1. There was a distant blood relationship between the Hung-fu Yin and Yin Ch'ang-lung's people, who lived some miles away in Kuan-t'ang Ward (township 14). This relationship had no known bearing upon Yin Chih's career.

2. Chu Kuo-chen, Yung-ch'uang hsiao-p'in (Pi-chi hsiao-shuo ta-kuan ed., reprint, Taipei, 1962), 2:2069.

3. Chiao Hung, ed., Kuo-ch'ao hsien-cheng lu (1594; reprint, Taipei, 1965), 1:455-59 (Ch'eng K'ai, biography of Yin Chih). Yin was still alive when Ch'eng K'ai wrote this.

4. Wang Chih, I-an chi (SKCSCP ed., 8th ser.), B37.26b-27a (portrait appreciation) and B9.17b-19a (preface to poems in honor of Yin Tzu-yuan's departure).

5. Ch'eng Min-cheng, Huang-tun wen-chi (SKCSCP ed., 3d ser.), 40.4a (account of conduct for Li Hsien).

6. Yin's Ch'eng-chiang pieh-chi survives, but it consists mainly of official papers, which he edited and published in order, as he states in the preface, to show his descendants how high he had risen in his career.

7. L. Carrington Goodrich and Fang Chaoying, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography (New York, 1976), 2:1521; Ni Yueh, Ch'ing-ch'i man-kao (Wu-lin wang-che i-chu ed.), 16.16a-17b (account of a group portrait of Han-lin year-mates).

8. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 8b-9b; Wang Chih, A7.35b-37b (epitaph for Liao Mo); T'an Ch'ien, Kuo ch'ueh (reprint, Beijing, 1958), 2:1563-64. There was a common belief in the realm that Yang Shih-ch'i had abetted the rise of eunuch power; different stories, some of them probably apocryphal, circulated to show that he had done so. See, for example, Cheng Hsiao, Chin yen (1566; reprint, Taipei, 1969), 164-65.

9. Ming shih (Kuo-fang yen-chiu-yuan ed.), 3:1998-99.

10. Fei Hung, T'ai-pao Fei Wen-hsien kung chai-kao (1555; reprint, Taipei, 1970), 3:1509-17 (epitaph for Yin Chih).

11. Ming shih-lu (reprint, Taiwan, 1965), 40:371; 42:1219, 1269-73; 45:2536-37; Ming shih , 3:1996, 2080-82 (biographies of P'eng Hua and Li Ping); Sun Hsu, Sha-ch'i chi (SKCSCP ed., 8th ser.), 14.39ab (comment on Hsiao Yen-chuang).

12. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 28a-30a.

13. See Ming shih-lu , 12:1238, for the rule barring Chekiang and Kiangsi men from holding positions in the Ministry of Revenue. The rule certainly worked in the case of T'ai-ho men; none was ever assigned a regular post in the Ministry of Revenue.

14. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 30a.

15. Detailed inside information on these connections may be found in Hah Pang-ch'i, Yuan-lo chi (SKCSCP ed., 4th ser.), 19.7ab.

16. Li Tung-yang, Li Tung-yang chi (new ed., Changsha, 1984), 3:39-40 (preface to poems on the group portrait); Goodrich and Fang, eds., Ming Biographical Dictionary , 1:881; Ming shih-lu , 61:62-3 (obituary note for Chang Ta).

17. Ni Yueh, Ch'ing-ch'i man-kao , 19.11b-13a (message for Tseng Yen on his retirement).

18. Ming shih-lu , 45:2705.

19. Ming shih , 3:1998-99 (biography of Yin Chih).

20. Wang Shu, Wang Tuan-i kung wen-chi (reprint, Taipei, 1970), 61-64 (departing message for Vice Minister of War Yin Chih).

21. Ming shih-lu , 59:3741-43 (obituary for Lo Ching). See also Ming shih-lu , 50:4757-58 and 51:178-80; Li Tung-yang, Huai-lu t'ang kao (reprint, Taipei, 1975), 7:3401-6 (epitaph for Lo Ching).

22. See Hung-lam Chu, "Intellectual Trends in the Fifteenth Century," Ming Studies , no. 27 (spring 1989): 1-33. In 1470, Yin Chih's proposal to compile a Ming history and a Ta Ming t'ung-tien (Comprehensive encyclopedia of Ming institutions) was accepted by the throne. See Ming shih-lu , 42:1453-54. Fei Hung's epitaph for Yin Chih lists all his statecraft publications.

