Xu Jie

Xu Jie

Xu Jie (October 20, 1503 - June 7, 1583), Zi Sheng, Shaohu and cunzhai. Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture (now Songjiang District, Shanghai) people. He was a famous official in the middle of Ming Dynasty and the first assistant of the cabinet from the late Jiajing period to the early Longqing period.

In the second year of Jiajing's reign, he was granted the title of editor of the Imperial Academy. Later, because of his disobedience to Zhang Fujing, he was denounced as an official of Yanping Prefecture. After this setback, he became an official. Later, he became a minister of rites and a Bachelor of wenyuange. Xu jiezeng secretly exposed the crime of Qiu Luan, Marquis of Xianning, and was good at writing Qing Ci, which was trusted by Emperor Jiajing. He had been in the court with Yan Song for more than ten years, and he was cautious. He was also good at catering to the emperor's wishes, so he was able to stay in his position for a long time. In the 41st year of Jiajing reign, Xu Jie learned that emperor Jiajing had already heard about the illegal acts of Yan Song and his son, so he ordered the censor Zou Yinglong to impeach him and finally brought Yan Song and his son down. Later, Xu Jie replaced Yan Song as the first assistant. Tired official at least teacher and Prince Taishi, Li Department Shangshu, Jianji Dian bachelor. In the Ming Dynasty, Mu Zong returned home as an official. In the 11th year of Wanli, Xu Jie died of illness and was given the title of Wenzhen to the grand master.

Xu Jie is the author of shijingtang collection and Shaohu collection.

Life of the characters

Early experience

When Xu Jie turned old, he fell into a dry well and was rescued three days later. When he was five years old, he passed Kuocang mountain with his father, fell down from the mountain, hung his clothes on a tree and survived. Everyone was different.

In the second year of Jiajing (1523), Xu Jie was awarded the position of editor of the Imperial Academy. He was allowed to go back to his hometown to get a wife, but his father was worried about it. Xu Jie is short, white and elegant. She is sensitive and has power and strategy, but she doesn't let out people's words easily. Xu Jie made friends with Wang Shouren and had a good reputation among the literati.

When he was in the Imperial Academy, Zhang Fujing, a cabinet bachelor, was in power. Emperor Jiajing listened to Zhang Fujing's suggestion and wanted to remove Confucius' royal title. At the same time, he wanted to lower the standard of offering sacrifices to Confucius. Emperor Jiajing asked his ministers to discuss the matter. Other ministers were afraid of Zhang Fujing and did not dare to say anything more. Only Xu Jie resolutely opposed to doing so. Zhang Fujing angrily reprimanded him, and Xu Jie argued. Zhang Fujing was furious and said, "you want to betray me." But Xu Jie said calmly: "betrayal comes from attachment. I'm not attached to you. How can I betray you? " As a result, he was demoted to Yanping prefecture (now Nanping, Fujian). During his tenure as a pushing official in Yanping Prefecture, Xu Jie tried unjust imprisonment, released 300 innocent victims from prison, set up rural social schools, destroyed obscene temples, and captured 120 thieves who had harmed the countryside. Later, he was promoted to Tongzhi of Huangzhou prefecture (now Huanggang, Hubei Province), where he was appointed as an official in Zhejiang Province and vice envoy in Jiangxi Province.

When the crown prince came out of the cabinet, he paid homage to the Secretary for economic affairs, and was also a member of the Imperial Academy. Ding's mother was worried about her return. After she got rid of the service, she promoted her son to sacrifice wine. She served as the right servant of the Ministry of rites and the right servant of the Ministry of officials. When he was the Minister of the Ministry of officials, he opposed the routine that officials of the Ministry of officials didn't talk much when they met with common officials. When he saw the following officials, they always asked the key points of the side and the people's situation carefully. Therefore, officials at all levels were very willing to deal with him. Successive officials such as Shang Shu Xiong Jia, Tang Long and Zhou Yong all valued him very much. Most of the officials recommended by him are sincere elders, including song Jing, Zhang Yue, Wang Dao, Ou Yangde, fan Zhen and others. Zhou Yong died and Wen Yuan took over. Wen Yuan regarded himself as an elder and was dictatorial. Xu Jie was depressed and asked to escape. So he ordered him to be a Bachelor of the Imperial Academy to teach the poor and the lucky. Soon he was in charge of the court and was promoted to minister of rites.

Emperor Jiajing believed that Xu Jie was diligent as an official and good at writing Qing Ci, so he called Wu Yi temple to reward flying fish clothes and precious dishes with his bachelor Zhang Zhi and Li Ben. Many officials recommended Xu Jie to be the Minister of the Ministry of official affairs. Emperor Jiajing wanted him to stay with him, but he refused. He added the crown prince and Taibao.

Skillful treatment of Yan Song

At that time, Yan Song was monopolized, and Xu Jieqi refused to attach himself to Yan Song. So Yan Song often spoke ill of him in front of the emperor. Xu Jie was once in a very dangerous situation, which made him realize that he could not strike a stone with an egg, so he changed his strategy, followed Yan Song in everything, and never argued with him. In order to get his trust, he married his granddaughter to Yan Song's grandson, seemingly very obedient. Yan Song's son, Yan Shifan, is very overbearing. He has been rude to him many times, and he has to swallow his anger. At the same time, Xu Jie drew close to Emperor Jiajing and chose what the emperor liked. Finally, he won emperor Jiajing's favor. Soon, he added Xu Jie's title of Shaobao, and then became a Bachelor of wenyuange. He entered the cabinet and participated in the maintenance. Later, he played the charge of Qiu Luan, the Marquis of Xianning, so that emperor Jiajing killed Qiu Luan and gained the emperor's trust. He added the title of Prince and Taishi, and his status was further improved, second only to Yan Song. Later, a fire broke out in Yongshou palace, where emperor Jiajing lived, and he temporarily lived in Yuxi palace, but the place was too small, so Jiajing wanted to build a new palace. He asked Yan Song, Yan Song asked him to return to live in the big, Jiajing emperor is not happy. Then he asked Xu Jie. Xu Jie guessed Jiajing's mind, and proposed to build a new palace with the surplus materials of the burned palace. His proposal was approved by Emperor Jiajing. Later, he presided over the construction of the Longevity Palace, and Jiajing moved in. As a result, Xu Jie was granted the title of "Shaoshi" and "shangshufeng", while Yan Song was gradually ignored by the emperor.

