Xu Jia aspired to become an incorruptible official from a young age. He passed the licentiate exam at nine and the provincial exam at nineteen, yet failed the metropolitan exam four times, earning comparisons to Zhong Yong, the prodigy whose talent faded. At thirty-one, he met his mentor, Wang Guangqing, and finally became a trusted disciple of the emperor.
After entering the officialdom, he was demoted to Huating for supporting his mentor's remonstrance and sent to reclaim wasteland and farm. His success in flood control won him a post in the capital, but he angered the powerful by supporting the reduction of the vassal princes' domains and was sent home to observe mourning. In the first half of his life, he recommended worthy men and offered frank counsel while keeping a low profile, making him a model of an eminent official. At fifty-one, he was demoted to Yangjiang once more for truthfully reporting the famine in Daizhou, where people had resorted to eating one another's children, and refusing to go along with claims of auspicious omens.
During twelve years in exile, he watched parasites who wore the name of integrity rise effortlessly through the ranks, and hypocrites who wore the name of loyalty soar to the top. The flame of his ideals burned out in despair. When he returned to the capital for a third time at sixty-three, he had changed completely. If the emperor wanted to frame upright officials, he became the blade. If the emperor wanted a palace built, he raised the money. He used occult arts to curry favor with the ruler, framed the loyal Xue Lei, tortured the remonstrating official Xu Guanshan to death, and let his relatives sell offices and titles. For twenty years, he held sway over the court and amassed wealth to rival an empire.
But imperial suspicion, the backlash of upright officials, and the loss of popular support eventually consumed him. At eighty-eight, his estate was confiscated and he was exiled. His descendants were beheaded, and he wandered the streets, surviving by stealing offerings from graves, until he finally died of cold and hunger, leaving only a lonely mound.
From dragon-slaying youth to the very dragon he once fought, Xu Jia's life reveals the poison of power, the evils of the system, and the subtleties of human nature. It is easy to find one's original resolve, but hard to hold on to it.
