Hai Rui, the upright Ming official

After freshening up, we board a No. 1 bus bound west along Haixiu East Road for Hai Rui Tomb.  The Qiongshan native buried there has attracted unanticipated interest from government leaders and the public over the past five decades.  In February 1979, a play was staged, recapitulating his life and gallantry.  Sadly for its author, imprisonment was his fate during the Cultural Revolution, that chaotic ten-year period from 1966 to 1976 when Chairman Mao Zedong, in mockery, compared his Defence Minister, a Long March comrade, to the Ming official.  

Just five kilometres southwest of Haikou city centre, the tomb is situated in Xiuying District, in a small park along the Qiuhai Avenue that intersects with Haixiu Middle Road in the north and Binya Road in the south.  Who is this enigmatic official, who was largely unknown outside Hainan until the mid-twentieth century?  I silently repeat that question to myself during the journey.

 

Hai Rui’s tomb and memorial park, sketch map
海瑞， 墓和纪念公园,  示意图

 

We alight as soon as the bus has crossed over Qiuhai expressway.  At Haikou West Station, we hail a motorized trishaw.  For the one-kilometre distance, we pay the negotiated 4 RMB.  That turns out to be a wise decision.  The gate at Hai Rui Tomb closes at six in the evening.  We fail to note that restriction, assuming it to be an unenclosed public park.

 

 

 

Hai Rui park, closes at 6 pm
海瑞公园,  下午6时关闭的门

 

Sympathetically, the ticketing officer allows us in.  We have twenty minutes for our excursion, he says.  Admission is 20 RMB per person.  The green tourist map on the wall offers some valuable facts on the interesting features.  The sun is setting but its last rays are still good for capturing vivid scenes by our cameras.   My earlier information tells me that this park covers about 7.4 acres, roughly three soccer pitches, which can be visited within our limited timespan.  We quicken our pace.

Hai Rui park, sketch map
海瑞公园,  示意图

 

From the entrance, we discern a well-manicured park, in the middle of which is a broad central path.  At the start of this path is a high stone “pailou”.  This archway is atypical, unlike most traditional ones which are colourful and highly decorative.  The four tall square vertical concrete columns that uphold six similar but smaller horizontal bars are grey and without colours or decorations, except for the chiselled official hat on each column top and the traditional Chinese characters in red on the middle horizontal bars.  The four characters on the lower lintel read: 粤東正氣.  Literally, the phrase “Yue Dong Zheng Qi” means “Eastern Yue Upright Spirit”.  The remarkable man buried here was - apparently - the Upright Spirit of Eastern Yue, “Eastern Yue” being the traditional name for Guangdong Province, under which Hainan was an administrative district.  Guangdong was the ancient home of the Yue ethnic tribe.

Just above these characters are two smaller characters, which I perceive to be a 上 (“shang”, or “rising”) above a 日 (“ri”, or “sun”).  So Hai Rui is “the rising sun”, the man who brought light and glory to Eastern Yue.  [But when I later examine my photograph, my initial assumption does not seem right.  The bottom character appears to be 曰.  “Yue” means “speak, say”.  “上曰” does not make sense; I am baffled.  During my fourth trip, Xue Xin drives me to the entrance.  I ask the ticketing officer, and my puzzle is solved.  The two characters are the contraction of 皇上曰 (Huangshang yue; or “The Emperor says”).  The emperor lauded Guangdong people, epitomized in Hai Rui, for their upright spirit.]

 

 

 

 

 

Eastern Yue Upright Spirit
粤東正氣  (Yue Dong Zheng Qi)

 

No litter is evident on the broad path, which is paved with grey granite tiles.  To our left and right are life-size stone statues of lions, sheep, tortoises, and human beings.  On both sides too are waist-high green hedges, trimmed to shape like rectangular boxes.  Behind them, tall coconut palms with green fronds stand erect in straight lines.  My eyes are overwhelmed by the “greenness” of the features.  Behind the hedges on our left is the Hai Rui Repository, a single-storey building housing artefacts pertaining to the official.

 

 

 

 

Stone statues on my left
石刻造像, 在我的左边

 

At the end of the path is a two-metre stele resting on the back of a tortoise, a common element in many imperial or renowned memorial temples.  Engraved with Chinese characters, this stele lists Hai Rui’s history and achievements.  As we walk pass this stele, we catch sight of his tomb and statue.  His tomb lies beneath a burial mound built with bricks in the shape of an ancient bell three metres in height.  A stone tablet identifies the deceased within.  The two small censers are filled with white ashes from burnt-out incense sticks.  Ashes have spilled onto the ground.

