2
張思明，字士瞻，其先獲嘉人，後徙居輝州。 思明穎悟過人，讀書日記千言。 至元十九年，由侍儀司舍人辟御史臺掾，又辟尚書省掾。 左丞相阿合馬既死，世祖追咎其奸欺，命尚書簿問遺孽。 一日，召右丞何榮祖、左丞馬紹，盡輸其贓以入，思明抱牘從，日已昏，命讀之，自昏達曙，帝聽忘疲，曰：「讀人吐音，大似侍儀舍人。」 右丞對曰：「正由舍人選為掾。」 帝奇之，曰：「斯人可用。」 明日，擢為大都路治中。 思明以超遷逾等，固辭，乃改湖廣行省都事。 元貞元年，召為中書省檢校，六曹無滯案，遷戶部主事。 大德初，擢左司都事，有獻西域秤法，思明以惑眾不用。 初立海道運糧萬戶府於江浙，受除者憚涉險，不行，思明請升等以優之，因著為令。 五年，轉吏部郎中。 九年，改集賢司直。 十年，除江浙行中書省左右司郎中。 十一年春，兩浙大饑，首贊發廩賑之。 至大三年，遷兩浙鹽運使，未上，入參議樞密院事，改中書省左司郎中。 皇慶元年，再授兩浙鹽運使，歲課羨贏，僚屬請上增數，思明曰：「贏縮不常，萬一以增為額，是我希一己之榮，遺百世之害。」 二年，召為戶部尚書。 延祐元年，進參議中書省事； 三年，拜中書參知政事。
Zhang Siming, whose courtesy name was Shizhan, came from a family originally of Huojia that later relocated to Huizhou. Siming was unusually gifted; when he read, he could commit a thousand characters to memory in a single day. In 1282, while serving as an usher in the Ceremonial Institute, he was recruited first as a clerk in the Censorate and then in the Secretariat. After the Left Chancellor Ahmad was dead, Kublai held him accountable for his deceit and ordered the Secretariat to investigate and record his remaining associates. On one occasion the Emperor summoned the Right Chancellor He Rongzu and the Left Chancellor Ma Shao to deliver in full the confiscated illicit gains. Siming followed with the documents in his arms. Night had fallen, yet the Emperor ordered them read aloud, and listened from dusk until dawn without tiring. He remarked, "The reader's delivery sounds very much like one of our Ceremonial Institute ushers." The Right Chancellor answered, "That is because he was chosen from among the ushers for this clerkship." The Emperor was impressed and said, "This man is fit for service." The following day Siming was promoted to Assistant Administrator of the Dadu metropolitan circuit. Siming declined firmly on the grounds that the promotion skipped too many ranks, and was instead appointed Chief Secretary of the Huguang Branch Secretariat. In 1295 he was recalled to serve as a reviewer in the Central Secretariat, where he cleared every bureau's backlog of cases and was promoted to principal clerk in the Ministry of Revenue. Early in the Dade reign he rose to chief secretary of the Left Secretariat. When someone proposed a new weighing system from the Western Regions, Siming refused to adopt it, judging that it would only confuse the public. When the maritime grain-transport office was first set up in Jiang-Zhe, appointees shrank from the dangers of the sea route and refused to take up their posts. Siming urged that their rank be raised as an incentive, and the measure was enacted as law. In the fifth year of the reign he was transferred to director in the Ministry of Personnel. In the ninth year he was reassigned as direct attendant of the Academy of Scholarly Worthies. In the tenth year he was appointed director in the left and right secretariats of the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat. In the spring of the eleventh year both Zhe regions were stricken by severe famine, and he was the first to urge opening the public granaries for relief. In 1310 he was appointed salt transport commissioner for the two Zhe regions, but before he could take up that post he was made a discussant in the Bureau of Military Affairs and then director of the Central Secretariat's left office. In 1312 he was again appointed salt commissioner for the two Zhe regions. When that year's receipts ran above quota, his staff urged reporting the surplus as a permanent increase. Siming objected: "Revenues rise and fall; if we lock in a bumper year as the standard quota, I would be trading a moment's credit for generations of harm." The following year he was recalled to serve as Minister of Revenue. In 1314 he was promoted to discussant of Central Secretariat affairs; and in the third year he was appointed assistant administrator of the Central Secretariat.
