Chapter 237: Ranking the Top Ten Corrupt Officials in History, Fifth: Yan Song

Ranking the Top Ten Corrupt Officials in History, Fifth: Yan Song.

Era: Ming Dynasty (Jiajing period).

Lifespan: AD 1480 – AD 1567.

Native place: Fenyi, Jiangxi.

Position: Chief Counselor of the Cabinet (de facto Prime Minister).

Features: Father and son colluded, controlled the government for twenty years, sold offices and titles, skimmed military provisions, Wealth Can Rival a Nation, family assets surpass the royal household.

On the left side of the plaque, light and shadow coalesce into the image of an elderly man with a thin, clean face, long beard, black silk headdress, and a first‑rank official robe adorned with a crane pattern.

He appears solemn and dignified, eyes lowered as if listening respectfully, yet a faint hint of sarcasm at the corner of his mouth and a hidden cunning in his eyes betray his true nature.

Behind him stands, faintly, a stout, haughty‑faced middle‑aged man (his son Yan Shifan).

In the background, one side shows the solemn Forbidden City palaces, while the other side is piled high with gold and silver and a "sale‑of‑offices" ledger filled with names.

The green petition seeks favor, secretly seizing the chief ministerial post.

Father and son are thieves, rotting the state and harming the people.

Border provisions enter the mansion, sixty percent return to Yan Song.

When the iceberg falls, the starving corpses line the street pavilions.

The scene unfolds to the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, when the emperor, devoted to Daoist alchemy and rarely attending court, tightly grasped power during this extraordinary time.

Yan Song, styled Weizhong and nicknamed Jiexi, hailed from a modest family in Fenyi, Jiangxi; his father was an ordinary scholar. Yan Song was intelligent from childhood, studied diligently, and passed the imperial examination in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, entering officialdom.

In the bureaucracy that prized seniority and connections, Yan Song's early career was unremarkable, shuttling between Nanjing and Beijing, holding important yet idle posts such as Hanlin Academy editor and Guozijian president.

But he excelled in scheming and insight, especially mastering the art of the "green petition"—a ceremonial tribute to the Heavenly Emperor.

The Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houcong, obsessed with Daoist alchemy and seeking immortality, favored ministers who could compose elegant green petitions.

In the scene, middle‑aged Yan Song meticulously drafts a green petition by lamplight, its language ornate, profound, and elegant.

He submits the green petition to the inner palace, earning the Jiajing Emperor's commendation and entering the emperor's notice.

Relying on his unrivaled green‑petition skill and flattering maneuvering, Yan Song gradually earned the Jiajing Emperor's trust, rising through the ranks to serve as Minister of Rites and Minister of Personnel.

Eventually he entered the Cabinet and, amid fierce infighting, ousted rivals such as Xia Yan, ascending to the throne of Chief Counselor of the Cabinet, becoming the de facto prime minister with power over the entire realm.

In the celestial backdrop, Yan Song's official robes grow darker, and the embroidered birds on the trim become increasingly majestic.

He stands at the forefront of the civil officials, bowing toward the emperor secluded in the Western Garden for alchemy, his expression supremely deferential.

Behind him, officials' gazes are complex—some fearful, some contemptuous, some envious.

However, Yan Song, having climbed to the pinnacle of power, quickly revealed his greedy nature.

He did not fight alone; his son Yan Shifan, though hideously ugly (one squinting eye, short neck, stout body), was exceptionally clever, well‑versed in political lore, adept at reading the Jiajing Emperor's mind, becoming Yan Song's indispensable henchman and strategist.

The father and son, one controlling document drafting and approvals within the Cabinet, the other colluding with allies outside, remotely steering the Six Ministries, formed the massive "Yan Party" corruption syndicate.

Contemporaries privately called Yan Song "Grand Chancellor" and Yan Shifan "Junior Chancellor."

The scene shifts: Yan Song, on duty reviewing documents and offering comments, while Yan Shifan, in a luxurious residence, conspires with a group of allies, processing lists and accounts one by one.

Important court positions are largely occupied by their allies.

The Yan Song father‑son corruption began by seizing control of personnel appointments.

They firmly held the Ministry of Personnel (official appointments) and the Ministry of War (military promotions, army provisions), privatizing the nation's prized assets.

They sold offices and titles with explicit price lists:

Prefects, county magistrates, capital officials, military posts… each had a set price.

Those seeking posts, promotions, or desirable transfers could not succeed without bribery.

Even corrupt officials seeking to evade punishment had to offer them huge sums.

The scene is highly satirical,

Yan Shifan's residence has become the "Second Hall of the Ministry of Personnel," with a constant stream of petitioners.

The steward holds a price list, whispering negotiations with each visitor.

Silver notes, land deeds, antiques flow in like a stream.

Yan Song, in the palace, reports those who bought offices, "in proper procedure," to the emperor for approval.

His corrupt hand also reached the lifeline of the military—border provisions.

In the mid‑Ming period, the north faced Mongol‑Tartar incursions, the southeast suffered rampant wokou raids, and military expenditures were enormous.

