Private Counselors from Shaoxing

Private counselors from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province were a national phenomenon throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Since a television series reintroduced stories of some best private counselors from Shaoxing to the whole nation in 2003, they have become a hot topic in some publications. A museum dedicated to this group of wise people has been founded.

Private counselors as professional scholars first appeared in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and they rose to fame during the Qing. The service was important to government officials who wanted to get promoted, avoid being involved in scandals or lawsuits, and survive in fierce infighting. Private counselors did not come from Shaoxing only. Each province had counselors. But the biggest group of private counselors and the most successful of them were from Shaoxing. It is said that every government agency in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) had counselors from Shaoxing in employment.

These people were experts in government affairs. The Qing was a dynasty when government affairs became extremely complex and sophisticated. Government agencies needed various counselors specialized in different fields. For this reason private counselors specialized in different legal fields. Some were law specialists. Some were taxation advisors. Some did nothing but wrote memos to be subjected to the throne. A counselor needed to be knowledgeable in Confucian canon, government systems, policies and procedures, national conditions, laws, and economics. And they needed to have hands-on experiences. It took at least three years for a talented scholar to master all the necessary knowledge and become a qualified private counselor. A famed counselor named Gong Weizai summarized his lifelong success as a counselor this way: first of all, a counselor should have a thorough knowledge of politics and economics with the capability of understanding situations strategically and tactically; secondly, he should be young with an amazing memory of important things, a quick hand in writing and taking notes, and quick response to requests and situations; last but not least, he should be a public relations specialist and diplomat.

There were counselors and counselors. Some obscure scholars became famous counselors. Some famous scholars were employed to serve as counselors.

The following are a few most famous legends of those counselors from Shaoxing.

In 1699, Emperor Kangxi came to Shaoxing to visit the mausoleum of Yu the Great, one of China’s earliest emperors and one who brought deluge under final control. The provincial governor and the military chief and other officials of Zhejiang Province attended the sacrificial ceremony. During the ceremony, the provincial administration commissioner dropped his hat by accident. The military chief saw the dropped hat. On bad terms with the commissioner, the military chief took the advantage of the accident and reported the misbehavior to the ministry of personnel in the hope of a serious disciplinary act from the court. The law of the Qing Dynasty regarded the drop of a hat on such an important occasion as flagrant disrespect and it was therefore a felony. The provincial governor wanted to protect the commissioner, but did not wish to displease the general. To solve the dilemma, the governor consulted his private counselor from Shaoxing. The counselor wrote a memo to the ministry in the name of the governor. The memo pointed out that the general was not supposed to look back as he was positioned before the commissioner in the long procession at the ceremony. The ministry dismissed the whole issue. It turned out that positions of officials at a ceremony were arranged according to seniority. Senior officials would stand in the front whereas low-ranking officials would stand in the back. As the military chief was a senior officer, he should have had no reason to discover the hat drop without looking back. The general’s looking back could incriminate himself as it was also a felony to look back over one’s shoulder on such an important occasion.

Wu Sidao, a brilliant scholar, moved to Henan Province after he failed to get himself advanced in imperial examinations. After his talents were noticed by the provincial governor of Henan, he was recruited to serves as a private counselor. His capability and achievement soon convinced the governor. One day, Wu asked the governor whether he wanted to be a famous governor or just an ordinary one. The governor said he wanted to be famous. Wu therefore asked the governor to allow him to do something without any interference. The governor asked what was on his mind.The counselor replied he was going to write and subject a memo in the name of the governor to the emperor. The governor agreed and did not read the memo. The memo turned out to be a suggestion to the emperor to dismiss Longkeduo from his positions. Longkeduo was the personnel minister and one of the four prime ministers. As Emperor Yongzheng’s maternal uncle, Longkeduo was the man who had announced the will of Kangxi Emperor, which named Yingzhen as his successor. However, Longkeduo became a law onto himself and a scandalous challenge to the royal house. The emperor disliked him more and more. The emperor was in need of someone who would step forward and make the decisive first move. Wu Sidao understood the situation from afar and what the emperor secretly wanted. He seized the opportunity boldly. The governor’s memo, prepared by the counselor, played into the hands of the emperor. Longkeduo was dismissed and the governor got promoted. Wu Sidao also became reputed as a wise counselor.

In 1869, a eunuch named An Dehai left Beijing on a mission to the south, presumably on the order of the Empress Dowager in the west palace to have a dragon gown made for the emperor. The eunuch regarded the mission as a mission of pleasure spree. He took a boat south. He made a fanfare by having his ship decorated with flags of phoenixes and having a lot of dancers and musicians as accompaniment. An Dehai demanded for bribery from local officials and bought lands for a song. Ding Baozhen, the governor of Shandong Province, wanted to have the eunuch killed. The governor consulted his counselor Ma Xintian from Shaoxing for a safe plan which would not backfire. Ma formulated a course of action. At that time, the queen mother of the west palace and the queen mother of the east palace attended the state affairs jointly behind a screen. Ma decided to report An Dehai’s misbehavior to the Empress Dowager of the east palace. The report was secretly carried within an official document so that it was not registered by the Privy Council. Ding Baozhen thus successfully snitched the eunuch to the dowager of the east palace. The dowager of the east palace issued an edict and had the eunuch executed immediately.

After becoming a county graduate at the age of 17, Wang Huizu, a Shaoxing native, applied himself to the courses of private counselor. He became a legal counselor at 23. He handled cases so successfully that he became famous among private counselors and government officials. He was often sought out for advice on difficult criminal cases. In 1782, a widow committed suicide after she was ordered to remarry by her clan. The widow surnamed Ye had had two marriages. The first marriage lasted 17 years before the husband died. The second lasted only one year. Ye inherited some farming lands from her husband and had a farmer surnamed Qin in her employment to take care of the fields. The nephew of the dead husband, on the order of the clan chief, had a talk with the widow and suggested she marry again. Ye immediately sent the helper to the county government and accused the nephew of forcing her to remarry. The law of that time stipulated it was a crime to force a widow to remarry. The county government investigated. The helper vanished and the widow committed suicide. The county magistrate came to the crime scene and had the nephew arrested. The case was reported to the provincial judge. The judge thought the case complicated and ordered the Huzhou prefecture governor to reinvestigate the case.

Tang Ruoying, the prefecture governor, and his advisors did not know how to set about the case. They came to Wang Huizu. After reading all the documents carefully, Wang advised Tang to look into the case more carefully because there might be something fishy about the case. Wang analyzed that the prerequisite for the crime of forcing a widow to remarry was that the woman was willing to maintain her widowhood. The crime scene report recorded that the dead body of the widow was dressed in a red dress, a green skirt, embroidered socks, and flowered pants. Her face was daubed with rouge. She did not look like a woman who tried to be a widow. The counselor pointed out that the first 17-year marriage did not prevent her from getting married again. The one-year marriage did not look like something that could give the woman the idea of maintaining her widowhood. Wang Huizu pointed out that the helper and the widow lived in a place, only divided by a wooden structure, which was actually one room. Wang said the key to the case was to find the helper. Qin was arrested and confessed. The widow and he had had a relationship. After learning the clan wanted the widow to remarry, the widow and he thought a lawsuit could stop the thing. When the plot failed, the scared helper fled. The widow committed suicide. After the truth was out, Tang Ruoying and his advisors admired Wang Zuhui very much. Wang authored four books on private counseling, which became musts for all those who wished to be private advisors.