3
仁宗即位，浮屠妙總統有寵，敕中書官其弟五品，思明執不可。 帝大怒，召見切責之，對曰：「選法，天下公器。 徑路一開，來者雜遝。 故寧違旨獲戾，不忍隳祖宗成憲，使四方得窺陛下淺深也。」 帝心然其言，而業已許之，曰：「卿可姑與之，後勿為例。」 乃為萬億庫提舉，不與散官。 久之，近臣疾其持法峭直，日構讒間，出為工部尚書。 帝問左右曰：「張士瞻居工部，得無怏怏乎？」 對曰：「勤政如初。」 帝嘉嘆之，命授宣政院副使。 五年，除西京宣慰使。 嶺北戍士多貧者，歲凶，相挺為變，思明威惠並行，邊境乃安。 因疏和林運糧不便事十一條，帝勞以端硯、上尊。 會左丞相哈散辭職，帝不允，其請益堅，帝詰之曰：「朕任卿未專邪？」 曰：「非。」 曰：「近臣有撓政者邪？」 曰：「無有也。」 「然則何為而辭？」 對曰：「臣自揆才薄，恐誤陛下國事，若必欲任臣，願荐一人為助。」 帝問：「為誰？ 朕能從汝。」 哈散再拜謝曰； 「臣願得張思明。」 即日拜思明中書參知政事。 比召至，車駕幸上都，見於道，慰勉之曰：「卿向不負朕注委，故朕用哈散言，復起汝。」 未幾，升左丞。
After Renzong came to the throne, the Buddhist monk Miao Zongtong was in high favor, and an edict directed the Secretariat to give his younger brother a fifth-rank post. Siming stood firm and would not comply. The Emperor was furious, summoned him, and rebuked him sharply. Siming answered, "The law of appointment is a public trust belonging to the whole realm. Once one back door is opened, petitioners will pour in without end. I would rather defy your order and accept punishment than tear down the statutes our forefathers left us and let the empire gauge how deep or shallow your Majesty's principles run." The Emperor was persuaded in his heart, yet having already given his word he said, "Grant it for now, but do not let this become a precedent." The brother was given the post of superintendent of the Myriad Myriads Treasury, but no regular civil rank. Before long, favorites at court, resenting his rigid adherence to law, slandered him day after day until he was transferred out to serve as Minister of Works. The Emperor asked his attendants, "With Zhang Shizhan in the Ministry of Works, is he perhaps sulking?" They answered, "He is as diligent in office as ever." The Emperor expressed his admiration and ordered him appointed vice commissioner of the Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs. In the fifth year he was appointed pacification commissioner of the Western Capital. Many frontier garrison troops north of the ranges were destitute; when famine struck they rose together in unrest. Siming combined firm discipline with generous relief, and the border was restored to peace. He then submitted a memorial listing eleven problems with grain transport to Karakorum, and the Emperor rewarded him with a duan inkstone and fine wine. At that time the Left Chancellor Hasan sought to resign; the Emperor refused, but Hasan pressed his request all the more insistently. The Emperor demanded, "Have I not given you my full trust?" Hasan replied, "No." The Emperor asked, "Are there court favorites obstructing your work?" Hasan answered, "There are not." "Then why do you insist on resigning?" He replied, "I find my own abilities wanting and fear I may harm your Majesty's governance. If you must keep me in office, I beg leave to recommend one man to assist me." The Emperor asked, "Whom do you have in mind? I will do as you say." Hasan bowed twice and said, "I ask for Zhang Siming." That same day Siming was appointed assistant administrator of the Central Secretariat. When he was summoned and came up, the Emperor was already on the road to Shangdu and received him along the way. He encouraged him, saying, "You never betrayed the trust I placed in you, and that is why I took Hasan's advice and brought you back." Before long he was promoted to Left Chancellor.
4
When the Emperor died, Yingzong was still in mourning. The Right Chancellor Temür Odjir seized power and day after day executed ministers who would not follow him, until the whole court was in uproar. Siming admonished him: "The imperial tomb rites have only just ended and the new sovereign is not yet enthroned. For the Chancellor to kill at will makes everyone in the realm suspect disloyal ambitions. If the princes and imperial sons-in-law grow suspicious and refuse to attend, what will you do then? You must think this through carefully." Everyone feared for Siming's safety, but Temür Odjir was deeply shaken and said, "Without the Left Chancellor's warning I would nearly have ruined everything." When the Emperor undertook construction of Shou'an Temple, the investigating censors Guanyinbao, Suo'er Ha'dimishi, Cheng Gui, and Li Qianheng remonstrated forcefully. The Emperor was enraged and put Guanyinbao and Suo'er Ha'dimishi to death, handing Cheng Gui and Li Qianheng over to the courts. Siming told the Chancellor plainly, "It is a censor's duty to speak out on public affairs. Since the founding of the dynasty, no remonstrating minister has ever been executed." Once Cheng and Li were in the hands of the judicial officials, they were due to be judged according to the law; the Chancellor then spoke forcefully on their behalf, and the two received lighter sentences. When Bayiju became Left Chancellor, he and Temür Odjir each built factions and destroyed loyal ministers. Fearing he would be caught up in the purge, Siming repeatedly asked to resign but was refused. He was eventually framed on the charge that four hundred Mongol children had starved because he failed to supply their rations. Dismissed to his home, he lived behind closed doors for six years.