Behind the burial mound is a large statue of Hai Rui in his official gown and hat, seated on a platform and clutching a court memorial, a petition to the emperor.  Below him is a stone censer of burnt-out incense sticks.  Again, the incense holder is full of white ashes, and ashes are the only litter in this huge compound.

 

 

 

 

A quiet and beautiful park
这是一个安静和美丽的公园

 

Classical in Chinese architecture, the pavilions, which catch our attention, were constructed only two decades ago, after the site had been ransacked and damaged by the rampaging Red Guards.  In their carefully designed layout of this Chinese-styled garden, the planners had even cleverly teased unsuspecting visitors with an optical illusion.

Yanglian Pavilion lies behind the Hai Rui statue.  This pavilion is marked on the tourist map as “Incorruptibility Advocating Pavilion”; the characters on the large signboard above its window are: 扬廉轩 (“Yang Lian Xuan”, which literally means “Raising Honesty Room”).  It is a simple single-storey pavilion with “sweeping” roofs (that is, roofs which curve and have ends that point skywards).  However, viewed from the entrance, it seems to form the lower part of the pavilion behind it, the three-storey circular Qingfeng Chamber (清风阁; Qingfeng Ge).

 

 

 

 

An optical illusion:  a strange looking building
一种错觉:  一个奇怪的建筑

 

Clearly visible not only to us standing initially at the entrance but also to attentive passengers in motor vehicles driving along the main Qiuhai Avenue, or the side Hai Rui Road, this modern “Pavilion of Cool Breeze” is the most distinctive piece of architecture of this park.  At about ten metres in height, it has three circular roofs that are straight-inclined.  The colour of the green glazed-tiled roofs is softened by their red wooden edges and the red columns of the pavilion.  Its highest roof is reminiscent of the rustic straw hats worn by farmers toiling in their fields.  This traditional building shines among the surrounding modern condominiums.  It is a worthy tribute to the great post-medieval man.

 

 

 

 

Pavilion of Cool Breeze, or Qingfeng Chamber
清风阁; Qingfeng Ge

 

Between these two pavilions is a small man-made pond.  “Stainless Pond” (不染池; Buran Chi) is a reminder of Hai Rui’s integrity.  Chinese have interesting names to emphasize the personality of the person they honour.  Some green flowerless lotuses thrive.  Are there goldfishes or koi swimming merrily?  None surfaces.  

A smaller pavilion at the end of the park is aesthetically placed on higher ground, on a miniature ridge moulded from rugged rocks and soil brought here.  During a rainy day, the running waterfall from the “cliff” of this hill will soothe the visitor’s soul.  Leading to this Octagonal Pavilion is a sheltered passageway on the left.  On its wall is a series of black-and-white illustrations about Hai Rui’s life and deeds.  They are, I presume, enlarged posters from a comic book.  We walk sprightly, photographing as many as we can.  Besides us, another visitor - a gentleman - has the same idea.  So who was Hai Rui, who merits such a grandiose monument in Haikou downtown?

Octagonal Pavilion
八方亭

 
During my subsequent forage into his history, some interesting facts emerge.  First, he and the famous Admiral Zheng He (Wade-Giles: Cheng Ho) are Muslims.  Second, they belong to the same ethnic minority, the Hui.  Third, they served the Ming emperor.  However, Zheng He (1371-1433) lived a century before Hai Rui.  The admiral commanded seven naval expeditions as far west as Africa at the behests of third and fifth Ming emperors Yongle and Xuande.  His voyages predated those of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) by some nine decades.  Hai Rui (1514 to 1587) lived and ministered during the later and less glorious half of the Ming Empire, an empire governed by sixteen emperors over a span of two hundred and seventy-six years.

Hai Rui was born in 1514, seven years after Zhu Houcong, who was to become the Jiajing emperor.  The future eleventh Ming emperor was born in September 1507 and died in January 1567.  Being only a cousin of emperor Zhengde, he was not destined to rule and was therefore not trained to be an emperor.  But he was thrust into it when his cousin died suddenly at the age of thirty without an heir.  

At the tender age of fourteen, the new emperor called his era “Admirable Tranquillity”.  It turned out otherwise. 

First, to the dismay of court officials, he broke with tradition, which dictated his posthumous adoption as Zhengde’s son to depict the continuity of orderly succession.  Instead, he conferred the posthumous title of “Emperor” on his father, which had ominous implications on the legitimacy of his cousin’s reign.  Was his cousin, rumoured to be a frequent brothel patron, too profligate to be historically regarded as his adopted father?  Officials who criticized the young emperor’s action were exiled or punished. 

