Volume 194 Biographies 82: Qiao Yu, Sun Jiao, Lin Jun, Jin Xianmin, Qin Jin, Zhao Huang, Zou Wencheng, Liang Cai, Liu Lin, Jiang Yao, Wang Tingxiang

喬宇孫交〈（子元）〉林俊〈（子達）〉（張黻）金獻民秦金〈（孫柱）〉趙璜鄒文盛梁材劉麟蔣瑤王廷相

Qiao Yu; Sun Jiao (courtesy name Ziyuan)〉 Lin Jun (courtesy name Zida)〉 (Zhang Fu) Jin Xianmin; Qin Jin (Sun Zhu)〉 Zhao Huang, Zou Wencheng, Liang Cai, Liu Lin, Jiang Yao, and Wang Tingxiang

喬宇，字希大，山西樂平人。祖毅，工部左侍郎。父鳳，職方郎中。皆以清節顯。宇登成化二十年進士，授禮部主事。弘治初，王恕為吏部，調之文選，三遷至郎中。門無私謁。擢太常少卿。武宗嗣位，遣祀中鎮、西海。還朝，條上道中所見軍民困苦六事。已，遷光祿卿，歷戶部左、右侍郎。劉瑾敗，大臣多以黨附見劾，宇獨無所染。拜南京禮部尚書。乾清宮災，率同列言視朝不勤，經筵久輟，國本未建，義子猥多，番僧處禁寺，優伶侍起居，立皇店，留邊兵，習戰鬥，土木繁興，織造不息，凡十事。帝不省。久之，改兵部，參贊機務。以帝遠遊塞上，而監國無人，請早建儲貳。帝將自擊寇，宇復率同列諫。皆不報。

Qiao Yu, whose style name was Xida, came from Leping in Shanxi. His grandfather Yi had served as Left Vice Minister of Works. His father Feng had been a director in the Bureau of Operations. Both were famed for their upright conduct. Yu passed the jinshi examination in Chenghua 20 (1484) and received appointment as a principal secretary in the Ministry of Rites. Early in the Hongzhi reign, when Wang Shu headed the Ministry of Personnel, Yu was moved to the Bureau of Appointments and rose through three promotions to bureau director. He admitted no private callers at his gate. He was promoted to Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. After the Wuzong Emperor came to the throne, Yu was dispatched to offer sacrifices at the Central Peak and the Western Sea. On his return to court, he laid out in detail six hardships he had seen afflicting soldiers and civilians along the route. Soon afterward he was made Minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments and then served in turn as Left and Right Vice Minister of Revenue. When Liu Jin fell, many senior ministers were impeached for having joined his faction, but Yu alone remained untainted. He was appointed Minister of Rites at Nanjing. After fire struck the Qianqing Palace, he led his colleagues in memorializing on ten abuses: neglect of court audiences, the long suspension of the lecture series, the failure to name an heir, the swarm of adopted sons, Tibetan monks quartered in forbidden temples, actors attending the emperor's private quarters, imperial shops, frontier troops kept on hand, drill in fighting, rampant construction, and unceasing textile manufacture. The emperor paid no heed. After some time he was moved to the Ministry of War to assist in state affairs. Because the emperor was touring deep in the northern frontier while no one was left to supervise the realm, he urged that an heir be named without delay. When the emperor prepared to take the field against the enemy in person, Yu again led his colleagues in remonstrance. None of these appeals received any reply.

未幾，寧王宸濠反，揚言旦夕下南京。宇嚴為警備，而談笑自如。時攜客燕城外，密察地險易，置戍守。綜理周密，內外宴然。指揮楊銳有才略，署為安慶守備。鎮守中官劉郎與濠通，為預伏死士。宇刺得其情，詰郎用事者，郎懼不敢動。宇乃大索城中，斬所伏壯士三百人，懸首江上。宸濠失內應，且知有備，不敢東。攻安慶，銳固守不得下。未幾敗。

Before long the Prince of Ning, Chen Hao, rose in rebellion and boasted that he would take Nanjing within days. Yu put the defenses on a strict footing yet talked and laughed as calmly as ever. At times he entertained guests outside the city walls, quietly surveying where the ground favored defense or attack and stationing guards accordingly. His arrangements were thorough inside and out, and the city remained calm. The commander Yang Rui was capable and resourceful, and Yu put him in charge of the defense of Anqing. The eunuch commissioner Liu Lang was in league with Hao and had secretly posted death squads in the city. Yu investigated and uncovered the plot, then questioned the men carrying out Lang's orders; Lang was too frightened to move. Yu then searched the city thoroughly, beheaded three hundred hidden strongmen, and hung their heads along the Yangzi. Chen Hao lost his inside support and, seeing that Nanjing was ready, did not dare march east. He attacked Anqing, but Yang Rui held firm and the city would not fall. Before long he was defeated.

帝至南京，詔百官戎服朝明年正旦。宇不可，率諸臣朝服賀。江彬索城門諸鑰，都督府問宇。宇曰：「守備者，所以謹非常。禁門鎖鑰，孰敢索？亦孰敢予？雖天子詔不可得。」都督府以宇言復，乃已。彬矯旨有所求，日數十至，宇必廷白之，彬亦稍稍止。彬欲譖去宇。守備太監王偉者，初為帝伴讀，帝信之，每從中調護，故彬謀不行。帝駐南京九月，宇倡諸臣三請回鑾，又自伏闕請。駕旋，扈至揚州。明年加太子太保。論保障功，復加少保。

When the emperor reached Nanjing, he ordered all officials to attend the coming New Year's audience in military dress. Yu refused to comply and led the ministers in offering New Year's congratulations in court dress. Jiang Bin demanded the keys to the city gates, and the regional military commission consulted Yu. Yu said, "Defenses exist to guard against the unexpected. Who would dare demand the keys to the forbidden gates? And who would dare hand them over? Not even an edict from the Son of Heaven could obtain them." The regional military commission reported Yu's answer, and the demand was dropped. Bin forged edicts to press demands that arrived dozens of times a day; Yu always announced them openly at court, and Bin gradually backed off. Bin wanted to slander Yu out of office. The defense eunuch Wang Wei had once been the emperor's study companion; the emperor trusted him, and he always intervened from within, so Bin's plots came to nothing. The emperor lingered at Nanjing for nine months; Yu led the ministers in three appeals to return to the capital and himself lay prostrate at the palace gate in petition. When the imperial procession turned homeward, he escorted it as far as Yangzhou. The following year he was made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent. For his merit in securing the realm, he was further made Junior Guardian.

世宗即位，召為吏部尚書。宇自為選郎，有人倫鑒，及是銓政一清。帝求治銳甚。宇與林俊、鼓澤、孫交，皆海內重望，帝亦委任之。凡為權幸所黜者，皆起列庶位，天下欣欣望治。帝性剛，好自用，宇所執漸不見聽。興府需次官六十三人，乞遷敘。宇言此輩虛隸名籍，與見供事者不同。黜罰之有差，皆怨宇。帝欲封駙馬都尉崔元為侯，外戚蔣輪、邵喜為伯，宇不可。無何，詔進壽寧侯張鶴齡為公，封後父陳萬言為伯，授萬言子紹祖尚寶丞。宇言：「累朝太后戚屬無生封公者，張巒亦歿後贈，今奈何以父贈為子封。萬言封伯視巒更驟，而子授尚寶非制。願陛下守典章，以垂萬世。」帝並不從。史道訐楊廷和，宇言道挾私，遂下之詔獄。曹嘉助道劾宇，宇求罷，帝命鴻臚趨視事。

When the Shizong Emperor came to the throne, Yu was summoned to serve as Minister of Personnel. Ever since his days in the Bureau of Appointments Yu had shown a keen eye for character, and now personnel administration was altogether purified. The emperor was eager to set the realm in order. Yu, together with Lin Jun, Peng Ze, and Sun Jiao, all commanded great prestige throughout the realm, and the emperor entrusted them accordingly. All who had been ousted by the powerful were restored to office, and the realm looked on with hope for better days. The emperor was stubborn and inclined to have his own way; Yu's views were heard less and less. Sixty-three officials of the Xing princedom who were awaiting promotion petitioned for advancement. Yu argued that these men held nominal places on the registers and were not the same as officials actually serving in office. Dismissals and penalties were applied in varying degrees, and all bore resentment against Yu. The emperor wished to ennoble the Commandant-escort Cui Yuan as marquis and the maternal relatives Jiang Lun and Shao Xi as earls, but Yu would not agree. Before long an edict advanced Marquis Zhang Heling of Shouning to duke, ennobled the empress's father Chen Wanyan as earl, and appointed Wanyan's son Shaozu Vice Director of the Imperial Stud. Yu said, "In successive reigns no empress dowager's kin was ennobled as duke during life; Zhang Luan too was honored only after death—how can a father's posthumous grant now become a son's living ennoblement? Wanyan's ennoblement as earl is even more abrupt than Luan's was, and appointing his son to the Imperial Stud violates precedent. I pray that Your Majesty will uphold the statutes so they may endure for ages to come." The emperor would not heed any of it. Shi Dao impeached Yang Tinghe; Yu said Dao was acting from private motives, and Dao was thereupon sent to the imperial prison. Cao Jia aided Dao in impeaching Yu; Yu asked to resign, and the emperor ordered the Court of State Ceremonial to urge him back to duty.

宇遇事不可，無不力爭，而爭「大禮」尤切。帝欲加興獻帝皇號，宇言加皇於本生之親，則幹正統，非所以重宗廟，正名分。及禮官請稱獻帝為本生考，帝改稱本生皇考，又詔建獻帝廟於大內，宇等復連章諫。特旨用席書為禮部尚書，宇又偕九卿言：「陛下罷汪俊，用席書；謫馬明衡、季本、陳逅，召張璁、桂萼、霍韜。舉措乖違，人心駭愕。夫以一二人邪說，廢天下萬世公議，內離骨肉，外間君臣，名為效忠，實累聖德。且書不繇廷推，特出內降，此祖宗來所未有。乞令俊與書各仍舊職，宥明衡等，止璁、萼毋召。」尋復請罷璁、萼、書，而出爭「大禮」者呂柟、鄒守益於獄。會璁、萼至京，詔皆用為學士。宇等又言：「內降恩澤，先朝率施於佞幸小人。若士大夫一預其間，即不為清議所齒。況學士最清華，而俾萼等居之，誰復肯與同列哉？」帝怒，切責。宇遂乞休，許之。馳傳給夫廩，猶如故事。御史許中、劉隅等請留宇，帝曰：「朕非不用宇，宇自以疾求去耳。」後《明倫大典》成，追論前議，奪官。楊一清卒，宇渡江吊之。南都父老皆出迎，舉手加額曰：「活我者，公也。」

Whenever Yu found a matter unacceptable, he fought it without fail, and his opposition to the "Great Rites" controversy was especially fierce. The emperor wished to add an imperial title to his biological father, the Xing Sacrificial Emperor; Yu argued that calling one's biological parent "emperor" would disturb the legitimate succession and was not the way to honor the ancestral temple or keep names and ranks in order. When the ritual officials proposed styling the Sacrificial Emperor as "biological father," the emperor changed this to "biological imperial father" and also ordered a temple to him built within the inner palace; Yu and others again submitted linked memorials in remonstrance. By special edict Xi Shu was appointed Minister of Rites; Yu again joined the Nine Ministers in saying, "Your Majesty dismissed Wang Jun and employed Xi Shu; demoted Ma Mingheng, Ji Ben, and Chen Hou, and summoned Zhang Cong, Gui E, and Huo Tao. These measures violated propriety and filled men's hearts with alarm. To set aside the consensus of the realm for all time on account of the heterodox views of one or two men, to estrange kin within and set ruler and minister at odds without, to call it loyalty while in truth burdening Your Majesty's virtue. Moreover, Shu was not chosen through court recommendation but appointed by a special inner edict—something unprecedented since the founding ancestors. We beg that Jun and Shu each return to their former posts, that Mingheng and the others be pardoned, and that Cong and E not be summoned." Soon they again asked that Cong, E, and Shu be dismissed, while Lü Zan and Zou Shouyi, who had contested the "Great Rites," were released from prison. When Cong and E reached the capital, an edict appointed both Hanlin Academicians. Yu and others again said, "Favors granted by inner edict were in former reigns generally bestowed on fawning favorites and petty men. If a scholar-official should share in such favor even once, respectable opinion would no longer accept him. Moreover, the Hanlin Academician is the most exalted and pure of posts—if men like E are placed in it, who would still be willing to serve alongside them?" The emperor was angry and sharply rebuked them. Yu then asked to retire, and permission was granted. Relay horses, bearers, and stipends were provided according to established custom. The censors Xu Zhong, Liu Yu, and others asked that Yu be retained; the emperor said, "It is not that I refuse to use Yu—Yu himself asked to leave on grounds of illness." Later, when the 《Minglun Dadian》 (Comprehensive Canon of Human Relations) was completed, earlier opinions were reviewed retrospectively and his office was stripped. When Yang Yiqing died, Yu crossed the river to mourn him. The elders of the southern capital all came out to welcome him, raising their hands to their foreheads and saying, "You, sir, are the one who saved our lives."

宇幼從父京師，學於楊一清。成進士後，復從李東陽遊。詩文雄雋，兼通篆籀。性好山水，嘗陟太華絕頂。遇虎，仆夫皆驚仆，宇端坐不動，虎徐帖尾去。家居淡泊，服禦若寒士。身歿，二妾劉、許皆從死。穆宗即位，復官，贈少傅，謚莊簡。

As a youth Yu followed his father to the capital and studied under Yang Yiqing. After passing the jinshi examination, he again associated with Li Dongyang. His poetry and prose were bold and accomplished, and he was also versed in seal and ancient scripts. By nature he loved mountains and rivers and once climbed to the summit of Mount Taihua. He met a tiger; all the servants fell down in fright, but Yu sat upright without moving, and the tiger slowly lowered its tail and walked away. At home he lived plainly, his clothing and equipage like those of a poor scholar. After his death, his two concubines, Liu and Xu, both took their own lives to follow him. When the Muzong Emperor came to the throne, Yu's offices were restored; he was posthumously made Junior Grand Mentor and given the posthumous name Zhuangjian.

