Volume 244 Biographies 132: Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong, Zhou Chaorui, Yuan Huazhong, Gu Dazhang, Wang Zhicai

杨涟，字文孺，应山人。为人磊落负奇节。万历三十五年成进士，除常熟知县。举廉吏第一，擢户科给事中，转兵科右给事中。

Yang Lian, courtesy name Wenru, came from Yingshan. He was open-hearted and upright, possessed of uncommon moral resolve. He received his jinshi degree in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign and was appointed magistrate of Changshu. Rated the foremost incorrupt official, he was promoted to supervising secretary in the Household Section and later transferred to right supervising secretary in the Military Section.

四十八年，神宗疾，不食且半月，皇太子未得见。涟偕诸给事、御史走谒大学士方从哲，御史左光斗趣从哲问安。从哲曰：“帝讳疾。即问左右，不敢传。 ”涟曰：“昔文潞公问宋仁宗疾，内侍不肯言。潞公曰：‘天子起居，汝曹不令宰相知，将毋有他志，速下中书行法。 ’公诚日三问，不必见，亦不必上知，第令宫中知廷臣在，事自济。公更当宿阁中。 ”曰：“无故事。 ”涟曰：“潞公不诃史志聪，此何时，尚问故事耶？ ”越二日，从哲始率廷臣入问。及帝疾亟，太子尚踌躇宫门外。涟、光斗遣人语东宫伴读王安：“帝疾甚，不召太子，非帝意。当力请入侍，尝药视膳，薄暮始还。 ”太子深纳之。

In the forty-eighth year of the reign, the Shenzong Emperor fell ill. For nearly half a month he took no food, and the crown prince was not allowed to see him. Lian went with other supervising secretaries and censors to call on Grand Secretary Fang Congzhe, while Censor Zuo Guangdou pressed Congzhe to inquire after the emperor's health. Congzhe said, "The emperor keeps his illness secret. Even if you ask those around him, they dare not report back." Lian said, "Long ago Duke Wen of Lu inquired about Emperor Renzong of Song's illness, and the inner attendants would not speak. The duke said, 'The Son of Heaven's daily condition—if you will not let the chief minister know, might you not harbor some other design? Send this down at once to the Secretariat to be enforced by law.' If you would truly inquire three times a day, you need not see him, nor need the sovereign even know—only let the palace know that court officials are present, and matters will take care of themselves. You ought moreover to lodge overnight in the Grand Secretariat. Congzhe said, "There is no precedent for that." Lian said, "The duke did not rebuke Shi Zhicong. What time is this, and you still ask about precedent?" Two days later Congzhe at last led the court officials in to inquire after the emperor. When the emperor's illness grew critical, the crown prince still lingered uncertainly outside the palace gate. Lian and Guangdou sent word to the Eastern Palace tutor Wang An: "The emperor is gravely ill. If he does not summon the crown prince, that is not the emperor's intent. You should press hard for permission to attend him, taste his medicine, oversee his meals, and return only at dusk." The crown prince took this advice to heart.

无何，神宗崩。八月丙午朔，光宗嗣位。越四日，不豫。都人喧言郑贵妃进美姬八人，又使中官崔文升投以利剂，帝一昼夜三四十起。而是时，贵妃据乾清宫，与帝所宠李选侍相结，贵妃为选侍请皇后封，选侍亦请封贵妃为皇太后。帝外家王、郭二戚畹，遍谒朝士，泣朔宫禁危状，谓：“帝疾必不起，文升药故也，非误也。郑、李交甚固，包藏祸心。 ”廷臣闻其语，忧甚。而帝果趣礼部封贵妃为皇太后。涟、光斗乃倡言于朝，共诘责郑养性，令贵妃移宫，贵妃即移慈宁。涟遂劾崔文升用药无状，请推问之。且曰：“外廷流言，谓陛下兴居无节，侍御蛊惑。必文升藉口以掩其用药之奸，文升之党煽布以预杜外廷之口。既损圣躬，又亏圣德，罪不容死。至贵妃封号，尤乖典常。尊以嫡母，若大行皇后何？尊以生母，若本生太后何？请亟寝前命。 ”疏上，越三日丁卯，帝召见大臣，并及涟，且宣锦衣官校。众谓涟疏忤旨，必廷杖，嘱从哲为解。从哲劝涟引罪，涟抗声曰：“死即死耳，涟何罪？ ”及入，帝温言久之，数目涟，语外廷毋信流言。遂逐文升，停封太后命。再召大臣皆及涟。

Before long the Shenzong Emperor died. On the first day of the eighth month, day bingwu, the Guangzong Emperor ascended the throne. Four days later he fell ill. People in the capital clamored that Consort Zheng had presented eight beautiful women and had the eunuch Cui Wensheng administer an aphrodisiac, so that the emperor rose thirty or forty times in a single day and night. At this time the noble consort held the Palace of Heavenly Purity and allied herself with Lady Li, a chosen attendant favored by the emperor. The noble consort sought empress rank for the chosen attendant, and the chosen attendant in turn sought empress dowager rank for the noble consort. The emperor's maternal kin of the Wang and Guo families, two imperial affines, called on court officials everywhere, weeping as they described the peril in the palace. They said, "The emperor's illness will surely prove fatal. It is because of Wensheng's medicine—this was no mistake. Zheng and Li are tightly allied and harbor treacherous designs." When court officials heard these words, they were deeply troubled. The emperor indeed pressed the Ministry of Rites to ennoble the noble consort as empress dowager. Lian and Guangdou then spoke out in court, jointly interrogating and rebuking Zheng Yangxing and demanding that the noble consort move palace. The noble consort at once moved to Cining. Lian then impeached Cui Wensheng for reckless use of medicine and requested a formal inquiry. He also wrote, "Rumors outside the court say that Your Majesty's conduct lacks restraint and that attendants have bewitched you. Surely Wensheng seizes on this as a pretext to cover his wicked use of medicine, and Wensheng's faction spreads the story to forestall criticism from outside the court. He has both harmed the sacred person and impaired sacred virtue. His crime admits no sparing of death. As for the noble consort's title, it is especially at odds with established norms. If she is honored as the legitimate mother, what becomes of the late empress? If she is honored as the birth mother, what becomes of the birth mother empress dowager? I beg that the previous order be set aside at once. When the memorial was submitted, three days later on day dingmao the emperor summoned the chief ministers, including Lian, and also announced officers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Everyone said Lian's memorial had offended the throne and that he would surely receive a court beating. They asked Congzhe to intercede. Congzhe urged Lian to plead guilty. Lian replied in a defiant voice, "Death is death—what crime have I committed?" When he entered, the emperor spoke gently for a long time, looked several times at Lian, and told those outside the court not to believe rumors. He then expelled Wensheng and suspended the order to ennoble the empress dowager. On later summons of the chief ministers, Lian was always included.

涟自以小臣预顾命感激，誓以死报。九月乙亥朔，昧爽，帝崩。廷臣趋入，诸大臣周嘉谟、张问达、李汝华等虑皇长子无嫡母、生母，势孤孑甚，欲共托之李选侍。涟曰：“天子宁可托妇人？且选侍昨于先帝召对群臣时，强上入，复推之出，是岂可托幼主者？请亟见储皇，即呼万岁，拥出乾清，暂居慈庆。 ”语未毕，大学士方从哲、刘一燝、韩爌至，涟趣诸大臣共趋乾清宫。阍人持梃不容入，涟大骂：“奴才！皇帝召我等。今已晏驾，若曹不听入，欲何为！ ”阍人却，乃入临。群臣呼万岁，请于初六日登极，而奉驾至文华殿，受群臣嵩呼。驾甫至中宫，内竖从寝阁出，大呼：“拉少主何往？主年少畏人！ ”有揽衣欲夺还者。涟格而诃之曰：“殿下群臣之主，四海九州莫非臣子，复畏何人！ ”乃拥至文华殿。礼毕，奉驾入慈庆宫。当是时，李选侍居乾清。一燝奏曰：“殿下暂居此，俟选侍出宫讫，乃归乾清宫。 ”群臣遂退议登极期，语纷纷未定，有请改初三者，有请于即日午时者。涟曰：“今海宇清晏，内无嫡庶之嫌。父死之谓何？含敛未毕，衮冕临朝，非礼也。 ”或言登极则人心安，涟曰：“安与不安，不在登极早暮。处之得宜，即朝委裘何害？ ”议定，出过文华殿。太仆少卿徐养量、御史左光斗至，责涟误大事，唾其面曰：“事脱不济，汝死，肉足食乎！ ”涟为竦然。乃与光斗从周嘉谟于朝房，言选侍无恩德，必不可同居。

Lian, moved that a minor official such as himself had been included in the deathbed charge, vowed to repay the trust with his life. On the first day of the ninth month, day yihai, at dawn before daylight, the emperor died. Court officials hurried in. The chief ministers Zhou Jiamo, Zhang Wenda, Li Ruhua, and others, fearing that the eldest imperial son had neither a legitimate mother nor a birth mother and stood very much alone, wished jointly to entrust him to the chosen attendant Li. Lian said, "Can the Son of Heaven be entrusted to a woman? Moreover, yesterday when the late emperor summoned the officials, the chosen attendant forced her way in and was pushed out again. Is this someone fit to be entrusted with a young sovereign? I beg that we see the heir apparent at once, immediately cry 'Long live the emperor,' escort him out of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, and lodge him temporarily at Ciqing. Before he had finished speaking, Grand Secretaries Fang Congzhe, Liu Yijiao, and Han Kuang arrived. Lian urged all the chief ministers to hurry together to the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Gatekeepers held staves and would not let them enter. Lian cursed loudly, "Slaves! The emperor summoned us. Now he has passed away—if you will not let us enter, what do you intend!" The gatekeepers fell back, and they entered to mourn. The officials cried 'Long live the emperor,' requested enthronement on the sixth day, and escorted the imperial carriage to the Hall of Literary Glory to receive the officials' shouts of homage. The carriage had just reached the central palace when a eunuch came out from the sleeping quarters and shouted, "Where are you dragging the young lord? The lord is young and afraid of people!" Some seized his garment, intending to pull him back. Lian blocked them and rebuked them, saying, "Your Highness is lord of all officials. Throughout the four seas and nine regions none are not subjects—whom else should you fear!" They then escorted him to the Hall of Literary Glory. When the rites were complete, they escorted the imperial carriage into the Palace of Kindly Celebration. At this time the chosen attendant Li resided in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Yijiao memorialized, saying, "Your Highness will lodge here temporarily. When the chosen attendant has left the palace, you may return to the Palace of Heavenly Purity." The officials then withdrew to discuss the date of enthronement. Opinions were many and unsettled—some asked to change it to the third day, some asked for enthronement that very day at noon. Lian said, "Now the realm is tranquil within the four seas, and within the palace there is no strife between legitimate and secondary lines. What does it mean that one's father has died? Encoffining is not yet complete—yet to attend court in imperial robes and crown is not according to ritual." Someone said that enthronement would settle people's hearts. Lian said, "Whether hearts are settled or not does not depend on enthronement early or late. If matters are handled properly, what harm is there even in holding court while draped in a fur robe?" When the discussion was settled, they went out past the Hall of Literary Glory. Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud Xu Yangliang and Censor Zuo Guangdou arrived, rebuked Lian for jeopardizing a great matter, spat in his face, and said, "If things fail, you will die—will your flesh be enough to eat!" Lian was startled. He then followed Guangdou to Zhou Jiamo in the court chamber and said the chosen attendant had shown no grace or virtue and must by no means live together with the heir.

明日，嘉谟、光斗各上疏请选侍移宫。初四日得俞旨。而选侍听李进忠计，必欲皇长子同居，恶光斗疏中“武氏”语，议召皇长子，加光斗重谴。涟遇内竖于麟趾门，内竖备言状。涟正色曰：“殿下在东宫为太子，今则为皇帝，选侍安得召？且上已十六岁，他日即不奈选侍何，若曹置身何地？ ”怒目视之，其人退。给事中惠世扬、御史张泼入东宫门，骇相告曰：“选侍欲垂帘处光斗，汝等何得晏然？ ”涟曰：“无之。 ”出皇极门，九卿科道议上公疏，未决。

The next day Jiamo and Guangdou each submitted memorials requesting that the chosen attendant move palace. On the fourth day they received an approving edict. But the chosen attendant followed Li Jinzhong's counsel, insisting that the eldest imperial son live with her. She hated Guangdou's use of the phrase 'the Wu clan' in his memorial and planned to summon the eldest imperial son and impose heavy punishment on Guangdou. Lian met a eunuch at the Qilin Toe Gate, and the eunuch fully explained the situation. Lian said sternly, "Your Highness was crown prince in the Eastern Palace; now you are emperor. How can the chosen attendant summon you? Moreover, Your Majesty is already sixteen. One day you will be able to deal with the chosen attendant as you please—where will you people place yourselves?" He glared angrily at him, and the man withdrew. Supervising Secretary Hui Shiyang and Censor Zhang Po entered the Eastern Palace gate and, startled, told one another, "The chosen attendant wishes to deal with Guangdou behind a curtain—how can you be at ease?" Lian said, "There is nothing of the kind." They went out through the Gate of Imperial Supremacy. The Nine Ministers, supervising secretaries, and censors discussed submitting a joint memorial from the chief ministers, but no decision was reached.

初五日传闻欲缓移宫期。涟及诸大臣毕集慈庆宫门外，涟语从哲趣之。从哲曰：“迟亦无害。 ”涟曰：“昨以皇长子就太子宫犹可，明日为天子，乃反居太子宫以避宫人乎？即两宫圣母如在，夫死亦当从子。选侍何人，敢欺藐如此！ ”时中官往来如织，或言选侍亦顾命中人。涟斥之曰：“诸臣受顾命于先帝，先帝自欲先顾其子，何尝先顾其嬖媵？请选侍于九庙前质之，若曹岂食李家禄者？能杀我则已，否则，今日不移死不去。 ”一燝、嘉谟助之，词色俱厉，声彻御前。皇长子使使宣谕，乃退。复抗疏言：“选侍阳托保护之名，阴图专擅之实，宫必不可不移。臣言之在今日，殿下行之在今日，诸大臣赞决之，亦惟今日。 ”其日，选侍遂移宫，居仁寿殿。明日庚辰，熹宗即位。自光宗崩，至是凡六日。涟与一燝、嘉谟定宫府危疑，言官惟光斗助之，余悉听涟指。涟须发尽白，帝亦数称忠臣，未几，迁兵科都给事中。御史冯三元等极诋熊廷弼，涟疏谕其事，独持平。旋劾兵部尚书黄嘉善八大罪，嘉善罢去。

On the fifth day rumor spread that the date for moving palace would be postponed. Lian and the chief ministers all gathered outside the gate of the Palace of Kindly Celebration. Lian told Congzhe to press the matter. Congzhe said, "Delay does no harm." Lian said, "Yesterday it was still acceptable for the eldest imperial son to lodge in the Eastern Palace. Tomorrow he becomes Son of Heaven—will he then live in the Eastern Palace again to avoid palace women? Even if both empress dowagers of the two palaces were alive, when the husband dies one should follow the son. Who is this chosen attendant, that she dares to bully and despise us so! At this time eunuchs came and went like weaving shuttles. Some said the chosen attendant was also among those entrusted at the deathbed. Lian rebuked them, saying, "The officials received the deathbed charge from the late emperor. The late emperor himself wished first to entrust his son—when did he ever first entrust his favorite concubine? I ask that the chosen attendant be confronted before the ancestral temple. Are you people those who eat the Li family's salary? If you can kill me, so be it. Otherwise, if she does not move today, I will not leave even if I must die. Yijiao and Jiamo supported him. Words and expression were both fierce, and their voices reached before the throne. The eldest imperial son sent messengers with an announcement, and they withdrew. He again submitted a forthright memorial saying, "The chosen attendant outwardly borrows the name of protection but inwardly plots exclusive control. She absolutely must move palace. What I say must be done today; what Your Highness does must be done today; what the chief ministers approve must also be done only today." That day the chosen attendant moved palace and took up residence in the Hall of Benevolent Longevity. The next day, day gengchen, the Xizong Emperor ascended the throne. From the Guangzong Emperor's death until this point were six days in all. Lian worked with Yijiao and Jiamo to resolve the palace and court crisis; of the censorial officials only Guangdou backed them, and everyone else deferred to Lian. Lian's hair and beard had turned completely white, and the emperor repeatedly praised him as a loyal minister. Soon afterward he was made chief supervising secretary in the Military Section. Censors Feng Sanyuan and others fiercely attacked Xiong Tingbi, but Lian submitted a memorial clarifying the case and alone took a balanced position. He soon impeached Minister of War Huang Jiashan on eight major counts, and Jiashan was dismissed from office.

