Fang Keqin 24/281/7187-8
“Fang Keqin,” translated by Sarah Schneewind, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Fang Keqin’s xingzhuang (curriculum vitae, account of conduct) by his son, Fang Xiaoru, is appended with notes. For discussion see “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle: Imperial Autocracy and Scholar-Official Autonomy in the Background to the Ming History Biography of Early Ming Scholar-Official Fang Keqin (1326-1376).” Oriens Extremus 48: 103-152.
Fang Keqin [1326-1376], aka Qujin, a native of Ninghai. In the late Yuan, bandits arose in Taizhou, and Wujiang Vice-Prefect Jin’gangnü received orders from the Branch Secretariat to raise a naval force to oppose them. Keqin presented a plan, but it was not accepted; he fled into the mountains. In Hongwu 2 he was appointed a county assistant instructor; he resigned and went home because his mother was old. In [Hongwu] 4, he was summoned to the capital and tested second in the Ministry of Personnel exam, and was especially appointed prefect of Jining. At that time it had been previously ordered that people who cultivated waste land would only be taxed after three years. The clerks collected taxes without waiting out the time; the people said that the edicts were not trustworthy and abruptly left off, so that the fields again became waste. Keqin made a pact with the people that taxes would accord with the set time. He divided the fields into nine grades to levy corvee and other taxes; the clerks had no opportunity to engage in corruption: more fields were opened every day. He also established several hundred community schools and repaired the Confucian temple building: jiaohua (moral transformation through education) rose and flourished. In the height of summer, a general oversaw commoner men in building a wall; Keqin said, “Just now in their farming the people have no leisure – how can one further trouble them with basket and spade?” He petitioned the Secretariat and got the corvee ended. Before this, there had been a long drought; afterwards there was a great soaking rain. The Jining people sang about it: “What stopped our corvee? His Honor’s power. What revived our millet? His Honor’s shower. Let his Honor never leave: us people’s father and mother.” In the three years he oversaw affairs, the population increased several times over and the whole prefecture was well-supplied. Keqin’s way of governing was to take transformation through virtue as the root. He did not delight in seeking renown. He once said: “Seeking fame inevitably sets up danger; setting up danger inevitably brings calamity to the people. I cannot bear it.” His personal expenditures were simple and plain: he did not change his one cotton robe for ten years and did not eat meat twice in one day. Taizu used laws severely and many scholar-officials were sent into exile; Keqin unceremoniously took pity on those who passed through Jining. The Duke of Yongjia, Zhu Liangzu, was once leading a navy to Beijing when the water dried up. He levied 5,000 men to dredge the river. Keqin could not stop it, but prayed to Heaven with tears. Suddenly there was a big rainstorm, the water rose several feet, and the boats were therefore able to get there. The people regarded it/him as divine. In the eighth year he went to court, where Taizu congratulated him on his achievements, gave him a feast, and send him back to the prefecture. Shortly thereafter, on the accusation by subordinate official Cheng Gong, he was exiled to hard labor in Jiangpu, and further becoming involved in the “blank forms” affair, he was executed. His sons: Xiaowen and Xiaoru. Xiaowen was 13 when his mother died and ate only vegetables for the whole 3 years of mourning. Xiaoru has his own biographical essay.