“Wang Zhicai” by John W. Dardess is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. See also John W. Dardess, Blood and History in China: the Donglin Faction and its Repression, 1620-1627 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002)
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21/244/6343-6348 Wang Zhicai, courtesy name Xinyi, was from Zhaoyi county. He achieved his jinshi degree in 1601 and was appointed magistrate of Qingyuan county. Later he was made a Bureau Secretary in the Ministry of Justice.
During the hours 5-7 p.m. on May 30, 1615, and unidentified male carrying a stick made of jujube wood entered the gate to the Ciqing palace. He struck and injured the eunuch gate guard Li Jian. He advanced as far as the overhanging eave where he was arrested by eunuch Han Benyong and others. They brought him to Zhu Xiong, guard commander at the Donghua gate. Zhu and his men took him in custody. The Ciqing palace was the residence of the heir apparent. The heir apparent reported the incident on the following day. The emperor (Wanli) ordered the legal authorities to investigate. Liu Tingyuan, who was the censor on patrol in the Imperial City, interrogated the prisoner and reported that the miscreant’s name was Zhang Chai, a native of Jizhou, who would only say that he was a vegetarian and a member of a sect. The rest of his talk made no sense. He appeared (to Liu) to be mentally deranged, but he could also be playing tricks. Liu requested that the prisoner be remanded to the judicial authorities for questioning under torture.
At the time, the succession to the throne had long been settled, but the emperor treated the heir apparent shabbily. People inside and outside the palace suspected that Precious Concubine Zheng and her younger brother Zheng Guotai were plotting to put the heir apparent in jeopardy but hadn’t yet found a way to do it. Grand Secretary Fang Congzhe and others, in order to secure their positions, made connections to those imperial in-laws (the Zhengs).
Alarm shook the whole court when Zhang Chai was arrested. Liu Tingyuan’s memorial reported him as deranged.
Hu Shixiang, Director of the Shandong Bureau in the Ministry of Justice, together with the Vice Directors Zhao Huizhen and Lao Yongjia, conducted the interrogation. They confirmed Liu Tingyuan’s report, and further related that someone had burnt down Zhang Chai’s collection of brush and grass, which angered him to the point of madness. During the fourth lunar month he came to Beijing in order to press charges. There he met two males whose names he did not know, who told him he needed to wield a stick while pressing charges. So he entered the Donghua gate and came directly up to the entrance to the Ciqing palace. According to the law code he should be decapitated, but the severity of the crime should be raised one degree and the case disposed of immediately.
The Shandong Bureau was in charge of capital city affairs. Acting Vice Minister Zhang Wenda accordingly put it in control of the case. But Hu Shixiang, Lao Yongjia, and Liu Tingyuan were all from Zhejiang province, and Hu and Liu were also related by marriage.
Wang Zhicai doubted the accuracy of the interrogators’ conclusion that Zhang Chai was deranged. So on June 8 he accompanied the guard as he distributed meals to the prisoners. Before they got to Zhang Chai, Wang Zhicai asked the guard about the truth of the matter. At first the guard gave the official line; then he further said that it would be useless even to beat him to death. Wang had the guard place a meal in front of Zhang Chai, and told Zhang that if he spoke the truth he could eat, and if not, he could starve to death. He dismissed everyone else except two guards who held Zhang while he was being interrogated. Now, Zhang Chai stated that his childhood name was “Fifth Boy.” He further stated that his Third Uncle Ma and Father-in-law Li had him follow an old eunuch whose name he didn’t know, and told him that if he did as directed, he’d be given a few mou of land. When he and the eunuch arrived in Beijing, they entered a large mansion on some street that was unfamiliar to him. There, one old eunuch fed him and told him, “You rush ahead and kill anyone you met, and if you die, we will rescue you.” He gave him a stick made of jujube wood, and led him through the Houzai gate up to the entrance to the palace.
/6344 There he knocked a guard to the ground. There were a lot of eunuchs around, and they arrested him.
Wang made a complete record of what Zhang Chai said, and reported it to Zhang Wenda. In addition, Wang said Zhang Chai was not deranged at all, that he had a mind and gall. He asked that the miscreant wither be tied up and taken to the front of the Wenhua pavilion for interrogation in open court, or else brought before the Nine Ministers, Censors, Supervising Secretaries, and judicial authorities for joint questioning.