孫交，字誌同，陸安人。成化十七年進士。授南京兵部主事，為尚書王恕所知。弘治初，怒入吏部，薦授稽勛員外郎，歷文選郎中。居吏部十四年，於善類多所推引。遷太常少卿，提督四夷館。大同有警，命經略黃花鎮諸邊。增垣塹，廣樹藝，制敵騎馳突。永樂時，歲遣隆慶諸衛軍采薪炭。其後罷之，令歲輸銀二萬兩，軍重困。交奏免之。正德初，擢光祿卿。三年進戶部右侍郎，提督倉場，改吏部。尚書張彩附劉瑾，交數規切。彩怒，調之南京。瑾敗，召拜戶部尚書。時征討流寇，調度煩急，仍歲兇，正賦不足，交區畫適宜。四方告饑，輒請蠲租遣振，以故民不至甚敝，而小人用事者皆不便之。帝欲以太平倉賜幸臣裴德，雲南鎮守中官張倫請采銀礦，南京織造中官吳經奏費乏，交皆力爭。八年六月，中旨與禮部尚書傅珪並致仕。言官多請留，不報。

Sun Jiao, courtesy name Zhitong, was a native of Lu'an. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventeenth year of Chenghua. He was appointed a secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of War and came to the attention of Minister Wang Shu. At the start of the Hongzhi reign, when Wang Shu took office at the Ministry of Personnel, Jiao was recommended and appointed Vice Director in the Office of Merit Records, then served as Director in the Office of Appointments. He served at the Ministry of Personnel for fourteen years and recommended many worthy men to office. He was promoted to Vice Minister of Ceremonies and put in charge of the Bureau of the Four Barbarians. When Datong came under threat, he was ordered to take charge of the frontier defenses around Huanghua Fort. He raised walls and ditches, expanded cultivation, and checked enemy cavalry raids. In the Yongle era, each year troops from the Longqing garrisons were sent to gather firewood and charcoal. Later the practice was abolished and the troops were instead required to pay twenty thousand taels of silver each year, leaving them heavily burdened. Jiao memorialized asking that the levy be abolished. At the start of the Zhengde reign, he was promoted to Director of the Court of Imperial Entertainments. In the third year he was made Right Vice Minister of Revenue and put in charge of the granaries, then transferred to the Ministry of Personnel. Minister Zhang Cai was allied with Liu Jin, and Jiao repeatedly remonstrated with him in sharp terms. Cai was enraged and had him transferred to Nanjing. When Liu Jin fell, Jiao was summoned and appointed Minister of Revenue. At the time the state was campaigning against roving bandits and dispatch was urgently pressed; famine followed famine and regular revenues fell short, yet Jiao arranged finances appropriately. Whenever famine was reported from the provinces, he repeatedly asked to remit taxes and send relief, so the people did not become utterly ruined; yet the petty men then in power all found this inconvenient. The emperor wished to grant the Taiping Granary to his favorite Pei De; the Yunnan garrison eunuch Zhang Lun asked to open silver mines; the Nanjing weaving eunuch Wu Jing reported that funds were exhausted—and Jiao fought every proposal. In the sixth month of the eighth year, by direct imperial order he and Minister of Rites Fu Gui were both forced to retire. Many censorial officials asked that he be kept in office, but received no reply.

世宗在潛邸知交名，甫即位，召復故官。首請帝日讀《祖訓》，言動悉取準則，經筵日講寒暑勿輟。帝褒納焉。或議遷顯陵天壽山，交言：「山陵事重，太祖欲遷仁祖於鐘山，慮泄靈氣而止，具載《皇陵碑》。」事乃止。武宗侈汰之後，庫藏殫虛。交裁冗食，定經制，宿弊為清。然事涉中官者，帝亦不能盡從也。嘗會廷臣議發內帑給軍廩官俸，已報可，為中官梁諫等所沮。交言：「宮府異同，令出復反，非新政所宜。」不聽。中官監督倉場者，初止數人，正德中增至五十五人。以交言罷撤過半，其後復漸增。帝已罷三十七人，交欲盡去之，並臨清、徐、淮諸倉，一切勿遣。帝令自今毋更加而已。守珠池中官，詔毋得預守土事，而安川夤緣復故。交劾川，命如前詔。正德中，上林苑內臣至九十九人，侵奪公私地無算。帝即位，命留十八人，如弘治時。已復傳奉至六十二人，交乞汰如初，且盡歸侵奪地。報許。又論禦馬監內臣宜如祖制，毋監收芻豆，並令戶部通知馬數，杜其侵耗。不從。錦衣百戶張瑾率校尉支俸通倉，橫取狼藉，主事羅洪載欲按之。瑾紿請受杖，奏洪載擅笞禁衛官。帝怒，逮下詔獄謫外。交與林俊、喬宇先後論救，不納。禦馬監閻洪乞外豹房地，交言：「先帝以豹房故，貽禍無窮。洪等欲修復以開遊獵之端，非臣等所敢聞。」詔以地十頃給豹房，余令百戶趙愷等佃如故。奉詔上各宮莊田數，視舊籍不同，帝詰其故。交言：「舊籍多以奏請投獻，數多妄報也。新籍少，以奉命清核，田多除豁也。」帝意稍解，令考成、弘間籍以聞。

The Shizong Emperor had known Jiao's reputation while still heir apparent; as soon as he took the throne, he recalled Jiao to his former post. He first asked the emperor to read the Ancestral Instructions every day, take them as the standard for word and deed, and never miss the daily lecture, whether in heat or cold. The emperor praised the advice and accepted it. Some proposed moving the Xianling mausoleum to Tianshou Mountain; Jiao said, "Matters of imperial tombs are grave. The Taizu Emperor wished to move Renzu to Mount Zhong but stopped for fear of draining its spiritual potency—this is fully recorded in the Imperial Mausoleum Stele." The proposal was then dropped. After the Wuzong Emperor's extravagance, the treasury was utterly depleted. Jiao cut redundant stipends, set fixed regulations, and cleared away longstanding abuses. Yet on matters involving eunuchs, the emperor could not fully follow his advice. Once he convened the court to discuss drawing from the inner treasury for military rations and official salaries; approval had already been given, but the eunuchs Liang Jian and others blocked it. Jiao said, "When palace and government disagree and orders are issued only to be reversed, this is not fitting for a new reign." The emperor did not listen. The eunuchs supervising granaries had initially numbered only a few, but in the Zhengde reign they increased to fifty-five. On Jiao's advice more than half were dismissed, but their numbers gradually rose again afterward. The emperor had already dismissed thirty-seven of them, but Jiao wanted them all removed, including at the Linqing, Xuzhou, and Huai granaries—none to be sent at all. The emperor ordered only that no more be added from then on. An edict had forbidden eunuchs guarding the pearl pool from interfering in local administration, but An Chuan used connections to resume his old conduct. Jiao impeached An Chuan, and the emperor ordered matters handled as in the earlier edict. In the Zhengde reign, inner attendants of the Imperial Park reached ninety-nine in number and seized untold tracts of public and private land. When the emperor took the throne, he ordered that eighteen be kept, as in the Hongzhi era. Before long specially appointed eunuchs again reached sixty-two; Jiao asked that they be reduced as at first and that all seized land be fully returned. The request was approved. He also argued that eunuchs of the Imperial Stud should follow ancestral practice, not supervise the collection of fodder and beans, and that the Ministry of Revenue should be notified of horse numbers to stop their embezzlement. The emperor did not comply. Zhang Jin, a hundred-household of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, led bailiffs to draw pay from the Tong Granary and seized goods with reckless abandon; Secretary Luo Hongzai wanted to investigate him. Jin tricked him by asking to accept a beating, then memorialized that Hongzai had unlawfully flogged an imperial guard officer. The emperor was enraged; Hongzai was arrested, sent to the imperial prison, and demoted to service outside the capital. Jiao, Lin Jun, and Qiao Yu successively memorialized in his defense, but the emperor would not listen. Yan Hong of the Imperial Stud asked for outer leopard-house lands; Jiao said, "The previous emperor, because of the leopard quarters, bequeathed endless calamity. Hong and the others wish to restore them and reopen the door to hunting excursions—this is not something we ministers dare even hear proposed." An edict granted ten qing of land to the leopard quarters; the rest was ordered leased as before by Zhao Kai and other hundred-households. As ordered he submitted the acreages of each palace estate; they differed from the old register, and the emperor demanded an explanation. Jiao said, "The old register mostly reflected lands offered through petitions and gifts; the figures were often falsely inflated. The new register is smaller because, on imperial order, a thorough audit cleared and exempted much land." The emperor's anger eased somewhat, and he ordered registers from the Chenghua and Hongzhi reigns examined and reported.

交年已七十，連章乞罷。帝輒慰留，遣醫視療。請益力，乃許之。手詔加太子太保，馳驛。令子編修元侍行，有司時存問，給食米輿隸，復賜道里費。卒年八十，謚榮僖。

Jiao was already seventy and repeatedly memorialized asking to retire. The emperor always comforted him and kept him in office, sending physicians to treat him. When his petitions grew more insistent, permission was granted. By handwritten edict he was given the added title Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent and granted relay horses for his journey home. He ordered his son Yuan, a Hanlin compiler, to accompany him; local offices were to inquire after him regularly and provide grain, rice, sedan bearers, and attendants, and he was again granted travel expenses. He died at eighty and was given the posthumous name Rongxi.

交言論恂恂，不以勢位驕人。清慎恬愨，終始一致。初在南京，僚友以事簡多暇，相率談諧飲弈為樂，交默處一室，讀書不輟。或以為言，交曰：「對聖賢語，不愈於賓客、妻妾乎！」興獻王素愛重交，嘗割陽春臺東偏地益其宅。後中官言孫尚書侵地，世宗曰：「此先皇所賜，吾敢奪耶？」

Jiao was gentle and respectful in speech and did not lord his rank and power over others. Pure, cautious, tranquil, and sincere, he was the same from beginning to end. When he was first in Nanjing, his colleagues, finding their duties light and themselves with much leisure, would together amuse themselves with talk, drink, and chess; Jiao quietly stayed in one room and read without stopping. When some remarked on this, Jiao said, "Is speaking with the sages not better than speaking with guests, or wives and concubines!" The Prince of Xingxian had always held Jiao in high regard and once ceded land east of Yangchun Terrace to enlarge his residence. Later a eunuch said that Minister Sun had encroached on land, and the Shizong Emperor said, "This was granted by the late emperor—how dare I seize it?"

元，進士，終四川副使。謹厚有父風。

Yuan passed the jinshi examination and ended his career as Vice Commissioner of Sichuan. Careful and solid, he had his father's character.

林俊，字待用，莆田人。成化十四年進士。除刑部主事，進員外郎。性侃直，不隨俗浮湛。事涉權貴，尚書林聰輒屬俊治之。上疏請斬妖僧繼曉並罪中貴梁芳，帝大怒，下詔獄考訊。後府經歷張黻救之，並下獄。太監懷恩力救，俊得謫姚州判官，黻師宗知州。時言路久塞，兩人直聲震都下，為之語曰：「御史在刑曹，黃門出後府。」尋以正月朔星變，帝感悟，復俊官，改南京。弘治元年用薦擢雲南副使。鶴慶玄化寺稱有活佛，歲時集士女萬人，爭以金塗其面。俊命焚之，得金悉以償民逋。又毀淫祠三百六十區，皆撤其材修學宮。幹崖土舍刀怕愈欲奪從子宣撫官，劫其印數年。俊檄諭之，遂歸印。進按察使。五年調湖廣。以雨雪災異上疏陳時政得失。又言德安、安陸建王府及增修吉府，工役浩繁，財費巨萬，民不堪命。乞循寧、襄、德府故事，一切省儉，勿用琉璃及白石雕闌，請著為例。不從。九年引疾，不待報徑歸。

Lin Jun, courtesy name Daiyong, was a native of Putian. He passed the jinshi examination in the fourteenth year of Chenghua. He was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Justice and promoted to vice director. By nature he was outspoken and upright and did not drift with the crowd. When cases involved the powerful, Minister Lin Cong always assigned Jun to handle them. He memorialized asking that the heterodox monk Jixiao be executed and the favored eunuch Liang Fang punished; the emperor was greatly angered and had him sent to the imperial prison for interrogation. Zhang Fu, a chief clerk of the Rear Palace, came to his defense and was imprisoned as well. The eunuch Huai'en intervened forcefully on their behalf; Jun was demoted to magistrate of Yaozhou, and Fu to prefect of Shizong. At the time the channels of remonstrance had long been blocked; the two men's reputations for integrity shook the capital, and people said of them, "The censor is in the Ministry of Justice; the gate officer came from the Rear Palace." Soon afterward, on the first day of the first month, a stellar anomaly occurred; the emperor was moved and restored Jun to office, transferring him to Nanjing. In the first year of Hongzhi he was promoted to Vice Commissioner of Yunnan on recommendation. At Xuanhua Temple in Heqing there was said to be a living buddha; each year tens of thousands of men and women gathered, competing to gild its face with gold. Jun ordered it burned, and all the gold obtained was used to pay off the people's tax arrears. He also destroyed three hundred sixty illicit shrines and used their timber to repair the Confucian schools. Daobayu, a native chieftain of Ganyai, wished to seize his nephew's post as pacification commissioner and had held the seal for years. Jun issued a proclamation admonishing him, and the seal was returned. He was promoted to surveillance commissioner. In the fifth year he was transferred to Huguang. Citing rain, snow, and other calamitous signs, he memorialized on the strengths and failings of current policy. He also said that building princely estates at De'an and Anlu and expanding the Ji princely establishment entailed vast labor and expenditures in the tens of thousands, and the people could not bear the burden. He asked to follow the precedents of the Ning, Xiang, and De establishments, economize in all respects, not use glazed tile or white-stone carved balustrades, and asked that this be established as a fixed rule. The emperor did not comply. In the ninth year he cited illness and went home without waiting for a reply.

