Volume 207 Biographies 95: Deng Jiceng, Zhu Zhe, Yang Yan, Liu An, Xue Kan, Yang Ming, Guo Honghua, Liu Shilong, Zhang Xuan, Bao Jie, Xie Tingdangjuansi, Wang Yuling, Yang Sizhong

鄧繼曾〈（劉最）〉朱淛〈（馬明衡陳逅林應聰）〉楊言劉安薛侃〈（喻希禮石金楊名黃直）〉郭弘化劉世龍〈（徐申羅虞臣）〉張選〈（黃正色）〉包節〈（弟孝）〉謝廷王與齡〈（周鈇）〉楊思忠〈（樊深淩儒王時舉方新）〉

Deng Jiceng (Liu Zui)〉 Zhu Zhe (Ma Mingheng, Chen Hou, Lin Yingcong)〉 Yang Yan, Liu An, and Xue Kan (Yu Xili, Shi Jin, Yang Ming, Huang Zhi)〉 Guo Honghua and Liu Shilong (Xu Shen, Luo Yuchen)〉 Zhang Xuan (Huang Zhengse)〉 Bao Jie (his younger brother Xiao)〉 Xie Ting and Wang Yuling (Zhou Fu)〉 Yang Sizhong (Fan Shen, Ling Ru, Wang Shiju, Fang Xin)〉

嘉靖改元，帝欲尊所生為帝後。會掖庭火，廷臣多言咎在「大禮」。繼曾亦言：「去年五月日精門災，今月二日長安榜廊災，及今郊祀日，內廷小房又災。天有五行，火實主禮。人有五事，火實主言。名不正則言不順，言不順則禮不興。今歲未期而災者三，廢禮失言之郊也。」提督三千營廣寧伯劉佶久病，繼曾論罷之。宣大、關陜、廣西數有警，中原盜竊發。繼曾陳戰守方略及儲將練兵足食之計，多議行。

At the start of the Jiajing reign, the emperor wished to elevate his biological parents to imperial rank. When fire broke out in the palace women's quarters, many officials at court said the cause was the Great Rites controversy. Jiceng also memorialized: "Last May the Gate of Solar Essence was stricken; on the second of this month the Chang'an bulletin corridor burned; and today, the day of the suburban sacrifice, small chambers in the inner court have burned again. Heaven has the five phases, and fire is what governs ritual. Man has the five affairs, and fire is what governs speech. When names are not correct, speech is not in order; when speech is not in order, ritual cannot flourish. Before the year has ended, disaster has come three times—this is ritual abandoned and speech neglected at the suburban sacrifice." The commandant of the Three Thousand Barracks, Liu Ji, Earl of Guangning, had long been ill, and Jiceng argued that he should be removed. There were repeated alarms on the Xuan-Da, Guan-Shaan, and Guangxi fronts, and banditry erupted in the Central Plain. Jiceng laid out strategies for war and defense and plans to stock provisions, train troops, and keep the army fed; many of his proposals were put into practice.

三年，帝漸疏大臣，政率內決。繼曾抗章曰：「比來中旨，大戾王言。事不考經，文不會理，悅邪說之諂媚則賜敕褒俞，惡師保之抗言則漸將放黜。臣目睹出涕，口誦吞聲。夫祖宗以來，凡有批答，必付內閣擬進者，非止慮獨見之或偏，亦防矯偽者之假托也。正德之世，蓋極弊矣，尚未有如今日之可駭可嘆者。左右群小，目不知書，身未經事，乘隙招權，弄筆取寵，故言出無稽，一至於此。陛下不與大臣共政，而倚信群小，臣恐大器之不安也。」疏入，帝震怒，下詔獄掠治，謫金壇縣丞。給事中張逵、韓楷、鄭一鵬，御史林有孚、馬明衡、季本皆論救，不報。累遷至徽州知府，卒。

In the third year of his reign, the emperor grew increasingly distant from senior ministers, and policy was largely decided within the palace. Jiceng submitted a bold memorial: "Recently, edicts issued from within have gravely violated the kingly way of speech. Matters are not checked against the classics, and documents do not accord with reason. Those who please with heterodox flattery receive edicts of praise, while those who speak out as teachers and protectors are gradually cast aside. I have seen it with my own eyes and wept; I speak of it with a choked voice. Since the founding ancestors, every written response has been sent to the Grand Secretariat for drafting—not only to guard against the bias of a single view, but also to prevent forgers from passing off false documents. The Zhengde era was corrupt to the utmost, yet there was nothing so horrifying and lamentable as what we see today. The petty men at your side cannot read, have never handled affairs, seize every opening to grasp power, and wield the brush to win favor—so their words are baseless, and matters have come to this pass. Your Majesty does not govern with your grand ministers but trusts petty men; I fear the great vessel of state will not stand secure." When the memorial arrived, the emperor was furious; he had Jiceng thrown into the imperial prison for torture and demoted to assistant magistrate of Jintan. The supervising secretaries Zhang Kui, Han Kai, and Zheng Yipeng, and the censors Lin Youfu, Ma Mingheng, and Ji Ben all pleaded for him, but received no reply. He was eventually promoted to prefect of Huizhou, where he died.

帝初踐阼，言路大開。進言者或過於切直，帝亦優容之。自劉最及繼曾得罪後，厭薄言官，廢黜相繼，納諫之風微矣。

When the emperor first took the throne, the avenue of remonstrance stood wide open. Some who spoke out were excessively blunt, yet the emperor bore with them. After Liu Zui and Jiceng were punished, the emperor grew weary of remonstrating officials; dismissals followed in succession, and the spirit of heeding counsel waned.

最，字振廷，崇仁人。繼曾同年進士。由慈利知縣入為禮科給事中。世宗議定策功，大行封拜，最疏止之。尋請帝勤聖學，於宮中日誦《大學衍義》，勿令左右近習誘以匪僻。嘉靖二年，中官崔文以禱祠事誘帝。最極言其非，且奏文耗帑金狀。而帝從文言，命最自核侵耗數。最言：「帑銀屬內府，雖計臣不得稽贏縮。文乃欲假難行事，逃己罪，制言官」。疏入，忤旨，出為廣德州判官。言官論救，不納。已而東廠太監芮景賢奏最在途仍故銜，乘巨舫，取夫役，巡鹽御史黃國用復遣牌送之。帝怒，逮二人下詔獄。最充軍邵武，國用謫極邊雜職。法司及言官救之，責以黨比。最居戍所，久之赦還。家居二十余年卒。

Liu Zui, styled Zhenting, came from Chongren. He and Jiceng passed the jinshi examination in the same year. He rose from magistrate of Cili to supervising secretary in the Ministry of Rites section. When the Shizong Emperor deliberated rewards for settling the succession, he carried out extensive enfeoffments and appointments; Zui memorialized to halt them. He soon urged the emperor to devote himself to sagely learning, reciting daily in the palace the Extensions of the Great Learning, and not to let those close at hand lead him astray with improper ways. In the second year of Jiajing, the eunuch Cui Wen tempted the emperor with prayer and sacrifice. Zui spoke out forcefully against this and also memorialized on Wen's squandering of treasury funds. But the emperor followed Wen's account and ordered Zui himself to verify the amount of embezzlement and waste. Zui said: "Treasury silver belongs to the inner palace; even the minister of revenue may not audit surplus and deficit. Wen now wishes to use difficulty in execution to escape his own crime and restrain remonstrating officials." When the memorial arrived, it offended the emperor; he was demoted to assistant magistrate of Guangde. Remonstrating officials pleaded for him, but the emperor would not relent. Before long the Eastern Depot eunuch Rui Jingxian reported that on the road Zui still used his former title, traveled on a great barge, took corvée laborers, and the salt-inspecting censor Huang Guoyong again sent a placard to escort him. The emperor was furious and had both men arrested and sent to the imperial prison. Zui was sentenced to military exile at Shaowu; Guoyong was demoted to a minor post on the farthest frontier. The judicial offices and remonstrating officials pleaded for them; they were charged with factional collusion. Zui lived at his place of exile; after a long time he was pardoned and returned. He lived at home for more than twenty years before he died.

朱淛，字必東，莆田人。舉鄉試第一。嘉靖二年成進士。明年春與同縣馬明衡並授御史。甫閱月，會昭聖皇太后生辰，有旨免命婦朝賀。淛言：「皇太后親挈神器以授陛下，母子至情，天日昭鑒。若傳免朝賀，何以慰親心而隆孝治？」明衡亦言：「暫免朝賀，在恒時則可，在議禮紛更之時則不可。且前者興國太后令節，朝賀如儀，今相去不過數旬，而彼此情文互異。詔旨一出，臣民駭疑。萬一因禮儀末節，稍成嫌隙，俾陛下貽譏天下，匪細故也。」時帝亟欲尊所生，而群臣必欲帝母昭聖，相持未決。二人疏入，帝恚且怒。立捕至內廷，責以離間宮闈，歸過於上，下詔獄拷訊。侍郎何孟春、御史蕭一中論救，皆不聽。御史陳逅、季本、員外郎林應驄繼諫。帝愈怒，並下詔獄，遠謫之。帝必欲殺二人，變色謂閣臣蔣冕曰：「此曹誣朕不孝，罪當死。」冕膝行頓首請曰：「陛下方興堯、舜之治，奈何有殺諫臣名。」良久，色稍解，欲戍之。冕又固請，繼以泣。乃杖八十，除名為民，兩人遂廢。廷臣多論薦，不復召。

Zhu Zhe, styled Bidong, came from Putian. He placed first in the provincial examination. He passed the jinshi examination in the second year of Jiajing. The following spring he and Ma Mingheng of the same county were both appointed censors. Barely a month had passed when it was the birthday of the Empress Dowager Zhaosheng; an edict exempted titled ladies from attending court to offer congratulations. Zhe said: "The empress dowager personally brought the sacred vessel to invest Your Majesty—mother and son share the utmost affection, clear as heaven and sun. If it is announced that court congratulations are waived, how can her heart be comforted and filial governance be exalted?" Mingheng also said: "A temporary waiver of court congratulations may be acceptable in ordinary times, but not when ritual deliberations are in turmoil. Moreover, at the former festival day of the Empress Dowager of Xingguo, congratulations were conducted according to ritual; now barely several tens of days have passed, yet the emotional and ritual expressions differ from one another. Once an edict is issued, officials and people are shocked and doubtful. If by chance, because of a minor point of ritual, a slight rift should arise, causing Your Majesty to incur ridicule throughout the realm—this is no small matter." At the time the emperor urgently wished to honor his biological parents, while the officials insisted that the emperor's mother was Zhaosheng; the standoff remained unresolved. When the two men's memorials arrived, the emperor was resentful and furious. He immediately had them seized and brought to the inner court, charged with sowing discord in the palace and shifting blame onto the sovereign; they were sent to the imperial prison for torture and interrogation. The vice minister He Mengchun and the censor Xiao Yizhong pleaded for them, but the emperor would not listen. The censors Chen Hou and Ji Ben and the bureau director Lin Yingcong remonstrated in succession. The emperor grew still angrier; all were sent to the imperial prison and exiled far away. The emperor was determined to kill the two men; his countenance changed as he said to the Grand Secretariat member Jiang Mian: "These men falsely accuse me of unfilial conduct; the crime deserves death." Mian crawled on his knees, bowing his head, and pleaded: "Your Majesty is just now raising the governance of Yao and Shun—how can there be a name for killing remonstrating ministers?" After a long while his expression eased somewhat; he wished to banish them to frontier service. Mian pressed his plea again, continuing with tears. Thereupon they were beaten eighty strokes, stripped of office and made commoners; the two men were thus ruined. Many court officials recommended them, but they were never summoned again.

