The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 53 Resigning from Office
The hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Li Qi's voice was not as angry as when he had scolded Fang Xiaoru earlier; instead, it was calm, with a hint of obvious disappointment.

"Your Majesty, I am Li Qi, the son of Li Shanchang, a criminal from the previous dynasty. I was guilty of a great crime, but I survived because Emperor Gao took pity on the princess. Later, I was summoned back to the capital and entrusted with important responsibilities. It is a pity that Emperor Gao did not live long and passed away. Before his death, Emperor Gao entrusted me with important matters and even issued a handwritten edict to protect the Ming Dynasty."

"I cherish the extraordinary favor bestowed upon me by the late Emperor Gaozu and wish to repay it to Your Majesty. Therefore, I made the request regarding the Princes of Zhou and Xiang. In this matter, I have no personal motives; I am solely concerned with the well-being of the Ming Dynasty. Heaven and Earth can bear witness to this!"

The first principle of being a minister is loyalty and diligence. Li Qi was half a regent of the late emperor, and even had the late emperor's handwritten edict. Upon hearing this, Zhu Yunwen's anger dissipated by half.

Li Qi, on the other hand, easily put himself in a weak position with just a few words. There is a way of Tai Chi in this world to overcome the hard with the soft!
"Publicly, I am Your Majesty's subject and have the duty to offer advice. Privately, I am the consort of the Grand Princess of Lin'an and a member of the imperial clan. When Your Majesty was still a prince, you called me uncle. I do not wish to see Your Majesty led astray by those with ulterior motives."

The same applies to the Prince of Xiang. He is much younger than me. The princess and I have cared for him since he was a child and know that he is an anomaly among the princes and a blessing to the Ming Dynasty.

Now that he has been framed, both the princess and I are heartbroken. Before his death, the Prince of Xiang said he would personally go to the underworld to plead his case to the late Emperor and Emperor Xiaokang. Upon hearing this, I felt my heart break. The late Emperor saved my life out of compassion, but I cannot even look after his son. That is why I spoke these impassioned words in court.

This is the way to move people with emotion, and it is also the way of loyalty and righteousness. Li Qi is the head of the clan, and this is originally a matter within the clan.

But these words directly attacked Emperor Zhu Yunwen: Your uncle was driven to his death by you, and now he's going to complain to your father and grandfather. Let's see what you do then!
"Now that Your Majesty has reached a consensus, I will refrain from further comment, lest I offend Your Majesty's reputation."

However, I have studied the Way of the Sage to a great extent. A wise man knows what to do and what not to do. I still disagree with the idea of ​​punishing the Prince of Xiang, I disagree with giving the Prince of Xiang a bad posthumous title, and I disagree with treating the princes so harshly. This is a path to disaster.

I still believe that Fang Xiaoru and others are mediocre officials who bring disaster to the country. I request that they be executed. Your Majesty is unwilling, and I have no choice but to accept this. But how can a loyal minister stand by and watch treacherous officials without feeling anger?

I will never stand under the same sky as him!

"I have failed to live up to the late Emperor's trust and have been unable to support the state. This is my fault. However, I have already remonstrated with him time and again. If I were to die today to remonstrate, Your Majesty would be branded as an estranged ruler. As I have done so, I have no regrets before the late Emperor."

Fang Xiaoru's face turned ashen. He thought about his life, how he had been renowned and respected throughout the world, the backbone of the Ming Dynasty's scholars, and a true Confucian master. Even the late emperor valued him and selected him to enter the Crown Prince's residence.

But after encountering Li Qi, he had a run of bad luck, being humiliated by him time and time again, and now he was directly denounced as a treacherous minister. Where in history has there been a great Confucian scholar as frustrated as him?

Or, more accurately, where throughout history has there been a Confucian master like Li Qi?

Zhu Yunwen's face turned even uglier. He had only been on the throne for a short time, and now a former regent, who was also his own uncle, was leaving the court, and in such a public and open manner, leaving in disappointment.

He now genuinely regrets his previous choice. If he had known, he would have simply placed him under house arrest for a few years last time, and none of this would have happened.