久之，薦起廣東右布政使，不拜。起南京右僉都御史，督操江。十四年正月朔，陜西、山西地震水湧。疏述古宮闈、外戚、內侍、柄臣之禍；乞罷齋醮，減織造，清役占，汰冗員，止工作，省供應，應賞賜，戒逸欲，遠佞幸，親賢人。又請豫教皇儲，恩薦侍郎謝鐸，少卿儲瓘、楊廉，致仕副使曹時中，處士劉閔堪輔導。報聞。已，屢疏乞休，薦時中自代。不許。江西新昌民王武為盜，巡撫韓邦問不能靖，命俊巡視。身入武巢，武請自效，悉擒賊黨。詔即以俊代邦問，俊引朱熹代唐仲友、包拯代宋祁事，力辭。不允。乃更定要約，庶務一新。王府征歲祿，率倍取於民，以俊言大減省。寧王宸濠貪暴，俊屢裁抑之。王請易琉璃瓦，費二萬。俊言宜如舊，毋涉叔段京鄙之求，吳王幾杖之賜。王怒，伺其過，無所得。會俊以聖節按部，遂劾奏之，停俸三月。尋以母憂歸。

After a long while he was recommended and summoned to serve as Right Administrative Commissioner of Guangdong, but he did not accept. He was recalled as Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief at Nanjing to oversee river-defense operations. On the first day of the first month of the fourteenth year, Shaanxi and Shanxi were struck by earthquakes and flooding. In a memorial he recounted the calamities of old wrought by palace women, consort kin, inner attendants, and power-holding ministers; He asked to abolish Daoist rites, reduce textile manufacture, clear illegal corvée claims, eliminate redundant posts, halt construction, economize on provisions, restrain gifts and bestowals, guard against dissipation, keep sycophants at a distance, and draw close to worthy men. He also asked that the heir be given advance instruction and graciously recommended Vice Minister Xie Duo, Vice Directors Chu Jin and Yang Lian, retired Vice Commissioner Cao Shizhong, and the recluse Liu Min as men fit to serve as tutors. The memorial was acknowledged. After that he repeatedly memorialized asking to retire and recommended Cao Shizhong as his successor. The request was denied. In Jiangxi, a Xinchang commoner named Wang Wu turned bandit; Grand Coordinator Han Bangwen could not restore order, and Jun was ordered to inspect the province. Jun entered Wang Wu's stronghold in person; Wu offered to redeem himself through service, and every member of the band was captured. An edict immediately appointed Jun to replace Bangwen, but Jun cited the precedents of Zhu Xi declining to replace Tang Zhongyou and Bao Zheng declining to replace Song Qi and refused the post with all his strength. The emperor would not allow it. He then revised local agreements and brought every branch of administration to new order. The princely establishment levied annual stipends, routinely taking twice what the people could bear; at Jun's urging the exactions were sharply cut. The Prince of Ning, Chen Hao, was greedy and brutal; Jun repeatedly curbed his excesses. The prince asked to replace the glazed roof tiles at a cost of twenty thousand. Jun argued that things should stay as they were and that the prince must not press demands like those of Duke Shu at Jing or accept gifts like the cane stool granted the King of Wu. The prince was furious and watched for a chance to catch him out, but found no fault. When Jun happened to be on an inspection tour for the imperial birthday, he memorialized impeaching the prince and was himself suspended from salary for three months. Before long he returned home to observe mourning for his mother.

武宗即位，言官交薦，江西人在朝者合疏乞還俊。乃進右副都御史，再撫江西，遭父憂不果。正德四年起撫四川。眉州人劉烈倡亂，敗而逃，諸不逞假其名剽掠。俊繪形捕，莫能得。會保寧賊藍廷瑞、鄢本恕、廖惠等繼起，勢益張，轉寇巴州。猝遇之華壟，單輿抵其營，譬曉利害，賊羅拜約降。淫雨失期，復叛去，攻陷通江。俊擊敗之龍灘河，遣知府張敏等追敗之門鎮子，遂擒廖惠。而廷瑞奔陜西西鄉，越漢中三十六盤，至大巴山。官軍追及，復大破之。遂移師擊瀘州賊曹甫，且遣人招諭。甫佯聽令，使弟琯劫如故。指揮李蔭斬琯首，賊遂移江津。分七營，將攻重慶。俊發酉陽、播州土兵助蔭，以元日掩破其四營。賊遁入民家，焚之盡斃。乘勝搗老營，指揮汪洋等中伏死。蔭復進，去賊十五里。甫以數十騎出，遇蔭兵，敗走。官軍乘勝進圍之，俘及焚死者二千有奇。已，本恕、廷瑞為永順土舍彭世麟所擒。俊論功進右都御史。甫黨方四亡命思南，復攻南川、綦江，以窺瀘州。俊益發士兵，令副使何珊、李鉞等敗之去。捷聞，璽書獎勵。俊在軍，與總督洪鐘議多左。中貴子弟欲冒從軍功，輒禁止。御史俞緇走避賊，而僉事吳景戰歿。緇慚，欲委罪俊，遂劾俊累報首功，賊終不滅；加鑿井毀寺，逐僧徒，迫為賊。於是俊前後被切責。比方四敗，賊且盡，俊辭加秩及賞，乞以舊職歸田。詔不許辭秩，聽其致仕。言官交請留，不報。俊歸，士民號哭追送。時正德六年十一月也。

When the Wuzong Emperor took the throne, censors recommended him in succession, and Jiangxi officials at court jointly memorialized asking that Jun be recalled. He was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and again appointed to pacify Jiangxi, but mourning for his father prevented him from taking up the post. In the fourth year of Zhengde he was recalled to serve as grand coordinator of Sichuan. Liu Lie of Meizhou stirred up rebellion; when he was defeated and fled, lawless men everywhere looted in his name. Jun circulated wanted portraits but could not capture him. Then the Baoning bandits Lan Tingrui, Yan Benshu, Liao Hui, and others rose one after another; their power swelled until they turned to raid Bazhou. When he suddenly encountered them at Hualong, he drove alone into their camp, explained what they stood to gain or lose, and the bandits bowed all around and pledged to surrender. Endless rain kept them from keeping their deadline; they rebelled again and overran Tongjiang. Jun routed them at Longtan River, sent Prefect Zhang Min and others in pursuit to defeat them at Menzhenzi, and captured Liao Hui. Tingrui fled to Xixiang in Shaanxi, crossed the Thirty-Six Bends of Hanzhong, and made for the Daba Mountains. Government troops caught up and broke them again. He then moved his army against the Luzhou bandit Cao Fu while also sending envoys to summon and persuade him. Fu pretended to submit, but had his younger brother Guan go on raiding as before. Commander Li Yin cut off Guan's head, and the bandits shifted their base to Jiangjin. They split into seven camps and prepared to strike Chongqing. Jun sent native troops from Youyang and Bozhou to reinforce Yin and, on New Year's Day, launched a surprise attack that smashed four of their camps. The bandits hid in civilian homes; the troops burned the houses and killed everyone inside. Pressing their advantage against the main camp, Commander Wang Yang and others walked into an ambush and were killed. Yin pushed forward again until he was fifteen li from the bandits. Fu rode out with several dozen horsemen, ran into Yin's force, and fled in defeat. Government troops pressed the attack, closed in, and besieged them; captives and those burned alive numbered slightly more than two thousand. Before long, Benshu and Tingrui were seized by Peng Shilin, a native clerk of Yongshun. For his achievements, Jun was promoted to Right Censor-in-Chief. Cao Fu's follower Fang Si was a fugitive in Sinan; he again struck Nanchuan and Qijiang, probing toward Luzhou. Jun sent out more native troops and had Vice Commissioners He Shan and Li Yue and others drive them back. When news of the victory arrived, the emperor sent a sealed letter of praise. On campaign, Jun often found himself at odds with Grand Coordinator Hong Zhong. Whenever sons of favored eunuchs tried to pass off false battlefield credit, he blocked them. Censor Yu Zi ran from the bandits, while Assistant Commissioner Wu Jing fell in battle. Ashamed, Zi tried to pin the blame on Jun and memorialized impeaching him for repeatedly reporting severed heads while the bandits were never wiped out; and for digging wells and tearing down temples, driving out monks and forcing them into banditry. Jun was then sharply rebuked again and again. When Fang Si was beaten, the bandits were nearly gone; Jun refused further promotion and reward and asked to retire to his fields at his existing rank. An edict refused his resignation of rank but permitted him to retire from office. Censors repeatedly petitioned that he be kept on, but received no answer. When Jun went home, scholars and commoners wept and ran after his carriage to see him off. This was in the eleventh month of the sixth year of Zhengde.

世宗即位，起工部尚書，改刑部。在道數引疾，不許。因請帝親近儒臣，正其心以出號令，用渾樸為天下先。初詔所革，無遷就以廢公議。既抵京師，會暑月經筵輟講，舉祖宗勤學故事以諫。俊時年已七十，寓止朝房，示無久居意。數為帝言親大臣，勤聖學，辨異端，節財用。朝有大政，必侃侃陳論，中外想望其風采。中官葛景等奸利事覺，為言官所糾，詔下司禮監察訊。俊言內臣犯法，法司不得訊，是宮府異體也。乞下法司公訊，以詔平明之治。都督劉暉下獄，俊當以交結朋黨律，言與許泰同罪，請斬以謝天下。廖鵬、廖鎧、齊佐、王瓛論死，屢詔緩刑，俊乞亟行誅。又劾谷大用占民田萬余頃。皆不聽。中官崔文家人李陽鳳索匠師宋鈺賄不獲，嗾文杖之幾死，下刑部治未決，而中旨移鎮撫司。俊留不遣，力爭不納。明日又奏，帝怒責陳狀。俊言：「祖宗以刑獄付法司，以緝獲奸盜付鎮撫。訊鞫既得，猶必付法司擬罪。未有奪取未定之囚，反付推問者。文先朝漏奸，罪不容誅，茲復幹內降。臣不忍朝廷百五十年紀綱，為此輩壞亂。」帝憚其言直，乃不問。

When the Shizong Emperor took the throne, Jun was recalled as Minister of Works and then moved to the Ministry of Justice. On the road he repeatedly pleaded illness, but was not allowed to turn back. He therefore urged the emperor to keep Confucian ministers near, set his heart right before issuing commands, and lead the realm by plain, unadorned example. He argued that the first edicts to be withdrawn should not use reshuffling of appointments to override public opinion. After he reached the capital, the lecture hall was suspended during the summer heat; he remonstrated by citing the ancestral tradition of diligent study. Jun was already seventy; he took quarters in the court offices to signal that he did not mean to linger. He repeatedly urged the emperor to trust senior ministers, pursue the sage's learning, reject heterodox teachings, and tighten spending. Whenever major policy was at stake, he spoke without flinching, and men inside and outside the court looked to him with hope. The graft of inner attendants Ge Jing and others came to light; after censors impeached them, an edict sent the case to the Directorate of Ceremonial for inquiry. Jun argued that if inner attendants broke the law yet the judicial offices could not try them, palace and state would no longer be one body. He asked that the case be handed to the judicial offices for open trial, as a sign of fair and clear rule. When Grand Defender Liu Hui was thrown into prison, Jun held that under the law against factional collusion he deserved the same punishment as Xu Tai and should be executed to satisfy the realm. Liao Peng, Liao Kai, Qi Zuo, and Wang Huan had been condemned to death, but edicts repeatedly stayed the execution; Jun pleaded that they be put to death at once. He also impeached Gu Dayong for occupying more than ten thousand qing of commoners' farmland. None of his pleas were accepted. Li Yangfeng, a retainer in the household of inner attendant Cui Wen, demanded a bribe from master craftsman Song Yu; when Yu refused, Yangfeng goaded Wen into beating him nearly to death. The Ministry of Justice took the case but had not yet ruled when an inner edict moved it to the Brocade Guard. Jun held the prisoner back and would not hand him over, arguing fiercely and refusing to obey. The next day he memorialized again; the emperor flew into a rage and ordered him to state his case. Jun said, "Our ancestral emperors entrusted criminal trials to the judicial offices and the capture of traitors and thieves to the Brocade Guard. Even after interrogation had yielded a result, the case still had to go to the judicial offices to fix the penalty. Never before has a prisoner whose case was still undecided been snatched away and returned to the very office that had been questioning him. Wen slipped through punishment for treason in the previous reign—a crime that should not have been spared—and now again he meddles by way of an inner edict. Your subject cannot bear to watch a hundred and fifty years of court discipline torn apart by men like these." The emperor, checked by his blunt honesty, dropped the matter.

俊以耆德起田間，持正不避嫌，既屢見格，遂乞致仕。詔加太子太保，給驛賜隸廩如制。

Called back from retirement for his aged virtue, Jun stood on principle without dodging blame; after repeated rebuffs he asked to leave office. An edict added the title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent, granted him courier horses, and gave him stipends as prescribed.

俊數爭「大禮」，與楊廷和合。嘗上言推尊所生有不容已之情，有不可易之禮，因輯堯、舜至宋理宗事凡十條，以上。及「大禮」議定，得罪者或杖死。四年秋，俊從病中上書言：「古者鞭撲之刑，辱之而已，非欲糜爛其體膚而致之死也，又非所以加於士大夫也。成化時，臣及見廷杖二三臣，率容厚棉底衣，重氈疊裹，然且沈臥，久乃得痊。正德朝，逆瑾竊權，始令去衣，致末年多杖死。臣又見成化、弘治時，惟叛逆、妖言、劫盜下詔獄，始命打問。他犯但言送問而已。今一概打問，亦非故事。自去歲舊臣斥逐殆盡，朝署為空。乞聖明留念，既去者禮致，未去者慰留。碩德重望如羅欽順、王守仁、呂柟、魯鐸輩，宜列置左右。臣衰病待盡，無復他望，敢效古人遺表之意，敬布犬馬之心。」帝但下所司而已。又明年，疾革，復上書請懋學隆孝，任賢納諫，保躬導和，且預辭身後恤典，遂卒。年七十六。

Jun repeatedly contested the Grand Rites controversy and stood with Yang Tinghe. He once memorialized that honoring one's biological parents rested on feelings that could not be suppressed and rites that could not be changed; he gathered ten precedents from Yao and Shun down to Emperor Lizong of Song and submitted them. Once the Grand Rites debate was settled, some who had offended died under the beating staff. In the autumn of the fourth year, Jun wrote from his sickbed: "In antiquity the rod and whip were punishments of shame only—they were not meant to flay a man's flesh until he died, nor were they meant for the scholar-official class. In the Chenghua reign I myself saw two or three ministers beaten at court; even though they wore thick padded underclothes and heavy felt wrappings, they still collapsed and could not rise for a long time. In the Zhengde reign the usurper Liu Jin first ordered men stripped before the beating, and by the end of that reign many died under the staff. I also saw that under Chenghua and Hongzhi, only rebels, purveyors of heterodox speech, and robbers were sent to the imperial prison before interrogation under beating was ordered. For other crimes the order was simply to send the case for questioning. To beat every case during interrogation alike is likewise no established practice. Since last year the senior ministers have been driven out almost to the last man, and the halls of government stand empty. I beg Your Sagely Clarity to take thought: honor with ceremony those who have gone, and comfort and keep those who remain. Men of towering virtue and reputation—Luo Qinshun, Wang Shouren, Lü Nan, Lu Duo, and the like—should be set at Your side. I am worn out by age and illness and await the end; I have no other wish. I dare only follow the spirit of the ancients' deathbed memorials and offer this loyal servant's heart." The emperor simply referred the memorial to the appropriate offices. The next year, as his illness turned grave, he memorialized again urging earnest study and exalted filial piety, the employment of worthy men and acceptance of remonstrance, self-restraint and the cultivation of harmony; he also declined in advance any posthumous honors, and then died. He was seventy-six years old.

