The Biaozhong Shrine to Qi Tai, 1525

Background

Qi Tai was a native of Lishui and Minister of War under the Jianwen emperor, and died in the Jingnan Campaign. In 1425 his kin were pardoned and their property restored, but the gazetteer records no sacrifice to him at that time. In 1525 the magistrate Wang Congshan asked that he be sacrificed to in Lishui and had a shrine named Biaozhong.

That Qi Tai was a native of Lishui is confirmed by the History of Ming, juan 141, Biographies 29 (Qi Tai): "Qi Tai was a man of Lishui. His original name was De. In the seventeenth year of the Hongwu era he took first place in the Yingtian provincial examination … and with Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru he refused to submit and died." The standard history thus confirms his native place and his death, but does not record the Biaozhong Shrine in Lishui.

What was done

四年乙酉，知县王从善请祀齐泰于溧水，祠曰「表忠」。申免抛荒粮米。 — Kangxi Lishui County Gazetteer, 卷之一·邑纪·四年乙酉

Translated: In the fourth year, the zhixian (county magistrate) Wang Congshan asked that Qi Tai be sacrificed to in Lishui, and the shrine was called Biaozhong. He also petitioned for remission of the tax on abandoned fields.

The entry puts two things in the same year: the request for a sacrifice to Qi Tai, with the shrine named Biaozhong, and the petition for remission of tax on abandoned fields. The wording is "asked that he be sacrificed to", that is, a request made by the magistrate to higher authority; the gazetteer does not record the paperwork of approval.

Consequences

The Biaozhong Shrine became the place where Qi Tai was sacrificed to in Lishui, and the county's observances for him were attached to it thereafter. In 1621 the court pardoned the thirty-eight households exiled with Qi Tai and returned them to the Lishui registers, releasing the last of those implicated. The other matter of 1525, the remission of tax on abandoned fields, belongs to the same run of disaster as the drought of 1523 and the epidemic of 1524.

The shrine's site and later history (Guangxu gazetteer)

The Kangxi gazetteer records only the name Biaozhong for this shrine and gives no site. The Guangxu edition of the Lishui County Gazetteer, juan 8, "Records of Sacrifices", entry on the Biaozhong Shrine, supplies its site and later history:

表忠祠在縣北門外望京街，祀明兵部尚書齊泰。嘉靖四年，詔復爵，贈謚節愍，命立祠，春秋致祭。知縣王從善建，扁其堂曰勁草，詔予蔭襲奉祀生員一人。二十年，知縣謝廷茝重修祠宇，置義田十畝，於豐慶鄉知縣陳公陞（下略）。

Translated: The Biaozhong Shrine is outside the north gate, on Wangjing Street, and sacrifices to Qi Tai, Minister of War of the Ming. In the fourth year of the Jiajing era his rank was restored by decree, he was granted the posthumous name Jiemin, and a shrine was ordered built with sacrifices in spring and autumn. The magistrate Wang Congshan built it and inscribed its hall "Jingcao" (Strong Grass), and by decree one hereditary student was granted to attend the sacrifices. In the twentieth year the magistrate Xie Tingchai repaired the shrine and set aside ten mu of charitable fields, in Fengqing township under the magistrate Lord Chen (text truncated).

The shrine was thus outside the north gate on Wangjing Street, its hall was named Jingcao, and in 1541 the magistrate Xie Tingchai repaired it and endowed ten mu of charitable fields. The Guangxu edition dates the restoration of Qi Tai's rank and the posthumous name Jiemin to 1525, whereas the Kangxi gazetteer has only Wang Congshan's "request that he be sacrificed to"; the common account dates the posthumous name Jiemin to the Hongguang reign of the Southern Ming. The two are set side by side.

Uncertainties

First, as to the shrine's site and form: the Kangxi gazetteer gives none, and it is the Guangxu gazetteer that places it "outside the north gate, Wangjing Street" with the hall name Jingcao; the cost and the month and day of completion remain unrecorded.

Second, it does not say whether the request was granted at once; the wording can be read as approval, but the process and date of approval are not given.

Third, the amount remitted and the area of abandoned fields are not recorded.

Fourth, the circumstances of Qi Tai's death are referred to a biography not contained in this volume, and are not reconstructed here.

Fifth, a search across all seven source layers added second and third sources: Qi Tai's native place and death appear in his biography in the History of Ming, and the shrine's site and later repair in the Guangxu Lishui County Gazetteer. The date of the posthumous name Jiemin, however, differs between the two gazetteers (1525 in the Guangxu edition; the common account places it in the Hongguang reign of the Southern Ming), and no Ming work outside the gazetteers independently records the Lishui Biaozhong Shrine; the entry sets both dates side by side without choosing.