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列傳八十七
Biographies 87
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沈起元何師儉唐繼祖馬維翰餘甸王葉滋劉而位
Shen Qiyuan, He Shijian, Tang Jizu, Ma Weihan, Yu Dian, Wang Yezi, and Liu Erwei
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沈起元，字子大，江南太倉人。 康熙六十年進士，選庶吉士，改吏部主事。 擢員外郎，以知府發福建用。 總督高其倬令權福州，調興化。 時世宗聞福建倉穀虧空，遣廣東巡撫楊文乾等往按，被劾者半，受代者爭為煩苛，起元獨持平。 莆田民因訟互鬥，其倬恐釀亂，令捕治。 起元責兩人而釋其餘，報曰：「罪在主者，餘不足問也。」 尋攝海關，裁陋規萬餘金。 巡撫常安有奴在關，以索費困商舶。 起元聞，立督收稅如額，令商舶行，白常安斥奴。 自是人皆奉法。 其倬奏開南洋，報可。 已，復令商出洋者，必戚里具狀，限期返，逾者連坐。 起元曰：「人之生死，貨之利鈍，皆無常，戚里豈能預料？ 且始不聽出洋則已，今聽之，商造船集貨費不貲，奈何忽撓以結狀？ 若令商自具狀，過三年不歸，勿聽回籍，不猶愈乎？」 其倬從之。
Shen Qiyuan, whose courtesy name was Zida, came from Taicang in Jiangnan. He earned his jinshi degree in the sixtieth year of the Kangxi reign, entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor, and was then appointed principal clerk in the Ministry of Personnel. Promoted to vice department director, he was sent to Fujian to serve as a prefect. Governor Gao Qisuo placed him in charge of Fuzhou as acting prefect, then moved him to Xinghua. When the Yongzheng Emperor learned that Fujian's granary accounts showed large shortfalls, he sent Guangdong governor Yang Wenqian and others to investigate. Half of those investigated were impeached, and their successors competed to be harsh and troublesome—only Qiyuan remained fair and even-handed. The people of Putian had come to blows over lawsuits, and Qisuo, fearing unrest, ordered them rounded up. Qiyuan punished the two ringleaders and released the others, reporting: "The offense rests with the leaders; the rest do not warrant inquiry." He was soon put in charge of the maritime customs and eliminated irregular levies amounting to more than ten thousand taels. Governor Chang An kept a servant at the customs who extorted merchants and impeded their ships. On hearing this, Qiyuan at once enforced full tax collection, allowed the merchant fleet to sail, and reported to Chang An to have the servant expelled. After that, all conformed to the regulations. Qisuo memorialized to reopen trade with the Southern Seas, and the court approved. Before long, however, a new order required merchants sailing abroad to obtain affidavits from kinsmen, with fixed deadlines for return—those who missed the deadline would bring collective punishment on their families. Qiyuan objected: "Whether a man lives or dies, whether goods prosper or fail—all is unforeseeable. How can relatives predict such outcomes? Besides, if going to sea were still forbidden, that would be one thing; but now that it is allowed, merchants have spent fortunes fitting out ships and assembling cargo—why suddenly burden them with bond requirements? If merchants filed their own bonds, and those who failed to return within three years were barred from re-registering in their home districts, would that not serve better?" Qisuo adopted his proposal.
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調台灣。 台灣田一甲準十一畝有奇，賦三則：上則一甲穀八石，中則六石，下則四石，視內地數倍。 然多隱佔，民不甚困。 時方清丈，佔者不得匿。 其倬欲使台灣賦悉視內地下則，恐不及額致部詰。 起元令著籍者仍舊額，丈出者視內地下則。 俟隱佔既清，更減舊額重者均於新額，賦不虧而民無累。 起元在福州，以辨冤獄忤按察使潘體豐，體豐中以他事，鐫四級，遂告歸。
He was transferred to Taiwan. In Taiwan one jia of land equaled a little over eleven mu; tax fell into three tiers—upper-grade land paid eight dan of grain per jia, middle-grade six dan, and lower-grade four dan, several times the rates in the interior provinces. Much land, however, was concealed or illegally occupied, so the burden on the people had not been severe. A full land survey was then under way, and those who had hidden holdings could no longer conceal them. Qisuo wanted to reduce all Taiwan assessments to the interior lower-grade rate, fearing ministry censure if revenues fell short. Qiyuan ruled that land already on the registers should keep its old assessment, while newly measured holdings would be taxed at the interior lower grade. Once hidden encroachments were cleared, heavy old assessments would be lightened and spread across the new totals, preserving revenue without crushing the people. In Fuzhou he had offended judicial intendant Pan Tifeng by righting a wrongful conviction; Tifeng found another pretext to demote him four ranks, and Qiyuan then resigned and went home.