淛為人長者，不欺人，或為人欺亦不校。與明衡皆貧，淛尤甚。鄉里利病，必與有司言，雖忤弗顧。家居三十余年卒。

Zhe was a man of forbearance; he did not deceive others, and if others deceived him he did not contend. He and Mingheng were both poor; Zhe was especially so. On matters of benefit and harm to the village and district, he always spoke with the local officials, even if it offended them. He lived at home for more than thirty years before he died.

明衡，字子萃。父思聰，死宸濠難，自有傳。明衡登正德十二年進士，授太常博士。甫為御史，即與淛同得罪。閩中學者率以蔡清為宗，至明衡獨受業於王守仁。閩中有王氏學，自明衡始。

Ma Mingheng, styled Zicui. His father Sicong died in the Prince of Ning rebellion; he has his own biography. Mingheng passed the jinshi in the twelfth year of Zhengde and was appointed Erudite of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Barely had he become a censor when he offended together with Zhe. Scholars in Fujian generally took Cai Qing as their master; only Mingheng received instruction from Wang Shouren. Wang Yangming's learning in Fujian began with Mingheng.

陳逅，字良會，常熟人。正德六年進士。除福清知縣。入為御史。以救兩人謫合浦主簿。累官河南副使。帝幸承天，坐供具不辦，下獄為民。

Chen Hou, styled Lianghui, came from Changshu. He received his jinshi degree in the sixth year of the Zhengde reign. He was made magistrate of Fuqing county. He was appointed a censor. Because he had pleaded for the two men, he was demoted to registrar at Hepu. He rose through successive posts to vice commissioner of Henan. When the emperor traveled to Chengtian, he was charged with failing to prepare ceremonial supplies, imprisoned, and reduced to commoner status.

林應驄，亦莆田人。明衡同年進士。授戶部主事。嘉靖初，尚書孫交核各官莊田。帝以其數稍參差，有旨詰狀。應驄言：「部疏，臣司檢視，即有誤，當罪臣。尚書總領部事，安能遍閱？今旬日間，戶、工二部尚書相繼令對狀，非尊賢優老之意。」疏入，奪俸。以救淛等，謫徐聞縣丞。代其長朝覲，疏陳時事，多議行。

Lin Yingcong was also from Putian. He and Ma Mingheng had received their jinshi degrees in the same year. He was appointed a director in the Ministry of Revenue. Early in the Jiajing reign, Minister Sun Jiao audited the manor estates held by officials. Because the figures were somewhat inconsistent, the emperor issued an edict demanding an accounting. Yingcong said: "In the ministry memorial, I personally supervised the inspection; if there is any mistake, the blame should fall on me. The minister presides over the ministry's affairs—how could he read through everything himself? Within the past ten days the ministers of Revenue and Works have been made to face imperial inquiry in succession—this is not what it means to honor the worthy and show forbearance to the aged." When the memorial was submitted, his salary was suspended. Because he had pleaded for Zhu Zhe and the others, he was demoted to assistant magistrate of Xuwen. Standing in for his superior at the court audience, he memorialized on current affairs, and most of what he proposed was put into practice.

楊言，字惟仁，鄞人。正德十六年進士。授行人。嘉靖四年擢禮科給事中。閱數日即上言：「邇者仁壽宮災，諭群臣修省。臣以為責在公卿而不在陛下，罪在諫官而不在聖躬。朝廷設六科，所以舉正欺蔽也。今吏科失職，致陛下賢否混淆，進退失當。大臣蔣冕、林俊輩去矣，小臣王相、張漢卿輩皆得禍矣，而張驄、桂萼始由捷徑以竊清秩，終怙威勢以賊良善。戶科失職，致陛下儉德不聞，而張侖輩請索無厭，崔和輩敢亂舊章。禮科失職，致陛下享祀未格於神，而廟社無帡幪之庇。兵科失職，致陛下綱紀廢弛，而錦衣多冒濫之官，山海攘抽分之利，匠役增收而不禁，奏帶逾額而不裁。刑科失職，致陛下用罰不中。元惡如藍華輩得寬籍沒之法，諍臣如郭楠輩反施鈕械之刑。工科失職，致陛下興作不常。局官陸宣輩支俸逾於常制，內監陳林輩抽解及於蕪湖。凡此，皆時弊之急且大，而足以拂天意者。願陛下勤修庶政，而罷臣等以警有位，庶可以格天心，弭災變。」帝以浮謗責之。

Yang Yan, styled Weiren, came from Yin county. He received his jinshi degree in the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign. He was appointed a courier in the Ministry of Rites. In the fourth year of Jiajing he was promoted to supervising secretary of the Rites section. Within a few days he memorialized: "Recently the Renshou Palace burned, and Your Majesty exhorted the whole court to cultivate self-reflection. I hold that the responsibility lies with the chief ministers, not with Your Majesty, and the fault lies with remonstrating officials, not with the sacred person of the sovereign. The court established the six supervising secretariats precisely to expose concealment and set matters right. Today the Personnel section has failed in its duty, so that worthy and unworthy are confused in Your Majesty's eyes and appointments and dismissals go awry. Great ministers such as Jiang Mian and Lin Jun are gone; minor officials such as Wang Xiang and Zhang Hanqing have all come to ruin; yet Zhang Cong and Gui E first climbed by a back door into respectable rank and in the end used their power to prey on the good. The Revenue section has failed in its duty, so that Your Majesty's reputation for frugality is never heard, while men such as Zhang Lun ask without satiety and men such as Cui He dare to overturn established rules. The Rites section has failed in its duty, so that Your Majesty's sacrifices do not win the spirits' assent and the altars of state lack protecting shelter. The War section has failed in its duty, so that discipline is slack; the Embroidered Uniform Guard is swollen with illicit appointments; revenues from mountains and seas are grabbed for private shares; artisan corvée levies rise without check; and memorial-conferred ranks exceed the quota without being cut back. The Justice section has failed in its duty, so that punishments are not applied as they should be. Arch-criminals such as Lan Hua win leniency under the law of confiscation, while remonstrating ministers such as Guo Nan are put in shackles instead. The Works section has failed in its duty, so that construction projects never settle into a steady course. Bureau officials such as Lu Xuan draw salaries above the usual scale, and inner eunuchs such as Chen Lin divert tax silver as far as Wuhu. All of these are urgent, grave abuses of the age—enough to set Heaven's will against us. I pray that Your Majesty will diligently put the government in order and dismiss us as a warning to those who hold office, so that Heaven's heart may be won back and calamities stilled." The emperor rebuked him for reckless slander.

奸人何淵請建世室。言與廷臣爭，不聽。言復抗章曰：「祖宗身有天下，大宗也，君也。獻皇帝舊為藩王，小宗也，臣也。以臣並君，亂天下大分。以小宗並大宗，幹天下正統。獻帝雖有盛德，非若周文、武創王業也，欲襲世室名，舛矣。如以獻帝為自出之帝，是前無祖宗；以獻帝為禰而宗之，是後無孝、武二帝。陛下前既罪醫士劉惠之言，今乃納淵之說。前既俞禮卿席書之議，今乃咈書之言。臣不知其何謂也。」

The schemer He Yuan petitioned to build a Shishi spirit hall. Yan joined the court officials in opposing it, but the emperor would not heed them. Yan again submitted a defiant memorial: "The ancestors personally possessed the realm; they were the great lineage and they were sovereigns. The Xian Emperor was once a feudal prince—a lesser lineage and a subject. To set a subject beside a sovereign overturns the great divisions of the realm. To set the lesser lineage beside the great lineage assaults the legitimate succession of the realm. Although the Xian Emperor possessed great virtue, he was not like King Wen and King Wu of Zhou, who founded a royal enterprise; to claim the title Shishi is simply wrong. If the Xian Emperor were treated as an emperor who arose on his own, there would be no ancestors before him; if he were taken as founder-ancestor and enshrined as such, there would be no Emperor Xiaozong or Emperor Wuzong after him. Your Majesty formerly punished the physician Liu Hui for his words, yet now accepts He Yuan's proposal. Formerly Your Majesty approved Vice Minister of Rites Xi Shu's proposal, yet now you contradict what Shu said. I do not know what this is supposed to mean."

楊一清召入內閣，言請留之三邊。特旨拜張璁兵部侍郎。言以璁貪佞險躁，且新進，未更國家事，請罷璁，並劾吏部尚書廖紀引匪人。同官解一貫等亦諫。皆不納。有投匿名書禦道者，言請即燒之，報可。

When Yang Yiqing was summoned into the Grand Secretariat, Yan asked that he be kept in charge of the three border regions. By special edict Zhang Cong was appointed vice minister of the Ministry of War. Yan argued that Cong was greedy, fawning, dangerous, and rash, that as a newcomer he had never handled state affairs, and asked that Cong be dismissed; he also impeached Minister of Personnel Liao Ji for bringing in unworthy men. His colleagues Jie Yiguan and others remonstrated as well. None of it was accepted. When an anonymous letter was cast on the Imperial Way, Yan asked that it be burned at once; the emperor approved.

六年，錦衣百戶王邦奇借哈密事請誅楊廷和、彭澤等，下部議，未覆，而邦奇復誣大學士費宏、石缶陰庇廷和，詞連廷和子主事惇等，將興大獄。言抗疏曰：「先帝晏駕，江彬手握邊軍四萬，圖為不軌。廷和密謀行誅，俄頃事定，迎立聖主，此社稷之勛也。縱使有罪，猶當十世宥之。今既以奸人言罷其官、戍其長子矣，乃又聽邦奇之誣而盡逮其鄉里、親戚，誣為蜀黨，何意聖明之朝，忽有此事？至宏、缶乃天子師保之官，百僚之表也。邦奇心懷怨望，文飾奸言，詬辱大臣，熒惑聖聽。若窮治不已，株連益多，臣竊為國家大體惜也。」書奏，帝震怒，並收系言，親鞫於午門。群臣悉集。言備極五毒，折其一指，卒無撓詞。既罷，下五府九卿議。鎮遠侯顧仕隆等覆奏邦奇言皆虛妄，帝責仕隆等徇情。然獄亦因是解，謫言宿州判官。御史程啟充請還言舊任，不聽。稍遷溧陽知縣，歷南京吏部郎中。坐事再謫知夷陵。累官湖廣參議。

In the sixth year, Embroidered Uniform Guard centurion Wang Bangqi used the Hami affair to demand the execution of Yang Tinghe, Peng Ze, and others; the case was sent to the ministries for discussion and had not yet been answered when Bangqi again accused Grand Secretaries Fei Hong and Shi Gui of secretly shielding Tinghe, implicating Tinghe's son the director Dun and others and threatening a major purge. Yan submitted a defiant memorial: "When the late emperor passed away, Jiang Bin held forty thousand border troops in his hands and plotted treason. Tinghe secretly planned the execution; in a moment the crisis was settled and the sage sovereign was enthroned—this was a service to the altars of state. Even if he were guilty, he should still be pardoned for ten generations. Already, on a villain's accusation, his office has been taken away and his eldest son exiled; yet now Your Majesty again listens to Bangqi's slander and arrests all his townsfolk and kin, falsely branding them the Shu faction—what can it mean that in so enlightened a court such a thing should suddenly appear? As for Fei Hong and Shi Gui, they are the emperor's tutors and guardians—the model for the whole bureaucracy. Bangqi harbors resentment, dresses up wicked words, reviles great ministers, and misleads the sacred ear. If the investigation is driven to the bitter end, ever more people will be dragged in; I grieve privately for the fundamental interests of the state." When the memorial was submitted, the emperor was furious; Yan was seized and the emperor personally interrogated him at the Meridian Gate. The whole court assembled to witness it. Yan was tortured with every extremity of the five punishments; one finger was broken, yet in the end he would not yield a word. When it was over, the case was sent to the Five Offices and Nine Ministries for deliberation. Marquis of Zhenyuan Gu Shilong and others reported back that Bangqi's charges were all false; the emperor rebuked Shilong and the others for showing favoritism. Yet the case was also dissolved on that account, and Yan was demoted to judge of Suzhou. The censor Cheng Qichong asked that Yan be restored to his former post, but the emperor would not listen. He was later made magistrate of Liyang and rose to director in the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel. After an offense he was demoted again to magistrate of Yiling. He eventually rose to administration commissioner of Huguang.

