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列傳六十一
Biography 61
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Yang Yongjian, whose courtesy name was Zixi, came from Haining in Zhejiang. He earned his jinshi degree in the twelfth year of the Shunzhi reign and was posted as magistrate of Gaoyao in Guangdong. The province was at war then, and the governor-general had his headquarters at Gaoyao. Whenever the troops moved they drafted civilian laborers, and the clerks, afraid the men would run away, kept them shackled in the magistrate's compound. On New Year's Eve he had them moved into the side halls and sent out his own holiday dishes for them to eat. The army wanted banyan branches to twist into fuses for the guns; a military clerk sent a requisition couched in insulting language, and Yongjian had him beaten. Governor-General Wang Guoguang cited these acts to praise Yongjian's firm integrity and submitted a special recommendation on his behalf. After only a year in post he was promoted to supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for War.
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In the spring of the sixteenth year the Shunzhi Emperor went to the Southern Park, and Yongjian submitted a memorial: 'Recently, because Your Majesty was unwell, the court announced that the spring sacrifice at the Grand Temple would be performed by dispatched officials. When the day arrived Your Majesty had recovered and still went in person to the temple—a splendid devotion to the rites of worship. Yet scarcely had you returned to the palace when you went again to the Southern Park; the cold has not lifted, and to range the open countryside may not be prudent for Your Majesty's health and regimen. Besides, in antiquity the spring, summer, autumn, and winter hunts each had its proper season. If a beast should start up ahead or a horse run away behind and startle the imperial train, could there be no risk at all?' When the memorial arrived the emperor was furious and had Yongjian brought in to explain that the visit was for inspecting troops and military drill. Yongjian answered calmly and without losing his bearing, and the emperor's anger subsided.
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At that time the Prince of Pingnan, Shang Kexi, and the Prince of Jingnan, Geng Jimao, both held Guangdong. Yongjian listed eight abuses there: too many petty agents, too many surcharges, village labor service without fixed rules, corvée without fixed quotas, salt franchises growing more oppressive by the day, illicit levies swelling daily, and rampant logging and fuel-cutting—all of which should be abolished at once. With two princely establishments in the same province, the burden of provisioning them was crushing. Now that Sichuan and Guizhou were pacified, he asked that one of the princes be transferred to garrison there so the people of Guangdong could breathe again. The court soon ordered Geng Jimao to move his headquarters to Fujian, a change Yongjian had initiated. In the seventeenth year he wrote: 'The evil of cliques begins among the common people. To stop it at the source, sworn brotherhoods and societies should be strictly banned, and he asked that provincial education commissioners be ordered to search them out and suppress them.' The emperor approved. He was transferred to supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel. When the Kangxi Emperor ascended the throne, the regents held power; everyone who came to report knelt, but Yongjian alone remained standing when he spoke. As he left, a regent fixed him with a stare and said, 'So this is the man who lectured the emperor about hunting at the Southern Park.' After that, officials reporting to the regents no longer knelt.
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康熙三年，彗星見。 雍建奏言：「天心仁愛，垂象示警。 乞齋心修省，廣求直言，詳詢利病，並飭內外臣工，滌慮洗心，共修職業，」上優旨褒答。 四年，疏言：「治化未醇，由於臣職未盡。 比者部臣以推諉為卸責，明為本部應議之事，或請諮別部，或請飭督撫，致一案之處分，因一人之口供未到而更待另議； 一事之行止，因一時文卷小誤而重俟行查； 至地方利弊所關，憚於釐正，輒云已經題定，無庸再議。 如此，則一二胥吏執定例以駁之足矣，不知滿、漢堂司各官所司為何事也。 督撫以蒙蔽為苟安，民苦於差徭，而額外之私徵，未聞建長策以除積困； 吏橫於貪暴，而有司之掊克，不過摘薄罪以引輕條。 向日行考滿之法，則題報者皆稱職，曾無三等以下之劣員； 平時上彈劾之章，則特糾者僅末僚，不及道府以上之大吏。 凡此推諉蒙蔽之習，請嚴飭內外臣工各圖報稱，儻仍蹈故轍，立予罷斥，以儆官常。」 疏入，報聞。 尋自刑科都給事中累擢左副都御史。
