Upon learning of Qian Qianyi’s background, Zhu Cilang found himself in a quandary.
He pondered: should he accept this money or not? The Nanjing Ministry of Revenue was desperately short of funds. Qian Qianyi’s money could truly be described as charcoal in the snow during a blizzard. But why would a disgraced official like Qian Qianyi take the initiative to offer money? Put bluntly, he was spending money to atone for his past and intended to return to an official position at court.
Was his crime serious? Theoretically, not particularly. At the time, he had been the chief examiner for the Zhejiang provincial examinations; he was not involved in the corruption scandal itself but had merely been implicated. His later removal from the official register had been due to his rage after being falsely accused, which led him to file a counter-suit against the then-Senior Grand Secretary, Wen Tiren. Wen Tiren himself was hardly clean and had been forced to resign citing illness. Yet, Qian Qianyi, as a disgraced official, had managed to topple the Senior Grand Secretary, and in a fit of rage, Emperor Chongzhen had stripped him of his status.
Chapter 336