Abstract:
Supplementation to biography of YE Yingcong is as follows. YE was born on the 21
st, April in the third year of Hongzhi Reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty (1490). His courtesy name was Sangang. In the fourteenth year of Zhengde (1519), he was flogged almost to death for remonstrating against the southern tour of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. In the second year of Jiajing (1523), he was promoted to vice director of a bureau in Ministry of Punishments and then to the director of the bureau. He upheld the law so impartially that he even punished the offspring of high officials who committed crimes. In the third year of Jiajing Reign (1524), he was flogged again for discussing the Grand Rites and was also at death’s door. In December of the fourth year of Jiajing (1525), YE and LI Jing, the commander of the Imperial Bodyguards, collaborated with XIONG Lan, the touring censor in Guangdong to investigate the illegal activities of CHEN Guang, the censor, and reported CHEN’s crimes. In September of the sixth year of Jiajing (1527), CHEN petitioned for justice, and YE was arrested and brought to the capital for trial. In May of the seventh year of Jiajing (1528), due to mistakes in investigating CHEN’s case, YE was stripped of his official position and became a commoner. In March of the tenth year of Jiajing (1531), CHEN accused YE of using cruel torture to kill innocent people. As a result, YE was sent to military service in Tieling Guard in Liaodong. In February of the sixteenth year of Jiajing (1537), he was pardoned and returned to his hometown as a commoner. In March of the twentieth year of Jiajing (1541), the Ministry of Personnel recommended his reinstatement, but it was denied. He lived out his remaining days in obscurity and his exact year of death was unknown. He wrote
Sangang Memorial Records, which is lost. Only three poems and five essays have survived. The three poems are
Xicen Cottage, Visiting Tiantong Temple, and
The Three Mountains Tower Aloft. The five essays are
Biography LU Ke, Vice Censor-in-chief of the Censorate, The Epitaph of XIE Ruyi, Surveillance Commissioner of Jiangxi, Record of the Jia Zhong Ci, Record of the Construction of the GUAN Yu Temple in Qiantun Guangning, and Biography of the North Garden Shrine. However, in Volume 367 of the
Ming Wenhai, the entry by YE Yingcong’s Biography of the North Garden Shrine from the phrase "the joy of living at ease" onwards is mistakenly included in
The Story of the Man Who Guarded the Tree by ZHENG Yuan, a scholar in Ming Dynasty.