Chapter 42: Evaluating the Young Emperor

Before the soldiers' banners, half are ghosts of war; within the generals' tents, beauties still sing and dance.

This line of verse comes from "The Song of Yan'ge" by the Tang dynasty poet Gao Shi. It describes how front-line soldiers fought to the death while generals watched beauties dance inside the central tents. With such military bearing, how could they not be defeated?

When Zhang Juzheng lectured the emperor at the imperial lecture, he spoke of the Battle of Quehuogu, detailing how the Prince of Qin fought fiercely, and discussed Li Jiancheng's boundless extravagance. He hoped to use his scholarship to educate the emperor to take this as a warning, and even more, he hoped that His Majesty the Emperor would earnestly attend to affairs of state.

Zhu Yijun said with considerable emotion, "Just like now, soldiers are fighting to the death on the front lines, while inside and outside the capital, peace and prosperity are celebrated with song and dance. After all, the Tatars cannot breach the walls of Beijing; the ones being plundered are merely the common folk of the metropolitan region, so what does that have to do with the lords inside the capital?"

"At worst, we will simply agree to give them a bit more silver for horses."

Upon hearing His Majesty speak thus, Zhang Juzheng felt a slight tightness in his chest. For a moment, he did not know how to respond, and simply stood frozen in place, utterly speechless.

Zhang Juzheng could not help but think of Qi Jiguang, whom everyone viewed as a burdensome tumor—a superfluous and useless object.

Zhu Yijun wondered if he had applied too much force. Had swinging the hammer to break the wall with such excessive strength caused Zhang Juzheng's seemingly indestructible conviction to waver?

If Zhang Juzheng were to harden his heart, fall into despair over this rotten world, and join forces with the Jin faction, wouldn't Zhu Yijun find himself in deep trouble?

Zhang Juzheng said with great solemnity, "Entrusted by the late emperor, your servant serves as the grand preceptor of the realm. I dare not forget the trust placed in me by the common people. I shall exhaust my loyalty and devote my utmost strength, knowing the task to be impossible yet pressing forward all the same. As long as a single breath remains in me, this ambition shall never slacken!"

*As long as a single breath remains in me, this ambition shall never slacken*—this was Zhu Yijun's annotation to the twin virtues of moral strength and perseverance.

Zhang Juzheng had told himself that his awareness above remained unshifted. He knew the various maladies of the Great Ming and was determined to reform them, allowing the Great Ming to rise once more. This was his ambition; as long as he drew breath, he would not relax.

"When does the commander Qi return to the capital?" Zhu Yijun asked abruptly.

Zhang Juzheng hurriedly replied, "After the Qingming Festival."

Zhu Yijun's daily routine was exceedingly simple: in the morning, he attended state affairs at the Wenhua Palace and listened to lectures, followed by martial practice. After martial practice, he would run off to Jingshan Hill to farm the earth. After farming the earth, he would begin stamping seals, and in the evening, he would summarize the day's gains and review the agricultural treatises annotated by Xu Zhenming.

Zhang Juzheng's Law of Examination finally began to be trialed in the capital. Although it met with widespread grievances, the leader of the Jin faction, wishing to smooth things over, agreed to implement it alongside Zhang Juzheng.

Prior to the Law of Examination, the Great Ming's system for evaluating officials was divided into the Jingcha (Capital Inspection) and the Daji (Grand Retrospection).

The Jingcha was the evaluation of capital officials, while the Daji evaluated officials throughout the realm, conducted once every six years. With administrative laxity, a weakened state, degraded moral discipline, and corrupted governance, the Jingcha and Daji had long degenerated into mere formalities. Zhang Juzheng's Law of Examination, however, smashed all personal favors and connections to smithereens.

The core of the Law of Examination was: setting limits to examine affairs, and holding individuals accountable through affairs.

The Law of Examination in the capital first targeted the supervising secretaries of the Six Offices. In the span of just three days, the supervising secretaries of the Six Offices were almost entirely replaced—either demoted or sent out to serve as officials in the provinces.

In their place were appointed upright officials whom Zhang Juzheng greatly admired. The vast majority of these supervising secretaries came from all corners of the realm and had no ties of marriage, master-pupil relationships, or shared hometowns with Zhang Juzheng.

Setting limits to examine affairs meant establishing a specific deadline for a given task, which had to be completed within the stipulated time.

The cause, time limit, and completion rate were all recorded across three ledgers: one kept by the Six Ministries and the Censorate, one managed by the supervising secretaries of the Six Offices, and the final one submitted to the Grand Secretariat. Every month, accounts were reconciled against these ledgers.

The executive officials of the Six Ministries and the Censorate were responsible for the specific execution of affairs, and whether tasks were completed or not had to be faithfully recorded.

The supervising secretaries of the Six Offices were responsible for surveillance, supervising and managing the completion status, and making accurate records.

The Grand Secretariat audited the work of the supervising secretaries of the Six Offices to verify the facts. Once it was found that the supervising secretaries were colluding with the Six Ministries and the Censorate, those supervising secretaries would be directly dismissed.

