Yao Ximeng

Life

Yao was orphaned at ten months, and his mother, née Wen, raised him. As he grew older, he studied with his maternal uncle Wen Zhenmeng; uncle and nephew upheld qingyi and acquired contemporary renown. His maternal grandfather was Wen Weihui.

In 1612 he passed the Yingtian provincial examination as a juren, and in 1619 he passed the jinshi examination of the Jiwei cohort, ranking 121st in the third class. He was then selected as a shujishi. Han Kuang, his examination sponsor, and Liu Yizhong, his academy tutor, valued him; in the early Tianqi era he was appointed a compiler, helped compile the Veritable Records of the Shenzong Emperor, took leave, and returned to court in the winter of the fourth Tianqi year.

After his return, Zhao Nanxing and Gao Panlong were removed from office and factional strife intensified, leaving Yao frustrated. In the fifth Tianqi year (1625), he returned home for his mother's mourning; as he was leaving the capital, Yang Suoxiu impeached him as a diehard adherent of Miu Changqi, and he was struck from the registers. After Wei Zhongxian's fall, Ni Wenhuan sent an emissary carrying a large bribe to seek a pardon; Yao seized the emissary and reported the affair to the authorities.

In the first year of the Chongzhen era, Yao was recalled as Left Zanshan (左贊善); he later served as Right Shuzi (右庶子) and a daily lecturer before becoming Zhan shi (詹事). In the autumn of the third Chongzhen year (1630), he and the educational official Yao Minggong presided over the Shuntian provincial examination. Two military candidates had passed by fraudulently claiming another place of registration; after Wang You impeached the examiners, Yao was punished.

Yao was favored by the Donglin circle and took part in Han Kuang's deliberations on the designation of the reverse-case verdicts, which made him a target of hostile officials. After Hua Yuncheng impeached Wen Tiren and Min Hongxue, the two suspected that the memorial had been drafted by Yao. Wen Tiren used the registration fraud to renew the dispute, ordered a reexamination, disqualified the two candidates, and pursued punishment of the examiners; when a six-month salary suspension did not satisfy him, he ordered the matter to be reconsidered.

By then Yao had become Zhan shi. He was demoted two ranks to Junior Zhan shi (少詹事) and placed in charge of the Nanjing Hanlin Academy, then returned home on grounds of illness and died after two years in retirement. During the reign of the Prince of Fu, he was posthumously granted the rank of Vice Minister of Rites and received the posthumous name Wenyi.

Family and associations

Yao was a friend of Zhou Yanru; Han Kuang and Liu Yizhong were respectively his examination sponsor and academy tutor. His sons were Yao Zongdian and Yao Zongchang, his son-in-law was Xu Shupi, and his descendants included Yao Tianxiu, the Buddhist nun Shi Zaisheng, the great-great-grandson Yao Cheng, and the later descendant Yao Hao.

Literary work

Yao was known for his writing. Huang Daozhou praised his literary and moral conduct, and associated Han Kuang with the praise of a potential minister and Liu Yizhong with that of a man of extraordinary talent. His collections included Gonghuai ji in six juan, Xiangyu ji in ten, Jimen ji in eight, and Songying ji in two, as well as Huanxie ji, Qiujun ji, Wenyuan ji, Xuncang ji, Jialing ji, and Fengyin ji.

The collection titles appear in variant forms: Xuncang ji is also found as Xunlun ji, and Fengyin ji as Fengyin ji written with the alternate character 唫; another title is Danhuang, Songying ji. Yao also wrote Kaidu shimo, concerning the people of Wu's resistance to the eunuch faction. After his mother's death he ate a vegetarian diet for three years and recited Buddhist scriptures day and night, and he compiled the ten-juan Fofa Jintang zhengwen lu.