In the third year of the Kangxi reign a comet appeared. Yongjian wrote: 'Heaven is merciful; it sends portents as a warning. He urged the emperor to fast, reflect, and reform; to welcome frank counsel; to investigate what helped or harmed the realm; and to order officials everywhere to clear their minds and do their duty.' The emperor replied with a warm commendation.' In the fourth year he wrote: 'Good government has not yet matured because officials are not doing their jobs. Lately ministry officials treat evasion as discharge of duty: matters plainly within their own jurisdiction they refer to other ministries or to the governors, so that a case cannot be decided because one witness statement is missing and must be reopened; whether a matter goes forward or stalls because of a minor clerical error in the paperwork, they order yet another review; and on local abuses that touch the public welfare they are afraid to act, saying only that the matter was already reported and settled and need not be discussed again. At that rate a couple of clerks with the regulations could settle everything, and one might wonder what the Manchu and Han directors in the ministries are for. Governors-general and governors treat cover-ups as peace; the people groan under labor service and levies, while illicit surcharges go on, yet no one proposes a real plan to end chronic abuses; petty officials run wild in greed and cruelty, yet when their superiors punish extortion they cite only minor charges under the mildest articles of law. Under the triennial evaluation everyone reported was rated competent, and no one ever received a grade below the third rank; and in routine impeachments only junior officials were singled out, never the great officers at the circuit or prefectural level and above. For all these habits of evasion and cover-up he asked that officials everywhere be strictly ordered to do their duty; if they persisted in the old ways they should be dismissed at once as a warning to the service.' The memorial was received and noted. He was soon promoted from chief supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Justice to left vice censor-in-chief.
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In the eighteenth year he served as chief examiner for the metropolitan civil service examination and was appointed governor of Guizhou. He asked permission to set up garrison regulations, cut corvée and levies, bring back refugees, and ban illicit local exactions. When native chieftains came to call on the governor, custom required drums and horns and crossed halberds at the gate, forcing them to prostrate themselves outside. Yongjian abolished all of that, had them brought before his desk to hear their grievances, and gave them food and wine; the chieftains were all won over. At first a bushel of rice in Guiyang cost five thousand cash; Yongjian arranged to bring in grain from elsewhere to feed the people. Then he had the people clear the wild growth and taught them how to farm. Within three years more and more paddy was under cultivation and the people had enough to eat. In the twenty-third year he was recalled to the capital and appointed vice minister of War. Soon afterward he asked to retire and care for his aging parents, and the request was granted. He died in the forty-third year of Kangxi, and the court granted him the rites of state burial. His son Zhongne, a jinshi, served as right assistant expositor in the Hanlin Academy.
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Yao Diyu, whose courtesy name was Lisheng, came from Huangpi in Huguang. He earned his jinshi degree in the fifteenth year of Shunzhi and was posted as prefectural judge of Chengdu Prefecture in Sichuan. In war-ravaged Sichuan many survivors had turned to banditry; they denounced one another in court, and major prosecutions followed. Diyu judged cases with calm fairness and usually got to the truth; he reviewed a treason case and freed seventeen people who had been caught in the net of implication. Governor-General Miao Cheng and Governor Zhang Dedi praised his integrity and ability and marked him as outstanding; when posts were reduced he was reassigned as magistrate of Anhua in Shaanxi. Selected for service in the capital, he was appointed in the fifteenth year of Kangxi as supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Rites. He asked that Hanlin bachelors be chosen more rigorously and that the Academy be audited; the memorial was noted. In the seventeenth year he served as chief examiner in Jiangxi; on his return he reported: 'For counties in Jiangxi ruined by rebels and listed as having missing registers and abandoned fields, the governors should be ordered to weigh each case and allow three or five years to bring land back under cultivation before taxes are restored. The province owed 2.2 million taels in back taxes; after years of relentless collection only 30,000 had been reported paid. The remaining 2.1 million could never be collected even if the people were squeezed to the bone. He asked that it be remitted soon so the common people would not die under the burden.'