当选侍之移宫也，涟即言于诸大臣曰：“选侍不移宫，非所以尊天子。既移宫，又当有以安选侍。是在诸公调护，无使中官取快私仇。 ”既而诸奄果为流言。御史贾继春遂上书内阁，谓不当于新君御极之初，首劝主上以违忤先帝，逼逐庶母，表里交构，罗织不休，俾先帝玉体未寒，遂不能保一姬女。盖是时，选侍宫奴刘逊、刘朝、田诏等以盗宝系狱，词连选侍父。诸奄计无所出，则妄言选侍投缳，皇八妹入井，以荧惑朝士。继春藉其言，首发难。于是光斗上疏述移宫事。而帝降谕言选侍气殴圣母，及要挟传封皇后，与即日欲垂帘听政语，又言：“今奉养李氏于哕鸾宫，尊敬不敢怠。 ”大学士从哲封还上谕。帝复降谕言选侍过恶，而自白赡养优厚，俾廷臣知。未几，哕鸾宫灾。帝谕内阁，言选侍暨皇八妹无恙。而是时，给事中周朝瑞谓继春生事，继春与相诋諆，乃复上书内阁，有：“伶仃之皇八妹，入井谁怜；孀寡之未亡人，雉经莫诉”语。朝瑞与辨驳者再。涟恐继春说遂滋，亦上《敬述移宫始末疏》，且言：“选侍自裁，皇八妹入井，蜚语何自，臣安敢无言。臣宁使今日忤选侍，无宁使移宫不速，不幸而成女后独览文书、称制垂帘之事。 ”帝优诏褒涟志安社稷，复降谕备述宫掖情事。继春及其党益忌涟，诋涟结王安，图封拜。涟不胜愤，冬十二月抗章乞去，即出城候命。帝复褒其忠直而许之归。天启元年春，继春按江西还，抵家，见帝诸谕，乃具疏陈上书之实。帝切责，罢其官。涟、继春先后去，移宫论始息。

When the chosen attendant's move from the palace was underway, Lian told the chief ministers at once, "If the chosen attendant does not leave the palace, that is no way to honor the Son of Heaven. Once she has moved out, there must also be some way to reassure the chosen attendant. That is for you gentlemen to manage and protect her, and not let the eunuchs settle private scores. " Before long the eunuchs did indeed spread slander. Censor Jia Jichun then wrote to the Grand Secretariat, arguing that at the very beginning of the new emperor's reign it was wrong to be the first to urge the ruler to defy the late emperor, drive out his stepmother, conspire inside and out, and keep fabricating charges—so that before the late emperor's body was even cold, not even one young woman could be protected. This was because the chosen attendant's palace servants Liu Xun, Liu Chao, Tian Zhao, and others had been imprisoned for stealing treasure, and their testimony implicated her father. The eunuchs, at their wits' end, then falsely claimed that the chosen attendant had hanged herself and the eighth imperial sister had thrown herself into a well, to unsettle the court officials. Jichun seized on their story and was the first to launch the attack. Guangdou then submitted a memorial recounting the palace move affair. The emperor issued an edict saying the chosen attendant had violently assaulted the empress dowager, had coerced a draft edict making her empress, and had spoken of ruling from behind a curtain that very day. He also said, "Lady Li is now being cared for at the Palace of Crying Phoenixes, with respect and without neglect. " Grand Secretary Congzhe returned the edict unopened. The emperor issued another edict listing the chosen attendant's offenses, while defending himself by saying he had provided generous support, so the court officials would know. Before long the Palace of Crying Phoenixes burned down. The emperor told the Grand Secretariat that the chosen attendant and the eighth imperial sister were safe and unharmed. At this time Supervising Secretary Zhou Chaorui accused Jichun of stirring up trouble; the two traded slanders, and Jichun again wrote to the Grand Secretariat with the lines, "The lonely eighth imperial sister—thrown into a well, who pities her? The widowed woman who has not yet followed her lord to the grave—with a noose around her neck, to whom can she appeal?" Chaorui argued back against him twice. Fearing Jichun's story would spread, Lian also submitted a memorial entitled "Respectfully Recounting the Beginning and End of the Palace Move," saying, "The chosen attendant's suicide, the eighth imperial sister in the well—where did these rumors come from? How dare I remain silent? I would rather offend the chosen attendant today than see the palace move delayed, lest we suffer the misfortune of an empress ruling alone over state papers and governing from behind a curtain. " The emperor issued a gracious edict praising Lian's resolve to secure the state, and again issued an edict fully recounting affairs within the inner palace. Jichun and his faction grew ever more hostile to Lian, accusing him of allying with Wang An and scheming for enfeoffment and promotion. Unable to contain his anger, Lian in the twelfth month of winter submitted a memorial requesting resignation and at once left the city to await the emperor's decision. The emperor again praised his loyalty and integrity and allowed him to go home. In the spring of the first year of Tianqi, Jichun returned from his inspection tour of Jiangxi, reached home, read the emperor's edicts, and submitted a detailed memorial explaining the truth of his earlier memorial. The emperor sharply rebuked him and dismissed him from office. After Lian and Jichun had both left office, the controversy over the palace move finally died down.

天启二年起涟礼科都给事中，旋擢太常少卿。明年冬，拜左佥都御史。又明年春，进左副都御史。而是时魏忠贤已用事，群小附之，惮众正盈朝，不敢大肆。涟益与赵南星、左光斗、魏大中辈激扬讽议，务植善类，抑憸邪。忠贤及其党衔次骨，遂兴汪文言狱，将罗织诸人。事虽获解，然正人势日危。其年六月，涟遂抗疏劾忠贤，列其二十四大罪，言：高皇帝定令，内官不许干预外事，只供掖廷洒扫，违者法无赦。圣明在御，乃有肆无忌惮，浊乱朝常，如东厂太监魏忠贤者。敢列其罪状，为陛下言之。

In the second year of Tianqi, Lian was recalled as chief supervising secretary in the Rites Section and soon promoted to Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. The following winter he was appointed Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief. The spring after that he was promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief. By then Wei Zhongxian was already in power; petty men rallied to him, but they feared the many upright officials at court and did not yet dare act openly. Lian worked ever more closely with Zhao Nanxing, Zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong, and their allies to stir up criticism, striving to promote the good and suppress the treacherous. Zhongxian and his faction nursed a grudge to the bone and raised the Wang Wenyan case, intending to entangle them all in fabricated charges. Although the case was eventually resolved, the position of upright officials grew more precarious by the day. That June Lian submitted a memorial of protest impeaching Zhongxian, listing twenty-four major crimes. He wrote: The Founding Emperor decreed that inner officials must not intervene in outer affairs and were only to serve in the inner palace for sweeping and cleaning; violators were beyond pardon. Yet under a sage sovereign on the throne there is one so unrestrained and corrupt of court norms as the Eastern Depot eunuch Wei Zhongxian. I dare to list his crimes and speak of them to Your Majesty.

忠贤本市井无赖，中年净身，夤入内地，初犹谬为小忠、小信以幸恩，继乃敢为大奸、大恶以乱政。祖制，以拟旨专责阁臣。自忠贤擅权，多出传奉，或径自内批，坏祖宗二百余年之政体，大罪一。

Zhongxian was originally a marketplace scoundrel who was castrated in midlife and wormed his way into the inner palace. At first he feigned small acts of loyalty and trustworthiness to win favor; later he dared commit great treachery and great wickedness to disrupt government. By ancestral institution, drafting edicts was the exclusive duty of the Grand Secretaries. Since Zhongxian seized power, most orders have come by direct transmission or by inner-court rescripts, destroying more than two centuries of ancestral political institutions—the first great crime.

刘一燝、周嘉谟，顾命大臣也，忠贤令孙杰论去。急于翦己之忌，不容陛下不改父之臣，大罪二。

Liu Yijiao and Zhou Jiamo were deathbed entrusted ministers; Zhongxian had Sun Jie attack them until they were driven out. Eager to eliminate those he resented, he would not allow Your Majesty to keep his father's ministers—the second great crime.

先帝宾天，实有隐恨，孙慎行、邹元标以公义发愤，忠贤悉排去之。顾于党护选侍之沈纮，曲意绸缪，终加蟒玉。亲乱贼而仇忠义，大罪三。

When the late emperor died, there was in truth hidden resentment; Sun Shenxing and Zou Yuanbiao spoke out in righteous indignation, and Zhongxian drove them all away. Yet toward Shen Hong, who protected the chosen attendant as a faction ally, he showed every solicitude and finally bestowed upon him the python robe and jade belt. He favored rebels while hating the loyal and righteous—the third great crime.

王纪、钟羽正先年功在国本。及纪为司寇，执法如山；羽正为司空，清修如鹤。忠贤构党斥逐，必不容盛时有正色立朝之直臣，大罪四。

Wang Ji and Zhong Yuzheng had earlier served with merit in securing the imperial succession. When Ji became Minister of Justice, he enforced the law immovably; When Yuzheng became Minister of Works, he lived in pure restraint like a crane. Zhongxian formed a faction to expel them, unwilling to tolerate upright ministers who would stand in court with stern countenance in a flourishing age—the fourth great crime.

国家最重无如枚卜。忠贤一手握定，力阻首推之孙慎行、盛以弘，更为他辞以锢其出。岂真欲门生宰相乎？大罪五。

Among affairs of state none is weightier than the selection of chief ministers. Zhongxian kept it firmly in his grasp, forcibly blocking Sun Shenxing and Sheng Yihong, who were first recommended, and inventing other pretexts to keep them out. Did he truly intend to make his protégés chief ministers? This was the fifth great crime.

爵人于朝，莫重廷推。去岁南太宰、北少宰皆用陪推，致一时名贤不安其位。颠倒铨政，掉弄机权，大罪六。

In granting rank at court, nothing carries more weight than recommendation by the full court. Last year the Southern Chief Minister of Personnel and Northern Vice Minister of Personnel were both appointed through secondary recommendation, leaving eminent men of the time unsettled in their posts. He upended personnel administration and manipulated the levers of power—the sixth great crime.

圣政初新，正资忠直。乃满朝荐、文震孟、熊德阳、江秉谦、徐大相、毛士龙、侯震旸等，抗论稍忤，立行贬黜，屡经恩典，竟阻赐环。长安谓天子之怒易解，忠贤之怒难调，大罪七。

At the outset of a new reign, upright loyalty is precisely what is needed. Yet Man Chaojian, Wen Zhenmeng, Xiong Deyang, Jiang Bingqian, Xu Daxiang, Mao Shilong, Hou Zhenyang, and others—as soon as their bold criticism slightly displeased him—were at once demoted and dismissed; though amnesty was repeatedly extended, they were still barred from recall. People in the capital said the Son of Heaven's anger is easily appeased but Zhongxian's anger is hard to soothe—the seventh great crime.

然犹曰外廷臣子也。去岁南郊之日，传闻宫中有一贵人，以德性贞静，荷上宠注。忠贤恐其露己骄横，托言急病，置之死地。是陛下不能保其贵幸矣，大罪八。

Yet one could still say these were only outer-court ministers and subjects. On the day of last year's southern suburban sacrifice, rumor held that within the palace there was a noble lady of chaste and quiet character who enjoyed the emperor's special favor. Zhongxian feared she would expose his arrogance, so on the pretext of acute illness he had her put to death. Thus Your Majesty could not even protect a favored lady of the palace—the eighth great crime.

犹曰无名封也。裕妃以有妊传封，中外方为庆幸。忠贤恶其不附己，矫旨勒令自尽。是陛下不能保其妃嫔矣，大罪九。

One might still say she held no formal title. Consort Yu was granted a title when she became pregnant, and inside and outside the court all rejoiced. Zhongxian hated her for not siding with him and, by forged edict, forced her to take her own life. Thus Your Majesty could not even protect his own consorts—the ninth great crime.

犹曰在妃嫔也。中宫有庆，已经成男，乃忽焉告殒，传闻忠贤与奉圣夫人实有谋焉。是陛下且不能保其子矣，大罪十。

One might still say this concerned consorts alone. The empress had good news: she had already borne a son, yet suddenly word came of the child's death; rumor held that Zhongxian and the Lady of Imperial Favor were in truth implicated in a plot. Thus Your Majesty could not even protect his own child—the tenth great crime.

先帝青宫四十年，所与护持孤危者惟王安耳。即陛下仓卒受命，拥卫防维，安亦不可谓无劳。忠贤以私忿，矫旨杀于南苑。是不但仇王安，而实敢仇先帝之老奴，况其他内臣无罪而擅杀擅逐者，又不知几千百也，大罪十一。

For forty years in the Eastern Palace, the late emperor had no one but Wang An to support and protect him in his isolation and peril. Even when Your Majesty received the mandate in haste, Wang An in guarding and defending you cannot be said to have been without merit. Out of private resentment, Zhongxian had him killed by forged edict in the Southern Park. This was not only enmity toward Wang An but in truth enmity toward the late emperor's old servant; to say nothing of other guiltless inner officials arbitrarily killed or driven away—in number surely not less than several thousand—the eleventh great crime.

今日奖赏，明日祠额，要挟无穷，王言屡亵。近又于河间毁人居屋，起建牌坊，镂凤雕龙，干云插汉，又不止茔地僭拟陵寝而已，大罪十二。

Today rewards, tomorrow temple inscriptions—endless extortion, and the sovereign's words repeatedly profaned. Recently in Hejian he also destroyed people's houses and erected a memorial arch carved with phoenixes and dragons reaching skyward—going far beyond a grave mound's presumptuous imitation of an imperial tomb—the twelfth great crime.

今日廕中书，明日廕锦衣。金吾之堂口皆乳臭，诰敕之馆目不识丁。如魏良弼、魏良材、魏良卿、魏希孔及其甥傅应星等，滥袭恩廕，亵越朝常，大罪十三。

Today hereditary appointments to the Secretariat, tomorrow hereditary appointments to the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The halls of the Golden Cudgel Guard were filled with callow youths; in the halls of edicts and patents none could read a single character. Men such as Wei Liangbi, Wei Liangcai, Wei Liangqing, Wei Xikong, and his nephew Fu Yingxing recklessly inherited hereditary favors and profaned court norms—the thirteenth great crime.

用立枷之法，戚畹家人骈首毕命，意欲诬陷国戚，动摇中宫。若非阁臣力持，言官纠正，椒房之戚，又兴大狱矣，大罪十四。

By the standing cangue, kinsmen of the imperial consort's family died side by side, intending to frame the imperial kin and shake the empress. Had the Grand Secretaries not stood firm and the censorial officials not corrected the matter, the consort's kin would have faced another great prosecution—the fourteenth great crime.

良乡生员章士魁，坐争煤窑，托言开矿而致之死。假令盗长陵一抔土，何以处之？赵高鹿可为马，忠贤煤可为矿，大罪十五。

The Liangxiang licentiate Zhang Shikui, on account of disputing a coal mine, was put to death on the pretext of illegal mining. Suppose someone stole a handful of earth from the Changling tomb—how would that be handled? As Zhao Gao could call a deer a horse, so Zhongxian can call coal a mine—the fifteenth great crime.

