Volume 220 Biographies 108: Wan Shihe, Wang Zhigao, Wu Baipeng, Liu Yingjie, Wang Lin, Bi Qiang, Shu Hua, Li Shida, Ceng Tongheng, Xin Zixiu, Wen Chun, Zhao Shiqing, Li Ruhua

萬士和王之誥〈（劉一儒）〉吳百朋劉應節〈（徐栻）〉王遴畢鏘舒化李世達曾同享〈（弟乾亨）〉辛自修溫純趙世卿李汝華

Wan Shihe and Wang Zhigao (Liu Yiru)〉 Wu Baipeng and Liu Yingjie (Xu Shi)〉 Wang Lin, Bi Qiang, Shu Hua, Li Shida, and Ceng Tongheng (His younger brother Qianheng)〉 Xin Zixiu, Wen Chun, Zhao Shiqing, and Li Ruhua

萬士和，字思節，宜興人。父吉，桐廬訓導，有學術。士和成嘉靖二十年進士，改庶吉士，授禮部主事。父喪除，乞便養母，改南京兵部。累遷江西僉事，歲裁上供瓷器千計。遷貴州提學副使，進湖廣參政。撫納叛苗二十八砦，以功賚銀幣。三殿工興，采木使者旁午。士和經畫備至，民賴以安。遷江西按察使，之官逾期，劾免。起山東按察使，再行廣東左布政使。政事故專決於左，士和曰：「朝廷設二使，如左右手，非有軒輊。」乃約右使分日治事。召拜應天府尹，道遷右副都御史。督南京糧儲，奏請便民六事。隆慶初，進戶部右侍郎，總督倉場。尋改禮部，進左。引疾歸。神宗立，起南京禮部侍郎，署國子監事。萬歷元年，禮部尚書陸樹聲去位。張居正用樹聲言，召士和代之。條上崇儉數事。又以災祲屢見，奏乞杜幸門，容戇直，汰冗員，抑幹請，多犯時忌。俺答及所部貢馬，邊臣請加官賞。士和言賞賚有成額，毋徇邊臣額外請，從之。方士倚馮保求官，士和持不可。成國公朱希忠歿，居正許贈王，士和力爭。給事中余懋學言事得罪，士和言直臣不當斥。於是積忤居正。給事中朱南雍承風劾之，遂謝病去。居正歿，起南京禮部尚書，再疏引年不赴。卒，年七十一。贈太子少保，謚文恭。

Wan Shihe, whose style name was Sijie, came from Yixing. His father Wan Ji served as an instructor in Tonglu and was a man of scholarship. Shihe passed the jinshi in the twentieth year of the Jiajing reign, entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor, and was appointed principal secretary in the Ministry of Rites. After his period of mourning for his father, he asked to remain close to his mother for her care and was moved to the Nanjing Ministry of War. Through successive promotions he became Jiangxi Assistant Commissioner and each year reduced the court's porcelain tribute by more than a thousand pieces. He was transferred to Vice Commissioner for Education in Guizhou and then promoted to Administration Vice Commissioner in Huguan. He pacified twenty-eight rebel Miao stockades and received silver and silks in reward. When work on the Three Halls began, envoys sent to gather timber arrived in an unbroken stream. Shihe organized the work with meticulous care, and the people were able to live in peace. Promoted to Jiangxi Surveillance Commissioner, he was impeached and removed for exceeding the time allowed to take up his post. He was recalled as Surveillance Commissioner in Shandong and later served a second term as Left Administration Commissioner in Guangdong. Government affairs had come to be decided entirely by the left commissioner. Shihe said, "The court sets up two commissioners like the left and right hand—neither is higher or lower." He then arranged with the right commissioner to conduct business on alternate days. Summoned to be Prefect of Yingtian, he was promoted en route to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief. As supervisor of Nanjing grain reserves, he submitted six proposals to ease burdens on the people. Early in the Longqing reign he rose to Right Vice Minister of Revenue and supervised the granaries. He was soon moved to the Ministry of Rites and promoted to Left Vice Minister. He pleaded illness and went home. When Emperor Shenzong took the throne, Shihe was recalled as Vice Minister of Rites at Nanjing and served concurrently as head of the Directorate of Education. In the first year of Wanli, Lu Shusheng resigned as Minister of Rites. Zhang Juzheng, following Shusheng's recommendation, summoned Shihe to take his place. He submitted a series of proposals urging frugality. As disasters recurred, he also asked the throne to close off avenues of favor, make room for outspoken integrity, eliminate redundant offices, and restrain private solicitations—touching many sore points of the age. Altan and his followers presented tribute horses, and border officials requested additional ranks and rewards. Shihe argued that rewards had established quotas and border officials must not be indulged beyond them; the emperor approved. Daoist priests, leaning on Feng Bao, sought official appointments; Shihe stood firm against it. When Defender of the State Zhu Xizhong died, Juzheng agreed to grant him a royal title; Shihe fought the decision hard. When Supervising Secretary Yu Maoxue was punished for speaking out, Shihe argued that straightforward ministers should not be cast out. In this way he steadily offended Juzheng. Supervising Secretary Zhu Nanyong, following the prevailing wind, impeached him, and Shihe resigned citing illness. After Juzheng's death he was recalled as Minister of Rites at Nanjing but twice pleaded age and did not go. He died at the age of seventy-one. He was posthumously honored as Junior Tutor to the Heir Apparent with the posthumous title Wengong.

王之誥，字告若，石首人。嘉靖二十三年進士。授吉水知縣。遷戶部主事，改兵部員外郎，出為河南僉事。討師尚詔有功，轉參議。調大同兵備副使。以搗板升功，增俸一級，進山西右參政，擢右僉都御史，巡撫遼東。大興屯田，每營墾田百五十頃，役軍四百人。列上便宜八事，行之。召為兵部右侍郎。尋以左侍郎總督宣、大、山西軍務。

Wang Zhigao, whose style name was Gaoruo, came from Shishou. He passed the jinshi in the twenty-third year of the Jiajing reign. He was appointed magistrate of Jishui. He rose to principal secretary in the Ministry of Revenue, became an outside secretary in the Ministry of War, and was then posted as Assistant Commissioner in Henan. He earned merit suppressing Shi Shangzhao and was promoted to Administration Commissioner. He was transferred to Vice Commissioner for Military Affairs at Datong. For merit in raiding the Barbarian Ascendant faction, his salary was raised one grade; he became Right Administration Vice Commissioner in Shanxi, was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, and served as Grand Coordinator of Liaodong. He greatly expanded military colonies: each camp reclaimed one hundred fifty qing of land with four hundred soldiers. He submitted eight practical measures, and they were implemented. He was summoned as Right Vice Minister of War. Soon afterward, as Left Vice Minister, he was appointed supreme commander of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi.

隆慶元年，就進右都御史。俺答犯石州，之誥令山西總兵官申維嶽、參將劉寶、尤月、黑雲龍四營兵尾之南下，而檄大同總兵官孫吳、山西副總兵田世威等出天門關，遏其東歸。巡撫王繼洛駐代州不出，維嶽不敢前，石州遂陷。殺人數萬，所過無孑遺，大掠十有四日而去。事聞，維嶽、世威、寶論死，繼洛戍邊，吳落職。之誥以還守南山，止貶二秩。

In the first year of Longqing he was promoted on the spot to Right Censor-in-Chief. When Altan attacked Shizhou, Zhigao ordered Shanxi Commander-in-Chief Shen Weiyue and Battalion Commanders Liu Bao, You Yue, and Hei Yunlong to trail the invaders south, while instructing Datong Commander Sun Wu, Shanxi Deputy Commander Tian Shiwei, and others to march out through Tianmen Pass and cut off their retreat eastward. Grand Coordinator Wang Jiluo stayed at Daizhou and would not come out; Weiyue dared not advance, and Shizhou was lost. Tens of thousands were slaughtered; wherever they passed not a soul remained, and after fourteen days of wholesale looting they withdrew. When the report reached court, Weiyue, Shiwei, and Bao were condemned to death, Jiluo was sent to border service, and Wu was demoted. Zhigao, credited with holding Nanshan on the enemy's withdrawal, was merely demoted two ranks.

明年，詔之誥以左侍郎巡視薊、遼、保定、宣、大、山西，侍郎劉燾巡陜西、延綏、寧夏、甘肅。之誥以疾辭，代以冀練。已，復因給事中張鹵言，皆罷不遣。三年，起督京營。進右都御史，總督陜西三邊軍務。以延寧將士搗巢功，予一子官，遷南京兵部尚書。神宗嗣位，召拜刑部尚書。張居正專政，之誥與有連，每規切之。萬歷三年，乞假送母歸，逾時不至，被劾。會之誥亦奏請終養，遂報許。後居正喪父奪情，杖言者闕下。歸葬還闕，之誥以召還直臣收人心為勸。卒，贈太子太保，謚端襄。

The following year an edict named Zhigao, as Left Vice Minister, to inspect Ji, Liaodong, Baoding, Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi, and Vice Minister Liu Tao to inspect Shaanxi, Yan-sui, Ningxia, and Gansu. Zhigao declined on grounds of illness and Ji Lian took his place. Later, on Supervising Secretary Zhang Lu's memorial, both appointments were revoked and neither man was dispatched. In the third year he was recalled to command the metropolitan garrisons. He rose to Right Censor-in-Chief and was made supreme commander of Shaanxi's three frontiers. For the merit of Yan-Ning troops in storming enemy strongholds, one son was granted office, and he was moved to Minister of War at Nanjing. When Emperor Shenzong succeeded, Zhigao was summoned as Minister of Punishments. Zhang Juzheng monopolized government; Zhigao was related to him by marriage yet repeatedly urged restraint upon him. In the third year of Wanli he asked leave to take his mother home and, when he overstayed, was impeached. At the same time Zhigao asked to remain in mourning, and the request was approved. Later, when Juzheng's father died and he was ordered to remain in office rather than mourn, he had remonstrators flogged below the palace gates. When Juzheng returned from the burial, Zhigao urged him to recall straightforward officials and recover popular goodwill. He died and was posthumously honored as Grand Tutor to the Heir Apparent with the title Duanxiang.

時有夷陵劉一儒者，字孟真，亦居正姻也。嘉靖三十八年進士。屢官刑部侍郎。居正當國，嘗貽書規之。居正歿，親黨皆坐斥，一儒獨以高潔名。尋拜南京工部尚書。甫半歲，移疾歸。初，居正女歸一儒子，珠琲紈綺盈箱篋，一儒悉扃之別室。居正死，貲產盡入官，一儒乃發向所緘物還之。南京御史李一陽請還一儒於朝，以厲恬讓。帝可其奏。一儒竟不赴召，卒於家。天啟中，追謚莊介。

At that time there was Liu Yiru of Yiling, styled Mengzhen, who was likewise connected to Juzheng by marriage. He passed the jinshi in the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing reign. He rose repeatedly to Vice Minister of Punishments. While Juzheng held power, he once wrote him a letter of remonstrance. After Juzheng's death his kin were all punished and dismissed; Yiru alone was famed for lofty integrity. He was soon appointed Minister of Works at Nanjing. After only half a year he pleaded illness and went home. Earlier, when Juzheng's daughter married Yiru's son, pearls, jade, and silks filled chests and boxes; Yiru sealed them all in a separate chamber. When Juzheng died his property was confiscated; Yiru then opened what he had sealed and returned it all. Nanjing Censor Li Yiyang asked that Yiru be recalled to court as a model of modest restraint. The emperor approved the memorial. Yiru never answered the summons and died at home. In the Tianqi reign he was posthumously given the title Zhuangjie.

吳百朋，字維錫，義烏人。嘉靖二十六主年進士。授永豐知縣。徵拜御史，歷按淮、揚、湖廣。擢大理寺丞，進右少卿。

Wu Baipeng, whose style name was Weixi, came from Yiwu. He passed the jinshi in the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign. He was appointed magistrate of Yongfeng. He was summoned as censor and in turn inspected Huai, Yang, and Huguang. He was promoted to vice director of the Court of Judicial Review and then to Right Vice Minister of the same court.

四十二年夏，進右僉都御史，撫治鄖陽。改提督軍務，巡撫南、贛、汀、漳。與兩廣提督吳桂芳討平河源賊李亞元、程鄉賊葉丹樓，又會師破倭海豐。

In the summer of the forty-second year he was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and placed in charge of Yunyang. His title was changed to Commissioner-in-Chief of Military Affairs and Grand Coordinator of Nan, Gan, Ting, and Zhang. Together with Guangdong Commissioner-in-Chief Wu Guifang he put down the Heyuan bandit Li Yayuan and the Chengxiang bandit Ye Danlou, and jointly destroyed the pirates at Haifeng.