後一年，《明倫大典》成，追論俊附和廷和，削其官，其子達以士禮葬之。

A year later, when the Minglun Compendium was completed, Jun was posthumously condemned for siding with Tinghe; his rank was stripped, and his son Da buried him with the rites due a private gentleman.

俊歷事四朝，抗辭敢諫，以禮進退，始終一節。隆慶初，復官，贈少保，謚貞肅。達，正德九年進士。官至南京吏部郎中。工篆籀，能古文。

Jun served four reigns, spoke boldly in remonstrance, entered and left office according to ritual, and held one unbroken standard to the end. At the opening of Longqing his rank was restored; he was posthumously made Junior Guardian and given the posthumous name Zhensu, Upright and Solemn. Da passed the jinshi examination in the ninth year of Zhengde. He rose to the post of Bureau Director in the Ministry of Personnel at Nanjing. He was accomplished in seal and large seal script and wrote well in the ancient prose style.

張黻，吉水人。成化八年進士。歷知涪州、宿州，介特不避權貴。弘治中，俊蒙顯擢，而黻老不用。王恕為之請，特予誥命。

Zhang Fu was from Jishui. He passed the jinshi examination in the eighth year of Chenghua. He served in turn as prefect of Fuzhou and Suzhou, standing apart and refusing to yield to the powerful. During the Hongzhi reign, Lin Jun was prominently promoted, but Zhang Fu, though aged, received no appointment. Wang Shu petitioned on his behalf, and the court specially granted him an honorary patent of appointment.

金獻民，字舜舉，綿州人。成化二十年進士。除行人。弘治初，選授御史，按雲南、順天，並著風裁。出為天津副使，歷湖廣按察使。正德初，劉瑾亂政，追坐獻民勘天津地不實，與巡撫柳應辰等械系詔獄，斥為民。未幾，又坐湖廣事，再下獄，罰贖歸。逾年，又以瀏陽民劉道隆獄讞不實，罰米輸塞下。瑾誅，起貴州按察使。擢僉都御史，巡撫延綏，歷南京刑部尚書。

Jin Xianmin, styled Shunju, was from Mianzhou. He passed the jinshi examination in the twentieth year of Chenghua. He was appointed a palace messenger. Early in Hongzhi he was chosen as a supervising censor and sent to inspect Yunnan and Shuntian; in both posts he earned a reputation for uncompromising discipline. He left the capital to serve as vice commissioner at Tianjin and later rose to surveillance commissioner of Huguang. Early in Zhengde, with Liu Jin corrupting the government, Xianmin was charged retroactively with falsifying his survey of Tianjin lands; he and Grand Coordinator Liu Yingchen and others were clapped in irons and thrown into the imperial prison, then stripped of office and reduced to commoner status. Soon afterward he was implicated again in a Huguang case, jailed once more, fined, and allowed to return home on payment of redemption. A year later he was punished again when a verdict he had passed in the case of Liu Daolong, a man of Liuyang, proved unsound; he was required to pay a fine in grain for delivery to the frontier garrisons. After Jin's execution he was recalled to serve as surveillance commissioner of Guizhou. He was raised to vice censor-in-chief and appointed grand coordinator of Yan-sui, eventually serving as minister of justice at Nanjing.

錦衣百戶俞賢，中官泰養子也，以中旨管事，諫官爭之。獻民言：「祖宗有舊制，孝廟有禁例，陛下登極有明詔。賢無公家庸，又非泰子姓，猥以廝養竊名器，紊棨典章，不可之大者。宜納諫官言。」弗聽。錦衣副千戶李全、王邦奇等以冒濫汰去，至是奏辨不已，下部覆議。獻民言：「全等足不履行陣而坐論首功，身不隸公家而躐躋顯秩。陛下登極，汰去者三百余人，人心稱快。萬一幸端再啟，則前詔皆虛，將來奏擾，有何紀極。」帝竟授全等試百戶。獻民復奏曰：「令出惟行勿惟反。今以小人奏辨，一旦復官九十余人，徇左右私，壞祖宗法，竊為陛下惜之。明旨不許夤緣管事，而奔競已成風矣；不許比例陳乞，而奏擾已踵至矣。誰生厲階，至今為梗。望仍斥全等，以息人言，消天變。」言官任洛等亦以為言，不聽。

Yu Xian, a centurion in the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the adopted son of the eunuch Tai, had been given administrative duties by secret edict; censorial officials protested vigorously. Xianmin memorialized: "Our ancestors established fixed regulations; the Xiaozong emperor issued explicit prohibitions; and when Your Majesty took the throne you proclaimed clear edicts. Yu Xian holds no legitimate government post and is not even surnamed Tai; that a servant raised in the inner quarters should usurp rank and disorder the institutions of state is an offense of the gravest kind. Your Majesty ought to accept the censors' advice." The emperor would not heed them. Li Quan, Wang Bangqi, and other deputy chiliarchs of the Embroidered Uniform Guard had been purged for unmerited advancement; they now submitted endless petitions in their own defense, and the case was referred to the ministries for review. Xianmin argued: "Men like Quan never set foot on a battlefield yet claim first honors for merit; they belong to no proper government roster yet vault into high rank. When Your Majesty came to the throne you removed more than three hundred such men, to the relief and approval of the realm. If such abuses reopen even once, your earlier edicts will be rendered void; how will you ever set a limit to the petitions and disturbances that follow?" The emperor nevertheless appointed Quan and his fellows probationary centurions. Xianmin memorialized again: "When an edict is issued, it must be carried out and not withdrawn. Now, on the word of unworthy petitioners, more than ninety have been restored to office overnight; this favors your intimates, breaks ancestral law, and I must lament it on Your Majesty's behalf. Your explicit decree forbade using connections to obtain administrative posts, yet frantic lobbying has already become the custom; You forbade petitions citing precedent for rank, yet a torrent of such memorials has already followed. Who opened this path of harm that still blocks good government today? I ask that Quan and his fellows be dismissed again, to still public criticism and avert the signs of heaven's displeasure." Censorial officials such as Ren Luo spoke to the same effect; the emperor would not heed them.

會寧夏總兵官種勛行賂京師，偵事者獲其籍，獻民名在焉。給事蔡經、御史高世魁等交章劾之，獻民因引疾歸。居二年，邦奇訐前尚書彭澤，詞連獻民，逮下刑部獄。法司劾獻民奉命專征，未至其地，掠功妄報。失大臣體，宜奪職閑住，削其世蔭。詔可。

When investigators seized the account books of Zhong Xun, regional commander of Ningxia, who had been bribing officials in the capital, Xianmin's name appeared among the recipients. Supervising secretaries Cai Jing, the censor Gao Shikui, and others submitted joint impeachments; Xianmin took the occasion to request leave on grounds of illness and retire. Two years later Wang Bangqi accused the former minister Peng Ze and implicated Xianmin as well; Xianmin was arrested and held in the Ministry of Justice prison. The judicial authorities charged that Xianmin, though ordered on an independent military expedition, had not reached the field yet had falsely claimed credit in his reports. He had disgraced the conduct expected of a senior minister; he should be stripped of office and confined to private life, and his hereditary privilege annulled. The emperor assented.

初，「大禮」議起，獻民數偕廷臣疏爭。及左順門哭諫，又與徐文華倡之。帝由此不悅，卒得罪。隆慶初，贈恤如制。

Earlier, when the Great Rites controversy erupted, Xianmin repeatedly joined the court ministers in memorial protests. At the left Shun Gate remonstrance, when officials wept and protested, he again took the lead with Xu Wenhua. The emperor took lasting offense, and Xianmin eventually paid for it. At the opening of Longqing he received posthumous honors and compensation according to precedent.

秦金，字國聲，無錫人。弘治六年進士。授戶部主事，歷郎中。正德初，遷河南提學副使，改右參政。守開封，破趙鐩於陳橋。歷山東左、右布政使。承寇躪後，與巡撫趙璜共拊循，瘡痍始起。九年擢右副都御史，巡撫湖廣。諸王府所據山場湖蕩，皆奏還之官。降盜賀璋、羅大洪復叛，討平之。郴州桂陽瑤龔福全稱王，金先後破寨八十余，斬首二千級，擒福全及其黨劉福興等。錄功，增俸一級，蔭錦衣世百戶，力辭得請。入為戶部右侍郎。

Qin Jin, styled Guosheng, was from Wuxi. He passed the jinshi examination in the sixth year of Hongzhi. He was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue and rose through the ranks to bureau director. Early in Zhengde he was transferred to vice education intendant of Henan, then appointed right administration commissioner. While defending Kaifeng he routed Zhao Zhen at Chenqiao. He served in turn as left and right provincial administration commissioner of Shandong. After the ravages of marauders, he and Grand Coordinator Zhao Huang worked together to restore order and relief, and the shattered province slowly began to recover. In the ninth year he was promoted to vice censor-in-chief and appointed grand coordinator of Huguang. He memorialized for the return to government control of hills, lakes, and marshes seized by the various princely establishments. He Zhang and Luo Dahong, bandits who had surrendered, rebelled again; he put down their revolt. Gong Fuquan, a Yao leader of Guiyang in Chenzhou who proclaimed himself king, was overcome when Jin captured more than eighty strongholds, took two thousand heads, and seized Fuquan and his lieutenant Liu Fuxing among others. His achievements were registered: he was given a raise of one salary grade and the hereditary privilege of a centurion in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but he strenuously declined and was permitted to do so. He was recalled to the capital as vice minister of revenue.

世宗即位，改吏部。言官論金無人倫鑒，復改戶部，轉左，署部事。外戚邵喜乞莊田，金述祖制，請按治。帝宥喜，命都察院禁如制。中旨各宮仍置皇莊，遣官校分督。金言：「西漢盛時以苑囿賦貧民，今奈何剝民以益上。乞勘正德間額外侵占者，悉歸其主，而盡撤管莊之人。」帝稱善，即從其議。

When Emperor Shizong took the throne, Qin Jin was moved to the Ministry of Personnel. Censorial officials criticized him for poor judgment of character; he was shifted back to the Ministry of Revenue, promoted to left vice minister, and placed in charge of the ministry. When the imperial in-law Shao Xi petitioned for crown estate lands, Jin cited ancestral precedent and called for an investigation. The emperor excused Shao Xi but ordered the Censorate to uphold the prohibition as before. By secret edict the palace establishments were again allowed imperial estates, with runner-officials sent to oversee them. Jin memorialized: "In the flourishing Western Han, imperial parks were granted to the poor; how can we now levy on the people to swell the imperial purse? I ask that all lands taken beyond proper limits during the Zhengde reign be surveyed and restored to their rightful owners, and that every estate steward be withdrawn." The emperor commended the proposal and adopted it at once.

嘉靖二年擢南京禮部尚書，率諸臣上疏曰：「陛下繼統以來，昭德塞違，勵精圖治，動無過舉，宜召天和，而災眚頻告者，何也？《詩》曰：『靡不有初，鮮克有終。』陛下登極一詔，百度鹹貞，天下拭目望至治。比來多與詔違，百司罔遵，萬民失仰，此詔令不能如初也。即位之初，逐庸回，任耆舊。比內閣擬旨輒中改，至疏請，徒答溫語，此任賢不能如初也。即位之初，聽言如流，朝請暮報。比來事涉戚畹、宦寺，雖九卿執奏，科道交章，皆曰『業經有旨』。此聽納不能如初也。即位之初，凡先朝傳升、乞升等官，一切厘革。比來恩澤過濫，封拜頻煩。此慎名器不能如初也。即位之初，凡奸黨巨惡俱付三法司。比來輒下鎮撫。此謹國法不能如初也。即位之初，首命戶部減馬房糧芻之半，且令科道官備核馬數。乃因太監閻洪等言，遂寢前詔。此恤民瘼不能如初也。即位之初，遣斥法王、佛子、國師、禪師。比來於禁地設齋醮。此崇正道不能如初也。即位之初，精明充盛。比來聖躬弗豫，天顏未復。此嗇精神不能如初也。夫初政所以清明者，政出公朝，而左右不預也；今政所以混混者，政在左右，而外廷不知也。惟政不可一日不在朝廷，惟權不可一日移於左右。所謂政在朝廷者，非必皆獨運也。股肱有托，耳目有寄，即主威重於九鼎，國勢安於泰山。自古帝王制禦天下，操此術而已。不則宮府之勢隔而信任有所偏，婦寺之情親而聽受有所蔽。名曰總攬，而太阿之鐏實移於下矣。」章下禮部，尚書汪俊力勸帝采納，報聞。

