Yue Yuansheng

Family and examinations

He was the eighteenth-generation descendant of Yue Fei and a descendant of Yue Ke. His great-grandfather was 樂震, his grandfather 樂商, his father 樂九德, and his mother Zhang; his younger brothers included 岳駿聲, 樂中聲, 樂和聲, 樂金聲, and 樂五聲, and his wife was Shi.

An attached student of the Jiaxing County School, he placed forty-ninth in the Zhejiang provincial examination of 1582, then passed the 1583 metropolitan examination in forty-sixth place and received the ninety-fifth place in the third rank of the palace examination, thereby earning the jinshi degree.

Career and political life

After passing the jinshi examination in 1583, he became magistrate of Jingde County in Southern Zhili, where he was known for his firmness, and was later transferred to professor of Daming Prefecture in Northern Zhili. In 1588 he took up the Daming post, then advanced through assistant instructor and vice director of the Imperial Academy before serving as a langzhong in the Ministry of Works Waterways Office.

While serving as vice director of the Imperial Academy, he memorialized against selecting women from good families for palace service, and argued that beating palace attendants with copper instruments injured the virtue of benevolence; the Wanli emperor accepted his remonstrance. After promotion to langzhong in the Ministry of Works, he joined the debate over enfeoffing the three princes, submitting a memorial with Gu Yuncheng and Zhang Natie and confronting the chief ministers at court with Chen Tailai and seven others; he also sent a letter comparing them to Linfu and Jingzong.

Over Shen Weijing’s Japanese investiture and tributary affair, he submitted three memorials, sharply criticized the Guanbai disturbances, and impeached Minister of War Shi Xing for having sponsored a disastrous policy; he thereby incurred imperial displeasure. In the twenty-fourth year of the Wanli reign, fifth month, he was dismissed, made a commoner, and struck from the registers before returning home.

At the beginning of the Tianqi reign he was restored, with the post given as Nanjing langzhong of the Ministry of Works Waterways Office; the office is also listed as Waterways Office section chief. In the second year, fifth month, he was promoted to Nanjing vice minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments; in the third year, third month, to Nanjing vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices; in the tenth month, to Nanjing minister of the Court of Imperial Stud; he then became vice minister of War in Nanjing and, in the fifth year, left vice minister of War.

When Wei Zhongxian dominated the government, Yang of Yingshan submitted a memorial listing twenty-four offenses, and Yue Yuansheng joined fellow official Chen Dao-heng in a public memorial that angered Wei. In the fifth year of Tianqi, sixth month, he was ordered home pending investigation over the drumming disturbance of the Nanjing troops; in the ninth month, Censor Xu Fuyang impeached him for corruption, and he was again stripped of office and made a commoner. After the Chongzhen emperor’s accession he was restored to his former office, but he no longer wished to pursue official service and built a residence at Suihan Cliff on Solitary Hill.

Learning and associations

Late in life he gathered disciples at Tianxin Academy, making “do not deceive oneself” his central principle. Zhou Nianzu and Luo Yuncheng were among his students, and he corresponded with Chen Jiru, Gao Panlong, Dong Qichang, Sun Chengzong, and Tang Xianzu. He also commemorated the friends of the Donglin movement who had died in its persecutions, engraving their names on stone, composing a record for them, and writing poems in mourning.

Works

His works included 《潛初子集》, 《潛初雜集》 (also 《潛初雜著》), and 《聖學範圍圖》 (also 《聖學範圍圖說》). The title 《聖學範圍圖說》 is listed as a one-volume work, and 《方言據》 is also attributed to him.