石 Shí

At that time great ministers had just been executed with their clans, the year was bitterly cold, and feeling outside the palace was uneasy. The emperor said, "Why are men's hearts not yet at ease?" Shi said, "When punishments and killings go too far, they bring on the disorders of yin. Lately Zheng Zhu recruited many soldiers from Fengxiang, and the searches and executions have still not stopped. I fear this may give rise to trouble; please issue an edict to reassure them." The emperor said, "Good." He asked again, "Why is great peace so hard to achieve?" Zheng Tan said, "If you want the realm well governed, nothing is better than caring for the people." Shi at once added, "If they are cared for in the right way, what difficulty is there in great peace? If Your Majesty restricts expenditure and cuts out idle mouths, so that the registers and evaluations leave no room for fraud, then the hundred offices will be well run. When the hundred offices are well run, the realm will be at peace." The emperor said sadly, "When I think of the Zhenguan and Kaiyuan eras and look at today, my breath catches in my chest." Shi said, "The way of governing has its root in the one above, and none below dares not follow." The emperor said, "Not so. Zhang Yuanchang was Deputy Commissioner of the Left Avenue and used a gold spittoon; recently he was executed for an offence. I have heard that in the palace there are two brocade robes with golden crows, which Xuanzong and Precious Consort Yang wore when he visited the hot springs; now rich men have such things all the time." Shi said, "Mao Jie, by his pure virtue as a Minister of Wei, made men afraid to wear fine clothes and eat fine food. How much more can the Son of Heaven set the example?" Edit

At this time many of the chief ministers' clerks and guards had died in the upheaval within the palace, and Jiangxi and Hunan were ordered to raise money to help pay for recruiting men. Shi proposed: "The chief ministers assist the Son of Heaven in teaching and transforming the people. If they follow what is right and forget themselves, the spirits of the ancestral temple will protect them, and even if there are bandits no harm will come. If one harbours wickedness and deceives himself, plants a faction of the powerful and harms the upright, then even if he is guarded the ghosts will be able to kill him. There is no need for recruiting; I ask that the Imperial Insignia Guard simply serve as our escort." The emperor once turned to Zheng Tan and said, "Tan, you are old and ought not to speak falsely. Tell me, which kind of Han ruler am I like?" Tan said, "Your Majesty is a ruler like Wendi or Xuandi." The emperor said, "How would I dare hope for that!" Shi, wishing to strengthen the emperor's resolve so that he would not slacken, said, "I think both Your Majesty's question and Tan's answer wrong. Yan Hui was a mere commoner, yet he compared himself to Shun. Your Majesty possesses the four seas and has many years ahead; you should examine the gains and losses of the past, grow day by day and month by month, and stand level with Yao and Shun. Why compare yourself with Wendi and Xuandi, and then think yourself not their equal? If only Your Majesty will open up your ambition and not rest content with Wendi and Xuandi, the great work will be accomplished." Edit

A eunuch returning from the frontier galloped in through the Jinguang Gate, and on the roads people wildly said that soldiers were about to arrive. The capital ran about in uproar, with the dust flying; some of the hundred officials rode off in their socks, and the clerks of the Censorate and the Departments gradually slipped away. Zheng Tan was about to leave, but Shi said, "We do not yet know what has happened. We should sit and wait for it to settle. If the chief ministers run, there will be chaos. And if something truly unforeseen has happened, where would we flee to? We are the ones men look to; we must not be careless." He went on dealing with documents even more attentively, as easily as on an ordinary day. Gangs of ruffians in the wards gazed toward the southern palace gates, secretly holding weapons and waiting for trouble. The General-in-chief of the Imperial Insignia Guard, Chen Junshang, led his men to stand at the Wangxian Gate. A palace messenger urged him to close the gates, but Junshang refused, and only at sunset did it end. At that moment, if not for Shi's calm and Junshang's planning, there would very nearly have been chaos. Edit

The amnesty of the Kaicheng era granted the capital region one year's land tax; stopped for three years the offerings of the regional commands at New Year, the winter solstice and the Duanwu festival, their value to be used in place of the cash levies assigned to the people; forbade throughout the realm all tribute other than medicines, tea and fruit; and also ended the palace requisitions and building works. The emperor said, "I care about substance and do not want empty documents." Since in the past the Son of Heaven had often broken his own edicts, Shi asked that "one copy of the amnesty be kept in the palace, to be looked over from time to time. When the Commissioners for Promotion and Demotion are sent out to the ten circuits, let them be instructed in the essentials of government and made to carry it out together with the chief local officials; then every ill and every benefit will be dealt with." Edit

