔣驥、巡撫陳瑤僨事罪，帝不問。 廣寧復失事，瑤等以捷聞。 伸及御史耿明等交章劾其欺罔，乃按治之。
He later impeached the garrison eunuch Sun Zhen, regional commander Jiang Ji, and grand coordinator Chen Yao for dereliction; the emperor took no action. When Guangning suffered another defeat, Yao and his fellows reported a victory. Shen, Censor Geng Ming, and others filed joint memorials accusing them of fraud, and an investigation followed.
123
太監苗逵、成國公朱暉等搗巢獲三級，及寇大入固原，不敢救，既而斬獲十二級。 先後以捷聞。 伸等數劾之。 及班師，又極論曰：「暉等西討無功，班師命甫下，將士已入國門，不知奉何詔書。 且此一役糜京帑及邊儲共一百六十余萬兩，而首功止三級。 是以五十萬金易一無名之首也，乃所上有功將士至萬余人。 假使馘一渠魁如火篩，或斬級至千百，將竭天下財不足供費，而報功者不知幾萬萬也。 暉、逵及都御史史琳、監軍御史王用宜悉置重典。」 帝不聽。
The eunuch Miao Kui, the Duke of Cheng Zhu Hui, and others took three heads in a raid on the enemy's nest; when the raiders poured into Guyuan they dared not relieve the city, yet later claimed twelve more heads. They reported victory again and again. Shen and his colleagues impeached them repeatedly. When the troops came home he argued at length: "Zhu Hui and the rest achieved nothing on the western campaign; the withdrawal order had scarcely been issued when the soldiers were already inside the capital gates—what command were they obeying? This single expedition devoured more than 1.6 million taels from the capital treasury and frontier granaries, yet the leading claim was only three heads. That is five hundred thousand taels of gold for one anonymous skull—while the roll of meritorious officers and soldiers they submitted ran to more than ten thousand names. Had they taken the head of a chieftain like Huosai, or tallied hundreds or thousands of kills, the empire's wealth could not cover the cost, and the rolls of merit would run to untold myriads. Zhu Hui, Miao Kui, Grand Coordinator Shi Lin, and supervising censor Wang Yongyi should all face severe punishment." The emperor would not heed them.
124
雲南有鎮守中官，復遣監丞孫敘鎮金騰，伸等極言不可。 錦衣指揮孫鑾坐罪閑住，中旨復之，令掌南鎮撫事。 伸等力爭，乃命止帶俸。 中旨令指揮胡震分守天津，伸力爭，不聽。 鎮守河南中官劉郎乞皂隸，帝命予五十人。 故事，尚書僅十二人，伸等力爭，詔止減二十人。 自後中官鹹援例陳乞，祖制遂壞。
Yunnan already had a garrison eunuch, yet the court again sent Assistant Supervisor Sun Xu to command Jinteng; Shen and his colleagues protested in the strongest terms. Brocade Guard Commander Sun Luan, dismissed for crime and living in retirement, was restored by imperial rescript and put in charge of the southern commissioner's office. Shen and his colleagues fought the appointment; in the end Sun Luan was allowed only his stipend, without duties. An imperial rescript ordered Commander Hu Zhen to take divided command at Tianjin; Shen protested vigorously, but in vain. Liu Lang, the garrison eunuch in Henan, asked for runner-slaves; the emperor granted fifty. By precedent a ministry head received only twelve; Shen and his colleagues fought the grant, and the edict cut the number by twenty alone. After that every eunuch cited precedent in begging favors, and the ancestral rules were undone.
125
伸居諫垣久，持議侃侃不撓，未及遷而卒。
Shen served long on the remonstrance path, arguing his views with frank, unbending force, and died before he could rise higher.
126
王獻臣，字敬止，其先吳人，隸籍錦衣衛。 弘治六年舉進士。 授行人，擢御史。 巡大同邊，請亟正諸將姚信、陳廣閉營避寇及馬昇、王杲、秦恭喪師罪，悉蠲大同、延綏旱傷逋賦，以寬軍民。 帝多從之。 嘗令部卒導從遊山，為東廠緝事者所發，並言其擅委軍政官。 征下詔獄，罪當輸贖。 特命杖三十，謫上杭丞。
Wang Xianchen, styled Jingzhi, was of Wu descent but registered in the Brocade Guard. In the sixth year of Hongzhi he passed the jinshi examinations. He was made a courier, then promoted to censor. On inspection of the Datong frontier he urged swift punishment for Yao Xin and Chen Guang, who had shut their camps to avoid the raiders, and for Ma Sheng, Wang Gao, and Qin Gong, who had lost their commands; he also asked that drought-stricken arrears in Datong and Yan-Sui be wholly remitted to ease soldiers and civilians alike. The emperor largely accepted his recommendations. Once he had camp soldiers escort him on a mountain outing; Eastern Depot agents exposed it and also accused him of appointing military and civil officers on his own authority. He was summoned to the imperial prison; by statute the offense allowed ransom. By special order he was beaten thirty strokes and demoted to assistant magistrate of Shanghang.
