Zhou Yan

Life

He took the Jiangxi provincial examination in 1522, placing fortieth; in 1523 he passed the metropolitan examination in ninety-eighth place and was ranked in the third class, in one hundred and fifty-fifth place, in the palace examination. He was first appointed magistrate of Qianjiang and then transferred to Xinhui, where his administration was distinguished and he was entered in the shrines of local worthies of both counties. In 1528 he was promoted to supervising secretary of the Bureau of War.

He memorialised against the forfeiture of the title of Count of Xinjian held by Wang Shouren, and was thereupon demoted to assistant prefect of Taicang; he then left office to observe mourning for a parent. After the mourning period he was appointed at Suzhou (宿州), and went on to serve as a bureau director in the Ministry of Personnel at Nanjing and then in Guangdong as vice commissioner of the surveillance commission and as right and then left counsellor of the provincial administration commission.

In 1545 he was transferred to Fujian as surveillance commissioner, and in 1547 to Guangdong as left provincial administration commissioner. In the same year he was appointed grand coordinator of Yingtian with the title of right vice censor-in-chief of the Censorate; he put down the rebellion of Lin Cheng and was promoted to right vice minister of War, with command of military affairs in Guangdong and Guangxi. In 1551 he was summoned to the capital as left vice minister of Justice, and subsequently served as right censor-in-chief at Nanjing. In 1552 he became minister of Personnel at Nanjing — one account gives minister of Rites there — and was then transferred to the Ministry of War, with a share in the direction of military affairs (參贊機務). In 1555 he was recalled to the capital as left censor-in-chief of the Censorate; in that office he assessed the officials of the empire with strict impartiality, and was named, together with the minister of Justice Zheng Xiao and the chief minister of the Court of Judicial Review Ma Sen, one of the 'Three Impartial Ones' (三平). In 1558 he was granted the title of junior guardian of the heir apparent (太子少保).

When the Jiajing Emperor, on the proposal of the supervising secretary Xu Pu, ordered court officials and provincial governors to recommend men of talent for the frontier, the former vice minister Guo Zonggao, the censors-in-chief Cao Bangfu and Wu Yue, the libationer Zou Shouyi and the compiler Luo Hongxian were among those named. The censor Luo Tingwei objected in a memorial, and the emperor, concluding that the Ministry of Personnel had recommended men indiscriminately, ordered it to deliberate jointly with the Censorate. Zhou Yan, with the minister Wu Peng and others, submitted that none of those recommended had failed to enjoy public confidence; the emperor was displeased and rebuked Zhou Yan and his colleagues, and the recommendation of talent was abandoned.

Zhou Yan died in office in 1561; he was posthumously granted the title of grand guardian of the heir apparent (太子太保) and the posthumous name Jiansu, and he has a biography in the Mingshi.

Writings

He was the author of Jiansu gong yigao (簡肅公遺稿, 'Surviving Drafts of Lord Jiansu'), and wrote the conduct record (行狀) of Zhang Jiong, right vice censor-in-chief of the Censorate. After his death Luo Hongxian composed his epitaph, and Xu Xumo, Luo Hongxian and Guo Rulin wrote sacrificial addresses for him. In his lifetime he received letters from Ouyang De, Xu Jie, Wang Shenzhong and Wang Cai, parting words from Ouyang De, and poems and prose from Wang Weizhen and Cai Kelian.