Cai Jing (1047–1126),
courtesy name
A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...
Yuanchang (), was a Chinese
calligrapher and politician who lived during the late
Northern Song dynasty of China. He is also fictionalised as one of the primary antagonists in ''
Water Margin'', one of the
Four Great Classical Novels of
Chinese literature
The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han dynasty, Han (202  ...
.
Life
Cai Jing was from
Xianyou, Xinghua (present-day
Putian,
Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
). In 1070, he participated in the
imperial examination and got a ''
jinshi'' degree (a successful candidate). He served as a civil official in
Qiantang before moving on to work in the Grand Secretary's office.
In 1086, Cai Jing was posted to the administrative office in
Kaifeng, the capital. He supported the conservative faction in the imperial court, headed by
Sima Guang, and won the praise of Sima. In 1094, Cai Jing became the
Minister for Revenue. He helped Zhang Dun () revive the
New Policies of reformist
chancellor Wang Anshi, although he set out on a campaign of attrition to destroy or radically alter the written work of his predecessors and especially conservative enemies, thereby probably also purging much of
Shen Kuo's written work.
[Sivin, Nathan (1995). ''Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections''. Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing. III, 44.]
During the reign of
Emperor Huizong, Cai Jing was
impeached and ordered to retire in
Hangzhou. Cai Jing collaborated with the
eunuch
A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...
-general
Tong Guan to win back his place in the imperial court. After rising to prominence in politics and becoming
chancellor at one point, Cai Jing introduced the policy of ''huashigang'' (), for officials to focus on offering precious gifts and tributes to the emperor. In 1102 and 1113, he introduced reforms to the taxation laws on tea and salt trading, as well as increasing human labour. Cai Jing's policies were unpopular among the common people and led to corruption in the government.
Cai Jing and Tong Guan were two of the officials
Emperor Huizong asked in 1115 to evaluate the proposal that the Song ally themselves with the
Jurchen against the
Liao. Huizong was not interested at first, and continued "to get mixed reports from his officials...
n 1118 Tong Guan, in a memorial that has not been preserved, proposed taking advantage of the disorder in Liao to reclaim
Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun wo former Tang territories... Huizong wanted Cai Jing's opinion of Tong Guan's proposal and several times sent a eunuch to ask Cai Jing what he thought of it. It was not until Huizong kept Cai Jing after an audience and asked him directly, however that Cai Jing was willing to express his opinion. He told Huizong that he did not have confidence in Tong Guan." Despite other warnings, Huizong disregarded Cai Jing's concerns. "Not long afterwards, in 1120/6, Cai Jing retired, quite possibly because Huizong was tired of his resistance to the new alliance
Jin, who later betrayed their Song allies">Jin_dynasty_(1115–1234).html" ;"title="etween the Song and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty (1115–1234)">Jin, who later betrayed their Song allies"
In 1125, Taixue">Imperial Academy official Chen Dong submitted a report to Emperor Huizong, denouncing six "traitors" in the imperial court, deemed responsible for the government's decline. The six were Cai Jing, Wang Fu (),
Tong Guan (), Zhu Mian (), Li Yan (), and Liang Shicheng (), with Cai as the group's leader. Cai Jing was stripped of his official post and banished to Lingnan (present-day Guangdong) after Emperor Qinzong of Song, Emperor Qinzong ascended to the throne. Song Scholar Ebrey devotes an appendix in her biography of Huizong reporting how it "is not uncommon to find modern historians who portray Cai Jing as a strong supporter of the alliance" and hence a traitor. She concludes, however, that this was untrue and was actually the result of An Yaochen's 1118 memorial directed against Tong Guan and Cai Jing. Later, "Huizong told the eunuch Liang Shicheng that Cai Jing was the only one who consistently had argued against the northern campaign." Cai Jing starved to death along the journey at
Tanzhou (present-day
Changsha
Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...
,
Hunan
Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...
) "as merchants reportedly refused to sell him food. Ill and over eighty, he died within ten days on his way to his site of banishment. On the same day, it was ruled that no future amnesties would lighten the exiles of twenty-three of
issons and grandsons
ho had also been banished"
[Ebry, p. 446]
See also
*
List of Water Margin characters
* Alliance Conducted at Sea, the alliance between Jin and Northern Song
References
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External links
Cai Jing and his Calligraphy Galleryat China Online Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cai, Jing
11th-century births
1126 deaths
12th-century Chinese calligraphers
Artists from Fujian
Politicians from Putian
Song dynasty calligraphers
Song dynasty chancellors
Jin Ping Mei characters
Chinese tea culture