言為吏，多著聲績。溧陽、夷陵皆祠祀之。

As an administrator Yan won a strong reputation for his achievements. Both Liyang and Yiling erected shrines in his honor.

劉安，字汝勉，慈溪人。嘉靖五年進士。授南京工部主事，改河南道御史。入臺甫一月，上疏曰：「人君貴明不貴察。察，非明也。人君以察為明，天下始多事矣。陛下臨禦八年而治理未臻，識者謂陛下之治功損於明察。夫治，可以緩圖，不可以急取；可以休養致，不可以督責成。以急切之心，行督責之政，於是躬親有司之事，指摘臣下之失，令出而復返，方信而忽疑。大小臣工救過不暇，多有不安其位者。孰能為陛下建長久之策，以圖平治哉？且朝廷者，四方之極也。內之君臣，習尚如此，則外而撫按守令之官，風從響應。上以苛察繩，下以苛察應，恐民窮為起盜之源，食寡無強兵之理。今明天子綜核於上，百執事振刷於下，叢蠹之弊十去其九，所少者元氣耳。伏望大包荒之量，重根本之圖，略繁文而先急務，簡細故而弘遠猷，不以一人之毀譽為喜怒，不以一言之順逆為行止，久任老成，優容言官，則君臣上下一德一心，人人各安其位，事事各盡其才，雍熙太和之治不難見矣。」帝閱疏大怒，逮赴錦衣衛拷訊。兵科給事中胡堯時救之，並逮治。獄具，謫堯時攸縣主薄，安餘於典史。築決堤數十丈，人稱劉公堤。再遷長沙同知，擢鳳陽知府。治行卓異，賜正三品服。以憂歸，卒。

Liu An, styled Rumin, came from Cixi. He received his jinshi degree in the fifth year of the Jiajing reign. He was appointed a director in the Nanjing Ministry of Works, then transferred to censor of the Henan circuit. Barely a month after entering the Censorate, he memorialized: "A ruler should prize clarity, not keen scrutiny. Scrutiny is not clarity. When a ruler mistakes scrutiny for clarity, the realm soon fills with trouble. Your Majesty has reigned for eight years, yet good governance has not been achieved; informed observers say that your accomplishments in rule are being undermined by excessive scrutiny. Good government can be pursued with patience; it cannot be seized in haste; it can be brought about through nurturing and ease, not completed through relentless pressure and blame. With an impatient heart you pursue a policy of relentless blame; then you personally take up the business of the functionaries, pick at your ministers' faults, issue orders only to reverse them, trust one moment and doubt the next. Officials high and low have no time but to cover their mistakes, and many can no longer feel secure in their posts. Who can lay before Your Majesty a long-term policy aimed at lasting peace and order? Moreover, the court is the pole star for the four quarters. If ruler and ministers at court fall into such habits, then outside, among grand coordinators, surveillance commissioners, and local magistrates, the wind will be followed and the echo will answer. Above you bind officials with harsh scrutiny; below they answer with harsh scrutiny in turn—I fear that when the people are driven to destitution banditry will rise, and when food is scarce there can be no strong army. Today the enlightened Son of Heaven audits comprehensively above and the hundred functionaries are shaken into diligence below; the abuses of entrenched corruption are nine-tenths gone—what is lacking now is only the realm's vital energy. I humbly pray that Your Majesty will embrace the magnanimity that tolerates much negligence, give weight to fundamental plans, set aside verbose paperwork and put urgent affairs first, simplify petty matters and enlarge far-reaching designs, neither rejoice nor rage at one man's praise or blame, neither advance nor halt on the strength of a single remark, keep the aged and experienced in office for long tenures, and show forbearance to remonstrating officials—then ruler and ministers will be of one mind, each man secure in his post and each task fulfilled by its proper talent, and a reign of radiant harmony will not be far to seek." When the emperor read the memorial he was furious; An was seized and sent to the Embroidered Uniform Guard for torture and interrogation. The War-section supervising secretary Hu Yaoshi pleaded for him and was seized and punished as well. When the case was concluded, Yaoshi was demoted to registrar of You county and An to county recorder of Yuyu. He repaired a breached dike for several dozen zhang; people called it Magistrate Liu's Dike. He was later made vice prefect of Changsha and promoted to prefect of Fengyang. His record in office was outstanding, and he was granted dress of the regular third rank. He went home on mourning leave and died there.

薛侃，字尚謙，揭陽人。性至孝，正德十二年成進士，即以侍養歸。師王守仁於贛州，歸語兄助教俊。俊大喜，率群子侄宗鎧等往學焉。自是王氏學盛行於嶺南。

Xue Kan, styled Shangqian, came from Jieyang. By nature he was profoundly filial; he passed the jinshi examination in the twelfth year of Zhengde and at once returned home to care for his parents. He studied under Wang Shouren at Ganzhou, and when he came home he told his elder brother Jun, who served as an assistant instructor. Jun was overjoyed and, leading his sons and nephews including Zong Kai, went to study with him. From then on Wang Yangming's teaching spread widely throughout Lingnan.

世宗立，侃授行人。母訃，隕絕，五日始食粥。嘉靖七年起故官。聞守仁卒，偕歐陽德輩為位，朝夕哭。時方議文廟祀典，侃請祀陸九淵、陳獻章。九淵得報允。已，進司正。十年秋疏言：「祖宗分封子弟，必留一人京師司香，有事居守，或代行祭饗。列聖相承，莫之或改。至正德初，逆瑾懷貳，始令就封。乞稽舊典，擇親藩賢者居京師，慎選正人輔導，以待他日皇嗣之生，此宗社大計。」帝方祈嗣，諱言之，震怒，立下獄廷鞫，究交通主使者。南海彭澤為吏部郎，無行。因議禮附張孚敬，遂與為腹心。後京察被黜，孚敬奏留之，復引為諭德，至太常卿。侃以疏草示澤。澤與侃及少詹事夏言同年生，而言是時數忤孚敬。澤默計儲副事觸帝諱，必興大獄，誣言同謀可禍也，紿侃槁示孚敬，因報侃曰：「張公甚稱善，此國家大事，當從中贊之。」與為期，趣之上。孚敬乃先錄侃槁以進，謂出於言，請勿先發以待疏至。帝許之。侃猶豫，澤頻趣之乃上。拷掠備至，侃獨自承，累日獄不具。澤挑使引言，侃瞋目曰：「疏，我自具。趣我上者，爾也。爾謂張少傅許助之，言何豫？」給事中孫應奎、曹汴揖孚敬避。孚敬怒。應奎等疏聞，詔並下言、應奎、汴詔獄，命郭勛、翟鑾及司禮中官會廷臣再鞫，具得其實。帝乃釋言等，出孚敬密疏二示廷臣，斥其忮罔，令致仕。侃為民，澤戍大同。澤在朝專為邪媚，及敗，天下快之。

After Emperor Shizong ascended the throne, Kan was appointed a Messenger in the Ministry of Rites. When news of his mother's death arrived, he fainted outright and did not take even gruel until the fifth day. In the seventh year of Jiajing he was recalled to his former post. When he heard that Wang Shouren had died, he and Ouyang De and others set up a mourning shrine and wept there morning and night. While the court was debating sacrifices in the Confucian temple, Kan petitioned that Lu Jiuyuan and Chen Xianzhang be enshrined. Lu Jiuyuan's enshrinement was approved. Later he was promoted to Director of Ceremonies in the Directorate of Education. In the autumn of the tenth year he submitted a memorial saying: "When our founding ancestors enfeoffed imperial clansmen, they always kept one kinsman in the capital to tend the ancestral incense, to hold the capital in reserve when required, or to perform the sacrifices in another's place. Successive emperors carried on this practice without change. Not until early in the Zhengde reign, when the rebel Liu Jin turned disloyal, were princes first ordered to take up residence in their fiefs. I beg Your Majesty to consult the ancient precedents, choose a worthy prince of the close collateral line to remain in the capital, and carefully appoint upright tutors to guide him, so that when an imperial heir is born in due time the dynasty may be secure—this is a matter vital to the realm. The emperor was then praying for an heir and took such talk as forbidden; he flew into a rage, had Kan thrown into prison at once, and interrogated him at court to discover who had conspired with and instigated him. Peng Ze of Nanhai was a secretary in the Ministry of Personnel and was a man of no character. Having sided with Zhang Cong in the Rites Controversy, he became Zhang's trusted inner circle. Later he was dismissed in the metropolitan personnel review, but Zhang Cong memorialized to keep him at court, brought him back as a preceptor, and eventually had him promoted to Minister of Ceremonies. Kan showed Peng Ze the draft of his memorial. Peng Ze, Kan, and the Junior Mentor Xia Yan had passed the examinations in the same year, and at this time Xia Yan had repeatedly crossed Zhang Cong. Peng Ze reckoned silently that talk of the heir touched the emperor's sore point and would surely provoke a major prosecution; if he could falsely implicate Xia Yan as a co-conspirator, Yan could be ruined. He tricked Kan by showing the draft to Zhang Cong, then told Kan, "Master Zhang praised it highly. This is a matter of national importance and ought to be backed from within the court. They set a date and pressed him to submit the memorial. Zhang Cong then copied Kan's draft and submitted it first, claiming it had come from Xia Yan, and asked that the matter not be made public until Kan's memorial arrived. The emperor agreed. Kan hesitated, and only after Peng Ze pressed him again and again did he submit the memorial. He was tortured to the utmost, yet Kan confessed alone; for many days the investigators could not close the case. Peng Ze goaded him to implicate Xia Yan. Kan glared and said, "I wrote the memorial myself. You were the one who pressed me to submit it. You told me Vice Grand Tutor Zhang would help—what does Xia Yan have to do with any of this? The supervising secretaries Sun Yingkui and Cao Bian bowed to Zhang Cong and withdrew to avoid him. Zhang Cong was furious. Yingkui and the others reported the matter in a memorial; an edict sent Xia Yan, Yingkui, and Bian together to the imperial prison and ordered Guo Xun, Zhai Luan, and eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonies to join the court officials in a fresh interrogation, by which the whole truth came out. The emperor then released Xia Yan and the others, produced two of Zhang Cong's secret memorials for the court officials to see, denounced his jealousy and deceit, and ordered him to retire. Kan was stripped of office and reduced to commoner status; Peng Ze was exiled to military service at Datong. In court Peng Ze had devoted himself to wicked flattery; when he fell, the empire rejoiced.

