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列傳五十二
Biography 52
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Tang Bin, his grandson Zhixu, Lu Longqi, and Zhang Boxing
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Tang Bin, whose style was Kongbo, came from Suizhou in Henan. When rebel armies overran Suizhou in the late Ming, his mother Zhao chose death rather than dishonor; her story is told in the Ming History's biographies of virtuous women. His father Qizu took him to Quzhou in Zhejiang to escape the fighting. In 1645 he brought his father home. In 1652 he became a jinshi, entered the Hanlin Academy as a probationer, and was made a reviser at the National History Institute.
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While plans were being made to compile the Ming History, Bin answered an imperial summons with a memorial: "The Song History was written under the Yuan, yet it still honored Wen Tianxiang and Xie Fangde for their loyalty; the Yuan History was compiled in early Ming, yet it likewise records the integrity of Ding Haoli and Bayan Buha. In 1644 and 1645 many former Ming officials held firm and died rather than submit; they must not all be branded as traitors in the record. The compilers should be instructed to write without fear or favor." The memorial was sent to the relevant departments. Grand Secretaries Feng Quan and Jin Zhijun accused him of glorifying rebellion and drafted a stern reprimand, but the Shunzhi Emperor summoned him to the Southern Park and reassured him in person. Many prefectural and circuit posts stood empty, and the emperor wanted men of both learning and integrity who could turn scholarship to practical use. From the Hanlin Academy he chose Chen Huang, Huang Zhilin, Wang Wujiu, Yang Sisheng, Lan Run, Wang Shunnian, Fan Zhou, Ma Yezeng, Shen Quan, and Bin—ten in all.
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Bin was posted as vice commissioner of the Tongguan Circuit. The empire was fighting in the Guanzhong region, and requisitions poured in from every direction. Regional Commander Chen De was reassigned to Hunan but brought twenty thousand troops to Tong Pass intending to stay. Bin contrived to send them on; at Luoyang they rioted and broke apart. In 1659 he was transferred to the Lingbei Circuit in Jiangxi. The Ming loyalist Li Yuting held a mountain stronghold at Yudu with ten thousand men and had agreed to surrender, but before the deadline Zheng Chenggong struck at Jiangning. Bin judged that Yuting would renege, rode overnight to Nan'an, and organized its defense. Yuting marched up, found the defenses ready, and retreated; Bin sent troops after him and took Yuting prisoner.
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斌念父老，以病乞休，丁父憂。 服闋，聞容城孫奇逢講學夏峰，負笈往從。 康熙十七年，詔舉博學鴻儒，尚書魏象樞、副都御史金鋐以斌薦，試一等，授翰林院侍講，與修明史。 二十年，充日講起居注官、浙江鄉試正考官，轉侍讀。 二十一年，命為明史總裁官，遷左庶子。 二十三年，擢內閣學士。 江寧巡撫缺，方廷推，上曰：「今以道學名者，言行或相悖。 朕聞湯斌從孫奇逢學，有操守，可補江寧巡撫。」 瀕行，諭曰：「居官以正風俗為先。 江蘇習尚華侈，其加意化導，非旦夕事，必從容漸摩，使之改心易慮。」 賜鞍馬一、表裡十、銀五百。 复賜御書三軸，曰：「今當遠離，展此如對朕也！」 十月，上南巡，至蘇州，諭斌曰：「向聞吳閶繁盛，今觀其風土，尚虛華，安佚樂，逐末者多，力田者寡。 爾當使之去奢返樸，事事務本，庶幾可挽頹風。」 上還蹕，斌從至江寧，命還蘇州，賜御書及狐腋蟒服。
Thinking of his elderly father, Bin asked to retire on grounds of illness and then mourned his father's death. After the mourning period he heard that Sun Qifeng of Rongcheng was teaching at Xiafeng and went to join him as a student. In 1678 the court called for eminent scholars; Wei Xiangshu and Jin E recommended Bin, who ranked first in the special examination and became a Hanlin lecturer working on the Ming History. In 1681 he became a daily lecturer and diarist of the imperial court, served as chief examiner for the Zhejiang provincial exams, and was promoted to reader. In 1682 he was named chief compiler of the Ming History and made Left Mentor of the Household of the Heir Apparent. In 1684 he was elevated to Grand Secretariat academician. When the Jiangning governorship fell vacant and the court was nominating candidates, the emperor remarked, "Men who parade as Neo-Confucian sages often fail to live up to their reputations. I am told Tang Bin studied with Sun Qifeng and has real integrity. He should take Jiangning." Before he left, the emperor told him, "Your first duty in office is to set society's morals right. Jiangsu is steeped in extravagance. Reforming it will take time; work patiently and let people change their ways by degrees." The emperor gave him a saddle horse, ten sets of robes, and five hundred taels of silver. He also received three scrolls of the emperor's own writing with the message, "You are going far from court; open these as though you were standing before me!" In the tenth month, on his southern tour, the emperor reached Suzhou and said to Bin, "I had heard that the district around Chang Gate was thriving, but what I see is still vanity, idleness, and pleasure-seeking. Too many chase trade; too few till the soil. You must lead them back from extravagance to simplicity and make every affair turn on essentials. Only then may this decaying custom be turned around." On the return journey Bin accompanied him as far as Jiangning, then was sent back to Suzhou with imperial calligraphy and a python robe lined with fox fur.