In the second year of Jiajing he was elevated to minister of rites at Nanjing and, leading his colleagues, submitted a memorial: "Since Your Majesty inherited the throne you have shown virtue, checked wrongdoing, and labored diligently for good government, without a single improper act; heaven's favor should attend you—yet disasters and warnings have come one after another. Why is this? As the Book of Songs says: 'All things have a beginning, but few are brought to a good end. Your accession edict set every branch of government aright, and the whole realm looked up in hope of lasting peace. Lately edicts have often been disregarded, the bureaucracy no longer follows them, and the people have lost their anchor—your commands no longer carry the force they had at the start. At first you drove out the mediocre and entrusted the seasoned. Now when the Grand Secretariat drafts replies you often revise them yourself; even formal petitions from your ministers receive only placid answers in return—you no longer trust your worthies as you did at the start. At first you listened openly, answering memorials submitted at dawn before nightfall. Now when matters touch imperial in-laws or eunuchs, even united protest from the nine ministers or the censorate is met with the answer, 'The emperor has already decided.' This shows that you no longer heed counsel as you once did. At first you abolished every rank obtained by irregular promotion or favor during the previous reign. Lately honors have been dispensed too freely and promotions have multiplied without restraint. This shows that you no longer guard official ranks with the care you showed at the start. At first major criminals and factional ringleaders were left to the three legal tribunals. Now they are routinely handed to the imperial prison under the Embroidered Uniform Guard. This shows that you no longer uphold the law as you did at the start. At first you ordered the Ministry of Revenue to halve the fodder allowance for the imperial stud and directed censorial officials to audit the horse rolls. But on the advice of eunuchs such as Yan Hong, that edict was quietly dropped. This shows that you no longer attend to the people's hardship as you once did. At first you expelled the so-called Dharma Kings, Buddha's Sons, state preceptors, and meditation masters. Now, within the forbidden precincts, fasting ceremonies and Daoist rites are being held. This shows that you no longer uphold the orthodox teaching as you did at first. At first your spirit was keen and your energy abundant. Lately Your Majesty's health has faltered and your presence at court has been rare. This shows that you no longer guard your vital energies as you once did. The early reign was clear because policy came from the open court and the emperor's intimates had no part in it; Now it is muddied because policy is made by those at your side while the outer court is kept in the dark. Government must never for a single day leave the court; power must never for a single day pass into private hands. When I say that policy belongs in the court, I do not mean that you must govern unaided. With worthy ministers as your arms and trusted observers as your eyes and ears, your own authority will stand firm as the nine tripods and the realm will be secure as Mount Tai. Every sage ruler who has held the realm has governed by this principle alone. Otherwise the distance between inner and outer courts breeds partial trust, and closeness to consorts and eunuchs deafens the ruler to honest counsel. You may be said to hold all power in name, but the handle of imperial authority has passed into other hands." The memorial went to the Ministry of Rites; Minister Wang Jun pressed the emperor hard to accept it; the court noted receipt.

尋就改兵部。孫交去，召為戶部尚書。帝欲考興獻帝，金偕廷臣伏闕爭，又與何孟春等條張璁建議之非。及上聖母冊，金及趙璜等復不至，帝頻詰讓。

Before long he was transferred to the Ministry of War. When Sun Jiao left office, Qin Jin was recalled as minister of revenue. When the emperor sought to elevate his father, the Xingxian emperor, Qin Jin joined the court ministers protesting at the palace gate and, with He Mengchun and others, laid out point by point the faults in Zhang Cong's plan. When the ceremonial patent for the empress dowager was issued, Qin Jin and Zhao Huang again failed to appear; the emperor repeatedly censured them.

金為人樂易。及居官，一以廉正自持。在戶部，尤孜孜為國。永福長公主乞寶坻、武清地，以金言頗減。撫寧、山海莊地賜魏國公徐達者，達卒仍歸之官，定國公光祚請之，金執不可。給事中黃重、御史張珩等先後爭，金等復以為言，始報許。內府諸監局軍匠至數千人，中官梁諫請下部采金玉珠石，金皆執奏。不聽。奸人逯俊等乞兩淮鹽引三十萬，帝許之。金力爭不可，積失帝旨。

Qin Jin was by nature open and affable. In office he held himself entirely to integrity and rectitude. At the Ministry of Revenue he worked with especial zeal for the state. When Princess Yongfu Chang requested estates at Baodi and Wuqing, Qin Jin's remonstrance greatly reduced the amount granted. The Funning and Shanhaiguan estate granted to Xu Da, Duke of Wei, had reverted to the state on his death; when Duke of Ding Guangzuo sought to recover it, Qin Jin firmly refused. Supervising secretary Huang Chong, censor Zhang Heng, and others protested one after another; when Qin Jin and his colleagues renewed the argument, the emperor at last gave his assent. Several thousand military artisans served the inner-palace directorates. When the eunuch Liang Jian asked the ministries to procure gold, jade, pearls, and precious stones, Qin Jin submitted firm remonstrances on every point. The emperor refused to listen. Schemers led by Lu Jun requested three hundred thousand salt vouchers for the Two Huai circuit, and the emperor approved. Qin Jin fought the grant vigorously until he had repeatedly fallen from the emperor's favor.

六年春以考察自陳致仕，馳驛給夫廩如制。歸五年，薦者不已，乃起南京戶部，疏陳利民六事。尋召為工部尚書，加太子少保。帝與張孚敬、李時評諸大臣，以金為賢，頗嫌其老。居數月，加太子太保，改南京兵部。逾歲致仕歸。二十三年卒，年七十八。贈少保，謚端敏。

In the spring of the sixth year he submitted his retirement at the official review and was sent home with post-horses, bearers, and grain allowance as prescribed. Five years later, with recommendations unceasing, he was recalled to the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, where he memorialized six measures for the people's benefit. He was soon called to be minister of works and given the additional title of Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent. As the emperor and Zhang Fuyi and Li Shi reviewed the senior ministers, they judged Qin Jin worthy but thought him rather old. After a few months he was made Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent and transferred to the Nanjing Ministry of War. A year later he retired and went home. He died in the twenty-third year of the reign, at seventy-eight. He was posthumously honored as Junior Guardian with the posthumous name Duanmin, "Upright and Keen."

孫柱，以諸生授中書舍人。大學士高拱得罪，倉黃去京師，門生皆避匿，柱獨追送百里外。吳中行疏論張居正奪情，被杖下詔獄。柱挾醫視湯藥，遂忤居正，遷魯府審理。尋假考察罷之。

His son Sun Zhu, though only a licentiate, was appointed a drafting secretary in the Secretariat. When Grand Secretary Gao Gong fell from favor and fled the capital in panic, his students all kept their distance; Zhu alone followed him and saw him off a hundred li beyond the city. Wu Zhongxing submitted a memorial condemning Zhang Juzheng for clinging to office during mourning and was flogged and thrown into the imperial prison. Zhu brought in a doctor to care for Wu's medicine and food, thereby angering Zhang Juzheng, who had him transferred to serve as judicial administrator of the Lu princely establishment. Before long he was removed on the pretext of the merit review.

趙璜，字廷實，安福人。少從父之官，墜江中不死。稍長，行道上，得遺金，悉還其主。登弘治三年進士，授工部主事。改兵部，歷員外郎。出為濟南知府。猾吏舞文，積歲為蠹。璜擇願民教之律令，得通習者二十余人，逐吏而代之。漢庶人牧場久籍於官，募民佃。德王府奏乞之，璜勘還之民。閱七年，政績大著。正德初，擢順天府丞，未上，劉瑾惡璜，坐巡撫朱欽事，逮下詔獄，除名。瑾誅，復職。遷右僉都御史，巡撫宣府。尋調山東。河灘地數百里，賦流民墾而除其租。番僧乞征以充齋糧，帝許之，璜力爭得免。曲阜為賊破，闕里林廟在曠野，璜請移縣就闕里，從之。擢工部右侍郎，總理河道。以邊警改理畿輔戎備。事定，命振順天諸府譏，還佐部事。

Zhao Huang, styled Tingshi, was a native of Anfu. As a boy he accompanied his father to his posting, fell into a river, and survived. When he was older, he found lost gold on the road and returned all of it to its owner. He received his jinshi degree in Hongzhi 3 and was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Works. He moved to the Ministry of War and rose to vice director. He was appointed prefect of Jinan. Crafty clerks had twisted the law for years, becoming a chronic scourge. Zhao Huang chose willing locals, trained them in the code, and once he had more than twenty who knew it well, he dismissed the old clerks and put the trained men in their place. Pasturelands of the Han princely establishment had long been on the government rolls; he opened them to tenant farmers. When the Prince of De petitioned for those lands, Huang investigated and restored them to the tenants. After seven years his record of governance stood out sharply. Early in the Zhengde reign he was promoted to vice prefect of Shuntian, but before he could take up the post Liu Jin, who hated him, had him imprisoned in connection with grand coordinator Zhu Qin's case and stripped of his name from the rolls. After Liu Jin's execution he was restored to office. He was made Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and grand coordinator of Xuanfu. He was soon transferred to Shandong. He set several hundred li of river-bank land to be reclaimed by displaced peasants and exempted them from rent. When Buddhist monks from the borderlands sought to levy taxes on that land for ritual provisions, the emperor agreed, but Huang protested until the levy was dropped. After bandits ravaged Qufu, leaving Confucius's grove and temple exposed in open country, Huang petitioned to move the county seat to Konglin; the court agreed. He was promoted to Vice Minister of Works with general charge of the waterways. When border alarms arose he was reassigned to manage the defenses of the capital region. Once the crisis passed he was ordered to administer famine relief in Shuntian and neighboring prefectures, then returned to assist at the ministry.

世宗即位，進左侍郎，掌部事。裁宦官賜葬費及禦用監料價，革內府酒醋面局歲征鐵磚價銀歲巨萬。嘉靖元年進尚書。劉瑾創玄明宮，糜財數十萬，瑾死，奸人獻為皇莊。帝即位，斥以予民，既而中旨令仍舊。璜言，詔下數月而忽更，示天下不信。帝即報許。會方修仁壽、清寧宮，費不繼。璜因請與石景山諸房舍並斥賣以資用，可無累民，帝可之。給事中徐景嵩等謂，詔書許還民，官不當自鬻，劾璜。璜疏辨，並發景嵩他事。御史張鵬翰言璜摭言官，無大臣誼。帝責鵬翰黨庇景嵩，竟斥。其同官陳江亦以劾璜被責，求去。給事中章僑言璜一舉逐兩諫官，甚損國體。尚書彭澤復奏僑非是，僑再辨，帝兩解之。詔營後父陳萬言第，估工值六十萬，璜持之。萬言訴於帝，下郎中、員外二人詔獄。璜言：「二臣無與，乞罪臣。」帝不聽。其後論救踵至，萬言不自安，再請貸。二人獲釋，工價亦大減。

When Emperor Shizong took the throne, Zhao Huang was promoted to Left Vice Minister and placed in charge of the ministry. He slashed eunuchs' funeral allowances and inflated prices at the Directorate of Imperial Use, and abolished the inner palace's annual levies on wine, vinegar, and noodle offices for iron and bricks—amounting to tens of thousands of taels each year. In Jiajing 1 he was promoted to minister. Liu Jin had built Xuansming Palace at a cost of hundreds of thousands; after his death, schemers offered it up as an imperial estate. The new emperor ordered it returned to the people, but soon a palace edict reversed that and restored the old arrangement. Zhao Huang argued that to issue an edict and overturn it within months would show the world that the throne could not be trusted. The emperor immediately agreed. Work was under way on Renshou and Qingning Palaces, and funds were running short. Zhao Huang therefore proposed selling those holdings along with buildings at Shijingshan to supply the works, sparing the burden on the people; the emperor approved. Supervising secretaries led by Xu Jingsong argued that since the edict had promised the land to the people, officials had no right to sell it themselves, and they impeached Zhao Huang. Zhao Huang answered in a memorial, and also brought forward other accusations against Xu Jingsong. Censor Zhang Penghan charged that Zhao Huang was hounding the remonstrating officials and had lost all sense of a senior minister's duty. The emperor upbraided Zhang Penghan for shielding Xu Jingsong and dismissed him in the end. His colleague Chen Jiang, who had joined the impeachment, was also censured and asked to resign. Supervising secretary Zhang Qiao protested that by one stroke Zhao Huang had driven out two remonstrating officials, gravely damaging the dignity of the court. Minister Peng Ze memorialized that Zhang Qiao was in the wrong; Zhang Qiao replied in his own defense; the emperor smoothed matters over on both sides. When an edict ordered construction of Empress Chen's father Chen Wanyan's mansion at an estimated cost of six hundred thousand taels, Zhao Huang held the line. Chen Wanyan complained to the emperor, who had two division directors thrown into the imperial prison. Zhao Huang wrote: "Those two officials had no part in this; punish me alone." The emperor refused. Memorials pleading for the imprisoned men flooded in; Chen Wanyan, unsettled, again asked that they be spared. The two officials were released, and the construction budget was sharply cut.

三年，顯陵司香內官言陵制陜小，請改營，視天壽山諸陵。璜言陵制與山水相稱，難概同，帝納其言。已，帝欲遷顯陵，璜不可，乃寢。詔建玉德殿，景福、安喜二宮，璜請俟仁壽宮成，徐議其事，帝不許。頃之，以災異申前請，帝始從之，並罷仁壽役。江西建真人府，陜西督織造，皆遣中使，璜皆疏爭。營建世廟，中官所派物料，戶部多裁省。帝以問璜，璜言曩造乾清、坤寧兩宮所積余貲，足移用，帝遂報可。

In the third year, a eunuch custodian at Xianling reported that the tomb's scale was too small and asked that it be rebuilt to match the Tianshou Mountain mausoleums. Zhao Huang replied that a tomb's design should suit its terrain and could not simply be copied; the emperor accepted his view. Later the emperor proposed moving Xianling altogether; Zhao Huang objected, and the plan was dropped. When orders came to build Yude Hall and the Jingfu and Anxi palaces, Zhao Huang asked to defer discussion until Renshou Palace was finished; the emperor refused. Soon afterward, citing portents and disasters, he renewed his earlier plea; the emperor relented and also suspended work on Renshou Palace. When Jiangxi was ordered to build a palace for a Taoist "Perfected One" and Shaanxi to oversee imperial silk works, both missions were placed under palace eunuchs; Zhao Huang protested each time by memorial. During construction of the dynastic temple, the Ministry of Revenue pared back much of what the palace eunuchs requisitioned. When the emperor asked his view, Zhao Huang said surplus funds from earlier work on the Qianqing and Kunning palaces would suffice; the emperor agreed.

