Volume 205 Biographies 93: Zhu Wan, Zhang Jing, Hu Zongxian, Cao Bangfu, Li Sui, Tang Shunzhi

朱紈張經〈（李天寵周充楊宜彭黯等）〉胡宗憲〈（阮鶚宗禮）〉曹邦輔〈（任環吳成器）〉李遂〈（弟逢進）〉唐順之〈（子鶴征）〉

Zhu Wan and Zhang Jing (Li Tianchong, Zhou Chong, Yang Yi, Peng An, and others)]〉 Hu Zongxian (Ruan E and Zong Li)]〉 Cao Bangfu (Ren Huan and Wu Chengqi)]〉 Li Sui (his younger brother Li Fengjin)]〉 Tang Shunzhi (his son He Zheng)]〉

朱紈，字子純，長洲人。正德十六年進士。除景州知州，調開州。嘉靖初，遷南京刑部員外郎。歷四川兵備副使。與副總兵何卿共平深溝諸砦番。五遷至廣東左布政使。二十五年擢右副都御史，巡撫南、贛。明年七月，倭寇起，改提督浙、閩海防軍務，巡撫浙江。

Zhu Wan, whose style was Zichun, came from Changzhou. He received his jinshi degree in the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign. He was made prefect of Jingzhou, then transferred to Kaizhou. Early in the Jiajing reign he was promoted to assistant department director in the Nanjing Ministry of Justice. He later served as vice commissioner for military preparations in Sichuan. Together with Deputy Regional Commander He Qing he pacified the Fan tribes at the Shengou stockades. After five promotions he rose to left administration commissioner of Guangdong. In the twenty-fifth year of Jiajing he was appointed right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Nanjing and Ganzhou circuits. The following July, when wokou raids began, he was reassigned as supreme commander of coastal defense in Zhejiang and Fujian and grand coordinator of Zhejiang.

初，明祖定制，片板不許入海。承平久，奸民闌出入，勾倭人及佛郎機諸國入互市。閩人李光頭、歙人許棟踞寧波之雙嶼為之主，司其質契。勢家護持之，漳、泉為多，或與通婚姻。假濟渡為名，造雙桅大船，運載違禁物，將吏不敢詰也。或負其直，棟等即誘之攻剽。負直者脅將吏捕逐之，泄師期令去，期他日償。他日至，負如初。倭大怨恨，益與棟等合。而浙、閩海防久隳，戰船、哨船十存一二，漳、泉巡檢司弓兵舊額二千五百余，僅存千人。剽掠輒得誌，益無所忌，來者接踵。

From the outset the Ming founder had decreed that not even a single plank might put to sea. After long peace, outlaw merchants slipped in and out, drawing in Japanese and Portuguese traders for illicit exchange. Li Guangtou of Fujian and Xu Dong of She county held sway over the Twin Islets off Ningbo, keeping the ledgers of their trade deals. Local power brokers shielded them—especially in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou—and some families even married into their networks. Under cover of ferry service they built large two-masted ships to haul contraband, and local officials did not dare challenge them. When a debtor fell behind, Dong and his associates would incite him to raid and plunder. Debtors would then pressure officials to launch pursuits, leak the timing of campaigns so the raiders could escape, and promise repayment on some future date. When the pirates returned, the debt was still unpaid. The Japanese grew furious and cooperated ever more closely with Dong and his circle. Meanwhile Zhejiang and Fujian coastal defenses had rotted away: only one or two war junks in ten still floated, and of the Zhangzhou and Quanzhou patrol forces' former quota of twenty-five hundred archers barely a thousand remained. Each raid succeeded, emboldening them further until new bands arrived in an unbroken stream.

紈巡海道，采僉事項高及士民言，謂不革渡船則海道不可清，不嚴保甲則海防不可復，上疏具列其狀。於是革渡船，嚴保甲，搜捕奸民。閩人資衣食於海，驟失重利，雖士大夫家亦不便也，欲沮壞之。紈討平覆鼎山賊。明年將進攻雙嶼，使副使柯喬、都指揮黎秀分駐漳、泉、福寧，遏賊奔逸，使都司盧鏜將福清兵由海門進。而日本貢使周良違舊約，以六百人先期至。紈奉詔便宜處分。度不可卻，乃要良自請，後不為例。錄其船，延良入寧波賓館。奸民投書激變，紈防範密，計不得行。夏四月，鏜遇賊於九山洋，俘日本國人稽天，許棟亦就擒。棟黨汪直等收余眾遁，鏜築塞雙嶼而還。番舶後至者不得入，分泊南麂、礁門、青山、下八諸島。

Patrolling the coast, Wan took counsel from chief assistant Xiang Gao and local elites, arguing that sea lanes could not be cleared without reforming ferry traffic and coastal defense could not be restored without tightening the baojia system; he memorialized the throne with a full account. Ferry traffic was restricted, the baojia tightened, and collaborators were hunted down. Fujian households lived off the sea trade; stripped overnight of heavy profits, even gentry families felt the pinch and sought to sabotage his policies. Wan campaigned against and crushed the bandits at Fudingshan. The next year, preparing to assault the Twin Islets, he posted Vice Commissioner Ke Qiao and Regional Commander Li Xiu at Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Funing to block escape routes, while Administration Vice Director Lu Zong advanced through Haimen with Fuqing troops. Meanwhile the Japanese tribute envoy Zhou Liang broke prior agreements, arriving early with six hundred men. Wan held imperial authorization to handle matters on the spot. Seeing that the mission could not be refused, he required Liang to submit his own petition, on the understanding that it would not set a precedent. He inventoried their ships and quartered Liang in the Ningbo guest residence. Outlaw sympathizers sent letters meant to provoke unrest, but Wan's security was tight and the scheme failed. That summer in the fourth month, Lu Zong met pirates in the Jiushan waters, capturing the Japanese leader Ji Tian and taking Xu Dong alive. Xu Dong's ally Wang Zhi gathered the remnants and fled, while Zong sealed off the Twin Islets and withdrew. Later foreign vessels could not enter port and lay at anchor off Nanzhi, Jiaomen, Qingshan, and other islands.

勢家既失利，則宣言被擒者皆良民，非賊黨，用搖惑人心。又挾制有司，以脅從被擄予輕比，重者引強盜拒捕律。紈上疏曰：「今海禁分明，不知何由被擄，何由協從？若以入番導寇為強盜，海洋敵對為拒捕，臣之愚暗，實所未解。」遂以便宜行戮。

Once powerful families lost their profit, they spread word that those captured were innocent locals, not pirates, to unsettle public opinion. They also coerced officials into treating captured followers leniently while demanding harsh robbery-and-resisting-arrest charges for the leaders. Wan memorialized: "The maritime ban is explicit—how were these people seized, and how did they come to aid the enemy? To call trade with foreigners 'robbery' and open-sea resistance 'violent refusal of arrest' is, in my limited understanding, beyond comprehension. He then executed them summarily under his discretionary powers.

紈執法既堅，勢家皆懼。貢使周良安插已定，閩人林懋和為主客司，宣言宜發回其使。紈以中國制馭諸番，宜守大信，疏爭之強。且曰：「去外國盜易，去中國盜難。去中國瀕海之盜猶易，去中國衣寇之盜尤難。」閩、浙人益恨之，竟勒周良還泊海嶼，以俟貢期。吏部用御史閩人周亮及給事中葉鏜言，奏改紈巡視，以殺其權。紈憤，又明年春上疏言：「臣整頓海防，稍有次第，亮欲侵削臣權，致屬吏不肯用命。」既又陳明國是、正憲體、定紀綱、扼要害、除禍本、重斷決六事，語多憤激。中朝士大夫先入浙、閩人言，亦有不悅紈者矣。

Wan enforced the law relentlessly, and the great families feared him. Once tribute envoy Zhou Liang was settled in quarters, Lin Maohe of Fujian, serving in the Department of Receptions, urged that the envoy be sent home. Wan held that China's dealings with foreign peoples demanded good faith and argued the point forcefully in a memorial. He added: "Foreign pirates are easy to root out; Chinese pirates are hard. Coastal Chinese pirates are easier still; but pirates sheltered by men in official robes are hardest of all. Fujian and Zhejiang interests hated him all the more and ultimately forced Zhou Liang back to offshore anchorage to await the tribute season. The Ministry of Personnel, following Fujian censor Zhou Liang and supervising secretary Ye Zhen, reassigned Wan to a mere "inspector" role, diluting his authority. Incensed, Wan memorialized again the following spring: "I had brought coastal defense into order, but Zhou Liang seeks to cripple my authority, and my subordinates now refuse to obey. He went on to set forth six urgent themes—national policy, legal integrity, discipline, strategic choke points, cutting off the roots of disorder, and decisive punishment—in language sharp with anger. Court officials, having already been swayed by Fujian and Zhejiang voices, took against him as well.

紈前討溫、盤、南麂諸賊，連戰三月，大破之，還平處州礦盜。其年三月，佛郎機國人行劫至詔安。紈擊擒其渠李光頭等九十六人，復以便宜戮之。具狀聞，語復侵諸勢家。御史陳九德遂劾紈擅殺。落紈職，命兵科都給事杜汝禎按問。紈聞之，慷慨流涕曰：「吾貧且病，又負氣，不任對簿。縱天子不欲死我，閩、浙人必殺我。吾死，自決之，不須人也。」制壙誌，作俟命詞，仰藥死。二十九年，給事汝禎、巡按御史陳宗夔還，稱奸民鬻販拒捕，無僭號流劫事，坐紈擅殺。詔逮紈，紈已前死。柯喬、盧鏜等並論重辟。

Earlier he had spent three months fighting pirates around Wenzhou, Pan'an, and Nanzhi, routing them thoroughly, and on his return he pacified miners' rebellions in Chuzhou. That third month, Portuguese raiders struck Zhao'an. Wan captured ringleader Li Guangtou and ninety-six of his men, and again executed them summarily. His report implicated powerful families once more. Censor Chen Jiude then impeached him for unauthorized killing. Wan was dismissed, and supervising secretary Du Ruzhen was ordered to investigate. Learning of this, he wept in frustration: "I am poor, ill, and proud—I cannot endure a formal interrogation. Even if the emperor spares me, Fujian and Zhejiang will not. When I die, I will choose the manner myself—I need no executioner. He composed tomb inscriptions, wrote a parting poem, and took poison. In the twenty-ninth year Du Ruzhen and investigating censor Chen Zongkui returned with findings that the men had merely traded contraband and resisted arrest—no rebel titles or freebooting—and convicted Wan of unauthorized execution. The court ordered his arrest, but Wan was already dead. Ke Qiao, Lu Zong, and others were sentenced to heavy punishments as well.

紈清強峭直，勇於任事。欲為國家杜亂源，乃為勢家構陷，朝野太息。自紈死，罷巡視大臣不設，中外搖手不敢言海禁事。浙中衛所四十一，戰船四百三十九，尺籍盡耗。紈招福清捕盜船四十余，分布海道，在臺州海門衛者十有四，為黃巖外障，副使丁湛盡散遣之，撤備馳禁。未幾，海寇大作，毒東南者十余年。

Wan was upright, stern, and fearless in duty. He had sought to choke off the springs of disorder for the dynasty, yet powerful families engineered his downfall to universal lament. After his death the post of supreme maritime commissioner was left vacant, and throughout the empire none dared raise the sea-ban again. Zhejiang had forty-one guards and battalions with four hundred thirty-nine war junks on paper, yet rosters of men and materiel were hollow. Wan had recruited over forty Fuqing anti-pirate vessels and posted them along the coast—fourteen at Taizhou's Haimen guard alone as Huangyan's outer shield—but Vice Commissioner Ding Zhan dispersed the fleet and relaxed enforcement. Soon maritime raiders surged unchecked, scourging the southeast for more than a decade.

