The Martyrdom of Shen Lian
Shen Lian, a righteous official in the Imperial Guard, openly criticized Grand Secretary Yan Song for his corruption and cowardice during the Altan Khan invasion. He wrote a memorial listing Yan’s ten crimes but was flogged and exiled to Bao’an by the Jiajing Emperor. There, he shot arrows at targets labeled with historical traitors, including Yan Song. This defiance led Yan’s ally, Governor Yang Shun, to fabricate charges of treason against him, resulting in Shen Lian’s execution.
Yang Jisheng’s Sacrifice
Yang Jisheng, a Ministry of War official, followed in Shen Lian’s footsteps. After fasting for three days, he submitted a memorial titled “Please Execute the Treacherous Minister,” detailing Yan Song’s crimes. Enraged, the Emperor ordered him to be beaten with one hundred strokes of the court stave. Yang survived the torture by surgically removing his own rotting flesh with broken porcelain. However, Yan Song later tricked the Emperor into signing a death warrant by burying Yang’s name among other prisoners. Yang’s brutal death turned public opinion further against Yan.
The Fall of the Yan Faction
The tide turned when the Taoist medium Lan Daoxing used spirit writing to tell the Emperor that Yan Song was a traitor. Coinciding with the death of Yan Song’s wife, which forced his son Yan Shifan into temporary retirement, the Emperor began to distance himself from the old minister. Censor Zou Yinglong seized this opportunity to impeach them. Yan Song was dismissed, and Yan Shifan was exiled but later executed after being accused of plotting rebellion – a charge orchestrated by Xu Jie to ensure his conviction without implicating the Emperor’s earlier approval of Yan’s actions.
Hai Rui and the Memorial on Public Security
Hai Rui, a famous clean official known as the “Southern Bao Zheng,” prepared for his death by purchasing a coffin before submitting the “Zhi’an Shu” (Memorial on Public Security) in 1566. In it, he brutally criticized the Jiajing Emperor for neglecting governance for twenty years, pursuing immortality, and ruining the country’s finances (“Jiajing, Jiajing, every family is clean”). The Emperor, initially furious and calling for Hai Rui’s arrest, hesitated upon learning of the official’s readiness to die, comparing him to Bi Gan. Influenced by Xu Jie’s advice not to make Hai Rui a martyr, the Emperor imprisoned him instead of executing him.
The End of an Era
The confrontation deeply affected the Jiajing Emperor, who died shortly thereafter. His successor, the Longqing Emperor (Zhu Zaihou), immediately released Hai Rui, rehabilitated the victims of the previous reign like Shen Lian and Yang Jisheng, and dismantled the Taoist altars, ushering in a brief period of reform.
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