1
張慎言 〈（子履旋）〉 徐石麒解學龍高倬 〈（黃端伯等）〉 左懋第祁彪佳
Zhang Shenyan (Zilüxuan)〉 Xu Shiqi, Jie Xuelong, Gao Zhuo (Huang Duanbo and others)〉 Zuo Maodi, Qi Biaojia
2
天啟初，出督畿輔屯田，言：「天津、靜海、興濟間，沃野萬頃，可墾為田。 近同知盧觀象墾田三千余畝，其溝洫廬舍之制，種植疏浚之方，犁然具備，可仿而行。」 因列上官種、佃種、民種、軍種、屯種五法。 又言：「廣寧失守，遼人轉徙入關者不下百萬。 宜招集津門，以無家之眾，墾不耕之田便。」 詔從之。 嘗疏薦趙南星，劾馮銓，銓大恨。 五年三月，慎言假歸，銓屬曹欽程論劾，誣盜曹縣庫銀三千，遂下撫按征臟，編戍肅州。
Early in the Tianqi reign he was sent to oversee military colony lands around the capital and wrote: "Between Tianjin, Jinghai, and Xingji there is ten thousand qing of rich soil that could be brought under the plow. Not long ago Vice Prefect Lu Guanxiang had reclaimed more than three thousand mu; his layout of canals, housing, planting, and dredging was already complete and could serve as a model." He went on to set out five methods—planting by officials, by tenants, by civilians, by soldiers, and by colony troops. He added: "After Guangning was lost, at least a million Liaodong refugees moved inside the passes. They ought to be assembled at Tianjin so homeless multitudes could conveniently work land that lay fallow." The throne approved his plan. He once recommended Zhao Nanxing and impeached Feng Quan, who thereafter hated him bitterly. In the third month of the fifth year Shenyan went home on leave; Quan had Cao Qincheng impeach him, falsely claiming he had embezzled three thousand taels from the Cao County treasury. The case was sent to the provincial authorities to recover the sum, and he was banished to military service at Suzhou.
3
十七年三月，京師陷。 五月，福王即位南京，命慎言理部事。 上中興十議：曰節鎮，曰親藩，曰開屯，曰叛逆，曰偽命，曰褒恤，曰功賞，曰起廢，曰懲貪，曰漕稅。 皆嘉納。 時大起廢籍，慎言薦吳甡、鄭三俊。 命甡陛見，三俊不許，大學士高弘圖所擬也。 勛臣劉孔昭，趙之龍等一日朝罷，群詬於廷，指慎言及甡為奸邪，叱咤徹殿陛。 給事中羅萬象言：「慎言平生具在，甡素有清望，安得指為奸邪？」 孔昭等伏地痛哭，謂慎言舉用文臣，不及武臣，囂爭不已。 又疏劾慎言，極詆三俊。 且謂：：「慎言當迎立時，阻難懷二心。 乞寢牲陛見命，且議慎言欺蔽罪。」 慎言疏辨，因乞休。 萬象又言：「首膺封爵者，四鎮也。 新改京營，又加二鎮銜，何嘗不用武。 年來封疆之法，先帝多寬武臣，武臣報先帝者安在？ 祖制以票擬歸閣臣，參駁歸言官，不聞委勛臣以糾劾也。 使勛臣得兼糾劾，文臣可勝逐哉！」 史可法奏：「慎言疏薦無不當。 諸臣痛哭喧呼，滅絕法紀，恐驕弁悍卒益輕朝廷。」 御史王孫蕃言：「用人，吏部職掌。 奈何廷辱冢宰。」 弘圖等亦以不能戢和文武，各疏乞休，不允。
In the third month of the seventeenth year the capital fell to the rebels. In the fifth month the Prince of Fu took the throne at Nanjing and put Shenyan in charge of the Ministry of Personnel. He presented Ten Proposals for Restoration—on curbing regional commanders, on imperial clans, on opening colony lands, on rebels, on forged orders, on honors for the dead, on rewarding merit, on recalling the dismissed, on punishing graft, and on grain transport and taxation. The court welcomed them all. Officials long out of office were being recalled in large numbers; Shenyan nominated Wu Shen and Zheng Sanjun. Wu Shen was summoned to audience; Zheng Sanjun was denied—at the proposal of Grand Secretary Gao Hongtu. One day after court, meritorious nobles Liu Kongzhao, Zhao Zhilong, and others mobbed the hall, calling Shenyan and Wu Shen traitors and roaring all the way to the palace steps. Supervising Secretary Luo Wanxiang said: "Shenyan's whole career is on record, and Wu Shen has long been known for integrity—how can they be called traitors?" Kongzhao and his party threw themselves down weeping, claiming Shenyan promoted civil men and neglected military officers, and would not stop shouting. They memorialized again to impeach Shenyan and savaged Sanjun. They also charged that when the heir was to be welcomed, Shenyan had obstructed the matter and harbored divided loyalties. They asked that Wu Shen's summons to audience be set aside and that Shenyan's deceit of the throne be investigated." Shenyan answered in a memorial and asked to resign. Wanxiang added: "The first to receive enfeoffment were the four regional commanders. The capital garrison was just reorganized and two more commanders' titles added—when were military men not used? For years frontier policy indulged military men—where are the soldiers who repaid the late emperor? By ancestral usage memorial drafts went to Grand Secretaries and rebuttal to remonstrance officials; meritorious nobles were never entrusted with impeachment. If nobles of merit could also impeach, what civil minister could keep his post!" Shi Kefa wrote: "Every man Shenyan recommended was fit for his post. These men wept and shouted, trampling law and order; I fear arrogant commanders and unruly troops will hold the court in still greater contempt." Censor Wang Sunfan said: "Appointments are the Ministry of Personnel's business. How can the chief minister be humiliated in open court?" Hongtu and others, unable to reconcile civil and military factions, each asked to resign; the throne refused.
4
甡既不出，慎言乞休得請，加太子太保，蔭一子。 山西盡陷於賊，慎言無家可歸，流寓蕪湖、宣城間。 國亡後，疽發於背，戒勿藥，卒，年六十九。
Wu Shen never took office; Shenyan's resignation was granted, with the added title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and hereditary privilege for one son. Shanxi fell entirely to rebels; Shenyan had no home to return to and wandered between Wuhu and Xuancheng. After the dynasty collapsed an abscess broke out on his back; he forbade medicine and died at sixty-nine.
5
慎言少喪二親，鞠於祖母。 及為御史，訃聞，引義乞歸，執喪三年以報。
Shenyan lost both parents in childhood and was raised by his grandmother. When he became a censor and word of his grandmother's death arrived, he cited propriety to ask leave and observed three years of mourning in her stead.
6
子履旋，舉崇禎十五年鄉試。 賊陷陽城，投崖死。 事聞，贈御史。
His son Lüxuan passed the provincial examination in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen. When rebels seized Yangcheng he threw himself from a cliff and died. When word reached the court he was posthumously made investigating censor.
7
徐石麒，字寶摩，嘉興人。 天啟二年進士。 授工部營繕主事，筦節慎庫。 魏忠賢兼領惜薪司，所需悉從庫發，石麒輒持故事格之。 其黨噪於庭，不為動。 御史黃尊素坐忤忠賢下詔獄，石麒為盡力。 忠賢怒，執新城侯王升子下獄，令誣賄石麒，捕系其家人，勒完臟而削其籍。
Xu Shiqi, courtesy name Baomo, was from Jiaxing. He received his jinshi degree in the second year of Tianqi. He was made a principal clerk in the Ministry of Works' construction bureau and oversaw the Jieshen treasury. Wei Zhongxian also ran the Fuelwood Office and drew every need from the treasury; Shiqi repeatedly blocked him on precedent. Zhongxian's men raised a clamor in the courtyard; he did not budge. Investigating Censor Huang Zunsu offended Zhongxian and was sent to the imperial prison; Shiqi did all he could for him. Zhongxian in rage had the Marquis of Xincheng's son Wang Sheng imprisoned and made to accuse Shiqi of bribery; Shiqi's family were seized, forced to pay the full penalty, and his name was struck from the rolls.
