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海瑞 Hai Rui (1514-87) Moral official dares to criticize emperor
December 16, 2011, Friday
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HAI Rui was a government official in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) known for his uncompromising honesty, morality and integrity. Years after his death, he was widely respected by the general public and upheld as a role model for all honest and upright public servants.
However, the vicissitude of his official career and the unexpected role he played about 380 years after his death in China's politics combined to make Hai one of the most unusual figures in Chinese history.
Hai was born into a small bureaucrat's family on Hainan Island in southern China. He lived in poverty with his mother after his father died when he was only four years old.
His mother refused to remarry and was determined to raise Hai and give him a good education. But first and foremost, she wanted to cultivate her son into a man of morality and integrity. This certainly prepared Hai for his role as one of the most renowned honest and upright government officials in Chinese history.
But, Hai didn't embark on his official career until he was 39 years old, after he passed the civil service examination at the provincial level and gained the degree of "Juren," or "Recommended Man."
He was first assigned a humble position as an education official in a southern county. Later, he experienced many ups and downs in his career. Nevertheless, he persistently adhered to his principle of being honest, fair, upright and ethical, which won him great popular support, but also created many enemies for himself.
In 1565, Hai submitted a memo to Emperor Jiajing, criticizing him for neglecting state affairs and indulging in debauchery. In a feudalistic society, Hai's act was deemed a monstrous crime.
Of course, the emperor was irate over Hai's disparagement and immediately sent him to jail and sentenced him to death. Luckily, before Hai was executed, the emperor died. So, he was pardoned by the new emperor and reinstated as a senior official in the imperial court.
Before long, Hai was forced to resign as his firm stand on fighting corruption evoked loud complaints from many of his unprincipled colleagues. He lived in retirement for about 15 years before he again was called back to serve under another new emperor. Hai died in office in 1587.
In 1959, Hai's name reemerged in the country's politics when Wu Han, a renowned Chinese historian and later vice mayor of Beijing, wrote a play entitled "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office" to praise Hai's uncompromising uprightness and his great courage in speaking out against the wrongdoings of the emperor.
However, six years later, Yao Wenyuan, as a pen of the Gang of Four, which was headed by Jiang Qing, wife of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, published an article in a Shanghai newspaper under the title "A Review of the Newly Adapted Historical Drama 'Hai Rui Dismissed From Office'."
In the article, Yao said the drama was an allegory for Mao, in 1959, dismissing Peng Zhen, a veteran revolutionary who sharply criticized the chairman's Great Leap Forward policy, which was an economic disaster for China.
He said that in the drama, Hai was representing Peng and the corrupt emperor was representing Mao.
Next year, fanned by the Gang of Four, this article became a spark that kindled the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), which threw China into a decade of social and political turmoil.
During the "cultural revolution," like numerous other cultural relics in the country, Hai's tomb in his hometown was destroyed and his name was dragged in the mud as a label of the "rightists" who pursued capitalism within the Communist Party.
After the "cultural revolution" came to an end in 1976, Hai's tomb was reconstructed and a memorial was built for people to pay their respects to this honest and upright official.
However, the vicissitude of his official career and the unexpected role he played about 380 years after his death in China's politics combined to make Hai one of the most unusual figures in Chinese history.
Hai was born into a small bureaucrat's family on Hainan Island in southern China. He lived in poverty with his mother after his father died when he was only four years old.
His mother refused to remarry and was determined to raise Hai and give him a good education. But first and foremost, she wanted to cultivate her son into a man of morality and integrity. This certainly prepared Hai for his role as one of the most renowned honest and upright government officials in Chinese history.
But, Hai didn't embark on his official career until he was 39 years old, after he passed the civil service examination at the provincial level and gained the degree of "Juren," or "Recommended Man."
He was first assigned a humble position as an education official in a southern county. Later, he experienced many ups and downs in his career. Nevertheless, he persistently adhered to his principle of being honest, fair, upright and ethical, which won him great popular support, but also created many enemies for himself.
In 1565, Hai submitted a memo to Emperor Jiajing, criticizing him for neglecting state affairs and indulging in debauchery. In a feudalistic society, Hai's act was deemed a monstrous crime.
Of course, the emperor was irate over Hai's disparagement and immediately sent him to jail and sentenced him to death. Luckily, before Hai was executed, the emperor died. So, he was pardoned by the new emperor and reinstated as a senior official in the imperial court.
Before long, Hai was forced to resign as his firm stand on fighting corruption evoked loud complaints from many of his unprincipled colleagues. He lived in retirement for about 15 years before he again was called back to serve under another new emperor. Hai died in office in 1587.
In 1959, Hai's name reemerged in the country's politics when Wu Han, a renowned Chinese historian and later vice mayor of Beijing, wrote a play entitled "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office" to praise Hai's uncompromising uprightness and his great courage in speaking out against the wrongdoings of the emperor.
However, six years later, Yao Wenyuan, as a pen of the Gang of Four, which was headed by Jiang Qing, wife of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, published an article in a Shanghai newspaper under the title "A Review of the Newly Adapted Historical Drama 'Hai Rui Dismissed From Office'."
In the article, Yao said the drama was an allegory for Mao, in 1959, dismissing Peng Zhen, a veteran revolutionary who sharply criticized the chairman's Great Leap Forward policy, which was an economic disaster for China.
He said that in the drama, Hai was representing Peng and the corrupt emperor was representing Mao.
Next year, fanned by the Gang of Four, this article became a spark that kindled the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), which threw China into a decade of social and political turmoil.
During the "cultural revolution," like numerous other cultural relics in the country, Hai's tomb in his hometown was destroyed and his name was dragged in the mud as a label of the "rightists" who pursued capitalism within the Communist Party.
After the "cultural revolution" came to an end in 1976, Hai's tomb was reconstructed and a memorial was built for people to pay their respects to this honest and upright official.
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