History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Prince Yuan Kuang of Guangping was extremely talented and also served in the Secretariat. Like Wei Yao, he held the same position as the Vice Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, "Attendant Gentleman of the Yellow Gate". However, Yuan Kuang was in charge of two matters: "admonition and investigation" and "measurement of weights and measures".

Among the imperial family ministers, Yu Yao admired Yuan Kuang the most for his integrity and courage. This man was born with eagle eyes and loved to impeach his colleagues. Moreover, he would impeach whoever the emperor favored!

Closer to home.

Wei Yao had only been in the Secretariat for a short time, and her usual duties were to enter and leave the palace and relay imperial edicts and memorials between the emperor, the Secretariat, and the various ministers. She was only qualified to interfere in court affairs and submit memorials when the emperor summoned her for questioning.

However, praising or refuting a memorial in front of the emperor is different from making a decision on a minister's memorial in advance and then submitting it to the emperor for review!
The former can read between the lines and change their strategy at any time, while the latter's words are binding; if they go against the emperor's wishes, they will be immediately disliked!
Wei Yao first made a reasonable request: "Please allow me to review the memorial, Your Excellency."

She needed to know the specifics of Yuan Kuang's impeachment of the two princes.

Yuan Hui frowned and hummed in agreement.

Wei Yao took what was closest to her and the first thing she held in her hand was the memorial impeaching Prince Yuan Yi of Qinghe.

The content is: Yuan Yi, relying on the emperor's favor, renovated his mansion to be comparable to the imperial palace. In particular, he built a tall building in the northwest corner of the mansion, which was similar in shape to the Lingyun Terrace in the northwest corner of the imperial palace, but even taller than the Lingyun Terrace, just like the ancient poem says, "In the northwest there is a tall building, which reaches the floating clouds."

In the final part of this impeachment, Yuan Kuang vehemently denounced the Prince of Qinghe for using the Lingyun Tower to boast of his talent, attempting to demonstrate to the world that his abilities surpassed those of the emperor in the palace!
Wei Yao took a deep breath. Yuan Kuang's writing was concise and his understanding of both ancient and modern times was such that he could perfectly combine ancient poetry with his own will, making his purpose clear and striking directly at the heart of the Prince of Qinghe.

It's true what they say, "Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me!" This one memorial alone broadened her horizons and taught her what true "ruthlessness" really meant!
The second charge against Prince Qinghe was that Yuan Yi had built the "Yanbin Hall" in the southwest corner of the high building in the northwest of his residence, a place for entertaining guests. The Yanbin Hall was similar in style to the Qingshu Hall in the southwest corner of the North Palace Garden. Yuan Yi often invited talented scholars and hermits from Luoyang to play the qin and sheng (traditional Chinese stringed instruments) and sing the ancient poem "Deer Cry" in the Yanbin Hall.

Still at the end of the impeachment, Yuan Kuang bluntly stated that the King of Qinghe imitated the poem "I have guests, playing the zither and blowing the sheng" in "The Deer Cry", praising himself as King Wen of Zhou and praising the guests who talked about state affairs as virtuous ministers. In reality, the King of Qinghe was high in position but low in virtue, just like King Xiao of Liang of Han who loved the pleasures of gardens!

Wei Yao silently uttered another word: "ruthless."

This Prince Xiao of Liang, Liu Wu, was the younger brother of Emperor Jing of Han, Liu Qi. Liu Wu was favored by Empress Dowager Dou and lived a life of extravagance, eventually harboring thoughts of usurping the throne.

The terrifying aspect of this impeachment is that Prince Qinghe was the fourth son of Emperor Xiaowen. When the late emperor was alive, Prince Qinghe was far more favored than the then second prince, the current emperor Yuan Ke. It was only because Crown Prince Yuan Xun was deposed that, according to the order of seniority, Yuan Ke was able to succeed the deposed crown prince and was groomed as the crown prince by Emperor Xiaowen.

The second impeachment charge is far more severe than the first.

Next up is Yuan Kuangcan, Prince Yuan Cheng of Rencheng.

He first impeached Prince Rencheng for altering the documents appointing officials in the Ministry of Personnel and arbitrarily adding or subtracting performance records of officials when Guo Zuo had just taken office as Minister of Personnel and was unfamiliar with government affairs, thereby stealing official positions and changing the ranks of officials.

Wei Yao believed that Yuan Kuang had incriminating evidence against the Prince of Rencheng and was only waiting for the emperor's permission to thoroughly investigate the matter.