8
崇禎三年，起南京禮部主事，就遷考功郎中。 八年佐尚書鄭三俊京察，澄汰至公。 歷尚寶卿、應天府丞。 十一年春入賀。 三俊時為刑部尚書，議侯恂獄不中，得罪。 石麒疏救，釋之。 石麒官南京十余年，至是始入為左通政，累遷光祿卿、通政使。 十五年擢刑部右侍郎，讞吏部尚書李日宣等獄。 帝曰：「枚卜大典，日宣稱詡徇私。」 石麒予輕比，貶二秩。 先是，會推閣臣，日宣一再推，因及副都御史房可壯、工部右侍郎宋玫、大理寺卿張三謨，石麒與焉。 召對便殿，石麒獨不赴。 及是帝怒，戍日宣及吏科都給事中章正宸、河南道御史張煊，奪可壯、玫、三謨及讞獄左侍郎惠世揚官。 石麒代世揚掌部事，旋進左。
In the third year of Chongzhen he was recalled as a principal clerk in the Nanjing Ministry of Rites and soon promoted to director in the Bureau of Evaluations. In the eighth year he assisted Minister Zheng Sanjun in the capital review, purging the roster with scrupulous fairness. He served as chamberlain of the imperial insignia and as vice prefect of Yingtian. In the spring of the eleventh year he went to the capital to offer congratulations. Sanjun was then Minister of Justice; his judgment in the Hou Xun case was found wanting and he was punished. Shiqi memorialized in his defense and secured his release. Shiqi had served at Nanjing for more than ten years; only now did he enter the capital as left vice commissioner of communications, rising in time to chamberlain of imperial sacrificial wine and commissioner of communications. In the fifteenth year he was made vice minister of justice on the right and sentenced Minister of Personnel Li Rixuan and others. The emperor said: "In the great lot-drawing for Grand Secretaries, Rixuan praised men and showed favoritism." Shiqi gave a lighter sentence and was demoted two ranks. Earlier, in the joint nomination for Grand Secretary, Rixuan had pushed repeatedly, bringing in Vice Censor-in-Chief Fang Kezhuang, Vice Minister of Works Song Mei, and Chief Justice Zhang Sanmo—Shiqi among them. When summoned to audience in the side hall, Shiqi alone did not go. Now the emperor in anger banished Rixuan, Chief Supervising Secretary Zhang Zhengkai, and Henan investigating censor Zhang Xuan, and stripped Kezhuang, Mei, Sanmo, and left vice minister Hui Shiyang, who had judged the case, of office. Shiqi replaced Shiyang as acting head of the ministry and soon advanced to the left vice ministership.
9
當是時，帝以威刑馭下，法官引律，大抵深文附會，予重比。 石麒奉命清獄，推明律意，校正今斷獄之不合於律者十余章，先以白同官。 以次審理十三司囚，多寬減。 然廉公，一時大法赫然，無敢幸免者。 兵部尚書陳新甲下獄，朝士多營救。 石麒持之曰：「人臣無境外交。 未有身在朝廷，不告君父而專擅便宜者。 新甲私款辱國，當失陷城寨律，斬。」 帝曰：「未中，可覆擬。」 乃論新甲陷邊城四，陷腹城七十二，陷親藩七，從來未有之奇禍。 當臨敵缺乏，不依期進兵策應，因而失誤軍機者斬。 奏上，新甲棄市，新甲黨皆大恨。
At that time the emperor ruled his officials through harsh punishments; judges citing the code mostly twisted the text and imposed heavy sentences. Shiqi was ordered to review the prisons, expounded the intent of the statutes, and corrected more than ten articles in current sentencing that did not match the code, informing his colleagues first. He then tried prisoners of the thirteen departments in turn, lightening many sentences. Yet he was incorrupt and fair; for a time the law stood stern and none dared hope to escape it. Minister of War Chen Xin jia was imprisoned; many at court pleaded for him. Shiqi held firm: "Ministers may not conduct diplomacy beyond the frontier. No one at court may act on his own authority without informing his sovereign and father. Xin jia's secret dealings shamed the state; he should be judged under the statute for losing frontier fortresses and beheaded." The emperor said: "That does not fit; revise the sentence." They then judged that Xin jia had lost four frontier cities, seventy-two interior cities, and seven imperial fiefs—an unprecedented calamity. Whoever, facing the enemy short of supplies, fails to advance troops on schedule in support and thereby loses the military opportunity, is to be beheaded. When the memorial went up, Xin jia was executed in the marketplace; his faction hated Shiqi bitterly.
10
石麒尋擢本部尚書。 中官王裕民坐劉元斌黨，元斌縱軍淫掠，伏誅，裕民以欺隱不舉下獄。 帝欲殺之，初令三法司同鞫，後專付刑部，石麒議戍煙瘴。 奏成，署院寺名以進。 帝怒其失出，召詰都御史劉宗周，對曰：「此獄非臣讞。」 徐曰：「臣雖不與聞，然閱讞同，已曲盡情事。 刑官所執者法耳。 法如是止，石麒非私裕民也。」 帝曰：「此奴欺罔實甚，卿等焉知？」 令石麒改讞詞，棄之市。 無何，宗周以救姜埰，熊開元獲嚴譴，僉都御史金光辰救之，奪職。 石麒再疏留，不納。 玘、開元既下詔獄，移刑部定罪。 石麒據原詞擬開元贖徒，埰謫戍，不復鞫訊。 帝責對狀，石麒援故事對。 帝大怒，除司官三人名，石麒落職閑住。
Shiqi was soon made minister of justice. Eunuch Wang Yumin was implicated with Liu Yuanbin, who had let his troops plunder and was executed; Yumin was imprisoned for concealing the crime and failing to report it. The emperor wished to kill him; at first he ordered the Three Departments to try the case jointly, then gave it solely to the Ministry of Justice; Shiqi recommended exile to the miasmal frontier. When the memorial was finished he signed the names of the court and ministry and submitted it. The emperor was angry at the lenient sentence and summoned Censor-in-Chief Liu Zongzhou, who replied: "This case was not judged by me." After a pause he said: "Though I did not take part, in reading the joint judgment I see the facts are fully set out. Judges uphold only the law. The law stops there; Shiqi did not favor Yumin out of private regard." The emperor said: "This slave's deceit was grave—how would you know?" He ordered Shiqi to revise the sentence; Yumin was executed in the marketplace. Before long Zongzhou was severely punished for pleading for Jiang Kai and Xiong Kaiyuan; Vice Censor-in-Chief Jin Guangchen, who had pleaded for Zongzhou, was stripped of office. Shiqi memorialized again to keep them in office; the throne refused. Kai and Kaiyuan having been sent to the imperial prison, the case was transferred to the Ministry of Justice for sentencing. Shiqi, going by the original charges, proposed ransom labor for Kaiyuan and banishment for Kai, without further interrogation. The emperor ordered him to answer in person; Shiqi cited precedent. The emperor was furious, struck three officials from the rolls, and Shiqi was dismissed to idle residence.
11
福王監國，召拜右都御史，未任，改吏部尚書。 奏陳省庶官、慎破格、行久任、重名器、嚴起廢、明保舉、交堂廉七事。 時方考選，與都御史劉宗周矢公甄別，以年例出御史黃耳鼎、給事中陸朗於外。 朗賄奄人得留用，石麒發其罪。 朗恚，詆石麒，石麒稱疾乞休。 耳鼎亦兩疏劾石麒，並言其枉殺陳新甲。 石麒疏辯，求去益力。 馬士英擬嚴旨，福王不許，命馳驛歸。
When the Prince of Fu supervised the state, Shiqi was summoned as right censor-in-chief; before he took office he was made Minister of Personnel. He memorialized on seven matters: cutting redundant posts, caution in irregular promotions, long tenure, respect for titles, strict standards for recalling the dismissed, clarity in recommendations, and rotating offices to preserve integrity. Selection was then under way; with Censor-in-Chief Liu Zongzhou he pledged impartial judgment and, by seniority, sent investigating censor Huang Erding and supervising secretary Lu Lang out of the capital. Lang bribed eunuchs to stay in office; Shiqi exposed his crime. Lang in fury slandered Shiqi; Shiqi pleaded illness and asked to resign. Erding too memorialized twice to impeach Shiqi, charging that he had unjustly executed Chen Xin jia. Shiqi answered in a memorial and pressed all the harder to resign. Ma Shiying drafted a harsh edict; the Prince of Fu refused and ordered Shiqi home by express relay.
12
石麒剛方清介，扼於權奸，悒悒不得誌。 士英挾定策功，將圖封，石麒議格之。 中官田成輩納賄請囑，石麒悉拒不應。 由是中外皆怨，構之去。 去後以登極恩，加太子太保。
Shiqi was upright and incorruptible, but hemmed in by powerful traitors and could not achieve what he intended. Shiying, trading on his role in securing the succession, sought enfeoffment; Shiqi's proposal blocked it. Eunuchs such as Tian Cheng offered bribes to solicit favors; Shiqi refused them all. Court and countryside alike resented him and contrived his removal. After he left he was given the added title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent as part of the enthronement favors.
13
明年，南都亡。 石麒時居郡城外，城將破，石麒曰：「吾大臣也，城亡與亡！」 復入居城中，以閏月二十六日朝服自縊死，年六十有八。
The next year the Southern Capital fell. Shiqi was then living outside the city walls; as the city was about to fall he said: "I am a chief minister—when the city falls, I fall with it!" He went back inside the city and on the twenty-sixth day of the intercalary month hanged himself in court dress at the age of sixty-eight.