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初，餘國柱為江寧巡撫，淮、揚二府被水，國柱疏言：「水退，田可耕，明年當徵賦。」 斌遣覆勘，水未退即田，出水處猶未可耕，奏寢前議。 二十四年，疏言：「江蘇賦稅甲天下，每歲本折五六百萬。 上命分年帶徵漕欠，而地丁錢糧，自康熙十八年至二十二年，五年並徵。 州縣比較，十日一限。 使每日輪比，則十日中三日空閒，七日赴比。 民知剜補無術，拌皮骨以捱徵比； 官知催科計窮，拌降革以圖卸擔。 懇將民欠地丁錢糧照漕項一例，於康熙二十四年起，分年帶徵。」 又疏言：「蘇、鬆土隘人稠，而條銀漕白正耗以及白糧經費漕賸五米十銀，雜項差徭，不可勝計。 區區兩府，田不加廣，而當大省百餘州縣之賦，民力日絀。 順治初，錢糧起存相半，考成之例尚寬。 後因兵餉急迫，起解數多，又定十分考成之例。 一分不完，難逭部議。 官吏顧惜功名，必多苟且。 參罰期迫，則以欠作完； 賠補維艱，又以完為欠。 百姓脂膏已竭，有司智勇俱困。 積欠年久，惟恃恩蠲。 然與其赦免於追呼既窮之後，何若酌減於徵比未加之先。 懇將蘇、松錢糧各照科則量減一二成，定適中可完之實數，再將科則稍加歸併，使簡易明白，便於稽覈。」 又請蠲蘇、松等七府州十三年至十七年未完銀米，淮、揚二府十八九兩年災欠，及邳州版荒、宿遷九釐地畝款項，並失額丁糧，皆下部議行。 九釐地畝款項，即明萬曆後暫加三餉，宿遷派銀四千三百有奇，至是始得蠲免。
Earlier, when Yu Guozhu governed Jiangning, floods struck Huai and Yang prefectures. Guozhu reported, "Once the waters fall the fields can be planted, and taxes should be levied the following year." Bin ordered a fresh survey and found fields still underwater and drained land not yet fit to plant. He memorialized to set aside Guozhu's plan. In 1685 he wrote, "Jiangsu's tax burden leads the empire, with annual payments in grain and silver reaching five or six million taels. The court had allowed transport-tax arrears to be collected year by year, but land and poll taxes from 1679 through 1683 were being demanded all at once. Counties faced collection deadlines every ten days. Even with daily rotation, peasants had only three days in ten free of the tax office; seven were consumed by collection. Knowing they could never make up what they owed, commoners stripped themselves to the bone to meet each deadline; while officials, seeing collection tactics fail, accepted demotion or dismissal rather than keep squeezing the people. He asked that peasant arrears in land and poll tax be collected over several years, as with transport tax, beginning in 1685." He also wrote, "Suzhou and Songjiang were crowded on little land yet bore itemized silver dues, transport surcharges, standard and supplemental grain levies, white-grain fees, transport reserves, and countless miscellaneous corvées. Two prefectures alone, without more farmland, carried a burden equal to that of a hundred counties elsewhere, and the people's strength was failing day by day. Early in the Shunzhi reign only half of collected taxes had to be forwarded immediately, and performance reviews were still lenient. Later, military needs forced larger remittances and a rule requiring one hundred percent collection. A single tenth short invited censure from the Board of Revenue. Officials, anxious to protect their careers, resorted to every expedient. As punishment deadlines neared, they reported shortfalls as paid; when reimbursement proved impossible, they turned completed payments back into arrears. The people had been bled dry, and local officials were at their wits' end. Years of arrears could be cleared only by imperial grace. Better to reduce the burden before collection drives people to ruin than to remit taxes after they have already been crushed. He asked that Suzhou and Songjiang taxes be cut by ten or twenty percent according to the statutory rates, that a realistic payable figure be set, and that the schedules be simplified for easier auditing." He also sought remission of unpaid taxes from 1674 through 1678 in seven prefectures including Suzhou and Songjiang, disaster arrears in Huai and Yang from 1679 and 1680, wasteland assessments in Pi and the nine-fen land tax in Suqian, and lost poll-tax quotas. All were sent to the ministries and approved. The nine-fen land tax was a surcharge dating from the Ming Wanli era's Three Levies; Suqian alone owed more than 4,300 taels, remitted only now.