When Wang’s memorial was sent up, but was not yet released, Assistant Minister of the Court of Judicial Review Wang Shichang, the Director of the Messenger Office Lu Dashou, the Bureau Secretary in the Ministry of Revenue Zhang Ting, and the Supervising Secretary Yao Yongzhi all memorialized in support. Lu Dashou used the term “treacherous imperial in-laws” in his memorial, and the emperor hated that, and so he replied to none of their memorials, including that of Wang Zhicai. Liu Tingyuan asked that all the memorials be attended to quickly and sent down to the legal authorities for adjudication. The Censor Guo Tingxun said that a crisis was at hand and should be dealt with at once. But Wanli replied to neither Liu nor Guo.
So then Guo sent a request to Jizhou to check out Zhang Chai’s story. The Jizhou magistrate Qi Yanling gave a complete account of what it was that had driven Zhang Chai mad. He said that the Precious Concubine Zheng had sent eunuchs there to build a Buddhist temple. The eunuchs set up a kiln to make tiles for it, and many of the local people sold fuel to those running the kilns. Zhang Chai sold his fields and with the proceeds bought firewood which he planned to sell to the eunuchs. But some local person hated him and set his firewood on fire. Zhang Chai laid a complaint with the eunuchs, but they scolded him, and Zhang reacted in fury, and then he grabbed a stick and went off to Beijing to lodge an accusation. Zhang Chai’s original interrogators used this report as corroboration for their own findings.
On June 18, the Ministry of Justice gathered for a retrial 18 officials from its 13 bureaus: Hu Shixiang, Lu Menglong, Zou Shaoguang, Zeng Yuewei, Zhao Huizhen, Lao Yongjia, Wang Zhicai, Wu Yangyuan, Zeng Zhike, Ke Wen, Luo Guangding, Zeng Daowei, Liu Jili, Wu Wengdeng, Yue Junsheng, Tang Simei, Ma Defeng, and Zhu Ruifeng. At this retrial, Zhang Chai stated that Third Uncle Ma’s name was Sandao, that Father-in-law Li’s name was Shoucai, and that he didn’t know the name of the old eunuch. However, he was Pang Bao, who was directing the building of the Iron Tile pavilion. The other eunuch living in the mansion on the street whom he didn’t know was Liu Cheng. Both of them, stated Zhang, had him make an attack at the palace entry, and promised that he’d be fed and clothed if he hit the young master. Now, by “young master” the palace eunuchs meant the heir apparent. Also Zhang said that his sister’s husband Kong Dao plotted together with five others.
After this statement, the Ministry of Justice directed the censorial officials at Jizhoiu to arrest Ma Sandao and the others. The Ministry also memorialized the throne, asking permission for the legal authorities to arrest Pang Bao and Liu Cheng and interrogate them. The Supervising Secretary He Shijin and Grand Secretary Fang Congzhe spoke up in favor of this as well. So the emperor ordered an inquiry into the perpetrator and a meeting of the legal authorities. On this day, the Ministry of Justice sent up the report from Jizhou which it had just received, so the emperor further ordered that Zhang Chai be interrogated under torture and the case must be disposed of quickly and correctly.
At the time, there was a flood of rumors inside and outside of court, and much of the talk was aimed at Zheng Guotai. Zheng issued a self-exculpatory statement, but He Shijin nonetheless attacked him in a memorial. See He’s biography for details.
/6345 Earlier, the centurion Wang Yueqian reported a disturbance. He said that a villain by the name of Kong Xue and some others had concocted gu-poison with a view to harming the heir apparent. His confession implicated Liu Cheng. Eunuchs Liu Cheng and Pang Bao were both personal servants of Precious Concubine Zheng. And so now here was Liu Cheng, indicted yet again. This startled the emperor, who queried Precious Concubine Zheng about the matter. She was put in great stress, but she insisted she cared for the heir apparent and had nothing to do with such a plot. So the emperor consoled her. He also had the heir apparent make a statement to the court officials. The heir apparent too was terrified because Lady Zheng was implicated in the matter, but he did as the emperor and Lady Zheng wished, and urged a speedy conclusion to the trial.