14
解學龍，字石帆，揚州興化人。 萬歷四十一年進士。 歷金華、東昌二府推官。 天啟二年，擢刑科給事中。 遼東難民多渡海聚登州，招練副使劉國縉請帑金十萬振之，多所幹沒。 學龍三疏發其弊，國縉遂獲譴。 王紀忤魏忠賢削籍，學龍言：「紀亮節弘猷，召置廊廟，必能表正百僚，裁決大務。」 失忠賢意，不報。 已，劾川、貴舊總督張我續貪淫漏網，新總督楊述中縮朒卸責，帝不罪。 學龍通曉政務。 上言：
Jie Xuelong, courtesy name Shifan, was from Xinghua in Yangzhou. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-first year of Wanli. He served as judicial assistant in Jinhua and Dongchang prefectures. In the second year of Tianqi he was made supervising secretary in the Department of Justice. Many Liaodong refugees crossed the sea and gathered at Dengzhou; Vice Commissioner Liu Guojin asked for one hundred thousand taels from the treasury to relieve them, and much of it was embezzled. Xuelong exposed the abuses in three memorials, and Guojin was punished. Wang Ji offended Wei Zhongxian and was struck from the rolls; Xuelong wrote: "Ji has bright integrity and broad vision; if recalled to court he could set an example for the bureaucracy and decide great affairs." This displeased Zhongxian and received no response. He later impeached the former Sichuan-Guizhou governor Zhang Woxu for corruption and debauchery that had gone unpunished, and the new governor Yang Shuzhong for shirking responsibility; the emperor took no action. Xuelong was thoroughly versed in government affairs. He memorialized:
15
遼左額兵舊九萬四千有奇，幾餉四十余萬。 今關上兵止十余萬，月餉乃二十二萬。 遼兵盡潰，關門宜募新兵。 薊鎮舊有額兵，乃亦給厚糈召募。 舊兵以其餉厚，悉竄入新營，而舊額又如故，漏卮可勝言。 國初，文職五千四百有奇，武職二萬八千有奇。 神祖時，文增至一萬六千余，武增至八萬二千余矣。 今不知又增幾倍。 誠度冗者汰之，歲可得餉數十萬。 裁冗吏，核曠卒，俾衛所應襲子弟襲職而不給俸，又可得數十萬。
Eastern Liaodong once had a quota of more than ninety-four thousand troops, with rations of nearly four hundred thousand taels. Today there are barely one hundred thousand troops at the passes, yet monthly pay runs to two hundred twenty thousand taels. The Liaodong armies have collapsed; the passes should recruit fresh troops. The Jizhou garrison already had quota troops, yet rich pay was also offered to recruit more. Old soldiers, drawn by the higher pay, all slipped into the new camps while the old quotas remained on the books—the waste is beyond telling. At the dynasty's founding there were more than five thousand four hundred civil posts and more than twenty-eight thousand military posts. By the reign of the Shenzong Emperor civil posts had risen to more than sixteen thousand and military posts to more than eighty-two thousand. Today they have surely multiplied again beyond counting. If redundant posts were truly identified and cut, several hundred thousand taels in pay could be saved each year. Cut redundant clerks, verify vacant soldiers, and let guard and battalion heirs inherit posts without pay—another several hundred thousand could be saved.
16
京邊米一石，民輸則非一石也。 以民之費與國之收衷之，國之一，民之三。 關餉一斛銀四錢，以易錢則好米值錢百，惡米止三四十錢，又其下腐臭不可食。 以國之費與兵之食衷之，兵之一，國之三。 總計之，民費其六，而兵食其一。 況小民作奸欺漕卒，漕卒欺官司，官司欺天子，展轉相欺，米已化為糠比沙土； 兼濕熱蒸變，食不可咽，是又化有用之六，為無用之一矣。 臣以為莫如修屯政，屯政修則地辟而民有樂土，粟積而人有固誌。 昔吳璘守天水，縱橫鑿渠，綿亙不絕，名曰「地網」，敵騎不能逞。 今仿其制，溝塗之界，各樹土所宜木，小可獲薪果之饒，大可得抗扼之利，敵雖強，何施乎。
For every shi of grain at the capital frontiers, what the people actually deliver is not one shi. Weigh the people's cost against the state's receipt: the state gets one part, the people three. Frontier grain allowance was four qian of silver per hu; exchanged for cash, good rice fetched one hundred cash, poor rice only thirty or forty, and below that it was rotten and inedible. Weigh the state's cost against what the soldiers eat: the soldiers get one part, the state three. In all, the people pay six parts and the soldiers receive one. Moreover commoners cheat transport soldiers, transport soldiers cheat officials, officials cheat the Son of Heaven—each deceiving the next—until the grain is chaff and sand; and damp heat spoils it until it cannot be swallowed—turning the six parts the people pay into the one part that is useless. I believe nothing is better than restoring military colony policy; with colonies restored, land is opened and the people have a secure livelihood, grain is stored and men have firm purpose. When Wu Lin held Tianshui he cut canals in every direction without cease, calling the network the "earth net," so enemy cavalry could not advance. Imitate that system today: along ditches and roads plant trees suited to each soil—small ones for fuel and fruit, large ones to block the enemy; however strong the foe, what can he do?
17
帝亟下所司，而議竟中格。 稍進右給事中。 五年九月，御史智鋌劾學龍及編修侯恪為東林鷹犬，遂削籍。
The emperor quickly referred it to the relevant offices, but the proposal was ultimately blocked. He was soon promoted to right supervising secretary. In the ninth month of the fifth year Investigating Censor Zhi Ting impeached Xuelong and Compiler Hou Ke as Eastern Forest henchmen, and Xuelong was struck from the rolls.
18
崇禎元年起歷戶科都給事中。 以民貧盜起，請大清吏治。 尋劾薊撫王應豸克餉激變，又上足餉十六事。 帝皆采納。 遷太常少卿、太仆卿。 五年改右僉都御史，巡撫江西。 疏言：「臣所部州縣七十八，而坐逋賦降罰者至九十人。 由數歲之逋責於一歲，數人之逋責於一人，故終無及額之日也。 請別新舊，酌多寡，立帶征之法。」 可之。 四方盜賊蜂起，江西獨無重兵，學龍以為言，詔增置千人。 討平都昌、萍鄉諸盜，合閩兵擊破封山妖賊張普薇等，賊遂殄滅。
From the first year of Chongzhen he served as chief supervising secretary of the Department of Revenue. With the people impoverished and bandits rising, he asked for a thorough cleansing of official discipline. He soon impeached Jizhou Grand Coordinator Wang Yingzhi for withholding pay and inciting mutiny, and submitted sixteen proposals on adequate rations. The emperor adopted them all. He was made vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and then minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud. In the fifth year he was made right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Jiangxi. He wrote: "My jurisdiction has seventy-eight prefectures and counties, yet ninety officials have been demoted or punished for tax arrears. Because several years' arrears are charged to a single year and several men's arrears to a single man, quotas can never be met. I ask that old and new arrears be distinguished, amounts weighed, and a method of installment collection established." This was approved. Bandits swarmed everywhere, but Jiangxi alone lacked substantial troops; Xuelong raised the matter and an edict added one thousand men. He pacified bandits in Duchang, Pingxiang, and elsewhere, joined Fujian troops to defeat the Fengshan rebels led by Zhang Puwei, and the bandits were wiped out.
19
十二年冬，擢南京兵部右侍郎。 明年春，將解任，遵例薦舉屬吏，並及遷謫官黃道周。 帝怒，征下獄，責其黨庇行私，廷杖八十，削其籍，移入詔獄，竟坐遣戍。 十五年秋，道周召還，半道請釋學龍，不聽。
In the winter of the twelfth year he was made vice minister of war on the right at Nanjing. The next spring, as he was about to leave office, he followed precedent in recommending subordinates, including the banished official Huang Daozhou. The emperor was furious, summoned him to prison, charged factional favoritism, gave him eighty blows at court, struck his name from the rolls, moved him to the imperial prison, and finally banished him to frontier service. In the autumn of the fifteenth year Daozhou was recalled; halfway he asked that Xuelong be released, but the throne refused.
20
十七年五月，福王立於南京，召拜兵部左侍郎。 十月擢刑部尚書。 時方治從賊之獄，仿唐制六等定罪。 學龍議定，以十二月上之：
In the fifth month of the seventeenth year the Prince of Fu was enthroned at Nanjing and summoned him as left vice minister of war. In the tenth month he was made Minister of Justice. The court was then trying those who had served the rebels, following the Tang system's six grades of punishment. Xuelong finalized the sentences and submitted them in the twelfth month:
21
其一等應磔者：吏部員外郎宋企郊，舉人牛金星，平陽知府張嶙然，太仆少卿曹欽程，御史李振聲、喻上猷，山西提學參議黎誌升，陜西左布政使陸之祺，兵科給事中高翔漢，潼關道僉事楊王休，翰林院檢討劉世芳十一人也。
First grade, death by dismemberment: Vice Director Song Qijiao of the Ministry of Personnel, provincial graduate Niu Jinxing, Prefect Zhang Linran of Pingyang, Vice Minister Cao Qincheng of the Court of the Imperial Stud, investigating censors Li Zhensheng and Yu Shangyou, Shanxi Education Intendant Li Zhisheng, Shaanxi Administration Commissioner Lu Zhiqi, Supervising Secretary Gao Xianghan of the Department of War, Tongguan Vice Commissioner Yang Wangxiu, and Hanlin Reviser Liu Shifang—eleven men in all.
