Wei Yijie

Life

His great-great-grandfather was 魏謙光, whose style name was 觀; his father was 魏伯祥, his elder brother 魏裔魯, and his younger brother 魏裔愍. His sons were 魏嘉 and 魏勷, and his grandsons were 魏世晉 and 魏世賁.

In 1642 he passed the Shuntian provincial examination as a juren; in 1646 he passed the metropolitan examination, ranked 62nd in the third class, was selected as a shujishi, and after the examination academy was assigned as a supervising secretary of the Works section. In 1648 he served as an examiner for the Shanxi provincial examination and later held posts in the Works and War sections and as Right Supervising Secretary of the Personnel section.

In 1655 he became Left Deputy Censor-in-Chief, superintendent of the Four Translation Institute, and vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices; in 1657 he was promoted to Left Censor-in-Chief, and in 1659 received the title of Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent. In 1663 he became Minister of Personnel; in 1664 he served as chief examiner of the military metropolitan examination and as a grand academician of the Neishuyuan; in 1667 he took part in compiling the Veritable Records of the Shizu Emperor. In 1670 he became Grand Academician of the Baohedian and concurrently Minister of Rites, although another titulature gives Minister of Personnel; in 1672 he was granted the titles of Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent and Guanglu Daifu.

As a remonstrating official, he submitted more than one hundred memorials, many of which were implemented. By the age of forty he had reached the offices of Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent and Grand Academician of the Baohedian; because his hair and beard remained black, he was known as the “Black-Headed Chancellor.” He later retired because of suspicion that he had attached himself to Oboi. He was a friend of Ji Yingzhong and Tian Maoyu, and in 1675 wrote the epitaph of Wang Jiazhen; during the Yongzheng reign he was enshrined in the Shrine of Worthies, and early in the Qianlong reign he received the posthumous name Wenyi.

Learning and writings

Wei Yijie followed Zhu Xi in learning and concentrated on Neo-Confucianism; he also studied geomancy. His works included 《聖學知統錄》, 《聖學知統翼錄》, 《希賢錄》, 《約言錄》, 《知統錄》, 《兼濟堂奏議》, 《兼濟堂文集》, 《兼濟堂集》, and 《嶼舫詩集》, as well as 《論性書》, 《瓊琚珮語》, 《樗林偶筆》, 《績筆》, and 《閒筆》.

Reputation

His memorials were regarded as having played an important part in shaping major early Qing institutions; for his forthright character, he was paired with the Duke Mingguo under the sobriquet “the Two Weis.”