Biography
Family Background and Early Years
Yu Chenglong's family moved during the reign of the Yuan emperor Shundi to Baishuangli village in Shizhou, present-day Lishi District of Lüliang, Shanxi. By the time of his great-grandfather Yu Su, the entire family had moved to Laibao village, thirty kilometers north of the prefectural seat. Yu Chenglong was born at the chou hour on the twenty-seventh day of the eighth lunar month of the forty-fifth year of Wanli, September 26, 1617. He was the second son of Yu Shihuang and his first wife, Lady Tian. Lady Tian died soon after his birth, and his father remarried Lady Li. Yu Chenglong had a harmonious relationship with his stepmother and received a good education in a stable household.
In 1639, at age twenty-three, Yu Chenglong sat for the provincial examination. The examiners at Taiyuan were openly engaged in favoritism and malpractice, and Yu used his examination paper to criticize contemporary abuses directly. He failed to place on the main list and only obtained a supplementary tribute-student ranking. After later sitting for the metropolitan examination, he declined an opportunity to take office on the ground that his father was elderly and returned to Laibao.
After the Qing established control over the Central Plains, Yu continued preparing for the examinations. From 1647 to 1651 he studied for four years at a school established at Chongshan Temple in Taiyuan, but again failed the provincial examination in 1651, when he was thirty-five. In 1654 his elder brother Yu Hualong died and his third son Yu Tingyuan was born, leaving Yu to bear the main burden of household expenses. His father was old and frequently ill, his stepmother was also elderly, and his first two sons were in school. The family's resources became strained, and Yu was occupied with maintaining the household and no longer had time for the examinations. His father died in 1658.
Taking Office at Luocheng
In 1661, at age forty-five, Yu Chenglong entered the Imperial Academy. After completing his studies, he went to the capital for official selection and was appointed magistrate of Luocheng in Guangxi. Luocheng lay in the mountainous ethnic-minority region of northern Guangxi, with steep terrain, deep ravines, dangerous wildlife, and widespread miasmatic disease. Yao and Zhuang communities lived among one another, language barriers were common, and disputes were frequent. The county had been under Qing rule for less than two years and had been badly damaged by warfare; of the previous two magistrates, one had died and the other fled.
Despite knowing the difficulties, Yu accepted the appointment. Before leaving, he wrote to a friend: “On this journey I will absolutely not make warmth and full meals my concern; the four words in which I place my confidence are only ‘Heavenly principle and conscience.’” He left his mother, wife, and children, rode a donkey, took four servants, and traveled more than six thousand li to Luocheng. The county seat contained only six households, had no proper walls, and the yamen consisted of three thatched rooms. On arrival, he cut thorn branches and planted them as a gate, piled earth in the courtyard for a table, dug a cooking pit beside it, and possessed only one pot and one basin.
After taking office, Yu summoned clerks and residents daily and calmly asked about their hardships, while announcing the court's policy of pacification. He reaffirmed the baojia system. When robbery or theft occurred, he immediately sent attendants to investigate; once an accusation was verified, he dealt with it quickly. Through repeated enforcement the area gradually became more secure. Yao leaders from neighboring districts often raided Luocheng; Yu organized local militia to drive them back and prepared to attack their strongholds, after which the leaders, frightened, swore not to return. With greater security, residents resumed production. Yu repeatedly petitioned superiors to reduce labor obligations, arranged for salt to be imported from the interior, built a county school, and established a charitable institution for the poor, after which Luocheng was said to be well governed.
Yu lived in great poverty at Luocheng. Some of his four servants left, while others died of miasmatic disease. Local residents felt sympathy for him, came to greet him morning and evening, and sometimes pooled money to give him, but he consistently declined. When a family member once visited, residents assumed he needed money and collected a substantial sum. Yu laughed and said that since the place was six thousand li from his home, carrying so much money would only increase the traveler's burden. He still refused the gift.
Hezhou and Huangzhou
In 1667, Yu Chenglong's record in Luocheng was noticed by Guangxi governor Jin Guangzu and Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi Lu Xingzu, who recommended him as the province's only “outstanding official” of the year. The Kangxi Emperor promoted him to prefect of Hezhou in Sichuan, present-day Hechuan in Chongqing. When the people of Luocheng learned that he was leaving, they came out in large numbers, blocked the road in grief, and followed him for hundreds of li before returning in tears.
Hezhou's economy had been badly damaged by the late-Ming rebellions and Qing warfare in Sichuan. The city had only a little more than one hundred households, annual regular tax revenue was merely fifteen taels of silver, and service burdens remained heavy. Yu abolished unreasonable regulations and abuses inherited from the Ming, recruited people to reclaim wasteland, and had the government lend seed grain and draft cattle. Within a little more than one month the population returning to the area increased to about one thousand households. When the governor ordered the cutting of nanmu timber, Yu submitted a direct memorial titled *Detailed Report on the Cutting of Nanmu*, criticizing the project as burdensome and wasteful to the people.
