法苑珠林 91.77

91.77

During the Jin dynasty, Yang Shan, courtesy name Yipengzu, was the Grand Administrator of Luling. He was domineering, crude, and violent, and relying on his imperial marital ties, he was exceptionally indulgent and unruly, executing people over minor glares or grievances. Yu Liang, Senior General Who Conquers the West, sent him under escort in a cage and reported the full circumstances to the throne. The Right Office memorialized that Shan had killed two hundred and ninety officers, clerks, and commoners of the commandery, including Jian Liang, and had banished and exiled more than one hundred people; by law he should be publicly executed, but based on the Eight Deliberations, they requested clemency. Emperor Xianzong decreed: 'This matter is unprecedented from antiquity to the present. If this can be tolerated, what cannot be tolerated? What Eight Deliberations can apply here? He may be granted death in prison.' Shan's nephew Ben, who had earlier married Princess Nanjun, submitted a memorial requesting the dissolution of the marriage, but the emperor refused. Consort Shan, wife of Prince Xiao of Langye, was Shan's niece, and she pleaded bitterly on his behalf. Thereupon Minister over the Masses Wang Zun memorialized that Shan's crimes could not be pardoned and deserved the utmost penalty of the law, but Consort Shan's sorrow and emotional turmoil had made her ill, and by the boundless grace of His Majesty, he ought to receive the clemency of having his life preserved. An imperial decree was then issued: 'Consort Shan has only this single uncle; her words were choked with sorrow, even to the point of vomiting blood. Her emotional distress is profound. Having experienced the bitter loss of parents early on, We received the consort's upbringing, which is no different from that of a loving mother. If she cannot bear this intolerable illness and collapses completely, how could We hold up Our head? We now spare Shan's life to console the maternal kinship of the consort.' Thereupon he was stripped of his rank and made a commoner. A short time later, he fell ill and constantly saw Jian Liang and others saying: 'How could such injustice be endured? We have now come to take you to plead our case together in the Yellow Springs.' He died overnight.