In making appointments, Yongle also used the capacity of a container as a metaphor. He said that if a container can carry several bushels, you ought to give it several bushels. But if the container can hold only a few grams, you can give it only a few grams. Likewise, if a man of little talent is given a big position, he is bound to fail. But if a man of great talent is given a minor o‹ce, his talent will be wasted.35 Yongle applied the Confucian moral concepts of the gentleman ( junzi) and the inferior man ( xiaoren) in selecting his o‹cials. In 1409, before his departure for Beijing, Yongle summoned his eldest son, Zhu Gaozhi, who had been invested as the heir apparent in 1404, and asked him to act as regent while Yongle was away from Nanjing. Yongle often did this, so that his son could gain experience in administration and learn how to appoint the right persons for the right jobs. On this occasion, Yongle wanted his heir to tell him how to distinguish a gentleman from an inferior man. Citing The Analects, Gaozhi said,
The gentleman cherishes virtue, the inferior man possessions; the gentleman thinks of sanctions, the inferior man of personal favors; the gentleman makes demands on himself, the inferior man on others; the gentleman is broad-minded and not partisan, the inferior man partisan and not broad-minded.
Yongle then asked why it is often easier for the inferior man than for the gentleman to advance forward and more di‹cult for the inferior man to fall from grace. The crown prince replied that it is because the inferior man is unscrupulous and also knows how to promote himself, whereas the gentleman is not avaricious and always follows the Dao, or the Way, to do what is right.
Yongle pressed further by asking, “Why do the inferior man’s opinions often prevail?” The crown prince answered, “Because the ruler loves flattery and profit.
If the ruler is enlightened, then the gentleman’s opinions should prevail.” Yongle was pleased with such an answer and finally quipped, “Then should the 90
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enlightened ruler never appoint the inferior man to a responsible position?”
The crown prince hesitated before replying, “Not necessarily. If the inferior man has demonstrated real skills and ability, the ruler need not dismiss him outright. Instead, the ruler has to keep a close eye on him so that he will not flounder.”36 Such were the criteria, at least on paper, by which Yongle screened his prospects, but in practice, he also looked for men of total, consuming loyalty and great e‹ciency to serve him, sometimes neglecting to assign a high priority to virtue. In his Learning from the Sages and the Method of the Mind, Yongle indicates that he would appoint able and talented people to serve in the central government as administrators but would assign virtuous men to local governments for routine bureaucratic work.37 Nevertheless, Yongle’s record of appointments belies his pronounced distinction. For instance, in 1409 he first appointed Jiang Hao and Wang Yan, two “virtuous” students from the National University, as magistrates of Zhangzhou and Jiading in Suzhou Prefecture. But when Jiang and Wang, who were long on character but short on expertise, could not handle the burgeoning business of their counties, they were recalled and replaced by men with proven ability.38
By temperament Yongle was an impetuous man, and by inclination he did not esteem the literati as a class. Nevertheless, it was this class of men, many of whom were proven administrators, who assisted him during the years of reconstruction and helped him attain stability and prosperity. Stability was to be attained by establishing state power through the monarchy and by promoting Confucianism as the code of behavior among his bureaucrats. Yongle wanted his o‹cials to e¤ectively manage China’s agrarian masses and to work for what he believed constituted the public good: basically, feeding and clothing the people. With these goals in mind, Yongle took enormous care in selecting his top management team and core sta¤, namely, the heads of the established six ministries plus his heralded seven grand secretaries—the latter to help him formulate policies, the former to carry them out.39 During his tenure as the emperor of China, from July 1402 to August 1424, Yongle made a total of thirty-two ministerial appointments. Of these ministers, four had served under Emperor Jianwen and lasted only two months under Yongle as caretakers during the transition of power. Ten other ministers either held concurrent titles and were stationed in various provinces or stayed less than one year at their Nanjing posts.
Their records of service are fragmented and inconsequential. But the records of the remaining eighteen ministers are intimately related to Yongle’s own career, clearly reflecting his domineering personality, intrepid intellectual curiosity, and, above all, his hands-on management style.
