Entry
Hong-zhi: Year 17, Month 11, Day 6
11 Dec 1504
Initially, Wang Zhong, a servant of the Eunuch Director Wang Jing, regional commander of Guang-dong/Guang-xi had, together with Wang Li and other of his cohorts, seized the goods of the tribute envoy from Siam. Subsequently, Zhong fearing punishment because of another crime, fled and hid together with Li and the others. The Emperor ordered Zhao Duo, a supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Justice, and others to go and investigate. Duo and so on memorialized: "The yi persons are due to return to their country, but Li and so on have not yet been captured. The provincial administration commission should be ordered to pay them the value of the goods in silver from the treasury. When Li and so on are captured, they should be required to repay the funds to the state." Li and so on had then submitted a memorial of explanation saying that Wang Zhong had harboured a grievance, had improperly involved them and then pleaded illness and advised that he could not participate. He was willing to pay the value of the goods in silver, so as to avoid arrest and punishment. Dai Shan, a censor-in-chief of the left, also submitted a request on his behalf. The Emperor approved this. Duo then memorialized, saying: "The law is the Court's law, not something that Dai Shan and the others can treat lightly on the basis of personal favouritism. The Court's law is also the law of the Imperial ancestors and not something which Your Majesty can treat lightly on the basis of favouritism. If Li and the others did not seize the yi's goods, they would certainly be unwilling to make payment. As they are willing to pay, there is no doubt that it is they who seized the goods. How can the value of the goods be recovered and yet the crime go unpunished! Shan and so on have shown such disregard for the law on the basis of personal favouritism, that Wang Zhong and so will be unwilling to admit guilt, and when the foreign yi hear of this they will also be critical. It is thus requested that Li and so on be arrested and punished and that Shan and so on also be punished." It was ordered that the previously-issued Imperial orders be implemented.
Xiao-zong: juan 218.4a-b
Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 60, page 4099/100
Preferred form of citation for this entry:
Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/hong-zhi/year-17-month-11-day-6, accessed January 22, 2019