Soon he was promoted to Vice Director of the Secretariat. The emperor once said, "I see that the rulers and ministers of Jin came to ruin through careless abandon. Were the ministers and officials of that time at fault?" Shi said, "They were. An old poem says, 'A man's life does not reach a hundred, yet he always carries the cares of a thousand years': that is fear of not meeting good times. 'The day is short, and bitter is the long night': that is because dark times are many. 'Why not take a candle and go roaming?': that is urging men to shed light. I am willing to give my life for the state; if only Your Majesty will see clearly and not be misled, then perhaps the people can be settled and the state strengthened." He also said, "The way to good government lies in getting the right men. Dezong was very suspicious; the road to office was blocked, and requests for appointments were always answered with refusals. The Chancellery was shut up for months on end, and the Censorate had only one censor. So the lords of the two Rivers vied to draw in bold and able men, and scholars who loved profit flocked to them and served as their chief planners. That is why the regional commands grew more defiant by the day and the Son of Heaven ate his evening meal late from worry. In the Yuanhe era the advancement of men grew wider, and since Your Majesty succeeded to the throne you have consulted only the worthy, so the scholars are all at court. The commands' territories and arms are as they were, yet they bow down and submit, because the scholars do not help them." The emperor said, "The state of the realm is like a balance: when one end is heavy, the other end is light. Select scholars widely for me, and I will use them." Shi memorialised: "The magistrate of Xianyang, Han Liao, is repairing the Xingcheng Canal. The canal lies eighteen li to the right [west] of Xianyang and on the left runs straight to the Yongfeng Granary; it is an old transport canal of Qin and Han. When it is finished, for three hundred li from Xianyang to Tongguan there will be no labour of hauling carts, and the oxen under the shafts can all go to ploughing; it will benefit Qinzhong for good." Li Guyan said, "True, but I fear the labour service may be out of season. What then?" The emperor said, "Are we to be held back by fear of yin and yang? If it benefits the people, why should I worry?" Shi employed Han Yi to handle the cases of the Public Revenue, and Yi was exposed for taking bribes. Shi said, "I chose Yi because he understood finance; I did not vouch that he was not greedy." The emperor said, "When a chief minister employs a man, using him when he knows him to be good and dropping him when he goes wrong is called perfect fairness. When other chief ministers forcibly cover up the faults of the men they employ, that is selfishness." Edit

In the first month of the third year, as he was going to court, he rode to the Qinren Ward, where assassins sprang out and shot at him, wounding him. His horse bolted; the assassins waylaid him again at the ward gate and slashed at him, cutting off the horse's tail, and only then did he get away. The Son of Heaven was shocked and sent messengers to comfort him and gave him fine medicines. For the first time twenty guardsmen of the Six Armies were ordered to escort the chief ministers. That day the capital was shaken with fear, and only one in ten of the hundred officials came to court. Shi therefore lay at home and firmly resigned his post, and by edict he was made Military Commissioner of Jingnan, keeping the titles of Vice Director of the Secretariat and Joint Manager of Affairs. Earlier, after the disorder of Xun and Zhu, power had passed to the eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven, fearing their pressure, could barely hold his ground. When Shi rose to be chief minister he gave himself to the state without regard for the favourites about the throne, extending the bonds of authority, wishing to strengthen the royal house and recover its power. Qiu Shiliang hated him and meant to harm him; the emperor knew it but did nothing, and so Shi was dismissed. On the day he was sent off there was neither the customary feast nor gifts, and the scholars were resentful and indignant. Shi declined the title of Vice Director of the Secretariat and was changed to Acting Minister of War; on nothing else was his request heeded. Edit

In the third year of Huichang he was made Acting Grand Minister of Works and moved to the command of Hedong. When the campaign against Lu came, an edict ordered troops from Taiyuan to help Wang Feng's army at Yushe. Shi raised fifteen hundred men from Hengshui and had the detached general Yang Bian lead them. Ordinarily when an army set out, each man was given two bolts of silk to fit himself out, but funds were short at that time and they were given half; the soldiers were resentful, and moreover they were hurried off. Bian took the chance to stir the men to revolt, brought the troops back and drove Shi out. By edict he was made Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent with a branch post at the Eastern Capital; soon he was made Acting Minister of Personnel and then appointed Regent of the Eastern Capital. He died aged sixty-two and was posthumously made Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs. Edit