Harry statue
Hai Rui (海瑞), courtesy name Ruxian ,Pingang Feng, was a native of Qiongshan, Hainan (now part of Haikou, Hainan), born in the ninth year of Zhengde (1514), a famous Qing official of the Ming Dynasty.
In the twenty-eighth year of Jiajing (1549), he was appointed to the post of Nanping Jiaoyu in Fujian Province, and was later promoted to Chun'an Zhi County and Xingguo Zhi County.
During Hai Rui's tenure in Zhi County, he punished corruption, zhaoxue unjustly imprisoned, and cleared the peace of the people, which was deeply loved by the people.
He was promoted to a state magistrate with his political achievements, and later successively served as the chief of the household department, the chief of the military department, and the imperial history of the capital, during which he built water conservancy, suppressed the strong and powerful, and forced corrupt officials to return the illegally occupied people's land, which won the hearts of the people and was known as "haiqingtian".
In the fifteenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1587), Hai Rui died of illness at the age of seventy-four.
The "History of Ming" records: "Rui has no sons..." Hai Rui had no sons, and when he died, the Royal Shi King visited his home with a ji, and found that the Hai family was so destitute that even the ordinary Han family could not catch up.
Wang Yongji couldn't help but "cry", and some officials pooled money to hold a funeral for Hai Rui, when the "small people went on strike", the mourners sailed on the river, and many people sent off for Hai Rui on the shore, along the way, hundreds of miles, crying endlessly.
The "Wan Liye Compilation" records that Hai Rui has married three wives and two concubines.
The first wife, Xu Shi, gave birth to two daughters (unknown end), and was later suspended by Hai Rui for some reason, and the second wife, Pan Shi, married into the door for less than a month, was expelled from the house.
The third wife, Wang, had two sons, the eldest son Hai Zhongliang, the second son Hai Zhongliang, and a daughter of Hai Shi, all of whom died early. In July of the second year of Longqing (1568), Lady Wang died of illness (a suicide).
Hai Rui also had two concubines, and the concubine Han Shi had no children and hanged herself eleven days before Lady Wang's death.
Hai Rui was more than seventy years old, and then took a concubine Qiu Shi, gave birth to a son, died at the age of three, there are historical records, Hai Rui's only daughter was forced to die by him at the age of five.
The Ming Dynasty scholar Yao Shilin recorded in the book "See Only Compilation": "Hai Zhongjie had a five-year-old daughter, Fang Bait, Zhongjie asked bait from whom? The woman replied, "Servant." Tadasuke was furious: "Won't a woman be allowed to be baited?" Non-my daughter also, can be starved to death, Fang called my daughter. 'The woman weeps and does not drink. His family members ate everything, but they refused, and they died in seven days. ”
The vernacular meaning of this passage is: when Hai Rui's daughter was five years old, she was eating bread one day, and Hai Rui asked her daughter who gave her the cake, and her daughter said that it was some kind of domestic servant. Harry lost his temper and reprimanded his daughter, saying, "How can a woman easily eat food sent by others?" You are not my daughter, only by starving to death can you be called my daughter of Harry! ”
Harry's daughter cried incessantly, and since then she has not eaten or drunk, her family has tried to persuade her to eat, and the stubborn little girl refuses to eat, and after seven days she starves to death.
This account is painful, and sighs at Harry's inhumanity.
Later historians believe that there were many political enemies in Hai Rui's lifetime, perhaps a paragraph made up by political enemies, deliberately slandering Hai Rui.
We prefer to accept this statement, not believing that this human tragedy has actually happened in history.