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十八年，地震，求言。 締虞上疏曰：「科道乃朝廷耳目之官，原期知無不言，有聞則告。 自故憲臣艾元徵請禁風聞條奏，自此言路氣靡，中外多所顧忌。 臣請皇上省覽世祖朝諸臣奏議，如何謇諤； 今者相率以條陳為事，輭熟成風。 蓋平時無以作其敢言之氣，一旦欲其慷慨直陳，難矣。 乞敕廷臣會議，嗣後有矢志忠誠、指斥奸佞者，即少差謬，亦賜矜全。 如或快意恩仇，受人指使，章奏鈔傳，眾目難掩，縱令彈劾得實，亦難免於徇私之罪。 如此，則言官有所顧忌，不敢妄言； 中外諸臣有所顧忌，不敢妄為。」 疏下九卿科道會議。 越日，召廷臣等集中左門，上問：「締虞疏如何定議？」 吏部尚書郝惟訥等暨給事中李宗孔等俱言風聞之例，不宜復開。 上問：「締虞，爾意如何？」 締虞對曰：「皇上明聖，從未譴罪言官。 但有處分條例在，言官皆生畏懼。」 上曰：「如汝言，條例便當廢耶？」 締虞對曰：「科條雖設，當辨公私誠偽。」 上意稍解。 諭言：「官宜敷陳國家大事，如有大奸大貪，糾劾得實，法在必行，決不姑貸。 且魏象樞彈奏程汝璞，亦是風聞，已鞫問得實，原未嘗有風聞之禁也。」 上宣締虞前，指內閣所呈世祖時章奏示之曰：「汝以朕為未閱此乎？」 締虞對曰：「惟久經聖覽，臣故不憚盡言。」 上命以所言宣付史館。 次日，復命締虞入起居注，授筆札記之。 尋轉工科掌印給事中。 上考察科道，黜孫緒極、傅廷俊、和鹽鼎三人，而嘉締虞與王曰溫、李迥稱職。 二十一年，疏論外吏積習，視事偷惰，公務沉閣，文移遲緩； 僚屬宴會，遊客酬酢，廢時糜費。 請敕部禁飭。 累擢左僉都御史。
In the eighteenth year an earthquake struck, and the court called for memorials. Diyu wrote: 'The censors and supervising secretaries are the eyes and ears of the court; they are meant to speak of whatever they know and report whatever they hear. Ever since the late censor Ai Yuanzheng asked to ban memorials based on rumor, the voice of remonstrance has withered and officials everywhere have grown cautious. I beg Your Majesty to read the memorials of the Shunzhi reign and see how blunt they were; today everyone files the same bland itemized reports, and timid conformity has become the norm. If nothing in peacetime stirs their courage to speak out, it is hard to expect bold truth-telling when it is needed. He asked the court to deliberate: hereafter, if a man is loyal at heart and denounces the corrupt, even when he is slightly wrong, let him be spared. But if a man pursues private vendettas, takes orders from others, and his memorials circulate in copies for all to see, then even a true accusation will still be punished as self-serving. In that way censors would have reason to be careful and would not speak recklessly; and officials everywhere would think twice before acting recklessly.' The memorial was referred to the Nine Ministers and the censorate for joint deliberation. The next day the ministers were summoned to the Left Gate, and the emperor asked, 'What is your decision on Diyu's memorial?' Minister of Personnel Hao Weine, supervising secretary Li Zongkong, and the others all said the ban on hearsay memorials should not be lifted. The emperor turned to him: 'Diyu, what do you think?' Diyu answered: 'Your Majesty is wise and has never punished a censor. But as long as the disciplinary statutes remain on the books, every censor is afraid.' The emperor said, 'So by your logic the regulations should be scrapped?' Diyu replied, 'The statutes may stay, but each case should be judged on whether the motive was public or private, sincere or false.' The emperor's mood softened. He instructed them: 'Officials should speak frankly on matters of state. When great traitors or great thieves are impeached and the charge is proved, the law will be enforced without mercy. When Wei Xiangshu impeached Cheng Rupu it was also on hearsay, yet the charge was proved in court—there has never really been a ban on hearsay memorials.' He had Diyu step forward, pointed to Shunzhi-era memorials the Grand Secretariat had submitted, and said, 'Do you think I have not read these?' Diyu answered, 'Precisely because Your Majesty has read them, I did not hesitate to speak my mind.' The emperor ordered his words recorded and sent to the Historiography Institute. The next day he had Diyu enter the office of the Veritable Records and write the account himself. He was soon made chief supervising secretary with seal in the Office of Scrutiny for Works. When the emperor reviewed the censorate he dismissed Sun Xuji, Fu Tingjun, and He Yanding, but praised Diyu, Wang Yuewen, and Li Jiong as fit for their posts. In the twenty-first year he wrote on the chronic habits of provincial officials: neglecting their duties, letting business pile up, and delaying paperwork; feasting with subordinates, entertaining visitors, and wasting time and money. He asked the ministries to forbid such conduct. He rose to left assistant censor-in-chief.