22
二等應斬秋決者：刑科給事中光時亨，河南提學僉事鞏焴，庶吉士周鍾，兵部主事方允昌四人也。
Second grade, beheading at the autumn assizes: Supervising Secretary Guang Shiheng of the Department of Justice, Henan Education Vice Commissioner Gong Huang, Hanlin bachelor Zhou Zhong, and Principal Clerk Fang Yunchang of the Ministry of War—four men.
23
三等應絞擬贖者：翰林修撰兼戶、兵二科都給事中陳名復，戶科給事中楊枝起、廖國遴，襄陽知府王承曾，天津兵備副使原毓宗，庶吉士何胤光，少詹事項煜七人也。
Third grade, strangulation commutable to ransom: Hanlin Compiler Chen Mingfu, concurrently chief supervising secretary of the Departments of Revenue and War; Supervising Secretaries Yang Zhiqi and Liao Guolin of the Department of Revenue; Prefect Wang Chengzeng of Xiangyang; Tianjin Military Defense Vice Commissioner Yuan Yuzong; Hanlin bachelor He Yinguang; and Junior Mentor Xiang Yu—seven men.
24
四等應戍擬贖者：禮部主事王孫蕙，翰林院檢討梁兆陽，大理寺正錢位坤，總督侍郎侯恂，山西副使王秉鑒，御史陳羽白、裴希度、張懋爵，禮部郎中劉大鞏，吏部員外郎郭萬象，給事中申芝芳、金汝礪，舉人吳達，修撰揚廷鑒及黃繼祖十五人也。
Fourth grade, banishment commutable to ransom: Principal Clerk Wang Sunhui of the Ministry of Rites; Hanlin Reviser Liang Zhaoyang; Director Qian Weikun of the Court of Judicial Review; Grand Coordinator Vice Minister Hou Xun; Shanxi Vice Commissioner Wang Bingjian; investigating censors Chen Yubai, Pei Xidu, and Zhang Maojue; Director Liu Dagong of the Ministry of Rites; Vice Director Guo Wanxiang of the Ministry of Personnel; supervising secretaries Shen Zhifang and Jin Ruli; provincial graduate Wu Da; Compiler Yang Tingjian; and Huang Jizu—fifteen men.
25
五等應徒擬贖者：通政司參議宋學顯，諭德方拱乾，工部主事繆沅，給事中呂兆龍、傅振鐸，進士吳剛思，檢討方以智、傅鼎銓，庶吉士張家玉及沈元龍十人也。
Fifth grade, penal servitude commutable to ransom: Vice Commissioner Song Xuexian of the Office of Transmission; Tutor Fang Gongqian; Principal Clerk Miao Yuan of the Ministry of Works; supervising secretaries Lü Zhaolong and Fu Zhenduo; jinshi Wu Gangsi; revisers Fang Yizhi and Fu Dingquan; Hanlin bachelors Zhang Jiayu and Shen Yuanlong—ten men.
26
六等應杖擬贖者：工部員外郎潘同春，禮部員外郎吳泰來，主事張琦，行人王於曜，行取知縣周壽明，進士徐家麒及向列星、李八人也。
Sixth grade, beating commutable to ransom: Vice Director Pan Tongchun of the Ministry of Works; Vice Director Wu Tailai of the Ministry of Rites; Principal Clerk Zhang Qi; Courier Wang Yuyao; selected magistrate Zhou Shouming; jinshi Xu Jiaqi; and Xiang Liexing and Li Huang—eight men.
27
其留北俟後定奪者：少詹事何瑞征、楊觀光，太仆少卿張若麒，副使方大猷，戶部侍郎黨崇雅，吏部侍郎熊文舉，太仆卿葉初春，給事中龔鼎孳、戴明說、孫承澤、劉昌，御史塗必泓、張鳴駿，司業薛所蘊，通政參議趙京仕，編修高爾儼，戶部郎中衛周祚及黃紀、孫襄十九人也。
Those who remained in the north pending later decision: Junior Mentors He Ruizheng and Yang Guanguang; Vice Minister Zhang Ruoqi of the Court of the Imperial Stud; Vice Commissioner Fang Dayou; Vice Minister Dang Chongya of the Ministry of Revenue; Vice Minister Xiong Wenju of the Ministry of Personnel; Minister Ye Chuchun of the Court of the Imperial Stud; supervising secretaries Gong Dingzi, Dai Mingshuo, Sun Chengze, and Liu Chang; investigating censors Tu Bihong and Zhang Mingjun; Director of Studies Xue Suoyun; Vice Commissioner Zhao Jingshi of the Office of Transmission; Compiler Gao Eryan; Director Wei Zhouzuo of the Ministry of Revenue; and Huang Ji and Sun Xiang—nineteen men.
28
其另存再議者：給事中翁元益、郭充、庶吉士魯、吳爾壎、史可程、王自超、白胤謙、梁清標、楊棲鶚、張元琳、呂崇烈、李化麟、朱積、趙颎、劉廷琮，吏部郎中侯佐，員外郎左懋泰，禮部郎中吳之琦，兵部員外郎鄒明魁，行人許作梅，進士胡顯，太常博士龔懋熙及王之牧、王臯、梅鶚、姬琨、朱國壽、吳嵩胤二十八人也。
Those set aside for further deliberation: Supervising Secretaries Weng Yuanyi and Guo Chong; Hanlin bachelors Lu [character unclear], Wu Erxun, Shi Kecheng, Wang Zichao, Bai Yinqian, Liang Qingbiao, Yang Qie, Zhang Yuanlin, Lü Chonglie, Li Hualin, Zhu Ji, Zhao Jiong, and Liu Tingcong; Director Hou Zuo of the Ministry of Personnel; Vice Director Zuo Maotai; Director Wu Zhiqi of the Ministry of Rites; Vice Director Zou Mingkui of the Ministry of War; Courier Xu Zuomei; jinshi Hu Xian; Erudite Gong Maoxi of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices; and Wang Zhimu, Wang Gao, Mei E, Ji Kun, Zhu Guoshou, and Wu Songyin—twenty-eight men.
29
其已奉旨錄用者：兵部尚書張縉彥，給事中時敏，諭德衛胤文、韓四維，御史蘇京，行取知縣黃國琦、施鳳儀，兵部郎中張正聲，內閣中書舍人顧大成及姜荃林等十人也。
Those already appointed by imperial decree: Minister of War Zhang Jinyan; Supervising Secretary Shi Min; Tutors Wei Yinwen and Han Siwei; Investigating Censor Su Jing; selected magistrates Huang Guoqi and Shi Fengyi; Director Zhang Zhengsheng of the Ministry of War; Grand Secretariat Clerk Gu Dacheng; and Jiang Quanlin and others—ten men.
30
得旨：「周鍾等不當緩決，陳名夏等未蔽厥辜，侯恂、宋學顯、吳剛思、方以智、潘同春等擬罪未合。 新榜進士盡汙偽命，不當復玷班聯。」 令再議。 惟方拱乾結納馬、阮，特旨免其罪。
The rescript read: "Zhou Zhong and others should not receive delayed execution; Chen Mingxia and others have not yet paid for their crimes; the sentences proposed for Hou Xun, Song Xuexian, Wu Gangsi, Fang Yizhi, Pan Tongchun, and others do not fit the offenses. Newly listed jinshi are all tainted by the rebel regime and must not again hold court rank." Order further deliberation. Only Fang Gongqian, who had cultivated Ma and Ruan, received a special edict exempting him from punishment.
31
明年正月，學龍奉詔擬周鍾、光時亨等各加一等，潘同春諸臣皆侯補小臣，受偽無據，仍執前律。 當是時，馬、阮必欲殺周鍾。 學龍欲緩其死，謀之次輔王鐸，乘士英註籍上之，且請停刑。 鐸即擬俞旨，褒以詳慎平允。 士英聞之大怒，然事已無及。 大鋮暨其黨張捷、楊維垣聲言欲劾學龍，學龍引疾。 命未下，保國公朱國弼、御史張孫振等詆其曲庇行私，遂削籍。
In the first month of the next year Xuelong, by imperial order, proposed raising Zhou Zhong, Guang Shiheng, and others one grade each; Pan Tongchun and the rest were minor officials awaiting appointment, with no evidence they had served the rebels, and he still applied the earlier statutes. At that time Ma and Ruan were determined to kill Zhou Zhong. Xuelong wished to spare him, consulted Second Grand Secretary Wang Duo, and submitted the memorial while Shiying was registering his credentials, also asking that execution be suspended. Duo at once drafted an approving rescript, praising the proposal as thorough, cautious, and fair. Shiying was furious when he heard, but it was already too late. Ruan Dacheng and his allies Zhang Jie and Yang Weiyuan openly threatened to impeach Xuelong; Xuelong pleaded illness. Before the order came down, Defender of the State Zhu Guobi, Investigating Censor Zhang Sunzhen, and others accused him of favoritism and private dealing, and he was struck from the rolls.