張經，字廷彜，侯官人。初冒蔡姓，久之乃復。正德十二年進士。除嘉興知縣。嘉靖四年召為吏科給事中，歷戶科都給事中，數有論劾。言官指為張、桂黨，吏部言經行修，不問。擢太仆少卿，歷右副都御史，協理院事。十六年進兵部右侍郎，總督兩廣軍務。斷藤峽賊侯公丁據弩灘為亂。經與御史鄒堯臣等定計，以軍事屬副使翁萬達，誘執公丁。參議田汝成請乘勢進討。命副總兵張經將三萬五千人為左軍，萬達監之，指揮王良輔等六將分六道會南寧；都指揮高乾將萬六千人為右軍，副使梁廷振監之，指揮馬文傑等四將分四道會賓州，抵賊巢夾擊。賊奔林峒而東。良輔等邀之，賊中斷，復西奔，斬首千二百級。其東者遁入羅運山，萬達等移師攻之。檄右軍沿江而東，繞出其背。賊刊巨木塞隘口，布蒺藜菇簽，伏機弩毒鏢，懸石樹杪，急則撼其樹，石皆墜，官軍並以計破之。右軍愆期，田州土酋盧受乃縱賊去。俘其眾四百五十，招降者二千九百有奇。土人言，祖父居羅運八世矣，未聞官軍涉茲土也。捷聞，進經左侍郎，加秩一級。

Zhang Jing, style Tingyi, was a native of Houguan. He had first borne the surname Cai and only later resumed Zhang. He passed the jinshi examinations in the twelfth year of Zhengde. He was appointed magistrate of Jiaxing. In Jiajing year four he entered the capital as a supervising secretary in Personnel, later becoming chief supervising secretary in Revenue while repeatedly censuring officials. Supervising censors labeled him a Zhang-Gui partisan, but the Ministry of Personnel certified his integrity and left him unharmed. He rose to vice minister of the Imperial Stud, then right vice censor-in-chief with concurrent court administration. In the sixteenth year he became vice minister of war and supreme commander of the two Guang. The Duanteng Gorge bandit Hou Gongding seized Nuwang Beach and rebelled. Jing and Censor Zou Yaochan devised a plan, leaving operations to Vice Commissioner Weng Wanda, who enticed and captured Gongding. Assistant Administrator Tian Rucheng urged a follow-up offensive. He placed Deputy Regional Commander Zhang Jing at the head of thirty-five thousand troops in the left wing under Wanda's supervision, with six commanders including Wang Liangfu converging on Nanning by six routes; while Regional Commander Gao Qian led sixteen thousand six hundred men on the right wing under Vice Commissioner Liang Zhen, with four commanders including Ma Wenjie advancing on Binzhou to converge on the rebel nest from flanking routes. The rebels fled eastward from the forest passes. Wang Liangfu intercepted them, cutting the force in two; when they veered west again, over twelve hundred heads were taken. The eastern remnant fled into Mt. Luoyun, where Wanda redirected the offensive. He ordered the right wing to move downstream eastward and encircle their rear. Rebels blocked passes with felled timber, caltrop thickets, poisoned spikes, ambush crossbows, poisoned bolts, and boulders rigged in the treetops to crash down when the trees were shaken—yet government forces overcame each device in turn. When the right wing missed its deadline, Tianzhou chieftain Lu Shou released the rebels. They took 450 prisoners and received nearly three thousand surrenders. Locals declared that eight generations had lived on Mt. Luoyun without ever seeing imperial troops cross that ground. News of victory brought promotion to left vice minister of war and an extra grade of rank.

尋與毛伯溫定計，撫定安南，再進右都御史。平思恩九土司及瓊州黎，進兵部尚書。副使張瑤等討馬平瑤屢敗，帝罪瑤等而宥經。給事中周怡劾經，經乞罷，不允。以憂歸。服闋，起三邊總督。給事中劉起宗言經在兩廣克餉銀，寢前命。

He soon joined Mao Bowen in pacifying Annam and was promoted again to right censor-in-chief. He subdued the nine chieftaincies of Sien and the Li of Qiongzhou, rising to minister of war. When Vice Commissioner Zhang Yao's campaigns against the Maping Yao failed repeatedly, the emperor punished Yao's commanders but spared Jing. Supervising Secretary Zhou Yi impeached him, and though Jing asked to retire, the request was denied. He left office to observe mourning for his parent. When the mourning period ended he was appointed supreme commander of the three frontiers. Supervising Secretary Liu Qizong accused him of embezzling military funds in Guangdong and Guangxi, and the earlier appointment was suspended.

三十二年起南京戶部尚書，就改兵部。明年五月，朝議以倭寇猖獗，設總督大臣。命經不解部務，總督江南、江北、浙江、山東、福建、湖廣諸軍，便宜行事。經征兩廣狼土兵聽用。其年十一月，用兵科言改經右都御史兼兵部右侍郎，專辦討賊。倭二萬餘據柘林川沙窪，其黨方踵至。經日選將練兵，為搗巢計。以江、浙、山東兵屢敗，欲俟狼土兵至用之。明年三月，田州瓦氏兵先至，欲速戰，經不可。東蘭諸兵繼至。經以瓦氏兵隸總兵官俞大猷，以東蘭、那地、南丹兵隸遊擊鄒繼芳，以歸順及思恩、東莞兵隸參將湯克寬，分屯金山衛、閔港、乍浦，掎賊三面，以待永順、保靖兵之集。會侍郎趙文華以祭海至，與浙江巡按胡宗憲比，屢趨經進兵。經曰：「賊狡且眾，待永、保兵至夾攻，庶萬全。」文華再三言，經守便宜不聽。文華密疏經糜餉殃民，畏賊失機，欲俟倭飽飏，剿余寇報功，宜亟治，以紓東南大禍。帝問嚴嵩，嵩對如文華指，且謂蘇、松人怨經。帝怒，即下詔逮經。三十四年五月也。

In year thirty-two he became Nanjing minister of revenue, then moved at once to the Ministry of War. The following fifth month, with wokou raids raging, the court created the supreme commandership. He was told to keep his ministry post while commanding forces across Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian, and Huguang with discretionary authority. He requisitioned Lang "wolf" native troops from the two Guang. That November the Ministry of War reshaped his title to right censor-in-chief and concurrent right vice minister of war, focused solely on the anti-pirate campaign. Over twenty thousand pirates held Zhulin and Chuansha harbors while reinforcements kept arriving. Jing trained officers daily, preparing a decisive strike on their stronghold. After repeated defeats of local Jiang-Zhe and Shandong forces, he waited for the Lang reinforcements. The next third month, Tianzhou's Wasi contingent arrived eager for immediate battle, but Jing refused. Donglan and other native contingents followed. He assigned the Wasi to Regional Commander Yu Dayou, Donglan-Nadi-Nandan forces to Mobile Corps Commander Zou Jifang, and Guishun, Sien, and Dongguan troops to Assistant Regional Commander Tang Kuankuan, posting them at Jinshan Guard, Mingang, and Zhapu to pinch the enemy on three sides while awaiting Yongshun and Baojing reinforcements. Vice Minister Zhao Wenhua arrived for the sea-offering rites and, aligned with investigating censor Hu Zongxian, repeatedly pressed Jing to attack. Jing replied: "The enemy is cunning and numerous—wait for the Yongshun and Baojing troops to arrive for a pincer attack, and we may hope for complete success. Wenhua pressed repeatedly, but Jing stood on his discretionary authority and refused. Wenhua secretly accused Jing of wasting supplies and harming civilians, of fearing the enemy and missing his chance, of waiting for the pirates to gorge themselves and sail away before mopping up stragglers for credit—urging immediate punishment to avert catastrophe in the southeast. The emperor consulted Yan Song, who echoed Wenhua's charges and added that Suzhou and Songjiang resented Jing. Enraged, the emperor ordered Jing arrested at once. This was the fifth month of the thirty-fourth year.

方文華拜疏，永、保兵已至，其日即有石塘灣之捷。至五月朔，倭突嘉興，經遣參將盧鏜督保靖兵援，以大猷督永順兵由泖湖趨平望，以克寬引舟師由中路擊之，合戰於王江涇，斬賊首一千九百余級，焚溺死者甚眾。自軍興來稱戰功第一。給事中李用敬、閻望雲等言：「王師大捷，倭奪氣，不宜易帥。」帝大怒曰：「經欺誕不忠，聞文華劾，方一戰。用敬等黨奸。杖於廷，人五十，斥為民。」已而帝疑之，以問嵩。嵩言：「徐階、李本江、浙人，皆言經養寇不戰。文華、宗憲合謀進剿，經冒以為功。」因極言二人忠。帝深入其言。經既至，備言進兵始末，且言：「任總督半載，前後俘斬五千，乞賜原宥。」帝終不納，論死系獄。其年十月，與巡撫李天寵俱斬。天下冤之。

The very day Wenhua's memorial reached court, Yongshun and Baojing troops had arrived—and that same day brought victory at Shitang Bay. On the first of the fifth month pirates struck Jiaxing; Jing sent Lu Zong with Baojing troops to relieve the city, Dayou with Yongshun forces through Maohu toward Pingwang, and Kuankuan's fleet up the central channel; at Wangjiang Ford they killed over nineteen hundred heads, with countless more burned or drowned. It was acclaimed as the greatest victory since the war began. Supervising secretaries Li Yongjing and Yan Wangyun urged: "The imperial army has won a great victory and the pirates are demoralized—the commander should not be replaced. The emperor raged: "Jing deceived the throne and was disloyal—he fought only after hearing of Wenhua's accusation. Yongjing and his allies shield the guilty. They were flogged fifty strokes each in court and reduced to commoner status. Later the emperor grew doubtful and questioned Song again. Song replied: "Xu Jie and Li Ben, both Jiang-Zhe natives, say Jing sheltered the pirates and refused to fight. Wenhua and Zongxian jointly launched the attack; Jing stole the credit. He then lavishly praised the two men's loyalty. The emperor was fully persuaded. When Jing arrived in custody he recounted the campaign in full, pleading: "In half a year as supreme commander I captured or killed five thousand—grant me mercy. The emperor refused, sentenced him to death, and cast him into prison. That tenth month he was executed alongside Grand Coordinator Li Tianchong. The empire regarded it as a gross injustice.

天寵，孟津人。由御史遷徐州兵備副使，卻倭通州、如臯。三十三年六月擢右僉都御史，代王忬巡撫浙江。倭掠紹興，殲焉，賚銀幣。頃之，賊犯嘉善，圍嘉興，劫秀水、歸安，副使陳宗夔戰不利，百戶賴榮華中炮死，嘉善知縣鄧植棄城走。入城大掠。賊復陷崇德，攻德清，殺裨將梁鄂等。文華謗天寵嗜酒廢事，帝遂除天寵名，而擢宗憲以代。未幾，御史葉恩以倭躪北新關，劾天寵，宗憲亦言其縱寇。帝怒，逮下獄，遂與經同日死。

Tianchong was a native of Mengjin. Rising from censor to Xuzhou vice commissioner for military preparations, he repelled pirates at Tongzhou and Rugao. In the sixth month of the thirty-third year he became right assistant censor-in-chief, replacing Wang Yu as Zhejiang grand coordinator. When pirates raided Shaoxing he destroyed them and received silver and silks in reward. Soon the raiders struck Jiashan, besieged Jiaxing, and looted Xiushui and Guian; Vice Commissioner Chen Zongkui was defeated, Company Commander Lai Ronghua died by cannon shot, and Jiashan Magistrate Deng Zhi abandoned his post and fled. The pirates entered the city and looted it thoroughly. They then seized Chongde, attacked Deqing, and killed Assistant Commander Liang E and others. Wenhua slandered Tianchong as a drunk who neglected duty; the emperor dismissed him and promoted Zongxian in his place. Soon Censor Ye En impeached him after pirates overran Beixin Pass, and Zongxian accused him of indulging the enemy. The emperor had him arrested and imprisoned, and he was executed on the same day as Jing.