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In the twenty-fourth year he was appointed governor of Sichuan. Diyu had won a good name years before as prefectural judge, and the people were glad to see him return. When he arrived he posted notices in the yamen hall with strict rules, banned illicit levies and surcharges, refused all gifts, and his subordinates were afraid to cross him. He wrote: 'Sichuan has been ravaged by war after war and is utterly devastated. Gentry and official families mostly live abroad; even when sons are sent home to farm, once they pass exams and take office they leave again. Seeing this, ordinary people too hesitate to come home. Bringing back one eminent family can do as much as several common households. Once the gentry return, the people follow without needing to be called. He identified gentry living out of province and asked the ministries to order them home to rebuild their estates.' The emperor approved. The people of Sichuan were crushed by the timber levy; at his farewell audience Diyu spoke first of the harm. When Wang Zhi of the Songwei circuit came to court he made the same plea, and the emperor granted a special exemption. He also secured exemption of white-wax transport and suspension of the iron tax. He died in office in the twenty-seventh year and was granted state burial rites.
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Zhu Hongzuo, whose courtesy name was Huiyin, came from Gaotang in Shandong and was the younger brother of Changzuo. Starting as a provincial graduate, he became magistrate of Xuyi in Jiangnan, governed well, and was marked outstanding. In the fourteenth year of Kangxi he was selected for the capital as a censor, but because Changzuo's son Fu was chief minister of the Court of Judicial Review he recused himself and became a principal clerk in the Ministry of Justice. He rose to director in the Ministry of War for bandit suppression, then served as administration commissioner of the Tianjin circuit in Zhili and then of the Zhili defense circuit.
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二十六年，超擢廣東巡撫。 入見，奏對稱旨，賜帑金千，及內廝鞍馬。 過庾嶺，察知夫役苦累，首禁革之。 复牒兵部，凡使者過境，有驛站供億，不得更有所役。 廣東軍興後，無藝之徵，浮於正供，悉罷免。 劾墨吏尤者數人，餘悉奉法。 鹽法為籓下奸民所亂，據引地莫敢譙訶。 弘祚疏陳整飭鹽政數事，如議行。
In the twenty-sixth year he was promoted by exception to governor of Guangdong. At his audience his answers pleased the emperor, who gave him a thousand taels and an imperial saddle horse from the palace stables. Crossing the Dayu Mountains he saw how porters were abused and was the first to ban the practice. He also notified the Ministry of War that travelers must be supplied by courier stations and could not demand extra labor. After the wars in Guangdong, irregular levies had exceeded regular taxes; he abolished them all. He impeached several of the worst corrupt clerks, and the rest fell into line. The salt trade was corrupted by men under the princely establishment who controlled the salt grounds and brooked no challenge. Hongzuo proposed several reforms of the salt administration, and they were adopted.
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高州屬縣吳川，瓊州屬縣臨高、澄邁，戶少田蕪，積逋十二萬兩有奇，疏請豁免。 衛所屯田歲輸糧三斗，額重多逃亡。 弘祚言：「民糧重，則每畝八升八合起科，今屯田浮三之二，非卹兵之道，當比例裁減。」 事皆允行。 逆亂方定，奸民告訐無已，疏請嚴妄首株連之例，略謂：「當定南分鎮，聞風投冒倚藉聲勢者，實繁有徒，迨經平定，籓下人應歸旗者，悉已簿錄解京； 籍內無名者，釋放為民。 嗣有旨：'籓下官兵、奴僕及貿易人等，除實係遼東舊人及價買人外，逐一清查，發出為民。 '臣尋繹詔意，原以諸人皆朝廷赤子，不忍株累。 且十餘年來，或補伍，或歸農，或死亡遷徙，無籍可稽。 乃姦宄之徒，蔓引株連，或在部呈首，或向有司告訐； 及事白省釋，而官民之被累已深。 請敕部嚴議。」 從之。
Wuchuan in Gaozhou and Lin'gao and Chengmai in Qiongzhou, thinly populated and untilled, owed more than 120,000 taels in back taxes; he asked that they be remitted. Military colony land paid three dou of grain per mu each year; the burden was heavy and many colonists fled. Hongzuo wrote: 'Civilian land is taxed at eight sheng eight he per mu at most; colony land is two-thirds higher, which is no way to support the troops and should be cut proportionally.' All were approved. With the rebellion newly suppressed, informers were endless; he asked strict enforcement against false accusation and guilt by association: 'During the Pacification of the South many pretended ties to the princes; after order was restored those who should return to the banners were registered and sent to Beijing; those not on the registers were to be released as civilians. An edict followed: 'Soldiers, servants, and traders of the princely establishments, except true Liaodong subjects or purchased persons, are to be examined and released as civilians.' I read the edict to mean that these people are all the emperor's subjects and should not be swept up in mass guilt. In more than ten years many had joined the army, returned to farming, died, or moved away, with no records left. Yet scoundrels still dragged others in, accusing them at the ministries or before local officials; and even when the case was dismissed, victims had already suffered greatly. He asked the ministries to deliberate and enforce strict rules.' The emperor agreed.
