Wu Guifang

Life

His father was 吳山, his grandfather was 吳珂, and his great-grandfather was 吳世雄; his mother was 舒氏.

葉氏 and 潘氏 were his stepmothers. His younger brothers were 吳季芳 and 吳仲芳; his wife was 崔氏, and his son-in-law was 王士昌.

He was a licentiate and later passed the provincial examination. In the twenty-third year of the Jiajing reign (1544), he passed the metropolitan examination in the Jiachen course, ranking 213th, and placed twentieth in the second degree; he had ranked second in the provincial examination.

He was appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Justice (刑部主事). He returned home for the mourning of his stepmother 潘氏; after completing the mourning period, he resumed office as a secretary in the Ministry of Rites and became a langzhong in its Office of Sacrifices (禮部祠祭司郎中).

He served as prefect of Yangzhou, where he earned merit in campaigns against the wokou and proposed enlarging the outer city. In 1555, while prefect, he oversaw the construction of Yangzhou’s new city; after completing his term, he became Judicial Commissioner for Military Preparations at Linqing in Shandong, was soon reassigned as Shandong educational commissioner, and then became a參政 in Guangdong and an Surveillance Commissioner in Zhejiang.

In the fifth month of the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing reign, he was promoted to Right Provincial Administration Commissioner of Zhejiang; in the ninth month he advanced to Left Provincial Administration Commissioner, and in the eleventh month to an Investigating Censor of the Censorate and governor of Fujian. The appointment had just been issued when he entered mourning for his father.

In the tenth month of the forty-first Jiajing year, he was assigned to pacify and administer Yunyang in his original capacity. In the fourth month of the forty-second year he was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-chief and director-general of the river conservancy, and in the ninth month to Vice Minister of War, concurrently Investigating Censor, supervising military affairs in Guangdong and Guangxi and concurrently administering the governorship.

During his tenure directing military affairs in Guangdong and Guangxi, he repeatedly defeated the wokou, destroyed the strongholds of 李亞元 and 葉丹樓, and sent 湯克寬 with a naval force to defeat 吳平. He was also ordered to suppress the Heping rebel 李文彪; he later entered government as Vice Minister of War and sought leave because of illness.

In the ninth month of the forty-fifth Jiajing year, he entered as Vice Minister of War in Nanjing; in the intercalary tenth month he was transferred to the Ministry of War. In the eleventh month of the first Longqing year (1567), he became Left Vice Minister, and in the first month of the second year he retired because of illness and was permitted to return home for recuperation.

At the beginning of the Wanli reign he was recalled as director-general of grain transport. Floods afflicted Huai and Yang, both the rivers and the Huai breached their banks, and grain transport was obstructed; he therefore opened the Caowan River as an outlet for the Huai to the sea and repaired the Gaoyou Lake embankment. Because the Huai estuary at Yunti Pass had also silted up, he planned to open another channel to improve the flow.

In the eleventh month of the third Wanli year (1575), he was recalled to office in his former capacity as director-general of grain transport, concurrently supervising military affairs and serving as governor of the Fengyang region and other areas. In the first month of the sixth year (1578), he was promoted to Minister of Works and Right Vice Censor-in-chief, with responsibility for the river and grain-transport administration and military affairs; he died from illness in office the following month at the age of fifty-eight and was posthumously granted the title Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent.

Writings and associations

He wrote 《師暇裒言》.

戴士元 was his teacher. Prefaces to his book were written by 王宗沐 and 淩儒; 王宗沐 also wrote his xingzhuang, while Wu Guifang wrote a biography of 崔鑑.

He corresponded with 支大綸, 霍與瑕, 徐階, 王維楨, 張居正, 張四維, 李材, and 劉良弼; 支大綸 also presented him with a farewell poem or preface.

王宗沐, 崔桐, and 薛天華 presented him with poetry and prose. 崔桐 and 李春芳 sent congratulatory messages; 崔桐 also supplied a poetic inscription, account, or name for a building associated with him and praised his administrative achievements.