Yet the army funds sent to the frontier were said to follow a shocking pattern:

"From the Ministry of Revenue in the morning to the treacherous minister's house by evening. Four parts go to the border, six parts feed Yan Song."

It means the Ministry of Revenue allocates the full army budget; only forty percent reaching the frontier troops is acceptable, while the remaining sixty percent ends up in Yan Song and his son's pockets.

The scene is anguished: the Ministry of Revenue's silver treasury, a carriage loaded with sealed silver boxes heading toward the frontier.

Midway, the silver boxes are covertly transferred to a side courtyard of Yan's residence; the frontier soldiers, their clothes unable to cover their bodies, their food not filling their stomachs, curse and weep before the empty granaries and silver vaults.

In Yan's underground vault, silver piles like a mountain; Yan Shifan, holding a ledger, proudly says to his confidant:

"The nine border provisions are the Yan family's largest revenue."

Yan Song ruled for nearly twenty years, and his corrupt gains reached a terrifying figure; his family's wealth exceeded that of the royal treasury.

The scene begins to display the confiscation results, accompanied by cold statistics:

Gold: over 32,000 taels.

Silver: over 2,020,000 taels (some say three million taels).

Land: more than one million mu, spread across Jiangxi, Nanjing, Beijing and other regions.

Houses: over 6,600, all luxurious mansions and gardens located in the capital, Nanjing, Yangzhou and elsewhere.

Countless priceless antiques, calligraphy and paintings, many seized by force, many of which are rarities not even found in the imperial palace.

The confiscation inventory was compiled into a ledger titled "Tianshui Bingshan Lu" (derived from the phrase "When the sun rises, the ice mountain falls"), recording only the names, quantities and characteristics of assets, yet exceeding sixty thousand characters! The sheer magnitude and variety of their wealth left onlookers speechless.

In the scene, the officials conducting the seizure open one storage room after another, stunned by what they find inside.

Gold and silver glitter, treasures dazzle, calligraphy and paintings pile up, land and house deeds fill the boxes.

The officials tally day and night until their wrists ache. The thick *Tianshui Ice Mountain Record* is presented before the throne.

"He who commits many injustices will bring about his own ruin."

Yan Song and his son act perversely, eventually inciting Heaven's wrath and popular resentment.

In his later years, Emperor Jiajing, though still obtuse, became aware of Yan's faction's unchecked excesses and boundless corruption.

Through the continual accusations and covert actions of upright officials such as Xu Jie, and with the Taoist Lan Daoxing invoking "fuji" to hint that a treacherous minister had taken power, Emperor Jiajing finally resolved to deal with Yan Song.

The scene shifts to the Western Garden sacrificial altar, where Lan Daoxing performs fuji; on the sand table appear the words "Yan father and son, treacherous scheming for power" and similar.

Emperor Jiajing's face turns grim.

In the forty‑fourth year of Emperor Jiajing's reign, Yan Shifan is imprisoned and executed for crimes such as "colluding with the Japanese" and "rallying masses for rebellion."

Yan Song is stripped of all offices, his property confiscated, his registers abolished for the people, and he is forced back to his hometown in Jiangxi.

During the seizure, the 85‑year‑old Yan Song kneels and pleads:

"Can you spare some money so this old dog of mine can keep living?"

But no one heeds him.

The scene turns bleak: the once‑powerful chief minister, now white‑haired and ragged, kneels before his former protégés and officials, begging for mercy, only to be spat upon.

His son Yan Shifan is executed on the execution ground.

Having lost everything and left alone, Yan Song eventually falls to a street beggar, dying of illness and starvation in the winter of the forty‑fifth year of Emperor Jiajing's reign, at eighty‑seven years old, amid hunger, cold and the scorn of ten thousand spitting mouths.

His once‑soaring wealth turns to a bubble, leaving only an eternal infamy.

The final image shows a ruined temple or a grave‑yard thatch shelter in the cold winter, where a gaunt, ghost‑like old man curls up in the straw and dies of a broken heart, while stray dogs linger nearby.

Corruption total estimate: the gold and silver seized already exceed two million taels, and the value of lands, properties, treasures and antiques far surpasses that amount.

His greed directly caused the Ming Dynasty's administration to collapse, left the borders undefended, weakened the nation's strength, and sowed the seeds of the mid‑to‑late Ming crisis.

His avarice epitomizes systemic, crumbling corruption, the greatest tumor on the empire's body.

Reason for ranking: as chief minister he wielded supreme honor while committing acts that robbed the state.

Father and son join forces, control the core of court affairs, sell offices and titles, skim military salaries, amass colossal embezzlement, Wealth Can Rival a Nation, directly shaking the foundation of the state.

His twenty years in power mark one of the pivotal points when the Ming Dynasty shifted from prosperity to decline, his sins profound, his infamy lingering for ten thousand years!

Observers of the myriad realms, especially the Ming Dynasty's emperor and common folk, see their blood boil and their fury flare!