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高宗即位，起江西驛鹽道副使。 乾隆二年，擢河南按察使。 會久雨，被災者四十餘縣，饑民四走，或議禁之。 起元謂：「民飢且死，奈何止其他徙？」 令安置未被水諸縣，給以糧，遂無出河南境者。 巡撫雅爾圖檄府縣修書院，以起元總其事，乃教群士省身克己之學。 立章善坊，書孝子、悌弟、義夫、貞婦名，採訪事實，為章善錄版行，一時風動。
When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, Qiyuan was recalled as vice commissioner of the Jiangxi courier-and-salt circuit. In Qianlong 2 he was promoted to judicial commissioner of Henan. Prolonged rains had flooded more than forty counties, and starving refugees scattered in every direction—some officials proposed barring their movement. Qiyuan protested: "The people are starving to death—how can you block them from seeking refuge elsewhere?" He had them settled in counties untouched by flood and issued grain rations, so that none left the province. Governor Yartu directed local governments to restore academies and placed Qiyuan in overall charge; he instructed the scholars in the discipline of inward scrutiny and moral self-restraint. He founded a Zhangshan workshop to inscribe the names of the filial, the fraternal, the righteous, and the chaste, collected verified cases, and published a Zhangshan Record—inspiring moral emulation throughout the region.
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七年，遷直隸布政使。 大旱議賑，總督高斌欲十一月始行，起元力請先普賑一月，俟戶口查竣，再分別加賑。 有倡言賑戶不賑口者，起元曰：「一戶數口，止賑一二，是且殺七八人矣！」 檄各屬似此者罪之。 戶部尚書海望奏清理直隸旗地，有司違限，旨飭責。 斌將劾數州縣應命，起元不可，曰：「旗地非旦夕可清，州縣方賑災，何暇及此？ 獨劾起元可也！」 乃止。 九年，內轉光祿寺卿。 十三年，移疾歸。
In the seventh year he was transferred to serve as administration commissioner of Zhili. During a severe drought the question of famine relief arose; Governor Gao Bin wanted to wait until the eleventh month, but Qiyuan pressed for a month of universal relief first, then differentiated additional aid once registries were complete. Some proposed relief by household rather than by person; Qiyuan objected: "A single household may hold many mouths—relieving only one or two would condemn seven or eight others to die!" He circulated orders that subordinates who did likewise would be prosecuted. Revenue Minister Haiwang memorialized to settle banner land titles in Zhili; local officials missed deadlines and were censured by the throne. Gao Bin was ready to impeach several prefectural and county officials to satisfy the order; Qiyuan refused, saying: "Banner lands cannot be sorted in a day, and the local governments are consumed with famine relief—when could they attend to this? Satisfy the order by impeaching Qiyuan alone!" The plan was dropped. In the ninth year he was transferred within the capital to minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments. In the thirteenth year he retired citing illness.
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起元自少敦厲廉恥，晚歲杜門誦先儒書。 臨沒，言：「平生學無真得。 年來靜中自檢，仰不愧，俯不怍，或庶幾焉！」
Qiyuan had cultivated a stern sense of honor from youth; in his later years he lived in seclusion, reading the classics of the early Confucians. Facing death he said: "Throughout my life I never achieved genuine understanding in learning. Yet in recent years, reflecting in solitude, I can look up without guilt and down without shame—perhaps in that I have not entirely failed." (closing quotation mark in the source.)
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何師儉，字桐叔，浙江山陰人。 以納貲，於康熙六十年選授兵部員外郎。 奉職勤懇，常數月不出署。 雍正元年，遷廣西右江道僉事，部請留任一年，世宗命以升銜留任，賜人葠、貂皮。 師儉以執法卻重賄，忤要人，因誣以避瘴故留部。 侍郎李紱昌言曰：「今部曹不名一錢，才者尤勞瘁，苟得郡，爭趨之，況監司耶？」 期滿，復請留，加按察司副使銜。 司疏奏皆出其手，他司事難治者亦時委之。
He Shijian, whose courtesy name was Tongshu, came from Shanyin in Zhejiang. Having purchased his office, he was appointed vice department director in the Ministry of War in the sixtieth year of Kangxi. He served with tireless diligence, often remaining at his office for months on end. In Yongzheng 1 he was transferred to surveillance commissioner of the Guangxi Right River Circuit; when the ministry asked to retain him another year, the Yongzheng Emperor ordered him kept on with an elevated title and rewarded him with ginseng and sable fur. Shijian had offended powerful figures by enforcing the law and refusing large bribes; they slandered him as having lingered at the capital to escape the southern miasma. Vice Minister Li Fu spoke up plainly: "Ministry clerks today take not a single cash in bribes; the ablest work themselves to exhaustion—given a chance at a prefecture they would all scramble for it, let alone a provincial surveillance post." When his term expired he was again retained, with the added title of vice judicial commissioner. He drafted every memorial and report for his bureau, and difficult cases from other bureaus were often assigned to him as well.