32
大鋮既殺鍾、時亨，即傳旨二等罪斬者謫允充南金齒軍，三等罪絞者充廣西邊衛軍，四等以下俱為民，永不敘用。 然學龍所定案亦多漏網，而所擬一等諸犯，皆隨賊西行，實未嘗正刑辟也。 黃繼祖、沈元龍、向列星、李、黃紀、孫襄、王之牧、王臯、梅鶚、姬琨、朱國壽、吳嵩胤、姜荃林，皆未詳其官。
After Dacheng had killed Zhong and Shiheng, he issued an edict: those sentenced to second-grade beheading were banished to serve in southern Jinchijun; those sentenced to third-grade strangulation to serve in Guangxi frontier guards; fourth grade and below were made commoners and never again employed. Yet many in Xuelong's list also escaped justice, and those he had sentenced to the first grade all followed the rebels west—in fact none ever underwent formal execution. Huang Jizu, Shen Yuanlong, Xiang Liexing, Li Huang, Huang Ji, Sun Xiang, Wang Zhimu, Wang Gao, Mei E, Ji Kun, Zhu Guoshou, Wu Songyin, and Jiang Quanlin—their offices are not recorded in detail.
33
學龍歸，南都旋失。 久之卒於家。
Xuelong went home; the Southern Capital soon fell. He died at home some years later.
34
高倬，字枝樓，忠州人。 天啟五年進士。 除德清知縣，調金華。 崇禎四年，征授御史。 薊遼總督曹文衡與總監鄧希詔相訐奏。 詔殫力幹濟，以副委任。 倬乃上疏言：「文衡骯臟成性，必不能仰鼻息於中官； 希詔睚眥未忘，何能化戈矛為同氣。 封疆事重，宜撤希詔安文衡心。 若文衡不足用，宜更置，勿使中官參之。 諸邊鎮臣如希詔不少，使人效希詔，督撫之展布益難。 即諸邊督撫如文衡亦不少，使人效文衡，將邊事之廢壞愈甚。」 疏入，貶一秩視事。 巡視草場，坐失火下吏。 廷臣申救，不納。 逾年熱審，給事中吳甘來以為言，始釋歸。 起上林署丞，稍遷大理右寺副。
Gao Zhuo, courtesy name Zhilou, was from Zhongzhou. He received his jinshi degree in the fifth year of Tianqi. He was appointed magistrate of Deqing and later transferred to Jinhua. In the fourth year of Chongzhen he was summoned and made investigating censor. Jiliao Grand Coordinator Cao Wenheng and Grand Supervisor Deng Xizhao impeached each other in competing memorials. An edict ordered them to exert themselves fully to fulfill their commissions. Zhuo then wrote: "Wenheng is proud and corrupt by nature and cannot submit to breathing at eunuchs' pleasure; Xizhao has not forgotten the slightest grudge—how can they turn enemies into allies? Frontier affairs are grave; Xizhao should be removed to reassure Wenheng. If Wenheng is unfit for the post, replace him—but do not let eunuchs interfere. There are many frontier garrison officials like Xizhao; if others imitate him, grand coordinators will find it still harder to command. There are also many frontier grand coordinators like Wenheng; if others imitate him, frontier affairs will collapse all the faster." When the memorial arrived he was demoted one rank but kept his post. While inspecting pasture lands he was prosecuted for a fire. Court officials pleaded for him; the throne refused. A year later, at the summer review, Supervising Secretary Wu Ganlai spoke for him and he was at last released. He was recalled as assistant director of the Imperial Park Office and soon promoted deputy director of the right division of the Court of Judicial Review.
35
十一年五月，火星逆行，詔修省。 倬以近者刑獄滋繁，法官務停閣，請敕諸司克期奏報，大者旬，小者五日。 其奉旨覆讞者，或五日三日，務俾積案盡疏，囹圄衰減。 帝為采納。 屢遷南京太仆卿。 太仆故駐滁州，滁為南都西北門戶。 請募州人為兵，保障鄉土，從之。 十六年二月擢右僉都御史，提督操江。 其秋，操江改任武臣劉孔昭，召倬別用，未赴而京師陷。
In the fifth month of the eleventh year Mars moved retrograde and the court ordered self-examination and reform. Zhuo noted that criminal cases had multiplied and judges were stalling; he asked that all offices be ordered to report by deadline—ten days for major cases, five for minor. Cases sent back for review should be decided in five or three days, so that backlog is cleared and the prisons emptied. The emperor adopted his proposal. He was repeatedly promoted to minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud at Nanjing. The Imperial Stud was stationed at Chuzhou, the northwestern gateway to the Southern Capital. He asked to recruit local men as soldiers to defend the region; the court agreed. In the second month of the sixteenth year he was made right vice censor-in-chief and put in charge of training the Yangzi forces. That autumn the Yangzi command was given to the military officer Liu Kongzhao; Zhuo was summoned elsewhere but had not taken up the post when the capital fell.
36
福王立南京，拜倬工部右侍郎。 禦用監內官請給工料銀，置龍鳳幾榻諸器物及宮殿陳設金玉諸寶，計貲數十萬，倬請裁省。 光祿寺辦禦用器至萬五千七百有奇，倬又以為言。 皆不納。 明年二月，由左侍郎拜刑部尚書。 國破，倬投繯死。
When the Prince of Fu was enthroned at Nanjing, Zhuo was made vice minister of works on the right. Eunuchs of the Imperial Supplies Office asked for silver to make dragon-and-phoenix furnishings and palace ornaments in gold and jade, costing several hundred thousand taels; Zhuo asked that the expense be cut. The Court of Imperial Sacrificial Wine was preparing more than fifteen thousand seven hundred imperial utensils; Zhuo protested again. None of his protests was heeded. In the second month of the next year he was promoted from left vice minister to Minister of Justice. When the dynasty fell, Zhuo hanged himself.
37
是時，大臣殉難者：倬與張捷、楊維垣、庶僚則有黃端伯、劉成治、吳嘉胤、龔廷祥。
Among the chief ministers who died for the cause were Zhuo, Zhang Jie, and Yang Weiyuan; among lower officials Huang Duanbo, Liu Chengzhi, Wu Jiayin, and Gong Tingxiang.
38
成治，字廣如，漢陽人。 崇禎七年進士。 福王時，歷官戶部郎中。 國破，忻城伯趙之龍將出降，入戶部封府庫。 成治憤，手搏之，之龍跳而免。 成治自經。
Liu Chengzhi, courtesy name Guangru, was from Hanyang. He received his jinshi degree in the seventh year of Chongzhen. Under the Prince of Fu he served as director in the Ministry of Revenue. When the dynasty fell, Baron of Xincheng Zhao Zhilong was about to surrender and went to the Ministry of Revenue to seal the treasury. Chengzhi in fury seized him; Zhilong broke free and fled. Chengzhi hanged himself.
39
嘉胤，字繩如，松江華亭人。 由鄉舉歷官戶部主事。 奉使出都，聞變，還謁方孝孺祠，投繯死。
Wu Jiayin, courtesy name Shengru, was from Huating in Songjiang. Through the provincial examination he rose to principal clerk in the Ministry of Revenue. On official business he had left the capital; hearing of the fall he returned, visited the shrine of Fang Xiaoru, and hanged himself.
40
廷祥，字伯興，無錫人。 馬世奇門人也。 崇禎十六年進士。 為中書舍人。 城破，衣冠步至武定橋投水死。
Gong Tingxiang, courtesy name Boxing, was from Wuxi. He was a disciple of Ma Shiqi. He received his jinshi degree in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen. He served as a secretarial clerk of the Secretariat. When the city fell he walked in cap and gown to Wuding Bridge and drowned himself.
41
時又有欽天監博士陳於階、國子生吳可箕、武舉黃金璽、布衣陳士達，並死焉。
At the time Imperial Observatory Erudite Chen Yujie, National University student Wu Keji, military examination graduate Huang Jinxi, and commoner Chen Shida also died.