王思敬等牧地细事，责在有司。忠贤乃幽置槛阱，恣意搒掠，视士命如草菅，大罪十六。

Wang Sijing and others' pasturage dispute was a minor matter for which the relevant offices were responsible. Zhongxian imprisoned them in secret cages, flogged them at will, and treated scholars' lives like common grass—the sixteenth great crime.

给事中周士朴执纠织监。忠贤竟停其升迁，使吏部不得专铨除，言官不敢司封驳，大罪十七。

Supervising Secretary Zhou Shipu kept impeaching the Weaving Bureau. Zhongxian halted his promotion, preventing the Ministry of Personnel from exercising exclusive appointment and dismissal, and censorial officials dared not perform review and rejection—the seventeenth great crime.

北镇抚刘侨不肯杀人媚人，忠贤以不善锻炼，遂致削籍。示大明之律令可以不守，而忠贤之律令不敢不遵，大罪十八。

Liu Qiao of the Northern Brooding Depot refused to kill men to please others; Zhongxian, because he would not torture confessions out of prisoners, had him stripped from the register. This showed that the Great Ming's laws need not be obeyed, but Zhongxian's laws dared not be disobeyed—the eighteenth great crime.

给事中魏大中遵旨莅任，忽传旨诘责。及大中回奏，台省交章，又再亵王言。毋论玩言官于股掌，而煌煌天语，朝夕纷更，大罪十九。

Supervising Secretary Wei Dazhong obeyed the edict and took up his post, when suddenly an edict was transmitted rebuking him. When Dazhong submitted his reply and the censorate and secretariat submitted memorial after memorial, the sovereign's words were profaned yet again. Setting aside the matter of toying with censorial officials at will, the resplendent words of heaven changed morning and evening in confusion—the nineteenth great crime.

东厂之设，原以缉奸。自忠贤受事，日以快私仇、行倾陷为事。纵野子傅应星、陈居恭、傅继教辈，投匦设阱。片语稍违，驾帖立下，势必兴同文馆狱而后已，大罪二十。

The Eastern Depot was originally established to hunt down traitors. Since Zhongxian took charge, his daily business has been settling private scores and framing opponents. He unleashed ruffians such as Fu Yingxing, Chen Jugong, and Fu Jijiao to lodge accusations and set traps. At the slightest deviation in a word, an imperial arrest warrant was issued at once, and he would inevitably raise a literary inquisition before he was satisfied—the twentieth great crime.

边警未息，内外戒严，东厂访缉何事？前奸细韩宗功潜入长安，实主忠贤司房之邸，事露始去。假令天不悔祸，宗功事成，未知九庙生灵安顿何地，大罪二十一。

With border alarms still unresolved and the realm on high alert within and without, what business does the Eastern Depot have running investigations? Earlier, the spy Han Zonggong infiltrated the capital and actually lodged at the residence of Zhongxian's clerk, fleeing only after the affair was exposed. Had Heaven not averted the disaster and Zonggong's plot succeeded, who knows where the people of the realm would have found safety—the twenty-first great crime.

祖制，不蓄内兵，原有深意。忠贤与奸相沈纮创立内操，薮匿奸宄，安知无大盗、刺客为敌国窥伺者潜入其中。一旦变生肘腋，可为深虑，大罪二十二。

The ancestral institution forbidding inner palace troops originally held profound significance. Zhongxian and the treacherous chancellor Shen Hong established inner palace drills that became a refuge for villains; who can say that brigands and assassins sent by enemy states to spy did not slip in among them? Should rebellion erupt at the emperor's very side, the danger would be grave indeed—the twenty-second great crime.

忠贤进香涿州，警跸传呼，清尘垫道，人以为大驾出幸。及其归也，改驾四马，羽幢青盖，夹护环遮，俨然乘舆矣。其间入幕效谋，叩马献策者，实繁有徒。忠贤此时自视为何如人哉？大罪二十三。

When Zhongxian went to Zhuozhou to offer incense, imperial guards cleared the way, the roads were swept and matting laid down, and people took it for an imperial progress. On his return he rode in a four-horse carriage with feather banners and a green canopy, escorted on every side—an unmistakable imperial procession. In the meantime, those who sought his counsel and waylaid his horse to offer strategies were truly legion. What sort of person did Zhongxian imagine himself to be at that moment? This is the twenty-third great crime.

夫宠极则骄，恩多成怨。闻今春忠贤走马御前，陛下射杀其马，贷以不死。忠贤不自伏罪，进有傲色，退有怨言，朝夕堤防，介介不释。从来乱臣贼子，只争一念，放肆遂至不可收拾，奈何养虎兕于肘腋间乎！此又寸脔忠贤，不足尽其辜者，大罪二十四。

Favor taken to the utmost breeds arrogance; grace heaped too high turns to resentment. It is said that this spring Zhongxian rode his horse before the throne; the emperor shot and killed the horse but spared him from death. Zhongxian did not acknowledge his guilt; he bore an arrogant air when approaching the throne and muttered resentfully when leaving, on guard day and night and never at peace. Rebels and traitors throughout history have turned on a single reckless impulse; once unchecked, the damage becomes irreparable—why keep tigers at one's very elbow! And this is but a fragment of Zhongxian's guilt, not enough to exhaust his crimes—the twenty-fourth great crime.

凡此逆迹，昭然在人耳目。乃内廷畏祸而不敢言，外廷结舌而莫敢奏。间或奸状败露，则又有奉圣夫人为之弥缝。甚至无耻之徒，攀附枝叶，依托门墙，更相表里，迭为呼应。积威所劫，致掖廷之中，但知有忠贤，不知有陛下；都城之内，亦但知有忠贤，不知有陛下。即如前日，忠贤已往涿州，一切政务必星夜驰请，待其既旋，诏旨始下。天颜咫尺，忽慢至此，陛下之威灵尚尊于忠贤否邪？陛下春秋鼎盛，生杀予夺，岂不可以自主？何为受制幺纻小丑，令中外大小惴惴莫必其命？伏乞大奋雷霆，集文武勋戚，敕刑部严讯，以正国法，并出奉圣夫人于外，用消隐忧，臣死且不朽。

All these acts of rebellion are plain for everyone to see and hear. Yet within the palace men fear reprisal and dare not speak, while in the outer court officials hold their tongues and none dare submit a memorial. Whenever treacherous conduct was exposed, the Lady of Fengsheng was there to cover it up for him. Shameless men even clung to his patronage, relied on his power, acted as his agents inside and outside, and echoed one another in turn. Crushed by his accumulated terror, those in the inner palace knew only Zhongxian and not the emperor; Within the capital as well, they knew only Zhongxian and not the emperor. Take the other day: Zhongxian had already gone to Zhuozhou, yet every matter of state had to be rushed to him for approval day and night, and imperial edicts were issued only after he returned. The emperor's face is but a step away, yet affairs are handled with such contempt—does Your Majesty's authority still rank above Zhongxian's? Your Majesty is in the prime of life; the power of life and death is yours—can you not decide for yourself? Why be controlled by a petty clown, leaving everyone inside and outside the court trembling in uncertainty about whose word decides their fate? I humbly beg Your Majesty to act with thunderous force, assemble civil and military officials and meritorious kin, order the Ministry of Justice to interrogate him rigorously and uphold the law, and remove the Lady of Fengsheng from the palace to dispel hidden dangers—in which case my death would be immortal.

忠贤初闻疏，惧甚。其党王体乾及客氏力为保持，遂令魏广微调旨切责涟。先是，涟疏就欲早朝面奏。值次日免朝，恐再宿机泄，遂于会极门上之，忠贤乃得为计。涟愈愤，拟对仗复劾之，忠贤诇知，遏帝不御朝者三日。及帝出，群阉数百人衷甲夹陛立，敕左班官不得奏事，涟乃止。

When Zhongxian first learned of the memorial, he was terrified. His ally Wang Tiangan and Madame Ke worked hard to protect him, and Wei Guangwei was told to draft an edict sharply rebuking Lian. Lian had intended to present his memorial in person at the next morning audience. The next day court was cancelled; fearing that waiting another night would leak his plan, he submitted the memorial at the Gate of Universal Accord, giving Zhongxian time to plot a response. Lian, still enraged, planned to impeach him again at court; Zhongxian learned of this by espionage and kept the emperor from holding court for three days. When the emperor appeared, several hundred eunuchs in hidden armor lined the imperial steps; an edict forbade left-column officials from presenting memorials, and Lian was forced to desist.

自是，忠贤日谋杀涟。至十月，吏部尚书赵南星既逐，廷推代者，涟注籍不与。忠贤矫旨责涟大不敬，无人臣礼，偕吏部侍郎陈于廷、佥都御史左光斗并削籍。忠贤恨不已，再兴汪文言狱，将罗织杀涟。五年，其党大理丞徐大化劾涟、光斗党同伐异，招权纳贿，命逮文言下狱鞫之。许显纯严鞫文言，使引涟纳熊廷弼贿。文言仰天大呼曰：“世岂有贪赃杨大洪哉！ ”至死不承。大洪者，涟别字也。显纯乃自为狱词，坐涟赃二万，遂逮涟。士民数万人拥道攀号，所历村市，悉焚香建醮，祈祐涟生还。比下诏狱，显纯酷法拷讯，体无完肤。其年七月遂于夜中毙之，年五十四。

From that time on, Zhongxian plotted daily to kill Lian. By the tenth month, after Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing had been driven out, when the court recommended a successor Lian's name was on the roster but he was excluded. Zhongxian forged an edict rebuking Lian for gross disrespect and breach of ministerial propriety, and together with Vice Minister of Personnel Chen Yuting and Vice Censor-in-Chief Zuo Guangdou had them all stripped from office. Zhongxian's hatred did not abate; he reopened the Wang Wenyan case, intending to frame charges and kill Lian. In the fifth year, his ally Assistant Director of the Court of Judicial Review Xu Dahua impeached Lian and Guangdou for factional collusion, monopolizing power, and taking bribes; an order was issued to arrest Wenyan and interrogate him in prison. Xu Xianchun rigorously interrogated Wenyan, trying to make him confess that Lian had taken bribes from Xiong Tingbi. Wenyan looked up to heaven and cried out: "Can there truly be a corrupt Yang Dahong in this world! To his dying breath he would not confess. Dahong was Lian's courtesy name. Xianchun then fabricated the indictment himself, implicating Lian in a bribe of twenty thousand taels, and Lian was arrested. Tens of thousands of gentry and commoners crowded the roads weeping and calling out; in every village and market he passed, people burned incense and set up altars, praying for his safe return. Once he was sent to the imperial prison, Xianchun tortured him with brutal methods until not an inch of his body was intact. In the seventh month of that year he was killed in the dead of night; he was fifty-four.

涟素贫，产入官不及千金。母妻止宿谯楼，二子至乞食以养。征赃令急，乡人竞出赀助之，下至卖菜佣亦为输助。其节义感人如此。崇祯初，赠太子太保、兵部尚书，谥忠烈，官其一子。

Lian had always been poor; even after his property was confiscated by the state it amounted to less than one thousand taels. His mother and wife lodged in a watchtower; his two sons were reduced to begging for food to support them. The order to collect the supposed bribe was urgent; fellow townsmen rushed to contribute funds, and even vegetable sellers and laborers gave what they could. Such was the power of his integrity and righteousness to move others. At the beginning of the Chongzhen reign he was posthumously made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and Minister of War, granted the posthumous title Loyal and Martyr, and one son was given office.

左光斗，字遗直，桐城人。万历三十五年进士。除中书舍人。选授御史，巡视中城。捕治吏部豪恶吏，获假印七十余，假官一百余人，辇下震悚。

Zuo Guangdou, courtesy name Yizhi, came from Tongcheng. He received his jinshi degree in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign. He was appointed a Secretariat Drafter. He was selected and appointed censor, with responsibility for inspecting the Middle Walled City. He arrested and punished the Ministry of Personnel's overbearing rogue clerks, seizing more than seventy counterfeit seals and exposing more than a hundred men posing as officials; the capital was shaken.

出理屯田，言：“北人不知水利，一年而地荒，二年而民徙，三年而地与民尽矣。今欲使旱不为灾，涝不为害，惟有兴水利一法。 ”因条上三因十四议：曰因天之时，因地之利，因人之情；曰议浚川，议疏渠，议引流，议设坝，议建闸，议设陂，议相地，议筑塘，议招徠，议择人，议择将，议兵屯，议力田设科，议富民拜爵。其法犁然具备，诏悉允行。水利大兴，北人始知艺稻。邹元标尝曰：“三十年前，都人不知稻草何物，今所在皆稻，种水田利也。 ”阉人刘朝称东宫令旨，索戚畹废庄。光斗不启封还之，曰：“尺土皆殿下有，今日安敢私受。 ”阉人愤而去。

Sent out to administer military colonies, he said: "Northerners do not understand irrigation; in one year the land turns barren, in two years the people flee, and in three years both land and people are gone." If drought and flooding are to be kept from disaster, there is only one remedy: developing irrigation works. He then submitted in detail his Three Bases and Fourteen Proposals: conform to heaven's seasons, conform to earth's advantages, and conform to human needs; proposals to dredge rivers, clear channels, divert water, build dams and sluice gates, create reservoirs, choose suitable terrain, build embankments, recruit settlers, select capable men and generals, garrison troops for farming, establish graded taxes on intensive farming, and grant noble titles to the wealthy; His plan was complete and clearly set forth; an edict approved every proposal and ordered their implementation. Irrigation works were greatly expanded, and northerners for the first time learned to grow rice. Zou Yuanbiao once remarked: "Thirty years ago, people in the capital did not know what rice straw was; now rice is grown everywhere—the benefit of paddy fields." The eunuch Liu Chao, claiming an order from the crown prince, demanded an abandoned estate belonging to imperial relatives. Guangdou returned the document unopened, saying: "Every inch of land belongs to Your Highness; how dare I accept it privately today?" The eunuch left in a fury.

光宗崩，李选侍据乾清宫，迫皇长子封皇后。光斗上言：“内廷有乾清宫，犹外廷有皇极殿，惟天子御天得居之，惟皇后配天得共居之。其他妃嫔虽以次进御，不得恒居，非但避嫌，亦以别尊卑也。选侍既非嫡母，又非生母，俨然尊居正宫，而殿下乃退处慈庆，不得守几筵，行大礼，名分谓何？选侍事先皇无脱簪戒旦之德，于殿下无拊摩养育之恩，此其人，岂可以托圣躬者？且殿下春秋十六龄矣，内辅以忠直老成，外辅以公孤卿贰，何虑乏人，尚须乳哺而襁负之哉？况睿哲初开，正宜不见可欲，何必托于妇人女子之手？及今不早断决，将借抚养之名，行专制之实。武氏之祸再见于今，将来有不忍言者。 ”时选侍欲专大权，廷臣笺奏，令先进乾清，然后进慈庆。得光斗笺，大怒，将加严谴。数遣使宣召光斗，光斗曰：“我天子法官也，非天子召不赴。若辈何为者？ ”选侍益怒，邀熹宗至乾清议之。熹宗不肯往，使使取其笺视之，心以为善，趣择日移宫，光斗乃免。当是时，宫府危疑，人情危惧，光斗与杨涟协心建议，排阉奴，扶冲主，宸极获正，两人力为多。由是朝野并称为“杨左”。

When Emperor Guangzong died, Lady Li the Selection Attendant seized the Palace of Heavenly Purity and pressured the heir apparent to grant her the title of empress. Guangdou submitted a memorial: "Within the palace there is the Palace of Heavenly Purity, just as in the outer court there is the Hall of Supreme Ultimate—only the emperor who governs under heaven may dwell there, and only the empress who shares his station may dwell there with him." Other consorts may visit in turn but may not reside there permanently—not only to avoid impropriety, but to preserve the distinction of rank. The Selection Attendant is neither the legitimate mother nor the birth mother, yet she presumes to occupy the principal palace, while Your Highness is relegated to Ciqing and cannot keep vigil at the mourning rites or perform the great ceremonies—what becomes of proper rank? In serving the late emperor the Selection Attendant showed none of the loyal devotion of a wife keeping vigil through the night; toward Your Highness she showed none of the care of a mother raising a child—is such a person fit to hold charge of the emperor's person? Moreover Your Highness is already sixteen; within the palace loyal and upright elders may assist you, and without, the highest ministers stand ready—why worry about a lack of advisers? Must you still be nursed and carried like an infant? Your intelligence is just awakening; this is precisely the time to guard against temptation—why entrust yourself to the hands of a woman? If this is not decided now, she will use the name of guardianship to wield autocratic power in fact. The catastrophe of Empress Wu may repeat itself in our day; the consequences are too terrible to name. At the time the Selection Attendant sought to monopolize power; court officials submitted memorials urging that the heir first enter the Palace of Heavenly Purity and then move to Ciqing. When she received Guangdou's memorial she was furious and was about to punish him severely. She repeatedly sent messengers to summon Guangdou; he replied: "I am a judicial officer of the emperor; unless the emperor summons me I will not go." Who are you to summon me? The Selection Attendant grew still angrier and invited Emperor Xizong to the Palace of Heavenly Purity to settle the matter. Xizong refused to go; he had Guangdou's memorial brought to him, approved of it in his heart, and ordered a date set for the move of palace, sparing Guangdou from punishment. At that time the palace and court were in peril and the people anxious; Guangdou and Yang Lian worked together in counsel, driving back the eunuch faction and supporting the young emperor—the throne was secured, and the two men's contribution was great. From then on court and country alike spoke of them as "Yang and Zuo."