初，廣東大埔民藍松山、余大眷倡亂，流劫潼、延、興、泉間。官軍擊敗之，奔永春。與香寮盜蘇阿普、範繼祖連兵犯德化，為都指揮耿宗元所敗，偽請撫。百朋亦陽罷兵，而誘賊黨為內應，先後悉擒之，惟三巢未下。三巢者，和平李文彪據岑岡，龍南謝允樟據高沙，賴清規據下歷。朝廷以倭患棘，不討且十年。文彪死，子珍及江月照繼之，益猖獗。四十四年秋，百朋進右副都御史，巡撫如故。上疏曰：「三巢僭號稱王，旋撫旋叛。廣東和平、龍川、興寧，江西龍南、信豐、安遠，蠶食過半。不亟討，禍不可言。三巢中惟清規跨江、廣六縣，最逆命，用兵必自下歷始。」帝采部義，從之。百朋乃命守備蔡汝蘭討擒清規於苦竹嶂，群賊震懾。

Earlier, Lan Songshan and Yu Dajuan of Dapu in Guangdong had stirred rebellion and raided through Tong, Yan, Xing, and Quan. Government troops defeated them and they fled to Yongchun. They joined the Xiangliao bandits Su Apu and Fan Jizu in attacking Dehua, were defeated by Regional Commander Geng Zongyuan, and pretended to seek pacification. Baipeng likewise feigned a cease-fire while turning bandit sympathizers into informants; one after another he captured them all, though three strongholds still held out. The three strongholds were Li Wenbiao of Heping at Cengang, Xie Yunzhang of Longnan at Gaosha, and Lai Qinggui at Xialü. With Japanese raids pressing hard, the court had left them unpunished for nearly ten years. When Wenbiao died, his son Zhen and Jiang Yuezhao took his place and grew still more violent. In the autumn of the forty-fourth year Baipeng rose to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and continued as Grand Coordinator. He memorialized: "The three strongholds have taken royal titles; they accept pacification and rebel again in turn. Across Heping, Longchuan, and Xingning in Guangdong and Longnan, Xinfeng, and Anyuan in Jiangxi, they had swallowed more than half the districts. Unless they are crushed quickly, the harm will be beyond telling. Of the three strongholds only Qinggui, whose reach crossed six counties in Jiangxi and Guangdong, was the most rebellious; force must begin at Xialü." The emperor accepted the ministry's recommendation. Baipeng ordered Garrison Commander Cai Rulan to capture Qinggui at Kuzhu Ridge, and the bandits were struck with fear.

隆慶初，吏部以百朋積苦兵間，稍遷大理卿。給事中歐陽一敬等請留百朋剿賊，詔進兵部右侍郎兼右僉都御史，巡撫如故。百朋奏，春夏用兵妨耕作，宜且聽撫，帝從之。尋擢南京兵部右侍郎。乞終養，不許。改刑部右侍郎。父喪歸，起改兵部。萬歷初，奉命閱視宣、大、山西三鎮。百朋以糧餉、險隘、兵馬、器械、屯田、鹽法、番馬、逆黨八事核邊臣，督撫王崇古、吳兌、總兵郭琥以下，升賞黜革有差。又進邊圖，凡關塞險隘，番族部落，士馬強弱，亭障遠近，歷歷如指掌。以省母歸。起南京右都御史，召拜刑部尚書。逾年卒。

Early in Longqing the Ministry of Personnel, seeing how worn Baipeng was by campaigning, transferred him to Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. Supervising Secretaries Ouyang Yijing and others asked that Baipeng stay to fight bandits; an edict made him Right Vice Minister of War and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief with his grand coordinator title unchanged. Baipeng argued that spring and summer campaigns would disrupt planting and that pacification should be tried for now; the emperor agreed. He was soon promoted to Right Vice Minister of War at Nanjing. He asked to remain home and complete his filial mourning; the request was denied. He was moved to Right Vice Minister of Punishments. After his father's death he returned home; when recalled he was placed in the Ministry of War. Early in Wanli he was ordered to inspect Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi. Baipeng reviewed frontier officials on eight points—supplies, defiles, troops and horses, arms, military colonies, salt regulations, tribute horses, and rebel parties—and Wang Chonggu, Wu Dui, Guo Hu, and the rest were rewarded or punished accordingly. He also presented a frontier map on which every pass, tribal settlement, troop strength, and beacon distance stood out as plainly as lines on the palm. He went home to see his mother. Recalled as Right Censor-in-Chief at Nanjing, he was soon summoned as Minister of Punishments. A year later he died.

劉應節，字子和，濰人。嘉靖二十六年進士。授戶部主事。歷井陘兵備副使，兼轄三關。三關屬井陘道自此始。四十三年，以山西右參政擢右僉都御史，巡撫遼東。母喪歸。隆慶元年，起撫河南。俺答寇石州，山西騷動，詔應節赴援。已，寇退。會順天巡撫耿隨卿坐殺平民充首功逮治，改應節代之。建議永平西門抵海口距天津止五百里，可通漕，請募民習海道者赴天津領運，同運官出海達永平。部議以漕卒冒險不便，發山東、河南粟十萬石儲天津，令永平官民自運焉。

Liu Yingjie, whose style name was Zihe, came from Wei county. He passed the jinshi in the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign. He was appointed principal secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. He served as Vice Commissioner for Military Affairs at Jingxing and took charge of the Three Passes as well. From that point the Three Passes were placed under the Jingxing circuit. In the forty-third year, as Right Administration Vice Commissioner in Shanxi, he was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and made Grand Coordinator of Liaodong. He went home for his mother's mourning. In the first year of Longqing he was recalled to serve as Grand Coordinator of Henan. When Altan attacked Shizhou and Shanxi was thrown into alarm, Yingjie was ordered to the rescue. The raiders soon withdrew. Meanwhile Grand Coordinator Geng Suiqing of Shuntian was arrested for killing civilians to claim top credit; Yingjie took his place. He argued that Yongping's west gate lay only five hundred li from the sea mouth at Tianjin and could be linked to the grain route, and asked to recruit seafaring men to take grain at Tianjin and sail with transport officials to Yongping. The ministry held that grain troops should not be sent to sea; instead one hundred thousand shi from Shandong and Henan were stored at Tianjin for Yongping to haul overland.

四年秋，進右副都御史，巡撫如故。旋進兵部右侍郎兼右僉都御史，代譚綸總督薊、遼、保定軍務。奏罷永平、密雲、霸州采礦。又因御史傅孟春言，議諸鎮積貯，當計歲豐歉。常時以折色便軍，可以積粟；兇歲以本色濟荒，可以積銀。又明年建議通漕密雲，上疏曰：「密雲環控潮、白二水，天設之以便漕者也。向二水分流，到牛欄山始合。通州運艘至牛欄山，以上陸運至龍慶倉，輸挽甚苦。今白水徙流城西，去潮水不二百武，近且疏渠植壩，合為一流，水深漕便。舊昌平運額共十八萬石有奇，今止十四萬，密雲僅得十萬，惟賴召商一法，而地瘠民貧，勢難長恃。聞通倉粟多紅朽。若漕五萬石於密雲，而以本鎮折色三萬五千兩留給京軍，則通倉無腐粟，京軍沾實惠，密雲免僉商，一舉而三善備矣。」報可。

In the autumn of the fourth year he rose to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and kept his coordinator post. He was soon made Right Vice Minister of War and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, replacing Tan Lun as supreme commander of Ji, Liaodong, and Baoding. He memorialized to halt mining at Yongping, Miyun, and Bazhou. Following Censor Fu Mengchun he also discussed frontier reserves and said stores should be planned according to whether the year was plentiful or lean. In good years payments in silver could ease the troops and grain could be accumulated; in bad years grain in kind could relieve famine and silver could be saved. The following year he proposed extending the canal to Miyun and wrote: "Miyun is embraced by the Chao and Bai rivers; nature meant it for transport. Formerly the two rivers split and met only at Niulan Mountain. Barges from Tongzhou went to Niulan Mountain; above that point grain was hauled overland to Longqing granary at great cost. Now the Bai had shifted west of the city, within two hundred paces of the tidal river; dredging channels and building dams to unite the streams would deepen the water and ease transport. Changping's old quota exceeded one hundred eighty thousand shi; now only one hundred forty thousand were delivered, and Miyun received only one hundred thousand, depending entirely on hired merchants—yet the region was poor and could not rely on that forever. He heard that much grain in Tong granary had rotted. If fifty thousand shi were shipped to Miyun while the garrison's thirty-five thousand taels in commuted silver were kept for the capital army, Tong would lose no spoiled grain, the capital troops would benefit, Miyun would escape forced merchants, and three aims would be met at once." The proposal was approved.

給事中陳渠以薊鎮多虛伍，請核兵省餉。應節上疏曰：「國初設立大寧，薊門猶稱內地。既大寧內徙，三衛反覆，一切防禦之計，與宣、大相埒，而額兵不滿三萬。倉卒召外兵，疲於奔命，又半孱弱。於是議減客兵，募土著，而遊食之徒，饑聚飽飏。請清勾逃軍，而所勾皆老稚，又未必安於其伍。本鎮西起鎮邊，東抵山海，因地制兵，非三十萬不可。今主、客兵不過十三萬而已。且宣府地方六百里，額兵十五萬；大同地方千餘里，額兵十三萬五千；今薊、昌地兼二鎮，而兵力獨不足。援彼例此，何以能守？以今上計，發精兵二十余萬，恢復大寧，控制外邊，俾畿輔肩背益厚，宣、遼聲援相通，國有重關，庭無近寇，此萬年之利也。如其不然，集兵三十萬，分屯列戍，使首尾相應，此百年之利也。又不然，則選主、客兵十七萬，訓練有成，不必仰藉鄰鎮，亦目前茍安之計。今皆不然，征兵如弈棋，請餉如乞糴，操練如摶沙，教戰如談虎。邊長兵寡，掣襟肘見。今為不得已之計，姑勾新軍補主兵舊額十一萬，與入衛客兵分番休息，庶軍不告勞，稍定邊計。」部議行所司清軍，而補兵之說卒不行。

Supervising Secretary Chen Qu, noting many empty rolls in the Ji garrison, asked to verify troops and cut expenses. Yingjie wrote: "When the dynasty first set up Daning, the Ji passes were still treated as inner country. After Daning was withdrawn inland and the three guards wavered, every defense matched Xuanfu and Datong, yet allotted troops numbered less than thirty thousand. Calling in outside troops at every alarm exhausted them on the march, and half were feeble. Plans to cut outside troops and recruit locals followed, while vagrants flocked when hungry and scattered when fed. They proposed hunting down deserters, yet those caught were often old or young and ill-suited to the ranks. The garrison runs from Zhenbian west to Shanhai east; troops must fit the ground, and three hundred thousand are required. Today resident and outside troops together barely exceed one hundred thirty thousand. Xuanfu spans six hundred li with fifteen thousand allotted troops; Datong spans more than a thousand li with one hundred thirty-five thousand allotted troops; Ji and Chang together cover both territories yet their forces alone are not enough. If we measure by those examples, how can we defend the line? The best course is to send over two hundred thousand crack troops, recover Daning, control the outer frontier, thicken the capital's defenses, link Xuanfu and Liaodong, set a second barrier for the state, and keep enemies far from the throne—a gain for ages. If not, station three hundred thousand men in linked posts so the line answers from end to end—a gain for a century. A third course is to pick one hundred seventy thousand resident and outside troops, train them properly, and stop relying on neighboring garrisons—a makeshift for the moment. Today none of this is done: troops are moved like chessmen, funds begged like alms, drill is sand in the hand, and battle practice is talk of tigers. The line is long and soldiers few; every move exposes a weakness. For now, as a last resort, fill the old resident quota of one hundred ten thousand with new recruits and rotate capital guest troops in relief, so troops are not exhausted and the border may steady somewhat." The ministry ordered a troop audit, but the plan to refill the ranks was never adopted.

萬歷元年，進右都御史兼兵部右侍郎，總督如故。進南京工部尚書，召為戎政尚書，改刑部。錦衣馮邦寧者，太監保從子，道遇不引避，應節叱下之，保不悅。會雲南參政羅汝芳奉表至京，應節出郭與談禪，給事中周良寅疏論之，遂偕汝芳劾罷。卒，贈太子少保。

In the first year of Wanli he became Right Censor-in-Chief and concurrent Right Vice Minister of War with his command unchanged. He rose to Minister of Works at Nanjing, was summoned as Minister of Military Administration, and was moved to Punishments. Feng Bangning of the Brocade Guard, a nephew of eunuch Feng Bao, did not yield on the road; Yingjie had him seized, and Bao took offense. When Luo Rufang of Yunnan arrived with a tribute memorial, Yingjie met him outside the walls to discuss Chan; Supervising Secretary Zhou Liangyin attacked this, and both Yingjie and Luo were impeached and removed. He died and was posthumously honored as Junior Tutor to the Heir Apparent.

初，王宗沐建議海運，應節與工部侍郎徐栻請開膠萊河，張居正力主之。用栻樣兼僉都御史以往，議鑿山引泉，計費百萬。議者爭駁之。召式還，罷其役。栻，常熟人，累官南京工部尚書。

Earlier Wang Zongmu had urged sea transport; Yingjie and Vice Minister Xu Shi proposed opening the Jiao-Lai Canal, which Zhang Juzheng strongly backed. Xu Shi went out as Concurrent Vice Censor-in-Chief; they planned to cut through mountains and channel springs at a cost of one million taels. Memorialists argued fiercely against it. Shi was recalled and the work stopped. Shi, a native of Changshu, eventually became Minister of Works at Nanjing.

王遴，字繼津，霸州人。嘉靖二十六年進士。除紹興推官。入為兵部主事，歷員外郎。峭直矜節概，不妄交。同官楊繼盛劾嚴嵩及其孫效忠冒功事，下部覆。世蕃自為稿，以屬武選郎中周冕。冕發之，反得罪。尚書聶豹懼，趣所司以世蕃稿上。遴直前爭，豹怒，竟覆如世蕃言。繼盛論死，遴為資粥饘，且以女字其子應箕。嵩父子大恚，摭他事下之詔獄。事白復官。及繼盛死，收葬之。遷山東僉事，再遷岢嵐兵備副使。有威名，為巡撫所忌，劾去。官民相率訟冤，詔許起用。

Wang Lin, whose style name was Jijin, came from Bazhou. He passed the jinshi in the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing reign. He was appointed investigating magistrate of Shaoxing. He entered the Ministry of War as principal secretary and rose to outside secretary. He was stern and principled and did not form friendships lightly. Colleague Yang Jisheng impeached Yan Song and his grandson for feigning merit; the ministry was ordered to review the case. Shifan drafted his own reply and handed it to Selection Director Zhou Mian. Mian exposed the draft and was punished in turn. Minister Nie Bao, afraid, pressed the office to file Shifan's version. Lin protested face to face; Bao grew angry, and the finding followed Shifan anyway. When Jisheng was condemned to death, Lin brought him food and betrothed his daughter to Jisheng's son Yingji. Father and son were enraged and found other charges to throw him into the imperial prison. When the affair was cleared he was restored. After Jisheng died he collected the body and buried him. He became Assistant Commissioner in Shandong and then Vice Commissioner for Military Affairs at Kelan. He won a stern reputation; the grand coordinator resented him and had him impeached out of office. Officials and commoners together pleaded his case, and an edict permitted his reinstatement.

