Wen | Li Bingyao
Zhang Nai (1443-1510), also known as Zi Yonghe, was a minister of the middle Ming Dynasty and a native of Licheng, who had outstanding merits in his life and a bumpy career.
When he was critically ill, he dictated that his juniors recorded the inscription of a stone as his epitaph.
The inscription has no exaggeration, there are many words of self-blame, and it is obvious that the wind is bright.
According to Qianlong's "Chronicle of Licheng County", during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Nai was included in the Xiangxian Ancestral Hall, which can be described as well-deserved.
Zhang Nai was born in the eighth year of the Ming Dynasty (1443), and his grandfather Zhang Xian had high hopes, often lovingly saying that "the child will be a great instrument of the country", so he named it Zhang Nai;
Nai, originally referring to The Great Ding, used ding as a national heavy instrument in ancient times, which shows that grandfather had high hopes for Zhang Nai.
Zhang Nai did not live up to his grandfather's hopes. Chenghua Seven Years (1471), Zhongbang Shandong Township Examination;
In the eleventh year of Chenghua (1475), he entered the priesthood and entered the career path and made many achievements.
In the second year of Zhang Nai's reign, he was awarded the title of Xiangling Zhi County (襄陵知县, in modern Xiangling County, Shanxi), and although he was an official for the first time and for a short time, he was still famous in history.
The "Shanxi Tongzhi" specifically has Zhang Nai's record: honest and respectful, good governance, "the punishment is clean and simple, the officials are afraid of obedience"; he reformed funeral customs, added to the school, attached importance to indoctrination, and the local people included him in the famous eunuch shrine to show respect.
Soon, Zhang Nai entered The Capital as a royal historian.
At this time, Emperor Xianzong, who could not listen to different opinions, repeatedly flogged the counselors, and Zhang Nai risked his life to advise him, causing Xianzong to be dissatisfied;
Emperor Xianzong favored the demon monk Jixiao and Fang Shi Deng Chang'en, but Zhang Nai impeached these two people.
Therefore, "the emperor's heart is evil", zhang nai was transferred away from the capital and appointed as the inspector of Jiangxi.
Thieves are rampant in Jiangxi, and most of them are tenants and domestic servants of the rich, and they have no fear.
Zhang Nai and Inspector Min Jue played each other.
The traitorous warlord Shangshu Yin Zhi and others framed Min and Zhang on charges.
Min Jue was demoted to Guangxi, and Zhang Nai, because he was a fellow countryman with Yin Zhi's political enemy Yin Min (Licheng Zhudian, then the official Shangshu), was falsely accused of min dang and demoted to chenzhou magistrate.
In the twenty-third year of Chenghua (1488), Emperor Xianzong collapsed, and Emperor Xiaozong succeeded to the throne and changed his name to Yuan Hongzhi.
Zhang Nai's situation changed and he was promoted to Henan Youshi.
After serving in Henan for more than ten years, he repeatedly encountered floods on the Yellow River, and he supervised the rule, and the people built a shrine for him (referring to the ancestral hall built for the living) to show his remembrance.
In the fifteenth year of Koji (1502), he was promoted to the rank of envoy.
In the autumn of that year, he was promoted to the position of Right Governor Yushi and patrolled Liaodong.
Zhang Nai, as the governor of Liaodong, found that the "military and government had been relaxed for a long time" and the discipline was not in order to discipline the program, so he put forward targeted measures such as the horse system, the nuclear storage of grain, the clearance of hidden occupations, the inspection of customers, and the reduction of military companions, which were reported to the imperial court and all allowed.
At the same time, Zhang Nai investigated and dealt with corrupt officials, impeached Liu Gong, a lieutenant in charge of the sub-official, and publicized his crimes of corruption, causing no harm to the people of Liaodong.
At that time, the border areas of the Ming Dynasty were not stable, and the Liaodong area was often invaded by the remnants of the Yuan army in the north, so Zhang Nai was ordered to supervise the construction of the border wall from Shanhaiguan to Kaiyuan Yongyang Fort for more than a thousand miles.