In 1669 he was promoted to assistant prefect of Huangzhou in Huguang and stationed at Qiting. Banditry was common and robberies occurred even in daylight. Yu pacified the bandit leader Peng Bailing and allowed him to atone by helping arrest other bandits. On one occasion, after learning the location of a bandit stronghold, Yu disguised himself as a beggar, entered it, and lived among the bandits for more than ten days, learning the details of their activities. He then left, summoned constables, arrested the group, and brought them to justice; other bandits fled the area. He also frequently traveled incognito through villages, investigating local conditions. In robberies and difficult cases he was often able to trace the facts, impressing local residents. Because of his record, Huguang governor Zhang Chaozhen again recommended him as an “outstanding official.”
Prefect of Huangzhou during the Revolt of the Three Feudatories
In 1673 Yu was transferred to take charge of Wuchang Prefecture and was due to be promoted to prefect. At the same time the Revolt of the Three Feudatories broke out. Wu Sangui sent numerous Hubei-born officers back to their home districts carrying letters intended to incite rebellion. In May 1674 a forged rebel letter was discovered in Macheng. The county magistrate responded by indiscriminately arresting people on charges of “collusion with rebels.” Liu Junfu and his son exploited the situation, contacted strongholds in the Dongshan area, and launched an uprising. Because Yu had great local influence, he was asked to restore order. He adopted a policy of conciliation and issued public notices that persuaded most coerced followers to return home. He then entered Liu Junfu's mountain stronghold alone despite the danger and persuaded Liu and three hundred gunmen to submit, ending the unrest within ten days. In August Yu was transferred as prefect of Huangzhou.
At that time He Shirong at Yongning, Chen Dingye at Yangluo, Liu Qiye at Shipi, and Zhou Tiezhao and Bao Shiyong at Quanban each raised several thousand men. Collectively called the “Dongshan bandits,” they represented a major threat. Yu rejected proposals to abandon Huangzhou and instead organized local militia for an active campaign. He gathered two thousand militiamen from the surrounding townships and sent Huanggang magistrate Li Jingzheng against Yangluo, where Chen Dingye was killed. Yu then personally led troops against He Shirong. During the fighting, company commander Wu Zhilan was shot and killed and government troops began to give ground. Yu rode forward and told company commander Li Maosheng, “If I die in battle, you are to report it to the governor!” Li fought hard, while military examination graduate Zhang Shangsheng moved behind the enemy; their combined attack won a major victory and captured He Shirong alive. Yu then took Quanban and pacified all the rebellions within only twenty-four days, receiving high praise from Governor-General of Huguang Cai Yurong.
In 1676 Huangzhou suffered famine and rumors spread. Yu repaired the pavilions at Red Cliff and spent his days there composing poetry with subordinate officials, calming public anxiety. Soon afterward his stepmother died and he was required to observe mourning, but Cai Yurong petitioned that he be retained in office despite mourning. In 1677, when the court created a new Lower Yangtze Defense Circuit headquartered at Huangzhou, Yu was promoted to circuit intendant.
“First in Incorruptibility and Competence in Fujian”
In 1678 Yu Chenglong was promoted to Judicial Commissioner of Fujian. At the time, in its struggle against the Zheng regime on Taiwan, the Qing court enforced maritime prohibitions, and local officials repeatedly opened large cases under charges of “communication with the sea,” often implicating thousands. Yu demanded retrials and strongly advocated reversing wrongful convictions; more than one thousand innocent people were released. For this he was recommended for the third time as an “outstanding official.”
In 1679 he became Provincial Administration Commissioner of Fujian. Fujian governor Wu Xingzu submitted a special memorial recommending him to the court as “first in incorruptibility and competence in Fujian.”
Governor of Zhili and Governor-General of Liangjiang
In 1680 Yu Chenglong was promoted to governor of Zhili. In 1681 the Kangxi Emperor personally received him in audience, granted him one thousand taels of silver and an imperial horse, composed a poem praising his integrity and ability, and called him “the foremost incorrupt official.” In 1682 Yu became Governor-General of Liangjiang with the additional title of Minister of War. When news of his appointment reached Nanjing, the price of plain cloth rose rapidly. The source says that the entire city changed into simple cloth clothing, wedding families did not dare use music, officials reduced their retinues, and some people were so frightened that they remained indoors, while corrupt clerks and rogues fled in all directions.
In 1683, because Yu's administration was so strict about gifts that Liangjiang sent no “red-envelope” payments to the capital, he made many enemies and was impeached by Ma Shiji. The Kangxi Emperor, aware that Yu had offended many senior officials, formally demoted him five ranks while retaining him in office to quiet the opposition. The governors of Jiangsu and Anhui were then transferred away, and Yu temporarily performed both governors' duties in addition to the governor-generalship.
Yu died in office in 1684. When the people of Nanjing heard the news, “men and women, old and young, wept in the streets and closed the markets.” His belongings consisted only of one worn robe and a few jars of salt and fermented beans. When his coffin was returned to his native place, tens of thousands of people walked twenty li and prostrated themselves at the riverbank, weeping as they saw him off. The Kangxi Emperor exceptionally wrote the text of his memorial stele himself, posthumously granted him the title Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent, and bestowed the posthumous name Qingduan.