Thus, a basic evaluation mechanism took shape: the Grand Secretariat directed surveillance, the surveillance monitored the Six Ministries, and the Six Ministries commanded the hundreds of officials across the realm. This was an exquisitely complete institutional design for official governance.

To judge a person's talent, one need not test them with matters; once entrusted with a matter, there is no need for further evaluation of their achievements—hence it was called the Law of Examination.

Did the Law of Examination have any effect? The young emperor had his own unique standard of judgment, and that was the grievance of the capital officials.

The heavier their grievances, the more effective the Law of Examination proved to be.

In these short few days, court officials, cowed by the awe-inspiring authority of the Senior Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, finally stood up and began submitting successive memorials impeaching him!

The grievances grew so intense that they no longer feared Zhang Juzheng's retaliation!

The grievances were so overwhelming that even at the cost of losing their official posts, they insisted on impeaching Grand Secretary Zhang!

The uproar reached the heavens.

The reasons for impeachment were countless: some impeached Zhang Juzheng for usurping imperial authority; others for preying upon officials; for engaging in factionalism and eliminating dissent; for lacking benevolence and virtue; for being arrogant in his success and full of bias and suspicion. The reasons were bizarrely varied, as if Zhang Juzheng were the ultimate villain of the Ming court, and unless this scourge was eliminated, the Great Ming would perish by the morrow!

Zhang Juzheng was like a blank box; any crime could be tossed inside.

Zhu Yijun's evaluation of all this consisted of just three words: "Understood."

He neither pigeonholed the memorials without reviewing them, nor marked them with circles or crosses; there were only those three words: "Understood."

Failure to complete departmental affairs within the deadline resulted in varying degrees of punishment, ranging from forfeiture of salary, demotion, exile to the provinces, dismissal, stripping of official status to return home in idleness, to banishment to malaria-infested or border regions.

If punishments could not be enforced, then no matter how objective or truthful the audits, surveillance, and commands might be, the Law of Examination would remain a mere decoration.

In the twelfth year of the Wanli reign, three years after Zhang Juzheng's death, the Wanli Emperor issued an edict abolishing the Law of Examination. From then on, the governance of the Great Ming deteriorated, never to recover its pristine clarity.

In the first year of the Chongzhen reign, when the Chongzhen Emperor wished to revive the Law of Examination and personally oversee the evaluations, all was already lost and the system had entirely collapsed.

Zhu Yijun was waiting for Qi Jiguang to return to the capital, but instead of Qi Jiguang, he awaited his monthly examination first.

On the nineteenth day of the second month in the first year of the Wanli reign, the ten-year-old sovereign of the Great Ming, Zhu Yijun, finally welcomed his examination. While the court officials were bound by the Law of Examination, the young emperor's studies also had examinations—though no one dared to punish the emperor, nor was anyone capable of doing so.

The monthly examination arrived as scheduled.

Among the various crimes for which the court officials impeached Zhang Juzheng, one was certainly no false accusation: namely, that Zhang Juzheng's overwhelming authority overshadowed the throne. As the supreme ruler of the realm, who could possibly examine the emperor?

Acting on the late emperor's behest, Zhang Juzheng, as the grand preceptor aiding the state, indeed possessed the authority to examine the emperor; yet there were no punishments following the evaluation—this was precisely the predicament of the young Ming emperor's studies.

The content of the evaluation consisted of the first two chapters of *The Analects* and four stories from the *Mirror for Imperial Governance*.

Zhu Yijun felt some apprehension regarding the monthly examination. If these ministers posed difficult problems to him and he failed the exam, how could he continue to justifiably neglect his proper duties with a clear conscience?

Carrying a mild sense of trepidation, Zhu Yijun made his way toward the Wenhua Palace.

"Your Majesty," Feng Bao said in a low voice, "Yesterday, Xu Xu salió out of the palace and asked the Senior Grand Secretary for the examination questions. Does Your Majesty wish to take a peek beforehand?"

Zhu Yijun paused, looked at Feng Bao, and said, "This... wouldn't be quite right, would it?"

What kind of behavior was this! This was flagrant cheating! Where was the dynastic law? Where was divine justice?

"Bring it here and let me see," Zhu Yijun extended his hand.

His monthly examination did not merely concern whether he could continue neglecting his proper duties; it also bore upon whether Zhang Juzheng's Law of Examination could be smoothly implemented.

The examination paper was compiled by Grand Academicians such as Wang Xilie, Wang Jiaping, and Fan Yingqi, while Zhang Juzheng, in his capacity as imperial tutor, was responsible for reviewing it.

If the emperor could successfully pass the monthly examination, it would demonstrate that Zhang Juzheng had the capability to fulfill his duties as the late emperor's entrusted guardian and imperial tutor, thereby establishing the righteousness of Zhang Juzheng's regency.

If the supreme Emperor of the Great Ming could pass the monthly examination on schedule, why on earth shouldn't the hundreds of officials across the realm be subjected to evaluations?

For someone like Zhu Yijun who paid little heed to conventional morality, what was wrong with open cheating in the face of such a monumental matter?