代經者應城周充、衡水楊宜。節制不行，狼土兵肆焚掠。東南民既苦倭，復苦兵矣。隆慶初，復經官，謚襄湣。

Zhou Chong of Yingcheng and Yang Yi of Hengshui succeeded Jing. With no effective command, the Lang native troops burned and looted at will. Southeasterners who had already suffered under the pirates now suffered under their own armies as well. At the start of the Longqing reign his honors were restored and he was posthumously titled Xiangmin.

珫為戶科給事中，坐諫世宗南幸，謫鎮遠典史。累官右僉都御史，巡撫蘇、松諸府。疏陳禦倭有十難，有三策。經既得禍，即擢充兵部右侍郎代之，無所展。會宗憲已代天寵，因欲奪充位。文華遂劾充，薦宗憲。帝為奪充俸，尋勒為民。充在官僅三十有四日，而楊宜代。

Chong had served as a supervising secretary in Revenue; for opposing the Jiajing emperor's southern tour he was demoted to Zhenyuan recorder. He rose through the ranks to right assistant censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Suzhou and Songjiang prefectures. In a memorial he outlined ten difficulties and three strategies for resisting the pirates. After Jing's fall, Chong was promoted to right vice minister of war in his place but could accomplish nothing. Zongxian, having replaced Tianchong, now sought to displace Chong as well. Wenhua impeached Chong and recommended Zongxian. The emperor docked his salary and soon forced him into commoner status. Chong held office only thirty-four days before Yang Yi replaced him.

宜撫河南，平劇賊師尚詔。遷南京戶部右侍郎，未幾代充。時倭勢猶盛。宜為總督，而文華督察軍務，威出宜上。易置文武大吏，惟其愛憎。宜懲經、天寵禍，曲意奉之。文華視之蔑如也。倭據陶宅，官軍久無功，文華遂劾宜。宜以狼兵徒剽掠不可用，請募江、浙義勇，山東箭手，益調江、浙、福建、湖廣漕卒，河南毛兵。比客兵大集，宜不能馭。川兵與山東兵私鬥，幾殺參將。酉陽兵潰於高橋，奪舟徑歸蘇州。明年正月，文華還朝，請罷宜，以宗憲代。會御史邵惟中上失事狀，遂奪宜職閑住。宜在事僅逾半歲，以諂事文華，故得禍輕。

Yi had served as Henan grand coordinator, suppressing the major rebel Shi Shangzhao. He became Nanjing vice minister of revenue and soon replaced Chong. Pirate power remained formidable. Yi was supreme commander in name, but Wenhua inspected military affairs and wielded authority above him. He replaced civil and military officials at will, guided only by personal favor. Chastened by Jing's and Tianchong's fates, Yi bent every effort to please him. Wenhua treated him with open contempt. With pirates entrenched at Taozhai and government forces making no headway, Wenhua impeached Yi. Yi argued that Lang troops only looted and were useless, requesting Jiang-Zhe volunteers, Shandong archers, additional transport-corps troops from Jiang-Zhe-Fujian-Huguang, and Henan Mao troops. When these outside contingents massed, Yi could not control them. Sichuan and Shandong troops fought each other, nearly killing an assistant regional commander. Youyang troops broke at Gaoqiao, seized boats, and fled straight to Suzhou. The following first month Wenhua returned to court, asked that Yi be dismissed, and recommended Zongxian to replace him. When Censor Shao Weizhong reported the failures, Yi was dismissed to idle retirement. Yi served barely half a year; because he flattered Wenhua, his punishment was relatively light.

倭之躪蘇、松也，起嘉靖三十二年，訖三十九年，其間為巡撫者十人。安福彭黯，遷南京工部尚書。畏賊，不俟代去，下獄除名。黃岡方任、上虞陳洙皆未抵任。任丁憂，洙以才不足任別用。而代以鄞人屠大山，使提督軍務。蘇、松巡撫之兼督軍務，自大山始。閱半歲，以疾免。尋坐失事下詔獄，為民。繼之者充。繼充者曹邦輔。以文華譖，下詔獄，謫戍。次眉州張景賢，以考察奪職。次盩厔趙忻，坐金山軍變，下獄貶官。次江陵陳錠，數月罷去。次翁大立。當大立時，倭患已息，而坐惡少年鼓噪為亂，竟罷職。無一不得罪去者。

The ravaging of Suzhou and Songjiang by pirates ran from Jiajing year thirty-two through thirty-nine, with ten grand coordinators in that span. Peng An of Anfu was transferred to Nanjing minister of works. Fearing the enemy, he fled before his successor arrived, was imprisoned, and struck from the rolls. Fang Ren of Huanggang and Chen Zhu of Shangyu never took up their posts. Ren withdrew for mourning; Zhu was reassigned as unfit for the post. Tu Dashan of Yin replaced them with authority to supervise military affairs. The Suzhou-Songjiang grand coordinator's concurrent military command began with Dashan. Half a year later he retired on grounds of illness. Soon he was imprisoned for military failure and reduced to commoner status. Chong succeeded him. Cao Bangfu succeeded Chong. On Wenhua's slander he was imprisoned and banished to frontier service. Next came Zhang Jingxian of Meizhou, removed after a performance review. Next was Zhao Xin of Zhouzhi, imprisoned and demoted after the Jinshan mutiny. Next was Chen Ding of Jiangling, dismissed after only a few months. Next was Weng Dali. During Dali's tenure the pirate threat had subsided, but he tolerated rowdy youths who stirred up disorder and was dismissed. Not one left office without disgrace.

胡宗憲，字汝貞，績溪人。嘉靖十七年進士。歷知益都、余姚二縣。擢御史，巡按宣、大。詔徙大同左衛軍於陽和、獨石，卒聚而嘩。宗憲單騎慰諭，許勿徙，乃定。

Hu Zongxian, courtesy name Ruzhen, came from Jixi. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventeenth year of the Jiajing reign. He served in turn as magistrate of Yidu and Yuyao. Promoted to censor, he was assigned to inspect Xuanfu and Datong. When an edict ordered the Datong Left Guard transferred to Yanghe and Dushi, the troops massed and raised an uproar. Zongxian rode out alone to reassure them, promised they would not be relocated, and the disturbance subsided.

三十三年，出按浙江。時歙人汪直據五島煽諸倭入寇，而徐海、陳東、麻葉等巢柘林、乍浦、川沙窪，日擾郡邑。帝命張經為總督，李天寵撫浙江，又命侍郎趙文華督察軍務。文華恃嚴嵩內援，恣甚。經、天寵不附也，獨宗憲附之。文華大悅，因相與力排二人。倭寇嘉興，守憲中以毒酒，死數百人。及經破王江涇，宗憲與有力。文華盡掩經功歸宗憲，經遂得罪。尋又陷天寵，即超擢宗憲右僉都御史代之。時柘林諸倭移屯陶宅，勢稍殺。會蘇、松巡撫曹邦輔殲倭滸墅，文華欲攘功不得，大恨，遂進剿陶宅殘寇。宗憲與共，將銳卒四千，營磚橋，約邦輔夾擊。倭殊死戰，宗憲兵死者千余。文華令副使劉燾攻之，復大敗。而倭犯浙東諸州縣，殺文武吏甚眾。宗憲乃與文華定招撫計。文華還朝，盛毀總督楊宜，而薦宗憲，遂以為兵部右侍郎代宜。

In the thirty-third year he was dispatched to inspect Zhejiang. Wang Zhi of She county then held the Gotō Islands and stirred the Japanese to raid the coast, while Xu Hai, Chen Dong, Ma Ye, and others had bases at Zhalin, Zhapu, and Chuanshawo and harried the region day after day. The emperor made Zhang Jing grand coordinator, Li Tianchong grand coordinator of Zhejiang, and sent Vice Minister Zhao Wenhua to oversee the campaign. Wenhua leaned on Yan Song's patronage at court and behaved with sweeping arrogance. Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong would not court him; Zongxian alone did. Wenhua was delighted and together they worked relentlessly to bring the two men down. When pirates struck Jiaxing, the defenders lured them with poisoned wine and killed several hundred. When Zhang Jing won at Wangjiangjing, Zongxian had contributed materially to the victory. Wenhua claimed Zhang Jing's credit for Zongxian, and Zhang Jing was ruined. He soon brought down Li Tianchong as well and had Zongxian promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief to take his place. The pirates who had been at Zhalin had shifted to Taozhai, and their strength was somewhat reduced. Cao Bangfu, pacifier of Suzhou and Songjiang, had just destroyed the pirates at Hushu; Wenhua could not steal that credit and, furious, marched against the remnants at Taozhai. Zongxian joined the operation with four thousand picked troops, camped at Zhuanqiao, and arranged a converging strike with Bangfu. The pirates fought desperately, and over a thousand of Zongxian's men were killed. Wenhua ordered Vice Commissioner Liu Tao to press the attack and suffered another crushing defeat. Meanwhile pirates overran eastern Zhejiang, slaying a great many officials, civil and military alike. Zongxian and Wenhua then agreed on a policy of negotiation and surrender. Back at court, Wenhua vilified Grand Coordinator Yang Yi and recommended Zongxian, who was appointed Vice Minister of War in Yang Yi's place.

初，宗憲令客蔣洲、陳可願諭日本國王，遇汪直養子滶於五島，邀使見直。直初誘倭入犯，倭大獲利，各島由此日至。既而多殺傷，有全島無一歸者，死者家怨直。直乃與滶及葉碧川、王清溪、謝和等據五島自保。島人呼為老船主。宗憲與直同鄉里，欲招致之，釋直母妻於金華獄，資給甚厚。洲等諭宗憲指。直心動，又知母妻無恙，大喜曰：「俞大猷絕我歸路，故至此。若貸罪許市，吾亦欲歸耳。但日本國王已死，各島不相攝，須次第諭之。」因留洲而遣滶等護可願歸。宗憲厚遇滶，令立功。滶遂破倭舟山，再破之列表。宗憲請於朝，賜滶等金幣，縱之歸。滶大喜，以徐海入犯來告。亡何，海果引大隅、薩摩二島倭分掠瓜洲、上海、慈溪，自引萬余人攻乍浦，陳東、麻葉與俱。宗憲壁塘棲，與巡撫阮鶚相犄角。會海趨皂林，鶚遣遊擊宗禮擊海於崇德三里橋，三戰三捷。既而敗死，鶚走桐鄉。

Earlier Zongxian had sent his agents Jiang Zhou and Chen Keyuan to treat with the Japanese court; at the Gotō Islands they met Wang Zhi's adopted son Bo, who arranged an audience with Zhi. Zhi had first lured the Japanese to raid the coast; the profits were immense, and raiders from the islands arrived in ever greater numbers. Casualties mounted until entire islands sent out men who never came home, and bereaved families turned on Zhi. Zhi withdrew with Bo, Ye Bichuan, Wang Qingxi, Xie He, and others to fortify themselves on the Gotō Islands. On the islands he was known as the Old Shipmaster. Zongxian, a fellow townsman of Zhi's, sought to win him over: he freed Zhi's mother and wife from prison in Jinhua and provided for them handsomely. Jiang Zhou and his party delivered Zongxian's message. Zhi wavered; when he learned his family was safe he was overjoyed and said, "Yu Dayou blocked my way home—that is how I came to this pass. If you spare me and allow trade, I am willing to come back. But the Japanese king is dead and the islands answer to no one; they must be persuaded one by one." He kept Jiang Zhou but sent Bo and others to escort Chen Keyuan home. Zongxian treated Bo lavishly and set him to earn his keep in battle. Bo routed the pirates at Zhoushan and defeated them again at Liebiao. Zongxian petitioned the court, secured gold and silks for Bo and his men, and sent them home. Delighted, Bo brought word that Xu Hai was launching a new raid. Soon Xu Hai did just that: raiders from Ōsumi and Satsuma fanned out against Guazhou, Shanghai, and Cixi while he led ten thousand men against Zhapu, with Chen Dong and Ma Ye at his side. Zongxian held Tangqi and coordinated with Grand Coordinator Ruan He in a pincer defense. When Hai moved on Zaolin, Ruan He sent Mobile Corps Commander Zong Li to meet him at Sanli Bridge in Chongde; Li won three engagements in succession. Then Li was defeated and killed, and Ruan He retreated to Tongxiang.