5
In the first Tianli year of Emperor Wenzong, he was recalled and appointed Left Chancellor of the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat. When Shaanxi suffered a severe famine, the Central Secretariat allocated one hundred thousand ingots from the Jiang-Zhe Salt Transport Commission's annual revenue for famine relief. The clerks reported, "This year's revenues have already been forwarded to the capital; we must consult the Central Secretariat first." Siming said, "Shaanxi's famine victims are like fish dying in a dried rut; a round trip would take over a month—that would be like looking for them in a shop that sells dried fish. Use next year's unpaid revenues and give the full amount; if anyone is to blame, let me bear the punishment." The court commended his action. The following year he was again summoned as Left Chancellor of the Central Secretariat. At audience in Ciren Hall he expounded how successive courts had employed the worthy and capable to govern the people and enrich the state, then declined on grounds of old age. The Emperor refused; the next day he submitted his resignation and left office. He died in the third year of Chongji Zhiyuan, at the age of seventy-eight.
6
Siming never managed property or hoarded wealth in his lifetime; he amassed a library of more than thirty-seven thousand volumes; and was especially renowned for his mastery of law; together with Xie Zhonghe and Cao Dingxin he was known as one of the Three Unrivaled. After his death he was posthumously honored as a meritorious subject who promoted loyalty, assisted governance, and upheld righteousness, with his former titles of Left Chancellor, Senior Guardian General, and Duke of Qinghe restored, and was given the posthumous name Zhenmin, "Upright and Keen."
7
○吳元珪
8
Wu Yuangui, whose courtesy name was Junzhang, was a native of Guangping. His father Ding had served as vice commissioner of the Yannan circuit for punishments and investigations. Yuangui was reserved and serious, inclined to deep reflection; he learned statecraft, law, and administrative procedure entirely through instruction in his own household. In 1277 Kublai summoned him to court, kept him in attendance at his side, appointed him administrator of the Rear Guard, and granted him a gold tally. In 1280, while accompanying the court to Shangdu, he was sent to fetch imperial medicine from Wansui Mountain in Dadu. Traveling by relay post, he arrived in less than a full day and night. The Emperor was astonished at his speed, promoted him to chief secretary in the Bureau of Military Affairs, and then to administrator. On one occasion he accompanied Vice Director Anbo in presenting Tibetan armor at court. When the Emperor asked about its design, Yuangui answered in meticulous detail and impressed him still more.
9
初，江南既定，樞密奏裁定官屬，京師五衛、行省、萬戶府設官有差，均俸祿，給醫藥，設學校，置屯田，多元珪所論建。 二十六年，參議樞密院事。 時繕修宮城，尚書省奏役軍士萬人，留守司主之。 元珪亟陳其不便，乃立武衛，繕理宮城，以留守段天祐兼都指揮使，凡有興作，必以聞於樞府。 尋升樞密院判官。 奏定萬戶用軍士八人，千戶四人，百戶二人，多役者有罰。 二十八年，除禮部侍郎，遷左司郎中。 三十一年，參議中書省事。 大德元年，除吏部尚書。 選曹銓注，多有私其鄉里者，元珪曰：「此風不可長，川黨、朔黨之興，宋之所由衰也。」 請謁悉皆謝絕。 三年，宣撫燕南，劾貪吏若干人。 遷工部尚書，河朔連年水旱，五穀不登，元珪言：「《春秋》之義，以養民為本，凡用民力者必書，蓋民力息則生養遂，生養遂則教化行而風俗美。」 宰相嘉其言，土木之工稍為之息。 六年，僉河南行中書省事，將行，拜江浙行省參知政事。 初，硃清、張瑄以財雄江南，遍以金幣連結當路，及伏誅，錄其家，具籍所交諸公貴人，而江浙省臣為尤甚，惟元珪一無所污。
After the south was pacified, the Bureau of Military Affairs submitted plans to fix the official establishment for the Five Guards, branch secretariats, and ten-thousand-household offices—standardizing salaries, supplying medicine, founding schools, and establishing garrison farms. Most of these measures originated in Yuangui's proposals. In the twenty-sixth year he was made a discussant in the Bureau of Military Affairs. While the palace city was under repair, the Secretariat proposed drafting ten thousand soldiers under the Capital Guard Commission. Yuangui protested vigorously that this was unworkable. A Martial Guard was therefore established to handle palace repairs, with Capital Guardian Duan Tianyou as its commander-in-chief, and every construction project had to be reported to the Bureau of Military Affairs. He was soon promoted to judge of the Bureau of Military Affairs. He memorialized fixing the quota of soldiers each commander might employ—eight for a ten-thousand-household commander, four for a thousand-household commander, two for a hundred-household commander—with penalties for excess labor. In the twenty-eighth year he was appointed vice minister of rites and then transferred to director of the Left Secretariat. In the thirty-first year he became a discussant of Central Secretariat affairs. In 1297 he was appointed Minister of Personnel. In the appointments bureau many officials favored their own home regions. Yuangui warned, "This habit must not be indulged—the rise of regional factions was how the Song dynasty fell into decay." He turned away every private petition. In the third year he was dispatched to pacify Yannan and impeached several corrupt officials. Transferred to Minister of Works at a time when the north had suffered flood and drought for years and harvests failed, Yuangui argued: "The Spring and Autumn Annals teach that nourishing the people comes first and that every use of popular labor must be recorded. When the people's strength is spared, they can thrive; when they thrive, education spreads and customs improve." The chief ministers approved his argument, and construction work was scaled back. In the sixth year he was appointed to the Henan Branch Secretariat, but before he could leave he was made assistant administrator of the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat instead. Earlier Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan had dominated Jiangnan through wealth, buying influence with gold and cash throughout the bureaucracy. When they were executed, inventories of their dealings exposed many high officials—especially among the Jiang-Zhe provincial ministers—yet Yuangui alone remained untainted.