23. Ming shih , 3:1995-96 (biography of Wan An).

24. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 46ab.

25. Ming shih-lu , 50:4733-34; Ming shih , 3:1998-99 (biography of Yin Chih) and 3:2149 (biography of Min Kuei); Wang Ao, Chen-tse chi (SKCSCP ed., 5th ser.), 29.14a-17b (epitaph for Min Kuei). The quotation is from the Ming shih-lu .

26. Tsou Chih, Li-chai i-wen (SKCSCP ed., 9th ser.), 1.1a-7b (memorial of impeachment). Tsou Chih was soon arrested on a charge unrelated to this me-morial, and he died of disease in exile in Kwangtung.

27. Ming shih-lu , 51:116-117.

28. Ibid., 63.868; Goodrich and Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography , 1:233-34 (biography of Chiao Fang).

29. Ming shih , 5:3447 (biography of Chiao Fang); Ming shih-lu , 64:1313-14. The quotation is from the Ming shih .

30. Yang Hsi-min, Shih-wu-chia nien-p'u (reprint, Taipei, 1966), 4:1526. There is a large literature about Wu Yü-pi and his disciples. There is a biography of Wu in Goodrich and Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography , 2:1497-1501. See also Wing-tsit Chan, "The Ch'eng-Chu School of Early Ming," in Self and Society in Ming Thought , ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary (New York, 1970), 29-51; and Helmut Wilhelm, "On Ming Orthodoxy," Monumenta Serica 29 (197o-71): 1-26.

31. T'an Ch'ien, Kuo ch'ueh , 2:2072-73.

32. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 23ab. For the events of Wu Yü-pi's disastrous visit, see Ming shih-lu , 36:6217-19, 6224-26, 6251-52; and T'an Ch'ien, Kuo ch'ueh , 2:2057, 2069, 2072-73.

33. Cf. Goodrich and Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography , 2:1500.

34. Ibid., 1:154 (biography of Ch'en Hsien-chang). See also Jen Yu-wen, "Ch'en Hsien-chang's Philosophy of the Natural," in Self and Society in Ming Thought , ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary (New York, 1970), 53-92.

35. For a memorial that recommends fervently that Ch'en be invited to Peking, see P'eng Shao, P'eng Hui-an chi (SKCSCP ed., 3d ser.), 1.8b-ff. Ch'en's appearance is described in Lin Chün, Chien-su chi (SKCSCP ed., 5th ser.), A10.14a-16a (inscription for a memorial temple in honor of Ch'en Hsien-chang).

36. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 45ab. Cf. Goodrich and Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography , 1:896-98 (biography of Liang Fang). Yin Chih neglected to state that the request to the palace to confer the Han-lin appointment upon Ch'en Hsien-chang was prepared by his archenemy Yin Min, the minister of personnel. See Lin Chün, Chien-su chi , D1a-2b (chronological biography of Lin Chün). The official Veritable Records are hostile to Ch'en Hsien-chang, remarking unfavorably upon his philosophical unorthodoxy and upon his eagerness for fame and recognition. Ming shih-lu , 48:4128-30.

37. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 44b.

38. Ibid., 54b-55a.

39. Ning-po fu-chih (1741; reprint, Taipei, 1957), 3:1380.

40. Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu (Li-tai hsiao-shih ed.), 36a.

41 Ibid., 53b.

42. Ibid., 54a.

43. Ibid., 53b-54a.

44. Lo Ch'in-shun, Cheng-an ts'un-kao (SKCSCP ed., 4th ser.), 15.1ab.

45. Cf. Irene Bloom, trans., Knowledge Painfully Acquired: The K'un-chih chi by Lo Ch'in-shun (New York, 1987), 146-47.

46. Lo Ch'in-shun, Cheng-an ts'un-kao , 13.16b-19b (epitaph for Li Mu). Cf. Goodrich and Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography , 1:1269, for the "club of candid directness" as a sometime elite social institution in Ming China.

47. Ming Wen-hai (SKCSCP ed., 7th ser.), 466.21a-23a (Liu Chieh, epitaph for Kuo Hsu); Ch'en Ch'ang-chi, Lung-chin-yuan chi (Ming woodblock ed.), 1.16b-20a (biography of Kuo Hsu).

48. Fei Hung, T'ai-pao Fei Wen-hsien kung chai-kao , 17.25b-30b (epitaph for Yin Chih).

49. Ming shih-lu , 55:2073-74