Ministers › Remonstrators
Yang Jisheng
Rongcheng official who opposed Qiu Luan's horse markets with Altan Khan, then charged Yan Song with ten great crimes and was executed after three years in prison
At dawn in a palace courtyard, a large drum hangs in a small roofed frame beside a red pillar, with a bound bundle of scrolls on a low stand in front; a stone balustrade leads toward a large hall in the mist, and a row of tiny people stands far away.
Also known as Zi Zhongfang · Hao Jiaoshan
- Roles
- Remonstrators
Yang Jisheng, courtesy name Zhongfang and known as Jiaoshan, came from Rongcheng north of the capital and gained his jinshi in 1547. As a vice director in the Ministry of War he opposed the general Qiu Luan's plan to open horse markets with Altan Khan and was demoted to a jail warden in distant Didao. When Qiu Luan fell, Yang was promoted four times in a year, and within a month of returning to the war ministry he impeached the senior grand secretary Yan Song for ten great crimes and five treacheries. Because he asked the emperor to question the princes of Yu and Jing, the Jiajing emperor had him beaten a hundred strokes and held in the imperial prison. After three years Yan Song slipped his name into the autumn execution list beside those of Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong, and he was beheaded in the western market of Beijing in 1555 at forty. Under Longqing he was named Zhongmin and a shrine to him was built at Baoding.
Life and times
Dates 1516 CE–1555 CE