The so-called border wall is actually the Great Wall, because qin shi huang built the great wall has a bad reputation, so it avoids the name of the great wall and is called "border wall".
Because the project is huge and the cost is not expensive, Zhang Naishang is neglected and suggests breaking the usual practice and conditionally "redeeming the rice" for certain criminal officials.
- The ancient system of allowing criminals to use money, goods or hard labor to atone for their sins was called "redemption"; the "quasi-rice collection" here is to allow donation of rice to build border walls to compensate for their sins.
This recommendation was approved and addressed the cost of building a border wall.
It can be seen that Zhang Nai is a hero in building the eastern border wall of liao, so his full-body statue stands majestically on Shanhaiguan today.
In the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505), Emperor Xiaozong, Emperor Wuzongli, Andi Yuan Zhengde, zhang Nai, was recalled to Beijing and appointed as the right deputy capital of the Imperial Household.
Two cases were placed in front of Zhang Nai:
First, Zhangqiu County ordered corruption and dismissal;
The second is that a soldier kills someone and deserves to die.
However, both families bribed the eunuch Liu Jin in power, and Liu Jin was greedy and perverted the law and wanted to forgive him.
Zhang Nai insisted on not being able to do so, and as a result, he was transferred out of the capital and served in Nanjing.
At that time, Jiao Huangzhong, the son of Jiao Fang, the rebbe Shangshu, saw that Zhang Nai had lost power and wanted to forcibly buy Zhang Nai's residence for Tongzheng Weina.
Zhang Nai did not comply, and Jiao Fang's father and son also resented him, so they colluded with Liu Jin and sent Wang Jue and others to verify the salary of the Liaodong army.
Wang Jue and others said that the Liaodong army had too much rice and was poorly managed, resulting in mildew.
Zhang Nai and others were imprisoned for the crime of guarding the subject, and Zhang Nai was sentenced to 2,000 stones of rice, so that his family was lost to Liaodong.
Zhang Nai, as an honest official, was unable to hand over so much rice, so he was detained in Liaodong.
After a long time, the chief military officer Mao Lun and other officials played the poverty of Zhang Nai's people and asked for a reduction in the punishment of rice, and Liu Jin reluctantly agreed.
It took three years before the case was closed, and Zhang Nai and others were dismissed from their posts for the people.
After Zhang Nai was dismissed from his post as a citizen, he returned to his hometown to live a life.
When he was critically ill, he wrote an oral record and wrote his own epitaph.
The epitaph briefly describes the history of the ancestors who naturalized in Licheng, the experiences of my grandfather and father, and myself. Two of the points are particularly commendable:
First, as is customary, the main thrust of the epitaph is to sing praises and praises.
Zhang Nai's meritorious service but the epitaph does not mention the honor of the eunuch and the temple, the work of curing floods and repairing the border wall, but uses the phrase "the official is indescribable"
- There is no commendable place in the official position to position oneself.
Liu Jin clearly used the excuse of checking liaodong military salaries to crack down on the persecution of Zhang Nai, and the epitaph not only did not defend this, but also did not slander it, and frankly admitted that he "went to prison to pay grain" because "Liaodong was rotten grain and grass, and the supervision was not strict."
He also said, "When the matter is finished, the grace will be returned to the people." ”
Strict self-discipline and hard work and resentment are respectable.
Second, the epitaph states: "The holy pilgrimage is too favored, the official has nothing to say, and the children who are worried about the descendants seek the name of the literary public, close to the prestige, but the epitaph dictates it, and makes the book in stone, so as to show my descendants." ”
This means that I have been favored by the Holy Pilgrimage, and there is nothing commendable about being an official.
I fear that after I die, my children will ask celebrities to write epitaphs for me, which is almost like asking for honors.
Therefore, I dictated the epitaph and asked the younger generations to record the inscription of the stone to show my descendants.
Zhang Nai's high wind and bright festival are touching and exemplary.