Second, like his cousin, the Jiajing emperor was lazy and cruel.  He commissioned Yan Song as Chief Grand Secretary and other incompetents as officials.  After eighteen years of reign, he refused to grant audience to his ministers, except to a select few.  Such was the hatred for him that even his concubines or palace ladies almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1542.  The military weakness of his empire encouraged the Mongols to attack Beijing.  They stopped only when they were paid off.  At a huge cost too, the emperor built lavish temples promoting Daoism.  Did he practise a form of sexual Daoism, dying of mercury poisoning in his quest for the elixir of life, as commonly alleged?  

Hai Rui lived through the troubled times of Jiajing’s reign and the reigns of his successors.  Like many ambitious families in the Chinese empire, Hai Rui’s family in Qiongshan District was no exception.  (Their residence, now a tourist spot, is located at the corner of Hongchenghu Road and Zhuyun Road, facing Hongcheng Lake.)  His father devoted his life studying for the provincial examinations but died in his prime, leaving his long-suffering wife to toil and care for the bereaving members.

Hai Rui’s home, corner of Hongchenghu Rd and Zhuyun Rd
海瑞的家，红城湖路与朱云路的角落

 

Guided by the memory of his high-aspiring father, Hai Rui persevered in his footstep.  After some unsuccessful attempts, he finally passed the provincial examinations and graduated as a juren (literally, Recommended Person) at the advanced age of thirty-five years (in 1549) to embark on a career as school educator.  

Diligence led ultimately to his promotion as bureau secretary in the Ministry of Revenue in 1564.  A scrupulous and empathetic official, he made many friends among the peasants.  But he also made enemies among the elite.  Frank and honest, he imprudently fired a memorial in 1566 to the emperor, admonishing him for neglecting his royal duties as well as for his obsession with Daoism and Daoist temple constructions on which he had wasted valuable government fund.  Hai Rui thundered:

 

“How would you compare yourself with Emperor Wen Di of the Han dynasty?  You did a fairly good job in your early years, but what has happened to you now?  For nearly twenty years you have not appeared in the imperial court, and you have appointed many fools to the government.  By refusing to see your own sons, you are mean to your own blood; by suspecting court officials, you are mean to your subordinates; and by living in the Western Park refusing to come home, you are mean to your wife.  Now the country is filled with corrupt officials and weak generals; peasants begin to revolt everywhere….In my judgement you are much inferior to Emperor Wen Di.

….Your shortcomings are numerous: rudeness, short-temperedness, self-righteousness, and deafness to honest criticism.  But worst of all is your search for immortality….”

 

Being compared unfavourably with emperors of the past, the fun-loving ruler was vacillating on his decision to sign imprisoned Hai Rui’s death warrant.  Fortuitously, he expired, thus sparing the widely-respected official’s life.  

Wishing to signal a fresh start, Jiajing’s son - the Longqing (Great Celebration) emperor - restored Hai Rui to his directorship of census.  Thirty-year old Zhu Zaihou was initially an enthusiastic ruler.  But like his father, he soon succumbed to the same temptations.  Meanwhile, the fearless Hainan official, who was appointed Grand Coordinator at Yingtian (Nanjing) in mid-1569, antagonized other bureaucrats, exposing their corruption and misappropriation of peasants’ land.

Their collusion led to his dismissal from office at the age of fifty-five in 1571.  The following year, aged thirty-five, Longqing died.  His son, the Wanli emperor, was only ten and under the tutelage of a regent.

Fifteen years later, fortune smiled once again upon Hai Rui.  He was seventy-one.  Pardoned, he became Chief Censor of Nanjing.  But he died from illness shortly thereafter, mourned by the thousands in white attire lining along the hundred kilometres of Yangzi river banks to farewell the boat that carried his body to Hainan.  In their memory was his love for the masses and his deep sense of justice in rectifying convictions founded on manufactured evidence and unsubstantiated allegations.  They saw in him the reincarnated Justice Bao Zheng, the legendary Song official.  Two years later, his admirers began building his tomb, the tomb which had been extensively renovated for our appreciation.  

Hai Rui's life, illustrations

As I briefly scan the drawings in the “Comic Strip Gallery” along the passageway wall, I cannot help but stand in awe of the Ming emperors.  Despite their personal ethical deficiencies, they were generally not ethnically or religiously biased in official appointments.  Influenced by their Confucianist education, they espoused meritocracy, employing and promoting people based on desert. 

Poor Ma He (马和) was only an eleven-year old boy living in a Yunnan village when he was captured by a Ming army commander suppressing a Mongol rebellion that had erupted in that region.  He was castrated; yet he discharged loyalty to the imperial court, which later elevated him to be naval commander.  Emperor Yongle’s trust in him was remarkable, as reflected in his new surname bestowed by the ruler.  While “Ma” refers merely to a horse, “Zheng” (郑) has the approximate meaning of “sincere”. 