未几，御史贾继春上书内阁，言帝不当薄待庶母。光斗闻之，即上言：“先帝宴驾，大臣从乾清宫奉皇上出居慈庆宫，臣等以为不宜避选侍。故臣于初二日具《慎守典礼肃清宫禁》一疏，宫中震怒，祸几不测。赖皇上保全，发臣疏于内阁。初五日，阁臣具揭再催，奉旨移宫。至初六日，皇上登极，驾还乾清。宫禁肃然，内外宁谧。夫皇上既当还宫，则选侍之当移，其理明白易晓。惟是移宫以后，自宜存大体，捐小过。若复株连蔓引，使宫闱不安，即于国体有损。乞立诛盗宝宫奴刘逊等，而尽宽其余。 ”帝乃宣谕百官，备述选侍凌虐圣母诸状。及召见，又言：“朕与选侍有仇。 ”继春用是得罪去。

Before long, Censor Jia Jichun wrote to the Grand Secretariat, arguing that the emperor should not treat his stepmother harshly. When Guangdou heard this he immediately submitted a memorial: "When the late emperor passed away, the grand ministers led Your Majesty from the Palace of Heavenly Purity to the Palace of Manifest Blessings; we believed it improper to avoid the Selection Attendant." Therefore on the second day I submitted my memorial 'Uphold Ceremonies and Maintain Palace Discipline'; the palace was enraged and I nearly met with disaster. Only thanks to Your Majesty's protection was my memorial sent to the Grand Secretariat. On the fifth day the grand secretaries submitted another urging, and an edict ordered the move of palace. On the sixth day Your Majesty ascended the throne and returned to the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Palace discipline was restored and peace returned within and without. Since Your Majesty ought to return to the palace, the Selection Attendant ought to move—this logic is plain enough. But after the move of palace, the larger interest should be preserved and minor faults overlooked. If connections are again pursued and punishments spread widely, unsettling the inner palace, the dignity of the state itself would suffer. I beg that the palace slaves Liu Xun and others who stole treasures be executed at once, while all others be fully pardoned. The emperor then addressed all officials, fully recounting how the Selection Attendant had abused the empress dowager. When he received them in audience, he added: "I bear a grudge against the Selection Attendant." Jichun was punished and dismissed on this account.

时廷臣议改元。或议削泰昌弗纪，或议去万历四十八年，即以今年为泰昌，或议以明年为泰昌，后年为天启。光斗力排其说，请从今年八月以前为万历，以后为泰昌，议遂定。孙如游由中旨入阁，抗疏请斥之。出督畿辅学政，力杜请寄，识鉴如神。

At the time court officials debated changing the reign title. Some proposed dropping Taichang from the record entirely; some proposed omitting the forty-eighth year of Wanli and treating this year as Taichang; others proposed making next year Taichang and the year after Tianqi. Guangdou forcefully rejected these proposals and argued that everything before the eighth month of this year should count as Wanli and everything after as Taichang; the debate was then settled. When Sun Ruyou was brought into the Grand Secretariat by direct imperial order, Guangdou submitted a defiant memorial demanding his removal. As superintendent of civil examinations in the capital region, he resolutely shut down backdoor nominations, and his eye for talent seemed almost uncanny.

天启初，廷议起用熊廷弼，罪言官魏应嘉等。光斗独抗疏争之，言廷弼才优而量不宏，昔以守辽则有余，今以复辽则不足。已而廷弼竟败。三年秋，疏请召还文震孟、满朝荐、毛士龙、徐大相等，并乞召继春及范济世。济世亦论“移宫”事与光斗异者，疏上不纳。其年擢大理丞，进少卿。

Early in the Tianqi reign, the court took up reinstating Xiong Tingbi and punishing remonstrating officials such as Wei Yingjia. Guangdou alone submitted a defiant memorial in dissent, arguing that while Xiong Tingbi's talent was considerable, his vision was too narrow: he had been more than enough to hold Liaodong, but not enough to win it back. In time, Xiong Tingbi was defeated just as he had warned. That autumn of the third year, he memorialized asking that Wen Zhenmeng, Man Chaojian, Mao Shilong, Xu Datong, and others be recalled to office, and also pleaded for the return of Ji Chun and Fan Jishi. Fan Jishi had also taken a different line from Guangdou on the Transfer of the Palace affair, and the memorial was rejected. That same year he was promoted to vice director of the Court of Judicial Review and then to vice minister.

明年二月拜左佥都御史。是时，韩爌、赵南星、高攀龙、杨涟、郑三俊、李邦华、魏大中诸人咸居要地，光斗与相得，务为危言核论，甄别流品，正人咸赖之，而忌者浸不能容。光斗与给事中阮大铖同里，招之入京，会吏科都给事中缺，当迁者，首周士朴，次大铖，次大中。大铖邀中旨，勒士朴不迁，以为己地。赵南星恶之，欲例转大铖，大铖疑光斗发其谋，恨甚。熊明遇、徐良彦皆欲得佥都御史，而南星引光斗为之，两人亦恨光斗。江西人又以他故衔大中，遂共嗾给事中傅櫆劾光斗、大中与汪文言比而为奸。光斗疏辨，且诋櫆结东厂理刑傅继教为昆弟。櫆恚，再疏讦光斗。光斗乞罢，事得解。

In the second month of the following year he was made left vice censor-in-chief. At that time Han Kuang, Zhao Nanxing, Gao Panlong, Yang Lian, Zheng Sanjun, Li Banghua, Wei Dazhong, and others all held key posts. Guangdou worked in close accord with them, speaking blunt truths and sorting the worthy from the unworthy. Upright officials looked to him for support, while those who resented him found him increasingly intolerable. Guangdou and the supervising secretary Ruan Dacheng were from the same home district, and Guangdou had invited him to the capital. When the chief supervising secretaryship in the Personnel Section opened up, the order of promotion should have been Zhou Shipu first, then Dacheng, then Dazhong. Dacheng secured a direct imperial order blocking Shipu's promotion, clearing the way for himself. Zhao Nanxing despised him and planned to rotate Dacheng out by routine transfer. Dacheng suspected Guangdou had betrayed his scheme and hated him bitterly. Both Xiong Mingyu and Xu Liangyan had wanted the vice censor-in-chiefship, but Nanxing installed Guangdou in the post instead, and they too came to hate Guangdou. Men from Jiangxi also nursed other grievances against Dazhong, and together they incited the supervising secretary Fu Kui to impeach Guangdou and Dazhong for conspiring with Wang Wenyan in corruption. Guangdou submitted a rebuttal and also accused Kui of being sworn brothers with Fu Jijiao, the Eastern Depot's judicial officer. Enraged, Kui submitted another memorial attacking Guangdou. Guangdou asked to be removed from office, and the affair was settled.

杨涟劾魏忠贤，光斗与其谋，又与攀龙共发崔呈秀赃私，忠贤暨其党咸怒。及忠贤逐南星、攀龙、大中，次将及涟、光斗。光斗愤甚，草奏劾忠贤及魏广微三十二斩罪，拟十一月二日上之，先遣妻子南还。忠贤诇知，先二日假会推事与涟俱削籍。群小恨不已，复构文言狱，入光斗名，遣使往逮。父老子弟拥马首号哭，声震原野，缇骑亦为雪涕。至则下诏狱酷讯。许显纯诬以受杨镐、熊廷弼贿，涟等初不承，已而恐以不承为酷刑所毙，冀下法司，得少缓死为后图。诸人俱自诬服，光斗坐赃二万。忠贤乃矫旨，仍令显纯五日一追比，不下法司，诸人始悔失计。容城孙奇逢者，节侠士也，与定兴鹿正以光斗有德于畿辅，倡议醵金，诸生争应之。得金数千，谋代输，缓其狱，而光斗与涟已同日为狱卒所毙，时五年七月二十有六日也，年五十一。

When Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian, Guangdou helped plan the attack, and together with Panlong he exposed Cui Chengxiu's graft. Zhongxian and his clique were enraged. After Zhongxian drove out Nanxing, Panlong, and Dazhong, Lian and Guangdou were next in line. Guangdou, furious, drafted a memorial charging Zhongxian and Wei Guangwei with thirty-two capital offenses, intending to submit it on the second day of the eleventh month, and first sent his wife and children back south. Zhongxian learned of it through informants and, two days ahead of schedule, used the pretext of a joint recommendation dispute to have both Guangdou and Lian struck from the rolls and dismissed. The petty faction's hatred still burned; they fabricated the Wenyan case anew, added Guangdou's name, and sent agents to seize him. Old men and young crowded around the horses, weeping until their cries shook the countryside, and even the imperial arresters shed tears. Once he arrived, he was thrown into the imperial prison and tortured under interrogation. Xu Xianchun falsely charged them with taking bribes from Yang Hao and Xiong Tingbi. At first Lian and the others refused to confess, but then they feared that holding out would only get them tortured to death, and hoped that if the case went to the regular courts they might buy a little time. They all falsely confessed, and Guangdou was charged with accepting twenty thousand taels in bribes. Zhongxian then forged an edict ordering Xianchun to continue the five-day torture sessions to extract payment, without handing the case to the regular courts. Only then did they realize their mistake. Sun Qifeng of Rongcheng was a man of honor and courage. He and Lu Zhengyi of Dingxing, believing Guangdou had served the capital region well, proposed a public collection, and students rushed to contribute. They raised several thousand taels, intending to pay the alleged bribes on his behalf and ease the case, but Guangdou and Lian had already been beaten to death by prison guards on the same day—the twenty-sixth day of the seventh month of the fifth year. Guangdou was fifty-one.

光斗既死，赃犹未竟。忠贤令抚按严追，系其群从十四人。长兄光霁坐累死，母以哭子死。都御史周应秋犹以所司承追不力，疏趣之，由是诸人家族尽破。及忠贤定《三朝要典》，“移宫”一案以涟、光斗为罪魁，议开棺僇尸。有解之者，乃免。忠贤既诛，赠光斗右都御史，录其一子。已，再赠太子少保。福王时，追谥忠毅。

Even after Guangdou's death, the alleged bribes had still not been fully paid. Zhongxian ordered the provincial governors to pursue payment relentlessly and imprisoned fourteen of Guangdou's kinsmen. His eldest brother Guangji died from the ordeal of imprisonment, and his mother died of grief for her son. Censor-in-chief Zhou Yingqiu still memorialized to press the case, complaining that the responsible offices had not pursued payment vigorously enough. In this way the families of all involved were utterly ruined. When Zhongxian compiled the Record of Essentials from Three Reigns, he named Lian and Guangdou the chief culprits in the Transfer of the Palace affair, and officials debated opening their coffins to whip their corpses. Intercessors spoke up on their behalf, and the measure was dropped. After Zhongxian's execution, Guangdou was posthumously made right censor-in-chief and one of his sons was granted office. Later he was further posthumously honored as Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent. Under the Prince of Fu, he was posthumously granted the title Zhongyi, Loyal and Resolute.

弟光先，由乡举官御史，巡按浙江。任满，既出境，许都反东阳。光先闻变疾返，讨平之。福王既立，马士英荐阮大铖，光先争不可。后大铖得志，逮光先。乱亟道阻，光先间行走徽岭。缇骑索不得，乃止。

His younger brother Guangxian, having passed the provincial examination, served as censor and conducted inspections in Zhejiang. When his term ended and he had already left the province, Xu Du rose in rebellion at Dongyang. Hearing of the uprising, Guangxian rushed back and put the rebellion down. After the Prince of Fu took the throne, Ma Shiying recommended Ruan Dacheng, and Guangxian protested that this must not be allowed. Later, once Dacheng gained power, he ordered Guangxian's arrest. With chaos spreading and roads cut off, Guangxian stole away through the mountain passes of Huiling. The imperial arresters could not find him and abandoned the pursuit.

魏大中，字孔时，嘉善人。自为诸生，读书砥行，从高攀龙受业。家酷贫，意豁如也。举于乡，家人易新衣冠，怒而毁之。第万历四十四年进士，官行人。数奉使，秋毫无所扰。

Wei Dazhong, courtesy name Kongshi, came from Jiashan. From his student days he devoted himself to study and moral discipline, taking Gao Panlong as his teacher. His family was desperately poor, yet his spirit remained open and unburdened. When he passed the provincial examination, his family bought him new clothes and a cap; he angrily tore them apart. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-fourth year of the Wanli reign and served as a courier in the Ministry of Rites. Sent on missions several times, he never took so much as a hair's worth from anyone.

天启元年，擢工科给事中。杨镐、李如桢既论大辟，以佥都御史王德完言，大学士韩爌遽拟旨减死。大中愤，抗疏力争，诋德完晚节不振，尽丧典型，语并侵爌。帝为诘责大中，而德完恚甚，言曩不举李三才为大中所怒。两人互诋讦，疏屡上，爌亦引咎辞位。御史周宗建、徐扬先、张捷、徐景濂、温皋谟，给事中硃钦相右德完，交章论大中，久而后定。

In the first year of the Tianqi reign he was promoted to supervising secretary in the Works Section. After Yang Hao and Li Ruzhen had been sentenced to death, Grand Secretary Han Kuang, on the word of vice censor-in-chief Wang Dewan, hastily drafted an edict commuting the sentence. Dazhong, furious, submitted a defiant memorial, denouncing Dewan for squandering his late reputation and betraying every standard of integrity, with language that also struck at Han Kuang. The emperor rebuked Dazhong, while Dewan, deeply resentful, claimed that Dazhong had turned on him because he had refused to recommend Li Sancai. The two men traded accusations in a flurry of memorials, and Han Kuang also took blame and resigned. Censors Zhou Zongjian, Xu Yangxian, Zhang Jie, Xu Jinglian, and Wen Gaomo, together with supervising secretary Zhu Qinxiang, sided with Dewan and submitted one memorial after another against Dazhong. It was a long time before the uproar subsided.

