Haijiaoji: a Record of the Ups and Downs of the Officialdom of the Ming Dynasty

The rain in the south of the Yangtze River during the Wanli period wetted the bluestone slabs of Yunxi County and also soaked through the heavy-skinned crimson official robes of the new county magistrate. He carried astragalus tea and red pepper in his arms and traveled from Gyeonggi to Jiangnan - the former was his mother's care for him to take care of his health, and the latter was his desire to accompany him in his career. When he first arrived in Yunxi, he inspected documents, provided drought relief, and punished dandies. The fried pork with sea pepper on his desk was always steaming, and the people praised him as "Shen Qingtian." But as his official rank gradually increased, more and more secrets were hidden in the mist of Jiangnan: the gesture of handing tea concealed the inner court rules, the numbers in the account books were wrapped in secret operations, and even the jade belt given by the emperor gradually became overwhelming. Wu Zhiping always remembers the laughter that Master Shen made when he stirred sea peppers into his bowl that year, which made him cry, but made his heart feel warm. He also remembers that later, under the candlelight, Master Shen's fingertips when commenting on official documents repeatedly rubbed between "Ding Yin" and "acres", and the strength of the pen tip was slowly mixed with some indistinguishable hesitation. When the spicy smell of sea pepper mixes with the alcoholic smell of officialdom and drifts away, when the original intention of being honest and honest collides with the game of power, does Shen Li save the people of Yunxi, or does he lose his original self? Turn the pages of the book and see how the mist and rain in the south of the Yangtze River hide all the purity and turbidity, and listen to how a plate of pepper fragrance can explain the ups and downs of the official world.