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When Huai, Yang, and Xu flooded again, Bin laid out a relief plan: fifty thousand taels from the treasury and grain bought in Huguang, with Grain Transport Director Xu Xuling and River Director Jin Fu to distribute aid at Huai'an once the edict arrived. Bin inspected relief work in Qinghe, Taoyuan, Suqian, Pi, and Feng and reported back; the emperor sent Vice Minister Suhe to help. He impeached in turn the prefects Zhao Luxing and Zhang Wanshou and the magistrates Chen Xiejun, Cai Sizhan, Lu Yan, Ge Zhiying, Liu Tao, Liu Maowei, and others. Changzhou Prefect Zu Jinchao was demoted for lax supervision of his staff, but Bin found him honest and asked that he be kept in office. He also recommended Liu Zi of Wu County and Guo Xiu of Wujiang as the most upright and capable magistrates, though they had not collected taxes in full, and asked that they be promoted to the capital. The ministries rejected both requests, but the emperor overruled them by special edict.
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Bin ordered community schools in every county to teach the Classic of Filial Piety and Elementary Learning, restored shrines to Taibo, Fan Zhongyan, and Zhou Shunchang, barred women from pleasure outings and clerks and actors from wearing silk and fur, burned obscene books, and ended cremation. West of Suzhou, on Mount Shangfang, stood a shrine to the Five-Passage Spirit that for centuries drew crowds from far and wide. Locals called the mountain "Flesh Mountain" and the Stone Lake below it "Sea of Wine." When young women fell ill, shamans declared that the spirit would marry them, and many wasted away and died. Bin seized the idols, burned those of wood and sank those of clay, ordered every county to destroy similar shrines, and used the timber to repair school temples. His moral reforms took hold, and the people accepted them willingly.
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Mingzhu was in power, and Yu Guozhu attached himself to him. Provincial Treasurer Gong Qixuan was impeached for corruption by Censor Lu Longqi, but Guozhu bribed Mingzhu and the case was softened; Guozhu wanted to speak for Bin as well, but Bin's rectitude left him no opening. After the Jiangnan tax remissions, Guozhu sent word that Mingzhu deserved gratitude from the region and demanded a payoff. Bin refused. At the triennial evaluation, officials streamed gold to Mingzhu's door, but none of Bin's staff did.
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In 1686 the emperor sought tutors for the crown prince, and officials recommended Bin. An edict declared, "Since antiquity, emperors teaching their heirs have chosen calm, careful men to lead the palace staff and guide the prince. Tang Bin has long been careful in conduct at the lecture hall, as I know well. As governor he kept himself pure, set an example for his staff, and served with wholehearted devotion. He should be promoted to set an example for all in office." He was made Minister of Rites and superintendent of the Heir Apparent's household. When he left, the people of Wu wept and tried to detain him, closed their markets for three days, and lined the road burning incense to see him off. Earlier, Jin Fu and Surveillance Commissioner Yu Chenglong had disputed whether to dredge the lower Yellow River, and the matter had dragged on. Most courtiers sided with Jin Fu to please Mingzhu. Ministers Samuha and Mucheng'e were sent with Bin to inspect the works; Bin sided with Chenglong's plan to dredge the lower river. Samuha and the others returned to the capital without reporting Bin's opinion. When Bin arrived, the emperor questioned him, and he answered truthfully. Samuha and his colleagues were dismissed.
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二十六年五月，不雨，靈臺郎董漢臣上書指斥時事，語侵執政，下廷議，明珠惶懼，將引罪。 大學士王熙獨曰：「市兒妄語，立斬之，事畢矣。」 斌後至，國柱以告。 斌曰：「漢臣應詔言事無死法。 大臣不言而小臣言之，吾輩當自省。」 上卒免漢臣罪。 明珠、國柱愈恚，摘其語上聞，並摭斌在蘇時文告語，曰「愛民有心，救民無術」，以為謗訕，傳旨詰問。 斌惟自陳資性愚昧，愆過叢集，乞賜嚴加處分。 左都御史璙丹、王鴻緒等又連疏劾斌。 會斌先薦候補道耿介為少詹事，同輔太子，介以老疾乞休。 詹事尹泰等劾介僥倖求去，且及斌妄薦，議奪斌官，上獨留斌任。 國柱宣言上將隸斌旗籍，斌適扶病入朝，道路相傳，聞者皆泣下。 江南人客都下者，將擊登聞鼓訟冤，繼知無其事，乃散。
In the fifth month of 1687, amid drought, Astronomy Bureau clerk Dong Hanchen memorialized criticizing current affairs in terms that implicated the chief ministers. The case went to court debate; Mingzhu was terrified and prepared to confess guilt. Grand Secretary Wang Xi alone said, "It is the babble of a market loafer. Behead him at once and the affair is closed." Bin arrived afterward, and Guozhu told him what Wang Xi had said. Bin replied, "Hanchen answered an imperial summons to speak. There is no law that calls for his death. When senior ministers are silent and junior officials speak up, we ought to look to ourselves." The emperor finally spared Hanchen. Mingzhu and Guozhu were enraged, reported Bin's words to the throne, and dredged up a phrase from his Suzhou proclamations—"he loves the people in heart but lacks the means to save them"—as slander. An edict ordered him questioned. Bin could only confess his own dullness and many faults and ask for stern punishment. Left Censor-in-Chief Langdan, Wang Hongxu, and others followed with memorial after memorial impeaching him. It happened that Bin had earlier recommended the expectant official Geng Jie as junior mentor to assist the crown prince; Jie now asked to retire on grounds of age and illness. Household Tutor Yin Tai and others accused Geng Jie of using illness as a pretext to quit and charged Bin with a reckless appointment. The court proposed stripping Bin of office, but the emperor kept him in post. Guozhu spread word that the emperor would reduce Bin to banner status. Bin came to court leaning on attendants, ill; the rumor spread through the streets and those who heard it wept. Jiangnan natives in the capital nearly struck the petition drum to protest on his behalf, but learning the rumor false, they dispersed.