10
When Wuzong came to the throne, Yuangui rose from signing military affairs to vice director of the Bureau of Military Affairs. An edict directed Yuangui and more than twenty others to deliberate on state policy at the Central Secretariat—sparing labor, tightening appointments, cutting expenses, fixing laws, disciplining rewards and punishments, restoring examinations, promoting agriculture, eliminating redundant posts, and reforming enfeoffments and posthumous honors—each a matter of urgent public concern. Earlier ten thousand soldiers had been sent to garrison Chenghai and strengthen the frontier. Many had been captured in Haidu's rebellion; now a number were returning home, but hunger and cold drove some to sell their children to survive. Yuangui reported the situation in full, and the court issued funds to ransom the children. The Emperor had known Yuangui's reputation since his days in the field army; now he was specially promoted to grand councillor and granted two hundred fifty taels of silver and four sets of zhisun robes.
11
仁宗即位，詔元珪與十六人議時政。 皇慶元年，出拜江浙行省左丞。 江淮漕臣言：「江南殷富，蓋由多匿腴田，若再行檢覆之法，當益田畝累萬計。」 元珪曰：「江南之平，幾四十年，戶有定籍，田有定畝，一有動搖，其害不細。」 執其論固爭，月餘不能止，移疾去。 延祐元年，拜甘肅行省左丞。 歲餘，召還，俾宣撫遼陽諸郡，復為樞密副使，召見嘉禧殿，帝曰：「卿先朝舊臣，宜在舊服。」 特加榮祿大夫，賜鈔五千緡、貂裘二襲。 元珪奏曰：「昔世祖限田四百畝，以給軍需，餘田悉貢賦稅。 今經理江淮田土，第以增金為能，加以有司頭會箕斂，俾元元之民，困苦日甚，臣恐變生不測，非國之福，惟陛下少加意焉。」 帝曰：「凡爾軍士之田，並遵舊制。」
When Renzong came to the throne, he ordered Yuangui and sixteen others to deliberate on current affairs. In 1312 he was sent out to serve as Left Chancellor of the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat. The Jiang-Huai grain transport officials argued: "Jiangnan appears prosperous chiefly because many fertile fields are concealed from the registers. If we reinstated field inspections, we could add tens of thousands of acres to the tax rolls." Yuangui objected: "Jiangnan has been at peace for nearly forty years. Household registers and field acreage are fixed. Disturb them and the harm will be grave." He held to his position and argued for more than a month without success, then resigned on grounds of illness. In 1314 he was appointed Left Chancellor of the Gansu Branch Secretariat. After a little more than a year he was recalled, sent to pacify the commanderies of Liaoyang, and restored as vice director of the Bureau of Military Affairs. Received in audience at Jiaxi Hall, the Emperor said, "You are a veteran of the previous reign and belong in your old post." He was specially promoted to Grand Master for Glorious Blessing and granted five thousand strings of paper money and two sable coats. Yuangui memorialized: "In Kublai's day fields were capped at four hundred mu for military supply, and all surplus land paid tribute and tax. Today officials managing Jiang-Huai land are praised only for raising revenue, while local officers squeeze the people with every levy. The common folk grow more wretched by the day. I fear unrest may follow—this cannot benefit the state. I beg your Majesty to take heed." The Emperor replied, "All land held by soldiers shall follow the old regulations."
