Hai Rui

{{Short description|Chinese politician (1514–1587)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}} {{For|the professional basketball player|Hai Rui (basketball)}} {{Infobox person | name = Hai Rui | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = 海青天像.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1514|1|23}} | birth_place = [[Haikou City]], Ming China | death_date = {{death date and age|1587|11|13|1514|1|23}} | death_place = [[Nanjing]], Ming China | death_cause = | resting_place = Haikou City | resting_place_coordinates =  | monuments = | occupation = Philosopher, politician | module = {{Chinese |child=yes|c=海瑞|p=Hǎi Ruì|j=Hoi2 Seoi6|poj=Hái Sūi|w=Hai3 Jui4|altname=Courtesy name|t2=汝賢|p2=Rǔ Xián|j2=Jyu5 Jin4|w2=Ru3 Xian2|altname3=Art name|t3=剛峰|p3=Gāng Fēng|w3=Gang1 Feng1|j3=Gong1 Fung1}} }} '''Hai Rui''' (January 23, 1514 – November 13, 1587), [[courtesy name]] Ru Xian ({{lang|zh|汝賢}}), [[art name]] Gang Feng ({{lang|zh|剛峰}}), was a Chinese [[scholar-official|philosopher and politician]] of the [[Ming dynasty]], remembered as a model of [[honesty]] and [[integrity]] in office.

==Biography== [[File:Hairui.jpg|thumb|left|Statue of Hai Rui]] Hai Rui, was born in [[Haikou]], Hainan on January 23, 1513. His father died when he was three, and he was raised by his Muslim mother.<ref name="ming">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=067On0JgItAC&pg=PA474 |editor1=Goodrich, L. Carrington |editor2=Chaoying Fang |title= Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644 |volume=1 |publisher= Columbia University Press |pages=474–479|year=1976 |isbn= 978-0231038331 }}</ref> His great-great-grandfather was an Arab named Hai Da-er ({{lang-zh|link=no|海答兒}}, [[Haydar|Haidar]], an Arabic name), and his mother was from a [[Muslim]] ([[Hui people|Hui]]) family with ancestry that originated from the Indian subcontinent.<ref name=unger>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGHxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99 |title= Using the Past to Serve the Present: Historiography and Politics in Contemporary China |editor= Jonathan Unger |first=Rudolf G.|last=Wagner|publisher=M.E. Sharpe |pages=99 |date=1997 |isbn= 9780873327480 }}</ref> Hai himself however was noted primarily as a [[Neo-Confucian]]ist and never discussed Islam in his Confucian works.<ref name="ming"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIUmU2ytmIIC&pg=PA114 |title=Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia |author= Tan Ta Sen |page=114 |publisher= Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |year = 2009 |isbn= 978-9812308375 }}</ref>

Hai took the [[Imperial examination]] but was unsuccessful, and his official career only began in 1553, when he was 39, with a humble position as clerk of education in [[Fujian]]. He gained a reputation for his uncompromising adherence to upright morality, scrupulous honesty, poverty, and fairness. This won him widespread popular support, evidenced among other things by his being enshrined while alive; but he also made many enemies in the bureaucracy. Nevertheless, he was called to the capital Beijing and promoted to the junior position of secretary of [[Ministry of Revenue (imperial China)|ministry of Revenue]]. In 1565, he submitted a memorial strongly criticizing the [[Jiajing Emperor]] for the neglect of his duties and bringing disaster to the country,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQWW7QgUH4gC&pg=PA671 |title=Imperial China 900–1800 |author= Frederick W. Mote |publisher= Harvard University Press |year =2003 |isbn=978-0674012127 }}</ref> for which he was sentenced to death in 1566. He was released after the Emperor died in early 1567.<ref name="ming"/>