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In the ninth month he was made Minister of Works. Soon he fell ill, and court physicians were sent to treat him. In the tenth month, returning from Tongzhou after inspecting tribute timber, he died overnight at sixty-one. After Bin's death the emperor once asked his ministers, "I treated Tang Bin well enough. Why did the grumbling never stop?" Mingzhu, Guozhu, and their allies hated him fiercely. Had the emperor not favored him a little, Bin's ruin would have been certain.
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Bin studied under Sun Qifeng and mastered the Song Neo-Confucian classics. He once wrote, "To cling to things in order to grasp principle, drowning in appearances, is to end up fragmented and rootless; to leave things behind and seek knowledge apart from them, dulling the mind, is likewise empty and rarely real." In teaching he insisted that one must first distinguish righteousness from profit and sincerity from pretense—only then could one practice true classical learning and true moral philosophy; otherwise talk and action split apart, and what can the world depend on? Bin held firmly to Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, yet did not dismiss Wang Yangming. He lived what he taught rather than prize debate alone, and his attainment was deep and refined. His works include Records of Luoyang Learning and Recorded Sayings of the Hermitage. In the Yongzheng era he was enshrined in the Hall of Worthies. In 1736 he was given the posthumous title Wenzheng. In 1823 he was admitted to attendant sacrifice in the Confucian temple.
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Lu Longqi, originally named Longqi and styled Jiashu, came from Pinghu in Zhejiang. He became a jinshi in 1670. In 1675 he was appointed magistrate of Jiading in Jiangnan. Jiading was a large county with heavy taxes and extravagant habits. Longqi lived simply and thriftily and sought to reform the people through moral example. When a father sued his son, he wept and reasoned with them until the son led his father home and treated him well; when a younger brother sued an elder, he found who had stirred up the suit, caned the agitator, and both brothers repented. When young hoodlums terrorized the streets with their gangs, he flogged them in public and released them once they showed remorse. When a powerful family's servant seized a woodcutter's wife, he had the man arrested; the magnate then reformed and became a model citizen. He did not use runners to drag litigants to court: clan disputes went to clan elders, neighborhood quarrels to village elders; or he had both parties summon each other to appear, a method he called "self-summons." For tax collection he posted names on a board; when a payer's quota was met he came forward on his own; and he allowed voluntary deadlines, with any shortfall paid double in the following period.
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In 1676 war levies were imposed for military campaigns. Longqi proclaimed, "I do not cling to office for its own sake, but I will not squeeze the people for levies that do the public no good." Each household received a notice of appeal; within a month more than 100,000 taels were paid in. When a building-frame tax was introduced, he argued it should apply only to shops in town and ordered that farm villages be exempt. Jiangning Governor Mu Tianyan proposed rotating officials between busy and easy counties and reported that Jiading had heavy administration and tax arrears. Longqi's integrity was spotless, he said, but he lacked administrative flair and should be moved to a simpler county. The memorial went to the ministries, and he was demoted for inadequate ability. A man named Dao was killed by bandits but had sued his personal enemy; Longqi caught the real bandits and closed the case. The ministry's first report omitted mention of bandits, and he was dismissed for concealing banditry. In 1678 he was nominated for the erudite scholar examination but mourned his father's death before he could take it. In 1679 Left Censor-in-Chief Wei Xiangshu, answering an edict for recommendations of honest officials, praised Longqi's frugality and care for the people. When he left office he owned only a few books and his wife's loom, and the people loved him like parents. After mourning he was reappointed as a magistrate.
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In 1683 he was appointed magistrate of Lingshou in Zhili. Lingshou had poor soil, impoverished people, heavy corvée, and coarse habits. He asked his superiors to rotate corvée duties with neighboring counties so each could take turns. He revived village compacts and inspected mutual-security groups, issuing proclamations again and again to break the habits of brawling and reckless violence. In 1684 Zhili Governor Ge'ergude recommended Longqi along with Yanzhou Prefect Zhang Penghe as honest officials. In 1690 the Nine Ministers were ordered to recommend men of learning and good character; Longqi was nominated again and summoned to the capital. After seven years in Lingshou, the people blocked his road weeping when he left, as they had at Jiading. He was made a censor on the Sichuan circuit. Pian-Yuan Governor Yu Yangzhi's father died, and the governor-general asked that he mourn in office. Longqi argued that the empire was at peace, Huguang was not a war zone, and the court should teach filial duty by example. Yangzhi was ordered to leave office and mourn.