On June 23, the emperor went in person to the Cining palace. The heir apparent stood at his right, and the three imperial grandsons stood in file at his left. The emperor first called for Grand Secretaries Fang Congzhe and Wu Daonan to come forward. Then all the civil and military officials came up. He accused them all of alienating father from son. The he ordered that Zhang Chai, Pang Bao, and Liu Cheng be executed, and that was it. Then he took the heir apparent by the hand and said: “This boy is extremely filial. I love him extremely.” Then he gestured toward the heir apparent and said” “From infancy he’s grown to manhood. If I had other ideas for the succession, I would have deposed him long ago. Besides, the Prince of Fu (his son by Precious Concubine Zheng) has gone to his fief thousands of li away and he hasn’t been summoned here and he can hardly fly here on wings.” Then he ordered a eunuch to bring the three grandsons up close to him, and he ordered all the assembled officials to have a good look. He said: “My grandsons are all growing up, so what more can you say?” He looked at the heir apparent and invited him to say anything he liked to the gathered officials. So the heir apparent said that the intruder was deranged, that his case should be quickly decided, and that no one should be implicating others. Then he scolded the officials and said: “My father and I are very close, so why are there all those rumors in the outer court? You officials don’t acknowledge your ruler, and you make me out to be an unfilial son.” The emperor added: “Did you hear what the heir apparent just said?” And he repeated it. The officials listened kneeling, then they kowtowed and left.
The emperor ordered the legal authorities to decide Zhang Chai’s case. The next day he was publicly beheaded.
The day after that, the eunuch Directorate of Ceremonial assembled the court ministers at the Wenhua gate to interrogate Pang Bao and Liu Cheng. There was at the time no corroboration to be had from witnesses, and the two accused eunuchs did not confess. The heir apparent ordered a light sentence, and the court officials dispersed.
Some ten days later, the Ministry of Justice proposed a punishment of exile on Ma Sandao, Li Shoucai, and Kong Dao. The emperor agreed to that, and inside the palace he killed the two eunuchs. That then finished the whole affair.
Until this time, the emperor had not met with the court officials for 25 years. Only because Wang Zhicai revealed the activities of Pang Bao and Liu Cheng did he make the one appearance so as to dispel the officials’ suspicions. And he smoothed over the relationship between Precious Concubine Zheng and the heir apparent. Realizing that there was something going on, he did not immediately retaliate against Wang Zhicai.
In the 1617 evaluation of capital officials, the Supervising Secretary Xu Shaoji and the Censor Han Jun used
/6346 some information they found to impeach Wang Zhicai for corruption. He was removed from the official registry.
Early in the Tianqi reign (1620-27), many court officials argued that Wang had been treated unjustly, and he was recalled to his former position.
In the second lunar month of 1622, Wang sent up a memorial on revenge. It read: “The Book of Rites has it that one cannot share the same earth with the enemy of one’s ruler or father. Duke Xiang of Qi avenged himself on an enemy of nine generations back, and the Spring and Autumn Annals praises him for that. Not long ago Concubine Li in anger struck your imperial mother, a fact you made public several times. You took away her title of Precious Concubine, which act assuredly gives solace to the soul of your departed mother. This is a great example of righteous revenge. Then your late imperial father (the Taichang emperor, Wanli’s heir apparent) lived a very troubled life. He died before he could take revenge. Let me ask, who let Li Keshao administer inappropriate medicine to him? Who deliberately directed eunuch Cui Wensheng to give him exactly the wrong medicine? It was Grand Secretary Fang Congzhe, whose guilt is no less than that of Li and Cui. This is an enemy of the former emperor, your father, who has not been avenged. And then there was Zhang Chai, wielding a stick and attacking your father’s palace. His life was in immediate danger. What in the name of Heaven was that all about? But Liu Tingyuan papered over a treasonous plot by making the case one of derangement. Hu Shixiang and the others added oral testimony to the effect that the affair had to do with the sale of firewood. But later testimony showed Zhang Chai was one of a sizeable number of conspirators hidden inside and outside. Ma Sandao and Li Shoucai were in a gang that was connected to the plot, but Hu Shixiang et al. suppressed all that. So here were inside responders, outside helpers, with one man starting the trouble, and the dynasty in shock. What kind of villains were they to dare undertake such an act? The imperial in-law Zheng Guotai privately contacted Liu Tingyuan, Liu Guangfu, and Yao Zongwen and filled their houses with pearls, gold, jade, and copper coins. The Censors and Supervising Secretaries kept quiet and dared say nothing about it. So the villains had no more fears, and harbored designs on the throne. Although Zheng Guotai is dead, his guilt must be punished. By law his coffin should be opened, his corpse beheaded, and his kin exterminated to the ninth degree of relationship, and his house burned down. So far there has been no discussion of this. This is a second enemy of your father’s upon whom no revenge has yet been taken. Let me conclude by saying Cui Wensheng’s medicine was administered because Zhang Chai’s attack with the stick failed. So Cui’s medicine was crueler than Zhang’s stick.