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In the thirty-first year he was made governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang. At the grand evaluation Hongzuo wrote that 'Fujian has poor soil and frivolous people'; the emperor rebuked him, saying, 'Talent is not born only in favored places. Zhang Dedi of Sichuan, while acting governor of Yan-sui, said, 'On the Yan-sui frontier no one is fit for the special erudite examination'; Vice Supervisor of the Household of the Heir Apparent Shao Yuanping wrote that 'southerners are flighty and unfit for office.' The emperor was deeply displeased and dismissed them all. Now Hongzuo had done the same, and the ministries were ordered to consider demoting him.' In the thirty-ninth year he was assigned to repair the Gaojia Embankment and died of illness on the job.
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His son Jiang became provincial administration commissioner of Guangdong; Gang, first a principal clerk in the Ministry of War, rose to provincial administration commissioner of Hunan; under Yongzheng he became governor of Yunnan and impeached acting governor Yang Mingshi for covering up malfeasance and leaving more than 190,000 taels unpaid from the princely treasury; Mingshi was punished. He was soon transferred to Fujian, died in office, and received the posthumous title Qinke.
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Wang Zhi, whose courtesy name was Chenyue, came from Fushan in Shandong. He earned his jinshi in the twelfth year of Shunzhi and became a principal clerk in the Ministry of Revenue. In the fifth year of Kangxi he was chief examiner in Guangdong. He served as director in the Ministry of Justice. In the nineteenth year he became administration commissioner of the Songwei circuit in Sichuan. During the conquest of Yunnan he supervised army grain transport, survived capsized boats and falls from horses, and kept the army supplied. In the twenty-fourth year new tribes behind Dading Fort in Leixi raided; Governor Han Shiqi sent troops in pursuit and stationed Zhi at Maozhou to plan with Regional Commander Gao Ding. Zhi went to the fort to announce the edict; the tribes held Bazhu Stockade and pretended to submit while remaining defiant. He won over neighboring stockades, sent troops in from Miaoshan, surrounded the stronghold, and killed or captured countless enemies. Pursuing them to the Blackwater River, the chieftain Wazi was burned to death and the mountain tribes all surrendered. He was transferred to the Koubei circuit in Zhili but had not yet left.