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三十年，師徵噶爾丹，行捐納事例。 御史陳菁請罷捐免保舉，而增捐應升先用，部議未行。 隴其疏言：「捐納非上所欲行，若許捐免保舉，則與正途無異，且是清廉可捐納而得也； 至捐納先用，開奔競之途：皆不可行。 更請捐納之員三年無保舉，即予休致，以清仕途。」 九卿議，謂若行休致，則求保者奔競益甚。 詔再與菁詳議，隴其又言：「捐納賢愚錯雜，惟恃保舉以防其弊。 若並此而可捐納，此輩有不捐納者乎？ 議者或謂三年無保舉即令休致為太刻，此輩白丁得官，踞民上者三年，亦已甚矣； 休致在家，儼然搢紳，為榮多矣。 若云營求保舉，督撫而賢，何由奔競； 即不賢，亦不能盡人而保舉之也。」 詞益激切。 菁與九卿复持異議。 戶部以捐生觀望，遲誤軍需，請奪隴其官，發奉天安置。 上曰：「隴其居官未久，不察事情，誠宜處分，但言官可貸。」 會順天府尹衛既齊巡畿輔，還奏民心皇皇，恐隴其遠謫，遂得免。
In 1691, as troops marched against Galdan, the purchase-of-office regulations took effect. Censor Chen Jing asked to end the sale of recommendation exemptions while giving purchased promotions priority; the ministries did not act. Longqi wrote, "Selling offices is not what Your Majesty wants. If men can buy exemption from recommendation, the purchased path becomes the same as the regular one, as though integrity could be bought; and giving purchased men priority in promotion opens the door to frantic competition. None of this should be allowed. He further asked that purchased officials who received no recommendation within three years be retired to keep the official path clean." The Nine Ministers replied that forced retirement would only make men scramble harder for recommendations. The emperor ordered further debate with Chen Jing. Longqi wrote again, "Purchased officials mix the capable with the worthless; only the recommendation system guards against abuse. If even that can be bought, who among them would not pay? Some objected that three years without recommendation followed by forced retirement was too harsh—commoners who bought office already ruled over the people for three years, which was harsh enough; and at home in retirement they would still rank as gentry, which was honor enough. As for the claim that men would scramble for recommendations—if governors and governors-general are worthy, why would there be frantic competition? And even if they were unworthy, they could not recommend everyone who paid." His language grew fiercer still. Chen Jing and the Nine Ministers again disagreed. The Board of Revenue blamed him for slowing military funds because purchased candidates hesitated, and asked that he be dismissed and sent to Fengtian. The emperor said, "Longqi has not been in office long and does not grasp the whole matter. He deserves punishment, but as a remonstrating official he may be spared." Shuntian Prefect Wei Jiqi was touring the capital region and reported that the people were deeply alarmed at the prospect of Longqi's banishment. He was spared.
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He was soon assigned to inspect the North City. When his probation ended, the ministries proposed transferring him outside the capital, and he went home on leave. He died in 1692. In 1694 the Jiangnan education post fell vacant; the emperor wanted Longqi, but was told he had died, so Shao Siyao was appointed—another man who had entered the capital on a reputation for integrity like Longqi's. In 1724 the Yongzheng Emperor visited the Imperial Academy and approved additional Confucians for attendant sacrifice, including Longqi. In 1736 he was given the posthumous title Qingxian and posthumously made Grand Secretariat academician and Vice Minister of Rites.
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His works include Records of Striving in Adversity, Lectures at Songyang, and Collected Works of the Three-Fish Hall. In scholarship he followed Zhu Xi alone and wrote Discriminations in Learning. Its main argument was that Wang Yangming dressed Chan Buddhism in Confucian robes; Gao Panlong and Gu Xiancheng saw through Wang yet still made quiet-sitting central and never escaped his framework, and Longqi denounced them sharply. As a magistrate he prized practical governance, and the people of Jiading praised him into the late Qing. Neighboring Fuping county built him a tomb, which the Lu family guarded for generations, calling themselves Longqi's descendants.
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Zhang Boxing, whose style was Xiaoxian, came from Yifeng in Henan. He became a jinshi in 1685, entered the Grand Secretariat as a secretary, and became a drafting secretary. After his father's death he returned home and founded the Qingjian Academy to teach orthodox learning. An old dike north of Yifeng burst in the sixth month of 1699 after heavy rains; Boxing rallied the people to fill the breach with earth in sacks. River Director Zhang Penghe, touring the waterways, recommended him for river work. Retaining his rank, Boxing was sent to supervise more than two hundred li of dikes on the south bank of the Yellow River and projects at Majiagang, Dongba, and Gaojiayan. In 1703 he was appointed commissioner of the Jining Circuit in Shandong. When famine struck, he shipped money and grain from his own household and had cotton coats made to relieve hunger and cold. The emperor ordered circuit-by-circuit relief; Boxing aided Wenshang and Yanggu, releasing more than 22,600 shi of grain from the granaries. The provincial treasurer accused him of acting without authorization and impeached him. Boxing replied, "There was an edict to relieve famine. That is not usurpation. The emperor treats the people as wounded bodies. Are granary stores heavier than human lives?" The impeachment was dropped. In 1706, on the emperor's southern tour, he received a plaque inscribed "Spreading Blessings, Settling the Current."