12
In 1321, when Yingzong came to the throne, Yuangui and Director Temür Buqa submitted more than ten recommendations on military and civil administration, chief among them that princes and court favorites must not meddle in military affairs; officers administering troops must not prey on military households; talented officers should be reassigned to posts suited to their abilities; taxes and corvée must be applied evenly, with no favor shown to either soldiers or civilians; hereditary military posts should pass only to legitimate heirs of the main line, and collateral kin must not be allowed to disrupt succession. The Emperor approved every recommendation and immediately issued edicts to carry them out. Yuangui had retired on grounds of age, but in 1322 he was recalled to deliberate on Central Secretariat affairs. He died in the third year of the reign. In 1324 he was posthumously honored as Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, Grand Councillor of the Henan Branch Secretariat, and Pillar of State, enfeoffed as Duke of Zhao, with the posthumous name Zhongjian, "Loyal and Simple." In 1326, the third year of Taiding, he received the additional honors of meritorious subject who sincerely assisted governance, Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, and Minister of Education.
13
○張昇
14
Zhang Sheng, whose courtesy name was Bogao, came from a family originally of Dingzhou that later moved to Pingzhou. As a child Sheng was unusually quick-witted; even while learning to speak he could distinguish character sounds, and his replies were unlike those of other children; when he grew older he studied hard and became accomplished in literary composition. In 1292, on recommendation, he was appointed Gentleman-in-Attendance and compiler in the Hanlin Academy's National History Office, where he helped compile the 《Veritable Records of Kublai》. Sheng served as Hanlin attendant for composition, was soon promoted to compiler, became director of the Office for the Promotion of Literature, and was then transferred to erudite of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. When Chengzong died, the chief ministers, acting on a secret edict, debated posthumous honors and ancestral sacrifices. Sheng asked, "According to precedent, any ancestral temple rite must record the succeeding emperor's name—whose name should be entered now?" The proposal was dropped. When Wuzong came to the throne, the court debated the rites of personal sacrifice. Sheng answered by citing the classics and ancient precedent while adapting them to present needs, and the Emperor approved. Early in the Zhida reign the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was reorganized as the Court of Imperial Sacrificial Rites, and Sheng was appointed its vice director.
15
久之，外補知汝寧府。 民有告寄束書於其家者，逾三年取閱，有禁書一編，且記里中大家姓名於上，升亟呼吏焚其書，曰：「妄言誣民，且再更赦矣，勿論。」 同列懼，皆引起。 既而事聞，廷議謂升脫姦軌，遣使窮問，卒無跡可指，乃詰以擅焚書狀，升對曰：「事固類姦軌，然升備位郡守，為民父母，今斥誣訴，免冤濫，雖重得罪不避。」 乃坐奪俸二月。 旁郡移文報吳人侯君遠者言：「歲直壬子六月朔日蝕，其占為兵寇； 歲癸丑，其應在吳分野。」 同列欲召屬縣為備禦計，升曰：「此訛言，久當自息，毋用惑民聽。」 斥其無稽，眾論韙之。 部使者舉治行為諸郡最。 歷江西行省左右司郎中，除紹興路總管。 初，大德、至大間，越大饑，且疫癘，民死者殆半，賦稅鹽課責里胥代納，吏並緣為奸，害富家，升為證於簿籍，白行省蠲之。 前守有為江浙行省參知政事者，爭代者祿米，有隙，欲內之罪，移平江歲輸海運糧布囊三萬，俾紹興制如數，民患苦之，不能堪。 更數守，謂歲例如此，置弗問。 升言：「麻非越土所生，海漕實吳郡事，於越無與。」 章上，卒罷之。 升既謹於繩吏，又果於去民瘼，故人心悅服。 歷湖北道廉訪使、江南行台治書侍御史，召為參議中書省事，改樞密院判官，尋復中書參議。
After some time he was posted outside the capital as prefect of Runing. A man reported that someone had left a bundle of books at his house. More than three years later he opened it and found a volume of banned books listing the names of prominent local families. Sheng immediately ordered the book burned, saying, "This is a false accusation against innocent people, and two general amnesties have passed since—let the matter drop." His colleagues were alarmed and all rose to withdraw. When word reached the capital, the court suspected Sheng of shielding sedition and sent investigators, but they found no evidence. He was then charged with burning the book without authorization. Sheng replied, "The case did look like sedition, but as prefect I am parent to the people. I rejected a false accusation to spare innocent suffering, and I would not shrink from punishment for that." He was sentenced to two months' forfeiture of salary. A neighboring prefecture forwarded a report that a man of Wu named Hou Junyuan had declared: "In the renzi year, on the first day of the sixth month there will be an eclipse, and the omen foretells war; in the following guichou year the omen will fall upon the Wu region." His colleagues wanted to summon the subordinate counties to prepare defenses. Sheng said, "This is mere rumor; it will die away on its own—do not alarm the people." He dismissed it as baseless, and his colleagues agreed. The ministry inspector ranked his administration the finest among the prefectures. He served as director in the Jiangxi Branch Secretariat and was appointed circuit intendant of Shaoxing. Earlier, during the Dade and Zhida reigns, Shaoxing had suffered severe famine and plague, and nearly half the population perished. Tax and salt obligations were forced onto village headmen, while clerks used the crisis to extort wealthy families. Sheng documented the abuses in the registers and persuaded the Branch Secretariat to remit the levies. A former prefect who had risen to assistant administrator of the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat quarreled with Sheng over substitute grain salaries and sought to trap him. He shifted Pingjiang's annual maritime transport quota of thirty thousand cloth sacks of grain onto Shaoxing, and the people could not bear the burden. Several successive prefects accepted it as annual precedent and ignored the problem. Sheng argued, "Hemp is not produced in Yue, and maritime transport is truly a Wu responsibility—Shaoxing should have no part in it." His memorial prevailed, and the levy was abolished. Sheng was strict with officials and resolute in removing the people's burdens, and the people came to trust him wholeheartedly. He served as surveillance commissioner of the Hubei circuit and investigating censor on the Jiangnan Branch Censorate, was recalled as a Central Secretariat discussant, became vice director of the Bureau of Military Affairs, and soon returned to Secretariat discussant.