侃至潞河，遇聖壽節，焚香叩祝甚謹。或報參政項喬曰：「小舟中有民服而祝聖者。」喬曰：「必薛中離也。」跡之，果然。中離者，侃自號也。歸家益力學，從遊者百余人。隆慶初，復官，贈御史。俊子宗鎧，自有傳。

When Kan reached the Lu River, it happened to be the emperor's birthday; he burned incense and kowtowed in prayer with scrupulous devotion. Someone reported to Administration Commissioner Xiang Qiao, "There is a man in commoner's dress aboard a small boat praying for the emperor. Xiang Qiao said, "That must be Zhongli." They tracked him down, and so it proved. Zhongli was the sobriquet Kan had taken for himself. Back home he threw himself all the more into scholarship, and more than a hundred students came to study with him. Early in the Longqing reign his office was restored and he was posthumously enfeoffed as a censor. Jun's son Zong Kai has a separate biography.

侃歸數月，御史喻希禮、石金皆以言皇嗣得罪。希禮言：「陛下祈嗣禮成，瑞雪遂降，臣以為招和致祥，不盡於此。往者大赦，今歲免刑，臣民盡沾澤，獨議禮議獄得罪諸臣遠戍邊僥，乞量移近地，或特賜赦免，則和氣薰蒸，前星自耀。」帝大怒曰：「謂朕罪諸臣致遲嗣續耶？所司參議以聞。」議未上，金亦言：「陛下一日萬幾，經理勞瘁。何若中涵太虛，物來順應。凡人才之用舍，政事之敷施，始以九卿之詳度，繼以內閣之咨謀，其弗協於中者，付諸臺諫之公論。陛下恭默凝神，挈其綱領，使精神內蘊，根本充固，則百斯男之慶，自不期而至。王守仁首平逆藩，繼靖巨寇，乃因疑謗，泯其前勞。大禮大獄諸臣，久膺流竄，因郁既久，物故已多。望錄守仁功，寬諸臣罪，則太和之氣塞宇宙間矣。」帝不悅曰：「金欲朕勿禦萬幾，即古奸臣導其君不親政之意，其並察奏。」尚書夏言等言二人無他腸。帝益怒，下二人詔獄，而責言等陳狀。伏罪乃宥之。二人竟謫戍邊衛。久之，赦還，卒。隆慶初，俱贈光祿少卿。

A few months after Kan returned home, the censors Yu Xili and Shi Jin were both punished for speaking about the imperial heir. Xili wrote, "Your Majesty's rites praying for an heir have been completed and auspicious snow has fallen; I believe that summoning harmony and securing blessings need not stop here. There has been a great amnesty in the past and punishments were remitted this year—the ministers and people have all shared in imperial grace—yet the officials condemned in the Rites Controversy and its prosecutions alone remain exiled to distant border posts. I beg that they be transferred by degrees to nearer places, or specially pardoned and released; then harmonious qi will suffuse the realm and the heir-star will shine of its own accord. The emperor was furious and said, "Are you saying that I punished those officials and thereby delayed the birth of an heir? Let the responsible offices deliberate and report." Before the deliberation was submitted, Shi Jin also wrote, "Your Majesty handles ten thousand affairs in a day and is worn out with managing them. How much better to hold the Great Void within and let things come and be met as they arrive. Let the appointment or dismissal of talent and the conduct of government affairs first be weighed in detail by the Nine Ministers, then discussed in the Grand Secretariat; whatever still fails to accord with the mean should be left to the censorate's public judgment. Your Majesty, reverently silent and concentrating your spirit, should grasp the guiding principles, let your inner spirit be stored up and your foundation made firm—then the blessing of countless sons will come without your seeking it. Wang Shouren first pacified the rebellious princedom and then quelled great bandits, yet because of suspicion and slander his earlier achievements were erased. The officials condemned in the Great Rites and the great prosecutions have long been in exile; crushed by grief for so long, many have already died. I beg that Wang Shouren's achievements be recorded and those officials' crimes pardoned; then the qi of supreme harmony will fill the universe. The emperor was displeased and said, "Shi Jin wants me to leave the myriad affairs of state unattended—this is exactly how treacherous ministers of old led their rulers to neglect government in person. Investigate and report on them both." The Minister Xia Yan and others said the two men had no ulterior motive. The emperor grew still angrier, sent the two men to the imperial prison, and rebuked Xia Yan and the others to set out the facts clearly. Only after they confessed guilt were they spared. In the end the two men were demoted and exiled to border garrisons. Long afterward they were pardoned and allowed to return; both died in the end. Early in the Longqing reign both were posthumously enfeoffed as Vice Ministers of the Imperial Household.

喻希禮，麻城人。石金，黃梅人。巡按廣西，與姚鏌不協。後與守仁共撫盧蘇、王受。還臺，值張、桂用事。御史儲良才輩爭附之，金獨侃侃不阿，以是有名。

Yu Xili came from Macheng. Shi Jin came from Huangmei. While serving as touring inspector of Guangxi, he fell out with Yao Nai. Later he joined Wang Shouren in pacifying Lu Su and Wang Shou. When he returned to the capital censorate, Zhang Cong and Gui E were in power. Censors such as Chu Liangcai vied to attach themselves to the faction, but Jin alone stood forthright and unbending, and thereby won renown.

楊名，字實卿，遂寧人。童子時，督學王廷相奇其語，補弟子員。嘉靖七年，鄉試第一。明年以第三人及第，授編修。聞大母喪，請急歸。還朝，為展書官。

Yang Ming, styled Shiqing, came from Suining. As a boy, Education Intendant Wang Tingxiang was struck by his eloquence and enrolled him as a licentiate student. In the seventh year of Jiajing he took first place in the provincial examinations. The following year he passed the palace examination in third place and was appointed a Hanlin Compiler. When he heard of his great-grandmother's death, he requested emergency leave to return home. When he returned to court he served as a book-presenting officer.

十一年十月，彗星見。名應詔上書，言帝喜怒失中，用舍不當。語切直，帝銜之，而答旨稱其納忠，令無隱。名乃復言：「吏部諸曹之首，尚書百官之表，而汪鋐小人之尤也。武定侯郭勛奸回險譎，太常卿陳道瀛、金赟仁粗鄙酣淫。數人者，群情皆曰不當用，而陛下用之，是聖心之偏於喜也。諸臣建言觸忤者，心實可原。大學士李時以愛惜人才為請，即荷嘉納，而吏部不為題覆。臣所謂虛文塞責者，豈盡無哉？夫此得罪諸臣，群情以為當宥，而陛下不終宥，是聖心之偏於怒也。真人邵元節猥以末術，過蒙采聽。嘗令設醮內府，且命左右大臣奔走供事，遂致不肖之徒有昏夜乞哀出其門者。書之史冊，後世其將謂何？凡此聖心之少有所偏者，故臣敢抒其狂愚。」疏入，帝震怒，即執下詔獄拷訊。鋐疏辨，謂：「名乃楊廷和鄉人。頃張孚敬去位，廷和黨輒思報復，故攻及臣。臣為上簡用，誠欲一振舉朝廷之法，而議者輒病臣操切。且內閣大臣率務和同，植黨固位，故名敢欺肆至此。」帝深入其言，益怒，命所司窮詰主使。名數瀕於死，無所承，言曾以疏草示同年生程文德，乃並文德下獄。侍郎黃宗明、候補判官黃直救之，先後皆下獄。法司再擬名罪，皆不當上指。特詔謫名戍，編伍瞿塘衛。明年釋還。屢薦終不復召。家居二十余年，奉親孝。親歿，與弟臺廬於墓。免喪，疾作，卒。

In the tenth month of the eleventh year a comet appeared. Ming responded to the imperial edict with a memorial saying the emperor's joy and anger had lost their balance and his appointments and dismissals were improper. His language was blunt and direct; the emperor nursed a grudge, yet in his reply praised Ming for offering loyal counsel and told him to hold nothing back. Ming then wrote again: "The Ministry of Personnel heads all the ministries, and its minister is the model for the hundred officials—yet Wang Jixiang is the worst sort of petty man. The Marquis of Wuding Guo Xun is treacherous, crooked, and deceitful; the Minister of Ceremonies Chen Daoyuan and Jin Yunren are coarse, vulgar, and drunkenly dissolute. Public opinion holds that none of these men ought to be employed, yet Your Majesty employs them—this shows that the imperial mind is biased toward what pleases it. The officials whose remonstrances gave offense are in truth deserving of forgiveness. Grand Secretary Li Shi pleaded to cherish talent and was graciously accepted at once—yet the Ministry of Personnel never drafted a formal reply. Are there truly none of the empty formalities I speak of that merely shift responsibility? As for these punished officials, public opinion holds they ought to be pardoned, yet Your Majesty will not pardon them in the end—this shows that the imperial mind is biased toward anger. The Perfected Man Shao Yuanjie, with his petty arts, has been far too much heeded by Your Majesty. He was once ordered to perform a ritual in the inner palace, and senior ministers were made to run about serving him, so that unworthy men came to beg for favor at his gate in the dead of night. When this is written in the historical records, what will posterity say? In all these matters the imperial mind has been somewhat biased; therefore I dare speak my reckless folly. When the memorial arrived, the emperor was shaken with rage and at once had Ming seized and sent to the imperial prison for interrogation under torture. Wang Jixiang memorialized in his own defense, saying, "Ming is a fellow townsman of Yang Tinghe. Now that Zhang Cong has left office, Yang Tinghe's faction at once seeks revenge, and so their attack has reached me. I was selected and employed by Your Majesty and truly wished to revive the laws of the court at a stroke, yet critics constantly fault me for being harsh and overbearing. Moreover, grand secretaries as a rule pursue harmony, build factions, and secure their posts—therefore Ming dares to insult and act wildly to this extent. The emperor was deeply swayed by his words, grew still angrier, and ordered the responsible offices to investigate thoroughly who had instigated the attack. Ming was tortured nearly to death but confessed to nothing; he said he had once shown the draft to his examination-year fellow Cheng Wende, and so Wende too was thrown into prison. Vice Minister Huang Zongming and candidate judge Huang Zhi came to his rescue; both were thrown into prison in turn. The judicial offices twice drafted sentences for Ming, yet neither satisfied the emperor. A special edict demoted Ming to garrison service and enrolled him in the ranks at the Qutang Guard. The following year he was released and allowed to return. Though repeatedly recommended, he was never summoned back to office. He lived in retirement for more than twenty years, dutifully caring for his parents. After his parents died, he and his younger brother built mourning huts by their tomb. When his mourning ended, he fell ill and died.

黃直，字以方，金溪人。受業於王守仁。嘉靖二年會試，主司發策極詆守仁之學。直與同門歐陽德不阿主司意，編修馬汝驥奇之，兩人遂中式。直既成進士，即疏陳隆聖治、保聖躬、敦聖孝、明聖鑒、勤聖學、務聖道六事。除漳州推官。以漳俗尚鬼，盡廢境內淫祠，易其材以葺橋梁、公廨。御史誣以罪，送吏部降用。行至中途，疏請早定儲貳。帝怒，遣緹騎逮問。無何得釋，貶沔陽判官。嘗署崇陽縣事，有惠政。

Huang Zhi, courtesy name Yifang, was from Jinxi. He studied under Wang Yangming. At the metropolitan examination of the second year of Jiajing, the chief examiner set a policy question that fiercely attacked Wang Yangming's teachings. Zhi and his fellow student Ouyang De refused to cater to the examiner's bias; Compiler Ma Ruji was impressed by them, and both passed the examination. As soon as Zhi had passed the palace examination, he memorialized on six themes: exalting sagely governance, safeguarding the emperor's person, deepening imperial filial piety, clarifying imperial judgment, pursuing sagely learning, and devoting the court to the sagely Way. He was appointed investigating censor of Zhangzhou. Because Zhangzhou custom was steeped in spirit worship, he abolished every improper shrine in the prefecture and used their timber to repair bridges and government offices. A censor framed him on false charges, and the Ministry of Personnel demoted him. Midway on his journey, he submitted a memorial urging the early designation of an heir apparent. The emperor was enraged and sent the imperial guard to seize and interrogate him. Before long he was released and demoted to assistant magistrate of Mianyang. He once served as acting magistrate of Chongyang County and won a reputation for benevolent rule.