42
左懋第，字蘿石，萊陽人。 崇禎四年進士。 授韓城知縣，有異政。 遭父喪，三年不入內寢，事母盡孝。 十二年，擢戶科給事中。 疏陳四弊，謂民困、兵弱、臣工委頓、國計虛耗也。 又陳貴粟之策，令天下贖罪者盡輸粟，鹽筴復開中之舊，令輸粟邊塞充軍食。 彗星見，詔停刑，懋第請馬上速傳。 又請嚴禁將士剽掠，有司朘削。 請散米錢，振輦下饑民，收養嬰孩。 明年正月，剿餉罷征，亦請馬上速行，恐遠方吏不知，先已征，民不沾實惠。 帝並采納。
Zuo Maodi, courtesy name Luoshi, was from Laiyang. He received his jinshi degree in the fourth year of Chongzhen. He was appointed magistrate of Hancheng and governed with distinction. When his father died he observed mourning for three years without entering the inner chamber and served his mother with full devotion. In the twelfth year he was made supervising secretary in the Department of Revenue. He memorialized on four abuses: popular distress, military weakness, official exhaustion, and empty drain on state finances. He also proposed valuing grain: all who paid fines should pay in grain; the salt monopoly should restore the old kaizhong system, with grain delivered to frontier garrisons for military rations. When a comet appeared the court halted executions; Maodi asked that the edict be relayed at once. He also asked that plunder by troops and squeezing by officials be strictly forbidden. He asked that grain and money be distributed to relieve famine around the capital and that infants be taken in. In the first month of the next year suppression levies were halted; he again asked immediate relay, fearing distant officials would collect before hearing the order and the people would receive no real relief. The emperor adopted them all.
43
三月，大風霾。 帝布袍齋居，禱之不止。 懋第言：「去秋星變，朝停刑而夕即滅。 今者不然，豈陛下有其文未修其實乎？ 臣敢以實進。 練餉之加，原非得已。 乃明旨減兵以省餉，天下共知之，而餉猶未省，何也？ 請自今因兵征餉，預使天下知應加之數，官吏無所逞其奸，以信陛下之明詔。 而刑獄則以睿慮之疑信，定諸囚之死生，諸疑於心與疑信半者，悉從輕典。 豈停刑可止彗，解網不可以返風乎？ 且陛下屢沛大恩，四方死者猶枕藉，盜賊未見衰止，何也？ 由蠲停者止一二。 存留之賦，有司迫考成，催征未敢緩，是以莫救於兇荒。 請於極荒州縣，下詔速停，有司息訟，專以救荒為務。」 帝曰：「然。」 於是上災七十五州縣新、舊、練三餉並停。 中災六十八州縣止征練餉，下災二十八州縣秋成督征。
In the third month came great winds and haze. The emperor wore plain cloth and fasted, praying without cease. Maodi said: "Last autumn when the stars changed, the court halted executions in the morning and by evening the omen had vanished. Now it is not so—has Your Majesty kept the form but not the substance? I dare speak to the substance. The training levy was originally unavoidable. Yet a clear edict ordered troop reductions to save pay—the whole realm knows it—yet pay is still not reduced; why? I ask that henceforth when levies follow troop deployments, the amount be announced in advance so officials cannot cheat and Your Majesty's edict may be trusted. In criminal cases let Your Majesty's judgment of doubt and certainty decide life and death; all cases doubtful in your mind, or half doubtful, should follow lenient statutes. If halting executions can stop comets, cannot loosening the net turn back the wind? Moreover Your Majesty has repeatedly shown great mercy, yet the dead still lie piled across the realm and bandits show no sign of abating—why? Because only one or two levies have truly been remitted. Retained taxes—officials pressed by performance reviews dare not slow collection—so famine cannot be relieved. I ask that in the worst-stricken prefectures and counties an edict halt collection at once, that officials cease litigation, and make famine relief their sole task." The emperor said: "It shall be so." Thereupon in seventy-five prefectures and counties under upper-famine classification, the new, old, and training levies were all halted. In sixty-eight middle-famine prefectures and counties only the training levy was collected; in twenty-eight lower-famine prefectures and counties collection was deferred until after the autumn harvest.
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十四年督催漕運，道中馳疏言：「臣自靜海抵臨清，見人民饑死者三，疫死者三，為盜者四。 米石銀二十四兩，人死取以食，惟聖明垂念。」 又言：「臣自魚臺至南陽，流寇殺戮，村市為墟。 其他饑疫死者，屍積水涯，河為不流，振捄安可不速。」 已又陳安民息盜之策，請核荒田，察逋戶，予以有生之樂，鼓其耕種之心。 又言：「臣有事河干一載，每進父老問疾苦，皆言練餉之害。 三年來，農怨於野，商嘆於途。 如此重派，所練何兵？ 兵在何所？ 剿賊禦邊，效安在？ 奈何使眾心瓦解，一至此極乎！」 又言：「臣去冬抵宿遷，見督漕臣史可法，言山東米石二十兩，而河南乃至百五十兩，漕儲多逋。 朝議不收折色，需本色。 今淮、鳳間麥大熟，如收兩地折色，易麥轉輸，豈不大利。 昔劉晏有轉易之法。 今歲河北大稔，山東東、兗二郡亦有收。 誠出內帑二三十萬，分發所司，及時收糴，於國計便。」 帝即命議行。 屢遷刑科左給事中。
In the fourteenth year he supervised grain transport and sent a swift memorial from the road: "From Jinghai to Linqing I saw the people: three parts starved, three died of plague, four turned bandit. Rice cost twenty-four taels per shi; the dead were taken for food—I beg Your Majesty to take thought." He also wrote: "From Yutai to Nanyang roaming bandits slaughtered until villages and markets were ruins. Besides these, famine and plague left corpses piled along the waterways until rivers ceased to flow—relief cannot wait." He then proposed policies to pacify the people and quell bandits: verify wasteland, find absconded households, restore their livelihood, and rouse them to farm. He also wrote: "I have worked along the river for a year; whenever I asked elders of their hardships, all spoke of the harm of the training levy. For three years farmers have grieved in the fields and merchants sighed on the roads. With such heavy levies, what troops are being trained? Where are they? What success in suppressing bandits or guarding the frontier? How can popular morale be shattered to such a degree!" He also wrote: "Last winter I reached Suqian and met grain transport supervisor Shi Kefa, who said Shandong rice was twenty taels per shi while Henan reached one hundred fifty, and transport stores were deeply in arrears. The court would not accept commuted payment but required grain in kind. Now wheat has ripened greatly between the Huai and Feng regions; if commuted payments were collected in both places and wheat exchanged and transported, would that not be a great benefit? Liu Yan once had a method of exchange and transfer. This year Hebei had a great harvest; Shandong's eastern and Yanzhou commanderies also had good yields. If two or three hundred thousand taels were drawn from the inner treasury, distributed to the relevant offices, and grain bought in season, state finances would benefit." The emperor at once ordered deliberation and implementation. He was repeatedly promoted to left supervising secretary in the Department of Justice.
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十六年秋，出察江防。 明年五月，福王立，進兵科都給事中，旋擢右僉都御史，巡撫應天、徽州諸府。 時大清兵連破李自成，朝議遣使通好，而難其人。 懋第母陳歿於燕，懋第欲因是返柩葬，請行。 乃拜懋第兵部右侍郎兼右僉都御史，與左都督陳弘範、太仆少卿馬紹愉偕，而令懋第經理河北，聯絡關東諸軍。 馬紹愉者，故兵部郎官也，嘗為陳新甲通款事至義州而還。 新甲既誅，紹愉以督戰致衄，為懋第劾罷。 及是紹愉已起官郎中，乃進為少卿，副懋第。 懋第言：「臣此行致祭先帝後梓宮，訪東宮二王蹤跡。 臣既充使臣，勢不能兼理封疆。 且紹愉臣所劾罷，不當復與臣共事。 必用臣經理，則乞命弘範同紹愉出使，而假臣一旅，偕山東撫臣收拾山東以待，不敢復言北行。 如用臣與弘範北行，則去臣經理，但銜命而往，而罷紹愉勿遣。」 閣部議止紹愉，改命原任薊督王永吉。 王令仍遵前諭。
In the autumn of the sixteenth year he inspected Yangzi defenses. In the fifth month of the next year the Prince of Fu was enthroned; Maodi was made chief supervising secretary of the Department of War and soon right vice censor-in-chief, grand coordinator of Yingtian, Huizhou, and other prefectures. The Qing army had repeatedly defeated Li Zicheng; the court discussed sending envoys to seek peace but could not find the right man. Maodi's mother Chen had died in the north; he wished to return her coffin for burial and asked to go. Maodi was appointed vice minister of war on the right and right vice censor-in-chief, to go with Left Commander-in-Chief Chen Hongfan and Court of the Imperial Stud Vice Minister Ma Shaoyu, while also managing Hebei and linking the Guandong armies. Ma Shaoyu was formerly a director in the Ministry of War; he had once conducted peace overtures for Chen Xin jia to Yizhou and returned. After Xin jia was executed, Shaoyu was dismissed by Maodi for defeat while supervising battle. By then Shaoyu had been recalled as director and promoted to vice minister to assist Maodi. Maodi said: "On this mission I will offer sacrifice at the late emperor's coffin and seek traces of the crown prince and his brother. As envoy I cannot also manage the frontier. Moreover Shaoyu was dismissed at my impeachment and ought not serve with me again. If I must manage affairs, then let Hongfan go north with Shaoyu as envoy while I am lent one brigade, together with the Shandong grand coordinator, to settle Shandong—I will not speak of going north. If Hongfan and I go north, remove my management duties—I will go only as envoy—and do not send Shaoyu." The Grand Secretariat agreed to withhold Shaoyu and appointed former Jizhou Governor Wang Yongji instead. Wang ordered that the previous instructions still be followed.
