Among the Mediocre Ministers Throughout the Ages, Fang Xiaoru Is the Only One

Fang Xiaoru, a great Confucian in the early Ming Dynasty, was the teacher of Emperor Jianwen. In the fourth year of Jianwen's reign, King Zhu Di of Yan usurped the throne and forced him to draft an imperial edict on his accession to the throne. He threw his pen to the ground: "It's just death, the edict cannot be ignored." Zhu Di was furious and ordered people to throw him into prison and arrest ten of his clansmen. In the cold and damp imperial prison, Fang Xiaoru finally turned his attention to the direction of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum...