To turn the tide of the tide from the fall - Sun Wei, a sage at the end of the Ming Dynasty

To turn the tide of the tide

- Sun Wei, a sage of the late Ming Dynasty

Text/Wang Wenchao

In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, political corruption had reached an irreversible level. Many knowledgeable ministers were anxious in their hearts, eager to change the status quo and save the dying Ming Dynasty through their own efforts. Among these sages is Sun Wei, a native of Weinan Province.

Sun Wei (孙玮), also spelled Chunyu, was born in 1552 in Sunjia Village, Guandi Town, Weinan County, Shaanxi Province. His father, Sun Yicheng, abandoned his studies in his early years to join the army and served as the commander of the Tongguan Guard Bureau. Sun Yicheng was brilliant, managed military and political affairs in an orderly manner, received many awards, and had a high reputation. Sun Wei's uncle, Sun Yizheng, was even more full of talent, and in the thirty-second year of Jiajing, Sun Yizheng was admitted to the Jinshi, and the official was yin of Suntianfu (Suncheonfu in the area of present-day Beijing). Both elders were loyal to their duties, upright, not obsequious, and fraudulent, and their character had a great influence on Sun Wei's life.

Throughout Sun Wei's life, he entered the career path in his twenties and served the country with the heart of a pure son. On the one hand, regardless of personal safety, he offered advice, impeached the adulterer, sympathized with the people's strength, provided disaster relief, recommended meritocracy, and widely benefited the government, until the last breath of his life, he was still worried about the world. Unfortunately, the stormy Ming Dynasty is already terminally ill and incurable. However, it was the existence of a group of sages such as Sun Wei that made it rare for the Ming Dynasty to survive various crises in its final days.

01

Offer advice and impeach adultery

In the fifth year of the Ming Dynasty (1577), Sun Wei, who had just turned 25, entered high school with excellent grades and was appointed as a pedestrian. Sun Wei was quite lucky to be able to obtain this position. In the Ming Dynasty, the central government set up a pedestrian department, in addition to the division and the left and right divisions, there were also a number of pedestrian subordinate officials. Pedestrians are all filled by jinshi, and their authority is to be in charge of the affairs of the festival and envoys, and all matters such as edicts, canonizations, edicts, and recruitment are under their control, specifically running errands for the emperor. Although pedestrians have a low status among the beijing officials and have little power, it is really not easy to do things well. Therefore, some people with real talent and high reputation will rise and turn very quickly. It is a very honorable thing for a junior high school student to be able to hold this position.

Sure enough, soon after, Sun Wei was promoted to the rank of soldier. This was the emperor's close attendant, and his main duty was to assist the emperor in handling the military machine, to inspect the violations of the military department and the Taibu Temple, and to have the responsibility of making suggestions and advising. In fact, such officials are not good, and the violation of the inspection department and the Taichang Temple is equivalent to impeaching officials. In the official field at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the relationship was complicated, and everyone was happy to do such a thing as impeaching officials well, and the slightest carelessness could cause trouble or even lose their lives. Therefore, most of them adopt the attitude of calming down and protecting themselves, opening one eye and closing one eye.

Sun Wei, on the other hand, is a straight-laced temper, and he can't tolerate sand in his eyes. After taking office, the first major thing he did was to impeach the eunuch Wei Chao and the East Factory official Zheng Rujin for their crimes. To be honest, this impeachment should be considered dangerous. Although these two people are not of high status, they have a protective umbrella behind them, and they are both confidants of the eunuch Feng Bao. And Feng Bao can be said to be a power in the opposition, and he is deeply trusted by the emperor. Take the Wei Dynasty, for example, as a eunuch, he had a dirty heart. Wei Dynasty and the palace maid Yin Yue secretly hooked up and married a pseudonymous couple. Later, because the Wei Dynasty had to serve both Wang An and the emperor's grandson Zhu Youxiao, they had no time to take care of the Keshi, and the Keshi transferred their affection and hooked up with Wei Zhongxian. In this way, The Wei Dynasty and Wei Zhongxian were jealous because of the Keshi, and they made a lot of noise in the palace. Sun Wei's impeachment of them, if it angered Feng Bao, with Sun Wei's relationship between the DPRK and China, was likely to cause a fire and there was no time to take care of himself. But Sun Wei unexpectedly succeeded. Wei Dynasty was sent to Fengyang, and Zheng Rujin was sentenced to prison.

Then, Sun Wei did another big thing. It turned out that in the third year of Longqing (1564), Hong Chaoxuan was ordered to go to Xiangyang to investigate the case of the Liao King. Before leaving, Zhang Juzheng summoned Sun Wei in particular and privately instructed Hong Chaoxuan to convict the Liao king of treason. After arriving in Xiangyang, Zhang Juzheng and his party took a copy of the fabricated case file and wanted Hong Chaoxuan to sign and close the case. Their intention is very obvious, that is, to try to put the responsibility on Hong Chaoxuan. When Hong Chaoxuan handled the case, he may have a poor strategy, and not only did not follow Zhang Juzheng's wishes, but on the contrary, he strictly refused, making Zhang Juzheng's party very embarrassed. The Hong Dynasty chose to investigate according to the facts, so that Zhang Juzheng's conspiracy to work with people was exposed to the world. After clarifying the origin of the case, Hong Chaoxuan reinstated Zhang Juzheng with the words "adultery and abuse are real, and there is no basis for conspiracy", "the law can be corrected, and the country cannot be removed", which angered Zhang Juzheng, and Zhang Juzheng held a grudge because of this. Zhang Juzheng took the opportunity of the examination to dismiss Hong Chao as an official. After the Hong Dynasty elected and lost his official position, "if he was far away from the rivers and lakes, he was worried about the king", still concerned about the imperial court, and he witnessed the corruption of officials at all levels, so that he was worried. He repeatedly exposed the crimes of Zhang Juzheng, the minister of power, and The Inspector of Fujian, Laokan. Unexpectedly, his own revelation actually reached the eyes and ears of the traitors, so that Zhang Juzheng, Laukan, and others joined forces to take revenge on Hong Chaoxuan and cause him to die tragically. Zhongliang's murder made Sun Wei indignant, and he exposed the incident to the emperor and exposed all kinds of greedy and tyrannical crimes of Laokan. Fortunately, at this time, Zhang Juzheng had died, and Laukan had no backstage, and was eventually exiled to Shubian.

Then, Sun Wei advised the emperor and corrected many problems. First of all, after Feng Bao was handled, Dongchang and Jinyiwei inherited Feng Bao's Yu Wei and casually accepted the lawsuits of the common people. Secondly, when inspectors, inspectors, and officials often involve innocent people when they seek out and inquire about adultery. Third, the relevant departments adjudicate cases and often increase the punishment in addition to the crime. Fourth, the emperor liked to punish prisoners with shackles, which weighed more than three hundred pounds, and those who were tortured could not resist at all and died immediately. In response to these problems, Sun Wei vigorously stated their harm. As a result, the emperor issued an edict, except for the establishment of the shackles as they were, the rest were changed according to Sun Wei's opinion.

In these three times, Sun Wei has done a very successful job. He first ventured into the official field, dared to tell the truth, and did practical things, and his work style was deeply respected by the emperor and his colleagues. Just when he was going to do something in the official arena, he made a small mistake. It turned out that people from his hometown had come to spread the word that his old mother was seriously ill. Upon hearing this news, Sun Wei could not wait for the emperor's order, so he left his post and ran back to his hometown to serve his mother. Since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety cannot have both. If you want to be loyal to the emperor, it is bound to be difficult to fulfill your filial piety for your parents. But at this time, Sun Wei recklessly returned home to serve the old mother, which was a great filial piety, but in the eyes of the emperor, it was not loyal enough. Therefore, Sun Wei was convicted and demoted to the position of taoyuan county master bookkeeper, which can be said to be a drop to the end, becoming the most basic level of small officials. Sun Wei did not seem to care about this punishment, and still worked diligently and conscientiously.

02

Compassion for the people's strength, disaster relief and relief

It is Sun Wei who can withstand the test of great ups and downs, and has continued to work effectively in grass-roots posts, and the political voice has risen. The Wanli Emperor seemed to be a little overwhelmed, and seemed to have discovered his loyal subject, so he promoted him to be the secretary of the Taichang Temple. In the thirtieth year of the Wanli Calendar (1602), Sun Wei, who was in his fifties, served as the inspector of Baoding as the right deputy capital of Yushi.

First of all, during his tenure as inspector, Sun Wei did many meaningful things. He continued to build paddy fields in accordance with the practice of his predecessors. As the area of land reclaimed has increased, so has the income, and the harvest is surplus in addition to being used as a military salary. So he ordered that the people of the jurisdiction be exempted from the additional tax burden. At that time, Baoding was plagued by disasters for many years, and floods, droughts, and locust plagues continued one after another. When the crops failed, Sun Wei tried to rescue the victims. His favor was supportive even of the Wanli Emperor, who often allocated funds from the state treasury to help him. He drew up the measures to save the famine that he reported, and the emperor was very satisfied. His approach, which alleviates social contradictions to a certain extent.

Second, Sun Wei advocated loosening the shackles for economic development. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the budding of capitalism had emerged, and the economies of many regions were very prosperous. Taking the mining industry as an example, the mining scale of iron ore and coal mines has exceeded that of the previous generation. In order to loot money, the Wanli Emperor sent a large number of mining tax collectors to plunder wealth in various places, and the number of mining envoys near the capital was more than double that of other provinces. In addition to completing the taxation tasks of the imperial court, these mining envoys also took the opportunity to loot the people's fat and people's paste, fish and meat. In some places, the minerals were mined, but the miners continued to loot, even to the point of blaming the people for compensating Gonna every year. Due to the emperor's partiality to eunuchs, almost all the mines in the country were controlled by eunuchs. Eunuchs and their retinues often colluded with local scoundrels to oppress officials and people, plunder rich households, and commit misdeeds at the local level. And the huge amount of plundered taxes was withheld privately to enrich themselves. According to some statistics, from the twentieth to the thirty-third year of the Wanli Calendar, the mining envoys handed over two or three million taels of silver to the national treasury, and the income from private interception was eight or nine times the amount of the amount handed over. Eunuchs wreaked havoc in the economic sphere, causing deep disasters to all strata of society and causing resentment among the people.

Faced with this situation, Sun Wei repeatedly went to the Wanli Emperor to reflect on the problems of the mining supervision and tax envoy system and impeached the corrupt behavior of the mining envoys. Sun Weiduo listed in detail the six major crimes of Ma Tang, the tianjin tax envoy. But unfortunately, the Wanli Emperor was unconscious and did not take further measures to prevent the expansion of the problem. The emperor's inaction somewhat disappointed Sun Wei. Sun Wei's feelings of serving the country could not be put into play. As a result, the embryonic emergence of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty has not been able to develop rapidly.

03

Shoulder heavy responsibilities and bear no grudges

Perhaps sun Wei has been working hard for decades, becoming more and more mature in managing and handling affairs, and the Wanli Emperor has great trust in him. Later, the Wanli Emperor promoted Sun Wei to the post of Bingbu Shilang (兵部侍郎) and The Right Capital Imperial History (equivalent to deputy chief procurator of the Supreme Procuratorate or vice president of the Supreme Court) to supervise cangchang. He was then promoted to Tobe Shoshu and still supervised the warehouse. Perhaps the Wanli Emperor felt that Sun Wei was easy to use, and soon appointed Sun Wei as the acting military and political officer, and also managed the military department. In this way, Sun Wei hung three large seals of the Imperial Envoy of the Right Capital, the Hubu Shangshu, and the Bingbu Shangshu. On the surface, it seems that holding key positions in three departments at the same time is very honorable and prominent, but the official affairs of various departments are huge and complicated, which makes Sun Wei physically and mentally exhausted. But he overcame difficulties and always managed his business as perfectly as possible.

At that time, many department officials in the imperial court were vacant, and Sun Wei held key positions in several departments, which was not a long-term solution after all. This can easily make people jealous, and it also makes some loyal subjects lose the opportunity to serve the country, which is not conducive to people making full use of their talents. How could Sun Wei not know the stakes? He wittily complained to the emperor: "Your Majesty has handed over the three great seals of the state to a lowly post, is it true that the country has no talent?" He also recommended to the emperor a group of old courtiers with both moral character and beauty, such as Lü Kun, Liu Yuanzhen, Wang Yingjiao, Zou Yuanbiao, Meng Yimai, Zhao Nanxing, Jiang Shichang, Liu Jiujing, Wang Dequan, Feng Congwu and a number of others, hoping that they would also take on heavy responsibilities. However, the Wanli Emperor did not pay attention to his suggestion, and ultimately did not adopt his opinion.

The Wanli Emperor was the most lazy emperor in Chinese history. This very important post of Du Yushi has not appointed a new official since the resignation of his predecessor Wen Chun, and has been vacant for eight years. It was not until December of the 40th year of the Wanli Calendar (1612), when the examination period for foreign officials was approaching, that Sun Wei, who was already 60 years old, was ordered to take charge of the affairs of zuo du yushi as a soldier. After Sun Wei took office, he was just in time for The Inspector of Nanqi to attack each other according to Yushi Jingyang Qiao and The study of Yushi Xiong Tingbi, which made a lot of noise. Sun Wei proposed to dismiss Xiong Tingbi from his post and await investigation. However, Xiong Tingbi's accomplices Ying Zhen and Wu Liangsi and a group of other people did not understand Sun Wei's intentions, so they attacked Sun Wei one after another. Seeing that Xiong Tingbi's party had repeatedly attacked, Sun Wei was lonely and difficult to sound, so he decided to withdraw from the official field to resolve this dispute. He begged for his resignation many times, and the Wanli Emperor comforted him and asked him to stay and continue his work.

Not long after, something happened to the imperial court that surprised Sun Wei. Originally, according to the annual custom, the officials sent two imperial historians to serve as officials, but they did not inform the metropolitan court in advance, and the left governor Yushi Sun Wei knew nothing about this. Sun Wei realized that this might be a signal, thinking that he had some dereliction of duty that made the emperor resentful, and considering his old age and frailty, he asked for his resignation. He went on more than a dozen recitals in succession. It was not until July of the following year that he prostrated himself at the Mandarin Gate to intercede with the emperor and waited outside the city gate for orders. The Wanli Emperor saw that he had already made up his mind, and it was not until October that he was allowed to return to his hometown.

04

Then give the rest of the heat, although the death is still glorious

In 1620, the Wanli Emperor died and the Emperor of the Apocalypse took the throne. In 1621, Sun Wei, who had stopped for several years, was favored by the Emperor of the Apocalypse and revived. Logically, Sun Wei could completely shirk it, but he still resolutely went to his post and exerted his residual heat. Sun Weichu was appointed as the Nanjing official Shangshu, but before he took office, he was reappointed as the Shangshu of the Bingbu And counselor of important affairs between the DPRK and China. Three years later, Sun Wei was again recruited to serve as Shangshu of the Punishment Department.

At that time, the eunuch Wei Zhongxian controlled the government, causing bad consequences for the politics, economy, military, and judiciary of the Ming Dynasty. The internal envoy Wang Wenjin committed murder, and the Emperor of Heaven handed Wang Wenjin over to the Celebrant for trial, and his accomplices were handed over to the legal department for trial. The fact that a case is tried in two departments is clearly counterintuitive and may also cause the parties to deviate in their convictions and sentences. Sun Wei, who was then the Shangshu of the Punishment Department, once again advanced in the face of difficulties, and then gave advice to the Emperor of the Heavenly Revelation. Sun Wei requested that all the criminals in Wang Wenjin's case be handed over to the legal department for trial and imprisonment, but the Emperor of The Revelation did not listen, and Sun Wei had to give up.

In the winter of 1621, Sun Wei, who was old and rare, was old and sick. At this time, the Emperor of the Heavenly Revelation ordered Sun Wei to once again take charge of the Zuo Capital Imperial History as an official Shangshu. Sun Wei resigned many times, but the Emperor of the Apocalypse did not allow it, so he had to reluctantly make it difficult. In the autumn of the following year, Sun Wei's illness worsened, and he felt that he would soon die, so he once again went to the Emperor of Heavenly Revelation, hoping that the emperor would study diligently to enhance virtue, be generous in his attitude to increase his speech, and decide to be wise and wise so as to grasp the power of the country. In order to calm the hearts and minds of the people, it is necessary to employ virtuous subjects. He again recommended Liu Yiyi, Zou Yuanbiao, Zhou Jiamo, Wang Ji, Sun Shenxing, Sheng Yihong, Zhong Yuzheng and others, hoping that the emperor would reuse them. But unfortunately, his dying instructions had no effect on the stormy Ming Dynasty.

In 1624, Sun Wei died at the age of 72. When Sun Wei died, the Emperor of The Apocalypse attached great importance to him and gave him the title of Crown Prince Taibao. However, Sun Wei's political rival, the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, was in power, and The Shaanxi Governor Qiao should take the opportunity to marry Wei Zhongxian and impeach Sun Wei Pingsu for joining forces with Li Sancai, Zhao Nanxing, and others, and should not take the emperor's favor. The Emperor of the Apocalypse issued an edict to take back the commandment and deprive him of his shelter. After the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, he corrected the chaos and restored Sun Wei's treatment, with the nickname "Zhuang Yi".

Now, it has been nearly 400 years since Sun Wei's death. He is still glorious and great in the eyes of the people of his hometown. The people of his hometown honored him as Sun Shangshu, and his hometown of Guandi Town, Sunjia Village, was known as the hometown of Shangshu. His tomb and tombstone have now been restored and will be a permanent memorial for future generations.

Wang Wenchao

Author Profile: Wang Wenchao, cadre of the Party History Research Office of Linwei District, Weinan City, calligrapher and painter, deputy secretary general of the Weinan Poetry Society, vice chairman of the Linwei District Writers Association.