Yu Chenglong

Also known as Zi Beiming · Shi Qingduan

Yu Chenglong, courtesy name Beiming, came from Yongning in Shanxi and held only a supplementary provincial degree from the Ming when, at forty-five, he took office in 1661 as magistrate of Luocheng in Guangxi, a county with six households left. After seven years there he served as magistrate of Hezhou in Sichuan and in Huangzhou in Huguang, where during the Revolt of the Three Feudatories he rode almost alone into rebel stockades. He went on to be judicial and financial commissioner of Fujian and in 1680 governor of Zhili, and at an audience the next year the Kangxi emperor called him the most honest official in the empire. Promoted to governor-general of Jiangnan and Jiangxi, he abolished extra levies and lived on coarse food, and he died in office in 1684, leaving a single silk robe and a few jars of salted beans. He was named Qingduan, and on his southern tour the emperor said public opinion held him the first among honest officials.