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He was soon promoted to Jiangsu surveillance commissioner. In 1707, on another southern tour, the emperor reached Suzhou and told his attendants, "I have heard Zhang Boxing is exceptionally clean in office—the rarest of qualities." Governors were then ordered to recommend able officials, but Boxing was not among those recommended. The emperor told him, "I have known you a long time. I will recommend you myself. If you serve well hereafter, the world will say I know how to choose men." He was made governor of Fujian and given a plaque reading "Integrity, Kindness, and Spreading Merit." Boxing asked remission of wasteland taxes for Taiwan, Fengshan, and Zhuluo. When grain prices rose in Fujian, he asked for fifty thousand taels to buy rice in Huguang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong and sell it at fair rates. He founded Aofeng Academy, built dormitories, lent out his library, and published collected works of earlier Confucians as the Zhengyi Hall Series for his students. When Fuzhou people worshipped a plague god, he destroyed the idols, turned the shrine into a charity school, and installed Zhu Xi in worship. Nuns commonly bought poor girls and tonsured them by the hundreds; Boxing ordered families to ransom their daughters and marry them off, paying from public funds when families could not.
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四十八年，調江蘇巡撫，賑淮、揚、徐三府飢。 會布政使宜思恭以司庫虧空為總督噶禮劾罷，上遣尚書張鵬翮按治。 陳鵬年以蘇州知府署布政使，議司庫虧三十四萬，分扣官俸役食抵補，伯行諮噶禮會題，不應。 伯行疏上聞，上命鵬翮並按。 別疏陳噶禮異議狀，上諭廷臣曰：「覽伯行此疏，知與噶禮不和。 為人臣者，當以國事為重。 朕綜理機務垂五十年，未嘗令一人得逞其私。 此疏宜置不問。」 伯行尋乞病，上不許。 鵬翮請責前任巡撫於準及思恭償十六萬，餘以官俸役食抵補。 上曰：「江南虧空錢糧，非官吏侵蝕。 朕南巡時，督撫肆意挪用而不敢言。 若責新任官補償，朕心實有不忍。」 命察明南巡時用款具奏。 伯行又疏奏各府州縣無著錢糧十萬八千，上命並予豁免。
In 1709 he became Jiangsu governor and relieved famine in Huai, Yang, and Xu. Provincial Treasurer Yi Sigong was impeached and dismissed by Governor-General Gali for treasury shortfalls, and the emperor sent Minister Zhang Penghe to investigate. Chen Pengnian, acting treasurer as Suzhou prefect, proposed covering a 340,000-tael deficit by docking salaries and ration payments. Boxing asked Gali to co-sign the memorial; Gali refused. Boxing reported directly to the throne, and the emperor ordered Penghe to investigate as well. In a separate memorial he described Gali's opposition. The emperor told the court, "This memorial shows Boxing and Gali are at odds. As ministers you must put state affairs first. I have governed for nearly fifty years and never let anyone serve private ends at court. Set this memorial aside." Boxing soon asked to retire on grounds of illness, but the emperor refused. Penghe proposed that former governor Yu Zhun and Sigong repay 160,000 taels and that the rest be covered by salary deductions. The emperor said, "Jiangnan's tax shortfalls were not caused by embezzlement. On my southern tours, governors diverted funds freely and dared not report it. I cannot bear to make new appointees pay for it." He ordered a full accounting of southern-tour expenditures. Boxing also reported 108,000 taels in unallocated taxes across the province, and the emperor ordered them all remitted.