四十五年，擢右僉都御史，巡撫延綏。寇大入定邊、固原，總兵官郭江戰歿。總督陳其學、陜西巡撫戴才坐免，遴貶俸一秩。隆慶改元，寇六入塞，皆失利去。而御史溫如玉論遴不已，解官候勘。後御史楊鉁勘上其功，遂以故官巡撫宣府。總兵官馬芳驍勇，寇不敢深入。遴乃大興屯田，邊儲賴之。秩滿，進右副都御史。尋召拜兵部右侍郎。省親歸，起協理戎政。

In the forty-fifth year he rose to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and became Grand Coordinator of Yan-sui. Raiders poured into Dingbian and Guyuan and Commander Guo Jiang was killed in battle. Supreme Commander Chen Qixue and Grand Coordinator Dai Cai were removed; Lin's salary was reduced one grade. At the start of Longqing raiders crossed the border six times and each time retreated in defeat. Yet Censor Wen Ruyu kept impeaching him, and he was suspended pending review. Later Censor Yang Zhen reviewed the case and affirmed his merit, and he returned as Grand Coordinator of Xuanfu. Regional commander Ma Fang was so fierce that the raiders dared not press far inland. Lin then greatly expanded military colonies, on which frontier grain reserves came to depend. When his term expired, he was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief. He was soon recalled and appointed Right Vice Minister of War. After going home on leave to see his parents, he was recalled to assist in military administration.

神宗立，張居正秉政。遴其同年生，然雅不相能。會議閱邊，遴請行。命往陜西四鎮。峻絕饋遺。事竣，遽移疾歸。居正歿，始起南京工部尚書。尋改兵部，參贊機務。守備中官丘得用濫役營軍，遴奏禁之，因奏行計安留都十二事。召拜戶部尚書。先奉詔蠲除及織造議留共銀百七十六萬余兩，命於太倉庫補進，遴言：「陛下歷十余年之儲積，僅三百余萬，今因一載蠲除，即收補於庫。計十余年之積，不足償二年取補之資。矧金花額進歲當百萬，自六年以後增進二十萬，今合六年計之，不啻百萬矣。庫積非源泉，歲進不已，後將何繼？」因言京、通二倉糧積八百萬石，足供九年之需，請量改折百五十萬石，三年而止。詔許一年。

When Shenzong came to the throne, Zhang Juzheng took charge of the government. Lin was his fellow graduate of the same year, but the two were never on good terms. When the court debated an inspection tour of the frontier, Lin volunteered to go. He was dispatched to the four Shaanxi defense commands. He flatly refused all gifts and gratuities. Once his mission was complete, he abruptly pleaded illness and went home. Only after Juzheng's death was he recalled as Nanjing Minister of Works. He was soon transferred to the Ministry of War to assist in state affairs. The eunuch defender Qiu Deyong pressed garrison troops into illicit service; Lin memorialized against this and proposed twelve measures to stabilize the southern capital. The emperor summoned him to serve as Minister of Revenue. The court had earlier ordered remissions and retained weaving funds totaling more than 1.76 million taels of silver, with instructions to replenish the Taicang vault; Lin argued: 'Your Majesty has built up reserves over more than a decade to barely three million taels; now a single year of remissions would be offset by immediate recovery into the treasury. Ten years of accumulation would not even cover what must be drawn and replenished in two. Moreover, the annual golden-flower quota already runs to one million taels; since the sixth year another two hundred thousand have been added—over six years that comes to well over a million. The vault is not an inexhaustible spring; if annual intake never stops increasing, what will sustain it later? He went on to say that the Jing and Tong granaries held eight million shi of grain, enough for nine years, and urged commutation of 1.5 million shi for a period of three years only. The emperor approved only one year.

時尚寶丞徐貞明、御史徐待開京東水田，遴力贊之，議遂決。故事，戶部銀專供軍國，不給他用。帝大婚，暫取濟邊銀九萬兩為織造費，至是復欲行之，遴執爭。未幾，詔取金四千兩為慈寧宮用，遴又力持。皆不納。已，陳理財七事，請崇節儉、重農務、督逋負、懲貪墨、廣儲蓄、飭貢市。帝報曰：「事關朕躬者已知之。餘飭所司議行。」時釋教大盛，遴請汰其壯者歸農，聚眾修齋者坐左道罪。禮部尚書沈鯉請如遴言。詔已許，後妃宦官多言不便，事中止。

At that time Privy Treasurer Xu Zhenming and Censor Xu Dai proposed irrigated fields east of the capital; Lin strongly backed the plan, and it was adopted. By precedent, Ministry of Revenue silver was reserved for military and state expenses and was not to be diverted elsewhere. At the emperor's grand wedding, ninety thousand taels of frontier relief silver had been temporarily diverted for weaving costs; when the court tried again, Lin objected strenuously. Soon afterward an edict ordered four thousand taels of gold for the Cining Palace, and Lin again resisted. In each case his remonstrance was rejected. He then submitted seven proposals on fiscal management, calling for thrift, emphasis on agriculture, collection of arrears, punishment of graft, expanded reserves, and tighter regulation of tribute trade. The emperor replied: 'As for matters touching me personally, I am already aware. Let the rest be referred to the appropriate offices for deliberation and implementation. Buddhism was then flourishing; Lin urged that able-bodied monks be sent back to farming and that those who assembled crowds for ritual observances be punished for heterodox practices. Minister of Rites Shen Li endorsed Lin's proposal. The edict had been approved, but consorts and eunuchs protested that it would be impractical, and the plan was abandoned.

改兵部尚書。遼東總兵官李成梁賂遺遍輦轂，不敢至遴門。遴在戶部頻執爭，已為中官所嫉。會帝閱壽宮，中官持禦批索馬。遴以為題本當鈐印，司禮傳奉由科發部，無徑下部者，援故事執奏。帝不悅。大學士申時行嘗以管事指揮羅秀屬遴補錦衣僉書，遴格不許。時行乃調旨責遴擅留禦批，失敬上體。御史因交章劾遴，遴乞休去，張佳胤代之。給事中張養蒙言：「羅秀本太監滕祥奴，賄入禁衛。往歲營僉書，尚書遴持正，為所中傷去。未幾秀即躐用，物議沸騰。」於是黜秀，佳胤亦罷。遴雖退，聲望愈重，以年高存問者再三。三十六年卒。贈太子太保。天啟中，追謚恭肅。

He was transferred to Minister of War. Li Chengliang, commander of Liaodong, bestowed bribes throughout the capital but would not venture near Lin's door. His repeated objections while at the Ministry of Revenue had already earned the enmity of the eunuchs. While the emperor was inspecting his tomb site, a eunuch arrived with an imperial rescript demanding horses. Lin argued that sealed memorials should go through proper channels: the Directorate of Ceremonial relayed imperial orders via the secretariat to the ministries, and none should bypass that route; citing precedent, he refused to comply. The emperor was displeased. Grand Secretary Shen Shixing once asked Lin to appoint the duty officer Luo Xiu as Assistant Director of the Embroidered Uniform Guard; Lin refused. Shen Shixing then drafted an edict rebuking Lin for unlawfully withholding the imperial rescript and showing disrespect to the throne. Censors then launched a concerted impeachment; Lin requested retirement and was replaced by Zhang Jiayin. Supervising Secretary Zhang Yangmeng said: 'Luo Xiu was originally a bondservant of the eunuch Teng Xiang and bought his way into the imperial guard. When the assistant directorship came open last year, Minister Lin stood firm and was driven out by their slander. Before long Luo was promoted ahead of his rank, and public outrage erupted. Xiu was then dismissed, and Jiayin was removed as well. Though Lin had left office, his standing only grew; the court repeatedly sent envoys to inquire after him in his old age. He died in the thirty-sixth year of Wanli. He was posthumously given the title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Under Tianqi he was posthumously honored with the epithet Gongsu.

畢鏘，字廷鳴，石埭人。嘉靖三十二年進士。授刑部主事。歷郎中，擢浙江提學副使，遷廣西右參政，進按察使，再遷湖廣左布政使。召為太仆卿，未至，改應天尹。海瑞撫江南，移檄京府，等於屬吏，鏘卻不受。瑞察鏘政，更與善。進南京戶部右侍郎，督理糧儲。

Bi Qiang, styled Tingming, was from Shiyi. He passed the metropolitan examination in the thirty-second year of Jiajing. He was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Justice. After serving as a director, he was promoted Vice Commissioner of Education for Zhejiang, transferred to Right Vice Commissioner in Guangxi, raised to Surveillance Commissioner, and then moved to Left Provincial Administrator of Huguang. He was summoned as Minister of the Imperial Stud, but before taking up the post was reassigned Governor of Yingtian. When Hai Rui governed Jiangnan he issued orders to the capital prefecture as though it were subordinate to him; Bi Qiang refused to comply. Hai Rui observed Bi's administration and came to respect him. He was promoted to Right Vice Minister of Revenue at Nanjing, with charge of granary affairs.

萬歷二年，入為刑部右侍郎。改戶部，總督倉場。擢南京戶部尚書，謝病去。起南京工部尚書，就改吏部，征為戶部尚書。帝以風霾諭所司陳時政，鏘以九事上。中言：「錦衣旗校至萬七千四百余人，內府諸監局匠役數亦稱是。此冗食之尤，宜屏除冒濫。州縣丈田滋弊，雲南鼓鑄不酬工直，官已裁而復置，田欲墾而再停。請酌土俗人情，毋率意更改。至袍服錦綺，歲有積余，何煩頻織。天燈費巨萬，尤不經。濫予不可不裁，淫巧不可不革。」他所奏，並多切要。近幸從中撓之，不盡行。鏘乃引年乞罷。予馳驛歸。鏘遇事守正，有物望。年及八十，賜存問，加太子少保。後凡存問者再。其孫汝楩奉表入謝，詔以為太學生。年九十三而卒。贈太子太保，謚恭介。舒化，字汝德，臨川人。嘉靖三十八年進士。授衡州推官。改補鳳陽，擢戶科給事中。

In the second year of Wanli he entered the capital as Right Vice Minister of Justice. He was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue as Supervisor of the Granaries. Promoted to Nanjing Minister of Revenue, he retired citing illness. Recalled as Nanjing Minister of Works, he was promptly transferred to the Ministry of Personnel and then summoned to the capital as Minister of Revenue. When sandstorms prompted the emperor to call for comments on current policy, Bi submitted nine recommendations. He wrote, in part: 'Embroidered Uniform Guard agents number more than 17,400, and the inner palace workshops employ just as many. These are the worst of idle mouths on the state payroll; spurious and excessive posts should be eliminated. Land surveys at the county level breed corruption; Yunnan minting fails to pay fair wages; posts abolished are reinstated, and land reclamation projects are halted just as they begin. He urged that local customs be respected and that policy not be changed recklessly. Robes and brocades already accumulate surplus year after year—why keep weaving more? The cost of sky lanterns runs to tens of thousands of taels—a particularly wasteful extravagance. Indiscriminate spending must be curtailed and frivolous luxuries abolished. His other proposals were likewise sharp and to the point. Favorites at court intervened to block them, and most were never implemented. Bi then cited his age and requested retirement. He was granted relay horses for the journey home. Bi was known for integrity and commanded wide respect. When he turned eighty, the throne sent envoys to inquire after him and conferred on him the title Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. The court sent further inquiries twice thereafter. When his grandson Ru Man came to court with a memorial of thanks, the emperor enrolled him as a student of the Imperial Academy. He died at the age of ninety-three. He was posthumously made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and given the epithet Gongjie. Shu Hua, styled Rude, was from Linchuan. He received his jinshi degree in the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing. He was appointed magistrate-investigator of Hengzhou. Transferred to Fengyang, he was promoted supervising secretary in the Revenue Section.