明年偕同官周朝瑞等两疏劾大学士沈纮，语侵魏进忠、客氏。及议“红丸”事，力请诛方从哲、崔文升、李可灼，且追论郑国泰倾害东宫罪。持议峻切，大为邪党所仄目。太常少卿王绍徽素与东林为难，营求巡抚，大中恶其人，特疏请斥绍徽，绍徽卒自引去。再迁礼科左给事中。是时恤典冒滥，每大臣卒，其子弟夤缘要路以请，无不如志。大中素疾之，一切裁以典制。

The following year, together with his colleague Zhou Chaorui and others, he submitted two memorials impeaching Grand Secretary Shen Hong, with language that also implicated Wei Jinzhong and Lady Ke. When the Red Pill affair came up for debate, he forcefully demanded the execution of Fang Congzhe, Cui Wensheng, and Li Kezhuo, and also pursued charges against Zheng Guotai for harming the crown prince. His positions were harsh and uncompromising, drawing sharp hostility from the corrupt faction. Wang Shaohui, vice minister of rites, had long opposed the Donglin faction and was angling for a provincial governorship. Dazhong despised him and submitted a special memorial calling for his removal; Shaohui eventually withdrew on his own. He was transferred again, to left supervising secretary in the Rites Section. At that time posthumous honors were handed out with reckless extravagance. Whenever a senior minister died, his sons and brothers would use connections to pull strings, and none ever failed to get what they wanted. Dazhong had long despised this abuse and cut every request down to what the statutes actually allowed.

四年迁吏科都给事中。大中居官不以家自随，二苍头给爨而已，入朝则键其户，寂无一人。有外吏以苞苴至，举发之，自是无敢及大中门者。吏部尚书赵南星知其贤，事多咨访。朝士不能得南星意，率怨大中。而是时牴排东林者多屏废，方恨南星辈次骨。东林中，又各以地分左右。大中尝驳苏松巡抚王象恒恤典，山东人居言路者咸怒。及驳浙江巡抚刘一焜，江西人亦大怒。给事中章允儒，江西人也，性尤忮，嗾其同官傅櫆假汪文言发难。

In the fourth year he was made chief supervising secretary in the Personnel Section. In office Dazhong kept no family with him—only two servants to cook his meals. When he went to court he locked his door, and the house stood empty. When an outside official came bearing a bribe, he exposed it; after that no one dared darken his door. Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing recognized his talent and consulted him on many affairs. Court officials who could not win Zhao Nanxing's favor generally blamed Dazhong. Meanwhile, many who had been purged for opposing the Donglin faction hated Nanxing and his allies with a murderous bitterness. Even within the Donglin faction, men split into regional factions of their own. Dazhong once rejected the posthumous honors proposed for Wang Xiangheng, governor of Suzhou-Songjiang, infuriating the Shandong men who held remonstrating posts. When he also rejected the honors for Liu Yikun, governor of Zhejiang, the Jiangxi faction was enraged as well. Zhang Yunru, a supervising secretary from Jiangxi, was especially vindictive by nature. He incited his colleague Fu Kui to launch an attack using Wang Wenyan as a pretext.

文言者，歙人。初为县吏，智巧任术，负侠气。于玉立遣入京刺事，输赀为监生，用计破齐、楚、浙三党。察东宫伴读王安贤而知书，倾心结纳，与谈当世流品。光、熹之际，外廷倚刘一燝，而安居中以次行诸善政，文言交关力为多。魏忠贤既杀安，府丞邵辅忠遂劾文言，褫其监生。既出都，复逮下吏，得末减。益游公卿间，舆马尝填溢户外。大学士叶向高用为内阁中书，大中及韩爌、赵南星、杨涟、左光斗与往来，颇有迹。

Wenyan was a native of She county. He had begun as a county clerk, clever and scheming, with the bold spirit of a knight-errant. Yu Yuli sent him to the capital to gather intelligence. He bought his way in as an academy student and, through intrigue, broke up the Qi, Chu, and Zhe factions. Seeing that the crown prince's reader-in-waiting Wang An was worthy and well read, he won his trust and talked with him about the moral caliber of men in their time. During the reigns of Guangzong and Xizong, the outer court relied on Liu Yihuan while An Zhongxing carried out good policies within the palace one after another; Wenyan's behind-the-scenes work contributed greatly. After Wei Zhongxian had An killed, Assistant Prefect Shao Fuzhong impeached Wenyan and stripped him of his academy status. After leaving the capital he was arrested again and handed over to the courts, receiving the lightest reduced sentence. He moved all the more freely among high ministers and officials, and carriages often packed the street outside his door. Grand Secretary Ye Xianggao employed him as a secretary in the Grand Secretariat. Dazhong, Han Kuang, Zhao Nanxing, Yang Lian, and Zuo Guangdou all had dealings with him, and the connections were not hard to see.

会给事中阮大铖与光斗、大中有隙，遂与允儒定计，嘱櫆劾文言，并劾大中貌陋心险，色取行违，与光斗等交通文言，肆为奸利。疏入，忠贤大喜，立下文言诏狱。大中时方迁吏科，上疏力辩，诏许履任。御史袁化中、给事中甄淑等相继为大中、光斗辨。大学士叶向高以举用文言，亦引罪求罢。狱方急，御史黄尊素语镇抚刘侨曰：“文言无足惜，不可使搢绅祸由此起。 ”侨颔之，狱辞无所连。文言廷杖褫职，牵及者获免。大中乃遵旨履任。明日，鸿胪报名面恩，忠贤忽矫旨责大中互讦未竣，不得赴新任。故事，鸿胪报名状无批谕旨者，举朝骇愕。櫆亦言中旨不宜旁出，大中乃复视事。

At that time supervising secretary Ruan Dacheng was at odds with Guangdou and Dazhong. He joined Yunru in a plot, instructing Kui to impeach Wenyan and also to charge Dazhong with being ugly and treacherous, fair of face but false in deed, trafficking with Wenyan, Guangdou, and the others for illicit gain. The memorial delighted Zhongxian, who immediately had Wenyan thrown into the imperial prison. Dazhong had just been transferred to the Personnel Section. He submitted a vigorous defense, and an edict allowed him to take up his post. Censor Yuan Huazhong, supervising secretary Zhen Shu, and others spoke up in succession on behalf of Dazhong and Guangdou. Grand Secretary Ye Xianggao, having employed Wenyan, also took blame and asked to resign. As the case grew urgent, Censor Huang Zunsu told the prison warden Liu Qiao, "Wenyan is not worth saving, but we must not let this become a calamity for the entire gentry class." Liu nodded in agreement, and the case records implicated no one else. Wenyan was flogged at court and stripped of office, and those who might have been dragged in were spared. Dazhong then took up his post as ordered. The next day, when the Court of Imperial Entertainments registered his name for the audience of grace, Zhongxian suddenly forged an edict rebuking Dazhong for unfinished mutual accusations and barring him from taking up his new post. By precedent, the Court of Imperial Entertainments' roll call never came with a rebuking edict attached, and the whole court was stunned. Even Kui said that direct imperial orders should not be issued on the side like this, and Dazhong was able to resume his duties.

未几，杨涟疏劾忠贤，大中亦率同官上言：“从古君侧之奸，非遂能祸人国也。有忠臣不惜其身以告之君，而其君不悟，乃至于不可救。今忠贤擅威福，结党与，首杀王安以树威于内，继逐刘一燝、周嘉谟、王纪以树威于外，近且毙三戚畹家人以树威于三宫。深结保姆客氏，伺陛下起居；广布傅应星、陈居恭、傅继教辈，通朝中声息。人怨于下，天怒于上，故涟不惜粉身碎首为陛下陈。今忠贤种种罪状，陛下悉引为亲裁，代之任咎。恐忠贤所以得温旨，即出忠贤手，而涟之疏，陛下且未及省览也。陛下贵为天子，致三宫列嫔尽寄性命于忠贤、客氏，能不寒心？陛下谓宫禁严密，外廷安知，枚乘有言‘欲人弗知，莫若弗为’，未有为其事而他人不知者。又谓左右屏而圣躬将孤立。夫陛下一身，大小臣工所拥卫，何藉于忠贤？若忠贤、客氏一日不去，恐禁廷左右悉忠贤、客氏之人，非陛下之人，陛下真孤立于上耳。 ”忠贤得疏大怒，矫旨切让，尚未有以罪也。大学士魏广微结纳忠贤，表里为奸，大中每欲纠之。会孟冬时享，广微偃蹇后至，大中遂抗疏劾之。广微愠，益与忠贤合。忠贤势益张，以廷臣交攻，阳示敛戢，且曲从诸所奏请，而阴伺其隙。迨吏部推谢应祥巡抚山西，广微遂嗾所亲陈九畴劾大中出应祥门，推举不公，贬三秩，出之外，尽逐诸正人吏部尚书赵南星等，天下大权一归于忠贤。

Before long Yang Lian submitted a memorial impeaching Zhongxian, and Dazhong led his colleagues in a memorial stating, "Since antiquity, wicked men at the ruler's side have not been able to ruin a state outright." It is only when loyal ministers risk their lives to warn their lord, and the lord fails to heed them, that ruin becomes irreversible. Now Zhongxian monopolizes power and favor, builds factions, first killed Wang An to terrorize the inner court, then drove out Liu Yihuan, Zhou Jiamo, and Wang Ji to terrorize the outer court, and recently even had three relatives of imperial consorts put to death to terrorize the three palaces. He is deeply bound to the wet nurse Lady Ke, watching Your Majesty's every move; He planted Fu Yingxing, Chen Jugong, Fu Jijiao, and others throughout the capital to keep tabs on everything said and done at court. The people below seethe with grievance and Heaven above burns with anger—so Lian is willing to risk his life to speak plainly to Your Majesty. Now, whenever Zhongxian's crimes come to light, Your Majesty takes them upon yourself as though you had ordered them, shielding him from blame. I suspect the gracious replies Zhongxian obtains are written by Zhongxian himself, while Your Majesty has not even had a chance to read Lian's memorial. Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, yet the consorts of the three palaces have been reduced to placing their lives in the hands of Zhongxian and Lady Ke—does that not fill you with dread? Your Majesty says the inner palace is tightly sealed and the outer court cannot possibly know—but Mei Sheng said, 'If you do not wish others to know, do not do it in the first place.' No deed was ever done that others did not eventually learn of. You also say that if your attendants are cleared away, Your Majesty will be left utterly alone. Your Majesty's person is protected by officials high and low—what need is there of Zhongxian? If Zhongxian and Lady Ke remain even one day longer, every attendant in the inner palace will be theirs, not yours—and then Your Majesty will truly stand alone on the throne. Zhongxian, upon receiving the memorial, flew into a rage and forged an edict sharply rebuking him, though he had not yet found grounds to prosecute him. Grand Secretary Wei Guangwei had thrown in his lot with Zhongxian, the two of them scheming together in public and in private, and Dazhong had long wanted to bring charges against him. At the midwinter seasonal sacrifice, Guangwei arrived late in insolent disregard of protocol, and Dazhong submitted a direct memorial impeaching him. Guangwei nursed his anger and drew even closer to Zhongxian. Zhongxian's power swelled further; beset by attacks from court officials, he feigned restraint, granted their various requests, and secretly watched for an opening. When the Ministry of Personnel nominated Xie Yingxiang as grand coordinator of Shanxi, Guangwei had his protégé Chen Jiuzhou impeach Dazhong as a disciple of Yingxiang's faction and accuse the nomination of bias. Dazhong was demoted three ranks and banished from the capital; upright officials including Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing were driven out one after another, and all power in the realm passed to Zhongxian alone.

明年，逆党梁梦环复劾文言，再下诏狱。镇抚许显纯自削牍以上，南星、涟、光斗、大中及李若星、毛士龙、袁化中、缪昌期、邹维琏、邓渼、卢化鰲、钱士晋、夏之令、王之寀、徐良彦、熊明遇、周朝瑞、黄龙光、顾大章、李三才、惠世扬、施天德、黄正宾辈，无所不牵引，而以涟、光斗、大中、化中、朝瑞、大章为受杨镐、熊廷弼贿，大中坐三千，矫旨俱逮下诏狱。乡人闻大中逮去，号泣送者数千人。比入镇抚司，显纯酷刑拷讯，血肉狼籍。其年七月，狱卒受指，与涟、光斗同夕毙之，故迟数日始报。大中尸溃败，至不可识。庄烈帝嗣位，忠贤被诛，广微、櫆、九畴、梦环并丽逆案。大中赠太常卿，谥忠节，录其一子。

The following year, the traitor Liang Menghuan impeached Wen Yan again, and he was once more thrown into the imperial prison. Commander Xu Xianchun, working upward from a fabricated dossier, dragged in Nanxing, Lian, Guangdou, Dazhong, Li Ruoxing, Mao Shilong, Yuan Huazhong, Miu Changqi, Zou Weilian, Deng Mei, Lu Hu'ao, Qian Shijin, Xia Zhiling, Wang Zhicai, Xu Liangyan, Xiong Mingyu, Zhou Chaorui, Huang Longguang, Gu Dazhang, Li Sancai, Hui Shiyang, Shi Tiande, Huang Zhengbin, and countless others. Lian, Guangdou, Dazhong, Huazhong, Chaorui, and Dazhang were charged with accepting bribes from Yang Hao and Xiong Tingbi—Dazhong's share set at three thousand taels—and by forged edict all were arrested and sent to the imperial prison. When word spread in his home district that Dazhong had been arrested and taken away, several thousand people wept aloud as they saw him off. Once he reached the Brocade Guard prison, Xianchun tortured him with savage cruelty until flesh and blood lay strewn everywhere. That July, on secret orders, the jailers killed him on the same night as Lian and Guangdou; the death was not reported until several days later. Dazhong's body had decayed so badly it could no longer be recognized. When the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, Zhongxian was put to death, and Guangwei, Kui, Jiuzhou, and Menghuan were all named in the roll of traitors. Dazhong was posthumously honored as Minister of Ceremonies with the posthumous name Loyal and Upright, and one of his sons was granted an official appointment.

长子学洢，字子敬。为诸生，好学工文，有至性。大中被逮，学洢号恸欲随行。大中曰：“父子俱碎，无为也。 ”乃微服间行，刺探起居。既抵都，逻卒四布，变姓名匿旅舍，昼伏夜出，称贷以完父赃。赃未竟，而大中毙，学洢恸几绝。扶榇归，晨夕号泣，遂病。家人以浆进，辄麾去，曰：“诏狱中，谁半夜进一浆者？ ”竟号泣死。崇祯初，有司以状闻，诏旌为孝子。

His eldest son was Xueyi, courtesy name Zijing. He was a student, devoted to learning and gifted in writing, and possessed of the deepest filial devotion. When Dazhong was arrested, Xueyi wept in anguish and wanted to go with him. Dazhong said, "If both father and son are destroyed, it will have been for nothing." So he went in disguise by back roads to learn how his father was faring. After reaching the capital, with patrols posted everywhere, he changed his name and hid in an inn, staying indoors by day and venturing out by night, borrowing money to pay off the bribes falsely charged against his father. Before the payments were complete, Dazhong died, and Xueyi's grief nearly killed him. He escorted the coffin home, weeping morning and night, and fell ill. When his family brought him broth, he waved it away and said, "In the imperial prison, who ever brought Father broth in the dead of night?" In the end he died of weeping and grief. Early in the Chongzhen reign, the local authorities reported his story, and an edict commended him as a model of filial piety.

次子学濂，有盛名。举崇祯十六年进士。擢庶吉士。明年，李自成逼京师，与同官吴尔壎慷慨有所论建，大学士范景文以闻。庄烈帝特召见两人，将任用之。无何，京师陷，不能死，受贼户部司务职，颓其家声。既而自惭，赋绝命词二章，缢死。去帝殉社稷时四十日矣。

The second son, Xuelian, enjoyed a great reputation. He passed the jinshi examination in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen. He was appointed a Hanlin probationer. The next year, as Li Zicheng closed in on the capital, he and his colleague Wu Erxun spoke boldly with proposals for action, which Grand Secretary Fan Jingwen reported to the throne. The Chongzhen Emperor summoned the two men for a special audience, intending to put them to use. Before long the capital fell. He failed to die with honor and accepted a clerkship in the rebel Ministry of Revenue, disgracing his family's name. Later, overcome with shame, he wrote two farewell poems and hanged himself. This was forty days after the Emperor had died for the dynasty.