外艱歸，三年不禦酒肉。服闋赴部，適名、宗明下獄。直抗疏言：「九經之首曰修身，其中曰敬大臣，體群臣。今楊名以直言置詔獄，非所以體群臣。黃宗明以論救與同罪，非所以敬大臣。二者未盡，天下後世疑陛下修身之道亦有所未盡矣。」帝大怒，並下詔獄拷掠，命發極邊，編戍雷州衛。赦還，貧甚，妻紡織以給朝夕，直讀書談道自如。久之，卒。隆慶初，贈光祿少卿。

When his father-in-law died he went into mourning and for three years abstained from wine and meat. When his mourning ended he reported to the ministry, just as Yang Ming and Huang Zongming had been thrown into prison. Zhi submitted a bold memorial saying, "The first of the Nine Classics speaks of self-cultivation; among its central themes are respecting great ministers and cherishing the body of officials. Now Yang Ming has been consigned to the imperial prison for speaking plainly—this is no way to cherish your officials. Huang Zongming has been punished equally for pleading on Ming's behalf—this is no way to respect your senior ministers. If these two duties remain unfulfilled, the realm and posterity will suspect that Your Majesty's own path of self-cultivation is likewise incomplete." The emperor was furious, had them both thrown into the imperial prison and tortured, ordered them sent to the farthest frontier, and enrolled them for garrison duty at the Leizhou Guard. After an amnesty he returned home in dire poverty; his wife spun and wove to keep food on the table, while Zhi read and discussed the Way as calmly as ever. In time he died. At the beginning of the Longqing reign he was posthumously made Vice Minister of the Imperial Household.

郭弘化，字子弼，安福人。嘉靖二年進士。除江陵知縣，征授御史。十一年冬，彗星見。弘化言：「按《天文志》：井居東方，其宿為木。今者彗出於井，則土木繁興所致也。臣聞四川、湖廣、貴州、江西、浙江、山西及真定諸府之采木者，勞苦萬狀。應天、蘇、松、常、鎮五府，方有造磚之役，民間耗費不貲，窯戶逃亡過半。而廣東以采珠之故，激民為盜，至攻劫會城。皆足戾天和，幹星變。請悉停罷，則彗滅而前星耀矣。」戶部尚書許贊等請聽弘化言。帝怒曰：「采珠，故事也，朕未有嗣，以是故耶？」責贊等附和，黜弘化為民。久之，言官會薦，報寢。卒於家。穆宗立，贈光祿少卿。

Guo Honghua, courtesy name Zibi, was from Anfu. He passed the palace examination in the second year of Jiajing. He was appointed magistrate of Jiangling, then recalled and made a censor. In the winter of the eleventh year a comet appeared. Honghua said, "According to the Astronomical Treatise, the Jing asterism lies in the east and belongs to the Wood element. Now that a comet has appeared in Jing, it must be due to the simultaneous rise of earthworks and timber cutting. I have heard that timber crews in Sichuan, Huguang, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Shanxi, and the prefectures around Zhending suffer every imaginable hardship. In Yingtian, Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, and Zhenjiang brick-making is under way, draining the people beyond measure, and more than half the kiln households have fled. In Guangdong, pearl gathering has driven the people to banditry, even to the sack of the provincial capital. All of this is enough to offend Heaven's harmony and provoke celestial omens. I beg that all these projects be halted entirely; then the comet will fade and the heir apparent will shine forth again." Minister of Revenue Xu Zan and others asked the throne to heed Honghua's advice. The emperor snapped, "Pearl gathering is an established precedent—are you saying this because I still have no heir?" He rebuked Xu Zan and the others for echoing Honghua and stripped Honghua of office, reducing him to commoner status. After a long interval the remonstrance officials jointly recommended him, but the petition was suppressed. He died at home. When Emperor Muzong ascended the throne, he was posthumously made Vice Minister of the Imperial Household.

劉世龍，字元卿，慈溪人。正德十六年進士。授太倉知州，改國子助教，遷南京兵部主事。嘉靖十三年，南京太廟災。世龍應詔陳三事：

Liu Shilong, courtesy name Yuanqing, was from Cixi. He passed the palace examination in the sixteenth year of Zhengde. He was appointed prefect of Taicang, then made an instructor at the National University, and later promoted to a principal clerk in the Nanjing Ministry of War. In the thirteenth year of Jiajing fire destroyed the imperial ancestral temple in Nanjing. Shilong, responding to an imperial edict, set forth three proposals:

一、杜諂諛以正風俗。天下風俗之不正，由於人心之壞。人心之壞，患得患失使然也。今天下刻薄相尚，變詐相高，諂媚相師，阿比相倚。仕者日壞於上，學者日壞於下，彼倡此和，靡然成風。惟陛下赫然矯正，勿以詭隨阿比者為賢，勿以正直骨鯁者為不肖，勿以私好有所賞，勿以私惡有所罰，虛心以防邪佞，謙受以來忠讜，更敕大小臣工，協恭圖治，無權勢相軋，朋黨相傾，則風俗正矣。

First, cut off flattery to rectify public morals. The corruption of public morals stems from the corruption of men's hearts. Hearts grow corrupt because men fret over gain and loss. Today harshness is prized, deceit is admired, flattery is taught from man to man, and cliques lean on one another. Officials grow worse by the day above, scholars below them follow suit, and one voice leads until the whole court sways together. Only if Your Majesty corrects this with authority—if you do not treat the evasive and cliquish as worthy, if you do not treat the upright and outspoken as unworthy, if you neither reward private favorites nor punish private dislikes, if you keep an open mind against flatterers and humbly welcome loyal remonstrance, and if you further command all officials to work together for good government without power crushing power or factions overturning factions—then public morals will be set right.

二、廣容納以開言路。陛下臨禦之初，犯顏敢諫之臣比先朝為盛，所言或傷於激切，而放逐既久，悔悟日深。當宥其既往，以次錄用，死者則恤之。仍令大小臣工直言時政，以作忠義之氣。

Second, broaden tolerance to open the path of remonstrance. At the beginning of your reign, officials who dared speak bluntly to your face were more numerous than under the previous emperor; their words sometimes cut too deep, yet after long exile their repentance grows deeper by the day. You should pardon their past offenses, restore them to office in due order, and grant posthumous honors to the dead. And command all officials to speak plainly on current affairs, so as to revive the spirit of loyal service.

三、慎舉動以存大體。立國者，在敬大臣，不遺故舊。蓋任之既重，則禮之宜優。今或忽然去之，忽然召之，甚至嬰三木，被箠楚，何以勵臣節哉！臣愚以為陛下歷試之余，其人果無足取，則宜以禮使退。如素行無缺，偶以一時喜怒，輒從而顛倒之，陛下固付之無心，而天下有以窺陛下也。

Third, be cautious in your conduct to preserve the dignity of the throne. To sustain a state one must respect great ministers and not cast aside old associates. Once responsibility is heavy, courtesy ought to be generous in turn. Yet now ministers are suddenly dismissed and suddenly recalled, even shackled and beaten with rods—how can this encourage steadfast service! I humbly believe that after you have tested a man, if he truly proves unfit, he should be dismissed with proper ceremony. But if a man of blameless record is suddenly overturned by a passing mood, Your Majesty may think it nothing, yet the realm will learn to read your temper.

至如張延齡憑寵為非，法難容假。側聞長老之言，孝宗時待之過厚，遂釀今日之禍。顧區區腐鼠，何足深惜！獨念孝廟在天之靈，太皇太后垂老之景，乃至不能自庇其骨肉，於情忍乎？恐陛下孝養兩宮，亦不能不為一動心也。頃創造神禦閣、啟祥宮，特令大臣督理其事。臣以為南京太廟方被災，工役之急當無過此。今興作頻年，四方雕敝，正時絀舉贏之會，亦宜量酌緩急而為之以漸。此皆應天以實之道也。

As for Zhang Yanling, who abuses imperial favor to do wrong, the law can scarcely indulge him. I have heard elders say that Emperor Xiaozong treated him too generously, and so brewed today's disaster. But this petty creature is scarcely worth such anguish! I think only of Emperor Xiaozong's spirit in Heaven and of the Grand Empress Dowager in her old age, unable even to protect her own kin—in human feeling, can this be borne? Surely in your filial care for the two palaces you too cannot remain unmoved. Recently, in building the Shenyu Pavilion and Qixiang Palace, you specially ordered great ministers to supervise the work. I believe that with the Nanjing ancestral temple just destroyed by fire, no work ought to take precedence over its rebuilding. Construction has gone on for years while the realm lies exhausted; this is precisely the time to practice thrift in hardship rather than extravagance in plenty, weighing what is urgent and proceeding step by step. All of this is the way to respond to Heaven with deeds, not words.

疏入，帝震怒，謂世龍訕上庇逆。械系至京，下詔獄拷掠。獄具，復廷杖八十，斥為民。張延齡者，昭聖太后弟也。帝必欲殺之，故世龍重得罪。後二年，又以大猾劉東山訐告，盡斥諸刑曹郎羅虞臣、徐申等，猶以延齡故也。

When the memorial arrived, the emperor was shaken with rage and declared that Shilong had insulted the throne and shielded a traitor. He was shackled and brought to the capital, then thrown into the imperial prison and tortured. When the case was concluded, he was given eighty blows at court and stripped of office. Zhang Yanling was the younger brother of Empress Zhaosheng. The emperor was determined to have him executed, and so Shilong's offense was treated with especial severity. Two years later, on the false accusation of the great scoundrel Liu Dongshan, every penal-office clerk, including Luo Yuchen and Xu Shen, was driven from office—again because of the Zhang Yanling affair.

世龍家居五十年，自養親一肉外，蔬食終身。卒之日，族人為治衣冠葬之。

Shilong lived in retirement for fifty years, eating vegetables all his life except for the meat he served his parents. On the day he died, his clansmen prepared his burial garments and laid him to rest.