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三年，出為江南驛鹽道副使，上召對，勉以操守，复賜人葠、貂皮，許上疏言事。 四年，調廣東糧驛道副使。 歲大祲，師儉以存留米五萬石給餉，飭所屬緩徵。 或疑專擅獲咎，師儉曰：「請而後行，民已苦箠楚矣！」 總督孔毓珣與巡撫楊文乾不相能，以師儉署鹽法道，欲引以為助。 文乾疑為毓珣黨，令買銅，將以賠累困之。 明年，文乾入覲，上示以毓珣彈事，亦及師儉，乃知師儉非阿毓珣者。 令署按察使，毓珣又疑師儉暱文乾。 及文乾卒，劾師儉違禁開礦，侵蝕銅價。 逾年，署巡撫傅泰會鞫，事始白。 上知其無罪，命往陝西佐治軍需。
In the third year he was posted as vice commissioner of the Jiangnan courier-and-salt circuit; the emperor received him in audience, urged him to maintain his integrity, again granted ginseng and sable fur, and allowed him to submit memorials on policy. In the fourth year he was transferred to vice commissioner of the Guangdong grain-and-courier circuit. A severe famine struck that year; Shijian drew on fifty thousand dan of reserve grain to pay stipends and ordered his subordinates to defer tax collection. Some worried he would be punished for overstepping his authority; Shijian replied: "If I must ask permission before acting, the people will already have been flogged into misery!" Governor Kong Yuxun and Governor Yang Wenqian were at loggerheads; Yuxun placed Shijian in charge of the salt administration, hoping to win him as an ally. Wenqian suspected him of siding with Yuxun and ordered him to buy copper, planning to ruin him with indemnity claims. The following year Wenqian came to court; the emperor showed him Yuxun's impeachment memorial, which also named Shijian, and Wenqian realized Shijian had not been currying favor with Yuxun. The court ordered Shijian to serve as acting judicial commissioner; Yuxun now suspected him of being close to Wenqian. After Wenqian's death, Yuxun impeached Shijian for illegally opening mines and embezzling funds from the copper purchases. After more than a year, acting governor Fu Tai jointly investigated the case and Shijian was finally exonerated. Knowing him innocent, the emperor sent him to Shaanxi to help manage military logistics.
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師儉在兵部，諳悉諸邊形勢扼塞、戰守機宜、芻餉緩急。 至涼州，每集議，指畫如素習，總督查郎阿深重之。 署涼莊道參政。 師過涼州，檄至肅州支餉。 兩路遙遠，師儉即以涼州所蓄給之，師行無乏。 一日羽書數過，師儉策必調取生兵，峙餦以待。 已而果然。 肅州師將行，飛檄令截取公私騾馬，官民皇皇。 師儉曰：「在道官商皆赴肅者，若官頓於途，貨棄於地，非軍前所宜。 進剿未有定期，何如聽其至肅，釋所載而後供役？ 軍前得人與貨，亦省芻茭解送之煩，是獲兩利也。 檄雖嚴，吾自當之。」 於是官商皆安，軍事亦無誤。
During his years at the Ministry of War, Shijian had mastered every frontier's strategic terrain, battle plans, and the timing of fodder and pay. At Liangzhou he took part in every council and directed operations as though he had done so all his life; Governor-General Cha Lang'a came to rely on him deeply. He served as acting administration commissioner of the Liangzhuang Circuit. When the army passed through Liangzhou, an urgent order arrived directing that stipends be paid at Suzhou. The two routes lay far apart; Shijian immediately drew on Liangzhou's stores to pay the troops, and the army marched without want. One day several urgent dispatches arrived in succession; Shijian judged that fresh troops would be mobilized and stockpiled rations in readiness. Events proved him right. As the Suzhou army prepared to march, an urgent dispatch ordered the seizure of every private and official pack animal, throwing officials and commoners into panic. Shijian objected: "Officials and merchants on the road are all headed for Suzhou—if we detain them en route and leave their goods abandoned along the highway, that will not serve the army. The campaign has no fixed schedule—why not let them reach Suzhou, unload their goods, and only then press them into service? The army would gain both manpower and supplies while sparing the trouble of hauling fodder and fuel forward—a double advantage. However strict the order, I will answer for it myself." Officials and merchants were reassured, and military operations proceeded without disruption.
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尋調補西安鹽驛道副使。 關中旱，詔以湖廣米十萬石自商州龍駒寨運陝西。 師儉董其役，未半，大雨谿漲，騾馬少，不足供轉輸。 商於山中無頓積所，水次隘，運艘不齊。 師儉以秋穀將登，請止運，民亦不飢。 軍中馬缺，檄取驛馬。 師儉謂：「置郵傳命，如人身血脈，不能一日廢。」 拒不可，事竟寢。
He was soon transferred to serve as vice commissioner of the Xi'an salt-and-courier circuit. A drought struck Guanzhong; the court ordered one hundred thousand dan of grain from Huguang conveyed from Longjuzhai in Shangzhou into Shaanxi. Shijian oversaw the transport, but before half the grain had moved, torrential rains swelled the streams; pack animals were scarce and could not sustain the convoys. The Shangyu mountain route offered no place to store grain in bulk; landing stages were cramped and transport boats could not keep a steady schedule. Shijian argued that the autumn harvest was near and petitioned to halt the convoys, since the people would not go hungry. The army was short of horses; an order went out to seize relay-post mounts. Shijian protested: "The postal relay system is like the bloodstream of the empire—it cannot be suspended for even a day." He refused, and the order was eventually dropped.