The eighteen ministers came from a well-balanced geographical back-91
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ground: four were from the Nanjing area (Yu Xin, Li Zhigang, Jin Chun, and Chen Qia); three from Henan (Guo Zi, Song Li, and Zhao Hong); two each from Zhejiang (Jin Zhong, Fang Bin), Huguang (Xia Yuanji, Liu Zhun), Shandong (Wu Zhong, Huang Fu), and Beijing (Liu Guan, Li Qing); and one each from Fujian (Zheng Ci), Sichuan (Jian Yi), and Shaanxi (Lü Zhen). In terms of education, eight were graduates of the National University, five had received doctoral degrees (all in the year 1385, under Hongwu’s reign), and the remainder were appointed to top positions because of either special talent or reputation. But the minister whom Yongle trusted the most rose through the rank and file of the military service. He was Jin Zhong (1353–1415), who had studied divination and astrology and was said to have helped Yongle make crucial and correct decisions before and during the civil war. When Yongle ascended the throne, he first made Jin a deputy minister in the Ministry of Public Works but promoted him to be minister of war in 1404; Jin concurrently supervised the education of the heir apparent. He retained his posts for more than eleven years, e¤ectively managing military personnel; maintaining military installations, equipment, and weapons; and overseeing the operation of the postal system. Jin, a loyal and honest man, was the only minister who can be called a comrade-in-arms of Yongle. He died in o‹ce during the spring of 1415.40
Three other ministers—Guo Zi, Lü Zhen, and Wu Zhong—had also joined Yongle’s camp before he seized Nanjing in 1402. Guo was a senior administration commissioner in Beiping when he defected. During the civil war, he was in charge of logistic supplies; three years later, because of his significant contributions to the victory, he was rewarded with the post of minister of revenue. Guo had recruited an assistant commissioner, Lü Zhen, to join the forces of the Prince of Yan. Lü was first made a prefect, then a deputy minister in the Court of Judicial Review until 1405, when he was promoted to be minister of public works. Three years later he was reassigned to head the Ministry of Rites.
Wu Zhong had surrendered to Yongle when he was the supervisor of a military colony at the northeastern frontier fortress of Daning. He supplied Yongle with provisions and horses during the civil war, and, for his service, Yongle first made him a censor-in-chief before appointing him minister of public works in 1407.41 Guo, Lü, and Wu dealt with policy rather than politics, and they survived under the unforgiving glare of their lord Yongle.
The second group of Yongle’s ministerial appointees—Huang Fu, Song Li, Liu Zhun, Fang Bin, and Jian Yi—were defectors who kowtowed and pledged their allegiance to the new master as soon as he passed through the palace gate in Nanjing. Yongle accepted their fealty, and Ming China was the richer for it.
Among this group of ministers, Huang Fu, minister of public works for less 92
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than three years, was probably the best cultivated. A thrifty and self-disciplined man, Huang consistently exhibited a combination of talent and moral character, paying close attention to his attire as well as his conduct and never squan-dering government funds. He was full of ideals and was noted for his impartiality toward colleagues and his popularity with the people he governed. Unfortunately, because of his association with the Jianwen regime, Huang never could gain Yongle’s total trust and was forced to spend most of his care
er in Annam and in the provinces.42 Yongle then found Song Li (d. 1422) to succeed Huang Fu as minister of public works. Song was also unable to join Yongle’s power circle, as he spent considerable time harvesting logs in Sichuan for the construction of ships and the new palace in Beijing. He died in o‹ce in 1422. Liu Zhun and Fang Bin, ministers of war, perished under unbearable circumstances: Liu took his own life in 1408 when he was surrounded by rebellious Annamese, and Fang was driven to suicide for ethical reasons in 1421.43
Jian Yi, the only other defector, was able to find a way to win the confidence of the master and ultimately achieved a spectacular career in Yongle’s court. A native of Ba County, Sichuan, Jian earned his doctorate in 1385 and immediately began his civil service career. He spent his first nine years as a drafter in the Central Drafting O‹ce, scribing and screening documents, until he was promoted by Emperor Jianwen to be junior deputy minister of personnel. Along with numerous Jianwen o‹cials, he surrendered to Yongle, who first made him senior deputy minister, then minister of personnel. It is to be noted that after Emperor Hongwu abolished the o‹ce of premier in 1380, the Ministry of Personnel carried the heaviest workload in the central government, with increasing responsibility as well as power. It was in general charge of the appointment, merit evaluation, rating, promotion, and demotion of all civil o‹cials as well as matters concerning noble and honorific titles. Jian Yi dedicated himself to Yongle and to the management of government personnel for twenty years, from the fall of 1402 to the fall of 1422. During that time he was accorded a concurrent title, “grand supervisor of instruction” (for the heir apparent). But because of this adjunct position, he was arrested for failing to admonish the crown prince on a ritual slip-up and was imprisoned for five months. After his release, Jian was reinstated and continued to manage the Ministry of Personnel not only for Yongle but also for Yongle’s son, grandson, and great-grandson until he died at the age of seventy-two. Jian was a hard worker and an honor-able man who almost never sniped at his colleagues behind their backs. In addition to his administrative duties, he was very much involved in the compilation of The Yongle Veritable Record, which was completed only five and a half years after the emperor’s death.44
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The third group of Yongle ministers came from various social and political backgrounds, but they were generally cultivated, brave, and dedicated administrators. Among them, Xia Yuanji was the most beloved and revered by both Yongle and his successors because he always spoke with biting concision in favor of saving tax dollars as well as alleviating the su¤erings of humanity. Born in Xiangyin, in what is now Hunan, Xia lost his father when he was very young.
