善譽 Shànyù

Shanyu

Shanyu, courtesy name Jingzhi, was the son of Buyi and a descendant of Taizong. As a child he was quick and bright and studied hard. In the fifth year of Qiandao he came first in the Ministry of Rites examination. He was first posted as Registrar of Changguo, acting in charge of the county's affairs. He urged the registered households to pool money and buy land to help with the costs of marriages, funerals and burials. When he captured an entire band of sea pirates, the prefect wanted to report his merit, but Shanyu said, "How can I seek a reward with men's lives?" The prefect thought all the more highly of him and recommended him to the court. He was appointed Fiscal Clerk of Liangzhe, and then transferred to be Magistrate of Linchuan County in Fu Prefecture. The county had been in the habit of collecting the people's taxes in advance; Shanyu went through the registers, exposed the arrears, and pressed for payment according to the registers, so that in the end everything was collected on time, and the advance levy was abolished. Edit

He was transferred to supernumerary Vice Prefect of Chang Prefecture. Shi Hao spoke of his worth, and an edict summoned him to the ministry hall for examination. Through successive promotions he became Assistant in the Court of Judicial Review and Superintendent of the Ever-Normal Granaries, Tea and Salt for Hubei. When a great drought came, Shanyu pooled the ever-normal granaries of the various prefectures and gave relief loans household by household; the next year the wheat and grain harvests were double, and the people vied to carry their grain in to repay. He memorialized to abolish more than ten tax stations and forty-five ferry dues, to the people's advantage. He had the prefectures sell land and put the prefectural instructors in charge of the income, to provide for men going up for the examinations. Edit

He was moved to Judicial Commissioner and then Assistant Fiscal Commissioner of Tongchuan Circuit. Xu Xu, the Prefect of Suining, had no name for honesty, but the circuit commissioners were lenient with him because he was a former censor. When Shanyu passed through Suining, Xu Xu came out to meet him, and Shanyu made him walk along the side corridor; Xu was much dismayed. When the people of the prefecture heard of it, they vied to accuse him of his misdeeds. Shanyu impeached him at court, but the chief minister Wang Huai was on good terms with Xu Xu and shelved his memorial. Shanyu then reported directly to the emperor, and Xu Xu was dismissed. He also used surplus funds to give the prefectures estates, from which rice was given to the people when a child was born and to women who were pregnant; his severity and his kindness both won trust. The young men of the imperial clan living in Shu had little schooling in Confucian learning, so Shanyu set up a school at the prefectural academy to teach them, and for the first time they were moved to apply themselves. On reaching the age to retire he asked for a temple sinecure, went home, lived in a single room and amused himself with books and pictures. He died without illness at forty-seven, in the sixteenth year of Chunxi. Edit

Shanyu lost his father and mother early and brought up his younger brothers with every care. In office he kept himself honest and quiet, and he wrote a great deal; Guo Yong and Zhu Xi are said to have drawn on his Explanations of the Book of Changes. Edit