She picked up another volume and continued reading.

The second charge against Prince Rencheng was that after Yuan Cheng was dismissed from his post, he frequently visited the residences of princes and meritorious officials, from Grand Tutor Yuan Xie and Grand Preceptor Yuan Xiang down to the various ministers, openly engaging in factionalism and bribery. As a result, even though Yuan Cheng was no longer in the Ministry of Personnel, he still held real power over the appointment of officials and interfered with the memorials submitted by the various ministries.

Wei Yao frowned, unable to tell whether the memorial was a genuine accusation against Prince Rencheng or a veiled attack aimed at Prince Pengcheng, Yuan Xie, or Prince Beihai, Yuan Xiang. Wei Yao picked up the last scroll to read; it was indeed an accusation against Prince Rencheng.

The impeachment alleges that Emperor Xiaowen, while discussing matters with his officials and guests at his residence's fishpond, after catching all the fish, tearfully recited two lines from the ancient poem "Fish and Algae": "Fish are among the algae, their heads are raised high." He then continued with two lines from another ancient poem, "Lingtai": "The king is at the spirit pond, where fish leap in abundance." Both poems were written by Emperor Xiaowen during his visit to the Xifan Pond, using the imagery of the pond and fish to express the joy between the ruler and his subjects, and how the people and officials vied to attach themselves to the king.

In the final act of the impeachment, Yuan Kuang vehemently denounced the Prince of Rencheng as a wolf in sheep's clothing, accusing him of feigning nostalgia for Emperor Xiaowen and his former officials, while actually expressing his dissatisfaction with being dismissed from office and the Emperor's temporary neglect of him.

The work in the Secretariat is not easy. After Wei Yao finished reading them all, he said to Yuan Hui, "This is my first time learning how to write a rebuttal. You, the Attendant, have experience, so choose first. The rest are for me."

It was impossible for her to get Yuan Hui to teach her. Even if he did, he would inevitably try to sabotage her at every turn. Of course, she couldn't refuse the task by saying that she didn't know how to write a rebuttal, because if she did, she would never be able to take over the right to write rebuttals in the future.

Yuan Hui said slowly, "Yuan Kuang's memorial impeaching the Prince of Rencheng is the third one, and this is your first time writing a rebuttal..."

Wei Yao revealed a hint of joy, which was hard to detect and fleeting.

Yuan Hui had been watching her closely, noticing this hint of joy. He continued, "Logically, I should give you these two memorials impeaching the Prince of Qinghe, but the number of memorials has nothing to do with the ease of refuting and correcting them. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Wei Yao: "Does the Attendant mean that you have chosen a memorial to impeach the Prince of Qinghe?"

Yuan Hui nodded: "Mm."

Wei Yao: "In that case, I will return to my residence to consider how to suppress this matter."

Yuan Hui watched her carry away the three memorials and smiled coldly. In fact, he had already thought about how to refute the memorials impeaching Prince Qinghe. Moreover, by choosing this method, he could please Prince Qinghe and surely obtain many treasures and benefits.

It's so cold in the office when no one's around. Wei Yao lit a brazier, laid out paper, ground ink, and pondered.

Her feigned joy just now was intentional. After her mother left the capital, she was worried about how to avoid the emperor's spies and contact Prince Rencheng. Now, the opportunity had arrived.

The first thing to understand about the right to reject a memorial is that the emperor was not unaware of Yuan Kuang's memorial this time!
Because all official documents submitted to the emperor were in duplicate, with identical content, the original document remained with the emperor while the duplicate was kept by the Secretariat or the Chancellery. The emperor was extremely busy with state affairs, handling countless matters daily, and did not want to subject the matters in the memorials to discussion and decision-making by the officials. Therefore, he had the Chancellery write criticisms or subtle corrections. If the criticisms pleased the emperor, he could bypass the debates of high-ranking officials and directly issue edicts of reprimand or appeasement to Yuan Kuang and the Prince of Rencheng.

The rebuttal she wrote could be conveyed to the Prince of Rencheng when the emperor issued an edict.

The fact that the Secretariat was close to the emperor and connected with all the officials was the reason why the court officials envied and were jealous of it!

With great honor comes great responsibility.

Every word and phrase, every drop of ink, from the moment Wei Yao sat down until the midnight bell rang, finally finished writing the draft.

She and Yuan Hui, the Chamberlain, competed to stay up all night and to be the most capable officials, forcing their colleagues in the Secretariat to follow suit and compete in diligence. (End of Chapter)