25
噶禮貪橫，伯行與之迕。 五十年，江南鄉試副考官趙晉交通關節，榜發，士論譁然，輿財神入學宮。 伯行疏上其事，正考官左必蕃亦以實聞，命尚書張鵬翮、侍郎赫壽按治，伯行與噶禮會鞫，得舉人吳泌、程光奎通賄狀，詞連噶禮。 伯行請解噶禮任付嚴審，噶禮不自安，亦摭伯行七罪訐奏。 上命俱解任，鵬翮等尋奏晉與泌、光奎通賄俱實，擬罪如律； 噶禮交通事誣，伯行應奪官。 上切責鵬翮等掩飾，更命尚書穆和倫、張廷樞覆按，仍如前議。 上曰：「伯行居官清正，天下所知。 噶禮才雖有餘而喜生事，無清正名。 此議是非顛倒，命九卿、詹事、科道再議。」 明日，召九卿等諭曰：「伯行居官清廉，噶禮操守朕不能信。 若無伯行，則江南必受其朘削幾半矣。 此互參一案，初遣官往審，為噶禮所製，致不能得其情； 再遣官往審，與前無異。 爾等能體朕保全清官之意，使正人無所疑懼，則海宇昇平矣。」 遂奪噶禮官，命伯行復任。
Gali was greedy and domineering, and Boxing stood against him. In 1711 the associate examiner Zhao Jin was caught taking bribes in the Jiangnan provincial exams. When the results were posted, scholars were outraged and paraded the God of Wealth into the examination hall. Boxing reported the scandal; chief examiner Zuo Bifan confirmed it. Ministers Zhang Penghe and Hesou were sent to investigate. At a joint hearing with Gali, evidence showed that degree holders Wu Mi and Cheng Guangkui had taken bribes, with testimony implicating Gali. Boxing asked that Gali be removed and tried strictly. Uneasy, Gali countered with seven charges against Boxing. Both were suspended. Penghe reported that Zhao Jin, Wu Mi, and Cheng Guangkui had indeed taken bribes and proposed legal punishment; but declared Gali's involvement false and said Boxing should be dismissed. The emperor sharply rebuked them for covering up the facts and sent Ministers Mu Helun and Zhang Tingshu to reinvestigate, but they returned the same verdict. The emperor said, "Everyone knows Boxing is upright in office. Gali is capable but loves trouble and has no reputation for integrity. This verdict turns truth upside down. The Nine Ministers, tutors, and censors must deliberate again." The next day he told the Nine Ministers, "Boxing is clean in office. I do not trust Gali's conduct. Without Boxing, Jiangnan would have been drained of nearly half its wealth by Gali. In this mutual impeachment, the first investigators were controlled by Gali and could not learn the truth; the second team was no better. If you grasp my wish to protect honest officials so upright men need not fear, the realm will be at peace." Gali was dismissed and Boxing restored.
26
五十二年，江蘇布政使缺員，伯行疏薦福建布政使李發甲、台灣道陳瑸、前祭酒余正健，上已以湖北按察使牟欽元擢任。 未幾，伯行劾欽元匿通海罪人張令濤署中，請逮治。 令濤兄元隆居上海，造海船，出入海洋，擁厚貲，結納豪貴。 會部檄搜緝海賊鄭盡心餘黨，崇明水師捕漁船，其舟人福建產，冒華亭籍，驗船照為元隆所代領，伯行欲窮治。 是時令濤在噶禮幕，元隆稱病不就逮，獄未竟而死於家。 噶禮前劾伯行，因摭其事為七罪之一。 會上海縣民顧協一訴令濤據其房屋，別有水寨數處窩藏海賊，稱令濤今居欽元署中。 上命總督赫壽察審，赫壽庇令濤，以通賊無證聞； 復命鵬翮及副都御史阿錫鼐按其事，鵬翮等奏元隆、令濤皆良民，請奪伯行官。 上命復審，且命伯行自陳，伯行疏言：「元隆通賊，雖報身故，而金多黨眾，人人可以冒名，處處可以領照。 令濤乃顧協一首告，若其不實，例應坐誣； 欽元庇匿，致案久懸。 臣為地方大吏，杜漸防微，豈得不究？」 既命解任，鵬翮等仍以伯行誣陷良民、挾詐欺公，論斬，法司議如所擬，上免其罪，命伯行來京。
In 1713 the Jiangsu provincial treasurer post fell vacant. Boxing recommended Li Fajia, Chen Bin, and Yu Zhengjian, but the emperor had already appointed Mou Qinyuan from Hubei. Soon afterward Boxing impeached Qinyuan for hiding Zhang Lingtao, a man implicated in maritime crime, in his offices and asked that he be arrested. Lingtao's brother Yuanlong lived in Shanghai, built seagoing ships, traded on the ocean, amassed great wealth, and cultivated ties with the powerful. When the ministry ordered a hunt for remnants of the pirate Zheng Jinxin's gang, Chongming naval forces seized a fishing boat whose crew were Fujian men posing as Huating natives. The license proved Yuanlong had obtained it for them, and Boxing sought a full prosecution. Lingtao was then on Gali's staff. Yuanlong pleaded illness and evaded arrest, then died at home before trial ended. Gali had made this case one of his seven charges against Boxing. Then a Shanghai county man named Gu Xieyi sued Lingtao for seizing his house and said several river strongholds harbored pirates; he reported Lingtao was living in Qinyuan's offices. The emperor ordered Governor Hesou to investigate. Hesou protected Lingtao and reported no evidence of collusion with pirates; Penghe and Vice Censor-in-Chief A Xitai were sent next. They reported Yuanlong and Lingtao were honest men and asked that Boxing be dismissed. The emperor ordered a new inquiry and asked Boxing to defend himself. Boxing wrote, "Yuanlong colluded with pirates. Though reported dead, his wealth and network mean anyone can use his name and obtain licenses anywhere. Lingtao was first accused by Gu Xieyi. If the charge is false, Gu should be punished for false accusation; Qinyuan shielded him and let the case drag on. As a senior local official charged with stopping trouble early, how could I not pursue it?" Though dismissed, Penghe still charged him with framing innocent men and deceiving the public, proposing execution. The judiciary agreed, but the emperor spared him and summoned him to the capital.