He possessed a remarkably flexible standard and measure for morality.

He even considered moving the examination venue to the rear hall of the Wenhua Palace to evade the surveillance of the assembled officials and conduct an open-book test.

Zhu Yijun took the examination paper, perused it for a moment, folded it, handed it back to Feng Bao, and said, "Destroy it. In the future, there is no need to ask the Senior Grand Secretary for the examination questions again."

Having read the paper, Zhu Yijun felt confident. He crossed his hands behind his back, adopted a steady, measured stride, and entered the Wenhua Palace with absolute composure.

The purification whip sounded three times, and the court officials filed in, standing in order. After performing the ritual of five prostrations and three kowtows, they shouted in unison, "Your subjects pay homage to Your Majesty. Is Your Majesty's holy personage enjoying peace and well-being?"

"I am well. My beloved ministers, rise," Zhu Yijun extended a hand and said placidly, "Let us dispense with idle chatter and begin."

"We dare to overstep," Grand Academician Wang Xilie and others handed the examination paper to Zhang Hong, who spread it flat upon the imperial desk.

Zhu Yijun picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and began answering the questions. The Wenhua Palace was exceptionally quiet; so as not to disturb the emperor's monthly examination, the windows of the palace had not even been opened.

Two quarter-hours later, Zhu Yijun put down his brush, blew on the ink to dry it, waited a moment longer, and signaled for Zhang Hong to present the examination paper to the assembled ministers.

The ministers looked upon the paper with a degree of trepidation. They knew that over the past six months, the young emperor's academic progress had fallen far short of expectations—to put it bluntly, nothing taught to him seemed to have sunk in.

With Zhang Juzheng solely in charge of teaching, would the situation improve?

To Zhu Yijun, the contents of the examination were utterly simple!

*Was this it? Was this it? Was this really supposed to be a monthly examination?*

It was so simple that Zhu Yijun even suspected Wang Xilie had colluded with Zhang Juzheng to deliberately set elementary questions so the emperor could easily pass.

The exam included recitation—specifically the first two chapters of *The Analects*, where only the first half of a line was given and the second half had to be filled in;

There were interpretations, where specific characters or phrases were extracted and their meanings explained;

And brief summaries, requiring the emperor to briefly outline the plot of a designated story from the *Mirror for Imperial Governance*.

It was an examination paper entirely suited to the difficulty level of a ten-year-old child.

Did this present any difficulty to Zhu Yijun? Not in the least.

Naturally, Zhu Yijun found it simple. His daily discourses with Zhang Juzheng were aimed at shattering walls, leaving Zhang Juzheng—the "Wallfacer"—with a persistent headache brought on by the emperor's deceptively naive and bewildered questions.

Wang Xijue was responsible for grading the papers. He read through it with utmost solemnity, alternating between correction and doubt. This neat and tidy answer sheet far exceeded his expectations. Over the six months since the late Emperor Longqing's passing, the young emperor's coursework had consistently been atrocious.

Carrying a complex mix of emotions, Wang Xijue finished grading the paper and handed it over to the other Grand Academicians.

After the Grand Academicians verified that everything was correct, the examination paper made its way into Zhang Juzheng's hands.

In truth, Zhang Juzheng knew even without looking that the young emperor would pass. With a paper like this, the emperor could have answered every question blindfolded. The young emperor was exceedingly intelligent; previously, he had simply been slacking off and refusing to apply himself to his studies.

No, rather, it was because the grand academicians had babbled in a chaotic chorus, confusing the ten-year-old sovereign—it was entirely the ministers' fault!

Only thus did it conform to the moral propriety of rulers and subjects practiced for millennia.

Under Zhang Juzheng's solitary tutelage, the results were stellar.

Zhang Juzheng opened the paper and looked it over. As expected, the young emperor's handwriting was standard and proper, and the answers were impeccably written.

"Your Majesty is endowed with sagely brilliance, and your imperial virtue is already so manifest. If you continue to make unceasing progress in the days to come, the myriads of subjects across the four seas shall reap your blessings! Your servant offers congratulations to the Great Ming, and offers congratulations to Your Majesty!" Wang Xilie stepped out of the ranks, knelt on the ground with profound sincerity, and proclaimed in a ringing voice.

"Your subject feels ashamed before the late emperor." Wang Xilie spoke with a measure of agitation, his tone intensely emotional. He was an old pedant; since the young emperor had failed to study well, he, as the chief lecturer, bore the primary responsibility.

As the head of the Hanlin Academy, Wang Xilie held the young emperor's examination paper in exceptionally high regard. For the six months following the late emperor's passing, despite teaching with all their might, nothing they taught had registered, leaving them spinning in circles with absolute helplessness.

"Next time, you may make it slightly more difficult," Zhu Yijun started to say, then hesitated, withholding his words before deciding to speak again, an idea already forming in his mind.

The monthly examinations of the Ming emperor could perhaps be put to good use.

Recently, the headwinds of impeachment against Zhang Juzheng (public opinion) had simply been too fierce.