文言之再下诏狱也，显纯迫令引涟等。文言备受五毒，不承，显纯乃手作文言供状。文言垂死，张目大呼曰：“尔莫妄书，异时吾当与面质。 ”显纯遂即日毙之。涟、大中等逮至，无可质者，赃悬坐而已。诸所诬赵南星、缪昌期辈，亦并令抚按追赃。衣冠之祸，由此遍天下。始熊廷弼论死久，帝以孙承宗请，有诏待以不死。刑部尚书乔允升等遂欲因朝审宽其罪，大中力持不可。及忠贤杀大中，乃坐以纳廷弼贿云。

When Wen Yan was thrown back into the imperial prison, Xianchun forced him to implicate Lian and the others. Wen Yan endured every form of torture but refused to confess, so Xianchun wrote Wen Yan's confession himself. Near death, Wen Yan opened his eyes wide and shouted, "Do not write lies—I will confront you face to face one day." Xianchun had him killed that same day. By the time Lian, Dazhong, and the others were arrested, there was no witness left to confront—the bribery charges rested on nothing but invention. Those falsely implicated, including Zhao Nanxing and Miu Changqi, were likewise ordered by provincial governors and inspectors to surrender the alleged bribes. The catastrophe that fell upon the scholar-official class spread across the empire from this point on. Xiong Tingbi had long been under sentence of death; at Sun Chengzong's petition, an edict was issued suspending his execution. Minister of Justice Qiao Yunsheng and others then sought to use the court review to lighten his sentence, but Dazhong firmly opposed it. When Zhongxian had Dazhong killed, he was then charged with having taken bribes from Tingbi—or so they claimed.

周朝瑞，字思永，临清人。万历三十五年进士。授中书舍人。

Zhou Chaorui, courtesy name Siyong, was a native of Linqing. He passed the jinshi examination in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign. He was appointed a Secretariat Drafter.

光宗嗣位，擢吏科给事中，疏请收录先朝遗直。俄陈慎初三要，曰信仁贤，广德泽，远邪佞。因请留上供金花银，以佐军兴。词多斥中贵。中贵皆恶之，激帝怒，贬秩调外，时列谏垣甫四日也。未出都而熹宗立，诏复故官。疏请容纳直言，又陈考选诸弊。日讲将举，进君臣交警之规。帝并褒纳。贾继春之请安李选侍也，朝瑞力驳之，与继春往复者数四。

When Emperor Guangzong ascended the throne, Chaorui was promoted to supervising secretary in the Ministry of Personnel section and memorialized asking that upright officials passed over in the previous reign be restored to office. He soon set forth three essentials for a careful start to the reign: trust the humane and worthy, extend virtue and grace, and keep the wicked and the sycophantic at arm's length. He also asked that the gold and silver tribute reserved for the throne be kept to help fund the war effort. His language largely condemned the palace eunuchs. The eunuchs hated him, stirred the Emperor to anger, and had him demoted and transferred out of the capital—he had held his remonstrance post only four days. Before he had even left the capital, Emperor Xizong ascended the throne, and an edict restored him to his former post. He memorialized asking that blunt counsel be welcomed, and again laid out the abuses in the examination and appointment system. As the daily lectures were about to resume, he submitted admonitions on the mutual vigilance owed between ruler and minister. The Emperor praised and accepted all of it. When Jia Jichun petitioned to install Lady Li the concubine-attendant in permanent residence, Chaorui forcefully rebutted him, exchanging memorials with Jichun four times.

天启元年再迁礼科左给事中。时辽事方棘，朝瑞请于阁臣中推通晓兵事者二人专司其事，而以职方郎一人专理机宜，给事中二人专主封驳，帝可之。雄县知县王纳谏为阉人所诬，中旨镌秩。给事中毛士龙以纠驳阉人，为府丞邵辅忠所陷，中旨除名。朝瑞并抗疏论列。十二月辛巳，日上有一物覆压，忽大风扬沙，天尽赤，都人骇愕，所司不以闻。朝瑞请帝修省，而严敕内外臣工，毋斗争误国，更诘责所司不奏报之罪，帝纳之。时帝践祚岁余，未尝亲政，权多旁落，朝瑞请帝躬览万机。帝降旨，言政委阁臣，祖宗旧制不可紊，然其时政权故不在阁也。

In the first year of Tianqi he was promoted again, to Left Supervising Secretary in the Ministry of Rites section. At the time the Liaodong crisis was acute. Chaorui asked that two grand secretaries versed in military affairs be chosen to manage it exclusively, with one bureau director to handle operational details and two supervising secretaries to handle review and veto. The Emperor approved. Wang Najian, magistrate of Xiong County, was slandered by eunuchs, and a palace edict stripped him of rank. Supervising Secretary Mao Shilong, for censuring eunuchs, was framed by Assistant Commissioner Shao Fuzhong, and a palace edict removed him from office. Chaorui submitted direct memorials protesting both cases together. On the xinsi day of the twelfth month, something seemed to cover and press down upon the sun; suddenly fierce winds whipped up sand until the whole sky turned red. The people of the capital were terrified, yet the responsible offices never reported it. Chaorui asked the Emperor to examine himself and repent, sternly charged officials inside and outside the court not to let factional strife ruin the state, and further demanded accountability for the failure to report—the Emperor accepted. The Emperor had been on the throne more than a year but had never personally governed; power had largely slipped away. Chaorui asked the Emperor to take up the myriad affairs of state himself. The Emperor issued an edict saying that government affairs were entrusted to the grand secretaries and the ancestral system must not be disturbed—yet at that time real power lay elsewhere, not with the grand secretaries.

明年二月，广宁失，诏停经筵日讲。朝瑞等上言：“此果出圣意，辅臣当引义争。如辅臣阿中涓意，则其过滋大。且主上冲龄，志意未定，独赖朝讲不辍，诸臣得一觐天颜，共白指鹿之奸。今常朝已渐传免，倘并讲筵废之，九阍既隔，无谒见时，司马门之报格不入，吕大防之贬不及知，国家大事去矣。 ”会礼部亦以为言，乃命日讲如故。

The following February, after Guangning fell, an edict suspended the classics lectures and daily talks. Chaorui and others submitted: "If this truly came from Your Majesty's own decision, the grand secretaries ought to have argued against it on principle." If the grand secretaries simply indulged the eunuchs, the fault would be all the greater. Moreover, the ruler is still young and his judgment not yet firm. He depends above all on uninterrupted daily lectures, so that officials may see the imperial face and together expose those who would call a deer a horse. Regular audiences are already being waived one after another; if the lecture hall is abolished as well, the nine gates will stand shut and there will be no chance of audience. Reports at the Sima Gate will never get through; demotions like Lü Dafang's will go unnoticed—and the great affairs of state will be lost." The Ministry of Rites made the same argument, and the daily lectures were ordered to continue as before.

已，偕诸给事御史惠世扬、左光斗等极论大学士沈纮结中官练兵，为肘腋之贼。纮疏辨。朝瑞等尽发其贿交魏进忠、卢受、刘朝、客氏，而末复侵其私人邵辅忠、徐大化。语过激，夺疏首世扬俸。大化尝承要人指，力攻熊廷弼，朝瑞恶之。无何，王化贞弃广宁逃，大化又请立诛廷弼。朝瑞以廷弼才可用，请令带罪守山海，疏四上，并抑不行。大化遂力诋朝瑞，朝瑞愤，亦丑诋大化，所司为两解之。朝瑞方擢太仆少卿，而大化为魏忠贤腹心，必欲杀朝瑞，窜其名汪文言狱中，与杨涟等五人并逮下镇抚狱，坐妄议“移宫”及受廷弼贿万金。五日再讯，搒掠备至，竟毙之狱。崇祯初，赠大理卿，予一子官。福王时，谥忠毅。

Later, together with supervising secretaries and censors including Hui Shiyang and Zuo Guangdou, he fiercely denounced Grand Secretary Shen Huan for colluding with eunuchs to drill troops—a traitor at the Emperor's very side. Huan submitted a memorial in self-defense. Chaorui and the others fully exposed his bribery ties with Wei Jinzhong, Lu Shou, Liu Chao, and Lady Ke, and at the end went after his private associates Shao Fuzhong and Xu Dahua as well. The language was judged excessively harsh, and Hui Shiyang, who had led the memorial, had his salary confiscated. Dahua had once, at a powerful man's bidding, fiercely attacked Xiong Tingbi, and Chaorui despised him for it. Before long Wang Huazhen abandoned Guangning and fled, and Dahua again petitioned for Tingbi's immediate execution. Chaorui argued that Tingbi's talent could still be put to use and asked that he be allowed to hold Shanhaiguan while bearing his guilt. He submitted four memorials, all of which were suppressed. Dahua then attacked Chaorui with all his force; Chaorui, furious, vilified Dahua in return, and the responsible offices stepped in to settle the dispute between them. Chaorui had just been promoted to Vice Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, but Dahua, a trusted lieutenant of Wei Zhongxian, was determined to destroy him. He inserted Chaorui's name into Wen Yan's prison dossier together with Yang Lian and four others. All were arrested and sent to the Brocade Guard prison, charged with reckless talk about the "Palace Transfer" affair and accepting ten thousand taels in bribes from Tingbi. On the fifth day he was interrogated again; flogging and torture were applied to the full, and in the end he died in prison. Early in the Chongzhen reign, he was posthumously honored as Chief Minister of Justice, and one son was granted an official appointment. Under the Prince of Fu he was granted the posthumous name Loyal and Resolute.

袁化中，字民谐，武定人。万历三十五年进士。历知内黄、泾阳，有善政。

Yuan Huazhong, courtesy name Minxie, was a native of Wuding. He passed the jinshi examination in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign. He served successively as magistrate of Neihuang and Jingyang, governing well in both posts.

泰昌元年擢御史。时熹宗冲龄践阼，上无母后，宫府危疑。化中上疏劾辅臣方从哲，报闻。天启元年二月，疏陈时事可忧者八：曰宫禁渐弛，曰言路渐轻，曰法纪渐替，曰贿赂渐章，曰边疆渐坏，曰职掌渐失，曰宦官渐盛，曰人心渐离。语皆剀切。出按宣、大，以忧归。服除，起掌河南道。

In the first year of the Taichang reign he was promoted to censor. At the time Emperor Xizong had ascended the throne while still a child; there was no empress dowager above, and both palace and court stood in peril and uncertainty. Huazhong submitted a memorial impeaching Grand Secretary Fang Congzhe, and acknowledgment was received. In the second month of the first year of Tianqi, he submitted a memorial listing eight worrying trends: the inner palace was growing lax, the voice of remonstrance was losing weight, law and discipline were failing, bribery was growing brazen, the frontier was crumbling, official responsibilities were being abandoned, eunuchs were gaining power, and the people's loyalty was slipping away. Every word was sharp and to the point. He went out on censorial tour to Xuanfu and Datong, then returned home to observe mourning. When his mourning period ended, he was recalled to take charge of the Henan circuit.

杨涟劾魏忠贤，化中亦率同官上疏曰：“忠贤障日蔽月，逞威作福，视大臣如奴隶，斥言官若孤雏，杀内廷外廷如草菅。朝野共危，神人胥愤，特陛下未之知，故忠贤犹有畏心。今涟已侃词入告矣，陛下念潜邸微劳，或贷忠贤以不死。而忠贤实自惧一死，惧死之念深，将挺而走险，骑虎难下，臣恐其横逞之毒不在搢绅，而即在陛下。陛下试思，深宫之内，可使多疑多惧之人日侍左右，而不为防制哉？ ”疏入，忠贤大恨。

When Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian, Huazhong also led his fellow officials in submitting a memorial: "Zhongxian blots out sun and moon, wielding power to grant fortune at will. He treats chief ministers like slaves, casts out remonstrating officials like helpless fledglings, and slaughters men within court and without like weeds." Court and countryside alike stand in peril; heaven and men share their fury. Only because Your Majesty does not yet know this does Zhongxian still feel some fear. Lian has already laid his candid charges before the throne. Your Majesty, remembering Zhongxian's small service when you lived in the hidden residence, may be inclined to spare him death. Yet Zhongxian is genuinely terrified of death. The deeper that fear runs, the more likely he is to turn desperate—like a man on a tiger's back who cannot get down. I fear his unchecked malice will strike not the gentry but Your Majesty himself. Consider, Your Majesty: within the inner palace, can a man consumed by suspicion and fear be allowed to wait at your side each day without restraint? " When the memorial reached the throne, Zhongxian hated him intensely.

锦衣陈居恭者，忠贤爪牙也，为涟所论及，亦攻忠贤自解。化中特疏劾之，落其职。毛文龙献俘十二人，而稚儿童女居其八。化中力请释之，因言文龙叙功之滥。忠贤素庇文龙，益不悦。崔呈秀按淮、扬，赃私狼籍，回道考核，化中据实上之，崔呈秀大恨。会谢应祥廷推被讦，化中与其事，呈秀遂嗾忠贤贬化中秩，调之外。已，窜入汪文言狱词中，逮下诏狱。呈秀令许显纯坐以杨镐、熊廷弼贿六千，酷刑拷掠，于狱中毙之。崇祯初，赠太仆卿，官其一子。福王时，追谥忠愍。

Chen Jugong of the Embroidered-Uniform Guard was one of Zhongxian's henchmen. Named in Lian's denunciation, he turned and attacked Zhongxian to save himself. Huazhong submitted a separate memorial impeaching him, and Chen was dismissed from office. Mao Wenlong presented twelve captives, eight of them mere boys and girls. Huazhong pressed hard for their release and denounced Wenlong's reckless inflation of reported merit. Zhongxian had long shielded Wenlong and was all the more displeased. Cui Chengxiu inspected Huai and Yang, leaving a trail of private corruption. On his return-route review, Huazhong reported the facts honestly, and Chengxiu hated him deeply. When Xie Yingxiang was attacked over a metropolitan recommendation, Huazhong had been involved in the matter. Chengxiu then prompted Zhongxian to demote Huazhong and transfer him out of the capital. Before long his name was inserted into Wang Wenyan's case dossier, and he was arrested and sent to the imperial prison. Chengxiu had Xu Xianchun convict him of accepting six thousand taels in bribes from Yang Hao and Xiong Tingbi. Under savage torture he was beaten to death in prison. Early in the Chongzhen reign he was posthumously honored as Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud, and one son was granted an official appointment. Under the Prince of Fu he was granted the posthumous name Loyal and Sorrowful.

顾大章，字伯钦，常熟人。父云程，南京太常卿。大章与弟大韶，孪生子也。大章举万历三十五年进士，授泉州推官，乞改常州教授。父丧除，值朝中朋党角立，正士日摧。大章慨然曰：“昔贾彪不入‘顾’‘厨’之目，卒西行以解其难。余向与东林疏，可以彪自况也。 ”乃入都，补国子博士。与朝士通往来，阴察其交关肯綮，清流赖之。

Gu Dazhang, courtesy name Bojin, was a native of Changshu. His father Yuncheng served as Chief Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices at Nanjing. Dazhang and his younger brother Dashao were twins. Dazhang passed the jinshi examination in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign, was appointed investigating magistrate of Quanzhou, and petitioned to be transferred to instructor at Changzhou. When his mourning period ended, factional camps in court stood locked in opposition, and upright men were being worn down day by day. Dazhang said with feeling: "Long ago Jia Biao was not counted among the 'Gu' and 'Chu' factions, yet in the end he went west to resolve their crisis. I have long kept my distance from the Donglin faction—I may compare myself to Biao." " He then entered the capital and was appointed Doctor of the Imperial Academy. He kept up contacts with court officials, secretly tracking the vital knots of their dealings, and the upright faction relied on him.