禮，常熟人，由世千戶歷署都督僉事。驍健敢戰。練卒三千連破倭，至是敗歿。贈都督同知，謚忠壯，賜祠皂林。

Li, a native of Changshu, had risen from a hereditary chiliarch to acting Vice Commissioner of the Chief Military Commission. He was fierce, hardy, and fearless in combat. With three thousand drilled troops he had broken the pirates again and again; now he fell in defeat. He was posthumously promoted to Vice Commissioner-in-Chief, given the posthumous name Zhongzhuang, and honored with a shrine at Zaolin.

鶚既入桐鄉，賊乘勝圍之。宗憲計曰：「與鶚俱陷無益也。」遂還杭州，遣指揮夏正等持滶書要海降。海驚曰：「老船主亦降乎？」時海病創，意頗動，因曰：「兵三路進，不由我一人也。」正曰：「陳東已他有約，所慮獨公耳。」海遂疑東。而東知海營有宗憲使者，大驚，由是有隙。正乘間說下海。海遣使來謝，索財物，宗憲報如其請。海乃歸俘二百人，解桐鄉圍。東留攻一日，亦去，復巢乍浦。鶚知不能當海，乃東渡錢塘禦他賊。

Once Ruan He was inside Tongxiang, the pirates pressed their advantage and besieged the city. Zongxian reasoned, "There is no gain in being trapped with Ruan He." He withdrew to Hangzhou and sent Commander Xia Zheng with Bo's letter to demand Xu Hai's surrender. Xu Hai exclaimed, "Has even the Old Shipmaster surrendered?" Wounded and shaken, he added, "Three columns are advancing—it is not mine alone to decide." Xia Zheng replied, "Chen Dong already has his own arrangement; you are the only one we worry about." Xu Hai began to suspect Chen Dong. When Chen Dong learned that Zongxian's envoys were in Xu Hai's camp he was alarmed, and bad blood opened between them. Xia Zheng seized the moment and talked Xu Hai into surrendering. Xu Hai sent envoys to express thanks and demand gifts; Zongxian granted what he asked. Xu Hai then returned two hundred prisoners and lifted the siege of Tongxiang. Chen Dong lingered one more day of assault, then withdrew and reoccupied Zhapu. Knowing he could not hold Xu Hai, Ruan He crossed the Qiantang to the east to deal with other raiders.

初，海入犯，焚其舟，示士卒無還心。至是，宗憲使人語海曰：「若已內附，而吳淞江方有賊，何不擊之以立功？且掠其舸，為緩急計。」海以為然，逆擊之朱涇，斬三十余級。宗憲令大猷潛焚其舟。海心怖，以弟洪來質，獻所戴飛魚冠、堅甲、名劍及他玩好。宗憲因厚遇洪，諭海縛陳東、麻葉，許以世爵。海果縛葉以獻。宗憲解其縛，令以書致東圖海，而陰泄其書於海。海怒。海妾受宗憲賂，亦說海。於是海復以計縛東來獻，帥其眾五百人去乍浦，別營梁莊。官軍焚乍浦巢，斬首三百余級，焚溺死稱是。海遂刻日請降，先期猝至，留甲士平湖城外，率酋長百余，胄而入。文華等懼，欲勿許，宗憲強許之。海叩首伏罪，宗憲摩海頂，慰諭之。海自擇沈莊屯其眾。沈莊者東西各一，以河為塹。宗憲居海東莊，以西莊處東黨。令東致書其黨曰：「督府檄海，夕擒若屬矣。」東黨懼，乘夜將攻海。海挾兩妾走，間道中槊。明日，官軍圍之，海投水死。會盧鏜亦擒辛五郎至。辛五郎者，大隅島主弟也。遂俘洪、東、葉、五郎及海首獻京師。帝大悅，行告廟禮，加宗憲右都御史，賜金幣加等。海余黨奔舟山。宗憲令俞大猷雪夜焚其柵，盡死。兩浙倭漸平。

When Xu Hai first invaded he burned his ships to show his men there would be no turning back. Now Zongxian sent word to Xu Hai: "You have submitted to the dynasty, yet pirates still hold the Wusong—why not strike them and earn merit? Seize their boats as well, against whatever may come." Xu Hai agreed, intercepted the enemy at Zhujing, and took more than thirty heads. Zongxian had Yu Dayou secretly burn Xu Hai's new fleet. Terrified, Xu Hai sent his brother Hong as a hostage and offered up his flying-fish coronet, fine armor, a celebrated sword, and other treasures. Zongxian treated Hong well and urged Xu Hai to seize Chen Dong and Ma Ye, promising a hereditary title. Xu Hai duly bound Ma Ye and sent him in. Zongxian freed Ma Ye and had him write Chen Dong urging a plot against Xu Hai, then secretly showed the letter to Xu Hai. Xu Hai flew into a rage. Xu Hai's concubine, whom Zongxian had bribed, pressed him as well. Xu Hai then trapped Chen Dong and delivered him up, led five hundred men away from Zhapu, and made a separate camp at Liangzhuang. Government troops burned the Zhapu stronghold, took more than three hundred heads, and killed as many again by fire and drowning. Xu Hai then set a date to surrender but arrived early, left his armored men outside Pinghu, and entered with more than a hundred chiefs in full armor. Wenhua and his party were afraid and wanted to refuse; Zongxian insisted on accepting. Xu Hai kowtowed in confession; Zongxian patted his head and reassured him. Xu Hai chose Shenzhuang to encamp his followers. Shenzhuang consisted of two settlements, east and west, with a river between them as a ditch. Zongxian quartered Xu Hai in the eastern camp and put Chen Dong's men in the western one. He had Chen Dong write to his followers: "The governor's office has told Xu Hai to seize you tonight." Chen Dong's men panicked and prepared a night assault on Xu Hai. Xu Hai fled with his two concubines by a back path and was speared. The next day government troops closed in; Xu Hai threw himself into the water and drowned. About then Lu Tang also captured Shin Gorō and brought him in. Shin Gorō was the younger brother of the lord of Ōsumi. Hong, Chen Dong, Ma Ye, Shin Gorō, and Xu Hai's head were then sent to the capital as captives. The emperor was delighted, performed the rite of announcing victory at the ancestral temple, promoted Zongxian to Right Censor-in-Chief, and rewarded him with extra gold and silks. Xu Hai's remaining followers fled to Zhoushan. Zongxian had Yu Dayou burn their stockades on a snowy night; none survived. The pirate threat in the two Zhes gradually subsided.

三十六年正月，阮鶚改撫福建，即命宗憲兼浙江巡撫事。蔣洲在倭中，諭山口、豐後二島主源義長、源義鎮還被掠人口，具方物入貢。宗憲以聞。詔厚賚其使，遣還。至十月，復遣夷目善妙等隨汪直來市，至岑港泊焉。浙人聞直以倭船至，大驚。巡按御史王本固亦言不便，朝臣謂宗憲且釀東南大禍。直遣滶詣宗憲曰：「我等奉詔來，將息兵安境。謂宜使者遠迎，宴犒交至。今盛陳軍容，禁舟楫往來，公紿我耶？」宗憲解諭至再，直不信。乃令其子以書招之，直曰：「兒何愚也。汝父在，厚汝。父來，闔門死矣。」因要一貴官為質。宗憲立遣夏正偕滶往。宗憲嘗預為赦直疏，引滶入臥內，陰窺之。滶語直，疑稍解，乃偕碧川、清溪入謁。宗憲慰藉之甚至，令至杭見本固。本固下直等於獄。宗憲疏請曲貸直死，俾戍海上，系番夷心。本固爭之強，而外議疑宗憲納賊賂。宗憲懼，易詞以聞。直論死，碧川、清溪戍邊。滶與謝和遂支解夏正，柵舟山，阻岑港而守。官軍四面圍之，賊死鬥，多陷歿者。

In the first month of the thirty-sixth year Ruan He was reassigned to Fujian and Zongxian was ordered to take charge of Zhejiang as well. Jiang Zhou, still in Japan, persuaded the lords of Yamaguchi and Bungo, Minamoto Yoshinaga and Minamoto Yoshishige, to return captives and send tribute. Zongxian reported this to the throne. The court richly rewarded the envoys and sent them home. In the tenth month they sent the Japanese official Zenmyō and others with Wang Zhi to trade, anchoring at Cengang. When the people of Zhejiang learned Wang Zhi had arrived with Japanese ships they were terrified. Touring Censor Wang Benggu protested as well, and court officials warned that Zongxian was inviting disaster on the southeast. Wang Zhi sent Bo to Zongxian with the message: "We came by imperial order to halt hostilities and restore peace. We expected envoys to meet us far offshore and feasts and gifts in plenty. Instead you parade troops and bar our ships—are you deceiving us? Zongxian reasoned with him repeatedly, yet Wang Zhi would not trust him. He then had his son invite him by letter; Wang Zhi said, "What a fool the boy is. While I am alive you shall be favored. If I come, the whole household will perish. He then insisted on a senior official as surety. Zongxian at once dispatched Xia Zheng together with Bo. Zongxian had already drafted a petition to pardon Wang Zhi and drew Bo into his bedchamber to observe him in secret. Bo reassured Wang Zhi, his doubts eased somewhat, and together with Bichuan and Qingxi he went in to audience. Zongxian lavished reassurance on him and sent him to Hangzhou to meet Wang Benggu. Wang Benggu threw Wang Zhi and his party into prison. Zongxian petitioned to spare Wang Zhi's life and assign him coastal exile to win over the foreigners. Benggu contested it vigorously, and public rumor held that Zongxian had taken bribes from the pirates. Fearful, Zongxian altered his language in what he reported upward. Wang Zhi was condemned to death; Bichuan and Qingxi were exiled to the border. Bo and Xie He had Xia Zheng cut to pieces, fortified Zhoushan, and held the approaches to Cengang. Imperial forces besieged them from all sides; the pirates fought desperately and many were killed or drowned.

至明年春，新倭復大至，嚴旨責宗憲。宗憲懼得罪，上疏陳戰功，謂賊可指日滅。所司論其欺誕。帝怒，盡奪諸將大猷等職，切讓宗憲，令克期平賊。時趙文華已得罪死，宗憲失內援，見寇患未已，思自媚於上，會得白鹿於舟山，獻之。帝大悅，行告廟禮，厚賚銀幣。未幾，復以白鹿獻。帝益大喜，告謝玄極寶殿及太廟，百官稱賀，加宗憲秩。既而岑港之賊徙巢柯梅，官軍屢攻不能克。御史李瑚劾宗憲誘汪直啟釁。本固及給事中劉堯誨亦劾其老師縱寇，請追奪功賞。帝命廷議之，鹹言宗憲功多，宜勿罷。帝嘉其擒直功，令居職如故。

The next spring fresh raiders arrived in force and the throne severely rebuked Zongxian. Afraid of punishment, Zongxian reported his victories and claimed the pirates would be wiped out any day. The reviewing agencies found his claims fraudulent. The emperor flew into a rage, stripped Yu Dayou and other generals of rank, sharply rebuked Zongxian, and set him a deadline to destroy the pirates. Zhao Wenhua had already been ruined and put to death; cut off from court patronage and with the raids unabated, Zongxian sought to ingratiate himself and, chancing upon a white deer at Zhoushan, presented it to the throne. Delighted, the emperor announced the omen at the ancestral temple and rewarded him richly in silver and silks. Before long he sent another white deer. The emperor was still more pleased, gave thanks at the Hall of Ultimate Treasure and the ancestral temple, officials offered congratulations, and Zongxian was promoted. The Cengang pirates then relocated to Kemei, where imperial forces repeatedly attacked without success. Censor Li Hu charged Zongxian with luring Wang Zhi ashore and starting the trouble. Wang Benggu and Supervising Secretary Liu Yaohui also accused him of procrastination and leniency toward pirates, demanding his rewards be revoked. The emperor ordered a court conference; all argued Zongxian's services outweighed his faults and he should stay in office. The emperor prized his capture of Wang Zhi and left him in his post.