27
He soon entered the Southern Study, served as acting granary vice minister, and was chief examiner for the Shuntian provincial exams. He became Vice Minister of Revenue, oversaw coinage and granaries, and served again as associate metropolitan examination examiner. In 1723 he was made Minister of Rites and given a plaque reading "Famed Minister of Ritual and Music." In 1724 he was sent to Qufu to sacrifice at the Sage's shrine. He died in 1725 at seventy-five. His final memorial asked the court to honor orthodox learning and encourage upright ministers. The emperor mourned him and posthumously made him Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent with the title Qingke. In the early Guangxu era he was admitted to attendant sacrifice in the Confucian temple.
28
Fresh from the jinshi examination, Boxing built a study in the southern suburbs, spread out thousands of books, and upon reaching the Elementary Learning, Reflections on Things at Hand, and the classified sayings of Cheng and Zhu, declared, "The gate to sagehood is here." He then studied the works of the Lian, Luo, Guan, and Min masters, reciting and copying them for seven years. On first taking office he said, "The learning of a thousand sages is summed up in reverence. Nothing in study comes before cultivating reverence." He took the style Hermitage of Reverence. He also said, "The noble man understands duty; the petty man understands profit. Daoists cling to life, Buddhists fear death, martyrs die for fame—all are forms of profit." Those he appointed were men of sound learning and pure conduct, chosen without their knowing in advance. Men who had once resented him he worked with again in sincerity, without a trace of bitterness. He said, "The throne has protected me. How could I let private grievance interfere with public duty?" His works include Records of Hard Learning, Continued Records, Collected Works of the Zhengyi Hall, and One Gain in Dwelling in Ji.
29
子師載，字又渠。 舉人。 以父廕補戶部員外郎。 雍正初，授揚州知府。 歲饑，高郵湖西民以縣吏報災輕，不得賑。 師載行部，見饑民滿道，不待報而賑之。 江都芒稻閘為淮、黃，高、寶諸河入江要津，夏潦盛漲。 閘官利商人餌，謂非運使令不得啟。 師載詢鹽艘須水六七尺，今過半，乃身往督役啟閘。 其後芒稻閘屬府啟閉，遂以為例。 累遷江蘇按察使，內擢右通政。 再遷，授倉場侍郎，命協辦江南河務。 授安徽巡撫，仍命赴南河協同防護。 會河溢，奪官。 上命誅疏防同知李焞、守備張賓，使師載視行刑，畢，釋之。 再起為兵部侍郎，遷漕運總督。 复授河東河道總督。 師載長於治河。 少讀父書，研性理之學，高宗稱其篤實。 卒，贈太子太保，諡愨敬。
His son Shizai, styled Youqu, was a provincial graduate and entered the Ministry of Revenue as a vice director through his father's privilege. Early in the Yongzheng reign he became prefect of Yangzhou. During a famine, people west of Gaoyou Lake could not get relief because county clerks had underreported the disaster. On circuit Shizai saw starving people filling the roads and distributed relief without waiting for approval. The Mangdao sluice in Jiangdu was the key junction where the Huai, Yellow, Gaoyou, and Baoying rivers entered the Yangzi, and summer floods ran high. Sluice officials took merchants' bribes and refused to open the gates without the salt intendant's order. Learning that salt barges needed six or seven chi of water and that more than half that depth was present, he went in person to have the sluice opened. Thereafter the prefecture controlled the Mangdao sluice, and that became precedent. He rose to Jiangsu surveillance commissioner and then to right vice commissioner of communications in the capital. Promoted again, he became granary vice minister and was assigned to assist Jiangnan river works. He was made governor of Anhui but still ordered to the Southern Rivers to help with flood defense. When the river burst its banks, he was dismissed. The emperor ordered the execution of Assistant Prefect Li Tun and Garrison Commander Zhang Bin for flood negligence and made Shizai witness it before restoring him to office. He was restored as Vice Minister of War and made Grain Transport Director. He was again appointed director of the Eastern River Conservancy. Shizai excelled at river management. He had studied his father's books and moral philosophy from youth, and the Qianlong Emperor called him solid and sincere. At his death he was posthumously made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent with the title Quejing.
30
The historian remarks: In the Qing, only Bin, Longqi, and Boxing among renowned ministers were admitted to attendant sacrifice in the Confucian temple. All rose from provincial service and enjoyed the Kangxi Emperor's favor. Longqi rose only to censor, yet the people loved him like parents, as they did Bin and Boxing. He too was ill tolerated by his peers yet protected by the Kangxi Emperor. A wise ruler and worthy ministers—since Han and Tang, such a pairing has been rare. Bin did not dismiss Wang Yangming; Longqi held firmly to Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi and denounced Wang sharply; Boxing followed Longqi in that regard. What matters is that all three lived their principles in government and did not betray their learning. Though their schools of thought differed in breadth, none should be ranked above the others.