Li Wei became an official

Author: Liu Heping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-09-01
Features: This was an era yearning for diligent governance, yet also plagued by a corrupt officialdom. It gave rise to an illiterate but interesting upright official—Li Wei. Ignorance is bliss. Li Wei's hometown was hit by a flood, and he fled with his mother. Unbeknownst to him, his mother was unjustly arrested and thrown into prison. To save her, he teamed up with the daughter of the victimized upright official Yue Zifeng, Yue Siying, and faked being an imperial envoy to break into the prison, rescue the condemned, and expose a massive official corruption case, dragging him into a complex factional struggle. The court was alerted, and the Emperor was also notified. Both he and the corrupt officials were brought to Beijing. The Prince's faction wanted him killed to silence him, while the 8th and 10th Princes' faction sought to eliminate him. However, the 4th and 13th Princes saw his "unconventional integrity" and highly recommended him to Kangxi as a "nail" to wedge into the rigid Jiangnan officialdom. Thus, "a man with a fate as fragile as grass," Li Wei, was appointed as an imperial county magistrate by the Emperor and took office. He had no idea how to be an official and never wanted to be one, so he completely disregarded the rules of the officialdom. He only remembered the tasks given to him by the Emperor and the 4th Prince—to stand with the people and keep an eye on the corrupt officials. He used every trick in the book to fight against his superiors, the retired grand secretaries, and the River Control Office, ultimately building a flood embankment capable of withstanding a rare century-long flood. The Emperor and the 4th Prince were delighted and sent him to Yangzhou, a key tax revenue area, as the prefect, ordering him to recover all the evaded salt taxes. He once again found himself trapped in a vast net woven from money and official seals. Not exaggerated, not fictionalized—it's a fictional story, yet also a real one. Light-hearted and entertaining, yet thought-provoking.