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Yang Shiqi
Ming grand secretary from Taihe who sat in the cabinet from the Yongle to the early Zhengtong reign and, with Yang Rong and Yang Pu, made up the Three Yangs
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Yang Yu · Zi Shiqi · Hao Dongli
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Yang Shiqi, whose given name was Yu though he was known by his courtesy name, came from Taihe in Jiangxi; he lost his father young, lived with his mother's second husband's Luo family before returning to his own lineage, and earned his living teaching. Early in the Jianwen reign he was recommended by Wang Shuying and summoned to the Hanlin Academy to work on the Veritable Records of Taizu, and the Yongle emperor chose him for the Grand Secretariat. Under Renzong he became vice minister of rites and grand secretary of the Huagai Hall, rose to junior preceptor, and with Yang Rong and Jin Youzi received an inscribed silver seal. He stayed in the cabinet through the Xuande reign and the early Zhengtong years, sharing power with Yang Rong and Yang Pu, and people called him the Western Yang after the site of his house. He died in 1444 at eighty, with the posthumous name Wenzhen, and left the Dongli Collection (Dongli ji).
Life and times
Dates 1365 CE–1444 CE