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擢按察使，數平疑獄。 吏有故入人罪者，必按如法，雖貴勢賢親不徇縱。 十三年，以目疾乞休。 高宗即位，赦詔至，時目已失明，令吏誦案牘，諦聽，得邀赦典者，立出之而後上陳。 留兩月，畢其事始歸。 後卒於家，陝西祀名宦。
Promoted to judicial commissioner, he repeatedly resolved doubtful criminal cases. When officials had framed innocent defendants, he always prosecuted them to the full extent of the law, showing no favor even to the powerful or well connected. In the thirteenth year he retired citing eye trouble. When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, an amnesty arrived; though Shijian was by then completely blind, he had clerks read case files aloud and listened carefully—any prisoner eligible for amnesty he released immediately before reporting upward. He stayed two months until every case was settled, then returned home. He later died at home and was entered in Shaanxi's shrine of eminent officials.
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唐繼祖，字序皇，江南江都人。 康熙六十年進士，選庶吉士。 雍正元年，散館，授編修，轉禮部員外郎。 五年，考選浙江道御史。 七年，授工科給事中。 命察八旗虧帑，律侵挪皆不赦，犯者貧，羈獄二三十年不結。 繼祖為核減開除，奏請豁免，積牘一清。 命巡西城，回民聚居，頑獷不法，嚴治之，有犯必懲，悉斂戢。 建倉東便門外，多發塚墓，毀祠宇，繼祖陳其不便，改地營建，塚墓祠宇並修復。 南漕愆期，命赴淮安巡視。 繼祖馳至，不更張成法，惟選幹吏催督，懲其疲惰。 兩閱月，糧艘悉抵通州。 條上漕務利病，下部議行。
Tang Jizu, whose courtesy name was Xuhuang, came from Jiangdu in Jiangnan. He earned his jinshi degree in the sixtieth year of Kangxi and entered the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor. In Yongzheng 1, after completing his Hanlin term, he was appointed compiler and then transferred to vice department director in the Ministry of Rites. In the fifth year he was selected by examination as censor of the Zhejiang circuit. In the seventh year he was appointed supervising secretary in the Ministry of Works. He was ordered to investigate deficits in the Eight Banners treasuries; regulations on embezzlement allowed no amnesty, and poor offenders languished in prison twenty or thirty years without resolution. Jizu took charge of the audit-and-dismissal cases, memorialized for exemptions, and cleared the entire backlog. Ordered to patrol the western city, where Hui communities had grown stubborn and lawless, he cracked down hard—every offense brought punishment—and all were brought to heel. Plans to build a granary outside Dongbian Gate had opened many graves and demolished shrines. Jizu memorialized against it; the site was moved, and the tombs and shrines were restored. When southern tribute grain fell behind schedule, he was sent to Huai'an to oversee transport. Jizu hurried there, changed none of the established procedures, but put capable officers in charge of supervision and punished slackness. Within two months every grain barge had reached Tongzhou. He submitted a detailed memorial on the strengths and abuses of grain transport; the ministries deliberated and put his recommendations into effect.
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七年，命往湖南讞獄，並巡察湖南、湖北兩省，裹糧出，有餽觴酒豆肉，皆卻之，令行禁止。 與巡撫趙申喬同按永順苗變獄，群情帖服，苗疆以安。 湖南捕役多通盜，奏請捕役為盜，加重治罪，報可，入新例。 八年，擢通政司參議。 九年，擢鴻臚寺卿。 尋命以本銜署河南按察使，旋授湖北按察使。 繼祖在兩湖久，熟知吏民情偽。 楚俗刁健，黠吏與姦豪通，伺官喜怒，訟益難治。 繼祖閉諸胥於一室，不令與外通，訟風衰減。 雪監利女子冤獄，按鍾祥民變，皆為時所稱。 世宗馭吏嚴，內外大僚凜凜，救過不暇。 繼祖一意展舒，所陳奏無不允。 上欲大用之，出巡察，賜以摺匣，許奏事，曰：「朕於督撫賢者始賜摺匣，汝宜好為之！」 調江西，未之任，以疾乞歸。 病癒將出，遽卒。
In the seventh year he was ordered to Hunan to review criminal cases and to inspect both Hunan and Hubei. He traveled at his own expense; gifts of wine, beans, or meat were all refused, and he forbade such offerings outright. Together with Grand Coordinator Zhao Shenqiao he investigated the Yongshun Miao uprising; the public submitted, and the Miao frontier was pacified. Many Hunan constables colluded with bandits. He memorialized that constables who turned bandit should face heavier penalties; the request was approved and entered the new code. In the eighth year he was promoted to counselor in the Office of Transmission. In the ninth year he was promoted to director of the Court of State Ceremonial. He was soon ordered to serve as acting judicial commissioner of Henan at his present rank, then appointed judicial commissioner of Hubei. Having served long in the two Hu provinces, Jizu knew officials and commoners alike—their truths and their lies. Hubei folk were sharp and litigious; cunning clerks colluded with local bullies, watched every shift in an official's mood, and lawsuits grew harder to settle. Jizu confined the yamen clerks to a single room, cut off from outsiders, and the litigious mania subsided. He righted a wrongful conviction in Jianli involving a woman, investigated the popular disturbance at Zhongxiang, and both won contemporary praise. The Yongzheng Emperor ruled his officials with an iron hand; high officers at court and in the provinces lived in awe, scrambling merely to cover their mistakes. Jizu alone acted with confidence and ease; every proposal he submitted won approval. The emperor intended to promote him further. Before he left on his inspection tour, he was granted a memorial case and permission to report directly to the throne. The emperor said, "I grant the memorial case only to governors and governors-general I deem worthy. Conduct yourself accordingly! He was transferred to Jiangxi but never took up the post, pleading illness to return home. His illness had healed and he was preparing to depart when he died suddenly.
