Yan Song (Chancellor)

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Portrait of the Yan Song

Yan Song ( Chinese  嚴嵩  /  严嵩 , Pinyin Yán Sōng ; 1480–1567), majority name Weizhong (惟 中), pseudonym Jiexi (介 溪) was a Chinese politician in the time of the Ming Dynasty . He was known for corruption. Nevertheless, he ruled the government of the Ming Emperor Jiajing for two decades as the Supreme Leader of the Great Secretariat (內閣, Nèigé).

Life

Yan Song was born in Fenyi (分宜), a place that is now in Jiangxi Province . His father went to great lengths to prepare his son for the Chinese civil service exam. As a gifted student, he passed the local examination at the age of ten and achieved the degree of Jinshi (進士) at the age of 25. He was then employed as a clerk in the imperial secretariat. However, his career was interrupted when an illness forced him to return to his hometown. In doing so, however, he escaped the unrest surrounding the eunuch Liu Jin .

Soon after the execution of Liu Jin, Yan Song returned to Beijing , where he was employed in the Hanlin Academy, first in Beijing and later in Nanjing .

Chief of the Great Secretariat

Yan Song was head of the Neige under the Jiajing Emperor from 1544 to 1545 and from 1548 to 1562. He was a close ally of Zhao Wenhua . During his second term in office, he and his son Yan Shifan dominated courtly politics with the silent approval of the emperor, who cared little about government affairs and preferred to occupy himself with sensual pleasures and Daoism . Yan Song's wealth is said to have been as great as the emperor's fortune. Among other things, he publicly sold state offices, which also earned him many opponents. Ultimately, he fell from grace and soon died in poverty. His son Yan Shifan was executed for collaborating with the Wokou pirates, who ravaged the Chinese coastal provinces during this time.

Culture

Yan Song is the namesake for a Chinese opera with the title Yan Song Beat ( 打 嚴嵩 , Dǎ Yán Sōng ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nicola Di Cosmo: Military Culture in Imperial China . Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-674-03109-8 , pp. 322 ( books.google.com ).

literature

personal data
SURNAME Yan, song
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 嚴嵩; Yán Sōng; Yen Sung; Weizhong; 惟 中; Jiexi, 介 溪; Jen Sung (Czech)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese politician of the Ming period
DATE OF BIRTH 1480
PLACE OF BIRTH Fenyi , Chinese Empire
DATE OF DEATH 1567