16
In 1322 he was posted as surveillance commissioner of the Hedong circuit, but before he could leave he was appointed investigating censor and attendant censor. The following year he was posted as surveillance commissioner of the Huaixi circuit. In 1325 he was appointed assistant administrator of the Shaanxi Branch Secretariat and promoted to Grand Master for Fostering Integrity, then transferred to surveillance commissioner of the Liaodong circuit. When Yongping was struck by severe flooding and many people were starving, Sheng requested one hundred eighty thousand piculs of maritime grain and fifty thousand strings of paper money for relief, along with remission of annual taxes. The court approved, and countless lives were saved. The following year he was recalled and appointed attendant censor. Early in the Tianli reign he was posted as surveillance commissioner of the Shandong circuit. When unrest threatened, officials proposed repairing the city walls. Sheng objected, "The people depend on me for their livelihood—fortifying the walls means abandoning them." The people were thereby reassured. Wenzong rewarded him with imperial wine and patterned silks. A year later he was recalled as vice director of the Court of Imperial Blessings with duties at the Divine Imperial Hall, appointed Left Assistant of the Henan provincial secretariat, and again transferred to surveillance commissioner of the Huaixi circuit. Sheng was then sixty-nine and submitted a memorial requesting retirement. In 1331 he was recalled as lecturing academician of the Academy of Scholarly Worthies, and Wenzong treated him with exceptional favor.
17
In 1333, when Shundi came to the throne, his first edict summoned the elders at court to advise on governance. Sheng submitted ten priorities for the age. He was soon made an instructor at the Classics Colloquium and was specially ordered to read examination papers at the palace jinshi examination. When the examinations ended, he asked leave to visit his family's graves. The Emperor granted him a gold-woven ceremonial robe to honor his journey home. The following year he was summoned as grand academician of the Kuizhang Pavilion and director of the Classics Colloquium, with fine wine sent to hurry him to office, but Sheng declined on grounds of illness. Seeing that he could not be pressed, the Emperor consented. He was soon granted half his former salary monthly from his home prefecture for the rest of his life. He died in 1341 at the age of eighty-one. He was posthumously honored as Grand Master for Assisting Virtue and Left Assistant of the Henan Branch Secretariat, with the posthumous name Wenxian, "Cultured and Lawful."
18
Zang Mengjie and Lu Hou
19
Zang Mengjie was a native of Qingyuan. He passed the jinshi examination at the end of the Song dynasty but never took office before the dynasty fell. In 1276 he followed his home prefect in submitting to the Yuan and was appointed Grand Master for Fostering Instruction and superintendent of military and civil artisans in Wuzhou circuit. Soon afterward his office was abolished by regulation, but the Zhedong Pacification Commission recommended him as a man combining scholarly and administrative talent fit for prefectural service. The court agreed and appointed him prefect of Xizhou. Before he could take up the post he was reassigned as prefect of Haining. When Vice Surveillance Commissioner Wang Qingzhi of Huaidong inspected Haining, he found Mengjie upright, incorruptible, and learned in the deepest sense. Since taking office Mengjie had admitted no private callers, kept his offices austere, assessed every corvée levy according to each household's means, and allowed no clerk to interfere. Registered households increased by seven hundred sixty-four; newly opened fields totaled four hundred forty-three qing; mulberry, catalpa, elm, and willow trees shaded the countryside, government was peaceful, litigation was rare, and his prefecture ranked first among all counties. Wang therefore recommended that Mengjie, combining talent and virtue, deserved promotion to a high post where his abilities could be fully used. The Censorate likewise submitted a memorial recommending him for his integrity and competence.