15
馬維翰，字墨麟，浙江海鹽人。 康熙六十年進士。 雍正元年，授吏部主事。 甫視事，杖姦胥，銓政清肅。 轉員外郎，考選陝西道御史，遷工科給事中，監督倉場，所至有聲。 六年，命赴四川清丈田畝，時同奉使者四。 維翰分赴建昌道屬，具有條理，糧浮於田者必請減，逾年事竣。 御史吳濤在川東丈田不實，以維翰助之。 至則發其弊，遂以維翰代任。 巡撫憲德薦可大用。 八年，留補建昌道副使，疏陳二事：四川俗好訟，州縣斷獄苟簡，案牘不具，奸民輒翻控，淆亂是非，請設幕職以襄治理； 又民鮮土著，多結草屋，輕於遷徙，焚劫輒致災，請發官款造磚甓，勸民多建瓦屋。 上斥其非政要，以其疏示憲德，謂：「汝薦可大用者乃若此！」 然維翰勇於任事，相度要害，改黎州千戶所設清溪縣。 烏蒙苗亂，出師會剿，維翰治軍需，供糗糧芻茭，鑿雪通道，與廝卒同甘苦。 論剿撫悉中機宜，事乃定。 涼山地震數百里，勘災散賑，民感之。 礦廠擾蠻，起為亂，方進剿。 維翰力陳營兵不戢及各廠病蠻狀，請罷廠撤兵，撫各番，止誅其魁。
Ma Weihan, whose courtesy name was Molin, came from Haiyan in Zhejiang. He earned his jinshi degree in the sixtieth year of Kangxi. In Yongzheng 1 he was appointed principal clerk in the Ministry of Personnel. As soon as he took office, he flogged corrupt clerks, and appointment affairs were brought under strict order. Promoted to vice director, he was selected as censor of the Shaanxi circuit, then appointed supervising secretary of the Ministry of Works and supervisor of the granary depot. Wherever he served, he earned renown. In the sixth year, he was sent to Sichuan to survey field land along with three other commissioners. Weihan was assigned to the Jianchang Circuit. His work was methodical, and wherever grain quotas exceeded actual land he requested reductions. Within a year the survey was complete. Censor Wu Tao had falsified land surveys in eastern Sichuan, and Weihan was sent to assist the investigation. When Weihan arrived, he exposed the abuses and was appointed to replace Wu Tao. Governor Xiande recommended him as fit for high office. In the eighth year he was retained as vice commissioner of the Jianchang Circuit and memorialized on two matters: Sichuan was litigious, and prefectures and counties judged cases perfunctorily with incomplete records, allowing scoundrels to overturn verdicts and confuse right and wrong. He proposed establishing staff posts to assist governance; He also noted that few people were native settlers; most lived in thatched huts and moved easily, so arson and robbery often caused disaster. He proposed using official funds to make bricks and tiles and encourage tile-roofed construction. The emperor dismissed these as peripheral to governance, showed the memorial to Xiande, and said, "This is the man you recommended for high office! Yet Weihan was bold in action. Surveying strategic points, he converted the Lzhou Guard thousand-household post into Qingxi County. When the Wumeng Miao rebelled and troops were dispatched for joint suppression, Weihan managed military supplies, providing rations and fodder, cutting paths through snow, and sharing hardships with common soldiers. His proposals on suppression and pacification all hit the mark, and the rebellion was settled. When an earthquake struck Liangshan over several hundred li, he surveyed the damage and distributed relief, winning the people's gratitude. Mining operations disturbed the tribes, who rose in rebellion as troops were advancing to suppress them. Weihan strongly memorialized on undisciplined camp soldiers and the suffering of tribes at each mine, requesting that mines be abolished, troops withdrawn, each tribe pacified, and only the ringleaders executed.
16
在川七年，不阿上官。 旋被構，維翰揭部請解職赴質。 時親王總部事，特威重，捽使免冠。 維翰以手按冠抗聲曰：「奉旨不免冠！」 譙問故，則又抗聲曰：「旨解職，非革職也！」 部乃疏請奪官。 事旋白。 乾隆二年，起授江南常鎮道參議。 丁父憂，歸，卒於家。
In seven years in Sichuan, he never fawned on superiors. Soon he was framed. Weihan memorialized the ministry requesting dismissal so he could face trial. At the time a prince presided over the ministry with special authority and had him seized and forced to remove his official cap. Weihan pressed his cap with his hand and cried out, "By imperial decree I need not remove my cap! When rebuked and asked why, he cried out again, "The decree was dismissal from office, not dismissal from rank! The ministry then memorialized requesting that his office be stripped. The matter was soon cleared. In the second year of Qianlong, he was recalled and appointed administration commissioner of the Chang-Zhen Circuit in Jiangnan. When his father died, he returned home and died there.