隆慶初，三遷刑科給事中。帝任宦官，旨多從中下。化言：「法者天下之公，大小罪犯宜悉付法司。不當，則臣等論劾。若竟自敕行，則喜怒未必當，而法司與臣等俱虛設。」詔是其言。冬至郊天，聞帝咳聲，推論陰陽後復之漸，請法天養微陽，詞甚切直。有詔言災眚洊至，由部院政事不修，令廠衛密察。化偕同列言：「廠衛僥巡輦下，惟詰奸宄、禁盜賊耳。駕馭百官，乃天子權，而糾察非法，則責在臺諫，豈廠衛所得幹。今命之刺訪，將必開羅織之門，逞機阱之術，禍貽善類，使人人重足累息，何以為治。且廠衛非能自廉察，必屬之番校。陛下不信大臣，反信若屬耶？」御史劉思賢等亦極陳其害。帝並不從。已而事竟寢。校尉負屍出北安門，兵馬指揮孫承芳見之，疑有奸，系獄鞫訊，詞連內官李陽春。陽春懼，訴於帝。言尉所負非死者，出外乃死，承芳妄生事，刑校尉。帝信之，杖承芳六十，斥為民。化請以陽春所奏下法司勘問，不納。

Early in Longqing he rose through three promotions to supervising secretary in the Justice Section. The emperor entrusted power to eunuchs, and edicts often issued from behind the scenes. Shu argued: 'The law belongs to the realm as a whole; crimes great and small ought to be handed entirely to the judicial bureaus. If their rulings are wrong, we ministers may impeach them. If the throne instead issues edicts directly, judgments may reflect mere caprice, and both the judicial offices and we censors become figureheads. An edict endorsed his view. At the winter solstice sacrifice to Heaven he heard the emperor cough, interpreted it as a sign that yin was overpowering yang, and urged him to heed Heaven and nurture his vital yang—the memorial was blunt and urgent. An edict blamed recurring disasters on negligence in the ministries and ordered the secret police to conduct covert surveillance. Shu and his colleagues responded: 'The secret police patrol the capital only to hunt traitors and suppress bandits. Governing the bureaucracy is the emperor's prerogative, and policing official misconduct falls to the censorate—what business is that of the secret police? Ordering them to gather intelligence will open the door to manufactured charges and entrapment, harm the innocent, and leave everyone walking on eggshells—how is that governance? Besides, the secret police cannot investigate honestly themselves; they must rely on their runner-agents. Your Majesty trusts such men rather than your senior ministers? Censor Liu Sixian and others also spoke forcefully against the plan. The emperor rejected them all. In the end the matter was quietly dropped. A guard was seen carrying a corpse out through the North Peace Gate; Capital Garrison Commander Sun Chengfang, suspecting foul play, had him arrested and interrogated, and testimony implicated the eunuch Li Yangchun. Fearing arrest, Li Yangchun appealed directly to the emperor. He claimed the guard had been carrying a living man who died only after leaving the gate, that Sun Chengfang had manufactured the case, and that the runner guard had been wrongly punished. The emperor believed him, had Sun Chengfang beaten sixty strokes with the rod, and stripped him of office. Shu Hua asked that Yangchun's account be referred to the regular courts for review, but the emperor refused.

四年熱審，請釋累臣鄭履淳、李芳，及朝審，又請釋李已，皆得宥。時高拱當國，路楷、楊順以構殺沈煉論死。拱欲為楷地，謂順首禍，順死，楷可勿坐。化取獄牘示拱曰：「獄故無煉名。有之，自楷始。楷誠罪首。」拱又議宥方士王金等罪，化言：「此遺詔意，即欲勿罪，宜何辭？」忤拱，出為陜西參政。再疏致仕歸。

At the summer judicial review in his fourth year in office he secured the release of long-held prisoners Zheng Luchun and Li Fang; at the autumn court review he won pardon for Li Yi as well. Gao Gong was then dominant at court, and Lu Kai and Yang Shun had been condemned to death for framing and killing Shen Lian. Gao Gong wanted to spare Lu Kai, arguing that Yang Shun had been the ringleader and that Kai should go unpunished once Shun was executed. Shu Hua produced the case file and showed it to Gao Gong, saying, "Shen Lian's name does not appear in the original records at all. If a name does appear, Lu Kai's is the first. Lu Kai is plainly the principal offender. Gao Gong then proposed pardoning the immortal masters Wang Jin and others. Shu Hua objected: "The late emperor's dying wish was to spare them—but if you mean to pardon them now, what language can justify it? Having crossed Gao Gong, he was transferred out to serve as vice commissioner in Shaanxi. He submitted another memorial requesting retirement and went home.

萬歷初，累擢太仆少卿。復以疾歸。由南京大理卿召拜刑部左侍郎。雲南緬賊平，帝御午門樓受俘。化讀奏詞，音吐洪亮，進止有儀，帝目屬之。會刑部缺尚書，手詔用化。化言：「陛下仁心出天性。知府錢若賡、知州方復乾以殘酷死戍。請飭大小臣僚各遵律例，毋淫刑。《大明律》一書，高皇帝揭之兩廡，手加更定。今未經詳斷者或命從重擬議，已經定議者又詔加等處斬，是謂律不足用也。去冬雨雪不時，災異頻見，咎當在此。」帝優詔答之。會續修《會典》，因輯嘉靖三十四年以後事例與刑名相關者三百八十二條，奏之。詔頒示中外。

Early in the Wanli reign he rose through several posts to Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud. Illness soon forced him to retire once more. He was recalled from the Nanjing Court of Revision and appointed Left Vice Minister of Justice. After the Burmese rebels in Yunnan were subdued, the emperor took the captives in state at the Meridian Gate tower. When Shu Hua read the memorial aloud, his voice rang clear and his deportment was dignified; the emperor's eyes never left him. Soon afterward the Ministry of Justice fell vacant, and the emperor personally appointed Shu Hua minister. Shu Hua said, "Your Majesty's mercy is rooted in your nature. Yet Prefect Qian Ruogeng and Prefect Fang Fuqian were sent to die on the frontier after sentences far harsher than the law allowed. I beg Your Majesty to instruct every official, high and low, to abide by the code and cease imposing punishments beyond the law. The founding emperor himself revised the Great Ming Code and had it posted in both wings of the palace. Today open cases are often ordered retried under heavier penalties, and settled ones are suddenly escalated to execution by imperial edict—as though the code itself were no longer adequate. Last winter's untimely snow and rain and the portents that have followed surely stem from this. The emperor replied with a warm and approving edict. While the Collected Statutes were being revised, he gathered 382 criminal precedents dating from the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing onward and presented them to the throne. An edict ordered their publication throughout the empire.

十四年，應詔陳言。請信詔令，清獄訟，速訊讞，嚴檢驗，禁冤濫，而以格天安民歸本聖心。帝嘉納焉。帝慮群下欺罔，間有訐發，輒遣官逮捕，牽引證佐，文案累積。化言：「主術貴執要，不當侵有司；徒使人歸過於上，而下得緣以飾非。」潞王府小校以事為兵馬司吏目所笞，帝怒，逮吏目下詔獄，掠死，又罪其捕卒七人。化爭之。詔罪為首一人，余並獲宥。明年，京察拾遺，南京科道論及化。遂三疏乞歸。帝不許。會當慮囚，復起視事。中貴傳帝意宥重辟三十余人，化爭不可。詔卒從其議。尋稱病篤，乃聽歸。卒，贈太子少保，謚莊僖。李世達，字子成，涇陽人。嘉靖三十五年進士。授戶部主事。改吏部，歷考功、文選郎中，與陸光祖並為尚書所倚。隆慶初，丁曾祖憂。起右通政，歷南京太仆卿。

In the fourteenth year he answered an imperial call for candid advice with a series of memorials. He urged the emperor to honor his own edicts, clear the prisons, expedite trials, tighten forensic standards, and stop wrongful convictions—so that harmonizing Heaven and securing the people would again rest on the throne's own conscience. The emperor praised the advice and took it to heart. Fearing deception among his officials, the emperor would dispatch arresting officers at the slightest accusation, sweeping up witnesses and witnesses' witnesses until the paperwork piled high. Shu Hua argued: "The art of rule lies in holding to essentials; the throne should not usurp the duties of the regular offices. Otherwise blame falls upward while subordinates seize the chance to conceal their own misconduct. When a minor retainer of the Prince of Lu was beaten by a Capital Garrison clerk, the emperor flew into a rage, had the clerk thrown into the imperial prison—where he died under torture—and punished seven guards who had helped make the arrest. Shu Hua protested vigorously. An edict finally punished only the ringleader and pardoned the rest. The following year, during the supplemental round of the capital personnel review, Nanjing censors and remonstrators raised complaints against him. He responded with three successive memorials asking to retire. The emperor refused. When the annual prison review came due, he returned to duty. A palace eunuch conveyed the emperor's wish to pardon more than thirty men facing capital sentences; Shu Hua insisted it could not be done. An edict ultimately sided with him. Soon afterward, pleading grave illness, he was at last permitted to go home. When he died he was posthumously made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent and given the epithet Zhuangxi. Li Shida, styled Zicheng, was from Jingyang. He received his jinshi degree in the thirty-fifth year of Jiajing. He was appointed a principal secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. Transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, he served as director in the Performance Evaluation and Selection bureaus and, together with Lu Guangzu, became one of the minister's most trusted men. Early in the Longqing reign he withdrew to mourn his great-grandfather. Recalled to serve as Right Vice Commissioner for Transmission, he later held the post of Minister of the Imperial Stud at Nanjing.

萬歷二年以右僉都御史巡撫山東。尋進右副都御史，總理河道。未上，改撫浙江。旋移疾歸，起督漕運兼巡撫鳳陽。黃河南侵，淮安告警，世達請修石堤捍城；寶應氾光湖風濤險惡，歲漂溺，請開越河殺水勢。俱報可。遷南京兵部右侍郎。召改戶部，復改吏部，進左侍郎。擢南京吏部尚書，就改兵部，參贊機務。

In the second year of Wanli he was appointed Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and made grand coordinator of Shandong. He was soon promoted to Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief with charge of the waterways. Before he could assume that post, he was reassigned to govern Zhejiang instead. He soon retired on grounds of illness, but was recalled to supervise the grain transport and serve as grand coordinator of Fengyang. When the Yellow River shifted south and Huai'an came under threat, Shida proposed building stone embankments to shield the city. At Baoying, where Fan'guang Lake's storms caused annual flooding, he asked permission to cut a diversion channel to bleed off the floodwaters. Both proposals were approved. His next appointment was Right Vice Minister of War at the southern capital. Recalled to court, he was moved first to the Ministry of Revenue and then to Personnel, rising to Left Vice Minister. Promoted to Minister of Personnel at Nanjing, he was immediately shifted to the Ministry of War to assist in state affairs.

俄召為刑部尚書。中官張德毆人死，世達請置於理，刑科唐堯欽亦言之，德遂屬吏。大興知縣王階坐撻樂舞生下吏，帝密遣兩校尉偵之，讞日為巡風主事孫承榮所拒。校尉還奏，帝怒詰世達。世達言偵伺非大體。承榮竟奪俸。東廠太監張鯨有罪，言官交劾，帝曲貸之。世達執奏，帝乃屏鯨於外。駙馬都尉侯拱宸仆斃平民抵法，世達請並坐拱宸。乃革其任，命國學肄禮。罪人焦文粲法不當死，帝怒入之。會朝審，命戶部尚書宋纁主筆。世達言於纁，薄文粲罪。忤旨，詰問，復據法以對。帝卒不從。時帝燕居多暴怒，近侍屢以非罪死，世達因災異上書以諷。浙江饑，或請令罪人出粟除罪。世達言：「法不可廢，寧赦毋贖。赦則恩出於上，法猶存。贖則力出於下，人滋玩。」識者韙之。改左都御史。兵馬指揮何價虐死三人，御史劉思瑜庇之。世達劾奏，帝鐫思瑜秩。復劾罷御史韓介等數人。帝深惡言官，下詔申飭，責以挾私報復。世達言：「效忠持正者，語雖過激，心實無他。即或心未可知，而言不可廢，並宜容納。惟緘默依阿，然後加黜罰。則讜言日進，邪說漸消。」報聞。二十一年，與吏部尚書孫鑨同主京察，斥政府私人殆盡。考功郎中趙南星被劾貶官，世達力爭之，反除南星等名，遂求去，不許。其秋，吏部侍郎趙用賢以絕婚事被訐，世達白其無罪。郎中楊應宿、鄭材疏詆世達，遂連章乞休去。歸七年卒。贈太子太保，謚敏肅。

He was soon summoned to serve as Minister of Justice. When the eunuch Zhang De beat a man to death, Shida demanded that he be handed over for trial; Tang Yaoqin of the Punishments Section backed him, and Zhang De was turned over to the regular courts. Magistrate Wang Jie of Daxing was demoted for beating court musicians; the emperor secretly sent two runner guards to monitor the trial, but on judgment day Sun Chengrong, director of touring inspection, turned them away. When the runners reported back, the emperor angrily summoned Shida for an explanation. Shida replied that covert surveillance was no way to run a court. Sun Chengrong, however, was stripped of his salary. When the Eastern Depot eunuch Zhang Jin was found guilty and impeached by a chorus of censors, the emperor bent the rules to protect him. Shida pressed his case in memorial after memorial until the emperor finally banished Zhang Jin from court. When the emperor's son-in-law Hou Gongchen's servant killed a commoner and stood trial, Shida asked that Gongchen be punished as well. The emperor stripped him of his post and ordered him to study ritual at the Imperial Academy. The convict Jiao Wencan did not deserve death under the code, but the emperor in anger had him thrown into prison. At the autumn court review the emperor ordered Revenue Minister Song Li to draft the sentence. Shida persuaded Song Li to reduce the charge against Jiao Wencan. Called before the emperor for defying his wishes, he answered every question by citing the law. The emperor would not yield. The emperor was then given to sudden rages in private, and attendants were often executed on trivial grounds; Shida seized on recent portents to submit a veiled remonstrance. During famine in Zhejiang, some officials proposed letting convicts buy their freedom with grain. Shida objected: "The law must not be set aside; it is better to grant pardon than to accept ransom. A pardon keeps mercy in the emperor's hands and leaves the law intact. Ransom puts power in the hands of the wealthy and teaches everyone to treat punishment as a price. Men of judgment applauded the argument. He was transferred to Left Censor-in-Chief. Capital Garrison Commander He Jia had tortured three men to death, and Censor Liu Siyu shielded him from prosecution. Shida impeached them both, and the emperor demoted Liu Siyu. He went on to impeach and dismiss several other censors, including Han Jie. Deeply resentful of the censorate, the emperor issued an edict rebuking remonstrators for pursuing private vendettas. Shida replied: "Men who serve loyally and speak plainly may sound harsh, but their hearts are clean. Even when motives are unclear, their words must still be heard and tolerated. Punishment should fall only on those who keep silent and flatter. Then honest counsel will flow daily and corrupt counsel will fade. The throne acknowledged the memorial. In the twenty-first year he and Personnel Minister Sun Luang presided over the capital evaluation and cleared out nearly every protégé of the ruling faction. When Performance Evaluation Director Zhao Nanxing was impeached and demoted, Shida fought hard for him—but Nanxing and his allies were dismissed instead; Shida then asked to retire and was refused. That autumn, when Vice Minister Zhao Yongxian was accused over a broken marriage engagement, Shida testified to his innocence. Directors Yang Yingsu and Zheng Cai then memorialized against him; Shida responded with a string of retirement petitions. He went home and died seven years later. He was posthumously made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and given the epithet Minsu.