127
十七年，復以張天祥事被逮。 天祥者，遼東都指揮僉事斌孫也。 斌以罪廢，天祥入粟得祖官。 有泰寧衛部十余騎射傷海西貢使，天祥出毛喇關掩殺他衛三十八人以歸，指為射貢使者。 巡撫張鼐等奏捷，獻臣疑之。 方移牒駁勘，會斌婦弟指揮張茂及子欽與天祥有郤，詐為前屯衛文書呈獻臣，具言劫營事。 獻臣即以聞。 未報，而獻臣被征。 帝命大理丞吳一貫、錦衣指揮楊玉會新按臣余氵廉勘之，盡得其實。 斌等皆論死，天祥斃於獄。
In the seventeenth year he was arrested again over the Zhang Tianxiang affair. Tianxiang was the grandson of Bin, vice commander of the Liaodong Regional Military Commission. Bin had been dismissed for crime; Tianxiang purchased office through the grain quota and regained his grandfather's post. When more than ten riders from a Taining Guard band wounded a Haixi tribute envoy, Tianxiang slipped out through Mala Pass, ambushed thirty-eight men of another guard, and presented their heads as those of the attackers. Grand Coordinator Zhang Ding and others reported a victory; Xianchen was skeptical. As he was dispatching documents to challenge and investigate the report, Bin's brother-in-law, Commander Zhang Mao, and Mao's son Qin—who bore a grudge against Tianxiang—forged Qiantun Guard papers and laid them before Xianchen, detailing a raid on the camp. Xianchen reported the matter at once. Before any answer came down, Xianchen himself was summoned to court. The emperor ordered Assistant Minister of Justice Wu Yiguan and Brocade Guard Commander Yang Yu, together with the newly assigned investigating commissioner Yu Lian, to investigate; they established the facts in full. Bin and the others were all sentenced to death; Tianxiang died in prison.
128
天祥叔父洪屢訟冤，帝密令東廠廉其事，還奏所勘皆誣。 帝信之，欲盡反前獄，召內閣劉健等，出東廠揭帖示之，命盡逮一貫等會訊闕下。 健等言東廠揭帖不可行於外。 既退，復爭之。 帝再召見，責健等。 健對曰：「獄經法司讞，皆公卿士大夫，言足信。」 帝曰：「法司斷獄不當，身且不保，言足信乎？」 謝遷曰：「事當從眾，若一二人言，安可信？」 健等又言眾證遠，不可悉逮。 帝曰：「此大獄，逮千人何恤。 茍功罪不明，邊臣孰肯效力者？」 健等再四爭執，見帝聲色厲，終不敢深言東廠非。 一貫等既至，帝親禦午門鞫之，欲抵一貫死。 閔珪、載珊力救，乃謫嵩明州同知，獻臣廣東驛丞，氵廉雲南布政司照磨，茂父子論死，而斌免，洪反得論功。 武宗立，獻臣遷永嘉知縣。
Tianxiang's uncle Hong sued repeatedly for injustice; the emperor secretly ordered the Eastern Depot to look into it, and they reported that the prior investigation had been wholly false. The emperor believed them and meant to overturn the entire case; he summoned Liu Jian and the Grand Secretariat, showed them the Eastern Depot's confidential memorandum, and ordered Yiguan and the rest arrested for joint interrogation at the palace gate. Liu Jian and his colleagues said an Eastern Depot memorandum could not be grounds for action in open court. After they withdrew they argued the point again. The emperor summoned them back and rebuked Liu Jian and the others. Liu Jian answered: "The case has already been judged in the law offices by eminent ministers and scholars—their word should be trusted." The emperor said: "When the law offices misjudge a case they cannot even save their own skins—how can their word be trusted?" Xie Qian said: "Such matters should rest on the many; if only one or two men speak, how can that be believed?" Liu Jian and the others added that the witnesses were far scattered and could not all be brought in. The emperor said: "This is a great case—what does it matter if a thousand are seized? If merit and guilt are left unclear, which frontier officer will dare give his all?" Liu Jian and his colleagues argued again and again; seeing the emperor's voice harden and his face darken, they never dared press the Eastern Depot's fault to the end. When Yiguan and the others arrived, the emperor himself held court at the Meridian Gate to try them and meant to put Yiguan to death. Min Gui and Zai Shan fought to save them; Yiguan was demoted to assistant prefect of Songming, Xianchen to a Guangdong post station clerk, Yu Lian to registrar in the Yunnan provincial administration commission, and Mao and his son were sentenced to death—yet Bin was pardoned and Hong was rewarded for merit. When Emperor Wuzong took the throne, Xianchen was appointed magistrate of Yongjia.