17
餘甸，字田生，福建福清人。 康熙四十五年進士。 居鄉勵名節，巡撫張伯行重之，延主鼇峰書院。 授四川江津知縣，民投牒者，片言立決遣，訟為之簡。 日與諸生誦說文藝，疏解性理。 所徵賦即儲庫，不入私室。 時青海用兵，巡撫年羹堯督餉，多額外急徵，檄再三至，甸不應。 乃使僕持檄告諭，自朝至晡，甸不出，使者譁。 甸坐堂皇，命反接，將杖之，丞簿力為請，久之乃釋其縛。 越日，使者索檄，甸曰：「汝還報，我閉門待劾，檄已達京師矣。」 羹堯亦置之。 行取吏部主事，時尚書張鵬翮、侍郎湯右曾皆以幹濟名，甸遇當爭辯者，侃侃無所撓。 主選三年，權要富人請託多格不行。 將告歸，條文書已駁議未奏者十餘事，曰：「此皆作姦巧法易為所蒙，必上聞，吾乃去。」 父憂免喪，猶廬墓。
Yu Dian, styled Tiansheng, came from Fuqing in Fujian. He earned his jinshi degree in the forty-fifth year of Kangxi. At home he cultivated reputation and integrity. Governor Zhang Boxing valued him and invited him to head the Aofeng Academy. Appointed magistrate of Jiangjin in Sichuan, he decided petitions in a few words and litigation dwindled. Daily he lectured scholars on literature and explained Neo-Confucian principle. Taxes collected went directly to the treasury, never entering his private quarters. While Qinghai was at war, Governor Nian Gengyao supervised provisions and repeatedly imposed extra urgent levies. Dispatches arrived again and again, but Dian did not comply. Gengyao sent a servant with a dispatch to announce the order. From morning until dusk Dian did not emerge, and the messenger raised an uproar. Dian sat in the hall, ordered the messenger bound and was about to flog him. The assistant magistrate and registrar pleaded forcefully, and only after a long delay were his bonds released. The next day the messenger demanded the dispatch. Dian said, "Go back and report that I have closed my doors awaiting impeachment—the dispatch has already reached the capital. Gengyao also let the matter drop. Selected for the Ministry of Personnel, he served under Minister Zhang Penghe and Vice Minister Tang Youzeng, both famed for capability. When matters required argument, Dian spoke forthrightly without yielding. In charge of appointments for three years, he blocked most requests from the powerful and wealthy. Before requesting retirement, he itemized more than ten documents already rejected in deliberation but not yet submitted, saying, "These are all crafty devices by which one could easily be deceived—they must be reported to the throne before I leave. After mourning for his father, he still lived in a hut by his father's tomb.
18
以河道總督陳鵬年疏薦，擢山東兗寧道。 釐工剔弊，一袪積習，甚得士民心。 鵬年卒，齊蘇勒為河督，以工事劾甸，行河至濟寧，士民群聚乞還甸。 齊蘇勒疏陳，召入見。 雍正二年四月，授山東按察使。 攜二僕，買驢之官，務崇禮教，輕刑罰，政化大行。 十一月，召詣京師。 三年，擢順天府丞。
On the recommendation of Grand Canal Governor Chen Pengnian, he was promoted to the Yan-Ning Circuit in Shandong. He rectified engineering and eliminated abuses, sweeping away entrenched custom, and won the hearts of gentry and commoners. When Pengnian died, Qisule became canal governor and impeached Dian over engineering. When Qisule traveled the canal to Jining, gentry and commoners gathered in crowds begging for Dian's return. Qisule memorialized on this, and Dian was summoned for audience. In the fourth month of the second year of Yongzheng, he was appointed Shandong provincial judicial commissioner. He took two servants, bought a donkey, and rode to office. Emphasizing ritual teaching and lighter punishments, he brought about widespread moral reform. In the eleventh month, he was summoned to the capital. In the third year, he was promoted to vice director of Shuntian Prefecture.
19
甸歷官盡革陋規，為按察使，愍囚不能自衣食，取鹽商歲饋三之一以資給之。 兼完囹圄，修學宮、書院，委有司出入註籍。 既去官，上命內閣學士繆沅清察山東鹽政諸弊，舉是劾甸，奪官，歸。 甸用唐人詩語為人書楹帖，其人有怨家，訐於有司，以為怨望。 有司以甸所書也，並下甸於獄。 事白，遽卒。
Throughout his career Dian abolished all irregular fees. As provincial judicial commissioner, pitying prisoners who could not feed or clothe themselves, he took one-third of the salt merchants' annual gifts to support them. He also repaired prisons, academies, and colleges, requiring local officials to keep registers of all income and expenditure. After leaving office, the emperor ordered Grand Secretariat Academician Miao Yuan to investigate abuses in Shandong salt administration. Citing Dian's use of merchant gifts, Yuan impeached him, stripped his office, and Dian returned home. Dian had written couplets for others using lines from Tang poetry. One recipient had an enemy who denounced the couplets to officials as expressions of resentment against the throne. Because Dian had written the couplets, the officials imprisoned him as well. When the matter was cleared, he suddenly died.