Upon completion of his studies at the National University, he was selected to work in the palace as a bookkeeper. He was noted for his attention to detail and was soon made a secretary, rank 6a, in the Ministry of Revenue. Jianwen then promoted him to be junior deputy minister of revenue and, at one point, dispatched him to Fujian and Hubei to investigate such matters as the population census, assessment and collection of taxes, and the handling of government revenues. At the end of the civil war, Xia was wrapped up and tied by rope when he was presented to Yongle as booty. However, Yongle had learned of Xia’s many talents and decided to charge Xia with the daunting task of resus-citating the Ming economy.
Yongle first made him a deputy, then minister of revenue. Although Xia served Yongle with total, consuming loyalty, he was imprisoned for nearly three years, from 1421 to 1424, for his opposition to Yongle’s costly campaign against the Mongols. But Yongle was well aware of Xia’s loyalty and straightforward-ness, as the emperor’s dying words were “ Xia Yuanji loves me.” During his tenure, Xia fought floods and constructed an irrigation system in western Zhejiang. He understood the problem of regional economic di¤erences and did his best to account for both the land taxes and corvées recorded, respectively, in Registers Accompanied by Maps in the Shape of Fish Scales (Yulin tuce) and The Yellow Registers (Huangce). Even though the Ministry of Revenue was constantly understa¤ed, he managed to stabilize paper currency and the money supply and to institutionalize state storehouses, granaries, and custom houses, which collected transit duties on shipping on Grand Canal. In addition, he brought e¤ective government control over salt and salt exchange. Due to Xia’s treasury skills, Yongle needed not worry about the exorbitant expenditures of several of his military campaigns and diplomatic adventures. A generous and magnanimous man, Xia would also survive Yongle and continue to serve under Yongle’s son and grandson. He died in o‹ce at the age of sixty-four.45
None of the ministers in the other four departments—Rites, War, Punishment, and Public Works—were able to endure for too long the demanding Yongle, and none of them enjoyed the confidence of the emperor as did Jian Yi and Xia Yuanji. If we characterize Jian and Xia as “gentlemen,” then there were a few “inferior men” who also served Yongle one way or the other. The 94
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most typical inferior man was Lü Zhen, who had boundless energy and a photographic memory. Yongle first made him minister of punishment, then minister of rites, and, at one time, also the concurrently acting minister of war and revenue. But Lü was a devious man, skilled at flattering his superiors, and had no sense of decorum. Another lemon in Yongle’s Outer Court was Minister of Rites Li Zhigang, who was witty, quick, and had a knack for managing tedious and complex matters. However, Li was partisan and hateful toward people of equal or superior ability. Wu Zhong, minister of public works for more than two decades, also qualified as an inferior man by the standards of Confucius.