徐申，字周翰，昆山人。嘉靖初，由鄉舉除蘄水知縣。改知上鐃，征授刑部主事。延齡之系獄也，申奏記尚書聶賢、唐龍言：「太后春秋高，延齡旦暮戮，何以慰太后心？宜援議貴議親例請於帝。」賢等深然之，獄久不決。始延齡下獄，提牢主事沈椿不令入獄，置別所。繼者益寬假之，脫梏堣，通家人出入。會大猾劉東山亦系獄，上告延齡有不軌謀。憾前主事羅虞臣笞己，因訐及椿等。帝震怒，命執先後提牢主事三十七人付詔獄搒掠，申與焉。獄具，當輸贖還職，帝命杖之廷，盡謫外任，而斥虞臣為民。虞臣，廣東順德人。歷吏部主事。好剛疾惡。既歸，結廬山中，讀書纂述。年僅三十五卒。

Xu Shen, courtesy name Zhouhan, was from Kunshan. Early in Jiajing he entered office through the provincial examination and was appointed magistrate of Qishui. He was transferred to magistrate of Shangrao, then recalled and made a principal clerk in the Ministry of Punishments. When Yanling was imprisoned, Shen wrote to Ministers Nie Xian and Tang Long saying, "The Empress Dowager is advanced in years; if Yanling is put to death at any moment, how can her heart be comforted? You should cite the precedents for sparing the noble and sparing kin and petition the emperor accordingly." Nie Xian and the others strongly agreed, and the case dragged on unresolved. When Yanling was first imprisoned, Prison Director Shen Chun refused to put him in the main jail and housed him elsewhere. His successors were still more lenient, removed his shackles, and allowed his family free access. Then the great scoundrel Liu Dongshan was also imprisoned and accused Yanling of plotting treason. Bearing a grudge because the former director Luo Yuchen had beaten him, he implicated Shen Chun and the others as well. The emperor was furious and ordered all thirty-seven successive prison directors seized and tortured in the imperial prison, Shen among them. When the case was concluded they were sentenced to redeem their punishment and return to office, but the emperor ordered them beaten at court, sent them all to posts outside the capital, and stripped Luo Yuchen of office entirely. Yuchen was from Shunde in Guangdong. He had served as a principal clerk in the Ministry of Personnel. He was stern and hated wrongdoing. After his return he built a hut in the mountains, where he read and wrote. He died at only thirty-five.

申既謫官，不赴，歸與同里魏校、方鳳輩優遊歗詠為樂。久之，卒。

After Shen was demoted he refused the new appointment and went home, where he and his townsman Wei Xiao, Fang Feng, and others passed their days in leisurely poetry and song. In time he died.

曾孫應聘，字伯衡，少有才名。萬歷十一年進士。改庶吉士，授檢討。二十一年京察，中蜚語當謫，拂衣歸。座主沈一貫當國，數招之，不出。家居十余年，始起行人司副。遷尚寶司丞，再遷太仆少卿。卒官。

His great-grandson Xu Yingpin, courtesy name Boheng, won an early reputation for talent. He passed the metropolitan examinations in the eleventh year of the Wanli reign (1583). He entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor and was appointed a reviewing compiler. At the twenty-first-year capital personnel review, malicious gossip marked him for demotion, and he resigned in disgust and went home. His examination patron Shen Yiguan was directing affairs of state and summoned him repeatedly, yet he refused to return to office. After more than a decade in retirement, he was at last recalled as deputy director of the Bureau of Envoys. He rose to deputy director of the Imperial Seal Office and then to vice minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud. He died in office.

張選，字舜舉。黃正色，字士尚。皆無錫人。同登嘉靖八年進士。正色除仁和知縣，選知蕭山縣，又鄰境也。選治蕭山有聲。十二年冬，先入為戶科給事中。明年四月時享太廟，遣武定侯郭勛代。選上言：「宗廟之祭，惟誠與敬。孔子曰：『吾不與祭，如不祭』。傳曰：『神不歆非類』。孟春廟享，遣官暫攝，中外臣心知非得已。茲孟夏祫享，倘更不親行，則跡涉怠玩。如或聖體初復，未任趨蹌，宜明詔禮官先期告廟。陛下亦宜靜處齋宮，以通神貺。」帝閱疏大怒，下之禮部。尚書夏言等言：「代祭之文，載之《周官》。《語》曰：『子之所慎齋戰疾』。疾當慎，無異於祭，選言非是。但小臣無知，惟陛下曲赦。」帝愈怒，責言等黨比。命執選闕下，杖八十。帝出禦文華殿聽之，每一人行杖畢，輒以數報。杖折者三。曳出，已死。帝怒猶未釋。是夕，不入大內，繞殿走，制《祭祀記》一篇。一夕鋟成，明旦分賜百官。而選出，家人投良劑得甦，帝竟削選籍。選居職甫三月，遽以言得罪，名震海內。

Zhang Xuan, courtesy name Shunju. Huang Zhengse, courtesy name Shishang. Both were natives of Wuxi. Both passed the metropolitan examinations in the eighth year of the Jiajing reign (1529). Zhengse was appointed magistrate of Renhe, while Xuan governed Xiaoshan — neighboring counties as well. Xuan won a strong reputation governing Xiaoshan. In the winter of the twelfth year (1533), he was the first to enter the capital as a supervising secretary in the Household Section of the Office of Scrutiny. The following April, at the seasonal sacrifice in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, the emperor sent the Marquis of Wuding, Guo Xun, to officiate in his stead. Xuan memorialized the throne: "Sacrifice at the ancestral temple rests solely on sincerity and reverence. Confucius said, 'If I do not participate in the sacrifice, it is as though no sacrifice were held at all.' The Odes commentary says, 'Spirits do not accept offerings from those who are not their kindred.' When the first-month temple offering was entrusted to a substitute, every official at court knew the emperor had no real choice. But if at this early-summer combined sacrifice Your Majesty again fails to attend in person, the court will read it as neglect and indifference. If Your Majesty's health has only just returned and you are not yet fit for the rushed courtesies of sacrifice, you should issue an explicit edict instructing the ritual officers to announce the circumstance to the temple in advance. Your Majesty should also withdraw in quiet to the fasting palace, there to commune with the spirits through purification." When the emperor read the memorial, he flew into a rage and referred it to the Ministry of Rites. Minister Xia Yan and his colleagues replied: "Provisions for sacrifice by proxy appear in the Offices of Zhou. The Analects says, 'What the Master treated with the utmost care were fasting, war, and illness.' Illness demands the same scrupulous attention as sacrifice; Zhang Xuan is mistaken. Yet this junior official spoke out of ignorance — we beg Your Majesty to grant him lenient forgiveness." The emperor grew still angrier and accused Yan and his colleagues of forming a clique. He ordered Zhang Xuan seized at the palace gate and beaten eighty strokes with the heavy rod. The emperor himself came out to the Wenhua Hall to watch; after each stroke, a runner reported the tally aloud. Three beating rods snapped in the course of it. When they dragged him away, he was already dead. The emperor's rage still had not subsided. That night he refused to enter the inner palace; he paced the halls in agitation and drafted a "Record on Sacrificial Rites." It was carved for printing overnight, and at dawn the next day copies were distributed to the entire bureaucracy. Xuan had been carried off, but his family administered an effective restorative and he revived — though in the end the emperor still struck him from the official registers. Xuan had been in office barely three months when this memorial brought him to ruin, yet his name resounded throughout the empire.

正色是時方憂居。已，補香山，旋改南海。座主霍韜宗人橫甚，正色繩以法。韜顧以為賢，豪強屏跡，縣中大理。十七年召為南京御史。劾兵部尚書張瓚奸貪，事甚有跡。而中有「歷官藩臬，無一善狀」語，瓚言己未任藩臬。帝以誣劾，奪俸兩月。明年，章聖太后梓宮南葬，命正色護視。事竣，劾中官鮑忠、駙馬都尉崔元、禮部尚書溫仁和所過納饋遺。帝召詰忠等。皆叩頭祈哀，因譖正色擅於梓宮前乘馬執扇，及江行涉險又不隨舟督護，大不敬。帝遂發怒，立捕下詔獄搒掠，遣戍遼東。

Zhengse was still in mourning at the time. He was later posted to Xiangshan and soon transferred to Nanhai. The clansmen of his examination patron Huo Tao behaved with outrageous arrogance, and Zhengse held them to the law. Huo Tao came rather to admire him for it; local bullies vanished from sight, and the county knew true peace. In the seventeenth year (1538) he was summoned to serve as a censor in Nanjing. He impeached the minister of war Zhang Zhan for corruption and malfeasance, and the charges were well substantiated. But the memorial included the line that "in every provincial post he held, not a single act was creditable," and Zhan protested that he had never served in such provincial offices. The emperor ruled the impeachment slanderous and docked Zhengse two months' salary. The following year, when the empress dowager Zhangsheng's coffin was escorted south for burial, Zhengse was assigned to oversee the procession. When the mission concluded, he impeached the eunuch Bao Zhong, the imperial son-in-law Cui Yuan, and the minister of rites Wen Renhe for accepting gratuities along the route. The emperor summoned Zhong and the others for questioning. They all kowtowed in pleading and in turn accused Zhengse of arrogantly riding horseback and wielding a fan before the empress's coffin, and of failing to accompany the boats and supervise the escort when the procession faced danger on the river — charges of gross disrespect. The emperor then flew into a rage, had Zhengse seized at once and thrown into the imperial prison for interrogation under torture, and banished him to Liaodong.

正色與選初同誌相友善，至是先後以直節顯。正色居戍所三十年，其顛躓窮困視選尤甚。穆宗初，起選通政參議，以年老予致仕。召正色為大理丞，進少卿，尋遷南京太仆卿，亦引年致仕。選先卒，正色後數年卒。

Zhengse and Xuan had been close friends united from the start in the same moral purpose; by now both had won fame, one after the other, for uncompromising integrity. Zhengse spent thirty years in exile, and his reverses and poverty were even more severe than Xuan's. At the start of the Longqing reign, Xuan was recalled as vice commissioner of the Court of Imperial Entertainments and, on grounds of age, granted retirement. Zhengse was recalled as vice director of the Court of Judicial Review, promoted to vice minister, and soon made minister of the imperial stud at Nanjing; he too retired citing his years. Xuan died first; Zhengse followed him to the grave several years later.

包節，字元達，先世嘉興人，其父始遷華亭。節祖鼎，池州知府。為治清簡，早歲乞休，為鄉邑所重。節生五歲而孤，母躬教育之。登嘉靖十一年進士。授東昌推官。入為御史。劾兵部尚書張瓚貪穢。出按雲南。時仕者以荒僥憚不欲往，因設告就遠方之法。節言：「此曹誌甘投荒，非年迫衰遲，則家貧急祿。誌在為己，豈在恤民？滇中長吏所以多不得人也。請自今以附近選人充之，而州縣佐貳始用此曹，庶吏治可舉。」吏部請以節言概行於雲、貴、兩廣。制可。

Bao Jie, courtesy name Yuanda, came from a Jiaxing family; his father was the first to settle in Huating. His grandfather Ding had served as prefect of Chizhou. His administration was marked by simplicity and restraint; he retired while still young and was held in high esteem in his home region. Jie lost his father at five; his mother educated him herself. He passed the metropolitan examinations in the eleventh year of the Jiajing reign (1532). He was appointed investigating censor at Dongchang. He was brought into the capital as a censor. He impeached the minister of war Zhang Zhan for corruption. He was dispatched on an inspection tour of Yunnan. Officials at the time feared the region's remoteness and hardship and shunned assignments there, so the court devised a rule allowing men to petition for distant posts. Jie argued: "These men are eager to volunteer for the frontier — not because they are aged and infirm, but because they are poor and desperate for an official salary. Their motive is self-interest, not concern for the people. That is why Yunnan's senior administrators so often prove inadequate. I urge that henceforth nominees from nearer provinces fill these posts, and that such petitioners be assigned only to secondary county and prefectural posts — only then can local governance improve." The Ministry of Personnel asked to apply Jie's proposal across Yunnan, Guizhou, and the two Guang provinces. The emperor approved.