He wanted to say something, but he couldn't agree to any of Li Qi's conditions; there was simply no solution to the problem!

For Li Qi, this play had come to an end and it was time to close. He wouldn't give Zhu Yunwen any chance to react!
Li Qi did not get up, but remained kneeling in the hall. His expression was calm. He first placed his official tablet in front of him, then took off his official hat and laid it flat. Finally, he stood up and took off his official robes in the hall, folded them, and placed them together with his official hat.

Not too fast, not too slow.

After that, beneath his official robes, he was left only with a thin layer of everyday clothing.

The officials in the hall were so shocked that they couldn't speak. For a moment, no one reacted to stop him, and they just watched helplessly as he took off his official robes!
It took a long time for everyone to come to their senses. The hall, which had been quiet and composed just moments before, suddenly became so noisy that it seemed as if the roof was about to be lifted. Shouts rang out: "Li Qi! What are you doing? This is disrespectful before the emperor! This is utter disrespect!"

He resigned his post and left! No one expected Li Qi to be so resolute as to resign his post!

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang's son, Wang Yu, fearing that Wang Mang had made too many enemies, made a bloody remonstrance. Wang Mang killed him out of righteousness. Feng Meng saw through Wang Mang's intentions and believed that such a monarch was not worth being loyal to. So he took off his official hat and hung it outside the east gate of the capital, and secretly left the capital, taking his family to Liaodong. Not long after, Wang Mang committed suicide and the Xin Dynasty was destroyed.

The civil officials present were all well-read scholars; who among them wouldn't know the story of "resigning one's post and leaving"?
Zhu Yunwen's expression changed drastically. If Li Qi were to leave like this today, what would the world think of him?

Li Qi did not respond to Fang Xiaoru and the others' stern rebukes and questions. Instead, he took out an imperial edict from his bosom, and in an instant, the hall fell silent.

"This is the edict that the late emperor gave to me."

"This is not an imperial edict to punish treacherous officials, but a dying wish of the late emperor."

"Your Majesty, I will not open this imperial edict. To force Your Majesty with my own body would be a great disrespect. Since Your Majesty has already given your will, I will take this edict and leave!"

"I dare to let the world know that what Li Qi said is true. I am not doing this for fame or fortune. Today I resign from my post and will never return to court again in this life!"

"May the Ming Dynasty, and Your Majesty, enjoy eternal peace, prosperity, and glory!"

Holding the late emperor's edict in his hand, Li Qi stood tall, exuding an air of unbridled pride and disdain, before turning and walking out of the hall without hesitation.

He held the late emperor's decree, and with the emperor remaining silent, no one dared to stop him!
Everyone looked at the court robe left in the hall, which appeared lonely in the vast hall.

Zhu Yunwen watched the figure gradually disappear into the distance, having already stepped over the high threshold of Fengtian Hall.

Li Qi wore only a single layer of ordinary clothes, yet he possessed an imposing aura like a mountain abyss.

He left without looking back, head held high and chest out. The light shone on him, making him look like he was wearing golden armor. He looked like a victorious general, not a political loser who had been forced out.

Everyone stared at Li Qi, and soon they could no longer see him at all; all they could see was a small black shadow, and—

The magnificent palace towers and the golden and purple palace walls!

"That's how the ancient sages were," many people suddenly thought.

The hall remained silent. Li Qi was no longer in court, but it seemed he hadn't left...

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

No one knows how much inner struggle Li Qi went through at that court meeting in the first year of Jianwen's reign, and what kind of force supported him in his confrontation with the emperor. He always patiently taught his disciples to assess the situation, but he himself always went against the tide and fought against the overwhelming trend!

People are always impatient to talk about his amazing wisdom and superb insight, believing that he had long seen the inevitable failure of Emperor Jianwen and the inevitable success of Prince Yan. But the Jingnan Rebellion was just a historical accident, so what can it prove?

Perhaps only the answer already recorded in the annals of history can explain the root of all this—"Having read the books of sages and worthies, what have I learned? From now on, I can be free from shame." From the very beginning, he simply wanted to have a clear conscience. —From *Five Hundred Years of the Ming Dynasty*

(End of this chapter)