20
王葉滋，字槐青，江南華亭人。 弱冠，補諸生。 浙江巡撫硃軾闢佐幕，器其才。 雍正元年，重開明史館，軾薦之，引見稱旨，命入館纂修。 舉順天鄉試。 福敏督湖廣，世宗命葉滋往贊其幕。 五年，應禮部試，甫畢，上召見，問湖廣吏治、民生利弊，奏對甚悉，趣馳傳還湖廣。 榜發中式，未與殿試，賜二甲進士，即授常德知府。 常德例，知府至，行戶更新照，規費四千金，葉滋革其例。 境數被水災，請帑增築花貓新陂堤堰，豁被水荒田額糧，民德之。 辰州關木稅為利藪，時議移關常德，葉滋恐累民，拒之，請仍舊制。 行法不避豪貴，興學造士，薦舉優行諸生陳悌為武平知縣，貴金馬為上蔡知縣，劉樵為清平知縣，並為良吏。
Wang Yezi, styled Huaiqing, came from Huating in Jiangnan. In his youth he became a licentiate. Zhejiang Governor Zhu Shi recruited him to his staff and valued his talent. In the first year of Yongzheng, when the Ming History Office reopened, Zhu Shi recommended him. He pleased the emperor at audience and was ordered to join the compilation staff. He passed the Shuntian provincial examination. When Fu Min governed Huguang, the Shizong Emperor ordered Yezi to assist his staff. In the fifth year he took the Ministry of Rites examination. As soon as it ended the emperor summoned him and asked about Huguang governance and the welfare of the people. His replies were thorough, and he was ordered to hurry back to Huguang by relay. When the results were posted he had passed. Before the palace examination he was granted second-rank jinshi status and immediately appointed prefect of Changde. By Changde custom, when a new prefect arrived, brokerage houses paid four thousand taels to renew licenses. Yezi abolished this custom. The district suffered repeated floods. He requested treasury funds to enlarge the Huamao and Xinpo dikes and exempted grain quotas on flooded wasteland. The people were grateful. The Chenzhou Pass timber tax was a lucrative source of revenue. Some proposed moving the pass to Changde, but Yezi feared burdening the people, refused, and requested that the old system remain. Enforcing the law without fear of the powerful, promoting learning and cultivating scholars, he recommended the excellent licentiate Chen Ti as magistrate of Wuping, Gui Jinma as magistrate of Shangcai, and Liu Qiao as magistrate of Qingping—all became capable officials.
21
署岳州、辰州二府，攝岳常道副使。 久之，授辰沅靖道副使。 時苗疆初闢，清林箐，增汛堠，規模肅然。 所屬綏寧、城步與黔疆犬牙錯。 嘗率數騎，持酒肉鹽菸，循行苗砦。 群苗迎拜，謂「上官親我」。 召諸頭人集校場，賜花紅銀牌，宣上德意，勸以禮義。 因偕總兵閱兵耀軍容，群苗帖服。 署按察使，調糧儲道，舊有漕費，悉歸公用。 值貴州苗亂，師進剿，葉滋駐辰州治軍需，剋期辦。 綏寧苗蠢動，為貴州苗應。 葉滋條上剿撫事，悉中窾要。 大吏令駐綏寧指揮，積勞疾作，卒於山中。
He served as acting prefect of Yuezhou and Chenzhou and as acting vice commissioner of the Yue-Chang Circuit. After long service, he was appointed vice commissioner of the Chen-Yuan-Jing Circuit. The Miao frontier had only recently been opened. He cleared forest ravines, increased guard posts, and established an imposing arrangement. Suining and Chengbu under his jurisdiction interlocked with the Guizhou frontier like a chessboard. He once led a few horsemen, carrying wine, meat, salt, and tobacco, touring Miao stockades in turn. The Miao came out to welcome him, saying, "The superior cares for us personally." He summoned all headmen to the drill ground, bestowed flowered red-silver plaques, proclaimed the emperor's benevolent intent, and exhorted them in ritual and righteousness. Then together with the regional commander he reviewed troops to display military might, and the Miao submitted. He served as acting provincial judicial commissioner and was transferred to grain storage commissioner. Former tribute transport fees all went to public use. When the Guizhou Miao rebelled and troops marched to suppress them, Yezi remained at Chenzhou managing military supplies and met every deadline. The Suining Miao stirred restlessly in response to the Guizhou rebellion. Yezi submitted a detailed plan for suppression and pacification, every point striking at the heart of the matter. Senior officials ordered him to remain at Suining to direct operations. Exhaustion brought on illness, and he died in the mountains.
22
葉滋初以文學受知，及官於外，所至有聲績。 卒時年僅五十五，世咸惜之。
Yezi first won recognition for his literary learning, and once he held office in the provinces, he earned renown wherever he served. He was only fifty-five when he died, and all who knew of him mourned the loss.