Hai was reappointed as a minor official serving at South Zhili under the [[Longqing Emperor]], son and heir of Jiajing Emperor, but was soon forced to resign in 1570 after complaints were made over his overzealous handling of land-tenure issues. Major moneylenders in the prefecture were accused of lending at exorbitant rates to smaller landowners and tenants, then seizing their lands as collateral. Hai devoted considerable time to investigate these cases, pressing for the lands' return to their previous owners, but was in turn accused by officials of violating procedures and encouraging frivolous complaints and impeached by Tai Feng-Hsiang, a supervising secretary ({{lang|zh|御史}}, yushi).<ref>{{cite book |title= 1587: A Year of No Significance |author=Ray Huang |publisher=Yale University |pages=138–140 |year= 1981 |isbn= 0-300-02884-9}}</ref>

Hai Rui was promoted to censor-in-chief of Nanjing in 1586, but died in office a year later.<ref name="ming"/> He was given the [[posthumous name]] Zhong Jie ({{Lang|zh|忠介}}).

==Legacy== [[File:Hai Rui tomb 01.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Hai Rui at the [[Temple of Heaven]].]] [[File:Tomb of Hai Rui 1.jpg|thumb|Hai Rui memorial in Haikou]] In 1959, writer and scholar [[Wu Han (historian)|Wu Han]] became interested in the life of Hai Rui, and wrote several articles on his life and his fearless criticism of the emperor. He then wrote a play for [[Peking Opera]] titled "[[Hai Rui Dismissed from Office]]", which he revised several times before the final version of 1961.<ref name="ming"/> Wu's play was interpreted by the [[Gang of Four]] member [[Yao Wenyuan]] as an allegorical work, in which the honest, moral official Hai Rui represented the disgraced Chinese communist marshal [[Peng Dehuai]], who was purged by Mao after criticizing him as corrupt. According to Yao, the corrupt emperor in Wu's play represented [[Mao Zedong]]. The November 10, 1965, article in a prominent Shanghai newspaper, "A Criticism of the Historical Drama 'Hai Rui Dismissed From Office'" ({{lang|zh|评新编历史剧《海瑞罢官》}}), written by Yao, began a propaganda campaign that eventually led to the Cultural Revolution. During the Cultural Revolution, the tomb of Hai Rui was destroyed by red guards.<ref>Roderick MacFarquhar, ''The Red Terror: Mao's Last Revolution'' (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2006) p. 120.</ref> Yao's campaign led to the persecution and death of Wu Han, as well as others involved in related works, such as [[Zhou Xinfang]] for his opera ''Hai Rui Submits His Memorial'' ({{lang|zh|海瑞上疏}}).<ref name=unger/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o_Ujqw4Kh0C&pg=PA102 |title=In Guise of Congratulation |author=Rudolf G. Wagner |editor= by Jonathan Unger |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |pages=46–102 |year= 1997 |isbn= 9780873327480 }}</ref>

While Wu Han considers Hai Rui to be a moral socialist, this was not necessarily the case. As historian Ray Huang puts it, "Though one might expect the moral interpretation of history to be generally discredited by now, this is not the case. Some modern historians tend to view the Confucian morality in of certain individuals in terms of the own sense of social justice. Wu Han, for instance, praises his hero Hai Jui for 'standing on the side of peasantry' in their conflict with the landlords. He also asserts that Hai, 'despite a hundred setbacks, still continued the struggle to build a socialist society."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Huang |first1=Ray |title=Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth-Century Ming China |date=1974 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=London |page=312}}</ref>

[[Haikou]], the largest city on Hai Rui's home island of Hainan, celebrates Hai Rui's deeds. A memorial has been constructed and his tomb is open for worship.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{commons category-inline|Hai Rui}} * [https://knit.ucsd.edu/minghistoryinenglish/wp-content/uploads/sites/84/2017/08/19.226.5927-5933-Hai-Rui.pdf A Preliminary Study of Hai Rui: His Biography in the Ming-Shih] * Coordinates of tomb linking to maps: {{coord|20.008528|110.292097|}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hai, Rui}} [[Category:1514 births]] [[Category:1587 deaths]] [[Category:16th-century Chinese philosophers]] [[Category:Chinese people of Arab descent]] [[Category:Chinese people of Indian descent]] [[Category:Chinese scholars]] [[Category:Hainanese people]] [[Category:Ming dynasty government officials]] [[Category:People from Haikou]] [[Category:Philosophers from Hainan]] [[Category:Politicians from Hainan]]