Cao Bangfu

Life

He studied as a county-school student and passed the Shandong provincial examination in 1531, the tenth year of Jiajing, placing fiftieth. In 1532, aged thirty, he passed the metropolitan examination in two hundred and thirty-fourth place and took the jinshi degree in the third class, at two hundred and third place. After training in the Ministry of Justice he was appointed magistrate of Yuancheng and then of Nanhe.

In the tenth month of 1540 (Jiajing 19) he was selected as a probationary investigating censor of the Yunnan circuit, received substantive appointment in the eleventh month of the following year, and inspected the salt administration of Hedong. In 1545 he was sent to Shaanxi as regional inspector, where he impeached the supreme commander Zhang Heng and others for falsely claiming battle honours.

In the tenth month of 1548 (Jiajing 27) he was appointed vice commissioner in Huguang, and was afterwards reassigned to Henan. In 1553 he suppressed the rebellion of Shi Shangzhao at Zhecheng and was promoted to right counsellor in Shanxi; in the third month of 1555 he was transferred to be surveillance commissioner of Zhejiang. In the fifth month of that year he was made right assistant censor-in-chief of the Censorate and appointed grand coordinator of Yingtian with command of military affairs; he defeated Japanese pirates at Taozhai, pursued them as far as Lake Tai, and put down the rising at Zhelin. In the eleventh month he fell out with Zhao Wenhua and was falsely accused, being sentenced to garrison exile at Shuozhou.

In 1567, the first year of Longqing, on the recommendation of the minister of personnel Yang Bo, he was recalled as left vice censor-in-chief to take charge of the affairs of the Censorate, and was soon promoted to right vice minister of war, then to left vice minister concurrently right assistant censor-in-chief, as supreme commander of the Ji, Liao and Baoding commands. In 1569 he was transferred to be right censor-in-chief at Nanjing, in charge of the Censorate, and in 1570 became left censor-in-chief and shortly afterwards minister of revenue at Nanjing. In 1573, the first year of Wanli, he retired through illness at over seventy and died three years later at home; he was posthumously granted the title of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.

Family and associations

His great-grandfather was Cao Sheng, his father Cao Liangguang and his mother née Xu; his four elder brothers were Cao Xiang, Cao Qing, Cao Luan and Cao Feng. He married a woman of the Chen family; his son was Cao Yue and his grandson Cao Ruqi.

Yu Shenxing composed his epitaph and his sacrificial address, and Lu Shusheng wrote the record of his living shrine. Chen Fei wrote a farewell piece for him, and he received letters in reply from Wang Weizhen and He Dongxu.