璜為尚書六年，值帝初政，銳意厘剔，中官不敢撓，故得舉其職。後論執不已，諸權幸嫉者眾，帝意亦浸疏。璜素與秦金齊名。考察自陳，與金俱致仕。廷臣乞留，不許，馳驛給夫廩如故事。

Zhao Huang served six years as minister during the emperor's early reign, when reform was pursued vigorously and palace eunuchs dared not interfere, so he was able to perform his office. But as he continued to remonstrate without letup, he made enemies among the powerful, and the emperor's favor slowly cooled. Zhao Huang had long stood equal in reputation with Qin Jin. At the merit review both submitted their retirements and left office together. The court pleaded to keep them, but the emperor refused; they were sent home with post-horses, bearers, and grain allowance as custom prescribed.

璜有幹局，多智慮。事棼錯，他人相顧愕眙，璜立辦。既去，人爭薦之。十一年召復故官，未上卒。贈太子太保，謚莊靖。

Zhao Huang had a gift for administration and no lack of shrewd judgment. When affairs were in chaos and others stood staring, Zhao Huang set them straight at once. After he retired, officials vied to recommend him for recall. In the eleventh year he was summoned back to his old post but died before he could take it up. He was posthumously honored as Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent with the posthumous name Zhuangjing, "Stern and Tranquil."

鄒文盛，字時鳴，公安人。弘治六年進士。除吏科給事中。遼東巡撫韓重劾鎮守中官廖玘，文盛偕郎中楊茂仁勘實其罪，謫長陵司香。雜顏三衛屢擾邊，文盛還奏制馭六策。尚書劉大夏深善之，下之邊吏。尋出核兩廣糧儲。思恩土官岑濬與田州岑猛構兵，文盛言：「田州廣西之藩蔽，李蠻田州之幹城，參政武清受濬重賂，以計殺蠻釀成禍亂。制敕房供事參議岑業，濬懿親，為彌縫於中，漏我機事。請先誅二人，而後行討。」業有內援，帝不聽。清尋以考察罷。

Zou Wensheng, styled Shiming, was a native of Gong'an. He passed the jinshi examination in Hongzhi 6. He was appointed a supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel. When Liaodong grand coordinator Han Chong impeached the garrison eunuch Liao Chi, Zou Wensheng and bureau director Yang Maoren investigated and confirmed the charges; Liao was demoted to tend incense at Changling. When the Zayan Three Guards raided the frontier repeatedly, Zou Wensheng memorialized six measures for controlling them. Minister Liu Daxia strongly approved and circulated them to frontier officials. He was soon dispatched to audit grain reserves in the Two Guangs. When the native official Cen Jun of Si'en and Cen Meng of Tianzhou went to war, Zou Wensheng wrote: "Tianzhou is Guangxi's outer bulwark; Li Man is Tianzhou's pillar of defense. Vice commissioner Wu Qing accepted heavy bribes from Cen Jun and contrived Li Man's death, setting disaster in motion. Cen Ye of the Edicts Chancery—a close kinsman of Cen Jun—papered over the affair from inside the court and leaked our plans. Execute these two men first, then proceed with the punitive campaign." Cen Ye had protectors at court, and the emperor would not listen. Wu Qing was soon removed in the merit review.

正德初，歷戶科都給事中，出為保定知府，累遷福建左布政使。十一年以右副都御史巡撫貴州。清平苗阿旁、阿階、阿革稱王，巡撫曹祥調永順、保靖土兵討之，尋被劾罷。阿旁等據香爐山，興隆、偏橋、平越、新添、龍裏諸衛鹹被其患。文盛至，檄川、湖兵協剿，以貴州兵搗炮木寨，擒阿革。川、湖兵至，抵山下。山壁立，惟小徑五，賊皆樹柵。仰攻不能克，乃制戰樓與崖齊，乘夜雨附崖登，拔柵焚廬舍。賊奔後山，據絕頂。官軍乘間梯藤木以上，遂擒阿旁，余賊盡平。移師討平龍頭、都黎、都蘭、都蓬、密西、大支、馬羅諸寨黑苗，先後斬降無算。錄功，增俸一等，蔭子錦衣世百戶。力辭免。芒部陳聰等為亂，討破之。四川土舍重安馮綸與凱裏楊弘有怨。弘卒，綸糾諸苗相仇殺，侵軼貴州境。文盛遣參議蔡潮詣播州，督宣慰楊斌撫定之。請復設安寧宣撫司，以弘子襲，而錄潮功。尚書王瓊以專擅為潮罪，不敘。頃之，改蒞南京都察院。

Early in the Zhengde reign he rose to chief supervising secretary in the revenue office, then served as prefect of Baoding and eventually as left provincial administrator of Fujian. In the eleventh year he was appointed Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and grand coordinator of Guizhou. Apang, Ajie, and Age of the Qingping Miao declared themselves kings; grand coordinator Cao Xiang mustered native troops from Yongshun and Baojing to suppress them, but was soon impeached and removed. Apang and his followers held Mount Xianglu, and the guard posts of Xinglong, Pianqiao, Pingyue, Xintian, Longli, and others all suffered from their raids. When Zou Wensheng arrived, he mobilized troops from Sichuan and Huguang for a joint campaign and sent Guizhou forces to storm Paomu Stockade, capturing Age. The Sichuan and Huguang troops arrived and encamped at the foot of the mountain. The mountain rose sheer from the ground; only five narrow paths led upward, and the rebels had palisades posted on every one. Assault from below failed, so they built siege towers level with the cliffs and, under cover of a night rain, scaled the rock face, tore down the palisades, and burned the rebels' huts. The rebels fled to the rear slopes and held the summit. Government troops seized an opening, climbing on vines and timber, captured Apang, and pacified the remaining rebels. They then marched against Black Miao stockades at Longtou, Duli, Dulan, Dupeng, Mixi, Dazhi, Maluo, and others, killing and accepting surrender in numbers beyond count. His merit was recorded: his salary was raised one grade, and his son was granted hereditary enrollment as a hundred-household officer in the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He pressed hard to decline both honors. When Chen Cong of Mangbu and others rose in revolt, he defeated them. Feng Lun, a native officer of Chong'an in Sichuan, bore a grudge against Yang Hong of Kaili. After Hong died, Feng Lun incited various Miao groups to mutual slaughter and raided into Guizhou. Zou Wensheng dispatched vice commissioner Cai Chao to Bozhou to supervise pacification commissioner Yang Bin in restoring order. He petitioned to restore the Anning Pacification Commission, let Hong's son succeed, and record Cai Chao's merit. Minister Wang Qiong punished Cai Chao for acting on his own authority and denied him merit credit. Shortly afterward he was transferred to the Nanjing Censorate.

梁材，字大用，南京金吾右衛人。弘治十二年進士。授德清知縣，勤敏有異政。正德初，遷刑部主事，改御史。出為嘉興知府，調杭州。田租例參差，材為酌輕重，立畫一之法。遷浙江右參政，進按察使。鎮守中官畢真與宸濠通，將舉城應之。材與巡按張縉劫持真，奪其兵衛。尋以憂去。嘉靖初，起補雲南。土官相仇殺累年，材召其酋曰：「汝罪當死。今貰汝，以牛羊贖。」御史訝其輕，材曰：「如是足矣，急之變生。」諸酋衷甲待變，聞無他乃止。歷貴州、廣東左、右布政使。吏民輸課，令自操權衡，吏不得預。時天下布政使廉名最著者二人，材與姚鏌也。六年拜右副都御史，巡撫江西。甫兩月，召為刑部左侍郎。

Liang Cai, styled Dayong, was a native of the Right Jinwu Guard in Nanjing. He passed the jinshi examination in Hongzhi 12. Appointed magistrate of Deqing, where his diligence and quick competence produced outstanding governance. Early in the Zhengde reign he was promoted to bureau director in the Ministry of Justice, then made a censor. He was sent out as prefect of Jiaxing, then transferred to Hangzhou. Land rents varied wildly by custom; Liang Cai weighed heavy and light cases and established a uniform method. He was promoted to Right Vice Commissioner of Zhejiang, then to provincial surveillance commissioner. Garrison eunuch Bi Zhen colluded with Prince Ning and planned to raise the city in his support. Liang Cai and touring inspector Zhang Jin seized Bi Zhen and stripped him of his guard. He soon left office to mourn. Early in the Jiajing reign he was recalled to serve in Yunnan. Native chiefs had feuded for years; Liang Cai summoned them and said: "Your crimes merit death. Today I spare you; redeem yourselves with cattle and sheep." A censor found the penalty too light; Liang Cai said: "This is enough; push too hard and rebellion follows." The chiefs had worn armor beneath their robes awaiting trouble, but hearing nothing further, they stood down. He served in turn as left and right provincial administrator of Guizhou and Guangdong. For tax payments by officials and commoners alike, he required them to operate the scales themselves, with no clerk intervention. At the time the two provincial administrators most renowned for integrity were Liang Cai and Yao Mo. In the sixth year he was appointed Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and grand coordinator of Jiangxi. Barely two months later he was summoned as Left Vice Minister of Justice.

尋改戶部，遂代鄒文盛為尚書。自外僚登六卿，不滿二載。自以受恩深，益盡職。上言：「臣考去年所入止百三十萬兩，而所出至二百四十萬。加催征不前，邊費無節，兇荒又多奏免，國計安所辦？詳求弊端：一宗藩，二武職，三冗食，四冗費，五逋負。乞集廷臣計畫條請。」於是宗藩、武職各議上三事，其他皆嚴為節。帝悉報可。惟武職閑住者議停半俸，帝不納。經費大省，國用亦充。中官麥福請盡征牧馬草場租，材不可。侍郎王軏清勛戚莊田，言宜量等級為限。材奏：「成周班祿有土田，祿由田出，非常祿外復有土田。今勛戚祿已逾分，而陳乞動千萬，請申禁之。自特賜外，量存三之一，以供祀事。」帝命並清已賜者，額外侵據悉還之民，勢豪家乃不敢妄請乞。畿輔屯田，御史督理，正統間易以僉事，權輕，屯政日弛。材請仍用御史。御史郭弘化言天下土田視國初減半，宜通行清丈。材恐紛擾，請但敕所司清厘，籍難稽者始履畝而丈。帝悉可之。母喪去。服除，起故官。大同巡撫樊繼祖請益軍餉，材言：「大同歲餉七十七萬有奇，例外解發又累萬，較昔已數倍。日益月增，太倉銀不足供一鎮，無論九邊也。」繼祖數請不得，議開事例，下戶、兵二部行之。時修建兩宮、七陵，役京軍七萬，郭勛請給月糧冬衣。材言非故事，如所請，當歲費銀四十五萬；且冬衣例取內庫，非部事。勛怒，劾材誤公。帝詰責材，竟如勛奏。勛復建言三事：請開礦助工，余鹽盡輸邊，漕卒得攜貨物。材議，不盡行，勛益怒。

He was soon moved to the Ministry of Revenue and replaced Zou Wensheng as minister. From provincial service to one of the Six Ministries in less than two years. Mindful of deep imperial favor, he redoubled his diligence. He memorialized: "My review shows last year's intake at only 1.3 million taels while outlays reached 2.4 million. Extra levies still fall short, frontier costs know no limit, and famine districts win repeated remissions—how is the state budget to be managed? He identified five abuses in detail: princely establishments, military offices, redundant stipendaries, wasteful spending, and tax arrears. He asked the court to convene ministers, devise plans, and submit them item by item." Princely and military offices each proposed three measures; everything else was strictly curtailed. The emperor approved all of it. Only the proposal to halve stipends for idle military officers was rejected. Expenditures dropped sharply and the treasury was replenished. Eunuch Mai Fu asked to collect all pasture rents in full; Liang Cai refused. Vice Minister Wang Yue audited noble and consort kin estates and said limits should vary by rank. Liang Cai memorialized: "Under the Zhou, ranked stipends included land; income came from land, not regular stipends plus extra estates. Now noble stipends already exceed proper measure, yet petitions routinely seek millions—I beg a strict ban. Beyond special grants, retain only one-third for sacrificial obligations." The emperor ordered all prior grants reviewed; illegal encroachments were returned to the people, and the powerful dared not petition recklessly. Metropolitan garrison farms were overseen by censors; in the Zhengtong era this shifted to assistant commissioners, authority weakened, and farm administration decayed. Liang Cai asked to restore censor supervision. Censor Guo Honghua said land nationwide had halved since the founding and called for universal remeasurement. Fearing disorder, Liang Cai asked only that offices clarify records and measure acre by acre where registers could not be verified. The emperor approved everything. He left office to mourn his mother. When mourning ended he was recalled to his former post. Datong grand coordinator Fan Jizu requested more military funds; Liang Cai said: "Datong already receives over 770,000 taels yearly, plus tens of thousands in special disbursements—several times the old level. Month by month it grows; the Grand Canal treasury cannot supply one garrison, let alone all nine frontiers." Fan's repeated petitions were denied; sale-of-office quotas were opened instead and sent to the Revenue and War ministries. While two palaces and seven tombs were under construction using 70,000 capital troops, Guo Xun requested monthly grain and winter clothing. Liang Cai said this broke precedent; if granted, it would cost 450,000 taels that year; and winter clothing customarily came from the inner treasury, not his ministry. Guo Xun, enraged, impeached Liang Cai for obstructing state business. The emperor rebuked Liang Cai and sided with Guo Xun. Guo Xun proposed three more measures: open mines to fund construction, send surplus salt revenue to the frontier, and let transport grain crews carry cargo. Liang Cai's review let only part pass; Guo Xun grew angrier still.