曾同亨，字於野，吉水人。父存仁，雲南布政使。同亨舉嘉靖三十八年進士。授刑部主事。改禮部，遷吏部文選主事。故事，丞簿以下官，聽胥吏銓註，同亨悉躬親之。與陸光祖、李世達齊名。隆慶初，為文選郎中，薦用遺佚幾盡。進太常少卿，請急去。萬歷初，起大理少卿。歷順天府尹，以右副都御史巡撫貴州。御史劉臺得罪張居正，同亨，臺姊夫也，給事中陳三謨欲並逐之，奏同亨羸不任職。詔調南京，遂移疾歸。九年，京察拾遺，給事中奏燿、御史錢岱等復希居正指，列同亨名。勒休致。

Zeng Tongheng, styled Yuye, was from Jishui. His father Cunren had served as administration commissioner of Yunnan. In 1559, Tongheng became a jinshi graduate. He received a post as principal secretary in the Ministry of Justice. After a move to the Ministry of Rites, he was promoted to principal secretary in the Ministry of Personnel's office for literary selection. Established practice had allowed clerks to fill posts below the rank of assistant commissioner, but Tongheng took personal charge of every such appointment. His reputation matched that of Lu Guangzu and Li Shida. In the early Longqing reign, as director of literary selection, he brought back into service nearly every worthy official who had been passed over. Promoted to vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, he begged permission to resign at once. When the Wanli reign began, he was summoned back as vice minister of the Court of Revision. He went on to serve as prefect of Shuntian and then as right vice censor-in-chief and governor of Guizhou. When the censor Liu Tai fell afoul of Zhang Juzheng, the supervising secretary Chen Sanmo tried to purge Tongheng too—Tai's brother-in-law—claiming in a memorial that Tongheng was too frail to hold his post. He was ordered transferred to Nanjing but instead cited illness and went home. In Wanli 9, during the capital review of surplus officials, the supervising secretaries Qin Yao and the censor Qian Dai once more did Zhang Juzheng's bidding and put Tongheng on the list. He was forced into retirement.

居正卒，起南京太常卿。召為大理卿，遷工部右侍郎。督治壽宮，節浮費三十余萬。由左侍郎進尚書。軍器自外輸，率不中程，奏請半收其直，又請減織造之半。皆報可。汝安王妃乞橋稅，同亨拒之。帝竟如妃請。內府工匠，隆慶初數至萬五千八百人，尋汰二千五百人，而中官濫增不已。同亨疏請清厘。已得旨，中官復奏寢之。給事中楊其休疏爭，弗納。同亨弟乾亨請裁冗員以裕經費，京衛諸武臣謂減己月俸也，大嘩，伺同亨出朝，圍而噪之。同亨再乞休，不得請。九門工成，加太子少保。力乞去，詔乘傳歸。起南京吏部尚書，辭不拜。久之，再起故官，累辭乃就職。稅使所在虐民，同亨極諫。三十三年，大計京官，與考功郎徐必達持正不撓。是年，北察失執政意，中旨留給事中錢夢臯等；南察及同亨自陳疏，亦久不下。同亨適給由入都，遂引疾。詔加太子太保致仕。

Once Zhang Juzheng died, he was recalled as minister of imperial sacrifices at Nanjing. Summoned to head the Court of Revision, he was then made right vice minister of works. Overseeing construction of the imperial tomb, he cut wasteful spending by over three hundred thousand taels. He rose from left vice minister to full minister. Arms shipped in from the provinces usually fell short of standard; he proposed paying only half price for substandard goods and cutting textile production in half. The emperor approved both proposals. When the princess consort of the Prince of Ru'an asked for bridge toll revenue, Tongheng turned her down. The emperor sided with the princess consort in the end. Palace workshops had swelled to 15,800 artisans at the start of Longqing; though 2,500 were soon dismissed, eunuchs kept inflating the rolls without restraint. Tongheng submitted a memorial calling for a full audit. Even after the emperor had given his assent, palace eunuchs blocked the order. The supervising secretary Yang Qixiu protested in a memorial, but the court would not listen. When Tongheng's brother Qianheng proposed trimming redundant posts to save funds, capital garrison officers—fearing cuts to their pay—raised such a clamor that they waited outside court and mobbed Tongheng on his way out. Tongheng asked again to resign, but permission was denied. Upon completion of the Nine Gates project, he was made junior guardian of the heir apparent. He pressed hard for release, and the emperor granted him leave to return home with official transport. Recalled as minister of personnel at Nanjing, he refused the appointment. Eventually he was summoned back to the same post; only after many refusals did he accept. Wherever tax agents went they abused the people, and Tongheng remonstrated forcefully against it. In Wanli 33, during the grand evaluation of capital officials, he and Xu Bidaa, director of evaluations, stood their ground without yielding. That year the northern evaluation ran counter to the chief ministers' wishes, and an edict from the inner court kept supervising secretaries such as Qian Menggao on the rolls; while the southern evaluation and Tongheng's explanatory memorial likewise languished without response for a long time. Tongheng happened to be in the capital to receive his credentials and took the occasion to plead illness. The emperor made him senior guardian of the heir apparent and let him retire.

同亨初入吏部，嚴嵩其鄉人，尚書吳鵬則父同年也，同亨無私謁。嘗止宿署舍，彌月不歸。雅與羅汝芳、耿定向善。尚書楊博痛詆偽儒，同亨曰：「此中多暗修，非可概斥。即使陽假名義，視呈身進取、恬不知恥者，孰愈哉？」卒年七十有五。贈少保，謚恭端。

Early in his Ministry of Personnel career, despite Yan Song being a fellow townsman and Minister Wu Peng having been his father's jinshi cohort, Tongheng never paid them private calls. He would sometimes sleep at his office and not go home for an entire month. He was close friends with the scholars Luo Rufang and Geng Dingxiang. When Minister Yang Bo lashed out at self-styled Confucians, Tongheng replied, "Many among them cultivate virtue quietly—they cannot be condemned wholesale. Even if some wear virtue as a mask, are they not still preferable to men who scramble for promotion without a shred of shame? He died at seventy-five. Posthumously he was made junior guardian and given the posthumous name Gongduan, "Respectful and Upright."

弟乾亨，字於健。從羅洪先學。登萬歷五年進士，除合肥知縣，調休寧。擢御史。給事中馮景劾李成梁被謫，乾亨以尚書張學顏右成梁也，並劾之。帝怒，黜為海州判官。稍遷大名推官，歷光祿少卿。十八年冬，敕兼監察御史，閱視大同邊務。劾罷總兵官以下十余人。大同士兵歲餉萬二千石，兵自征之，民不勝擾。乾亨議留兵二百，余盡汰之。屢奏邊備事宜，輒中機要。諸武弁之詬同亨也，大學士王家屏遣諭之曰：「天下有叛軍，寧有叛臣？若曹於禁地辱大臣，罪且死。」諸人乃散去。尚書石星言貴臣被辱，大傷國體，給事中鐘羽正亦言之。不報。家屏密揭力爭，乃奪掌後府定國公徐文璧祿半歲，而治首事者以法。乾亨尋進大理丞，遷少卿。考功郎趙南星以考察事被斥，乾亨論救，侵執政，復移書辨之。廷推巡撫者三，俱不用。遂引疾歸，未幾卒。乾亨言行不茍，與其兄並以名德稱。

His younger brother Qianheng, styled Yujian. He was a student of Luo Hongxian. A jinshi of Wanli 5, he became magistrate of Hefei and was then moved to Xiuning. He rose to censor. After the supervising secretary Feng Jing impeached Li Chengliang and was punished, Qianheng—seeing that Minister Zhang Xueyan was shielding Chengliang—impeached them both. Enraged, the emperor demoted him to assistant magistrate of Haizhou. He worked his way back up to investigating magistrate of Daming and eventually became vice minister of the court of imperial entertainments. In the winter of Wanli 18, he was commissioned as censor to inspect border affairs at Datong. His impeachments forced out the regional commander and more than a dozen subordinates. Datong's local troops drew 12,000 shi in annual pay, but the soldiers collected it themselves, and civilians were crushed by the exactions. Qianheng proposed keeping only 200 men and disbanding the rest. His repeated memorials on frontier defense consistently struck at the heart of the matter. When officers hounded Tongheng, Grand Secretary Wang Jiaping sent this warning: "Armies may mutiny—will ministers? For you to humiliate a senior minister inside the forbidden precinct is a capital offense. The crowd then broke up. Minister Shi Xing argued that the assault on a senior official had shamed the realm, and supervising secretary Zhong Yuzheng said the same. The court took no action. Wang Jiaping pressed the case in a secret memorial, and the court finally docked Duke Xu Wenbi of the Rear Palace Office half a year's stipend while prosecuting the ringleaders. Qianheng was soon promoted to vice director of the Court of Revision and then to vice minister. When Zhao Nanxing, director of evaluations, was ousted in a personnel review, Qianheng defended him—crossing the chief ministers—and followed up with a letter rebutting them. Three times the court nominated him for a provincial governorship, and each time the appointment went nowhere. He resigned on grounds of illness and died soon after. Scrupulous in word and deed, Qianheng and his brother were alike celebrated for moral stature.

辛自修，字子吉，襄城人。嘉靖三十五年進士。除海寧知縣。擢吏科給事中，奏言：「吏部銓註，遴才要矣，量地尤急。邇京府屬吏以大計去者十之五，豈畿輦下獨多不肖哉？地艱而事猥也。請量地劇易以除官，量事繁簡以註考。」吏部善其言，請令撫按舉劾如自修議。巡視京營，劾典營務鎮遠侯顧寰、協理僉都御史李燧，請戒寰罷燧。從之。歷遷禮科都給事中。誠意伯劉世延不法，自修極論其奸。詔革任禁錮。隆慶元年，給事中胡應嘉言事斥，自修疏救。未幾，論奪尚書顧可學、徐可成，侍郎朱隆禧、郭文英贈謚；以可成由黃冠，文英由工匠，可學、隆禧俱以方藥進也。擢太仆少卿，引疾歸。

Xin Zixiu, styled Ziji, was from Xiangcheng. He became a jinshi in 1556. He was made magistrate of Haining. Promoted to supervising secretary in the personnel department, he wrote: "When the Ministry of Personnel fills posts, finding the right talent matters—but matching men to place matters even more. In the last grand evaluation, half the capital prefectures' junior officials were removed—surely the capital is not uniquely full of incompetents? The posts are grinding and the work is thankless. Assign officials according to whether the locality is taxing or easy, and grade evaluations according to whether the duties are heavy or light. The Ministry of Personnel endorsed his proposal and asked provincial governors and censors to impeach according to his scheme. While inspecting the capital garrisons, he impeached Marquis Gu Huan of Zhenyuan, who ran garrison affairs, and censor-in-chief Li Sui, who assisted him, asking that Huan be admonished and Sui removed. The emperor agreed. He rose to chief supervising secretary in the rites department. When Earl Liu Shiyan of Chengyi broke the law, Zixiu exposed his misconduct in full. The emperor revoked his title and put him under house arrest. In Longqing 1, when supervising secretary Hu Yingjia was punished for remonstrating, Zixiu defended him in a memorial. Soon afterward he argued that posthumous honors should be revoked from ministers Gu Kexue and Xu Kecheng and vice ministers Zhu Longxi and Guo Wenying; Kecheng had been a Daoist priest, Wenying a craftsman, and Kexue and Longxi had both curried favor by supplying elixirs. Promoted to vice minister of the imperial stud, he then resigned on grounds of illness.

萬歷六年，起應天府丞，再遷光祿卿。以右僉都御史巡撫保定六府。奏減均徭裏甲銀六萬兩，增築雄、任丘二縣堤，以禦滹沱水患。每歲防秋，巡撫移駐易州，征所部供費，防秋已罷，征如故，自修奏已之。入歷大理卿，兵部左、右侍郎，擢南京右都御史。御史沈汝梁者，巡視下江，用饋遺為名，盡括所部贖鍰，自修劾奏之。帝方欲懲貪吏，乃命逮治汝梁，而召自修為左都御史。

In Wanli 6 he was recalled as vice prefect of Yingtian and later promoted to minister of imperial entertainments. As right censor-in-chief he governed the six prefectures of Baoding. He secured a cut of 60,000 taels in combined corvée and lijia levies and had dikes built in Xiong and Renqiu counties to hold back flooding on the Hutuo River. Every autumn defense season, governors moved to Yizhou and taxed their jurisdictions for supplies—and kept taxing even after the season ended; Zixiu got the practice stopped. He served as minister of the Court of Revision, then as left and right vice minister of war, and was finally promoted to right censor-in-chief at Nanjing. The censor Shen Ruliang, inspecting the lower Yangzi, seized every fine in his circuit under the pretense of accepting gifts; Zixiu impeached him. Eager to crack down on corruption, the emperor ordered Shen Ruliang arrested—and summoned Zixiu to become left censor-in-chief.