20
二十七年，夢解滿去者至是已五年矣。 屬江陰飢，江浙行省委夢解賑之。 夢解不為文具，皆躬至其地，而人給以米，所活四萬五千餘人。 江南行台治書侍御史苟宗道，聞而韙之，舉其名上聞，除同知桂陽路總管府事。 三十年，擢奉議大夫、廣西肅政廉訪副使。 故事，煙瘴之地，行部者多不躬至，而夢解咸遍歷焉。 遂按問賓州、藤州兩路達魯花赤，與凡貪官姦吏，置於法者無慮八十餘人。 又平反邕州黃震被誣贓罪，及藤州唐氏婦被誣殺夫罪，凡兩冤獄。 大德元年，遷江西肅政廉訪副使。 有臨江路總管李倜，素狡獪，而又附大臣勢，以控持省憲，夢解按其贓罪，而一道澄清。 六年，遷浙東肅政廉訪副使。 九年，除廣東肅政廉訪使。 夢解至是，既老且病，乃納祿退居杭州，以亞中大夫、湖南宣慰副使致仕。 後至元元年卒。
By the twenty-seventh year, five years had passed since Mengjie completed his term and left office. When Jiangyin suffered famine, the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat commissioned Mengjie to administer relief. Mengjie dispensed with paperwork, went personally to every affected place, and distributed rice to each person, saving more than forty-five thousand lives. Gou Zongdao, investigating censor on the Jiangnan Branch Censorate, heard of his work and approved, reporting his name to the throne. Mengjie was appointed associate administrator of the Guiyang circuit intendant's office. In the thirtieth year he was promoted to Grand Master for Discussion and vice surveillance commissioner of Guangxi. By custom, inspectors rarely visited miasmal regions in person, but Mengjie toured every one of them himself. He investigated the darughachi of Binzhou and Tengzhou circuits and every corrupt official he found, punishing no fewer than eighty men by law. He also overturned two wrongful convictions: Huang Zhen of Yongzhou, falsely accused of embezzlement, and a Mrs. Tang of Tengzhou, falsely accused of murdering her husband. In 1297 he was transferred to vice surveillance commissioner of Jiangxi. The circuit intendant Li Ti of Linjiang was notoriously cunning and used powerful patrons to intimidate the provincial censorate. Mengjie prosecuted him for embezzlement and restored integrity throughout the circuit. In the sixth year he was transferred to vice surveillance commissioner of Zhedong. In the ninth year he was appointed surveillance commissioner of Guangdong. By then Mengjie was old and ill. He surrendered his salary and retired to Hangzhou with the honorary ranks of Subordinate Grand Master and Vice Pacification Commissioner of Hunan. He died in the first year of the Later Zhiyuan reign.
21
Mengjie was broadly learned and widely informed, a celebrated scholar of his day, yet not pedantic; he was sharp in administration, and his integrity was exceptionally uncompromising. His writings included three juan of 《Examination of the Offices of Zhou》 and one juan of 《Subtleties of the Spring and Autumn Annals》. Mengjie styled himself the Grandee of Lushan, and scholars spoke of him not by his official title but as Master Lushan.
22
At the same time there was Lu Hou, who enjoyed equal renown with Mengjie. Investigating Censor Zheng Pengnan once recommended both men together to the court. Lu Hou, whose courtesy name was Renzhong, was a native of Jiangyin. From childhood he was known for filial piety and devotion to his brothers. During the Zhiyuan era, Chancellor Bayan marched south with his army. Hou was not yet twenty, yet bold and resolute; he led his townspeople to meet Bayan. Their discussion agreed, and the army did not enter his district. The people honored his courage. Bayan recommended him as associate administrator of the Huizhou circuit intendant's office. For integrity and ability he entered the censorate, rising to vice surveillance commissioner of Hunan and then surveillance commissioner of Zhexi. Wherever he served he made it his mission to dismiss corrupt officials and overturn wrongful convictions. He once memorialized to exempt scholars from corvée labor and to implement the Zhexi corvée-assistance law. He died at fifty and was granted the posthumous name Zhuangjian, "Solemn and Simple."