材初為戶部，值帝勤政，力祛宿弊，多見從。及是屢忤權幸，不得誌，乃乞改南。為給事中周充所劾，下吏部，尚書許贊等請留之。帝不悅，令與材俱對狀。材引罪得宥，而贊等坐奪俸。材由此失帝意。考尚書六年滿，遂令致仕。初，徽王守莊者與佃人訟，材請革守莊者，令有司納租於王，報可。王奏不便，帝又從之。材已去，侍郎唐胄等執初詔。帝大怒，並責材。令以右侍郎閑住，而奪胄俸，下郎官詔獄。

When Liang Cai first took the Revenue ministry, the diligent emperor backed his purge of longstanding abuses. But repeated clashes with favorites frustrated him, and he asked to transfer to the south. Supervising secretary Zhou Chong impeached him; the case went to the Ministry of Personnel, where Minister Xu Zan and others asked to keep him. The emperor was displeased and ordered both men to answer charges in person. Liang Cai accepted blame and was spared; Xu Zan and others lost salary as punishment. From this Liang Cai lost imperial favor. When his six-year term as minister expired, he was ordered to retire. Earlier the Prince of Huai's estate managers had sued tenants; Liang Cai proposed abolishing managers and having officials pay rents directly to the prince, which was approved. The prince complained of hardship and the emperor reversed course. Liang Cai had already left when Vice Minister Tang Zhou and others held to the original edict. The emperor was furious and blamed Liang Cai as well. Liang Cai was sidelined as idle Right Vice Minister; Tang Zhou lost salary and a division director went to the imperial prison.

明年，戶部尚書李廷相罷。帝念材廉勤，大臣亦多薦者，乃召復故官，加太子少保。三掌國計，砥節守公如一日，帝眷亦甚厚。其秋，考察京官，特命監之。有大獄不能決，又命兼掌刑部事。帝嘆曰：「尚書得如材者十二人，吾無憂天下矣。」大工頻興，役外衛班軍四萬六千人。郭勛籍其不至得，責輸銀雇役，廩食視班軍。廷相嘗量給之，材堅持不予。勛劾材，帝命補給。勛又以軍不足，籍逃亡軍布棉折餉銀募工。材言：「今京班軍四萬余，已足用，不宜借口耗國儲。」帝從其奏。勛益怒，劾材變亂舊章。無是，醮壇須龍涎香，材不以時進，帝銜之。遂責材沽名誤事，落職閑住。歸，旋卒，年七十一。隆慶初，贈太子太保，謚端肅。

The next year Revenue Minister Li Tingxiang was dismissed. Remembering Liang Cai's integrity and diligence amid many recommendations, the emperor recalled him and made him Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent. Three times he held the national accounts, scrupulous as ever, and imperial regard ran deep. That autumn he was specially ordered to supervise the capital officials' merit review. When a major case could not be settled, he was also put in charge of the Ministry of Justice. The emperor sighed: "Twelve ministers like Liang Cai, and I would have no worry for the realm." Major construction continued, employing 46,000 garrison rotation troops from outside the capital. Guo Xun seized on absences to demand silver for hired labor and grain equal to capital troops. Li Tingxiang had once granted partial payment; Liang Cai steadfastly refused. Guo Xun impeached Liang Cai; the emperor ordered payment. Guo Xun then cited troop shortages and proposed converting deserters' cloth and cotton stipends into silver to hire workers. Liang Cai said: "Over 40,000 capital rotation troops suffice; this pretext must not drain the treasury." The emperor accepted his memorial. Guo Xun grew angrier still and charged Liang Cai with overturning established rules. Apart from that, the altar rites required ambergris incense and Liang Cai failed to deliver it on time; the emperor nursed a grievance. He was then charged with grandstanding at the expense of duty and dismissed to idle status. He returned home and soon died at seventy-one. Early in the Longqing reign he was posthumously honored as Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent with the posthumous name Duansu, "Upright and Solemn."

當嘉靖中歲，大臣或阿上取寵，材獨不撓，以是終不容。自材去，邊儲、國用大窘。世宗乃嘆曰：「材在，當不至此。」

During the Jiajing years, many grand ministers flattered the emperor to win favor, but Liang Cai alone would not bend—and for that was never truly tolerated. After Liang Cai left office, frontier reserves and the state treasury fell into acute distress. The Shizong Emperor sighed: "If Liang Cai were still in office, it would not have come to this."

劉麟，字元瑞，本安仁人。世為南京廣洋衛副千戶，因家焉。績學能文，與顧璘、徐禎卿稱「江東三才子」。弘治九年成進士。言官龐泮等下獄，麟偕同年生陸昆抗疏救。除刑部主事，進員外郎。錄囚畿內，平反三百九十余人。正德初，進郎中，出為紹興府知府。劉瑾銜麟不謁謝，甫五月，摭前錄囚細故，罷為民。士民醵金贐不受，為建小劉祠以配漢劉寵，因寓湖州。與吳琬、施侃、孫一元、龍霓為「湖南五隱」。瑾誅，起補西安。遭父憂，樂吳興山水，奉父柩葬焉，遂居湖州。起陜西左參政，督糧儲。都御史鄧璋督師，議加賦充餉，麟力爭。會陜民詣闕訴，得寢。尋遷雲南按察使，謝病歸。

Liu Lin, styled Yuanrui, was a native of Anren. For generations his family had served as assistant battalion commanders in the Nanjing Guangyang Guard, and they settled there. A diligent scholar and able writer, he was called, with Gu Lin and Xu Zhenqing, one of the "Three Talents of the Jiangdong." In the ninth year of the Hongzhi reign he passed the jinshi examination. When the remonstrating officials Pang Pan and others were imprisoned, Liu Lin joined his fellow graduate Lu Kun in a joint memorial to save them. He was appointed a principal clerk in the Ministry of Justice and promoted to assistant department director. Reviewing prisoners in the capital region, he reversed wrongful convictions for more than three hundred ninety persons. At the start of the Zhengde reign he was promoted to department director and sent out as prefect of Shaoxing. Liu Jin resented Liu Lin for failing to call and offer thanks; after only five months he seized on minor matters from the earlier prisoner review and had him reduced to commoner status. The gentry and people pooled money for his travel expenses, which he refused; they built a Little Liu Shrine in his honor, pairing him with the Han official Liu Chong, and he took up residence in Huzhou. With Wu Wan, Shi Kan, Sun Yiyuan, and Long Ni he was known as the "Five Recluses of Hunan." After Liu Jin was executed, Liu Lin was recalled to fill the post at Xi'an. When his father died he took mourning leave, delighted in the landscape of Wuxing, buried his father's coffin there, and settled in Huzhou. He was recalled as left assistant administrator of Shaanxi and put in charge of grain stores. When Censor-in-Chief Deng Zhang commanded the army, he proposed raising taxes to fund provisions; Liu Lin argued fiercely against it. Soon Shaanxi commoners petitioned at court, and the plan was shelved. Shortly afterward he was transferred to be surveillance commissioner of Yunnan, then retired on grounds of illness.

嘉靖初，召拜太仆卿。進右副都御史，巡撫保定六府。中官耿忠守備紫荊多縱，麟劾奏之。請捐天津三衛屯田課，及出庫儲給河間三衛軍月餉，征逋課以償，皆報可。帝因諭戶部，中外軍餉未給者，悉補給之。再引疾歸。起大理卿，拜工部尚書。侍衛軍不給衣履，錦衣帥駱安援紅盔軍例以請，麟執不可。詔量給銀自制，後五載一給為常。四司財物悉貯後堂大庫，司官出納多侵漁，麟請特除一郎官主之。帝稱善，因賜名「節慎庫」。已，上節財十四事，汰內府諸監局冒破錢，中貴大恨。及顯陵工竣，執役者鹹覬官。麟止擬賚，群小愈怨。會帝納諫官言，停中外雜派工役，麟牒停浙江、蘇、松織造，而上供袍服在停中。中官吳勛以為言，遂勒麟致仕。久之，顯陵殿閣雨漏，追論麟，落職。

At the start of the Jiajing reign he was summoned and appointed Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud. He was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and made grand coordinator of the six prefectures of Baoding. The eunuch Geng Zhong, defending Zijing Pass, was excessively lax; Liu Lin impeached him. He asked to remit the land-tax levies on garrison farms of the three guards at Tianjin and to draw from treasury reserves to pay the monthly stipends of the three guards at Hejian, recovering overdue taxes to make up the cost—all approved. The emperor therefore instructed the Ministry of Revenue that all military stipends at home and abroad still unpaid should be fully disbursed. He again cited illness and retired. He was recalled as President of the Court of Judicial Review and appointed Minister of Works. The palace guard troops were not issued clothing and footwear; the Embroidered Uniform Guard commander Luo An cited the precedent of the Red-Helmet Guard in requesting it, but Liu Lin firmly refused. An edict ordered silver to be measured out for them to make their own, with reissue every five years as the rule. The goods of the four bureaus were all stored in the rear-hall treasury, and bureau officials embezzled much in handling receipts and disbursements; Liu Lin asked that a special clerk be appointed to oversee them. The emperor praised the plan and bestowed the name "Treasury of Thrift and Care." Later he submitted fourteen items on economizing, cutting fraudulent expenditures by the inner-palace directorates and supervisory offices; the eunuch elite deeply resented him. When work on the Xianling Mausoleum was finished, laborers all coveted official posts. Liu Lin would only recommend modest rewards, and the petty men grew still angrier. When the emperor accepted remonstrating officials' advice and halted miscellaneous labor levies at home and abroad, Liu Lin ordered a halt to weaving in Zhejiang, Suzhou, and Songjiang—including tribute robes for the court among the stoppages. The eunuch Wu Xun complained, and Liu Lin was forced to retire. Long afterward, when rain leaked through the halls and pavilions of Xianling, Liu Lin was pursued in review and stripped of rank.

麟清修直節，當官不撓。居工部，為朝廷惜財謹費，僅逾年而罷。居郊外南坦，賦詩自娛。守為築一臺，令為構堂，始有息遊之所。家居三十余年，廷臣頻論薦。晚好樓居，力不能構，懸籃輿於梁，曲臥其中，名曰神樓。文徵明繪圖遺之。年八十七卒。贈太子少保，謚清惠。

Liu Lin was pure in conduct and upright in integrity, unyielding in office. At the Ministry of Works he spared the state's wealth and guarded against waste, yet was dismissed after little more than a year. He lived at Nantan outside the city and amused himself composing poetry. The prefect built him a terrace and ordered a hall constructed, so that he finally had a place to rest and stroll. At home for more than thirty years, court ministers repeatedly recommended him. In his later years he loved living in an upper story but lacked the strength to build one; he hung a basket-chair from a beam and lay curled within it, calling it the Spirit Tower. Wen Zhengming painted a picture and sent it to him as a gift. He died at the age of eighty-seven. He was posthumously made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent and given the posthumous title Qinghui.

蔣瑤，字粹卿，歸安人。弘治十二年進士。授行人。正德時，歷兩京御史。陳時弊七事，中言：「內府軍器局軍匠六千，中官監督者二人，今增至六十余人，人占軍匠三十。他局稱是，行伍安得不耗。」並言：「傳奉官及濫收校尉勇士並宜厘革。劉瑾雖誅，權猶在宦豎。」有旨詰問，且言「自今如瑤議者，毋復奏。」尋出為荊州知府。築黃潭堤。

Jiang Yao, styled Cuiqing, was a native of Gui'an. In the twelfth year of the Hongzhi reign he passed the jinshi examination. He was appointed a courier. In the Zhengde era he served as censor in both capitals. He set forth seven abuses of the age, saying among them: "The inner-palace Armory Bureau has six thousand military artisans, with two eunuch supervisors; now they have increased to more than sixty, each claiming thirty artisans. Other bureaus are the same—how can the ranks not be depleted?" He also said: "Commissioned officials and the indiscriminate recruitment of guards, braves, and warriors should all be reformed. Though Liu Jin was executed, power still rested with the eunuchs." An imperial rescript rebuked him and declared that from then on no one should again submit memorials like Jiang Yao's." He was soon sent out as prefect of Jingzhou. He built the Huangtan embankment.

調揚州。武宗南巡至揚，瑤供禦取具而已，無所贈遺。諸嬖幸皆怒。江彬欲奪富民居為威武副將軍府，瑤執不可。彬閉瑤空舍挫辱之，脅以帝所賜銅瓜，不為懾。會帝漁獲一巨魚，戲言直五百金，彬即畀瑤責其直。瑤懷其妻簪珥、袿服以進，曰：「庫無錢，臣所有惟此。」帝笑而遣之。府故有瓊花觀，詔取瓊花。瑤言自宋徽、欽北狩，此花已絕，今無以獻。又傳旨征異物，瑤具對非揚產。帝曰：「苧白布，亦非揚產耶？」瑤不得已，為獻五百疋。當是時，權幸以揚繁華，要求無所不至。微瑤，民且重困。駕旋，瑤扈至寶應。中官邱得用鐵縆系瑤，數日始釋，竟扈至臨清而返。揚人見瑤，無不感泣。迨遷陜西參政，爭出資建祠祀之，名自此大震。

He was transferred to Yangzhou. When the Wuzong Emperor toured south to Yangzhou, Jiang Yao supplied only what was needed for the imperial retinue and made no gifts. All the favored minions were enraged. Jiang Bin wanted to seize wealthy households' residences for a Vice General of Martial Prestige's mansion; Jiang Yao refused. Jiang Bin shut Jiang Yao in an empty house to humiliate him and threatened him with the copper mace the emperor had bestowed, but Jiang Yao was not intimidated. Once when the emperor caught a huge fish while fishing, he joked that it was worth five hundred taels; Jiang Bin immediately handed it to Jiang Yao and demanded payment. Jiang Yao brought his wife's hairpins, earrings, and formal robes and presented them, saying: "The treasury has no money; all I have is this." The emperor laughed and sent him away. The prefecture had a Qionghua View; an edict ordered the qionghua flower to be presented. Jiang Yao said that since the Northern Hunt of the Song emperors Huizong and Qinzong, the flower had been extinct and there was nothing to offer. When another edict demanded exotic goods, Jiang Yao answered in detail that they were not products of Yangzhou. The emperor said: "Ramie white cloth—is that not a Yangzhou product?" Jiang Yao had no choice and presented five hundred bolts. At that time the powerful and favored, seeing Yangzhou's wealth, made demands without limit. But for Jiang Yao, the people would have been doubly burdened. When the imperial procession returned, Jiang Yao escorted it as far as Baoying. The eunuch Qiu De bound Jiang Yao with iron chains; only after several days was he released, and he escorted the procession all the way to Linqing before returning. When the people of Yangzhou saw Jiang Yao, none failed to weep with gratitude. Later, when he was transferred to be assistant administrator of Shaanxi, they vied to contribute funds and build a shrine to worship him; his fame was greatly magnified from then on.