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時以太和殿工，命採蜀中柟木。 騭入覲，疏言：「四川大半環山巉岩，惟成都稍平衍。 巨材所生，必於深林窮壑，人跡罕到，斧斤難施，所以久存。 民夫入山採木，足胝履穿，攀藤側立，施工既難； 而運路自山抵江，或百餘裡，或七八十里，深澗急灘，溪流紆折，經時歷月，始至其地。 木在溪間，必待暴水而出，故陸運必於春冬，水運必於夏秋，非可一徑而行，計日而至，其艱如此。 且四川禍變相踵，荒煙百里。 臣當年運糧行間，滿目瘡痍。 自蕩平以後，休養生息。 然計通省戶口，仍不過一萬八千餘丁，不及他省一縣之眾。 就中抽撥五千入山採木，衣糧器具，盈千累百，遣發民夫，遠至千里，近亦數百里，耕作全廢，國賦何徵？ 請敕下撫臣，親詣採柟處察勘，量材取用，其必不能採運者，奏請上裁。」 疏入，上諭曰：「四川屢經兵火，困苦已極，採木累民。 塞外松木，取充殿材，足支數百年，何必柟木？ 令免採運。」 未幾，吏部循例疏請司道內擢京堂，騭未與，特命內升。 尋授光祿寺少卿，累遷太常寺卿。
Work on the Hall of Supreme Harmony required nanmu timber from Sichuan. At his audience Zhi wrote: 'Most of Sichuan is ringed by cliffs; only the Chengdu plain is relatively flat. Great trees grow only in deep forests and remote gorges where men seldom go and axes can hardly reach them. Laborers who enter the mountains wear out their feet and shoes, cling to vines on sheer slopes, and find the work brutal; the haul from mountain to river may be a hundred li or more over gorges and rapids and can take months. Logs must wait for floods to float downstream, so hauls go by land in winter and spring and by water in summer and autumn; the hardship is extreme. Sichuan has suffered disaster after disaster; for a hundred li one sees only wasteland. When I transported grain for the army I saw nothing but ruin. Since pacification the province has been recovering. Yet the whole province has barely eighteen thousand registered households—fewer than one county elsewhere. Drafting five thousand men for logging, with supplies for thousands, and sending laborers hundreds or thousands of li away, ends farming entirely—how can taxes be collected? He asked that the governor inspect the cutting sites in person, take only what could be moved, and memorialize on what could not.' When the memorial arrived the emperor said, 'Sichuan has been ravaged by war; logging only adds to the people's misery. Pine from beyond the passes can supply the hall for centuries—why insist on nanmu? He ordered the logging stopped.' Soon the Ministry of Personnel listed circuit officials for promotion to the capital; Zhi was omitted but was specially promoted. He became vice minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments and rose to minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
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二十六年，授江西巡撫。 陛辭，上諭曰：「大吏以操守為耍，大法則小廉，百姓蒙福。」 騭對曰：「臣向在四川，不取民間粒米束草，日費取給於家。」 上曰：「身為大臣，日費必取給於家，勢有所不能。 但操守廉潔，念念愛民，便為良吏，且亦須安靜。 貪污屬吏，先當訓誡； 不悛，則糾劾。」 瀕行，賜帑金千。 二十七年，擢閩浙總督。 疏言：「江西自蕩平後，積年蠲免銀米二百萬有奇，民生漸裕。 然徵收之弊，尚為民累，錢糧明加火耗，暗加重戥，部院司道府皆有解費。 臣入境之初，火耗已減，解費尚存，即揭示剔除積弊，盡革官役上下大小雜費。 南昌、新建二縣漕糧尚仍民兌，俱行革除，漕運積年陋規，搜剔無遺。 但在民則省費，在官則失利。 恐臣去後，空言無用，乞天語嚴禁，不致前弊復生。」 下所司知之。
In the twenty-sixth year he was appointed governor of Jiangxi. At his farewell the emperor said, 'For high officials integrity is everything; uphold the great principles and small honesty follows, and the people prosper.' Zhi answered, 'In Sichuan I took not a grain or straw from the people and paid my daily costs from my own household.' The emperor said, 'A great minister cannot live entirely on his salary—that is understood. But stay honest, love the people in your heart, keep order, and you will be a good official. Corrupt subordinates should first be warned; if they do not reform, impeach them.' Before he left, the emperor gave him a thousand taels. In the twenty-seventh year he became governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang. He reported: 'Since pacification Jiangxi has been granted more than two million taels and piculs in remissions, and livelihood is improving. Yet collection abuses remain: open meltage fees, secret overweighting of scales, and delivery fees at every level. When I arrived meltage had been cut but delivery fees remained; I posted notices abolishing every accumulated abuse and miscellaneous fee. Nanchang and Xinjian still collected grain tax in kind from the people; I abolished that and every old abuse in transport. The people paid less; officials lost their cut. Fearing these reforms would lapse after I left, he asked the emperor to forbid their revival.' The order was sent to the relevant offices.