十五年，大計京官，政府欲庇私人，去異己。吏部尚書楊巍承意指惟謹，自修患之，先期上奏，請勿以愛憎為喜怒，排抑孤立之人。帝善其言，而政府不悅。有貪競者十余輩，皆政府所厚，自修欲去之。給事中陳與郊自度不免，遂言憲臣將以一眚棄人，一舉空國。於是自修所欲斥者悉獲免。已而御史張鳴岡等拾遺，首工部尚書何起鳴。起鳴故以督工與中官張誠厚，而雅不善自修，遂訐自修挾仇主使。與郊及給事中吳之佳助之。御史高維崧、趙卿、張鳴岡、左之宜不平，劾起鳴飾非詭辨。帝先入張誠言，頗疑自修。得疏益不悅，曰：「朝廷每用一人，言官輒紛紛排擊。今起鳴去，爾等舉堪此任者。」維崧等具疏引罪，無他舉。帝怒，悉出之外。給事中張養蒙申救，亦奪俸。刑部主事王德新復疏爭，語侵嬖幸。帝下之詔獄，酷刑究主者。無所承，乃削其籍。自修不自安，亟引疾歸。

In Wanli 15, during the capital officials' grand evaluation, the cabinet wanted to shield allies and purge dissenters. Minister of Personnel Yang Wei read the cabinet's wishes all too faithfully, so Zixiu filed an advance memorial urging that evaluations not be driven by favoritism or used to isolate opponents. The emperor approved, but the cabinet was displeased. More than a dozen grasping officials favored by the cabinet were targets Zixiu wanted removed. Supervising secretary Chen Yujiao, sensing he would not escape, charged that the censor-in-chief would ruin careers over a single misstep and gut the government at a stroke. In the end, every official Zixiu had meant to dismiss was spared. Soon censors including Zhang Minggang, in a supplementary review, opened their list with Minister of Works He Qiming. Qiming owed his standing to the eunuch Zhang Cheng through construction work and had long disliked Zixiu; he now accused Zixiu of orchestrating the charges out of private spite. Chen Yujiao and supervising secretary Wu Zhijia lent their support. Censors Gao Weisong, Zhao Qing, Zhang Minggang, and Zuo Zhiyi, taking offense, impeached Qiming for glossing over his faults with specious arguments. The emperor had already been swayed by Zhang Cheng and grew quite suspicious of Zixiu. Reading the memorial only deepened his displeasure. He said, "Every time the court appoints a man, the remonstrating officials swarm to tear him down. Qiming is leaving—name someone among you who is fit for the post. Gao Weisong and the others submitted full memorials accepting blame and nominated no one else. In anger the emperor sent them all out of the capital. Supervising secretary Zhang Yangmeng interceded on their behalf and also had his salary withheld. Wang Dexin, a clerk in the Ministry of Justice, submitted another memorial disputing the matter in language that encroached on the emperor's favorites. The emperor had him thrown into the imperial prison and tortured brutally to uncover the mastermind. He confessed to nothing, so the emperor struck him from the rolls. Zixiu himself no longer felt secure and urgently pleaded illness to resign and return home.

自修之進也，非執政意，故不為所容。久之，起南京刑部尚書。復以工部尚書召。未上，卒。贈太子太保，謚肅敏。德新，安福人，後起官至光祿丞。

Zixiu's rise had never been the cabinet's wish, and they would not tolerate him. After some time he was recalled as minister of justice in Nanjing. He was again summoned to serve as minister of works. Before he could take up the post, he died. He was posthumously made grand guardian of the heir apparent and given the posthumous name Su Min. Dexin was a native of Anfu; he later rose to vice director of the Court of Imperial Entertainments.

溫純，字景文，三原人。嘉靖四十四年進士。由壽光知縣征為戶科給事中。隆慶三年，穆宗既禫除，猶不與大臣接。純請遵祖制延訪群工，親決章奏，報聞。屢遷兵科都給事中。倭陷廣東廣海衛，大殺掠而去。總兵劉燾以戰卻聞，純劾燾欺罔。時方召燾督京營，遂置不問。黔國公沐朝弼有罪，詔許其子襲爵。純言事未竟，不當遽襲。中官陳洪請封其父母，純執不可。言官李已、石星獲譴，疏救之。初，趙貞吉更營制，三營各統一大將。以恭順侯吳繼爵典五軍，而都督袁正、焦澤典神樞、神機。繼爵恥與同列，固辭。帝為罷二人，盡易以勛臣。純請廣求將才，毋拘世爵，不納。已，復命文臣三人分督之，時號「六提督」。純以政令多門，極陳不便，遂復舊制。俺答請貢市，高拱定議許之。純以為弛邊備，非中國利。出為湖廣參政，引疾歸。

Wen Chun, styled Jingwen, was a native of Sanyuan. He passed the jinshi examination in Jiajing 44. From his post as magistrate of Shouguang he was summoned to serve as a supervising secretary in the Household section. In Longqing 3, though Emperor Muzong had completed the end of mourning, he still would not receive the chief ministers. Chun urged that ancestral precedent be followed—officials summoned for consultation, memorials decided in person—and the court acknowledged his request. He was repeatedly promoted until he became chief supervising secretary of the Military section. Wokou took Guangdong's Guanghai Guard, slaughtered and plundered on a great scale, and withdrew. Regional commander Liu Tao reported that he had fought the raiders off; Chun impeached him for deception. Liu Tao was then being summoned to command the capital garrison, so the matter was set aside without inquiry. The Duke of Qian, Mu Chaobi, had been found guilty, yet an edict permitted his son to inherit the title. Chun argued that the case was still unresolved and the succession should not be rushed. The eunuch Chen Hong petitioned to have his parents ennobled; Chun held firm that it could not be allowed. When the remonstrating officials Li Yi and Shi Xing were punished, he memorialized to save them. At first Zhao Zhenji reformed the garrison system so that each of the three camps would answer to one great general. The Marquis of Gongshun, Wu Jijue, was placed in charge of the Five Armies, while commanders-in-chief Yuan Zheng and Jiao Ze took the Divine Pivot and Divine Engine corps. Jijue was ashamed to serve as an equal and firmly declined. For his sake the emperor dismissed the two men and replaced them entirely with meritorious nobles. Chun urged a broad search for military talent without limiting appointments to hereditary titles; the court did not accept it. Later three civil officials were again ordered to share command with them, and the six were known at the time as "the six grand coordinators." Chun argued that authority was split too many ways and spoke at length on the harm this caused, and the old system was restored. Altan Khan requested tribute trade, and Gao Gong settled policy to permit it. Chun held that this would slacken frontier defenses and was not to China's advantage. He was sent out as administration vice commissioner of Huguang and pleaded illness to return home.

萬歷初，用薦起河南參議。十二年，以大理卿改兵部右侍郎兼右副都御史，巡撫浙江。入為戶部左侍郎，進右副都御史，督倉場。母憂去。進南京吏部尚書。召拜工部尚書。父老，乞養歸。終喪，召為左都御史。

At the start of the Wanli reign, on recommendation he was recalled as administration commissioner of Henan. In Wanli 12 he moved from president of the Court of Judicial Review to vice minister of war and right vice censor-in-chief, with charge as grand coordinator of Zhejiang. He entered the capital as left vice minister of revenue, was advanced to right vice censor-in-chief, and supervised the granaries. He left office to mourn his mother. He was promoted to minister of personnel in Nanjing. He was summoned and appointed minister of works. His father was old; he asked leave to care for him and returned home. When mourning ended, he was summoned to serve as left censor-in-chief.

礦稅使四出，有司逮系累累，純極論其害，請盡釋之，不報。已，諸閹益橫，所至剽奪，汙人婦女。四方無賴奸人蜂起言利：有請開雲南塞外寶井者；或又言海外呂宋國有機易山，素產金銀，歲可得金十萬、銀三十萬；或言淮、揚饒鹽利，用其筴，歲可得銀五十萬。帝並欣然納之，遠近駭震。純言：「緬人方伺隙，寶井一開，兵端必起。余元俊一鹽犯，數千贓不能輸，而欲得五十萬金，將安取之？機易山在海外，必無遍地金銀，任人往取；不過假借詔旨，闌出禁物與番人市易，利歸群小，害貽國家。乞盡捕諸奸人，付臣等行法，而亟撤稅監之害民者。」亦不報。當是時，中外爭請罷礦稅，帝悉置不省。純等憂懼不知所出，乃倡諸大臣伏闕泣請。帝震怒，問誰倡者，對曰：「都御史臣純。」帝為霽威，遣人慰諭曰：「疏且下。」乃退。已而卒不行。廣東李鳳、陜西梁永、雲南楊榮並以礦稅激民變，純又抗言：「稅使竊弄陛下威福以十計，參隨憑藉稅使聲勢以百計，地方奸民竄身為參隨爪牙以萬計。宇內生靈困於水旱，困於采辦、營運、轉輸，既囂然喪其樂生之心，安能復勝此千萬虎狼耶！願即日罷礦稅，逮鳳等置於理。」亦不報。

Mining-tax envoys fanned out in all directions, and local officials arrested people in droves; Chun spoke at length on the harm and asked that all be released—there was no response. Before long the eunuchs grew more overbearing still; wherever they went they plundered and violated women. Scoundrels from every quarter swarmed forward with schemes for profit: some petitioned to open the treasure mines beyond Yunnan's frontier passes; others spoke of Mount Jiyi in Luzon overseas, said always to produce gold and silver and to yield one hundred thousand taels of gold and three hundred thousand taels of silver each year; others spoke of the rich salt profits of Huai and Yang, saying that by their plan five hundred thousand taels of silver could be obtained each year. The emperor gladly accepted them all, and alarm spread near and far. Chun said, "The Burmese are watching for an opening; once the treasure mines are opened, war will surely follow. Yu Yuanjun is nothing but a salt smuggler who cannot even pay off several thousand in illicit gains—yet he wants five hundred thousand taels; where does he expect to get them? Mount Jiyi lies overseas; there cannot be gold and silver spread across the land for anyone to take at will; this is nothing but a pretext to smuggle contraband out under imperial orders and trade with foreigners—the profit goes to petty men, the harm falls on the state. I beg that all these villains be arrested and handed to us for punishment, and that the tax supervisors harming the people be swiftly withdrawn. Again there was no response. At that time court and country alike clamored to abolish mining taxes, and the emperor ignored them all. Chun and the others, anxious and at their wits' end, then proposed that the chief ministers kneel weeping at the palace gate to petition. The emperor was furious and asked who had proposed it; they answered, "Left Censor-in-Chief, your subject Chun. The emperor's rage softened; he sent someone to comfort them, saying, "The memorial will soon be issued. They then withdrew. In the end it was never carried out. Li Feng of Guangdong, Liang Yong of Shaanxi, and Yang Rong of Yunnan all stirred popular rebellion through mining taxes; Chun again spoke boldly: "Tax envoys who usurp Your Majesty's authority number in the tens; attendants who rely on the tax envoys' power number in the hundreds; local scoundrels who attach themselves as the attendants' claws and teeth number in the tens of thousands. All living souls within the realm are already afflicted by flood and drought, by procurement, transport operations, and relay duties—they have lost the will to live in uproar; how can they again withstand these millions of wolves and tigers! I pray that mining taxes be abolished this very day and that Feng and the others be arrested and brought to justice. Again there was no response.

先是，御史顧龍楨巡按廣東，與布政使王泮語不合，起毆之，泮即棄官去。純劾罷龍楨。御史於永清按陜西貪，懼純舉奏，倡同列救龍楨，顯與純異，以脅制純，又與都給事中姚文蔚比而傾純。純不勝憤，上疏盡發永清交構狀，並及文蔚，語頗侵首輔沈一貫。一貫等疏辨。帝為下永清、文蔚二疏，而純劾疏留不下。純益憤，三疏論之，因力丐罷，乃謫永清。純遂與一貫忤。給事中陳治則、鐘兆鬥皆一貫私人，先後劾純。御史湯兆京不平，疏斥其妄。純求去，章二十上，杜門者九閱月。帝雅重純，諭留之。純不得已，強起視事。及妖書事起，力為沈鯉、郭正域辨誣。楚宗人戕殺撫臣，純復言無反狀。一貫怨益深。三十二年，大計京朝官。純與吏部侍郎楊時喬主之，一貫所欲庇者兆鬥及錢夢臯等皆在謫中。疏入久之，忽降旨切責，盡留被察科道官，而察疏仍不下。純求去益力。夢臯、兆鬥既得留，則連章訐純楚事。言純曲庇叛人，且誣以納賄。廷臣大駭，爭劾夢臯等。夢臯等亦再疏劾純求勝。俱留中。已，南京給事中陳嘉訓等極論二人陰有所恃，朋比作奸，當亟斥之，而聽純歸，以全大臣之體。帝竟批夢臯等前疏，予純致仕，夢臯、兆鬥亦罷歸。

Earlier, censor Gu Longzhen, on inspection tour in Guangdong, quarreled with administration commissioner Wang Pan, rose and beat him, and Pan immediately abandoned his post and left. Chun impeached him and had Longzhen dismissed. Censor Yu Yongqing, inspecting Shaanxi and corrupt, feared Chun would impeach him; he incited his colleagues to save Longzhen, openly siding against Chun to intimidate him, and also joined with chief supervising secretary Yao Wenwei to undermine Chun. Chun, unable to contain his anger, memorialized exposing Yongqing's manipulations in full and also implicating Wenwei; his language somewhat encroached on chief grand secretary Shen Yiguan. Yiguan and others memorialized in defense. The emperor issued the memorials from Yongqing and Wenwei, but kept Chun's impeachment memorial withheld. Chun grew angrier still; he submitted three memorials debating the matter and forcefully pleaded to be dismissed, and only then was Yongqing demoted. Chun thus came into open conflict with Yiguan. Supervising secretaries Chen Zheze and Zhong Zhaodou, both Yiguan's men, impeached Chun in succession. Censor Tang Zhaojing, taking offense, memorialized denouncing them as reckless. Chun sought to leave; he submitted twenty memorials and shut his doors for nine months. The emperor had long held Chun in esteem and ordered him to remain. Chun had no choice but to force himself to rise and resume his duties. When the "demonic book" affair arose, he vigorously defended Shen Li and Guo Zhengyu against false charges. When a clansman of Chu killed the grand coordinator, Chun again argued that there was no sign of rebellion. Yiguan's resentment grew deeper still. In Wanli 32 the grand evaluation of capital officials was held. Chun and vice minister of personnel Yang Shiqiao presided; those Yiguan wished to protect—Zhong Zhaodou and Qian Menggao among others—were all listed for censure. Long after the memorial entered, an edict suddenly descended with sharp rebuke, retaining all the censured remonstrating officials, while the evaluation memorial still was not issued. Chun pleaded to leave with greater force. Menggao and Zhaodou, having been retained, then submitted successive memorials attacking Chun over the Chu affair. They said Chun had bent the law to protect a rebel and further slandered him with taking bribes. Court officials were greatly alarmed and competed to impeach Menggao and the others. Menggao and the others also submitted further memorials impeaching Chun, seeking to prevail. All were kept withheld. Before long, supervising secretaries in Nanjing including Chen Jiaxun argued forcefully that the two had secret backing, formed factions to do evil, and should be swiftly expelled, while Chun should be allowed to return home to preserve the dignity owed a grand minister. The emperor finally endorsed the earlier memorials of Menggao and the others, granted Chun retirement, and Menggao and Zhaodou were also dismissed and sent home.