嘉靖初，歷湖廣、江西左、右布政使，以右副都御史巡撫河南。帝命桂萼等核巡撫官去留，令瑤歸候調。已，累遷工部尚書。四郊工竣，加太子少保。西苑宮殿成，帝置宴。見瑤與王時中席在外，命移殿內，而移皇親於殿右以讓瑤，曰：「親親不如尊賢。」其重瑤如此。時土木繁興，歲費數百萬計。瑤規畫鹹稱帝意，數有賚予。以憂去。久之，自南京工部尚書，召改北部。帝幸承天，瑤扈從。京師營建，率役京軍，多為豪家占匿。至是大工頻仍，歲募民充役，費二百余萬。瑤以為言，因請停不急者。豪家所匿軍畢出，募直大減。以老致仕去。

At the start of the Jiajing reign he served successively as left and right provincial administrators of Huguang and Jiangxi, then as Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and grand coordinator of Henan. The emperor ordered Gui E and others to review which grand coordinators should stay or go, and directed Jiang Yao to return and await reassignment. Soon afterward he was promoted step by step to Minister of Works. When work on the four suburban altars was finished, he was made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. When the Western Park palaces were completed, the emperor held a banquet. Seeing Jiang Yao and Wang Shizhong seated outside, he ordered them moved inside the hall and shifted imperial kinsmen to the right side of the hall to make room for Jiang Yao, saying: "Honoring the worthy comes before honoring one's kin." Such was the esteem in which he held Jiang Yao. At the time construction was flourishing, costing millions each year. Jiang Yao's planning always pleased the emperor, and he received many gifts and grants. He left office on mourning leave. Long afterward, from Minister of Works at Nanjing he was summoned and transferred to the northern ministry. When the emperor visited Chengtian, Jiang Yao accompanied him. Capital construction usually conscripted capital troops, many of whom were concealed and kept by powerful families. Now major works came in rapid succession, and civilians were recruited yearly for corvée at a cost of more than two million taels. Jiang Yao spoke on this and asked that non-urgent projects be halted. The troops concealed by powerful families all came forth, and recruitment costs fell sharply. He retired on account of age.

瑤端亮清介。既歸，僻處陋巷。與尚書劉麟、顧應祥輩結文酒社，徜徉峴山間。卒年八十九。贈太子太保，謚恭靖。

Jiang Yao was upright, bright, and incorruptible. After returning home he lived in a humble lane. With the ministers Liu Lin, Gu Yingxiang, and others he formed a literary wine society and wandered among the Xian hills. He died at the age of eighty-nine. He was posthumously made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and given the posthumous title Gongjing.

王廷相，字子衡，儀封人。幼有文名。登弘治十五年進士，選庶吉士，授兵科給事中。以憂去。正德初，服闋至京。劉瑾中以罪謫亳州判官，量移高淳知縣。召為御史，疏言：「大盜四起，將帥未能平。由將權輕，不能禦敵；兵機疏，不能扼險也。盜賊所至，鄉民奉牛酒，甚者為效力。盜有生殺權，而將帥反無之，故兵不用命。宜假便宜，退卻者必斬。河南地平曠，賊易奔，山西地險阻，亦縱深入，將帥罪也。若陳兵黃河之津，使不得西，分扼井陘、天井，使不得東，而主將以大軍蹙之，則賊進退皆窮，可不戰擒矣。」帝切責總督諸臣，悉從其議。已，出按陜西，裁抑鎮守中官廖堂，被誣。時已改督京畿學校，逮系詔獄，謫贛榆丞。屢遷四川僉事，山東副使，皆提督學校。嘉靖二年舉治行卓異，再遷山東右布政使。以右副都御史巡撫四川，討平芒部賊沙保。

Wang Tingxiang, styled Ziheng, was a native of Yifeng. From youth he had a literary reputation. He passed the jinshi examination in Hongzhi 15 (1502), was chosen as a Hanlin bachelor, and received appointment as a supervising secretary in the Bureau of Military Affairs. He left office on account of mourning. Early in the Zhengde reign, when his mourning period ended, he came to the capital. Liu Jin had him demoted for a crime to the post of assistant magistrate of Bozhou; he was then transferred in grade to magistrate of Gaochun. He was summoned and made a censor, memorializing: "Great bandits rise on every side, yet commanders cannot pacify them. This is because generals hold too little authority and cannot resist the enemy; military plans are lax, and they cannot hold the strategic passes. Wherever bandits go, villagers offer oxen and wine; many even serve them willingly. Bandits hold the power of life and death, while commanders in turn do not, so the troops will not obey orders. Commanders should be granted discretionary authority, with execution mandatory for any who retreat. Henan has level, open terrain, so bandits can flee easily; Shanxi has steep, obstructive terrain, yet they are allowed to penetrate deep—in both cases the fault lies with the commanders. If troops were arrayed at the Yellow River crossings to block the west, and forces stationed to hold Jingxing and Tianjing to block the east, while the chief commander pressed in with a great army, the bandits would be trapped whether they advanced or retreated and could be captured without fighting." The emperor sharply rebuked the regional governors and fully adopted his proposal. Before long he went out on an inspection tour of Shaanxi, curtailing the eunuch garrison commander Liao Tang, and was slandered. By then he had already been reassigned to oversee capital schools; he was seized and imprisoned in the imperial prison, and demoted to assistant magistrate of Ganyu. He was repeatedly promoted to vice commissioner in Sichuan and vice commissioner in Shandong, each time overseeing schools. In Jiajing 2 (1523) his administration was cited as outstanding, and he was promoted again to Right Administrator of Shandong. As Right Vice Censor-in-Chief he became governor of Sichuan and suppressed the Mangbu bandit Shabao.

尋召理院事。歷兵部左、右侍郎，遷南京兵部尚書，參贊機務。初有詔，省進貢快船。守備太監賴義復求增，廷相請酌物輕重以定船數，而大減宣德以後傳旨非祖制者。龍江、大勝、新江、浦子、江淮五關守臣借稽察榷利，安慶、九江借春秋閱視索賂，廷相皆請革之。草場、蘆課銀率為中官楊奇、卜春及魏國公徐鵬舉所侵蝕。以廷相請，逮問奇、春，奪鵬舉祿。三月入為左都御史，疏言南京守備權太重，不宜令魏國世官。給事中曾忭亦言之，遂解鵬舉兵柄。

Soon he was recalled to administer the Censorate. He served successively as Left and Right Vice Minister of War, was transferred to Minister of War at Nanjing, and assisted in state affairs. An imperial edict had initially ordered a reduction in tribute express boats. The garrison eunuch Lai Yi again requested an increase; Wang Tingxiang asked that the weight of goods be weighed to set the number of boats, and greatly reduced edicts issued after the Xuande reign that were not ancestral institutions. At the five passes of Longjiang, Dasheng, Xinjiang, Puzi, and Jianghuai, local officials used inspection to levy customs profits; at Anqing and Jiujiang they demanded bribes under the pretext of spring and autumn reviews—Wang Tingxiang memorialized to abolish all of this. Revenues from pasture lands and reed duties were routinely embezzled by the eunuchs Yang Qi and Bu Chun and by Xu Pengju, Duke of Wei. At Wang Tingxiang's request, Qi and Chun were arrested and interrogated, and Pengju's stipend was confiscated. In the third month he entered office as Left Censor-in-Chief, memorializing that the Nanjing garrison commander's authority was too great and that the Duchy of Wei should not hold the post by hereditary succession. The supervising secretary Zeng Bian spoke similarly, and Pengju was thereupon stripped of his military command.

居二年，加兵部尚書兼前官，提督團營，仍理院事。兩考滿，加太子少保。畿民盜天壽山陵樹，巡按楊紹芳引盜大祀神禦物，律斬。廷相言：「大祀神禦物者，指神禦在內祭器帷帳之物而言。律文，盜陵木者，止杖一百，徒三年。今舍本律，非刑之平。」忤旨，罰俸一月。帝將幸承天，廷相與諸大臣諫，不納。扈從還，以九年滿，加太子太保。雷震奉先殿，廷相言：「人事修而後天道順，大臣法而後小臣廉。今廉隅不立，賄賂盛行，先朝猶暮夜之私，而今則白日之攫。大臣汙則小臣悉效，京官貪則外臣無畏。臣職憲紀，不能絕其弊，乞先罷斥。」用以刺尚書嚴嵩、張瓚輩。帝但諭留而已。

After two years he was additionally made Minister of War while retaining his previous post, put in charge of the regiment camps, and still administered the Censorate. After two terms of appraisal he was made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. A resident of the capital region stole trees from the Tianshou imperial tombs; the touring censor Yang Shaofang applied the statute on stealing sacred vessels for great sacrifices and sentenced him to decapitation. Wang Tingxiang said: "The term sacred vessels for great sacrifices refers to the inner ritual implements, curtains, and hangings used in sacrifice. The statute text for stealing tomb timber prescribes only one hundred blows with the rod and three years' penal servitude. To set aside the primary statute now would not be equitable punishment." He offended the imperial will and was fined one month's salary. When the emperor was about to visit Chengtian, Wang Tingxiang joined the chief ministers in remonstrance, but was not heeded. Returning from the entourage tour, upon completion of nine years in office he was made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Lightning struck the Hall of Imperial Ancestors; Wang Tingxiang said: "Only when human affairs are put in order does the way of Heaven run straight; only when great ministers uphold the law do lesser officials keep themselves pure. Now the corners of integrity are not established and bribery runs rampant; in earlier reigns it was still a matter of secret gifts at night, but now it is brazen plunder in broad daylight. When great ministers are corrupt, lesser officials all follow suit; when capital officials are greedy, outside officials have nothing to fear. In my office of upholding the laws I cannot cut off this abuse; I beg first to be dismissed." This was intended as an indirect rebuke of Ministers Yan Song, Zhang Zan, and their like. The emperor merely instructed him to remain in office, and that was all.

初，廷相請以六條考察差還御史。帝令疏其所未盡，編之憲綱。乃取張孚敬、汪鋐所奏列，及新所定凡十五事以進，悉允行之。及九廟災，下詔修省，因敕廷相曰：「御史巡方職甚重。卿總憲有年，自定六條後，不考黜一人，今宜痛修省。」廷相惶恐謝。

Earlier, Wang Tingxiang had asked that censors returning from provincial tours be evaluated according to six criteria. The emperor ordered him to set forth what was still incomplete and compile it into the regulations of the Censorate. He then took the items memorialized by Zhang Fujing and Wang Hong, together with fifteen newly established provisions, and submitted them; all were approved and put into practice. When fire destroyed the Nine Temples, an edict was issued calling for self-examination, and the emperor charged Wang Tingxiang: "The duty of censors touring the provinces is weighty indeed. You have presided over the Censorate for many years, yet since the six criteria were established you have not dismissed a single man through evaluation; you should now earnestly examine yourself." Wang Tingxiang, in alarm, apologized.

廷相掌內臺最久，有威重。督團營，與郭勛共事，逡巡其間，不能有所振飭。給事中李鳳來等論權貴奪民利，章下都察院，廷相檄五城御史核實，遲四十余日。給事中章允賢遂劾廷相徇私慢上。帝方詰責，而廷相以御史所核聞，惟郭勛侵最多。帝令勛自奏，於是劾勛者群起。勛復以領敕稽留觸帝怒，下獄。責廷相朋比阿黨，斥為民。越三年卒。廷相博學好議論，以經術稱。於星歷、輿圖、樂律、河圖、洛書及周、邵、程、張之書，皆有所論駁，然其說頗乖僻。隆慶初，復官，贈少保，謚肅敏。

Wang Tingxiang held the inner Censorate longest and possessed formidable authority. When he oversaw the regiment camps and worked alongside Guo Xun, he was circumspect in that partnership and could bring about no real reform. The supervising secretaries Li Fenglai and others discussed how the powerful seized the people's profit; the memorial was sent to the Censorate, and Wang Tingxiang ordered the Five Cities censors to verify the facts, but they delayed more than forty days. The supervising secretary Zhang Yunxian thereupon impeached Wang Tingxiang for favoritism and disrespect toward the throne. The emperor was just rebuking him when Wang Tingxiang reported what the censors had verified, namely that Guo Xun alone had seized the most. The emperor ordered Xun to memorialize in his own defense, and impeachments against Xun poured forth. Xun again provoked the emperor's anger by delaying delivery of an imperial edict he had received, and was imprisoned. Wang Tingxiang was charged with factional collusion and expelled to commoner status. Three years later he died. Wang Tingxiang was broadly learned and fond of debate, famed for his mastery of the classics. On astronomy and calendrics, cartography, musical pitch, the River Diagram and Luo Writings, and the works of Zhou Dunyi, Shao Yong, the Cheng brothers, and Zhang Zai, he had criticisms to offer in each case, yet his views were rather eccentric. At the start of the Longqing reign his office was restored; he was posthumously given the rank of Junior Guardian and the posthumous title Summin.

贊曰：喬宇守南京，從容鎮靜，內嚴警備，可謂能當大事者矣。觀宇與孫交等砥節奉公，懇懇廷諍，意在杜塞幸門，裨益國是。雖得君行政，未能媲美蹇、夏，要其清嚴不茍，行無瑕尤，於前人亦不多讓。蔣瑤為尚書，功名損於治郡，王廷相掌內臺，風力未著，是殆其時為之歟。

The commentator says: Qiao Yu defended Nanjing with composure and calm, enforcing readiness within—he may be called a man equal to great affairs. Seeing how Yu, together with Sun Jiao and others, polished their integrity in public service and earnestly remonstrated at court, their intent was to block the gates of imperial favor and strengthen the national interest. Though they won the ruler's trust and governed, they could not match Jian Shu and Xia Yuanji; yet in their stern purity and uncompromising integrity they yielded little to their predecessors. Jiang Yao as minister found his reputation diminished by his prefectural administration; Wang Tingxiang, presiding over the inner Censorate, never displayed firm authority—perhaps this was largely the fault of the times.

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