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懋第瀕行言：「臣此行，生死未卜。 請以辭闕之身，效一言。 願陛下以先帝仇恥為心，瞻高皇之弓劍，則思成祖列聖之陵寢何存； 撫江上之殘黎，則念河北、山東之赤子誰恤。 更望時時整頓士馬，必能渡河而戰，始能扼河而守； 必能扼河而守，始能畫江而安。」 眾韙其言。 王令賫白金十萬兩、幣帛數萬匹，以兵三千人護行。 八月，舟渡淮。 十月朔，次張家灣，本朝傳令止許百人從行。
Before departing Maodi said: "On this mission I may not return alive. Allow me, as one who leaves the court, to offer one word. May Your Majesty keep the late emperor's vengeance and shame in your heart; when you look upon the founding emperor's bow and sword, remember what has become of the tombs of the Yongle Emperor and his successors; when you comfort the remnant people south of the river, remember who cares for the people of Hebei and Shandong. I further hope you will constantly drill your forces—only if you can cross the river to fight can you hold the river to defend; only if you can hold the river can you make the Yangzi your boundary and be secure." All praised his words. Wang ordered one hundred thousand taels of silver and tens of thousands of rolls of silk presented, with three thousand troops as escort. In the eighth month they crossed the Huai by boat. On the first day of the tenth month they halted at Zhangjiawan; the Qing court ordered that only one hundred men might accompany them.
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懋第衰糸至入都門，至則館之鴻臚寺。 請祭告諸陵及改葬先帝，不可，則陳太牢於旅所，哭而奠之。 即以是月二十有八日遣還出都。 弘範乃請身赴江南招諸將劉澤清等降附，而留懋第等勿遣。 於是自滄州追還懋第，改館太醫院。 順治二年六月，聞南京失守，慟哭。 其從弟懋泰先為吏部員外郎，降賊，後歸本朝授官矣，來謁懋第。 懋第曰：「此非吾弟也。」 叱出之。 至閏月十二日，與從行兵部司務陳用極，遊擊王一斌，都司張良佐、劉統、王廷佐俱以不降誅，而紹愉獲免。
Maodi in mourning dress entered the capital; on arrival he was lodged at the Court of Imperial Entertainments. He asked to sacrifice at the imperial tombs and rebury the late emperor; when refused, he set out the great offering at his lodging, wept, and made obeisance. On the twenty-eighth day of that month he was sent out of the capital. Hongfan then asked to go south in person to recruit generals such as Liu Zeqing to surrender, while detaining Maodi and his party. They then recalled Maodi from Cangzhou and moved him to the Imperial Medical Academy. In the sixth month of the second year of Shunzhi, hearing that Nanjing had fallen, he wept bitterly. His cousin Maotai had been a vice director in the Ministry of Personnel, surrendered to the rebels, later submitted to the Qing and received office, and came to visit Maodi. Maodi said: "This is not my brother." He shouted and drove him out. On the twelfth day of the intercalary month, Ministry of War clerk Chen Yongji, guerrilla officer Wang Yibin, and regional commanders Zhang Liangzuo, Liu Tong, and Wang Tingzuo were all executed for refusing to surrender; Shaoyu alone was spared.
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祁彪佳，字弘吉，浙江山陰人。 祖父世清白吏。 彪佳生而英特，豐姿絕人。 弱冠，第天啟二年進士，授興化府推官。 始至，吏民易其年少。 及治事，剖決精明，皆大畏服。 外艱歸。 崇禎四年，起御史。 疏陳賞罰之要，言：「黔功因一級疑，稽三年之敘，且恩及督撫總帥帷幄大臣，而陷敵沖鋒之士不預，何以勵行間。 山東之變，六誠連陷，未嘗議及一官，欺蒙之習不可不破。」 帝即命議行。 又言：「九列之長，詰責時聞，四朝遺老或蒙重譴。 諸臣怵嚴威，競迎合以保名位。 臣所慮於大臣者此也。 方伯或一二考，臺員或十余載，竟不得遷除，監司守令多貶秩停俸。 臣子精神才具無余地，展布曷由。 急功赴名之民不勝其掩罪匿瑕。 臣所慮於小臣者此也。 國家聞鼙鼓思將帥，茍得其人，推轂築壇，禮亦宜之。 若必依序循資，冒濫之竇雖可清，獎拔之術或未盡。 臣所慮於武臣者此也。 撫按則使中官監視會同，隙開水火，其忠顯； 潛通交結，其患深。 臣所慮於內臣者此也。」 忤旨譙責。
Qi Biaojia, courtesy name Hongji, was from Shanyin in Zhejiang. His family for generations had been upright officials. Biaojia was gifted from birth and striking in appearance. At twenty he received his jinshi degree in the second year of Tianqi and was appointed judicial assistant in Xinghua Prefecture. When he first arrived, officials and commoners underestimated him for his youth. Once he took up cases, his judgments were sharp and precise, and all came to respect him. He returned home to mourn his father. In the fourth year of Chongzhen he was recalled as investigating censor. He memorialized on rewards and punishments: "Merit in Guizhou was held up over a single grade, promotion delayed three years, while grand coordinators, commanders, and grand secretaries were rewarded—yet men who charged the enemy were left out. How can the ranks be encouraged? In the Shandong disaster six cities fell in succession without a single official held accountable—the habit of deception must be broken." The emperor at once ordered deliberation and implementation. He also wrote: "Heads of the nine ministries are rebuked from time to time; survivors of four reigns sometimes receive heavy punishment. Officials fear stern authority and compete to flatter and preserve their positions. This is what I fear regarding great ministers. Regional governors may serve one or two reviews, censorate members ten years or more, yet receive no promotion; surveillance commissioners, prefects, and magistrates are often demoted and salaries suspended. Officials have no room left to deploy their talents—how can they serve effectively? Men eager for quick success cannot bear scrutiny of their concealed faults. This is what I fear regarding lesser officials. When war drums sound the state thinks of generals; if the right man is found, to push the chariot wheel and build the altar is fitting ritual. If promotion must follow seniority alone, reckless advancement may be curbed, but the art of rewarding merit may be incomplete. This is what I fear regarding military officers. Grand coordinators are made to work with supervising eunuchs—gaps open like fire and water, and loyalty is displayed; secret collusion—the harm runs deep. This is what I fear regarding inner courtiers." He offended the throne and was rebuked.
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尋上《合籌天下全局疏》，以策關、寧，制登海為二大要。 分析中州、秦、晉之流賊，江右、楚、粵之山賊，浙、閩、東粵之海賊，滇、黔、楚、蜀之土賊為四大勢。 極控制駕馭之宜，而歸其要於戢行伍以節餉，實衛所以銷兵。 復陳民間十四大苦：曰裏甲，曰虛糧，曰行戶，曰搜贓，曰欽提，曰隔提，曰訐訟，曰窩訪，曰私稅，曰私鑄，曰解運，曰馬戶，曰鹽丁，曰難民。 帝善其言，下之所司。 出按蘇、松諸府，廉積猾四人杖殺之。 宜興民發首輔周延儒祖墓，又焚翰林陳於鼎、於泰廬，亦發其祖墓。 彪佳捕治如法，而於延儒無所徇，延儒憾之。 回道考核，降俸，尋以侍養歸。 家居九年，母服終，召掌河南道事。 十六年佐大計，問遺莫敢及門。 刷卷南畿，乞休，不允，便道還家。
He soon submitted "Memorial on Coordinating the Overall Situation of the Realm," making policy toward the frontier passes and Ningxia and control of Dengzhou and Haizhou the two great priorities. He analyzed roving bandits in the central plains, Qin, and Shanxi; mountain bandits in Jiangxi, Huguang, and Guangdong; sea bandits in Zhejiang, Fujian, and eastern Guangdong; and native chieftain rebels in Yunnan, Guizhou, Huguang, and Sichuan as four great threats. He set out in detail how to control them, concluding that the key was to restrain the ranks and save pay—solid defense is how arms are laid down. He listed fourteen great popular grievances: the lijia system, false grain accounts, broker households, searches for booty, imperial extradition, indirect extradition, malicious litigation, secret investigations, private taxes, private coining, transport conscription, horse households, salt laborers, and refugees. The emperor approved his words and referred them to the relevant offices. On inspection tour in Suzhou, Songjiang, and other prefectures, he found four long-standing rascals and had them beaten to death. People of Yixing opened Grand Secretary Zhou Yanru's ancestral tomb; they also burned the lodges of Hanlin members Chen Yuding and Chen Yutai and opened their ancestral tombs. Biaojia arrested and punished them according to law, showing no favor to Yanru, who resented it. On return from tour his salary was reduced; he soon went home to care for his parents. He lived at home nine years; when his mother's mourning ended he was summoned to head Henan circuit affairs. In the sixteenth year he assisted the great capital review; no one dared offer him gifts. While reviewing files in the southern capital region he asked to retire; when refused, he returned home by a convenient route.