19
The mutineer Xia Fenglong held Wuchang and seized Huangzhou. Stopping at Shaowu, Zhi heard the news, feared it would spread to Jiangxi, and asked to send Fujian troops. After the maritime ban was lifted, ruffians mingled with merchants and raided at sea. As soon as Zhi took office, he sent orders to Jiang Maoxun, regional commander of Wenzhou; Lin Benzhi, regional commander of Huangyan; and Dong Daben, regional commander of Dinghai, to take naval forces out to sea and search for the pirates. Maoxun and Benzhi took seven ships; Daben at Baisha Bay seized a great junk, executed sixteen pirate leaders including Yang Shiyu, and freed 111 captives. In the twenty-eighth year, when the emperor visited Zhejiang, he gave Zhi imperial court robes. He said, 'You have served faithfully; the people of Zhejiang and Fujian praise your integrity, and I reward you accordingly.' Soon he was made minister of Revenue; old and ill, he repeatedly asked to retire but the emperor always refused.
20
In the thirty-third year the emperor summoned Yu Chenglong and rebuked him for attacking Jin Fu, implicating Zhi, Dong Ne, and Li Yingjian for siding with him; all confessed; Ne and Yingjian lost their posts and Zhi retired at his former rank. He died at home in the thirty-fourth year and was granted state burial rites.
21
Song Luo, whose courtesy name was Muzhong, came from Shangqiu in Henan and was the son of Quan. In the fourth year of Shunzhi, at fourteen, he was selected as a minister's son and placed among the imperial guards. A year later he passed an examination and was appointed assistant prefect. In the third year of Kangxi he became assistant prefect of Huangzhou in Huguang. He left office to mourn his mother. In the sixteenth year he became vice director of the Court of Colonial Affairs, then vice director in the Ministry of Justice; he supervised the Jiangxi customs post and returned as a director. In the twenty-second year he became administration commissioner of the Tongyong circuit in Zhili. In the twenty-sixth year he was made provincial judge of Shandong. Promoted to provincial administration commissioner of Jiangsu, he found the treasury short more than 360,000 taels, reported it to the governor-general and governor, and made former commissioners Liu Ding and Zhang Qinwen repay their shares. The Ministry of Revenue bought copper for coinage at six fen five li per jin; Luo argued Jiangsu had no copper and imports cost far more, and asked Governor Tian Wen to memorialize to halt collection. The ministries revised the rate to one qian per jin, following customs-barrier precedent.
22
In the twenty-seventh year he was made governor of Jiangxi. When the mutineer Xia Fenglong rose in Huguang, Jiangxi troops marched to suppress him, halted at Jiujiang, and nearly mutinied over missing pay. Passing Pengze, Luo heard the news, ordered grain money released from the Hukou treasury, and the troops moved on. At Nanchang he learned that dismissed governor's troops Li Meiyu and Yuan Daxiang had rallied more than three thousand men to loot the warehouses and join Fenglong. He learned of the plot, arrested Meiyu and Daxiang, and the mob grew restless. He had them executed at once and announced that anyone merely led astray would be forgiven; the crowd calmed.
23
Jiangxi's timber levies fell on the people; Luo asked that purple bamboo, sandalwood, nanmu, and mao bamboo be bought with official funds instead. The emperor ordered yearly inspection of provincial treasuries; Luo proposed that grain-transport and courier funds be audited by the provincial administration commissioner, and prefectural treasuries by circuit intendants. When banner officials finished their terms, their families had to return to the banners and were inspected at every stop. Luo said, 'This treats them like criminals.' He asked that except for corruption cases, returning officials receive only a travel pass with a deadline, not criminal treatment. The ministries approved and implemented his proposals.
24
三十一年，調江蘇巡撫。 蘇州濱海各縣遇颶，上元、六合諸縣發山水，淮、揚、徐屬縣河溢，疏請視被災輕重，蠲減如例。 發江寧、鳳陽倉儲米麥散賑。 別疏請除太湖傍坍地賦額，戶部以地逾千畝，令詳察。 犖再疏上陳，上特允之。
In the thirty-first year he was transferred to governor of Jiangsu. Suzhou's coast was hit by typhoons, mountain floods struck several counties, and rivers overflowed in Huai-Yang; he asked tax relief scaled to each disaster. He opened granaries in Jiangning and Fengyang for relief grain. He also asked to drop taxes on land swallowed by Tai Lake; the Ministry of Revenue delayed because the area exceeded a thousand mu. Luo memorialized again and the emperor granted it.
25
During three imperial tours of the south the emperor praised Luo's steady governance, rewarded him repeatedly, and at over seventy wrote the characters "Fortune" and "Longevity" for him. In the forty-fourth year he became minister of Personnel. In the forty-seventh year he retired; the emperor gave him a parting poem. In the fifty-third year he came to court for the emperor's birthday, was made Junior Tutor of the Heir Apparent, received another poem, and went home. He died at eighty and was granted state burial rites.