23
陳顥，字仲明，其先居盧龍，有名山者，仕金為謀克監軍，太祖得之，以為平陽等路軍民都元帥，子孫徙清州，遂為清州人。 顥幼穎悟，日記誦千百言，稍長，遊京師，登翰林承旨王磐、安藏之門。 磐熟金典章，安藏通諸國語，顥兼習之。 安藏乃薦顥入宿衛，尋為仁宗潛邸說書。 於是，仁宗奉母后出居懷慶，顥從行，日開陳以古聖賢居艱貞之道。 會成宗崩，仁宗入定內難，以迎武宗，顥皆預謀。 及仁宗即位，以推戴舊勳，特拜集賢大學士、榮祿大夫，仍宿衛禁中，政事無不與聞。 科舉之行，顥贊助之力尤多。 顥時伺帝燕閒，輒取聖經所載大經大法有切治體者陳之，每見嘉納。 帝嘗坐便殿，群臣入奏事，望見顥，喜曰：「陳仲明在列，所奏必善事矣。」 顥以父年老，力請歸養清州，帝特命顥長子孝伯為知州以就養。 顥固辭，乃以孝伯為州判官。 帝欲用顥為中書平章政事，顥叩首謝曰：「臣無汗馬之功，又乏經濟之略，一旦置之政途，徒速臣咎。 臣願得朝夕左右，獻替可否，庶少裨萬一，亦以全臣愚忠。」 帝乃允。
Chen Hao, whose courtesy name was Zhongming, came from a family originally of Lulong. An ancestor named Mingshan had served the Jin as a mukun military supervisor until Taizu took him into service and appointed him commander-in-chief of military and civil affairs for Pingyang and other circuits. His descendants later moved to Qingzhou and became natives of that place. Hao was precocious as a child and could memorize a thousand or more characters a day. When he grew older he went to the capital and studied under the Hanlin academicians Wang Pan and Ancang. Wang Pan was expert in Jin law and institutions; Ancang was fluent in the languages of many peoples; Hao studied both. Ancang recommended Hao for palace guard service, and he soon became lecturer to Renzong while the latter was still heir apparent. When Renzong accompanied the empress dowager to reside at Huaiqing, Hao went with him and daily expounded how the ancient sages had upheld steadfast integrity in times of adversity. When Chengzong died, Renzong entered the capital amid the succession crisis to welcome Wuzong, and Hao took part in the planning throughout. When Renzong came to the throne, Hao was specially honored for his early support with appointment as grand academician of the Academy of Scholarly Worthies and Grand Master for Glorious Blessing, while continuing to serve in the palace guard. No affair of state escaped his counsel. When the civil service examinations were restored, Hao's support was especially decisive. Whenever he found the Emperor at leisure, Hao would draw from the classics those great principles of governance most relevant to the times, and the Emperor invariably approved. Once, as ministers came before the Emperor in the informal hall, he saw Hao and said with pleasure, "With Chen Zhongming here, whatever is reported must be sound advice." Hao, whose father was elderly, begged leave to return to Qingzhou to care for him. The Emperor specially appointed Hao's eldest son Xiaobo prefect of Qingzhou so that the father might be supported in comfort. Hao declined firmly, and Xiaobo was instead made vice prefect. The Emperor wished to appoint Hao grand councillor of the Central Secretariat. Hao bowed and declined: "I have won no merit in battle and lack the capacity to govern the realm. To place me suddenly in high office would only hasten my downfall. I ask only to attend your Majesty morning and evening, offering counsel when needed, that I may serve in some small way and preserve my loyalty unblemished." The Emperor consented.
24
When Renzong died, he resigned his salary and lived in retirement at home for ten years. When Wenzong came to the throne, Hao was again appointed grand academician of the Academy of Scholarly Worthies. He memorialized urging the Emperor to promote literary governance, enlarge the Imperial University, and exempt scholars from corvée labor, and Wenzong approved every proposal. During his years in the Academy of Scholarly Worthies, Hao signed hundreds of recommendations for scholars. When someone accused him of favoritism, he said, "I would rather be punished for a mistaken recommendation than conceal a worthy man." Early in Shundi's Yuantong reign, Hao accompanied the court to Shangdu. At Longhu Terrace the Emperor summoned him forward, took his hand, and said, "You are a veteran of many reigns who has seen much. In all affairs of state, speak plainly and hold nothing back." Hao bowed and thanked him, declaring himself unworthy of such trust. In every council Hao's words were incisive and earnest. In the fourth year of Later Zhiyuan he retired, and was granted his full salary at home. He died the following year at the age of seventy-six. In 1354 he was posthumously honored as a meritorious subject who expanded sincerity, upheld righteousness, and assisted governance, with the titles of Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, Grand Councillor of the Henan and Jiangbei Branch Secretariat, and Pillar of State, enfeoffed as Duke of Ji, and given the posthumous name Wenzhong, "Cultured and Loyal."
25
For decades Hao moved in and out of the inner palace. He delighted in praising others' virtues and refused to hear their faults spoken. Many officials rose to high rank through his recommendations until they attained eminent office; some never knew in their whole lives who had helped them. He won the sovereign's deep trust, and neither court nor people bore him resentment. When Ouyang Xuan was chancellor of the Imperial University, he and Hao jointly examined student-companions. Hao would read every paper submitted; if he found even one good phrase, he would place the writer on the selected list and beam with pleasure. Ouyang Xuan sighed and said, "Master Chen's heart is rooted in benevolence beyond ordinary generosity. He could truly make the mean-spirited broad-minded and the shallow-hearted sincere."
26
次子敬伯，至正中仕為中書參知政事，歷左丞、右丞，二十七年，拜中書平章政事。
His second son Jingbo served during the Zhizheng reign as assistant administrator of the Central Secretariat, rose through the left and right chancellorships, and in the twenty-seventh year was appointed grand councillor.