賊之徙柯梅也，造巨艦為遁計。及艦成，宗憲利其去，不擊。賊揚帆泊浯嶼，縱掠閩海州縣。閩人大噪，謂宗憲嫁禍。御史瑚再劾宗憲三大罪。瑚與大猷皆閩人，宗憲疑大猷漏言，劾大猷不力擊，大猷遂被逮。

At Kemei the pirates built large ships to flee. When the fleet was ready Zongxian was glad to see them go and did not strike. They sailed to Wuyu and ravaged the Fujian coast at will. Fujian rose in uproar, accusing Zongxian of shifting the disaster onto them. Censor Li Hu again memorialized three grave charges against Zongxian. Both Li Hu and Yu Dayou were natives of Fujian; suspecting Dayou had leaked his plans, Zongxian charged him with failing to attack and Yu Dayou was arrested.

當是時，江北、福建、廣東皆中倭。宗憲雖盡督東南數十府，道遠，但遙領而已，不能遍經畫。然小勝，輒論功受賚無虛月。即敗衄，不與其罪。三十八年，賊大掠溫、臺，別部復寇濱海諸縣。給事中羅嘉賓、御史龐尚鵬奉詔勘之。言宗憲養寇，當置重典，帝不問。明年，論平汪直功，加太子太保。

By then raids afflicted Jiangbei, Fujian, and Guangdong alike. Though nominally overseeing dozens of southeastern prefectures, distance meant he could only command at a distance and could not manage every front. Yet he claimed credit and collected rewards every month on the strength of minor victories. Defeats brought him no punishment. In the thirty-eighth year pirates ravaged Wenzhou and Taizhou while another force struck the coastal counties. Supervising Secretary Luo Jiabin and Censor Pang Shangpeng were dispatched to investigate. They urged severe punishment for Zongxian's indulgence of the pirates, but the emperor took no action. The following year his role in Wang Zhi's capture was recognized with promotion to Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent.

宗憲多權術，喜功名，因文華結嚴嵩父子，歲遺金帛子女珍奇淫巧無數。文華死，宗憲結嵩益厚，威權震東南。性善賓客，招致東南士大夫預謀議，名用是起。至技術雜流，豢養皆有恩，能得其力。然創編提均徭之法，加賦額外，民為困敝，而所侵官帑、斂富人財物亦不貲。嘉賓、尚鵬還，上宗憲侵帑狀，計三萬三千，他冊籍沈滅。宗憲自辯，言：「臣為國除賊，用間用餌，非小惠不成大謀。」帝以為然，更慰諭之。尋上疏，請得節制巡撫及操江都御史，如三邊故事。帝即晉兵部尚書，如其請。復獻白龜二、五色芝五。帝為謝玄告廟如前，賚宗憲加等。

Zongxian was cunning and ambitious; through Zhao Wenhua he tied himself to Yan Song and his son and each year sent them gold, silks, women, curios, and ingenious luxuries beyond counting. After Wenhua's fall Zongxian courted Yan Song even more assiduously until his power dominated the southeast. He cultivated clients lavishly, drawing southeastern literati into his councils, and his reputation soared. Even artisans and adventurers he kept on retainer repaid him with loyal service. Yet his bian-ti corvée scheme piled extra levies on the people until they were ruined, while his embezzlement of public funds and exactions from the rich were likewise beyond measure. On their return they reported thirty-three thousand taels missing from the treasury on Zongxian's account; other books had been destroyed. Zongxian pleaded in his defense: "I eliminated bandits for the state; espionage and bait require spending—great plans are not won without small concessions. The emperor accepted this and reassured him anew. He soon petitioned for command authority over the grand coordinators and the Yangtze defense censor, on the model of the three-frontier commanders. The emperor at once made him Minister of War and granted his request. He sent two white tortoises and five polychrome fungi as tribute. The emperor again gave thanks at the temple of the Dark Ultimate and rewarded Zongxian on an enhanced scale.

明年，江西盜起，又兼制江西。未至，總兵官戚繼光已平賊。九月奏言：「賊屢犯寧、臺、溫，我師前後俘斬一千四百有奇，賊悉蕩平。」帝悅，加少保。兩廣平巨盜張璉，亦論宗憲功。時嵩已敗，大學士徐階曰：「兩廣平賊，浙何與焉？」僅賜銀幣。未幾，南京給事中陸鳳儀劾其黨嚴嵩及奸欺貪淫十大罪，得旨逮問。及宗憲至，帝曰：「宗憲非嵩黨。朕拔用八九年，人無言者。自累獻祥瑞，為群邪所疾。且初議獲直予五等封，今若加罪，後誰為我任事者？其釋令閑住。」

The following year, when rebels broke out in Jiangxi, he was also put in charge of that province. Before he could arrive, Regional Commander Qi Jiguang had already crushed the rebels. In the ninth month he reported: "Pirates repeatedly struck Ningbo, Taizhou, and Wenzhou; our forces have killed or captured over fourteen hundred in all and the enemy is utterly destroyed. The emperor was pleased and made him Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. When Zhang Lian was suppressed in Guangdong and Guangxi, Zongxian's contribution was raised as well. Yan Song had already fallen; Grand Secretary Xu Jie asked, "Why should Zhejiang share credit when Guangdong and Guangxi crushed the rebels? He received only silver and silks. Soon Nanjing Supervising Secretary Lu Fengyi charged him with ten crimes including alliance with Yan Song, fraud, graft, and debauchery, and an order went out for his arrest. When Zongxian reached the capital the emperor said, "Zongxian is no follower of Yan Song. I have favored him eight or nine years without a word of complaint. It is only his repeated gifts of auspicious creatures that have drawn the malice of his enemies. Besides, we once promised a fifth-rank title for capturing Wang Zhi—if we punish him now, who will risk his life for me hereafter? Release him and allow him to live in retirement."

久之，以萬壽節獻秘術十四。帝大悅，將復用矣。會御史汪汝正籍羅龍文家，上宗憲手書，乃被劾時自擬旨授龍文以達世蕃者，遂逮下獄。宗憲自敘平賊功，言以獻瑞得罪言官，且訐汝正受贓事。帝終憐之，並下汝正獄。宗憲竟瘐死，汝正得釋。萬歷初，復官，謚襄懋。

Long afterward, on the imperial birthday he presented fourteen alchemical recipes. The emperor was delighted and was on the verge of restoring him to office. But when Censor Wang Ruzheng searched Luo Longwen's house he found letters in Zongxian's hand showing he had drafted edicts for Yan Shifan during his impeachment; Zongxian was then thrown into prison. Zongxian cited his victories against the pirates, claimed he was prosecuted only for presenting omens, and accused Wang Ruzheng of taking bribes. The emperor still pitied him and had Wang Ruzheng imprisoned as well. Zongxian died in custody of illness; Wang Ruzheng was freed. Early in the Wanli reign his titles were restored and he was posthumously enfeoffed Xiangmao.

阮鶚者，桐城人，官浙江提學副使。時倭薄杭州，鄉民避難入城者，有司拒不許入。鶚手劍開門納之，全活甚眾。以附文華、宗憲得超擢右僉都御史，代宗憲巡撫浙江。又以文華言，特設福建巡撫，即以命鶚。初在浙不主撫，自桐鄉被圍，懼甚。寇犯福州，賂以羅綺、金花及庫銀數萬，又遺巨艦六艘，俾載以走。不能措一籌，而斂括民財動千萬計，帷帟盤盂率以錦綺金銀為之。御史宋儀望等交章劾，逮下刑部。嚴嵩為屬法司，僅黜為民。所侵餉數，浮於宗憲，追還之官。

Ruan E came from Tongcheng and served as Vice Commissioner of Education in Zhejiang. When pirates threatened Hangzhou, countryfolk fleeing to the city were turned away by the officials. Ruan E drew his sword, opened the gates himself, and saved a great multitude. Through Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian he was rapidly promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and made grand coordinator of Zhejiang in Zongxian's place. On Wenhua's recommendation a separate Fujian grand coordinator post was created and given to Ruan E. He had initially opposed conciliation in Zhejiang, but after Tongxiang was besieged he was terrified. When pirates struck Fuzhou he paid them off with silks, gold ornaments, and tens of thousands in treasury silver, and gave them six large ships to escape in. He could plot nothing against the enemy yet squeezed tens of millions from the populace and furnished his quarters with brocade and gold. Censor Song Yiwang and others memorialized against him in succession and he was sent to the Ministry of Justice. Yan Song intervened with the judiciary and he was merely stripped of rank. The provisions he had stolen exceeded even Zongxian's; the sum was recovered for the state.

曹邦輔，字子忠，定陶人。嘉靖十一年進士。歷知元城、南和，以廉幹稱。擢御史，巡視河東鹽政。巡按陜西，劾總督張珩等冒功，皆謫戍。出為湖廣副使，補河南。

Cao Bangfu, courtesy name Zizhong, came from Dingtao. He passed the jinshi examination in the eleventh year of the Jiajing reign. As magistrate of Yuancheng and Nanhe he earned a reputation for probity and ability. Promoted to censor, he inspected the Hedong salt administration. As touring inspector in Shaanxi he exposed Grand Coordinator Zhang Heng and others for false claims of merit and had them all banished. He was posted as vice commissioner in Huguang and then transferred to Henan.

柘城賊師尚詔反，陷歸德。檢校董綸率民兵巷戰，手刃數賊，與其妻賈氏俱死之。又陷柘城，劫舉人陳聞詩為帥。不聽，斬從者脅之。聞詩紿曰：「必欲我行，毋殺人，毋縱火。」賊許諾，擁上馬。不食三日，至鹿邑自縊。賊圍太康，都指揮尚允紹與戰鄢陵，敗績。允紹復擊賊於霍山，賊圍之，兵無敢進。邦輔斬最後者，士卒競進。賊大潰，擒斬六百余人。尚詔走莘縣，被擒。賊起四十余日，破府一，縣八，殺戳十余萬。邦輔亟戰，殲之。詔賚銀幣，擢山西右參政，遷浙江按察使。

The rebel Shang Zhao of Zhecheng rose and captured Guide. Inspector Dong Lun led militia in street fighting, killed several rebels with his own hand, and died alongside his wife Lady Jia. They took Zhecheng again and forced the jinshi candidate Chen Wenshi to serve as their leader. He refused; they killed his attendants to intimidate him. Chen Wenshi pretended to agree: "If you insist I march with you, spare the people and burn nothing. The rebels agreed and lifted him onto a horse. He fasted three days and hanged himself at Luyi. The rebels besieged Taikang; Regional Commander Shang Yunshao met them at Yanling and was routed. Yunshao struck the rebels again at Huoshan; they surrounded him and no soldier dared go to his relief. Bangfu cut down the rearmost rebel, and the troops surged forward. The rebels collapsed; more than six hundred were taken or slain. Shang Zhao fled toward Shen County and was taken. In barely forty days of rebellion they had overrun one prefecture and eight counties and left more than a hundred thousand dead. Bangfu pressed the fight relentlessly and wiped them out. The court rewarded him with silver and silks, promoted him to right vice commissioner of Shanxi, and transferred him to serve as surveillance commissioner in Zhejiang.

