Hai Rui

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See also Hai Rui (basketball)

Hai Rui (Wade-Giles: Hai Jui Chinese: 海瑞) (23 January 1514 – 13 November 1587), was a famous Chinese official during of the Ming dynasty. His name has come down in history as a model of honesty and integrity in office and he reemerged as an important historical character during the Cultural revolution.

[edit] Biography

Hai Rui, whose great-grandfather married an Arab and subsequently adopted Islam, was born in Qiongshan, Hainan, where he was raised by his mother (also from a Muslim, or Hui, family). Unsuccessful in the official examinations, his official career only started in 1553, when he was aged 39, with a humble position as clerk of education in Fujian province. He built his reputation on uncompromising adherence to an upright morality, scrupulous honesty, poverty, and fairness. This won him widespread popular support but made him many enemies in the bureaucracy. Eventually he submitted a memorial impeaching the Jiajing Emperor himself in 1565 and was sentenced to death in 1566. He was released after the Emperor died in early 1567.

Hai Rui was reappointed under the Longqing Emperor but soon forced to resign in 1570 after complaints were made over his overzealous handling of land-tenure issues. He then spent 15 years in retirement in Hainan before being finally brought back in 1585 under the Wanli Emperor. Hai Rui died in office two years later.

[edit] Legacy

Hai Rui's fame lives on in modern times. An article entitled "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office", written by Communist Party official Wu Han in 1959 and later made into a Peking Opera play, was interpreted by Mao Zedong as an allegorical work with the honest moral official Hai Rui representing disgraced official Peng Dehuai, who had fallen foul of Mao for his outspoken criticism of the Great Leap Forward movement, and the corrupt emperor representing Mao Zedong. A November 10, 1965 article in a prominent Shanghai newspaper, A Criticism of the Historical Drama 'Hai Rui Dismissed From Office' 评新编历史剧《海瑞罢官》is widely seen as the spark that ignited the Cultural Revolution. During the Cultural Revolution, the grave of Hai Rui was destroyed but it has since been rebuilt.^[1]

Haikou, the largest city on Hainan Island, the province of Hai Rui's home celebrates the deeds of Hai. A memorial has been constructed and his tomb is open for worship^{[citation needed]}.