Wu Dui

Life and career

He first held the status of shengyuan (licentiate) and later passed the provincial examination, placing forty-fifth in the Shuntian Prefecture examination in the Wuwu year of the Jiajing era. His success in the provincial examination was associated with Gao Gong. In 1559, he placed thirty-fifth in the metropolitan examination of the Jiwei cohort and received the jinshi degree in the second class, sixtieth place.

After receiving the jinshi degree, he was appointed to the Ministry of War as a zhushi and later served as langzhong in the Ministry of War, canyi in the Huguang Provincial Administration, military-defense vice commissioner for Jizhou, and langzhong in the Ministry’s Military Selection Office; his appointment as Ministry of War langzhong began in 1569, the third year of Longqing. In 1571, when Gao Gong again rose to high office, Wu was exceptionally promoted to Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief and appointed governor of Xuanfu.

At the time, Anda had just entered the tributary relationship, while Kunduli and Xina’i pursued a two-sided policy and repeatedly troubled the frontier. Wu used stratagems in handling Anda and Sanniangzi, bringing them to remain wholeheartedly at peace with the Ming. In 1574, he was given the concurrent posts of Vice Minister of War and Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief; in 1577, he replaced Fang Fengshi as superintendent of military affairs for Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi.

In 1579, Ming Shenzong recalled him to the capital and added the office of Right Censor-in-Chief. In 1581, as Right Censor-in-Chief, he supervised the military affairs of Ji, Liao, and Baoding and concurrently held a provincial governorship; that governorship is variously identified as Yingtian and Shuntian Prefecture. For merit in the killing of Taining and Supagai, he was made Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent and promoted Minister of War, while retaining the office of Right Censor-in-Chief.

Family

His great-grandfather was Wu Yuan, his grandfather Wu Bian, his father Wu Yi, and his mother Lady Zhou. His elder brothers were Wu Heng, Wu Xun, and Wu Yue; his younger brothers were Wu Chen, Wu Yan, Wu Shen, Wu Tun, Wu Zhi, and Wu Nian. His wife was Lady Luo. His son was Wu Youfu; his grandsons were Wu Mingming and Wu Mengdeng; and his great-grandsons were Wu Bangfu and Wu Bangxuan.

Later life and associations

Later, he was impeached by Wei Yunzhen and others and left office. The accusations included attachment to Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, association with the eunuchs Feng Bao and Wang Jixian, and accepting gifts from civil and military officials; Wang Jiguang also appears as a name associated with the impeachment. He died several years later, in 1596.

He received a letter from Fang Fengshi and reply letters from Zhang Juzheng and Shen Shixing. Mao Qiling wrote his biography, Zhu Geng a funerary text, Wang Shugao provided farewell words, Tao Wangling wrote his xingzhuang, and Wu Dui wrote Ma Jin’s epitaph.