三十四年拜右僉都御史，巡撫應天。倭聚柘林。其黨自紹興竄，轉掠杭、嚴、徽、寧、太平，遂犯南京，破溧水，抵宜興。為官軍所迫，奔滸墅。副總兵俞大猷、副使任環數邀擊之，而柘林余賊已進據陶宅。邦輔督副使王崇古圍之，僉事董邦政、把總婁宇協剿。賊走太湖，追及之，盡殲其眾。副將何卿師潰，邦輔援之。以火器破賊舟，前後俘斬六百余人。侍郎趙文華欲攘其功，邦輔捷書先奏，文華大恨。既而與浙江巡按御史胡宗憲會邦輔攻陶宅賊，諸營皆潰。賊退，邦輔進攻之，復敗，坐奪俸。文華奏邦輔避難擊易，致師後期，總督楊宜亦奏邦輔故違節制。給事中夏栻、孫浚爭之，得無罪。文華還京，奏余賊且盡，而巡按御史周如鬥又奏失事狀，帝頗疑文華。文華因言：「賊易滅，督撫非人，致敗。臣昔論邦輔，栻、浚遂媒孽臣。東南塗炭何時解？」乃逮系邦輔，謫戍朔州。

In the thirty-fourth year of the reign he was named right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Yingtian. Japanese pirates massed at Zhalin. Fleeing Shaoxing, they swept through Hangzhou, Yan, Hui, Ning, and Taiping, struck toward Nanjing, overran Lishui, and pressed as far as Yixing. Harried by government forces, they made for Hushu. Vice commander Yu Dayou and vice commissioner Ren Huan engaged them repeatedly, while Zhalin stragglers had already occupied Taozhai. Bangfu directed Wang Chonggu to besiege them; Commissioner Dong Bangzheng and battalion commander Lou Yu joined the campaign. The pirates fled onto Taihu; overtaken, they were destroyed to the last man. He Qing's division broke; Bangfu reinforced him. He shattered their craft with gunfire and captured or killed more than six hundred in all. Vice Minister Zhao Wenhua meant to claim the victory, but Bangfu's dispatch arrived first and Wenhua loathed him for it. He later joined Hu Zongxian and Bangfu against Taozhai, but every camp collapsed. As the pirates fell back Bangfu attacked once more and lost again, forfeiting his salary. Wenhua accused Bangfu of ducking the hard fights and picking easy wins, delaying the army; Grand Coordinator Yang Yi charged deliberate insubordination. The supervising secretaries Xia Shi and Sun Jun pleaded for him, and he was spared. Back in the capital, Wenhua claimed the remnant pirates were nearly finished, yet Zhou Rudou reported fresh disasters and the emperor began to doubt him. Wenhua insisted: "The rebels were easy to finish off, but the grand coordinators were incompetent and lost the war. When I denounced Bangfu before, Shi and Jun turned their malice on me. How long must the southeast burn? Bangfu was seized and exiled to frontier service at Shuozhou.

隆慶元年，楊博為吏部，起邦輔左副都御史，協理院事。進兵部右侍郎，理戎政。尋以左侍郎兼右僉都御史，總督薊、遼、保定軍務。言修治邊墻非上策，宜急練兵；兵練而後邊事可議。以給事中張鹵言，召為右都御史，掌院事。帝以京營事重，更協理為閱視，令付大臣知兵者，遂以左都御史召還，任之。已，從恭順侯吳繼爵言，復改閱視為提督。未幾，轉南京戶部尚書。奏督倉主事張振選不奉約束。吏部因言：「往昔執政喜人悅己，屬吏恃為奧援。構陷堂上官，至屈體降意，倒置名分。在外巡按御史亦曲庇進士推知，監司賢不肖出其口吻。害政無甚於此。」穆宗深然其言，為黜振選，飭內外諸司，然迄不能變。邦輔累乞骸骨，不聽。萬歷元年給由赴闕，復以病求去，且言辛愛有窺覦誌，宜慎防之。遂致仕去。居三年，卒。贈太子少保。

In the first year of Longqing, as minister of personnel Yang Bo recalled Bangfu as left vice censor-in-chief to help run the censorate. He rose to vice minister of war and directed military administration. Shortly he was left vice minister with concurrent right vice censor-in-chief rank, governing troops at Ji, Liaodong, and Baoding. He argued that wall repairs were inferior strategy and urged immediate training; border policy could wait until the troops were fit. After Zhang Lu's memorial he was recalled as right censor-in-chief to lead the censorate. Treating the metropolitan garrison as paramount, the throne replaced "joint administration" with "inspection" and chose a martial senior minister; Bangfu returned as left censor-in-chief to fill the role. Soon, at Wu Jijue's urging, the title became superintendent instead. Before long he moved to minister of revenue at Nanjing. He reported that granary supervisor Zhang Zhenxuan defied his orders. The Ministry of Personnel replied: "Formerly men in office loved flattery; juniors treated them as clandestine patrons. They schemed against their superiors, abasing themselves and inverting proper ranks. Touring censors abroad coddled magistrates they had advanced; provincial officers lived or died by their say-so. Politics suffered nothing worse. Muzong agreed wholeheartedly, cashiered Zhang Zhenxuan, and warned the bureaucracy, but the habit never truly broke. Bangfu asked repeatedly to retire; the throne refused. In Wanli's first year he presented his credentials at court, pleaded illness again, and warned that Altan Khan nursed designs of encroachment. He retired at last. Three years later he died. The court posthumously made him Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.

邦輔廉峻。自吳中被逮時，有司上所儲俸錢，揮之去。歷官四十年，家無余貲。撫、按奏其狀，詔遣右評事劉叔龍為營墳墓。

Bangfu was stern and incorruptible. Seized in Wu, he refused the stored salary the local offices offered. Forty years in office left his family no surplus. The regional commissioners reported his poverty; the throne sent Liu Shulong to provide a tomb.

任環，字應乾，長治人。嘉靖二十三年進士。歷知黃平、沙河、滑縣，並有能名。遷蘇州同知。倭患起，長吏不嫻兵革。環性慷慨，獨以身任之。三十二年閏三月禦賊寶山洋，小校張治戰死。環奮前搏賊，相持數日，賊遁去。尋犯太倉，環馳赴之。嘗遇賊，短兵接，身被三創幾殆。宰夫捍環出，死之，賊亦引去。已而復至，裹瘡出海擊之。怒濤作，操舟者失色。環意氣彌厲，竟敗賊，俘斬百余。復連戰陰沙、寶山、南沙，皆捷。擢按察僉事，整飭蘇、松二府兵備。倭剽掠厭，悉歸，惟南沙三百人舟壞不能去，環與總兵官湯克寬列兵守之。數月，賊大至，與舊倭合，掠華亭、上海。環等被劾，得宥。逾年，賊犯蘇州。城閉，鄉民繞城號。環盡納之，全活數萬計。副將解明道擊退賊，論前後功，進環右參政。賊掠常熟，環率知縣王鈇破其巢，焚舟二十七。未幾，賊掠陸涇壩，都督周於德敗績。環偕總兵官俞大猷擊敗之，焚舟三十余。賊犯吳江，環、大猷擊敗之鶯脰湖，賊奔嘉興。頃之，三板沙賊奪民舟出海，環、大猷擊敗之馬跡山。其別部屯嘉定者，火爇之，盡死。論功，蔭一子副千戶。母憂奪哀。賊屯新場，環與都司李經等率永順、保靖兵攻之，中伏，保靖土舍、彭翅等皆死，環停俸戴罪。賊平，乞終制，許之。逾二年卒、年四十。給事中徐師曾頌其功，詔贈光祿卿，再蔭一子副千戶，建祠蘇州，春秋致祭。

Ren Huan, courtesy name Yingqian, came from Changzhi. He became a jinshi in the twenty-third year of the Jiajing reign. As magistrate of Huangping, Shahe, and Huaxian he was praised for ability at every post. He rose to vice prefect of Suzhou. When pirate raids began, senior civil officers knew little of war. Open-handed by nature, Huan bore the burden alone. In the intercalary third month of year thirty-two he engaged pirates in the Baoshan estuary and petty officer Zhang Zhi fell. He closed with the enemy for days until the raiders withdrew. They soon threatened Taicang and he raced to meet them. In close fighting he took three wounds and nearly perished. His cook fought him free and died doing it; the pirates withdrew. When they returned he bound his wounds and put to sea again. Heavy seas rose and the sailors lost their color. Huan's fury only sharpened; he routed them and took more than a hundred heads. At Yinsha, Baoshan, and Nansha he won every engagement. Promoted to assistant surveillance commissioner, he tightened defenses in Suzhou and Songjiang. Sated with loot, most pirates sailed home; three hundred trapped at Nansha with broken hulls remained under watch by Huan and Tang Kekuan. Months later a large fleet united with survivors and ravaged Huating and Shanghai. Huan and others were censured yet spared. A year on the raiders menaced Suzhou. Gates closed while country folk wailed outside the walls. Huan admitted everyone and preserved tens of thousands. Xie Mingdao drove them off and Huan was promoted to right vice commissioner for his cumulative service. At Changshu he and Magistrate Wang E destroyed their nest and burned twenty-seven vessels. Soon they struck Lujing Dam and routed Zhou Yude. Huan and Yu Dayou beat them and torched thirty-odd craft. They met the raiders at Yingdou Lake and drove them toward Jiaxing. Pirates from Sanbansha seized civilian craft; Huan and Dayou overwhelmed them off Maji Mountain. A detached force at Jiading was burned alive to the last man. For his service one son was ennobled as deputy centurion. He was recalled from mourning for his mother before the mourning term ended. At Xinchang he and Li Jing led Yongshun and Baojing auxiliaries into an ambush; Peng Chi and others fell and Huan's pay was cut while he wore the fault. With peace restored he asked to finish mourning and was allowed. Two years later he died at forty. Xu Shizeng eulogized him; the court made him Grand Master for Splendid Happiness posthumously, ennobled a second son, and erected a temple in Suzhou with seasonal rites.

環在行間，與士卒同寢食，所得賜予悉分給之。軍事急，終夜露宿，或數日絕餐。嘗書姓名於肢體曰：「戰死，分也。先人遺體，他日或收葬。」將士皆感激，故所向有功。

In the field he shared rations and sleep with the ranks and gave away every gift. Urgencies kept him sleepless under the stars or fasting for days. He tattooed his name and the words: "To die fighting is one's lot. Perhaps the bones my ancestors gave me may be gathered someday. His men were moved to the marrow, and wherever he led them they prevailed.

時休寧吳成器由小吏為會稽典史。倭三百余劫會稽，為官軍所逐，走登龕山。成器遮擊，盡殪之。未幾，又破賊曹娥江，擢浙江布政司經歷。遭喪，總督胡宗憲奏留之。擢紹興通判。論功，進秩二級。成器與賊大小數十戰皆捷。身先士卒，進止有方略，所部無秋毫犯。士民率於其戰處立祠祀之。

Meanwhile Wu Chengqi of Xiuning had climbed from clerk to registrar of Kuaiji. Over three hundred pirates pillaged Kuaiji, fled government troops, and made for Dengkan Mountain. Chengqi cut them off and wiped them out. He beat more raiders on the Cao'e and was raised to secretary in Zhejiang's provincial administration. When mourning his father Zongxian asked to retain him. He became vice prefect of Shaoxing. His rank rose two steps for merit. He fought dozens of actions, large and small, and won them all. He always took the van, maneuvered with method, and his troops did not steal a thread. Everywhere he fought, people raised shrines to honor him.