23
劉而位，字爾爵，山西汾陽人。 康熙五十二年舉人，授河南安陽知縣。 有兄弟爭產構訟十餘年者，為據理剖解，至淚下，皆叩頭求罷，案牘遂稀。 雍正中，遷福建泉州知府，再遷興泉道參議。 鹽政窳敝，商居奇索高直，民苦淡食，不獲已，增價以市。 既而鹽不足，民惡其壟斷，聚而毆之。 海舶私梟動逾千百，往捕則持械拒，大獄迭興，羅織牽連，數歲不息。 而位創議裁引革商，歲額課稅歸灶完納，如農完賦，任人轉運，聽其所之，則諸弊可革而國賦不乏。 巡撫趙國麟心韙之，格於例不行。 未幾，引疾歸。 乾隆三年，起官四川鹽茶道副使。 蜀鹽產於井，課由井納，民便之。 雍正中有請設引招商增課者，四川鹽政自此壞。 商無餘貲，運不足額，民持錢不得鹽，而井鹽滯積不售，因以致訌。 而位欲事釐剔，大吏畏難不可，力爭，愈嫉之。 改松茂道，調永寧道參議。 居常鬱鬱，不得行其志，惟與諸生講學。 尋卒於官。
Liu Erwei, styled Erjue, came from Fenyang in Shanxi. He passed the provincial examination in the fifty-second year of Kangxi and was appointed magistrate of Anyang in Henan. When brothers who had litigated over property for more than ten years came before him, he reasoned through the case until they wept. They kowtowed and begged to withdraw their suit, and litigation thereafter dwindled. During the Yongzheng reign he was transferred to prefect of Quanzhou in Fujian, then promoted to administration commissioner of the Xing-Quan Circuit. Salt administration was corrupt. Merchants hoarded salt and demanded exorbitant prices. The people, unable to obtain salt, had no choice but to pay inflated prices. When salt grew scarce, the people, resenting the merchants' monopoly, gathered to beat them. Private smugglers at sea often numbered over a thousand. When officials went to capture them, they resisted with weapons. Major cases arose in succession, entangling many through fabricated charges, and the turmoil continued for years. Erwei proposed abolishing salt certificates and merchant monopolies, having annual tax quotas paid at the salt works as farmers paid land tax, and allowing free transport and sale. This, he argued, would eliminate all abuses without reducing state revenue. Governor Zhao Guolin approved the plan in principle, but precedent prevented its implementation. Before long, he retired citing illness. In the third year of Qianlong, he was recalled to serve as vice commissioner of the Sichuan Salt and Tea Circuit. Sichuan salt was produced at wells, with taxes paid at the source—a system that served the people well. During Yongzheng, a proposal to establish salt certificates and recruit merchant monopolies to increase revenue ruined Sichuan's salt administration. Merchants lacked capital, transport fell short of quotas, people with money could not obtain salt, and well salt piled up unsold—leading to disturbances. Erwei sought to reform the system, but senior officials, fearing the difficulty, refused. He argued forcefully, and they grew ever more hostile. He was transferred to the Songmao Circuit, then to administration commissioner of the Yongning Circuit. Depressed at being unable to carry out his reforms, he devoted himself to lecturing scholars. He soon died in office.
24
而位生平服膺王守仁，曰：「尊所聞，行所知，須不流於弊。 尊陽明而不知其流弊，非善學陽明； 尊硃子而不知其流弊，亦非善學硃子。」 蓋謂王氏高明，弊在躐等； 硃子格物，弊恐拘而不化。 著省克引、劉氏家訓，為學者所稱。
Erwei devoted his life to Wang Yangming's teachings, saying, "Honor what you hear and practice what you know—but you must not drift into abuse. To honor Yangming without understanding his abuses is not to study him well; and to honor Master Zhu without understanding his abuses is likewise not to study him well. He meant that Wang Yangming's teaching was lofty, but its abuse lay in skipping stages of cultivation; while Master Zhu's investigation of things risked the abuse of rigid formalism without genuine transformation. He authored Introspection and Self-Restraint and the Liu Family Instructions, both praised by scholars.
25
論曰：起元深於經術，當朝政尚嚴，能持以平恕。 師儉以勤敏，繼祖以明肅，並見重於時。 維翰有幹局，甸尤能澤以儒效。 葉滋撫循苗疆，未竟其用。 而位議變鹽法，亦不得申其志，而但以學術名。 國家重視監司，所以擴循良之績，儲封疆之選，若諸人者，可謂無忝矣。
The commentator writes: Qi Yuan was deeply versed in the classics. When court governance favored severity, he maintained fairness and forbearance. Shijian was valued for diligence and quickness, Jizu for clarity and severity—both were highly regarded in their time. Weihan had a talent for practical administration; Dian especially enriched governance with Confucian learning. Yezi pacified the Miao frontier but died before his full potential could be realized. Erwei proposed reforming the salt law but likewise could not carry out his aims, and was known only for his scholarship. The state values provincial commissioners to extend the achievements of worthy officials and cultivate candidates for frontier posts. Men such as these may truly be said to have lived up to that trust.