He was in charge of the construction of the palace in Beijing and three imperial mausolea but was a womanizer and led a lavish lifestyle. Finally, Liu Guan, minister of rites, openly dallied with prostitutes and took bribes, and became a laughingstock among the literati.46
In addition to the above-mentioned notable ministers, who represented the bureaucratic authority of the Outer Court, the domineering Yongle also appointed a handful of Hanlin scholars to help him with the horrendous daily burdens of detail in the Inner Court. In August 1402 Yongle established the Grand Secretariat inside the Eastern Corner Gate. After the routine evening audience, he usually invited two scholars to join him in a working dinner that lasted until midnight. One month later he recruited five more Hanlin scholars to attend and counsel him. They were first asked to process administrative paperwork but gradually to also participate in important military and political decisions. These scholars, o‹cially known as the grand secretaries, also helped the emperor draft imperial decrees and later became representatives and spokesmen of the Inner Court. As time went on, they would become an instrument of imperial authority and would play a dominant executive role in the Ming government.47
Emperor Hongwu had begun meeting with this secret council of grand secretaries in 1382 and assigned them for duty to three designated halls (Flower-Covered Hall, Military Excellence Hall, and Literary Flower Hall) and two pavilions (Literary Erudition Pavilion and the Pavilion of the East (Dongge)—
within the imperial palace. They provided literary and scholarly assistance to the Inner Court by recording the emperor’s dictations, writing memoranda to o‹cials, and performing other tedious jobs involving transcription.
Hongwu purposely kept them at lower status and prevented them from obtain-ing any power or control. The grand secretaries under Yongle were now given real power and were all assigned to work regularly in only Literary Erudition Pavilion, leaving vacant the other previously used buildings. In fact, the term
“Grand Secretariat” was coined in the Yongle reign; thus, the absolutist monar-95
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chy started by Hongwu was further developed by Yongle.48 In 1421, after the capital was moved to Beijing, the o‹ce of the Grand Secretariat was still called Literary Erudition Pavilion and was established at the southeastern corner of Meridian Gate. Upon the death of Yongle
in 1424, his son reinstated Flower-Covered Hall, Military Excellence Hall, and Literary Flower Hall as the designated workplaces for the grand secretaries. In 1425 his grandson created a new o‹ce for the grand secretary at Prudence Hall. These legendary buildings have since been used to identify individual grand secretaries and collectively were viewed as the power nucleus of the Ming empire.49
As the functioning of the Grand Secretariat evolved and it grew more powerful, constantly tapping into the resources and personnel of the Hanlin Academy, the latter ultimately became an appendage of the former. The Hanlin personnel included readers-in-waiting ( shidu xueshi), expositors-in-waiting ( shijiang xueshi), erudites of the Five Classics ( Wujing boshi), and a special group who had ranked highest in the civil service examination and now had such titles as compiler ( xiujuan or bianxiu), Hanlin bachelor, and rectifier ( jiantao). Among Yongle’s seven grand secretaries, Xie Jin was a reader-in-waiting and Huang Huai was a compiler; both began working in Literary Erudition Pavilion in August of 1402, when Xie was only thirty-three and Huang thirty-five. The other five joined this exclusive club one month later. They included expositor-in-waiting Hu Guang (thirty-two), compilers Yang Rong (thirty-one) and Yang Shiqi (thirty-seven), and rectifiers Jin Youzi (thirty-six) and Hu Yan (forty-two). The so-called “Yongle seven” were also involved in the education of the heir apparent, forming a decision-making power block in the Inner Court.
In the Ming bureaucratic hierarchy, the ministers of the Six Ministries usually ranked 2a, but the Hanlin scholars ranked lower, generally from the lowly 7b to 6a, and rarely did they climb beyond 5a. Xie Jin was promoted to 5b by the end of 1402 and to 5a when he became a Hanlin chancellor and concurrent grand secretary. Both Hu Guang and Huang Huai were first promoted to 5b and then 5a, but Hu Yan and Yang Rong went only as far as 5b. Yang Shiqi, on the other hand, remained stuck at 6a, and Jin Youzi never received a promotion. Nevertheless, because of their contributions to the education of the heir apparent, Yongle gave them such concurrent (but nominal) titles as junior preceptor, junior tutor, and junior guardian, all carrying 1b rank, and allowed them to wear the ministerial uniforms with 2a distinction when they attended court meetings. Their influence, however, came from their direct access to the throne. They functioned as Yongle’s individual counselors, being consulted daily and given responsibilities directly by Yongle. All seven grand secretaries were 96
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