稍迁刑部主事。以奉使归。还朝，天启已改元，进员外郎。尚书王纪令署山东司事。司辖辇毂，最难任。自辽阳失，五城及京营巡捕日以逻奸细为事，稍有踪迹，率论死。绝无左验者二百余人，所司莫敢谳，多徙官去，囚未死者仅四之一。大章言于纪曰：“以一身易五十人命且甘之，矧一官乎！ ”即日会谳，系三人，余悉移大理释放。纪大嗟服。佟卜年之狱，纪用大章言拟流卜年，未上而纪斥。侍郎杨东明署事，欲置之大辟，大章力争，卒拟流。忤旨，诘责，竟论卜年辟，瘐死狱中。

He was soon promoted to Secretary in the Ministry of Justice. He returned home while on an official mission. When he returned to court, the Tianqi reign had already begun and he was promoted to Vice Director. Minister Wang Ji ordered him to act in charge of the Shandong section. That section had jurisdiction over the imperial capital region—the hardest post of all. Since Liaoyang fell, the Five Wards and the capital garrison patrol had made daily business of hunting spies; at the slightest trace, execution was the usual verdict. More than two hundred had absolutely no corroborating evidence. The responsible offices dared not adjudicate; many officials transferred away, and only a quarter of the prisoners were still alive. Dazhang said to Ji: "I would gladly trade my own life for fifty others—how much less a single office!" " That same day he convened joint review: three were held, and the rest were transferred to the Court of Judicial Review and released. Ji sighed aloud in admiration. In the case of Tong Bunian, Ji, following Dazhang's counsel, drafted a sentence of exile for Bunian. Before it was submitted, Ji was dismissed. Vice Minister Yang Dongming acted in charge and wished to impose the death penalty. Dazhang argued fiercely, and in the end a sentence of exile was drafted. Defying the imperial will, he was interrogated and rebuked. Bunian was finally sentenced to death and wasted away in prison.

魏忠贤欲借刘一献株累刘一燝，大章力辨其非，忠贤大恨。卜年、一献事具《纪》、《一燝传》中。熊廷弼、王化贞之下吏也，法司诸属二十八人共谳，多有议宽廷弼者。大章因援“议能”、“议劳”例，言化贞宜诛，廷弼宜论戍。然二人卒坐死。大章亦迁兵部去，无异议也。会王纪劾罢徐大化，又疏刺客氏，其党疑纪疏出大章手，恨之。大化令所亲御史杨维垣讦大章妄倡“八议”，鬻大狱，大章疏辨。维垣四疏力攻，言纳廷弼贿四万，且列其鬻狱数事，反覆诋讦不休。大章危甚，赖座主叶向高保持之，下所司验问，都御史孙玮等白其诬。帝以大章渎辨，稍夺其俸，大章遂引归。

Wei Zhongxian wished to use Liu Yiyan to implicate Liu Yijiao. Dazhang forcefully argued that this was wrong, and Zhongxian hated him deeply. The affairs of Bunian and Yiyan are set forth in detail in the biographies of Wang Ji and Liu Yijiao. When Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen were brought before the law officers, twenty-eight officials of the judicial bureaus jointly reviewed the case, and many argued for leniency toward Tingbi. Dazhang, citing the precedents of "weighing merit" and "weighing service," argued that Huazhen deserved execution while Tingbi deserved banishment to the frontier. Yet in the end both were sentenced to death. Dazhang was also transferred to the Ministry of War and left without further objection. When Wang Ji impeached and removed Xu Dahua, and then submitted a memorial attacking the Cui faction, their clique suspected Ji's memorial had come from Dazhang's hand and hated him for it. Dahua had his intimate, Censor Yang Weiyuan, denounce Dazhang for recklessly advocating the "eight deliberations" and selling justice. Dazhang submitted a memorial in rebuttal. Weiyuan pressed the attack with four memorials, saying Dazhang had accepted forty thousand taels in bribes from Tingbi and listing several instances of selling justice, slandering and denouncing him without end. Dazhang was in grave peril. He owed his preservation to his patron Ye Xianggao. The matter was sent to the responsible offices for verification, and Censor-in-Chief Sun Wei and others declared the charges false. The emperor deemed Dazhang's rebuttals disrespectful, slightly reduced his salary, and Dazhang then resigned and returned home.

五年起官。历礼部郎中，陕西副使。大化已起大理丞，与维垣为忠贤鹰犬，因假汪文言狱连及大章，逮下镇抚拷掠，坐赃四万。及杨涟等五人既死，群小聚谋，谓诸人潜毙于狱，无以厌人心，宜付法司定罪，明诏天下。乃移大章刑部狱，由是涟等惨死状外人始闻。比对簿，大章词气不挠。刑部尚书李养正等一如镇抚原词，以“移宫”事牵合封疆，坐六人大辟。爰书既上，忠贤大喜，矫诏布告四方，仍移大章镇抚。大章慨然曰：“吾安可再入此狱！ ”呼酒与大韶诀，趣和药饮之，不死，投缳而卒。崇祯初，赠太仆卿，官其一子。福王时，追谥裕愍。

In the fifth year he was recalled to office. He served successively as Director in the Ministry of Rites and Vice Commissioner of Shaanxi. Dahua had already been raised to Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. He and Weiyuan served as Zhongxian's hawks and hounds. Using the Wang Wenyan case as pretext, they implicated Dazhang, had him arrested and sent to the Embroidered-Uniform Guard for torture, and charged him with forty thousand taels in illicit gains. After Yang Lian and the other five had died, the mob of petty men gathered to plot, saying that if those men had died secretly in prison there was no way to satisfy the people's hearts. They ought to be handed to the judicial bureaus for conviction and an edict broadcast to all under heaven. Dazhang was then moved to the Ministry of Justice prison, and only then did outsiders first hear of the wretched deaths of Lian and the others. When the case record was checked against the books, Dazhang's words and bearing did not yield. Minister of Justice Li Yangzheng and the others followed the Embroidered-Uniform Guard's original dossier to the letter, linking the "Palace Transfer" affair with frontier matters to convict six men of capital crimes. Once the judgment memorial was submitted, Zhongxian rejoiced greatly, forged an edict to proclaim it throughout the realm, and moved Dazhang back to the Embroidered-Uniform Guard. Dazhang said with feeling: "How can I enter this prison again!" " He called for wine to take leave of Dashao, hurried to mix poison and drink it. He did not die, and hanged himself to his end. Early in the Chongzhen reign he was posthumously honored as Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud, and one son was granted an official appointment. Under the Prince of Fu he was granted the posthumous name Ample and Sorrowful.

初，大章等被逮，秘狱中忽生黄芝，光彩远映。及六人毕入，适成六瓣，或以为祥。大章叹曰：“芝，瑞物也，而辱于此，吾辈其有幸乎？ ”已而果然。

At the beginning, when Dazhang and the others were arrested, a yellow fungus suddenly sprang up in the secret prison, its radiance shining far. When all six men had entered, it happened to form six petals. Some regarded it as an auspice. Dazhang sighed: "The fungus is an auspicious thing, yet it is disgraced in this place—do we indeed have fortune?" Before long it proved true indeed.

大韶，字仲恭，老于诸生。通经史百家及内典，于《诗》、《礼》、《仪礼》、《周官》多所发明，他辨驳者复数万言。尝以为宋、元以来述者之事备，学者但当诵而不述，将死，始缮所笺《诗》、《礼》、《庄子》，曰《炳烛斋随笔》云。

Dashao, courtesy name Zhonggong, was a veteran among the licentiates. He mastered the classics, histories, the hundred schools, and Buddhist scriptures. On the Book of Songs, the Book of Rites, the Ceremonial Rites, and the Rites of Zhou he had many original insights; his other disputations ran to tens of thousands of words besides. He once held that since Song and Yuan times the authors' labors had been sufficient, and scholars need only recite rather than compose anew. Near death he at last edited his commentaries on the Book of Songs, the Book of Rites, and the Zhuangzi, calling them Random Notes from the Bright Candle Studio.

王之寀，字心一，朝邑人。万历二十九年进士。除清苑知县，迁刑部主事。

Wang Zhicai, courtesy name Xinyi, was a native of Chaoyi. He passed the jinshi examination in the twenty-ninth year of the Wanli reign. He was appointed magistrate of Qingyuan and then promoted to Secretary in the Ministry of Justice.

四十三年五月初四日酉刻，有不知姓名男子，持枣木梃入慈庆宫门，击伤守门内侍李鉴。至前殿檐下，为内侍韩本用等所执，付东华门守卫指挥硃雄等收之。慈庆宫者，皇太子所居宫也。明日，皇太子奏闻，帝命法司按问。巡皇城御史刘廷元鞫奏：“犯名张差，蓟州人。止称吃斋讨封，语无伦次。按其迹，若涉疯癫，稽其貌，实系黠猾。请下法司严讯。 ”时东宫虽久定，帝待之薄。中外疑郑贵妃与其弟国泰谋危太子，顾未得事端，而方从哲辈亦颇关通戚畹以自固。差被执，举朝惊骇，廷元以疯癫奏。刑部山东司郎中胡士相偕员外郎赵会桢、劳永嘉共讯，一如廷元指。言：“差积柴草，为人所烧，气愤发癫。于四月内诉冤入京，遇不知名男子二人，绐令执梃作冤状。乃由东华门入，直至慈庆宫门。按律当斩，加等立决。 ”稿定未上。山东司主治京师事，署印侍郎张问达以属之。而士相、永嘉与廷元皆浙人，士相又廷元姻也，疯癫具狱，之寀心疑其非。

On the fourth day of the fifth month of the forty-third year, at the double-hour of you, a man of unknown name carrying a jujube-wood club entered the gate of the Palace of Loving Celebration and struck and wounded the gatekeeper attendant Li Jian. Reaching the eaves of the front hall, he was seized by attendants Han Benyong and others and handed over to Zhu Xiong, commander of the guards at the Eastern Flowery Gate, who took him into custody. The Palace of Loving Celebration was where the crown prince resided. The next day the crown prince reported it to the throne, and the emperor ordered the judicial bureaus to investigate. Censor Liu Tingyuan of the imperial city patrol reported after interrogation: "The culprit is named Zhang Cha, a native of Jizhou. He speaks only of keeping a vegetarian diet and seeking an enfeoffment; his words are incoherent. Judging by his conduct he seems deranged; examining his appearance, he is in fact sly and cunning. I request that he be sent down to the judicial bureaus for stern interrogation." Although the Eastern Palace had long been settled, the emperor treated the crown prince coldly. Inside and outside the court suspected Noble Consort Zheng and her brother Guotai of plotting against the crown prince, but no incident had yet materialized. Fang Congzhe and his like also kept close ties with imperial affines to secure themselves. When Cha was seized, the whole court was shocked. Tingyuan reported madness. Hu Shixiang, Director of the Shandong section of the Ministry of Justice, together with Vice Directors Zhao Huizhen and Lao Yongjia jointly interrogated him, exactly following Tingyuan's line. They stated: "Cha had piled firewood, which others burned. In angry despair he went mad. Within the fourth month he came to the capital to plead his grievance, met two men of unknown names who deceived him into taking a club to stage a grievance. He then entered through the Eastern Flowery Gate and went straight to the gate of the Palace of Loving Celebration. Under the law he deserves decapitation; with aggravation, immediate execution." The draft was completed but not yet submitted. The Shandong section had chief jurisdiction over capital affairs; Vice Minister Zhang Wenda, acting with seal, entrusted the matter to them. But Shixiang, Yongjia, and Tingyuan were all men of Zhejiang; Shixiang was moreover related to Tingyuan by marriage. The completed dossier of madness aroused Zhicai's suspicion that it was false.

是月十一日，之寀值提牢散饭狱中，末至差，私诘其实。初言“告状”，复言“凉死罢，已无用”。之寀令置饭差前：“吐实与饭，否则饿死。 ”麾左右出，留二吏扶问之。始言：“小名张五儿。有马三舅、李外父令随不知姓名一老公，说事成与汝地几亩。比至京，入不知街道大宅子。一老公饭我云：‘汝先冲一遭，遇人辄打死，死了我们救汝。 ’畀我枣木棍，导我由后宰门直至宫门上，击门者堕地。老公多，遂被执。 ”之寀备揭其语，因问达以闻。且言差不癫不狂，有心有胆。乞缚凶犯于文华殿前朝审，或敕九卿科道三法司会问。疏入未下，大理丞王士昌、行人司正陆大受、户部主事张庭、给事中姚永济等连上疏趣之。而大受疏有“奸戚”二字，帝恶之，与之寀疏俱不报。廷元复请速检诸疏，下法司讯断。御史过庭训言祸生肘腋，宜亟翦，亦俱不报。庭训遂移文蓟州踪迹之。知州戚延龄具言其致癫始末，言：“贵妃遣珰建佛寺，珰置陶造甓，居民多鬻薪获利者。差卖田贸薪往市于珰，土人忌之，焚其薪。差讼于珰，为所责，不胜愤，持梃欲告御状。 ”于是原问诸臣据为口实矣。

On the eleventh day of that month, Zhicai was on duty distributing meals in the prison and reached Cha last. He privately pressed him for the truth. At first Cha said "to lodge a complaint"; then he said, "Might as well die of cold—it's no use now." Zhicai had the meal set before Cha: "Tell the truth and get food; otherwise starve." " He waved his attendants out and kept two clerks to support and question him. Cha at last said: "My nickname is Zhang the Fifth. My third maternal uncle Ma and my father-in-law Li had me follow an old eunuch of unknown name, who said that if the deed succeeded he would give me several mu of land. When I reached the capital I entered a large house on a street I did not know. An old eunuch fed me and said, "You go in first and charge through—kill anyone you meet. If you die, we'll get you out." He gave me a jujube-wood club and led me from the Rear Butcher Gate straight to the palace gate. I struck the gatekeeper and he fell. There were too many eunuchs, and I was captured. Zhicai recorded every word of this testimony and had Wenda report it to the throne. He added that Cha was neither mad nor deranged: he had purpose and nerve. He asked that the culprits be bound and tried at court before the Hall of Literary Glory, or that the emperor order the Nine Ministers, the censorate, and the Three Judicial Offices to examine the case together. The memorial went in but drew no reply. Wang Shichang, Vice Director of the Court of Judicial Review; Lu Dashou, Bureau Director of the Ministry of Rites; Zhang Ting, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue; Yao Yongji, Supervising Secretary; and others submitted memorial after memorial pressing for action. Dashou's memorial, however, used the phrase "treacherous kinsman," which the emperor loathed. Neither his memorial nor Zhicai's received any reply. Tingyuan again asked that all the memorials be reviewed at once and the case sent to the judicial bureaus for trial. Censor Guo Tingxun warned that disaster was brewing at one's very side and should be cut down at once. That too went unanswered. Tingxun then sent an official dispatch to Jizhou to track down the leads. Prefect Qi Yanling laid out the whole story of how Cha supposedly went mad. He said, "The Noble Consort sent a eunuch to build a Buddhist temple. The eunuch set up kilns to make tiles, and many locals made money selling him firewood. Cha sold his land to buy firewood and peddle it to the eunuch. The locals resented the competition and burned his stock. Cha brought suit against the eunuch and was berated for it. In helpless fury he seized a club and set out to petition the emperor directly. The original investigators now had their ready-made explanation.