In 1562, Zou Yinglong denounced Yan Song and his son. The emperor ordered Yan Shifan to be arrested and Yan Song to retire. Xu Jie replaced Yan Song as the leader and assistant.

After Yan Song was ordered to retire, Xu Jie went to Yan Song's home to comfort him. His behavior moved Yan Song and even kowtowed his thanks. Yan Shifan also begged Xu Jie to intercede for them in front of the emperor, and Xu Jie agreed. After Xu Jie returned home, his son Xu Fan was puzzled and asked, "you have been angry with the Yan Family for so many years. Now it's time to vent your anger. How can you treat them like this?" Xu pretended to be angry and scolded Xu Fan, saying: "without the Yan family, there would be no today for me. Now the Yan family is in trouble. I'll be laughed at if I bite the hand that feeds me." Yan Song sent people to inquire about this situation and believed it. Yan Shifan also said, "old Xu has no bad heart for us." In fact, Xu Jie did this because he saw that the emperor was still attached to Yan Song, and the emperor was capricious. Yan Song's followers were still moving around, and the time was not ripe. Later, Emperor Jiajing regretted and wanted to recall Yan Song again. Under Xu Jie's persuasion, he gave up the idea.

Succession first assistant

In 1562, after Xu Jie took over as the first assistant, he vigorously eliminated Yan Song's malpractice and attached great importance to selection. He successively recommended Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and others to the cabinet. He took great care of talents and spared no effort to rescue Hai Rui, the head of the household department, who was convicted of death because Shangshu accused the emperor of negligence. He was also very diligent. Even if he stayed up all night, he had to finish all the tasks assigned by the emperor on time, so he was appreciated by Jiajing. At the same time, he often persuaded the emperor to stop the practice of killing the ministers of border towns, which reduced the number of Tiqi and reduced the number of imperial edicts. Later, he was promoted to the Grand Master of Jianji hall for his meritorious service in commanding the Ming army to resist the Mongolian cavalry.

After the death of Zhu Houfu, Emperor Jiajing, Xu Jie drafted an imperial edict to vindicate all the ministers who had been convicted of opposing emperor Jiajing in the Dali debate. The survivors were recruited and the dead were compensated. On the day of the imperial edict, many ministers were very grateful. During the reign of Xu Jie, he also reduced the burden of the people and cleaned up the salt tax. After King Jing's death, he gave tens of thousands of hectares of paddy fields occupied by King Jing to the people, making the people jubilant and tell each other. He also abolished many wasteful projects in the court, especially the emperor's Taoist spending. His practice was supported by the whole court, and people called him "Mingxiang".

The late Festival is not good

Because of the absurd behavior of Mu Zong, Xu Jie often dissuades him, and Mu Zong is very tired. Xu Jie was very disappointed, so Shangshu asked to retire. It happened that Zhang Qi was impeached because of his personal enmity. So mu Zong took the opportunity to allow him to retire and go home. Hundreds of officials in the court wrote memorials one after another asking for Xu Jie to stay, but mu Zong said nothing.

After Xu Jie retired and returned home, his children roamed the countryside and bought a lot of land. The Xu family covers an area of 240000 mu. In addition, his children and slaves committed crimes, resulting in a mountain of papers against him. Yingtian governor Hai Rui and Bing Xian Cai Guoxi handled the case impartially and punished his family. Xu Jie bribed Dai Fengxiang with 30000 taels of gold, and ordered Chen Sanmo to remove Hai Rui and Cai Guoxi through Zhang Juzheng. So at that time, he was called "the Prime Minister of the household, can chase the imperial court of the wind constitution", some people called him "traitor".

In the 10th year of Wanli (1583), Xu Jie was 80 years old. The emperor sent people to express his sympathy and gave him seals and gold coins. The next year, Xu Jie died. As a gift to the grand master, Shi Wenzhen.

Political initiatives

Governing idea

After Xu Jie came to power, he wrote a banner on the wall of the cabinet office

I want to put things right, return authority and welfare to the emperor, return government affairs to all government departments, and return the appointment, removal, rewards and punishment of officials to public opinion. These three words can be regarded as his policy program, which aims to change the situation that Yan's father and son are good at government affairs. His intention was obvious. He wanted to make it clear to the court that if he didn't want to be second to Yan Song, he had to do the opposite.

After Xu Jie became the first assistant of the cabinet, he went against Yan Song's principle and invited Yuan Wei, the second assistant of the cabinet, to work together to draw up an edict for the emperor. When the emperor knew it, he thought it was not right. He thought that it was only necessary to draft a draft for the first assistant. Xu Jie explained to the emperor that it is fair for all people to discuss things together, and justice is the basis of all virtues; arbitrariness is selfishness, and selfishness will lead to many evils. The emperor agreed. At that time, Yanguan tried to attack the ministers who colluded with Yan's father and son, and the emperor was very disgusted. Xu Jie made a tactful and tortuous explanation to ease his anger and protect those officials.

Selection

Chinese PinYin : Xu Jie