A Clean-handed Official
Yang Jizong was an honest and upright prefecture chief of the Jiaxing Prefecture during the Ming Dynasty and he was very popular among the people because he was free from corruption and bribery. Once, when a eunuch passed through Jiaxing, he demanded bribery from Yang. Yang opened the prefecture reserve and said, “Here is all the money of Jiaxing Prefecture and you can take as much as you like, but you need to show me the imperial permit for drawing money from the prefecture reserve.” The eunuch left in low spirits. After the eunuch returned to Beijing, he maligned Yang before Emperor Yingzong. Emperor Yingzong asked, “It looks like the person you were talking about is Prefecture Chief Yang Jizong, an clean-handed official, am I right?” Hearing this, the eunuch no longer dared to say bad things about Yang. |
[Relative Information]