以疾歸。起故官，再按湖廣。顯陵守備中官廖斌擅威福，節欲繩之，語先泄。斌俟節謁陵時，故獻膳羞，遽使撤去，詭稱節麾出之。鐘祥民王憲告斌黨庇奸豪周章等，節捕章，斃之杖下。斌益怒，遂奏節不以正旦謁陵，次日始謁，時當進膳，不旁立，褻慢大不敬。奏已入，節始奏斌前事。帝大怒，以節抵罪，逮詣詔獄搒掠，永戍莊浪衛。莊浪極邊，敗屋頹垣，節處之甚安。獨念其母，自傷不克終養，日飲泣。母訃至，晝夜哭。已，又聞弟孝卒，撫膺曰：「誰代吾奉祀者？」哭益悲。病死，遺言以衰绖殮。

Illness forced him to retire. He was recalled to his former rank and sent on a second inspection tour of Huguang. Liao Bin, the eunuch charged with guarding the Xianling mausoleum, abused his power extravagantly; when Jie prepared to discipline him, word leaked out in advance. Bin waited until Jie came to perform rites at the tomb, then deliberately presented ritual offerings only to have them whisked away at once, falsely claiming that Jie had ordered them removed. A Zhongxiang commoner named Wang Xian accused Bin's faction of sheltering the bully Zhou Zhang; Jie arrested Zhang and beat him to death. Bin, enraged, memorialized that Jie had failed to attend the tomb on New Year's Day, appearing only the day after, and that when food was to be presented he had not stood respectfully aside — charges of gross disrespect. Bin's memorial had already reached the throne when Jie at last submitted his own charges against Bin. The emperor was furious, held Jie answerable, had him seized and tortured in the imperial prison, and banished him permanently to Zhuanglang Guard. Zhuanglang lay on the empire's outermost frontier, amid ruined hovels and crumbling walls — yet Jie made himself quite at home. He thought only of his mother, grieved that he could not support her in her last years, and wept every day. When word of her death arrived, he wept without cease, day and night. Later he learned that his younger brother Xiao had also died; clutching his chest he cried, "Who will now tend our family's ancestral rites?" His grief grew only deeper. He died of illness, leaving instructions to be enshrouded in the hemp mourning garments he had never been able to wear for his mother.

孝，字元愛，後節三年成進士。由中書舍人為南京御史。疏論禮部尚書溫仁和主辛丑會試有奸弊，且劾庶子童承敘、贊善郭希顏、編修袁煒，帝皆不問。未幾，又劾巡撫孫襘、吳瀚，瀚罷去。

His younger brother Xiao, courtesy name Yuan'ai, passed the metropolitan examinations three years after Jie. Rising from Hanlin drafting attendant, he became a censor in Nanjing. He memorialized that the minister of rites Wen Renhe had overseen corruption in the xinchou metropolitan examination, and impeached the erudite Tong Chengxu, the companion Guo Xiyan, and the compiler Yuan Wei — the emperor ignored every charge. Before long he impeached the grand coordinators Sun Gui and Wu Han; Wu Han was dismissed.

孝兄弟分居南北臺，並著風采，又皆有至情。節官北不得養母，孝遂以侍養歸。母亡，哀毀骨立，未終喪卒。節亦繼殞。時並稱其孝。

The brothers Bao Jie and Bao Xiao served on the northern and southern censorate circuits respectively, each distinguished for moral courage, and each possessed of deep filial devotion. Because Jie's northern posting kept him from caring for their mother, Xiao resigned to tend her at home. When she died, his mourning reduced him to skin and bone; he died before the mourning period had run its course. Jie died soon afterward as well. At the time both were celebrated for filial devotion.

謝廷蒨，字子佩，富順人。嘉靖十一年進士。除新喻知縣，征授吏科給事中。御史胡鰲言：「京師優倡雜處。請敕五城，諸非隸教坊兩院者，斥去之。」都御史王廷相等議可。帝惡熬言褻，謫鹽城丞，奪廷相等俸。廷蒨救之，被詔切責。雷震謹身殿，疏陳修省數事，語直。帝摘疏中訛字，停其俸。十八年偕同官曾烶，李逢、周充諫帝南巡，忤旨。已，給事中戴嘉猷馳疏請回鑾，而車駕已發。帝大怒。甫還，即執嘉猷並廷蒨等下詔獄，謫廷蒨雲南典史。屢遷浙江僉事。以侍養歸，遂不出。隆慶元年，起故官山西，俄擢河南右參議，皆不拜。吏部高其行，請得以新秩歸老，許之。萬歷改元，四川巡撫曾省吾奏言：「廷氵茝隱居三十年，家徒四壁，樂道著書，宜特加京秩，風勵士林。」詔即加進太仆少卿。又數年卒。

Xie Ting, courtesy name Zipei, was a native of Fushun. He passed the metropolitan examinations in the eleventh year of the Jiajing reign (1532). He was appointed magistrate of Xinyu, then summoned to the capital as a supervising secretary in the Personnel Section. The censor Hu Ao memorialized: "In the capital, actors and courtesans mingle everywhere. I ask that Your Majesty instruct the Five Ward offices to expel all performers not registered with the official music academies." The censor-in-chief Wang Tingxiang and his colleagues endorsed the proposal. The emperor took offense at Hu Ao's irreverent memorial and demoted him to assistant magistrate of Yancheng, while also suspending the salaries of Wang Tingxiang and his colleagues. Xie Ting spoke up in his defense and was sharply rebuked by imperial edict. When lightning struck the Hall of Self-Cultivation, he submitted a memorial urging several measures of reform and self-examination, and his language was blunt. The emperor seized on mistaken characters in the memorial and suspended his salary. In the eighteenth year of the reign, together with his colleagues Zeng Dian, Li Feng, and Zhou Chong, he remonstrated against the emperor's southern tour and ran afoul of the throne. Before long the supervising secretary Dai Jiayou sent an urgent memorial begging that the imperial carriage turn back, but the procession had already departed. The emperor was furious. Hardly had he returned when Dai Jiayou was seized, together with Xie Ting and the others, and cast into the imperial prison; Ting was demoted to county registrar in Yunnan. He was transferred repeatedly and eventually rose to vice commissioner in Zhejiang. He went home to care for his parents and never took office again. In the first year of Longqing he was recalled to his former post in Shanxi, and soon afterward was promoted to right vice commissioner in Henan, but he declined both appointments. The Ministry of Personnel praised his conduct and asked that he be permitted to retire with his new rank; the request was granted. When the Wanli reign began, Zeng Shengwu, governor of Sichuan, memorialized: "Xie Ting has lived in retirement for thirty years, his home empty but for bare walls; devoted to the Way, he writes books. He ought to receive a special capital appointment to encourage the scholarly class." An edict immediately promoted him to vice director of the Court of the Imperial Stud. A few years later he died.

王與齡，字受甫，寧鄉人。嘉靖八年進士。授蘇州推官。入為戶部主事，調吏部，進員外郎。二十一年遷文選郎中。澄清銓敘，所推薦皆廉靜老成。

Wang Yuling, courtesy name Shoufu, was a native of Ningxiang. He passed the metropolitan examinations in the eighth year of the Jiajing reign (1529). He was appointed investigating censor of Suzhou. He entered the capital as a director in the Ministry of Revenue, was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, and rose to vice director. In the twenty-first year of the reign he was made director of the Bureau of Appointments. He brought clarity to appointments and promotions, and everyone he recommended was upright, steady, and seasoned in office.

大學士翟鑾為禮部主事張惟一求吏部，嚴嵩為監生錢可教求東陽知縣，俱書抵與齡。與齡偕員外郎吳伯亨、主事李大魁、周鈇，白之尚書許贊，具疏以聞。言：「平時請屬甚多。臣等違抗，積罪如山。非聖明覆庇，則二權奸主於中，群鷹犬和於外，臣等不為前選郎王嘉賓之斥，得為近日御史謝瑜之罷，幸矣。」疏入，鑾言惟一資望應遷。嵩抵無致書事，請逮可教訊治，因言：「聖明日覽奏章，革弊厘奸悉宸斷。而贊等妄意臣輩為之，借以修怨。然贊柔良，第受制所屬耳。」帝方信嵩，又見疏中引嘉賓、瑜事，遂發怒。切責贊，除與齡名，伯亨等俱調外。給事中周怡論之，廷杖系獄。御史徐宗魯等亦以為言，皆奪俸。自是，諸司以與齡為戒，無復敢與嵩抗。

Grand Secretary Zhai Luan wrote to Yuling on behalf of Zhang Weiyi, a director in the Ministry of Rites, and Yan Song wrote on behalf of the student Qian Kejiao for the magistracy of Dongyang. Yuling, together with Vice Director Wu Bohang and Directors Li Dakui and Zhou Fu, reported the matter to Minister Xu Zan, and they jointly submitted a memorial. They wrote: "Petitions for private favor are countless in ordinary times. We have resisted them, and our accumulated offenses stand mountain-high. Were it not for Your Sagely Majesty's protection, the two powerful schemers would rule within while their hawks and hounds worked in concert without — we would not have escaped dismissal like the former selection director Wang Jiabin, nor been as fortunate as the recent censor Xie Yu, who was merely removed from office." When the memorial arrived, Luan argued that Weiyi's qualifications and standing warranted promotion. Song denied ever having written such a letter and asked that Kejiao be seized and interrogated, adding: "Your Sagely Majesty reads memorials every day and reforms abuses and roots out traitors entirely by Your own judgment. Yet Zan and the others wrongly suppose that we did this, using the charge to settle old scores. Zan himself is mild and upright; he is only controlled by his subordinates." The emperor was then inclined to trust Song, and when he saw the memorial cite the cases of Jiabin and Yu, he flew into a rage. He sharply rebuked Zan, struck Yuling's name from the registers, and transferred Bohang and the others to posts outside the capital. The supervising secretary Zhou Yi spoke up for them and was beaten at court and imprisoned. The censors Xu Zonglu and others also remonstrated, and all had their salaries suspended. From then on every office took Yuling as a warning, and none dared oppose Yan Song again.

與齡既罷，錦衣遣使偵其裝，襆被外無長物，稱嘆而去。裏居，角巾躬稼圃，翛然自得。郡人為作《平陽四賢詩》美之。四賢者，尚書韓文、陶琰、張潤及與齡也。越二十余年，卒。

After Yuling's dismissal, the Embroidered-Uniform Guard sent men to inspect his baggage; apart from a wrapped quilt he owned nothing of value, and they departed exclaiming in admiration. At home he wore a scholar's kerchief and worked his own fields, utterly at ease. The people of his commandery composed the "Poems on the Four Worthies of Pingyang" in his praise. The four worthies were the ministers Han Wen, Tao Yan, Zhang Run, and Yuling. More than twenty years later he died.