二十一日，刑部会十三司司官胡士相、陆梦龙、邹绍光、曾曰唯、赵会祯、劳永嘉、王之寀、吴养源、曾之可、柯文、罗光鼎、曾道唯、刘继礼、吴孟登、岳骏声、唐嗣美、马德沣、硃瑞凤等再审。差供：“马三舅名三道，李外父名守才，不知姓名老公乃修铁瓦殿之庞保，不知街道宅子乃住朝外大宅之刘成。二人令我打上宫门，打得小爷，吃有，著有。 ”小爷者，内监所称皇太子者也。又言：“有姊夫孔道同谋，凡五人。 ”于是刑部行蓟州道，提马三道等，疏请法司提庞保、刘成对鞫，而给事中何士晋与从哲等亦俱以为言。帝乃谕究主使，会法司拟罪。是日，刑部据蓟州回文以上。已，复谕严刑鞫审，速正典刑。时中外籍籍，语多侵国泰，国泰出揭自白。士晋复疏攻国泰，语具《士晋传》。

On the twenty-first, the Ministry of Justice assembled the section directors of its Thirteen Sections—Hu Shixiang, Lu Menglong, Zou Shaoguang, Zeng Yuewei, Zhao Huizhen, Lao Yongjia, Wang Zhicai, Wu Yangyuan, Zeng Zhihe, Ke Wen, Luo Guangding, Zeng Daowei, Liu Jili, Wu Mengdeng, Yue Junsheng, Tang Simei, Ma Defeng, Zhu Ruifeng, and others—to retry the case. Cha testified: "My mother's brother Ma is called Sandao. My father-in-law Li is called Shoucai. The nameless old eunuch is Pang Bao, who repairs the Iron Tile Hall. The house on the street I didn't know belongs to Liu Cheng, who lives in a great mansion outside the court." The two of them told me to strike at the palace gate. I hit the young master. They promised me food and a post." "Young master" was the eunuchs' term for the crown prince. He also said, "My brother-in-law Kong Dao was in on it. There were five of us altogether." The Ministry of Justice then ordered the Jizhou circuit to bring in Ma Sandao and the others, and memorialized asking the judicial bureaus to summon Pang Bao and Liu Cheng for joint interrogation. Supervising Secretary He Shijin, Congzhe, and others said the same. The emperor then ordered the masterminds pursued and told the judicial bureaus to recommend sentences. That same day the Ministry of Justice forwarded Jizhou's reply to the throne. Soon afterward came another edict ordering harsh interrogation under torture and swift execution under the law. Rumors were everywhere, inside court and out, and many pointed at Guotai. He issued a public statement in his own defense. Shijin submitted another memorial attacking Guotai. The full text is in his biography.

先是，百户王曰乾上变，言奸人孔学等为巫蛊，将不利于皇太子，词已连刘成。成与保皆贵妃宫中内侍也。至是，复涉成。帝心动，谕贵妃善为计。贵妃窘，乞哀皇太子，自明无它；帝亦数慰谕，俾太子白之廷臣。太子亦以事连贵妃，大惧，乃缘帝及贵妃意，期速结。二十八日，帝亲御慈宁宫，皇太子侍御座右，三皇孙雁行立左阶下。召大学士方从哲、吴道南暨文武诸臣入，责以离间父子，谕令磔张差、庞保、刘成，无他及。因执太子手曰：“此儿极孝，我极爱惜。 ”既又手约太子体，谕曰：“自襁褓养成丈夫，使我有别意，何不早更置？且福王已之国，去此数千里，自非宣召，能翼而至乎？ ”因命内侍引三皇孙至石级上，令诸臣熟视，曰：“朕诸孙俱长成，更何说？ ”顾问皇太子有何语，与诸臣悉言无隐。皇太子具言：“疯癫之人宜速决，毋株连。 ”又责诸臣云：“我父子何等亲爱，而外廷议论纷如，尔等为无君之臣，使我为不孝之子。 ”帝又谓诸臣曰：“尔等听皇太子语否？ ”复连声重申之。诸臣跪听，叩头出，遂命法司决差。明日磔于市。又明日，司礼监会廷臣鞫保、成于文华门。时已无左证，保、成展转不承。会太子传谕轻拟，廷臣乃散去。越十余日，刑部议流马三道、李守才、孔道。帝从之，而毙保、成于内廷。其事遂止。

Earlier, Company Commander Wang Yueqian had submitted an extraordinary memorial charging that Kong Xue and other villains were practicing witchcraft against the crown prince. The accusation had already named Liu Cheng. Both Cheng and Bao were inner attendants in the Noble Consort's household. Now Liu Cheng was implicated once more. The emperor was shaken. He told the Noble Consort to think of a way out. Cornered, the Noble Consort pleaded with the crown prince for mercy and swore there was nothing more to the affair; the emperor comforted her again and again and had the crown prince tell the court officials the same. The crown prince, terrified that the case would drag in the Noble Consort, fell in with the emperor's and her wishes and wanted the matter closed quickly. On the twenty-eighth the emperor appeared in person at the Palace of Kindly Tranquility. The crown prince sat at his right hand. The three imperial grandsons stood in a row on the steps to the left. He summoned Grand Secretaries Fang Congzhe and Wu Daonan, together with civil and military officials, rebuked them for driving a wedge between father and son, and ordered Zhang Cha, Pang Bao, and Liu Cheng dismembered—and no one else. He took the crown prince's hand and said, "This boy is utterly filial. I cherish him beyond measure. Then he felt the crown prince's frame with his hand and said, "I raised him from swaddling clothes to manhood. If I meant to replace him, why wait until now? Besides, the Prince of Fu is already in his fief thousands of li away. Unless summoned by imperial edict, could he sprout wings and fly here? He had attendants bring the three imperial grandsons up to the stone steps and told the officials to look hard. "All my grandsons are grown," he said. "What more is there to say? He turned and asked what the crown prince wished to say, and told the officials to speak plainly and hold nothing back. The crown prince said plainly, "Madmen should be dealt with at once. Do not implicate others." He also rebuked the officials: "My father and I love each other dearly, yet the outer court buzzes with rumor. You are disloyal ministers who make me look like an unfilial son." The emperor said to the officials again, "Do you hear what the crown prince says? He repeated the question over and over. The officials knelt to listen, kowtowed, and withdrew. The emperor then ordered the judicial bureaus to execute Cha. The next day Cha was dismembered in the marketplace. The day after that, the Directorate of Ceremonial and the court officials interrogated Bao and Cheng at the Gate of Literary Glory. By then there was no witness left to corroborate the charges. Bao and Cheng denied everything again and again. Just then the crown prince sent word recommending lenient treatment, and the court officials broke up and left. More than ten days later, the Ministry of Justice recommended banishment for Ma Sandao, Li Shoucai, and Kong Dao. The emperor agreed, and had Bao and Cheng killed inside the inner court. And so the affair was closed.

当是时，帝不见群臣二十有五年矣，以之寀发保、成事，特一出以释群臣疑，且调剂贵妃、太子。念其事似有迹，故不遽罪之寀也。四十五年京察，给事中徐绍吉、御史韩浚用拾遗劾之寀贪，遂削其籍。

By then the emperor had not met his officials for twenty-five years. Zhicai's exposure of the Bao and Cheng affair brought him out once, to quiet the court's suspicions and to balance the Noble Consort against the crown prince. Because the case seemed to have some substance, he did not punish Zhicai right away. At the capital evaluation of the forty-fifth year, Supervising Secretary Xu Shaoji and Censor Han Jun used the remnant-flaws procedure to impeach Zhicai for corruption, and he was struck from the rolls.

天启初，廷臣多为之讼冤，召复故官。二年二月上《复仇疏》，曰：

Early in the Tianqi reign many court officials pleaded his innocence, and he was recalled to his former post. In the second month of the second year he submitted a Memorial of Vengeance, which read:

《礼》，君父之仇，不共戴天。齐襄公复九世之仇，《春秋》大之。曩李选侍气殴圣母，陛下再三播告中外，停其贵妃之封，圣母在天之灵必有心安而目瞑者。此复仇一大义也。

The Book of Rites says that the enemy of one's ruler and father is one with whom one cannot share the same sky. When Duke Xiang of Qi avenged a wrong nine generations old, the Spring and Autumn Annals held it up as a great deed. When Select Attendant Li once beat the Empress Dowager in a fit of rage, Your Majesty proclaimed the outrage throughout the realm and withheld her enfeoffment as Noble Consort. The Empress Dowager's spirit in heaven must have rested easier and closed her eyes in peace. That was one great act of righteous vengeance.

乃先帝一生遭逢多难，弥留之际，饮恨以崩。试问：李可灼之误用药，引进者谁？崔文升之故用药，主使者谁？恐方从哲之罪不在可灼、文升下。此先帝大仇未复者，一也。

Yet the late emperor endured hardship all his life and, at the hour of death, passed away consumed by bitter resentment. I ask: who brought in Li Kezhuo and his fatal prescription? Who ordered Cui Wensheng to administer that improper medicine? I fear Fang Congzhe's guilt may be no less than Kezhuo's or Wensheng's. This is the first of the late emperor's great wrongs still unavenged.

张差持梃犯宫，安危止在呼吸。此乾坤何等时，乃刘廷元曲盖奸谋，以疯癫具狱矣。胡士相等改注口语，以卖薪成招矣。其后复谳，差供同谋举事，内外设伏多人。守才、三道亦供结党连谋，而士相辈悉抹去之。当时有内应，有外援。一夫作难，九庙震惊，何物凶徒，敢肆行不道乃尔！缘外戚郑国泰私结刘廷元、刘光复、姚宗文辈，珠玉金钱充满其室。言官结舌，莫敢谁何，遂无复顾惮，睥睨神器耳。国泰虽死，罪不容诛。法当开棺戮尸，夷其族，赭其宫，而至今犹未议及。此先帝大仇未复者，二也。

Zhang Cha entered the palace with a club in hand. Life and death hung by a breath. At such a moment for the realm, Liu Tingyuan bent over a treacherous plot and closed the dossier as madness. Hu Shixiang and others edited his spoken testimony into polished prose and turned the firewood-selling tale into a confession. At the retrial that followed, Cha testified to a joint plot, with many accomplices posted inside and outside. Shoucai and Sandao also confessed to forming a clique and plotting together, but Shixiang and his colleagues struck every word of it from the record. There were insiders on the scene and backers outside. One man raised an uproar and the Nine Temples trembled—what kind of villain dared commit such an outrage! Because the imperial kinsman Zheng Guotai had privately allied himself with Liu Tingyuan, Liu Guangfu, Yao Zongwen, and their circle, pearls, jade, and gold filled his house. Censorial officials fell silent and dared not touch him. Unafraid at last, they cast greedy eyes on the throne itself. Guotai is dead, yet his crime deserves execution all the same. By law his coffin should be opened and his corpse dismembered, his clan wiped out, and his house painted red—and yet to this day no one has even proposed it. This is the second of the late emperor's great wrongs still unavenged.

总之，用药之术，即梃击之谋。击不中而促之药，是文升之药惨于张差之梃也。张差之前，从无张差；刘成之后，岂乏刘成？臣见陛下之孤立于上矣。又言：

In short, the plot of poisoned medicine was the same plot as the club assault. The club missed its mark, so they turned to medicine—and Wensheng's medicine was crueler than Zhang Cha's club. Before Zhang Cha there had never been a Zhang Cha; after Liu Cheng, will Liu Chengs be in short supply? Your subject sees that Your Majesty stands utterly alone. He went on:

郎中胡士相等，主疯癫者也。堂官张问达，调停疯癫者也。寺臣王士昌疏忠而心佞，评无只字，讼多溢词。堂官张问达语转而意圆，先允疯癫，后宽奸宄。劳永嘉、岳骏声等同恶相济。张差招有“三十六头儿”，则胡士相阁笔；招有“东边一起干事”，则岳骏声言波及无辜；招有“红封票，高真人”，则劳永嘉言不及究红封教。今高一奎见监蓟州，系镇朔卫人。盖高一奎，主持红封教者也；马三道，管给红票者也；庞保、刘成，供给红封教多人撒棍者也。诸奸增减会审公单，大逆不道。

Director Hu Shixiang and his fellows were the ones who drove the madness story. Bureau chief Zhang Wenda was the one who brokered the madness settlement. Ministry official Wang Shichang wrote memorials that sounded loyal but came from a treacherous heart: not one word of real judgment, only floods of inflated rhetoric. Bureau chief Zhang Wenda's words circled back to the same point: first he accepted madness, then he softened toward the real villains. Lao Yongjia, Yue Junsheng, and others abetted one another's crimes. When Zhang Cha's confession named "thirty-six ringleaders," Hu Shixiang stopped writing; when it mentioned "the eastern group at work," Yue Junsheng warned that innocents would be dragged in; when it mentioned "red-sealed tally, Master Gao the Realized One," Lao Yongjia said there was no need to pursue the Red Sealed Sect. Gao Yikui is now held in custody in Jizhou. He is from Zhenshuo Guard. Gao Yikui was the leader of the Red Sealed Sect; Ma Sandao handed out the red tallies; Pang Bao and Liu Cheng supplied the Red Sealed Sect with many club-wielding men. These villains tampered with the joint review record—high treason, plain and simple.

疏入，帝不问，而先主疯癫者恨次骨。

The memorial went in, but the emperor paid it no heed. Those who had first pushed the madness story hated Zhicai to the marrow.

未几，之寀迁尚宝少卿。逾年，迁太仆少卿，寻转本寺卿。廷元及岳骏声、曾道唯以之寀侵己，先后疏辨。之寀亦连疏力折，并发诸人前议差狱时，分金红庙中，及居间主名甚悉。事虽不行，诸人益疾之。

Before long Zhicai was promoted to Vice Director of the Imperial Insignia Office. A year later he was promoted to Vice Director of the Imperial Stud Office, and soon after became Director of that same office. Tingyuan, Yue Junsheng, and Zeng Daowei, believing Zhicai had encroached on their interests, submitted memorials one after another in self-defense. Zhicai fired back with a series of forceful memorials, exposing how the others had once divided bribes in the Red Temple while debating the botched case and naming in detail every intermediary involved. Though nothing came of it, his enemies hated him all the more bitterly.

四年秋，拜刑部右侍郎。明年二月，魏忠贤势大张，其党杨维垣首翻“梃击”之案，力诋之寀，坐除名。俄入之汪文言狱中，下抚按提问。岳骏声复讦之，且言其逼取郑国泰二万金，有诏追治。及修《三朝要典》，其“梃击”事以之寀为罪首。府尹刘志选复重劾之，遂逮下诏狱，坐赃八千，之寀竟瘐死。崇祯初，复官，赐恤。

In the autumn of the fourth year he was appointed vice minister of the Ministry of Punishments. In the second month of the following year Wei Zhongxian's power surged. His follower Yang Weiyuan led the reversal of the Club Assault case, fiercely attacked Zhicai, and he was dismissed from office. Soon he was dragged into Wang Wenyan's case and handed over to the provincial authorities for interrogation. Yue Junsheng denounced him again, claiming he had extorted twenty thousand taels of gold from Zheng Guotai. The throne ordered a full prosecution. When the Record of the Three Reigns was compiled, the Club Assault affair was written to make Zhicai the chief culprit. Metropolitan magistrate Liu Zhixuan impeached him again. He was arrested and sent to the imperial prison, convicted of embezzling eight thousand taels, and Zhicai ultimately died of illness behind bars. Early in the Chongzhen reign his office was restored and posthumous honors were granted.

自“梃击”之议起，而“红丸”、“移宫”二事继之。两党是非争胜，祸患相寻，迄明亡而后已。

Once debate over the Club Assault began, the Red Pill and Palace Move controversies followed in turn. The two factions battled over who was right, calamity followed calamity, and the strife did not end until the dynasty itself collapsed.

赞曰：国之将亡也，先自戕其善类，而水旱盗贼乘之。故祸乱之端，士君子恒先被其毒。异哉，明之所称“三案”者！举朝士大夫喋喋不去口，而元恶大憝因用以剪除善类，卒致杨、左诸人身填牢户，与东汉季年若蹈一辙。国安得不亡乎！

The eulogist writes: When a state is about to fall, it first destroys its own best men—and then flood, drought, and bandits rush in to finish the work. Thus at the outset of calamity, gentlemen and scholars are always the first to taste its poison. How strange were what the Ming called the 'Three Cases'! Court scholar-officials would not stop talking about them, yet the greatest villains used the controversies to purge the good, until Yang, Zuo, and their fellows filled the prisons—walking the same road the Eastern Han had walked in its final years. How could the dynasty not fall!

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