129
吳一貫，字道夫，海陽人。 成化十七年進士。 由上高知縣擢御史。 弘治中，歷按浙江、福建、南畿，以強幹聞。 擢大理右寺丞。 畿輔、河南饑，請發粟二十萬石以振，又別請二萬石給京邑及昌平民。 既謫官，正德初，遷江西副使。 討華林賊有功，進按察使。 行軍至奉新卒，士民立忠節祠祀焉。
Wu Yiguan, styled Daofu, came from Haiyang. He received his jinshi degree in the seventeenth year of Chenghua. He rose from magistrate of Shanggao to censor. During Hongzhi he served in turn as investigating censor in Zhejiang, Fujian, and the southern capital region, and was known as a forceful administrator. He was promoted to assistant minister of the right court of the Court of Judicial Review. When famine struck the capital region and Henan, he asked that two hundred thousand dan of grain be released for relief, and another twenty thousand dan for the capital suburbs and the people of Changping. After his demotion, at the start of Zhengde he was appointed vice commissioner of Jiangxi. He campaigned successfully against the Hualin bandits and was promoted to surveillance commissioner. On campaign he reached Fengxin and died; soldiers and civilians raised a shrine of loyal martyrdom in his honor.
130
余濂，字宗周，都昌人。 弘治六年進士。 武宗時，終雲南副使。
Yu Lian, styled Zongzhou, came from Duchang. He received his jinshi degree in the sixth year of Hongzhi. Under Emperor Wuzong he ended his career as vice commissioner of Yunnan.
131
孝宗勵精圖治，委任大臣，中官勢稍絀。 而張天祥及滿倉兒事皆發自東廠，廷議猶為所撓雲。 滿倉兒事，具《孫磐傳》。
Emperor Xiaozong labored to refine governance and entrusted his great ministers; eunuch influence was somewhat checked. Yet the Zhang Tianxiang and Mancang'er affairs both sprang from the Eastern Depot, and court debate was still bent by it. The Mancang'er affair is set forth in full in the 《Biography of Sun Pan》.
132
贊曰：御史為朝廷耳目，而給事中典章奏，得爭是非於廷陛間，皆號稱「言路」。 天順以後居其職者，振風裁而恥緘默。 自天子、大臣、左右近習無不指斥極言。 南北交章，連名列署。 或遭譴謫，則大臣抗疏論救，以為美談。 顧其時門戶未開，名節自勵，未嘗有承意指於政府，效搏噬於權珰，如末季所為者。 故其言有當有不當，而其心則公。 上者愛國，次亦愛名。 然論國事而至於愛名，則將惟其名之可取，而事之得失有所不顧，於匡弼之道或者其未善乎。
The historian comments: Censors are the eyes and ears of the throne; supervising secretaries handle memorials and may dispute right and wrong upon the court steps—together they are called the "path of speech." After the Tianshun reign those who held these posts roused moral authority and were ashamed to stay silent. None were spared—not the Son of Heaven, not great ministers, not those at his side—from pointed rebuke spoken to the limit. Memorials flew from north and south, names chained together in joint petitions. When one was censured or exiled, grand ministers would file rescue memorials—a gesture praised as noble conduct. Yet in that age factions had not yet opened their doors; men disciplined their own honor and never curried favor with the government or snapped at powerful eunuchs as in the dynasty's last years. So their words sometimes hit the mark and sometimes missed, but their hearts were for the public good. The best among them loved the realm; the next rank loved their good name. Yet when counsel on state affairs turns into love of reputation, a man may chase only what sounds honorable and let the gain or loss of the matter go unattended—in the art of aiding the throne, can that be called perfect?