26
陳詵，字叔大，浙江海寧人。 康熙十一年舉人，授中書科中書舍人。 二十八年，考授吏科給事中，乞養歸。 三十六年，起補原官。 輔刑科掌印給事中。 疏言：「淮、黃自古不兩行。 邇者修歸仁堤，開胡家溝，出睢湖之水； 閉六壩，加築高家堰，出洪澤湖之水。 此借淮敵黃不易之理。 然淮水入運者多，則敵黃仍弱。 舊設天妃閘，自淮、黃交會處至清江浦，凡為五閘，重運到時，更迭啟閉，過即下板鎖斷，是以全淮注黃。 其引入運河者，不過暫資濟運。 自改建草壩，淮、黃盡趨運河，清江浦民居可危。 宜复天妃閘舊制，使淮易敵黃，有裨大工。」 疏下河督張鵬翮議行。 尋疏劾山東蒲台知縣俞宏聲以赦前細故，拘系監生王觀成，迫令自殺； 巡撫王國昌僅以杖責解役結案，玩視民命。 命侍郎吳涵偕詵往按，宏聲坐奪官，國昌等議處。 授鴻臚寺卿，再遷左副都御史。
Chen Shen, whose courtesy name was Shuda, came from Haining in Zhejiang. In the eleventh year of Kangxi he passed the provincial examination and became a drafter in the Secretariat. In the twenty-eighth year he was appointed supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel and retired to care for his parents. In the thirty-sixth year he was recalled to his former post. He served as acting chief supervising secretary with seal in the Office of Scrutiny for Justice. He wrote: 'The Huai and the Yellow Rivers were never meant to run as one. Recently the Guiren dike was repaired and the Hujia Ditch opened to drain Sui Lake; the six sluices were closed and the Gaojia Embankment raised to drive Hongze Lake water out. This uses the unchanging principle of turning the Huai against the Yellow. But when too much Huai water enters the canal, the Huai still cannot master the Yellow. The old Tianfei sluices from the Huai–Yellow confluence to Qingjiangpu had five gates that opened only for grain transport and then shut, sending the Huai into the Yellow. Only a portion was diverted into the canal to help transport. Since reed sluices were built, the Huai and Yellow rivers have both poured into the canal, endangering Qingjiangpu. The Tianfei system should be restored so the Huai can hold its own against the Yellow and the great works benefit.' The memorial was referred to River Director Zhang Penghe for action. He impeached Yu Hongsheng, magistrate of Putai in Shandong, who before an amnesty jailed the student Wang Guancheng over a trifle and drove him to suicide; Governor Wang Guochang merely had a runner beaten and closed the case, showing contempt for life. The emperor sent Vice Minister Wu Han with Shen to investigate; Hongsheng lost his post and Guochang was punished. He became minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments and then left vice censor-in-chief.
27
In the forty-third year he was appointed governor of Guizhou. He wrote: 'Guizhou fields lie on steep slopes in cold soil with poor yields; farming is desperately hard. Former Governor Wang Yi, finding forty or fifty percent of land abandoned, cut old tax rates and allowed six years before taxing reclaimed fields. Later reports were treated the same way.' The ministries approved as he asked. In the forty-seventh year he was transferred to Hubei. He impeached Provincial Administration Commissioner Wang Yuxian for treasury deficits and had him removed. When the audit showed the debt cleared, he asked that Wang be spared further punishment. In the fiftieth year he became minister of Works. In the fifty-second year he was transferred to the Ministry of Rites. In the fifty-eighth year he retired with honors. He died in the sixty-first year, was granted state burial, and received the posthumous title Qingke. His son Shiguan has his own biography.
28
The commentator says: When the Three Feudatories rebelled, Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian, and Guangdong were where the trouble began; Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, and Sichuan suffered most where the armies passed. Yi Pi and Wang Jiwen pacified Yunnan and campaigned south—their stories are told elsewhere; Yongjian in Guizhou, Diyu in Sichuan, Hongzuo in Guangdong, Zhi in Jiangxi, Luo following Zhi, and Shen distantly continuing Yongjian—all labored hard to restore order after the war. When great disorder had barely ended, they lifted the ruined realm from fire and water back to safety—what magnificent service these men rendered!