純清白奉公。五主南北考察，澄汰悉當。肅百僚，振風紀，時稱名臣。卒，贈少保。天啟初，追謚恭毅。

Chun served the public with integrity. Five times he presided over evaluations north and south, and his clearings and dismissals were all apt. He disciplined the hundred officials and restored discipline, and was acclaimed at the time as a great minister. When he died, he was posthumously granted the title of Junior Guardian. At the opening of the Tianqi reign, he was posthumously ennobled with the epithet Gongyi, "Respectful and Resolute."

趙世卿，字象賢，歷城人。隆慶五年進士。授南京兵部主事。張居正當國，政尚嚴。州縣學取士不得過十五人；布按二司以下官，雖公事毋許乘驛馬；大辟之刑，歲有定額；征賦以九分為率，有司不及格者罰；又數重譴言事者。世卿奏匡時五要。請廣取士之額，寬驛傳之禁，省大辟，緩催科，而末極論言路當開，言：「近者臺諫習為脂韋，以希世取寵。事關軍國，卷舌無聲。徒摭不急之務，姑塞言責。延及數年，居然高踞卿貳，誇耀士林矣。然此諸人豈盡矩詬無節，忍負陛下哉，亦有所懲而不敢耳。如往歲傅應禎、艾穆、沈思孝、鄒元標皆以建言遠竄，至今與戍卒伍。此中才之士，所以內自顧恤，寧自同於寒蟬也。宜特發德音，放還諸人，使天下曉然知聖天子無惡直言之意，則士皆慕義輸誠，效忠於陛下矣。」居正欲重罪之。吏部尚書王國光曰：「罪之適成其名，請為公任怨。」遂出為楚府右長史。明年京察，復坐以不謹，落職歸。

Zhao Shiqing, styled Xiangxian, was from Licheng. He passed the jinshi examination in the fifth year of the Longqing reign. He was appointed a principal clerk in the Nanjing Ministry of War. When Zhang Juzheng dominated the government, policy favored strictness. Prefectural and county schools were limited to selecting no more than fifteen scholars; Officials below the rank of provincial administration and surveillance commissioners were barred from using relay horses even on official business; The death penalty was subject to a fixed annual quota; Tax collection was held to a nine-tenths rate, and local officials who failed to meet it were penalized; He also repeatedly meted out heavy punishment to memorialists. Shiqing submitted a memorial outlining five essentials for setting the age right. He asked that scholar quotas be expanded, relay-horse restrictions relaxed, capital sentences reduced, and tax collection slowed; he ended with a lengthy argument that the avenue of speech must be reopened, declaring: "Recently, censorate and remonstrance officials have fallen into the habit of oleaginous flattery, currying favor to win the throne's regard. When matters touched army and state, they bit their tongues and held their peace. They merely seized on trifling matters as a token fulfillment of their duty to remonstrate. After several years of this, they could still occupy high vice-ministerial posts and parade their standing before the scholarly world. Yet were these men wholly without principle, willing to betray Your Majesty? No—they had been chastened and did not dare speak out. In years past, Fu Yingzhen, Ai Mu, Shen Sixiao, and Zou Yuanbiao had all been banished to distant posts for their memorials, and to this day they remain among the ranks of exiled garrison troops. That is why talented men at court looked to their own safety and would rather remain silent as cicadas in winter. Your Majesty should issue a special gracious decree recalling these men, so that all under heaven clearly knows the Son of Heaven bears no ill will toward candid speech—then scholars everywhere will be drawn to serve in earnest loyalty to Your Majesty." Zhang Juzheng wished to punish him severely. Minister of Personnel Wang Guoguang said: "Punishing him would only enhance his reputation—let me bear the blame on your behalf." He was thereupon transferred out to serve as Right Administrator of the Chu princely establishment. The following year, in the capital evaluation of officials, he was again found remiss in duty and dismissed to return home.

居正死，起戶部郎中，出為陜西副使。累遷戶部右侍郎，督理倉場。世卿饒心計。凡所條奏，酌劑贏縮，軍國賴焉。戶部尚書陳有疾，侍郎張養蒙避不署事，帝怒，並罷之，而進世卿為尚書。時礦稅使四出為害，江西稅監潘相至擅捕系宗室。曩時關稅所入歲四十余萬，自為稅使所奪，商賈不行，數年間減三之一，四方雜課亦如之。歲入益寡，國用不支，邊儲告匱，而內供日繁。歲增金花銀二十萬，宮帑日充羨。世卿請復金花銀百萬故額，罷續增數，不許。乞發內庫銀百萬及太仆馬價五十萬以濟邊儲，復忤旨切責。世卿又請正潘相罪，且偕九卿數陳其害，皆不納。世卿復言脂膏已竭，閭井蕭然，喪亂可虞，揭竿非遠，不及今罷之，恐後將無及。帝亦不省。

After Zhang Juzheng's death, he was reinstated as a director in the Ministry of Revenue and sent out as vice commissioner in Shaanxi. He rose through successive promotions to Right Vice Minister of Revenue, with responsibility for overseeing the capital granary depot. Shiqing was a skilled financial planner. In every policy he proposed, he carefully balanced revenues and expenditures, and both military and civil affairs depended on his judgment. When Revenue Minister Chen fell ill and Vice Minister Zhang Yangmeng shirked his duties, the emperor's wrath fell on them both—they were dismissed, and Shiqing was promoted to minister. At the time, mining-tax commissioners were spreading harm in every direction; the Jiangxi tax supervisor Pan Xiang went so far as to arrest and imprison members of the imperial clan on his own authority. Customs revenues had once brought in more than four hundred thousand taels annually; once the tax commissioners got their hands on them, commerce dried up, and within a few years revenue fell by a third; miscellaneous levies across the empire followed the same pattern. Annual revenues dwindled ever further; the state treasury could not make ends meet; frontier stores were exhausted—while the palace's internal expenditures grew daily more extravagant. The palace treasury received an additional two hundred thousand taels of patterned silver each year, and daily grew ever more flush. Shiqing asked that the original quota of one million taels of patterned silver be restored and the continued increases abolished; the request was denied. He pleaded for one million taels from the inner treasury plus five hundred thousand taels of horse funds from the Court of the Imperial Stud to replenish frontier stores—again defying the emperor's intent, he was sharply rebuked. Shiqing again urged that Pan Xiang be punished according to law, and joined the Nine Ministers in repeatedly cataloguing the damage wrought by the tax commissioners—all to no avail. Shiqing warned again that the people's substance was utterly drained, neighborhoods lay desolate, rebellion loomed on the horizon, and armed uprising was not far away—if the mining taxes were not abolished now, it might soon be too late. The emperor paid no heed.

三十二年，蘇、松稅監劉成以水災請暫停米稅。帝以歲額六萬，米稅居半，不當盡停，今以四萬為額。世卿上言：「鄉者既免米稅，旋復再征，已失大信於天下。今成欲免稅額之半，而陛下不盡從，豈惻隱一念，貂榼尚存，而陛下反漠然不動心乎？」不報。

In the thirty-second year of Wanli, Liu Cheng, the tax commissioner for Suzhou and Songjiang, requested a temporary suspension of the rice tax owing to flood damage. The emperor held that since the annual quota was sixty thousand taels and the rice tax accounted for half, a full suspension was unwarranted; he ordered that forty thousand taels remain as the quota. Shiqing memorialized: "Not long ago the rice tax was exempted, only to be levied again shortly afterward—we have already forfeited the empire's trust. Now Cheng asks to halve the tax quota, yet Your Majesty will not fully consent—does Your Majesty's compassionate impulse truly survive only in Liu Cheng's fur cap and purse, while Your Majesty himself remains utterly unmoved?" The emperor made no reply.

其夏，雷火毀祖陵明樓，妖蟲蝕樹，又大雨壞神道橋梁。帝下詔咨實政。世卿上疏曰：

That summer, lightning set fire to the Bright Tower of the ancestral tombs; strange insects gnawed at the trees; torrential rains wrecked the bridges along the spirit way. The emperor issued an edict soliciting proposals for concrete reforms. Shiqing submitted a memorial stating:

今日實政，孰有切於罷礦稅者！古明主不貴異物，今也聚悖入之財，斂蒼生之怨，節儉之謂何？是為君德計，不可不罷者一。多取所以招尤，慢藏必將誨盜。鹿臺、鉅橋，足致倒戈之禍。是為宗社計，不可不罷者二。古者國家無事則預桑土之謀，有事則議金湯之策。安有鑿四海之山，榷三家之市，操弓挾矢，戕及良民，毀室逾垣，禍延雞犬，經十數年而不休者！是為國體計，不可不罷者三。貂榼漁獵，翼虎咆哮。毀掘冢墓，則枯骨蒙殃，奸虐子女，而良家飲恨。人與為怨，讙噪屢聞，此而不已，後將何極！是為民困計，不可不罷者四。國家財賦不在民則在官，今盡括入奸人之室。故督逋租而逋租絀，稽關稅而關稅虧，搜庫藏而庫藏絕，課鹽策而鹽策薄，征贖鍰而贖鍰消。外府一空，司農若埽。是為國課計，不可不罷者五。天子之令，信如四時。三載前嘗曰「朕心仁愛，自有停止之時」，今年復一年，更待何日？天子有戲言，王命委草莽。是為詔令計，不可不罷者六。

Of all the reforms needed today, what could be more urgent than abolishing the mining taxes! Enlightened rulers of antiquity did not prize exotic luxuries—yet now the throne amasses ill-gotten wealth and harvests the people's resentment. Where is the frugality in that? For the sake of Your Majesty's moral standing, this is the first reason the mining taxes must be abolished. Excessive extraction invites reproach; careless hoarding inevitably teaches thieves. The Lutai Granary and Jubridge sufficed to bring down rulers by the swords of their own troops. For the sake of the altars of state, this is the second reason they must go. In antiquity, when the realm was at peace the state attended to mulberry planting and flood control; when crisis came, it debated strategies of defense. What kingdom drills mines across the four seas, monopolizes every marketplace, sends armed men against innocent civilians, tears down houses and scales walls, spreads havoc even to barnyard fowl, and carries on thus for more than a decade without end! For the dignity of the state, this is the third reason they must be abolished. The tax commissioners plundered like predators afield; backed by imperial authority, they roared like winged tigers. They desecrated graves, bringing calamity even upon the dead; they violated women, leaving honorable families to choke on bitter rage. The people seethed with resentment; outcries were heard again and again—if this continues unchecked, where will it end! For the sake of the people's suffering, this is the fourth reason they must be abolished. The state's revenues belong either to the people or to the government—yet now they have all been scraped into the coffers of corrupt agents. Arrearage collection yielded fewer arrears; customs audits produced shrinking customs revenue; treasury searches left treasuries bare; salt levies grew ever thinner; fine collection dried up the fines themselves. The outer treasuries stood utterly empty; the Ministry of Revenue was swept clean. For the sake of the national revenue, this is the fifth reason they must be abolished. An emperor's word should be as dependable as the seasons. Three years ago Your Majesty declared, "My heart is compassionate; there will come a time to end this"—yet another year has passed; how much longer must we wait? When an emperor's words are idle jest, his decrees are discarded like trash. For the sake of imperial credibility, this is the sixth reason they must be abolished.

陛下試思：服食宮室，以至營造征討，上何事不取之民，民何事不供之上？嗟此赤子，曾無負於國，乃民方歡呼以供九重之欲，而陛下不少遂其欲；民方奔走以供九重之勞，而陛下不少慰其勞；民方竭蹶以赴九重之難，而陛下不少恤其難。返之於心，必有不自安者矣。陛下勿謂蠢蠢小民可駕馭自我，生殺自我，而不足介意也。民之心既天之心，今天譴頻仍，雷火妖蟲，淫雨疊至，變不虛生，其應非遠。故今日欲回天意在恤民心，欲恤民心在罷礦稅，無煩再計而決者。

Consider, Your Majesty: from food and clothing and palace maintenance to construction projects and military campaigns—what does the throne not take from the people, and what do the people not supply to the throne? Alas for these innocent common folk, who have never wronged the state—the people strain willingly to satisfy the palace's every desire, yet Your Majesty will not grant them the least satisfaction in return; the people toil eagerly to bear the palace's burdens, yet Your Majesty offers them no comfort for their labors; the people exhaust themselves in hardship on the throne's behalf, yet Your Majesty shows them no compassion for their suffering. Turned inward upon the heart, there must be discomfort. Your Majesty must not suppose that these humble commoners can be driven at will, that their lives and deaths are entirely in your hands, and that they are beneath notice. The hearts of the people are the heart of Heaven—and Heaven's reproaches now come thick and fast: thunder and fire, strange insects, torrents of rain one upon another. Omens are not sent without cause; retribution cannot be far off. To win back Heaven's favor today, Your Majesty must comfort the people's hearts—and to comfort the people's hearts, you must abolish the mining taxes. The decision requires no further deliberation.