李遂，字邦良，豐城人。弱冠，從歐陽德學。登嘉靖五年進士，授行人。歷刑部郎中。錦衣衛送盜十三人，遂惟抵一人罪，余皆辨釋。東宮建，赦天下。遂請列「大禮」大獄諸臣於赦令中，尚書聶賢懼不敢，乃與同官盧蕙請於都御史王廷相，廷相從之。事雖報罷，議者嘉焉。俄調禮部，忤尚書夏言。因事劾之，下詔獄，謫湖州同知。三遷衢州知府，擢蘇、松兵備副使。屢遷廣東按察使。釋囚八百余人。進山東右布政使。江洋多盜，遂遷右僉都御史提督操江。軍政明，盜不敢發。俺答犯京師，召遂督蘇州軍餉。未謝恩，請關防符驗用新銜。帝怒，削其籍。

Li Sui, styled Bangliang, was a native of Fengcheng. While still a youth he studied under Ouyang De. In the fifth year of Jiajing he took his jinshi degree and was made a Gentleman for Ceremonies. He rose to director in the Ministry of Justice. When the Embroidered Uniform Guard delivered thirteen accused robbers, Sui found only one guilty and acquitted the rest after review. With the establishment of the crown prince's household, the court proclaimed a general amnesty. Sui petitioned to include the ministers condemned in the Grand Rites controversy within the amnesty. Minister Nie Xian dared not act, so Sui and his colleague Lu Hui appealed to Censor-in-Chief Wang Tingxiang, who agreed. The proposal was rejected, but commentators praised his stand. He was soon transferred to the Ministry of Rites, where he clashed with Minister Xia Yan. He impeached Yan on a related matter, was thrown into the imperial prison, and demoted to sub-prefect of Huzhou. After three further promotions he became prefect of Quzhou, then was elevated to vice commissioner for military preparations in Suzhou and Songjiang. He was repeatedly promoted and eventually became surveillance commissioner of Guangdong. He released more than eight hundred prisoners. He was promoted to right administration commissioner of Shandong. With pirates rampant on the rivers and seas, Sui was made right vice censor-in-chief with charge over Yangzi naval drills. Under his firm military administration, bandits no longer dared to strike. When Altan Khan threatened the capital, Sui was summoned to oversee military supplies in Suzhou. Without first attending the audience of thanks, he demanded official seals and credentials under his new title. The emperor in anger struck him from the official rolls.

三十六年，倭擾江北。廷議以督漕都御史兼理巡撫不暇辦寇，請特設巡撫，乃命遂以故官撫鳳陽四府。時淮、揚三中倭，歲復大水，且日役民免大木輸京師。遂請餉增兵，恤民節用，次第畫戰守計。三十八年四月，倭數百艘寇海門。遂語諸將曰：「賊趨如臯，其眾必合。合則侵犯之路有三：由泰州逼天長、鳳、泗，陵寢驚矣；由黃橋逼瓜、儀，以搖南都，運道梗矣；若從富安沿海東至廟灣，則絕地也。」乃命副使劉景韶、遊擊丘升扼如臯，而身馳泰州當其沖。時賊勢甚盛，副將鄧城之敗績，指揮張谷死焉。賊知如臯有備，將犯泰州，遂急檄景韶、升遏賊。連戰丁堰、海安、通州，皆捷。賊沿海東掠，遂喜曰：「賊無能為矣。」令景韶、升尾之，而致賊於廟灣。復慮賊突淮安，乃夜半馳入城。賊尋至，遂督參將曹克新等禦之姚家蕩。通政唐順之、副總兵劉顯來援，賊大敗走，以余眾保廟灣。景韶亦敗賊印莊，追奔至新河口，焚斬甚眾。廟灣賊據險不出，攻之月余不克。遂令景韶塞塹、夷木壓壘陳，火焚其舟，賊乘夜雨潛遁。官軍據其巢，追奔至蝦子港，江北倭悉平。帝大喜，璽書獎勵。賊駐崇明三沙者，將犯揚州。景韶戰連勝，圍之劉莊。會劉顯來援，遂檄諸軍盡屬顯。攻破其巢，追奔白駒場，賊盡殄。時遂已遷南京兵部侍郎。論功，予一子官，賚銀幣。御史陳誌勘上遂平倭功，前後二十余戰，斬獲三千八百有奇。再予一子世千戶，增俸二級。

In the thirty-sixth year, wokou raiders harried the country north of the Yangzi. The court decided that the canal supervising censor-in-chief, who also served as grand coordinator, could not spare time for the pirates, and created a dedicated grand coordinator post. Sui was appointed with his former rank to administer the four Fengyang prefectures. The Huai, Yang, and Zhong regions were then suffering wokou raids, catastrophic floods, and daily levies of laborers to supply heavy timber for the capital. Sui sought funds to raise troops, urged relief for the populace and austerity in spending, and drew up a step-by-step plan for offense and defense. In the fourth month of the thirty-eighth year, several hundred wokou vessels attacked Haimen. Sui told his generals: "The enemy is making for Rugao—their bands will surely unite. If they unite, they have three paths of attack: from Taizhou they could threaten Tianchang, Fengyang, and Sizhou and alarm the imperial tombs; from Huangqiao they could menace Guazhou and Yizhen, shake Nanjing, and choke the Grand Canal; but if they press east along the coast from Fu'an to Miaowan, we can trap them in a dead end. He ordered Vice Commissioner Liu Jingshao and Mobile Corps Commander Qiu Sheng to hold Rugao, while he raced to Taizhou to meet the main assault. The enemy was then at its strongest. Vice General Deng Cheng was routed, and Commander Zhang Gu was killed. Learning that Rugao was defended, the raiders turned on Taizhou. Sui urgently ordered Jingshao and Sheng to intercept them. In succession they fought at Dingyan, Hai'an, and Tongzhou—and won each time. As the pirates swept east along the coast, Sui exclaimed, "They are finished! He had Jingshao and Sheng pursue their rear and drive the enemy into Miaowan. Fearing a sudden strike on Huai'an, he rode into the city at midnight. When the enemy arrived, Sui directed Brigadier Cao Kexin and others in holding them at Yaojia Dang. Commissioner of Communications Tang Shunzhi and Deputy Regional Commander Liu Xian came to reinforce him. The raiders were routed and fled, their remnant holing up at Miaowan. Jingshao meanwhile defeated the enemy at Yinzhuang and pursued them to Xinhekou, killing and burning a great many. The pirates at Miaowan clung to their stronghold and refused to come out; assaults for more than a month failed to break them. Sui had Jingshao fill the ditches, cut the timber their ramparts relied on, and burn their boats. Under cover of night rain the enemy slipped away unseen. Government forces seized their lair and pursued them to Xiazi Harbor; wokou north of the Yangzi were entirely pacified. The emperor was delighted and sent an edict of commendation under the imperial seal. Another band lodged at Sansha on Chongming was preparing to strike Yangzhou. Jingshao won battle after battle and hemmed them in at Liuzhuang. When Liu Xian arrived with reinforcements, Sui placed all forces under his command. Liu smashed their stronghold, pursued them to Baiju Field, and annihilated them utterly. By this time Sui had already been promoted to vice minister of war at Nanjing. For his merit he was granted an office for one son and rewarded with silver and silks. Censor Chen Zhi reviewed Sui's record against the wokou: in more than twenty engagements he accounted for over 3,800 killed or captured. He was again granted a hereditary chiliarchy for a son and a two-grade raise in salary.

蒞南京甫數月，振武營軍變。振武營者，尚書張鏊募健兒以禦倭。素驕悍。舊制，南軍有妻者，月糧米一石；無者，減其四；春秋二仲月，米石折銀五錢。馬坤掌南戶部，奏減折色之一，督儲侍郎黃懋官又奏革募補者妻糧，諸軍大怨。代坤者蔡克廉方病，諸軍以歲饑求復折色故額於懋官。懋官不可，給餉又逾期。三十九年二月都肄日，振武卒鼓噪懋官署。懋官急招鏊及守備太監何綬、魏國公徐鵬舉、臨淮侯李庭竹及遂至，諸營軍已甲而入。予之銀，爭攫之。懋官見勢洶洶，越垣投吏舍，亂卒隨及。鵬舉、鏊慰解不聽，竟戕懋官，裸其屍於市。綬、鵬舉遣吏持黃紙，許給賞萬金，卒輒碎之。至許犒十萬金，乃稍定。明日，諸大臣集守備廳，亂卒亦集。遂大言曰：「黃侍郎自越墻死，諸軍特不當殘辱之。吾據實奏朝廷，不以叛相誣也。」因麾眾退，許復妻糧及故額，人畀之一金補折價，始散。遂乃托病閉閣，給免死券以慰安之，而密諭營將掩捕首惡二十五人，系獄。詔追褫懋官及克廉職，罷綬、庭竹、鏊，任鵬舉如故，遂以功議擢。止誅叛卒三人，余戍邊衛，而三人已前死。遂嘆曰：「兵自此益驕矣。」未幾，江東代鏊為尚書。江北池河營卒以千戶吳欽革其幫丁，毆而縛之竿。幫丁者，操守卒給一丁，資往來費也。遂已召拜兵部左侍郎，以言官薦擢南京參贊尚書，鎮撫之。營卒惑妖僧繡頭，復倡訛言。遂捕斬繡頭，申嚴什伍，書其名籍、年貌，系牌腰間，軍乃戢。既又奏調鎮武軍護陵寢，一日散千人，留都自是無患。越四年，以老致仕。

He had been in Nanjing only a few months when the Zhenwu Battalion mutinied. The Zhenwu Battalion had been raised by Minister Zhang Ao from hardy recruits to fight the wokou. They had long been arrogant and violent. Under the old rules, southern troops with wives received one picul of grain a month; those without wives received four-tenths less; and in the second and eighth months grain rations were commuted at five mace of silver per picul. Ma Kun, head of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, petitioned to cut the commutation rate by one-tenth; Vice Minister Huang Maoguan, who oversaw grain stores, petitioned to abolish wives' rations for replacement recruits. The troops were furious. Ma Kun's successor Cai Kelian lay ill; with famine that year the men begged Maoguan to restore the old commutation rate. Maoguan refused, and pay was again late. On the day of the general muster in the second month of the thirty-ninth year, Zhenwu soldiers stormed Maoguan's headquarters shouting threats. Maoguan hurriedly summoned Zhang Ao, the defense eunuch He Shou, the Duke of Wei Xu Pengju, the Marquis of Linhuai Li Tingshu, and Sui—but soldiers from every camp were already pouring in armored. Silver was handed out, and they fought over it. Seeing the mob swell, Maoguan scrambled over a wall into the clerks' quarters; the mutineers pursued. Xu Pengju and Zhang Ao tried to calm them in vain; in the end they murdered Maoguan and left his naked body in the street. He Shou and Xu Pengju sent clerks with imperial yellow warrants promising ten thousand taels in reward; the soldiers tore them to pieces. Only when the reward was raised to one hundred thousand taels did they quiet down. The next day the senior officials met in the defense headquarters—and the mutineers gathered there too. Sui spoke boldly: "Vice Minister Huang killed himself by jumping the wall—the troops had no right to dishonor his body. I shall report the facts to the court and will not label this rebellion. He waved them back, promised to restore wives' rations and the old rates, and gave each man one tael to cover the shortfall in commutation pay—only then did they disperse. Sui then shut himself in, pleading illness, issued writs of immunity to reassure the men, and secretly ordered battalion commanders to seize the twenty-five ringleaders and throw them in prison. An edict stripped Maoguan and Kelian of rank, removed He Shou, Li Tingshu, and Zhang Ao from office, left Xu Pengju in post, and moved to promote Sui for his handling of the crisis. Only three mutineers were sentenced to death—the rest were sent to frontier garrisons—but the three had already died. Sui sighed: "From this day the soldiery will grow ever bolder. Soon afterward Jiang Dong replaced Zhang Ao as minister. In the Chichi River garrison north of the Yangzi, soldiers rebelled when chiliarch Wu Qin tried to cut their bangding attendants—they beat him and tied him to a stake. Bangding were personal attendants allotted to garrison soldiers to cover their travel costs. Sui had already been summoned as left vice minister of war; on the recommendation of supervising censors he was promoted to Nanjing coordinating minister and quelled the disturbance. Garrison soldiers were stirred up again by a sorcerer monk called Xiutou, who spread wild tales. Sui arrested and executed Xiutou, tightened the five-and-ten household system, and ordered every soldier's name, age, and face recorded on a tag worn at the waist. Only then did discipline return. He then memorialized to transfer a thousand Zhenwu troops to guard the imperial tombs in a single day; Nanjing knew no further unrest. Four years later he retired on account of age.

遂博學多智，長於用兵，然亦善逢迎。帝將重建三殿，遂奏五河縣泗水中湧大杉一，此川澤效靈，為聖主鼎新助，帝大喜。又進白兔，帝為遣官告廟。由此益眷遇。卒，贈太子太保，謚襄敏。

Sui was learned and shrewd, skilled in the art of war, yet also adept at currying favor. When the emperor planned to rebuild the Three Halls, Sui reported that a great cedar had risen from the Si River in Wuhe County—a sign, he said, that heaven and earth lent their power to the sage ruler's renewal. The emperor was delighted. He also presented a white hare, and the emperor sent an envoy to report the omen at the ancestral temple. From that point his favor at court only deepened. When he died he was posthumously made Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent with the posthumous name Xiangmin.