/6347 However, there was no Zhang Chai before Zhang Chai. But after Liu Cheng, there were certainly more Liu Chengs. I’ve noticed how isolated you, the emperor, are on your throne.”
Also he said that Director Hu Shixiang et al were proponents of the “deranged” verdict and that the senior official Zhang Wenda was amenable to that view; that the judicial official Wang Shichang was loyal in what he stated in his memorial, but in his mind he was false. He wrote not a word of decision, but his accusations were prolix. Senior official Zhang Wenda wavered, at first agreeing with the “deranged” verdict and later trying to square that with the idea of an evil conspiracy. Lao Yongjia, Yue Junsheng et al. allied with each other in doing evil: when Zhang Chai confessed to having 36 co-conspirators, Hu Shixiang declined to record it; when he testified that they were all going to rise up on the east side, Yue Junsheng said that innocent people were going to be affected by the implications of that testimony; and when he testified about True Man Gao and the Red Seal ticket, Lao Yongjia said that they weren’t going to investigate the Red Seal religion. Well, right now Gao Yikui, a native of the Zhenshuo Guards, is military supervisor at Jizhou, and he is an adherent of the Red Seal religion. Ma Sandao is the one who was in charge of issuing Red Seal tickets. Pang Bao and Liu Cheng were the ones who supplied sticks to all those adherents of the Red Seal religion. All these villains are listed on one or another of the transcripts of the legal proceedings. All this constitutes high treason.
These memorials were sent up, but the emperor (Tianqi) wasn’t interested in them. The proponents of the “deranged” verdict were made extremely angry, however.
Soon, Wang Zhicai was appointed Vice Minister of the Seals Office. A year later he was made Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud, then Minister of the same.
Because Wang Zhicai had impugned them, Liu Tingyuan, Yue Junsheng, and Zeng Daowei sent up memorials defending their position. Wang sent up several memorials refuting what they said. Moreover he charged that before the Zhang Chai case came up, they had all made a deal with each other as is clear from the record; and though nothing came of the accusation, all those named hated Wang all the more.
In the fall of 1624, Wang Zhicai was appointed Vice Minister of Justice. In the second lunar month of 1625, the eunuch Wei Zhongxian’s powers expanded, and his adherent Yang Weiyuan overturned the case of the Attack with the Stick, and forcefully denounced Wang Zhicai. Wang was removed from his post. Then he was named in the appointments broker Wang Wenyan’s prison testimony, and was remanded to the provincial authorities for arrest and interrogation. Yue Junsheng also accused him and said that he has extorted 20,000 taels silver from Zheng Guotai. An edict ordered Wang to repay that amount. When the Sanchao yaodian (the anti-Donglin casebook) was published, Wang was made the chief culprit in the Stick Case. The prefectural magistrate Liu Zhixuan submitted another strongly-worded impeachment of him. So he was arrested /6348 and placed in the Decree Prison and charged with having taken 8,000 taels silver in bribes.
Wang Zhicai died there of abusive treatment. Early in the Chongzhen reign (1628-44), his official position was restored posthumously and (his heirs were) granted compensation.
The Stick Case was followed by the Pill Case and the Case of the Removal of Concubine Li from the Palace. The two factions (eunuch Wei Zhongxian’s and that of the Donglin) fought each other over the right and wrong of these cases. Disaster followed, and ended only when the Ming Dynasty itself ended.