帝優答之，而不行。至三十四年三月，始詔罷礦使，稅亦稍減。然遼東、雲南、四川稅使自若，吏民尤苦之。雲南遂變作，楊榮被戕。而西北水旱時時見告，世卿屢請減租發振，國用益不支。逾月復奏請捐內帑百萬佐軍用，不從。世卿遂連章求去，至十五上，竟不許。先是，福王將婚，進部帑二十七萬，帝猶以為少，數遣中使趣之。中使出誶語，且劾世卿抗命。世卿以為辱國，疏聞於朝，帝置不問。至三十六年，七公主下嫁，宣索至數十萬。世卿引故事力爭，詔減三之一。世卿復言：「陛下大婚止七萬，長公主下嫁止十二萬，乞陛下再裁損，一仿長公主例。」帝不得已從之。福王新出府第，設崇文稅店，爭民利，世卿亦諫阻。

The emperor responded with gracious words but took no action. Not until the third month of the thirty-fourth year did he issue a decree abolishing the mining commissioners; taxes were also somewhat reduced. Yet in Liaodong, Yunnan, and Sichuan the tax commissioners remained in place, and officials and commoners suffered all the more. Yunnan then broke into rebellion, and Yang Rong was killed. Meanwhile the northwest suffered repeated reports of flood and drought; Shiqing repeatedly pleaded for rent reductions and famine relief—but state finances grew ever tighter. A month later he again memorialized asking that one million taels from the inner treasury be contributed toward military expenses; the request was denied. Shiqing then submitted memorial after memorial requesting retirement—fifteen in all—yet each was denied. Earlier, when the Prince of Fu's wedding was being arranged, the ministry contributed two hundred seventy thousand taels—but the emperor still considered it insufficient and repeatedly sent eunuchs to demand more. The eunuchs uttered insults and even impeached Shiqing for defying orders. Shiqing regarded this as a national disgrace and memorialized the court; the emperor ignored it. By the thirty-sixth year, when the seventh princess was given in marriage, the palace demanded several hundred thousand taels. Shiqing cited precedent and argued forcefully; an edict cut the sum by one-third. Shiqing pressed further: "Your Majesty's own grand wedding cost only seventy thousand taels, and the eldest princess's dowry totaled only one hundred twenty thousand—I beg Your Majesty to cut the sum again, following the eldest princess's precedent." The emperor, having no choice, acceded. When the Prince of Fu newly established his household outside the palace, he opened a Chongwen tax shop to compete with commoners for profit—Shiqing remonstrated against this as well.

世卿素勵清操，當官盡職。帝雅重之。吏部缺尚書，嘗使兼署，推舉無所私。惟楚宗人與王相訐，世卿力言王非偽，與沈一貫議合。李廷機輔政，世卿力推之。廷臣遂疑世卿黨比。於是給事中杜士全、鄧去霄、何士晉、胡忻，御史蘇為霖、馬孟禎等先後劾之，世卿遂杜門乞去。章復十余上，不報。三十八年秋，世卿乃拜疏出城候命。明年十月，乘柴車徑去。廷臣以聞，帝亦不罪也。家居七年卒，贈太子少保。

Shiqing had long cultivated personal integrity and fulfilled his duties conscientiously in office. The emperor held him in high esteem. When the Ministry of Personnel lacked a minister, the emperor often had him serve in that capacity as well; in personnel recommendations he showed no partiality. Only in the affair where Chu clansmen and the prince traded accusations did Shiqing insist forcefully that the prince was genuine, aligning with Shen Yiguan's position. When Li Tingji served as grand secretary, Shiqing vigorously supported his appointment. Court officials then suspected Shiqing of factional allegiance. Thereupon supervising secretaries Du Shiquan, Deng Quxiao, He Shijin, and Hu Xin, along with censors Su Weilin and Ma Mengzhen, impeached him in succession; Shiqing then shut his doors and petitioned for retirement. He submitted more than ten further memorials—all without response. In the autumn of the thirty-eighth year, Shiqing formally submitted his memorial and left the capital to await the emperor's reply. The following October, he departed directly in a humble ox cart. The court officials reported the matter, but the Emperor did not punish him. He lived in retirement for seven years and then died; he was posthumously granted the title Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince.

李汝華，字茂夫，睢州人。萬歷八年進士。授兗州推官。征授工科給事中，嘗劾戎政尚書鄭洛不職。及出閱甘肅邊務，洛方經略西事，主和戎。汝華疏洛畏敵貽患，且劾諸將吏侵軍資，復請盡墾甘肅閑田。還朝，歷吏科都給事中，多所糾擿。

Li Ruhua, whose style name was Maofu, came from Suizhou. He passed the jinshi examination in the eighth year of Wanli. He was appointed investigating magistrate of Yanzhou. When summoned to the capital he was appointed a supervising secretary in the Ministry of Works, and once impeached Zheng Luo, Minister of Military Administration, for neglect of duty. When he was sent to inspect border affairs in Gansu, Zheng Luo was then directing western frontier policy and advocating appeasement of the frontier tribes. Li Ruhua memorialized that Zheng Luo's fear of the enemy would invite lasting harm, impeached various commanders and officials for embezzling military funds, and also petitioned for the full reclamation of unused farmland in Gansu. After returning to court he rose to Chief Supervising Secretary of the Secretariat section, where he frequently impeached and exposed officials.

尋遷太常少卿，擢右僉都御史，巡撫南、贛。稅使四出，議括關津諸稅輸內府。汝華以稅本餉軍，力爭止之。既而詔四方稅務盡領於有司，以其半輸稅監，進內府，半輸戶部。獨江西潘相勒有司悉由己輸。汝華極論相違詔，帝竟如相議，且推行之四方。

He was soon transferred to Vice Minister of Ceremonies, promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, and appointed Grand Coordinator of Nan and Gan. Tax commissioners were dispatched throughout the empire, and there was a proposal to collect customs duties at checkpoints and ferry stations and turn them over to the inner palace treasury. Li Ruhua argued forcefully that tax revenues were meant to provision the army and pressed to stop the scheme. Soon an edict ordered that tax administration throughout the empire be placed under local civil officials, with half the revenue remitted to the tax commissioners for the inner palace and half to the Ministry of Revenue. Only in Jiangxi did the tax commissioner Pan Xiang pressure local officials to remit all revenues through him alone. Li Ruhua argued strenuously that Pan Xiang was defying the edict, but the Emperor ultimately adopted Pan's arrangement and extended it throughout the empire.

汝華在贛十四年，威惠甚著，進秩兵部右侍郎，召拜戶部左侍郎。尚書趙世卿去位，遂掌部事。福王莊田四萬頃，詔旨屢趣，不能及額。汝華數偕廷臣執爭，僅減四之一。及王既之國，詔許自遣使督租，所在驛騷。內使閻時詣汝州，杖二人死。汝華請遵祖制隸有司，盡撤還使者，不納。畿輔、山東大饑，因汝華言，出倉米平糶，且發銀以振。汝華復奏行救荒數事，兩地賴之。先是，山東饑，蠲歲賦七十萬。是年盡蠲又百七十余萬。汝華以邊餉不繼，請天下稅課未入內藏者，暫留一年補其缺，輔臣亦助為言。疏三上，不報。已，進尚書。

Li Ruhua served fourteen years in Ganzhou, winning great renown through his authority and benevolence; he was promoted to Right Vice Minister of War and then summoned to serve as Left Vice Minister of Revenue. When Minister Zhao Shiqing left office, Li Ruhua took charge of the ministry. Imperial edicts repeatedly pressed for the allocation of forty thousand qing of estate land to the Prince of Fu, but the quota could not be met. Li Ruhua joined other court officials in repeated adamant protests, securing only a reduction of one quarter. After the prince had departed for his fief, an edict allowed him to dispatch his own agents to collect rents, throwing post stations everywhere into uproar. The eunuch Yan Shi went to Ruzhou and beat two men to death. Li Ruhua petitioned that princely rent collection be placed under civil officials as ancestral law prescribed and that all rent-collecting agents be withdrawn, but his proposal was rejected. When the capital region and Shandong suffered severe famine, at Li Ruhua's urging the government released grain from state granaries for sale at fair prices and disbursed silver for relief. Li Ruhua further memorialized implementing several famine-relief measures, on which both regions depended. Earlier, when Shandong had suffered famine, annual land taxes totaling seven hundred thousand taels had been remitted. That year full remissions amounted to more than 1.7 million taels in addition. With frontier military pay falling short, Li Ruhua requested that tax revenues not yet transferred to the inner palace treasury be held for one year to make up the shortfall; senior ministers also spoke in support. He submitted the memorial three times without receiving a reply. He was shortly thereafter promoted to Minister of Revenue.

四十六年，鄭繼之去，兼攝吏部事。畿輔、陜西大饑，汝華請振，皆不報。遼東兵事興，驟增餉三百萬。汝華累請發內帑不得，則借支南京部帑，括天下庫藏余積，征宿逋，裁工食，開事例。而遼東巡撫周永春請益兵加賦，汝華議：天下田賦，自貴州外，畝增銀三厘五毫，得餉二百萬。明年，復議益兵增賦如前。又明年四月，兵部以募兵市馬，工部以制器，再議增賦。於是畝增二厘，為銀百二十萬。先後三增賦，凡五百二十萬有奇，遂為歲額。當是時，內帑山積，廷臣請發，率不應。計臣無如何，遂為一切茍且之計，苛斂百姓。而樞臣征兵，乃遠及蠻方，致奢崇明、安邦彥相繼反，用師連年。又割四川、雲南、廣西、湖廣、廣東所加之賦以餉之，而遼餉仍不充，天下已不可支矣。

In the forty-sixth year of Wanli, when Zheng Jizhi left office, Li Ruhua also took charge of the Ministry of Personnel. When the capital region and Shaanxi again suffered severe famine, Li Ruhua petitioned for relief but received no response. With war breaking out in Liaodong, military pay was suddenly increased by three million taels. Li Ruhua repeatedly petitioned for disbursements from the inner palace treasury without success; he then drew advances from the Nanjing ministry treasury, swept up surplus reserves from treasuries across the empire, collected long-standing arrears, cut workers' rations, and opened offices selling official titles and privileges. When Liaodong Grand Coordinator Zhou Yongchun requested more troops and higher taxes, Li Ruhua proposed adding three li five hao of silver per mu to land taxes empire-wide except Guizhou, raising two million taels in military pay. The following year the same proposal for more troops and higher taxes was debated again. In April of the year after that, the Ministry of War sought funds to recruit troops and purchase horses and the Ministry of Works to manufacture weapons, and tax increases were debated once more. A further two li per mu was added, yielding 1.2 million taels. Three tax increases in succession totaled a little more than 5.2 million taels, which then became the permanent annual levy. At that time the inner palace treasury overflowed with accumulated wealth, yet when court officials petitioned for disbursements, the Emperor almost never agreed. The Minister of Revenue could do nothing else and resorted to every stopgap measure, squeezing harsh levies from the people. Meanwhile the chief minister's conscription drives reached deep into the frontier, provoking She Chongming and An Bangyan to rebel in succession and keeping armies in the field year after year. Revenues from the tax increases in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Huguang, and Guangdong were diverted to feed these campaigns, yet Liaodong military pay remained insufficient and the empire could no longer bear the burden.

汝華練達勤敏，立朝無黨阿。官戶部久，於國計贏縮，邊儲虛實，與鹽漕屯牧諸大政，皆殫心裁劑。歲比不登，意常主寬恤，獨加賦之議不能力持，馴致萬方虛耗，內外交訌。天啟元年得疾乞休，加太子太保致仕。卒，謚恭敏。從子夢辰，自有傳。

Li Ruhua was seasoned, diligent, and capable, and stood above factional flattery at court. During his long tenure at the Ministry of Revenue he devoted himself fully to fiscal surplus and deficit, the strength of frontier granaries, and major policies governing the salt monopoly, grain transport, and garrison agriculture. When harvests failed year after year he consistently favored relief and leniency, but he could not hold firm against the tax-increase proposals, and gradually the realm was drained dry and beset by turmoil within and without. In the first year of the Tianqi reign he fell ill and petitioned to retire; he was granted the title Senior Tutor of the Crown Prince and allowed to resign. He died and was given the posthumous name Gongmin, "Respectful and Diligent." His nephew Li Mengchen has a separate biography.

贊曰：古稱文昌政本，七卿之任，蓋其重矣。萬士和諸人奉職勤慮，異夫依阿保位之流；劉應節、王遴、舒化、李世達尤其卓然者哉。李汝華司邦計，值兵興餉絀，請帑不應，乃不能以去就爭，而權宜取濟，遂與裒刻聚斂者同譏。時事至此，其可嘆也夫！

Appraisal: The ancients called civil administration the foundation of government; the responsibilities borne by the Seven Ministers were indeed weighty. Wan Shihe and his colleagues served with conscientious diligence, unlike those who clung to office through sycophantic compliance; Liu Yingjie, Wang Lin, Shu Hua, and Li Shida were especially outstanding among them. Li Ruhua managed the national finances at a time when war had broken out and military funds ran short; his petitions for treasury disbursements went unanswered, and unable to stake his career on the issue, he turned to expedients that left him condemned alongside the harsh tax collectors. That matters had come to such a pass—how lamentable!

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