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北都變聞，謁福王於南京。 王監國，或請登極。 彪佳請發喪，服滿議其儀，從之。 高傑兵擾揚州，民奔避江南，奸民乘機剽兌攵，命彪佳往宣諭，斬倡亂者數人，一方遂安。 遷大理寺丞，旋擢右僉都御史，巡撫江南。 蘇州諸生檄討其鄉官從賊者，奸民和之。 少詹事項煜及大理寺正錢位坤、通政司參議宋學顯、禮部員外郎湯有慶之家皆被焚劫。 常熟又焚給事中時敏家，毀其三代四棺。 彪佳請議從逆諸臣罪，而治焚掠之徒以加等，從之。
Hearing of the fall of the northern capital, he paid his respects to the Prince of Fu at Nanjing. When the prince supervised the state, some urged him to take the throne. Biaojia asked that mourning be proclaimed; when the mourning period ended they discussed the rites, and his proposal was followed. Gao Jie's troops disturbed Yangzhou and people fled south of the river; ruffians seized the chance to plunder; Biaojia was sent to proclaim the court's will, beheaded several ringleaders, and the region was pacified. He was made vice director of the Court of Judicial Review and soon right vice censor-in-chief, grand coordinator of Jiangnan. Suzhou students issued a manifesto denouncing local officials who had served the rebels; ruffians joined in. The homes of Junior Mentor Xiang Yu, Director Qian Weikun of the Court of Judicial Review, Vice Commissioner Song Xuexian of the Office of Transmission, and Vice Director Tang Youqing of the Ministry of Rites were all burned and looted. In Changshu they also burned Supervising Secretary Shi Min's home and destroyed four coffins spanning three generations. Biaojia asked that the crimes of officials who had served the rebels be deliberated and that arson and looting be punished with aggravated sentences; the court agreed.
51
詔設廠衛緝事官。 彪佳上言：「洪武初，官民有犯，或收系錦衣衛，高皇帝見非法淩虐，焚其刑具，送囚刑部。 是祖制原無詔獄也。 後乃以羅織為事，雖曰朝廷爪牙，實為權奸鷹狗。 舉朝盡知其枉，而法司無敢雪。 慘酷等來、周，平反無徐、杜。 此詔獄之弊也。 洪武十五年改儀鑾司為錦衣衛，專掌直駕侍衛等事，未嘗令緝事也。 永樂間設立東廠，始開告密門。 兇人投為廝役，赤手鉅萬。 飛誣及於善良，招承出於私拷，怨憤滿乎京畿。 欲絕苞苴，而苞苴彌盛； 欲清奸宄，而奸宄益多。 此緝事之弊也。 古者刑不上大夫。 逆瑾用事，始去衣受杖。 本無可殺之罪，乃蒙必死之刑。 朝廷受愎諫之名，天下反歸忠直之譽。 此廷杖之弊也。」 疏奏，乃命五城御史體訪，而緝事官不設。
An edict ordered the establishment of secret police in the factory guards. Biaojia wrote: "Early in Hongwu, when officials or commoners offended, some were detained in the Embroidered Uniform Guard; the founding emperor saw illegal abuse, burned their torture implements, and sent prisoners to the Ministry of Justice. By ancestral institution there were originally no imperial prisons. Later they made frame-ups their trade; though called the court's agents, they were in truth the henchmen of powerful traitors. The whole court knew the victims were innocent, yet the judiciary dared not clear them. Cruelty matched the torturers Lai Jun and Zhou Xing; there was no Xu Jie or Du Jin to reverse wrongful verdicts. These are the abuses of the imperial prison system. In the fifteenth year of Hongwu the Ceremonial Guard Office became the Embroidered Uniform Guard, charged only with imperial escort and guard duties, never with investigation. In the Yongle reign the Eastern Depot was established, opening the door to secret denunciation. Vicious men entered service as attendants and with empty hands amassed fortunes. False accusations reached the innocent; confessions were extracted by private torture; resentment filled the capital region. They wished to end bribery, yet bribery grew worse; they wished to clear out wrongdoing, yet wrongdoing multiplied. These are the abuses of secret investigation. In antiquity punishment did not reach great officers. When the traitor Liu Jin held power, officials were first stripped and beaten at court. Men guilty of no capital crime received sentences of certain death. The court gained a reputation for obstinacy, while the realm gave the victims a reputation for loyalty and integrity. These are the abuses of court corporal punishment." When the memorial was submitted, the court ordered the Five Cities investigating censors to conduct inquiries in person, and secret police were not established.
52
督輔部將劉肇基、陳可立、張應夢、於永綬駐京口，浙江入衛都司黃之奎亦部水陸兵三四千戍其地。 之奎禦軍嚴。 四將兵恣橫，刃傷民，浙兵縛而投之江，遂有隙。 已而守備李大開統浙兵斫鎮兵馬，鎮兵與相擊，射殺大開。 亂兵大焚掠，死者四百人。 彪佳至，永綬等遁去。 彪佳劾治四將罪，赒恤被難家，民大悅。
Auxiliary generals Liu Zhaoji, Chen Keli, Zhang Yingmeng, and Yu Yongshou were stationed at Jingkou; Zhejiang Capital Guard Regional Commander Huang Zhikui also deployed three or four thousand land and water troops to garrison the area. Zhikui disciplined his troops strictly. The four generals' troops were unruly and wounded civilians; Zhejiang troops bound them and threw them in the river, opening a rift between the armies. Soon Garrison Commander Li Dakai led Zhejiang troops to attack the garrison forces' horses; the garrison troops fought back and shot Li Dakai dead. Mutinous troops burned and looted on a large scale; four hundred people died. When Biaojia arrived, Yongshou and the others fled. Biaojia impeached and punished the four generals, compensated the victims' families, and the people were greatly pleased.
53
高傑駐瓜洲，跋扈甚，彪佳克期往會。 至期，風大作，傑意彪佳必無來。 彪佳攜數卒沖風渡，傑大駭異，盡撤兵衛，會彪佳於大觀樓。 彪佳披肝膈，勉以忠義，共獎王室。 傑感嘆曰：「傑閱人多矣，如公，傑甘為死！ 公一日在吳，傑一日遵公約矣。」 共飯而別。
Gao Jie was stationed at Guazhou and was very overbearing; Biaojia set a date to meet him. When the day came a great wind blew; Jie assumed Biaojia would not come. Biaojia took a few soldiers and crossed against the wind; Jie was astonished, dismissed all his guards, and met Biaojia at the Daguan Tower. Biaojia spoke from the heart, exhorted him to loyalty and righteousness, and together they pledged service to the dynasty. Jie exclaimed: "I have seen many men; for one like you, sir, I would gladly die! As long as you remain in Wu, I will keep your agreement for one day more." They shared a meal and parted.
54
群小疾彪佳，競詆諆，以沮登極、立潞王為言，彪佳竟移疾去。 明年五月，南都失守。 六月，杭州繼失，彪佳即絕粒。 至閏月四日，紿家人先寢，端坐池中而死，年四十有四。 唐王贈少保、兵部尚書，謚忠敏。
Petty men resented Biaojia and competed in slander, accusing him of obstructing enthronement and favoring the Prince of Lu; Biaojia finally pleaded illness and resigned. In the fifth month of the next year the Southern Capital fell. In the sixth month Hangzhou fell in turn; Biaojia at once stopped eating. On the fourth day of the intercalary month he sent his family to bed first, sat upright in a pool, and died at the age of forty-four. The Prince of Tang posthumously made him Junior Guardian and Minister of War, with the posthumous title Loyal and Keen.
55
贊曰：張慎言、徐石麒等皆北都舊臣，剛方練達，所建白悉有裨時政。 令其受事熙朝，從容展布，庶幾乎列卿之良也。 而遭時不造，內外交訌，動輒齟齬，雖老成何能設施幹濟哉！ 左懋第仗節全貞，蹈死不悔，於奉使之義，亦無愧焉。
The commentator says: Zhang Shenyan, Xu Shiqi, and the rest were old ministers of the northern capital—upright, stern, and practiced—and their proposals all benefited state affairs. Had they served in a flourishing age and been able to act at ease, they might have ranked among the finest ministers. But they met an ill-fated age of strife within and without, friction at every turn—even seasoned statesmen could not achieve practical results! Zuo Maodi upheld his commission and preserved his integrity, facing death without regret—in the duty of an envoy he too was without shame.