Wang Yingjiao

Life

His great-grandfather was Wang Cunfu (汪存福), his grandfather Wang Xili (汪希利), and his father Wang Huanzu (汪煥祖); his mother was Jiang (江氏) and his stepmother Zhu (朱氏). He had three elder brothers—Wang Yinglong (汪應龍), Wang Yingyi (汪應儀), and Wang Yingyuan (汪應元)—a younger brother, Wang Yingfang (汪應方), a wife surnamed Cao (曹氏), and a concubine. His sons were Wang Yuantai (汪元泰) and the second son Wang Yuanzhao (汪元兆); a fourth-generation descendant, Wang Fu (汪紱), lived from 1692 to 1759.

He ranked nineteenth in the Yingtian prefectural examination; his examination status is also listed as xianggong, ranked 133, and shengyuan, ranked 19. In 1574, he earned the jinshi degree in the Jiaxu examination as the thirty-sixth candidate in the second class and, while serving as a supervising examination graduate, attended Geng Dingxiang's lectures.

He was appointed Nanjing *bingbu zhushi* (兵部主事), later served as Nanjing *libu langzhong* (禮部郎中), and was successively promoted to deputy surveillance commissioner in Fujian, deputy educational surveillance commissioner in Sichuan, right administrative vice commissioner of the Jinan Circuit in Shandong, and surveillance commissioner of Shanxi. His later offices included *bingbu langzhong* (兵部郎中), military commissioner at Yizhou, an official of the Tianjin military administration, governor of Baoding and governor of Tianjin, vice censor-in-chief, vice minister of Works, vice minister of War, and Minister of Revenue at Nanjing.

At Yizhou he oversaw military affairs and reported the mining commissioner Wang Hu for avarice and violence, but received no response. In 1597, during the Korean campaign, Yingjiao moved to Tianjin; when Tianjin governor Wan Shide took charge of the campaign in Korea, Yingjiao was promoted to vice censor-in-chief to replace him.

As governor of Tianjin, he applied coastal land-management methods used in Zhejiang and Fujian, recruiting people to cultivate 5,000 mu around Ge'gu and Baitang. Two-fifths was paddy land, yielding as much as four or five shi per mu, and the agricultural returns grew substantially; the proposal was approved by the Wanli emperor, as was his request to expand water conservancy, and Yang Yikui strongly endorsed it. His successor Sun Wei continued the method and opened more than 10,500 mu; the resulting harvests enabled Tianjin's defense to avoid imposing additional levies on local people.

After the Korean campaign was pacified, Yingjiao was transferred to Baoding. When drought and locusts struck, he released stored grain for relief and rode alone through the villages to ensure that the relief grain was distributed by household, so that the victims received aid.

Because epidemics, drought, and locusts successively afflicted the area around the capital, he asked the Wanli emperor to abolish the mining tax but received no reply. When the tax commissioner Wang Chaosi was to be replaced, he also memorialized against the decision and was sharply reprimanded for defying the emperor; after the mining tax was suspended and then resumed, he continued to oppose it.

The Ministry of Revenue

After the Guangzong Emperor's accession, Yingjiao was recalled as Minister of Revenue at Nanjing; in the sixth month of the first Tianqi year (1621), he was transferred to the Beijing ministry. He also submitted the “eighteen Ai-yang measures,” which Guangzong praised and adopted.

As Minister of Revenue, he was strict with himself, treated the state as his own household, controlled expenditure carefully, and eliminated waste, on which the state finances depended. To address fiscal distress, he proposed the “miscellaneous new levies”: 230,000 taels from renewed levies on garrison-farm land, 444,000 taels from the gentry's commuted exemption grain tax, 146,000 from selling surplus grain, 290,000 from house and deed-transfer taxes, 195,000 from apportioning contributions from merchants and pawnshops, 198,000 from contributions toward military provisions and censors' official expenses, 679,000 from deductions from service rations, and 100,000 from horsemen and attendants, together with converting southern grain to northern accounting, commuted cloth and grain payments, coin-minting licenses, and allowing students to purchase admission. The measures could yield an additional 2.96 million taels a year, and most were later adopted.

Under his direction, the Ministry of Revenue also increased the duties of the Beixin, Jiujiang, Hushu, Huai'an, and Yangzhou paper-money checkpoints by 65,240 taels; collections were ordinary in the first year and gradually improved only in the following year. When large numbers of refugees from Liaodong entered the realm, Yingjiao strongly supported Dong Yingju's settlement farming and proposed promotion for local military commanders who worked diligently and opened more than 12,000 mu. The effort ultimately opened 180,000 mu and produced more than 55,000 shi of millet, wheat, and grain each year.

Political positions and later years

In court controversies, Yingjiao impeached Lu Guangzu, Cui Wensheng, Li Kezhuo, and Fang Congzhe. During the Red Pill deliberations, he asked that Cui and Li be punished according to law and called Fang a commoner. When Xiong Tingbi proposed a three-front deployment requiring 12 million taels in provisions, Yingjiao strongly opposed it.

In literary and social affairs, he wrote prefaces for Chen Longzheng and Gu Qiyuan and took part in the posthumous-title deliberation for Yao Ximeng. He shared Yang Yikui's position on water conservancy and received a congratulatory message from Tang Binyin and a reply from Zhang Weixin.

The emperor's wet nurse Ke Shi sought a burial plot beyond the regulations; Yingjiao refused, thereby offending the emperor and Wei Zhongxian. When he was accused of being “too old to perform his duties,” he repeatedly sought retirement, but the Xizong Emperor refused for some time.

At the end of the second Tianqi year, Yingjiao submitted seven memorials seeking retirement. Xizong finally allowed him to return home, praised him as “diligent in managing the state accounts,” and granted him the rank of Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent; an appointment record instead gives Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent, and he was ordered to travel home by post relay. Before leaving, he cited Song Confucian teachings and urged Xizong to take eunuchs and palace women as a warning.

He died at home in the first year of the Chongzhen era (1628).

Works

His works include the six-juan 《中詮》, the one-juan 《津門疏》, 《撫畿疏》, 《計部疏》, 《病吟草》, and the twelve-juan 《古今夷語》, also written 《古今彝語》.

They also include 《讀庸寤言》, 《蜀語》, 《獨言》, 《九問》, 《詩禮學略》, 《密語》, and 《鄉約記》.