Zheng He the famous navigator

Hai Rui, a Hui, too received that same level of trust from his emperor.  Although his dream, the construction of two roads across the inaccessible Li territory, did not materialize during his lifetime, it did five centuries later.  Originating from Haikou in the north, the Central Highway, as its name denotes, runs through the mountainous central region and terminates at Sanya in the south.  Today, tourists enjoy easy access to the beauty of the misty green peaks that sustain an amazing diversity of wildlife, plants, and insects.

Not only a source of pain to his Ming emperor, Hai Rui was indirectly also the cause of death of a twentieth-century Chinese historian.  Wu Han initially contributed erudite scholarly articles to academic tomes that dwelt unread in library shacks and then innocuously forgotten. 

His trouble started when he popularized his subject in a play easily comprehensible to the layman.  “Hai Rui Baguan” (“Hai Rui’s Dismissal”) was originally issued in 1951 but was revised a few times.  In February 1961, the periodical Beijing Literature and Art (Beijing Wenyi) published the original version.  An opera based on his work became a runaway success.  Emerging so soon after the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward and criticisms against its proponents, the circulation of the play and production of the opera would have dire consequences for the author and other politicians.  

Mao Zedong’s attention perked at the reference to the Ming official.  In November 1965, a member of the infamous “Gang of Four” political faction denounced the play as an anti-Party poisonous weed.  The parallel was invidiously alluded to between Hai Rui vis-a-vis his relationship with the aloof Ming emperor and Peng Dehuai vis-a-vis his frosty relationship with his leader.  Honest loyalist Hai Rui was dismissed and imprisoned by the emperor; forthright Long March veteran Marshall Peng was dismissed as defense minister in 1959 by Mao (who was intolerant of any reference to bungles of his 1958 economic policy).  If Hai Rui’s dismissal was unjustified, then was Marshall Peng’s dismissal similarly unjustified?  That was the rhetorical question.

 

 

 

 

 

Mao Zedong (December 1893 – September 1976)
毛泽东（1893年十二月 - 1976年9月）

 

Thus began the hysterical period of the Cultural Revolution of 1966, terminating only ten years later.  Spearheading the delirium was the Cultural Revolution Group established in May 1966.  Chen Boda was its head, and Jiang Qing - Mrs Mao - was his first deputy.  Under their direction, denunciations of other authors and literary works freely flowed.  

Wu Han was imprisoned.  Born in 1909 in the coastal province of Zhejiang, the historian-cum-playwright was educated at Qinghua (Tsinghua) University in Beijing.  He was noted for his prior historical research, the publication in 1943 of his biography of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty, a work which he expanded in 1947.  During the nineteen-forties, Wu was a leading member of the China Democratic League.  After the foundation of the Chinese republic, he was offered the deputy mayorship of Beijing.  The promising gentleman died in October 1969, apparently from torture and untreated tuberculosis.

Wearing a Ming official outfit in abject subjection to Mao’s hint, Marshall Peng Dehuai paraded in humiliation to the Red Guards’ hiss and brays.  His deference did not save him.  The former Defense Minister was arrested and imprisoned, his immense contribution during the Long March and to the reunification of a war-torn China disrespectfully ignored.  Tortured by his callous captors, he died in November 1974.  

When the directionless dust had finally settled ten years later (May 1976), the declining Mao belatedly ticked off Jiang Qing and her three chief collaborators for “functioning as a gang of four”.  A month after his death in September 1976, they were deposed, tried, and imprisoned for twenty years or for life.  After her early release in 1991 due to throat cancer, Jiang Qing committed suicide in hospital.  Also arrested and tried at the same time as the Gang of Four, Chen Boda was given an early release from his eighteen-year sentence due to ill-health.  He died aged eighty-five in 1989. 

Wu Han’s play was restaged in February 1979, restoring his reputation although not his life.  Marshall Peng’s reputation too was later rehabilitated.  

In awe, we leave Hai Rui’s monument.  His life inspires; yet it also incriminates.  Three hundred years later, his harsh admonitions reverberated.  The paragon of virtue became a political symbol.  In many people today, his sense of justice and fairness is lost or forgotten.  Pretending not to understand us even though we point to the traffic junction about one kilometre distant and show him the map, a trishaw driver - a non-local, judging by his accent - quotes a ridiculous fare of 30 RMB, treating us as fools.  We flatly turn him down, saying that we would rather walk.  The sun has set; it is dark, but the street lights brighten the road.  We walk - along the side of a highway.  A bus passes; it stops, dropping off two passengers.  They are ladies; they are walking ahead of us in the same direction.  We feel safe, although safety is not really a problem in this island.

Copyright 2015

More Photographs

Hai Rui Tomb & Memorial Park

Hai Rui's residence

海瑞的家

Copyright 2015

  Rambling around my ancestral Hainan

Page 116-124