弟逢，字邦吉。由進士為吏科給事中。侍郎劉源清下吏，逢救之，並系，得釋。進戶科左給事中。偕同官諫南巡，下詔獄，謫永福典史。終德安知府。遂子材，自有傳。

His younger brother Li Feng, styled Bangji— took his jinshi degree and became a supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel. When Vice Minister Liu Yuanqing was thrown into custody, Feng interceded for him and was imprisoned alongside him; both were eventually released. He was promoted to left supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Revenue. He joined fellow censors in opposing the southern tour, was cast into the imperial prison, and demoted to recorder of Yongfu. He ended his career as prefect of De'an. Sui's son Li Cai has a separate biography.

唐順之，字應德，武進人。祖貴，戶科給事中。父寶，永州知府。順之生有異廩。稍長，洽貫群籍。年二十三，舉嘉靖八年會試第一，改庶吉士。座主張璁疾翰林，出諸吉士為他曹，獨欲留順之。固辭，乃調兵部主事。引疾歸。久之，除吏部。十二年秋，詔選朝官為翰林，乃改順之編修，校累朝實錄。事將竣，復以疾告，璁持其疏不下。有言順之欲遠璁者，璁發怒，擬旨以吏部主事罷歸，永不復敘。至十八年選宮僚，乃起故官兼春坊右司諫。與羅洪先、趙時春請朝太子，復削籍歸。卜築陽羨山中，讀書十余年。中外論薦，並報寢。

Tang Shunzhi, styled Yingde, was a native of Wujin. His grandfather Tang Gui had been a supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Revenue. His father Tang Bao had been prefect of Yongzhou. At Shunzhi's birth the family granary was found mysteriously full—a sign taken as an omen. As he grew he mastered the full span of the classics. At twenty-three he placed first in the metropolitan examination of Jiajing's eighth year and entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor. His chief examiner Zhang Cong despised the Hanlin Academy and transferred every graduate to other posts, but wished to keep Shunzhi alone. Shunzhi firmly refused, and was instead transferred to a secretaryship in the Ministry of War. He pleaded illness and went home. After a long interval he was appointed to the Ministry of Personnel. In the autumn of the twelfth year an edict chose court officials for the Hanlin Academy; Shunzhi was made a compiling editor and set to collating the veritable records of successive reigns. When the work was nearly done he again reported illness, but Zhang Cong withheld his memorial and would not forward it. When word spread that Shunzhi wished to keep his distance from Zhang Cong, Zhang flew into a rage and drafted an edict dismissing him to his home in his former rank as a Ministry of Personnel secretary, with no prospect of ever serving again. In the eighteenth year, when palace staff were chosen, he was recalled to his former post and concurrently made right remonstrating secretary in the Eastern Palace. Together with Luo Hongxian and Zhao Shichun he petitioned for an audience with the heir apparent; again he was struck from the register and sent home. He chose a site in the Yangxian hills and studied there for more than ten years. Recommendations poured in from every quarter, but each was answered with notice that the matter had been shelved.

倭躪江南北。趙文華出視師，疏薦順之。起南京兵部主事。父憂未終，不果出。免喪，召為職方員外郎，進郎中。出核薊鎮兵籍，還奏缺伍三萬有奇，見兵亦不任戰，因條上便宜九事。總督王忬以下俱貶秩。

Wokou ravaged the country north and south of the Yangzi. Zhao Wenhua went out to inspect the armies and memorialized recommending Shunzhi. He was recalled as a secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of War. His mourning for his father was not yet complete, so he never took up the post. When mourning ended he was summoned as vice director in the Bureau of Operations and soon promoted to director. Sent to audit the military rolls of the Jizhou garrison, he reported on his return that the rolls were short by more than thirty thousand men and that even the troops actually present were unfit for battle; he therefore submitted nine expedient proposals. Grand Coordinator Wang Yu and his subordinates were all demoted.

尋命往南畿、浙江視師，與胡宗憲協謀討賊。順之以禦賊上策，當截之海外，縱使登陸，則內地鹹受禍。乃躬泛海，自江陰抵蛟門大洋，一晝夜行六七百里。從者鹹驚嘔，順之意氣自如。倭泊崇明三沙，督舟師邀之海外。斬馘一百二十，沈其舟十三。擢太仆少卿。宗憲言順之權輕，乃加右通政。順之聞賊犯江北，急令總兵官盧鏜拒三沙，自率副總兵劉顯馳援，與鳳陽巡撫李遂大破之姚家蕩。賊窘，退巢廟灣。順之薄之，殺傷相當。遂欲列圍困賊，順之以為非計，麾兵薄其營，以火炮攻之，不能克。三沙又屢告急，順之乃復援三沙，督鏜、顯進擊，再失利。順之憤，親躍馬布陣。賊構高樓望官軍，見順之軍整，堅壁不出。顯請退師，順之不可，持刀直前，去賊營百余步。鏜、顯懼失利，固要順之還。時盛暑，居海舟兩月，遂得疾，返太倉。李遂改官南京，即擢順之右僉都御史，代遂巡撫。順之疾甚，以兵事棘，不敢辭。渡江，賊已為遂等所滅。淮、揚適大饑，條上海防善後九事。三十九年春，汛期至。力疾泛海，度焦山，至通州卒，年五十四。訃聞，予祭葬。故事：四品但賜祭。順之以勞得賜葬雲。

Soon afterward he was ordered to inspect the armies of the southern metropolitan region and Zhejiang, and joined Hu Zongxian in planning the campaign against the pirates. Shunzhi held that the best strategy against the pirates was to stop them at sea; once they were allowed ashore, the whole interior would suffer. He himself put to sea, sailing from Jiangyin to the open waters off Jiaomen—a run of six or seven hundred li in a single day and night. His companions were all shaken and seasick, but Shunzhi's bearing remained perfectly steady. When the pirates anchored at Sansha in Chongming, he directed the fleet to intercept them offshore. One hundred twenty heads were taken and thirteen of their vessels sunk. He was promoted to vice minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud. Zongxian said Shunzhi's authority was too slight, so he was given the additional title of right commissioner. When Shunzhi heard the pirates had struck north of the Yangzi, he urgently ordered Commander-in-Chief Lu Kan to hold Sansha, led Deputy Commander Liu Xian in a forced march to reinforce, and with Li Sui, grand coordinator of Fengyang, routed the enemy at Yaojiadang. Hard pressed, the pirates withdrew to their lair at Miaowan. Shunzhi pressed them hard, and casualties on both sides were roughly equal. Li Sui wanted to encircle and besiege them, but Shunzhi thought that unwise; he ordered troops to close on the camp and attacked with cannon, yet could not take it. Sansha sent repeated alarms, so Shunzhi turned back to reinforce it and directed Kan and Xian to advance again—only to suffer another defeat. Furious, Shunzhi leaped on horseback himself to deploy the battle line. The pirates built high towers to watch the government forces; seeing Shunzhi's ranks in good order, they held their walls and refused to come out. Xian asked to withdraw, but Shunzhi refused; gripping a blade he advanced until he stood little more than a hundred paces from the enemy camp. Kan and Xian, fearing a rout, pressed him insistently to fall back. It was the height of summer; after two months aboard ship at sea he fell ill and returned to Taicang. When Li Sui was transferred to a post in Nanjing, Shunzhi was at once promoted to right vice censor-in-chief to replace him as grand coordinator. Shunzhi was gravely ill, but the military situation was desperate and he dared not refuse. By the time he crossed the river, the pirates had already been destroyed by Sui and the others. Huai and Yang were in the grip of a great famine; he submitted nine proposals on coastal defense and postwar recovery. In the spring of the thirty-ninth year the pirate season arrived. Struggling against his illness he put to sea, passed Jiaoshan, and died at Tongzhou at the age of fifty-four. When word of his death arrived, he was granted sacrificial rites and burial honors. By precedent, officials of the fourth rank received only sacrificial rites. For his service Shunzhi was granted burial as well.

順之於學無所不窺。自天文、樂律、地理、兵法、弧矢、勾股、壬奇、禽乙，莫不究極原委。盡取古今載籍，剖裂補綴，區分部居，為《左》、《右》、《文》、《武》、《儒》、《稗》六《編》傳於世，學者不能測其奧也。為古文，洸洋紆折有大家風。生平苦節自厲，輟扉為床，不飾裀褥。又聞良知說於王畿，閉戶兀坐，匝月忘寢，多所自得。晚由文華薦，商出處於羅洪先。洪先曰：「向已隸名仕籍，此身非我有，安得侔處士？」順之遂出，然聞望頗由此損。崇禎中，追謚襄文。

In scholarship Shunzhi left no field unexplored. From astronomy, pitch pipes, geography, military science, archery mathematics, right-triangle reckoning, Ren Qi divination, and Qin Yi numerology, he traced every subject to its deepest source. He gathered the full span of ancient and modern writings, cut them apart and stitched them back together, and arranged them by category into his six compilations—the Left, Right, Literary, Military, Confucian, and Miscellaneous anthologies—which he passed on to the world; even learned men could not plumb their depths. His classical prose was broad, sinuous, and marked by the manner of a great master. All his life he held himself to austere discipline: he used a door panel for a bed and went without matting or coverlets. He also studied Wang Ji's teaching on innate moral knowing; shutting his door he sat in meditation for a full month without sleep, and arrived at many insights of his own. Late in life, on Zhao Wenhua's recommendation, he consulted Luo Hongxian about whether to take office. Hongxian said: "You have long been enrolled in the official register; this body of yours is no longer your own—how can you still rank yourself with recluses? Shunzhi went out all the same, but his reputation suffered for it. Under the Chongzhen emperor he was posthumously given the title Xiangwen.

子鶴徵，隆慶五年進士。歷官太常卿。亦以博學聞。

His son He Zheng became a presented scholar in the fifth year of Longqing. He rose to minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He too was known for his erudition.

贊曰：朱紈欲嚴海禁，以絕盜源，其論甚正。顧指斥士大夫，令不能堪，卒為所龁齬，憤惋以死。氣質之為累，悲夫！當寇患孔熾，撲滅惟恐不盡，便宜行誅，自其職爾，而以為罪，則任法之過也。張經功不賞，而以冤戮，稔倭毒而助之攻，東南塗炭數十年。讒賊之罪，可勝誅哉！宗憲以奢黷蒙垢。然令徐海、汪直之徒不死，貽患更未可知矣。曹邦輔、任環戰功可紀，李遂、唐順之捍禦得宜。而邦輔之平師尚詔，李遂之靖亂卒，其功尤著。以其始終倭事，故並列焉。

The encomium says: Zhu Wan wished to tighten the maritime ban and cut off piracy at its source—a thoroughly sound policy. Yet he denounced the scholar-official class until they could bear it no longer; in the end they wore him down in mutual hostility, and he died in bitterness and despair. That his temperament should have undone him—how lamentable! When the pirate scourge was at its height, commanders were bound to destroy the enemy by every means and without mercy; to punish them for doing their duty was the fault of an age that trusted law above necessity. Zhang Jing's victories went unrewarded, yet he was put to death on false charges; the pirates grew bolder with that poison in their veins, and the southeast burned for decades. The crime of those slanderers is beyond any punishment fit to answer it! Zongxian was stained by luxury and corruption. Yet had Xu Hai, Wang Zhi, and their like been left alive, the harm might have been far worse still. Cao Bangfu and Ren Huan left battle records worth honoring; Li Sui and Tang Shunzhi defended the coast with sound judgment. Yet Bangfu's pacification of the Shishang mutiny and Sui's quelling of the garrison revolt stand out above the rest. Because their careers were bound up with the wokou campaigns from first to last, they are grouped together here.

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