周鈇，字汝威，榆次人。嘉靖五年進士。授行人。擢御史，巡按陜西。被俘民自塞外逃歸者，邊將殺以冒功。鈇請下詔嚴禁，有報降五人以上者賞之。詔可。再按山東，特改右春坊清紀郎兼翰林院侍書。俺答將入寇，總督侍郎翟鵬以聞。鈇以中樞無籌策，請早為計。帝以為浮詞亂政，責降廬州府知事。旋改國子監丞，擢吏部文選主事。坐與齡發嵩等私屬事，貶河間通判。已而吏部擬擢南京吏部主事。嵩言鈇調官甫四月，不得驟遷。帝怒，詰責尚書許贊等，令錄左降官遷擢者姓名。贊引罪，並列陳叔頤等十六人以聞。詔奪贊等俸，鐫文選郎鄭曉三級，鈇、叔頤等褫職為民。廷臣論薦鈇，以嵩在位，不復召。穆宗初，贈光祿少卿。

Zhou Fu, courtesy name Ruwei, was a native of Yuci. He passed the metropolitan examinations in the fifth year of the Jiajing reign (1526). He was appointed a courier in the Ministry of Rites. He was promoted to censor and sent to inspect Shaanxi. Civilians who had been captured and escaped back from beyond the border were killed by frontier generals so they could claim merit. Fu asked that an edict strictly forbid this and reward anyone who reported five or more who had surrendered. The request was approved. On a second inspection tour of Shandong he was specially appointed Right Subinstructor for Pure Records in the Eastern Palace, with concurrent duty as Hanlin reader-in-attendance. When Altan Khan was about to invade, the grand coordinator Zhai Peng reported the threat. Fu said the central government had no strategy in place and urged that plans be made at once. The emperor regarded this as empty talk that disturbed government and demoted him to clerical officer in the Luzhou prefectural office. He was soon made vice director of the Directorate of Education, then promoted to director in the Bureau of Appointments. Because he had joined Yuling in exposing Yan Song's private patronage, he was demoted to assistant prefect of Hejian. Later the Ministry of Personnel proposed promoting him to director in the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel. Song objected that Fu had held his new post only four months and could not be promoted so quickly. The emperor was furious, rebuked Minister Xu Zan and the others, and ordered a list of demoted officials who had nonetheless been promoted. Zan accepted blame and memorialized with a list of Chen Shuyi and fifteen others. An edict suspended the salaries of Zan and his colleagues, reduced Bureau of Appointments Director Zheng Xiao three grades, and stripped Fu, Shuyi, and the others of office, making them commoners. Court officials repeatedly recommended Fu, but while Yan Song remained in power he was never recalled. At the beginning of Emperor Muzong's reign he was posthumously granted the title of vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

楊思忠，字孝夫，平定人。嘉靖二十年進士。歷禮科給事中。二十九年，孝烈皇后大祥。欲預祧仁宗，附後太廟，下廷議。尚書徐階以為非禮，思忠力贊階議，余人莫敢言。帝使人覘知狀。及議上，嚴旨譙責，命階與思忠更定，二人復據禮對。帝益怒，竟祧仁宗。階故得帝眷，獨銜思忠。每當遷，輒報罷。逾三年，正旦日食，陰雲不見，六科合疏賀。帝摘疏中語，詰為不成文，曰：「思忠懷欺，不臣久矣。」杖百，斥為民，余皆奪俸。隆慶元年起掌吏科。三遷右僉都御史，巡撫陜西。五年改南京戶部右侍郎。致仕卒。

Yang Sizhong, courtesy name Xiaofu, was a native of Pingding. He passed the metropolitan examinations in the twentieth year of the Jiajing reign (1541). He rose through the post of supervising secretary in the Rites Section. In the twenty-ninth year the great mourning period for Empress Xiaolie came to an end. The emperor wished to move Emperor Renzong ahead in the ancestral line and install him in the Rear Temple, and the matter was referred to court for discussion. Minister Xu Jie held that this was contrary to ritual, and Sizhong strongly backed his view while the others dared not speak. The emperor sent men to observe what was happening. When the discussion was submitted, a stern edict rebuked them and ordered Jie and Sizhong to reconsider; the two again answered according to ritual. The emperor grew still angrier and in the end moved Emperor Renzong ahead in the ancestral line. Jie still enjoyed the emperor's favor, but he alone harbored resentment against Sizhong. Whenever promotion was proposed for him, the report was rejected. More than three years later, on New Year's Day there was an eclipse, but clouds hid it from view, and the Six Sections jointly submitted a congratulatory memorial. The emperor seized on phrases in the memorial and challenged them as ill-formed prose, saying: "Sizhong has long harbored deceit and has been disloyal for years." He was beaten a hundred strokes, reduced to commoner status, and the others all had their salaries suspended. In the first year of Longqing he was recalled to head the Personnel Section. He was promoted three times to right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Shaanxi. In the fifth year he was made right vice minister of revenue in Nanjing. He retired from office and died.

世宗晚年，進言者多得重譴。二十九年，俺答薄都城。通政使樊深陳禦寇七事，中言仇鸞養寇要功。帝方眷鸞，立斥為民。四十二年正月，御史淩儒請重貪墨之罰，革虛冒之兵，搜遺佚之士。因薦羅洪先、陸樹聲、吳嶽、吳悌。帝惡其市恩，杖六十，除名。四十五年十月，御史王時舉劾刑部尚書黃光升，言：「內官季永以訴事犯乘輿，本無死比，乃擬真犯；奸人王相私閹良民者三，本無生法，乃擬矜疑。宜勒令致仕。」帝怒，命編氓口外。逾月，御史方新上言：「黃河與北狄之患，自古有之。乃今豐、沛間陸地為渠，而興都有陵寢之憂，鳳陽有冰雹之厄，河南有饑饉之災，堯之洚水不烈於此矣。諸邊將惰卒驕，寇至輒巽忄耎觀望，而寧武有軍士之變，南贛有土兵之叛，徽州諸府有礦徒竊發之虞，舜之三苗不棘於此矣。夫洚水、三苗不足為累者，以堯、舜兢業於上，而禹、臯諸臣分憂於下也。今司論納者日獻禎祥，而疆場之臣，惟冒首功，隱喪敗。為國分憂者，誰也？斥罰之法，今不得不嚴。而陛下亦宜隨事自責，痛加修省，然後災變可息，而外患可弭也。」疏入，斥為民。

In the late years of Emperor Shizong's reign, those who remonstrated often suffered severe punishment. In the twenty-ninth year Altan Khan pressed close to the capital. Communications Commissioner Fan Shen set forth seven measures for repelling the invaders, among them the charge that Qiu Luan had nurtured the raiders in order to claim merit. The emperor was then favoring Luan and immediately dismissed Fan to commoner status. In the first month of the forty-second year, Censor Ling Ru asked for heavier penalties for corruption, the elimination of phantom troops on the rolls, and a search for overlooked talent. He recommended Luo Hongxian, Lu Shusheng, Wu Yue, and Wu Ti. The emperor hated this as an attempt to curry favor, had him beaten sixty strokes, and struck his name from the rolls. In the tenth month of the forty-fifth year, Censor Wang Shiju impeached Huang Guangsheng, minister of punishments, saying: "The eunuch Ji Yong, who brought a lawsuit and in doing so offended the imperial carriage, had no statute warranting execution as a true capital offender, yet was sentenced as one; the villain Wang Xiang privately castrated three innocent commoners, for which there was no law permitting life, yet doubtful clemency was applied. Huang ought to be ordered to retire from office." The emperor was furious and ordered him registered as a commoner and exiled beyond the frontier passes. A month later, Censor Fang Xin memorialized: "The troubles of the Yellow River and the northern barbarians have existed since antiquity. Yet now the dry land between Feng and Pei has become a channel, Xingdu faces anxiety over the imperial tombs, Fengyang has suffered hail, and Henan faces famine — the flood waters of Yao's age were not more violent than this. Frontier generals are slack and troops arrogant; when raiders arrive they shrink back and watch from afar, while Ningwu has seen mutiny among the troops, southern Gan has seen native soldiers rebel, and the Huizhou prefectures face the threat of mining ruffians rising in secret — the Three Miao of Shun's age were not more troublesome than this. That flood and the Three Miao did not prove overwhelming was because Yao and Shun were diligent above, while Yu, Gao Yao, and the other ministers shared the cares below. Today those who remonstrate daily present auspicious omens, while frontier officials only claim heads for merit and conceal their defeats. Who now shares the state's burdens? The law of dismissal must now be made strict. Your Majesty should also blame yourself for each matter and reform with utmost earnestness; only then may prodigies cease and external troubles be quelled." When the memorial arrived, he was reduced to commoner status.

深，大同人。儒，泰州人。時舉，順天通州人。新，青陽人。穆宗嗣位，並復官。

Fan Shen was a native of Datong. Ling Ru was a native of Taizhou. Wang Shiju came from Tongzhou in Shuntian. Fang Xin came from Qingyang. When the Muzong Emperor succeeded to the throne, all had their offices restored.

深尋遷刑部右侍郎。齊康之劾徐階也，深劾康並詆高拱。時登極詔書赦死罪以下囚，而流徒已至配者，所司拘律令不遣。深言殊死猶赦，而此反不及，非所以廣皇仁。詔從其議。旋進左侍郎，罷歸。

Fan Shen was soon promoted to Right Vice Minister of Justice. When Qi Kang impeached Xu Jie, Shen impeached Kang and also attacked Gao Gong. At the time the accession edict pardoned prisoners below the death penalty, but for exiles and convicts already at their places of banishment, the responsible offices clung to statutes and would not release them. Shen argued that even those deserving death were pardoned, yet these were not included—this was not how to extend imperial benevolence. An edict followed his proposal. He was soon promoted to Left Vice Minister, then dismissed and returned home.

儒既復御史，益發舒，亦以康事率同列劾拱。拱罷，又劾去大學士郭樸。頃之，劾罷撫治鄖陽都御史劉秉仁。又以永平失事劾總督劉燾、巡撫耿隨卿、總兵官李世忠罪。隨卿、世忠被逮，燾貶官。隆慶二年，儒再遷右僉都御史，理山西屯鹽。吏部追論其知永豐時貪墨，遂落職閑住。

After Ling Ru had his censor's post restored, he became all the more unrestrained; he also led his colleagues in impeaching Gao Gong over the Kang affair. When Gao Gong was dismissed, he again impeached and drove out Grand Secretary Guo Pu. Before long he impeached and removed Liu Bingren, the censor-in-chief administering Yunyang. He also impeached Governor Liu Tao, Grand Coordinator Geng Suiqing, and Regional Commander Li Shizhong for the Yongping disaster. Suiqing and Shizhong were arrested; Tao was demoted. In the second year of Longqing, Ru was again promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and administered the Shanxi garrison salt. The Ministry of Personnel pursued charges of corruption from his time as magistrate of Yongfeng; he was stripped of office and lived in retirement.

時舉復官後，巡按貴州。聞給事中石星廷杖，且帝方廣市珠寶，馳疏救星，極陳奢靡之害。已，請陳後還中宮。章並報聞。萬歷初，都給事中雒遵、御史景嵩、韓必顯論譚綸被謫，時舉抗章救之。歷大理左少卿。

After his office was restored, Wang Shiju served as touring censor of Guizhou. Hearing that the supervising secretary Shi Xing had been beaten at court while the emperor was greatly expanding the market in pearls and jewels, he hurriedly memorialized to save Xing and set forth at length the harm of extravagance. Later he asked that the heir Chen be returned to the central palace. Both memorials were acknowledged. Early in the Wanli reign, the Chief Supervising Secretary Luo Zun and the censors Jing Song and Han Bixian spoke on Tan Lun's behalf and were demoted; Wang Shiju submitted a bold memorial to save them. He rose to Left Assistant Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.

新終湖廣參議。

Fang Xin ended his career as administrative commissioner of Huguang.

贊曰：賈山有言：「忠臣之事君也，言切直則不用而身危。」「然切直之言，明主之所亟欲聞，忠臣之所蒙死而竭知也。」鄧繼曾諸人箴主闕，指時弊，言切直矣，而杖斥隨之。伊尹曰：「有言逆於汝心，必求諸道。」有旨哉，有旨哉！

The appraiser says: Jia Shan once said, "When a loyal minister serves his ruler, if his words are blunt and direct they go unheeded and his person is endangered." Yet blunt and direct words are what an enlightened ruler most urgently wishes to hear, and what a loyal minister will risk death to offer with all his knowledge." Deng Jiceng and his fellows admonished the ruler's faults and pointed to the abuses of the time; their words were blunt and direct, yet beating and dismissal followed. Yi Yin said, "When there are words that go against your heart, you must seek their meaning in the Way." How pointed the meaning! How pointed the meaning!

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