Exemplary Women of Early China by Anne Behnke Kinney

Author:Anne Behnke Kinney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2013-12-20T05:00:00+00:00

8.11 THE MOTHER OF YAN YANNIAN

[The mother of Yan Yannian] was the mother of the Governor of Henan, Yan Yannian of Donghai.58 She had given birth to five sons, all of whom possessed the qualities required of officials and had reached the rank of two thousand piculs.59 The people of Donghai referred to her as “Madam Yan of the Ten Thousand Piculs.”

When Yannian served as Governor of Henan, wherever he went he had a reputation for being severe. During the winter, when prisoners from the districts were transferred to his office for prosecution, blood flowed for several li. The people of Henan called him the “Butcher-in-Chief.”

Once his mother came from Donghai, wishing to spend the La festival with Yannian.60 When she arrived in Luoyang and encountered the prisoners who had undergone punishment, she was greatly alarmed. She then stopped at a lodge in the city and refused to enter Yannian’s quarters. When Yannian went to the lodge to visit her, his mother closed her door and wouldn’t see him. When Yannian took off his cap and prostrated himself before her [door], she finally agreed to see him.

She then berated Yannian, saying, “You have been fortunate to serve as this commandery’s governor with sole authority over a territory of one thousand [square] li. But I have heard nothing of your benevolence, righteousness, or use of education as a means to bring peace and security to the ignorant masses. Instead, you have relied on exacting punishments and executing large numbers of people in order to assert your authority. Is this what is meant by ‘serving as father and mother to the people’?” Yannian admitted his error, bowing with his head touching the ground, and apologizing until his mother agreed to be taken in a carriage to his residence.

When his mother had seen the completion of the La rituals, she told Yannian, “The Way of Heaven is numinously perspicacious; you cannot kill others on your authority alone.61 I do not intend to spend my old age watching my grown son suffer execution.62 I will take leave of you and return east to prepare a place for a grave.”63

She then left and returned home, recounting to his brothers and kinsmen what she had told Yan. After a little more than a year, a document drawn up by one of Yannian’s assistants implicated Yannian on ten charges. The investigation was passed on to the Secretary to the Imperial Counselor, who then executed Yannian in the marketplace.64 All of Donghai praised his mother as worthy and wise.

A man of discernment would say, “Yan’s mother possessed empathetic wisdom and trusted in the Way.” The Odes says, “The sorrow of my heart,/Can it only be of the moment?”65 These words apply well to Yan’s mother.

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