Cheng Xiao 程曉

When Emperor Wen took the throne, his grandfather Cheng Yu again became Minister of the Guards, was advanced in rank and enfeoffed as Marquis of Anxiang, and received an additional 300 households, bringing his fief to 800 households in all. At this time Cheng Yu's youngest son Cheng Yan and his grandson Cheng Xiao were separately enfeoffed as full marquises. Cheng Yu was succeeded by his son Cheng Wu. Records, Wei 14 §20

Cheng Xiao became Gentleman of the Yellow Gate in the Jiaping era. At this time the Inspectors of Affairs were unrestrained and tyrannical, so Cheng Xiao submitted a memorial. Citing the Rites of Zhou, 'Offices are established and duties divided to serve as the standard for the people,' and the Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, 'Heaven has ten suns and men have ten ranks,' he said that the foolish may not stand above the worthy nor the lowly above the noble, and that each should cultivate his own work and not let his thoughts stray beyond his post. He said that for those above not to demand merit outside a man's duties and for those below not to seek rewards beyond their station was the essential way of governing a state, and that originally there had never been an office of Inspector of Affairs that meddled in the various affairs of government. Records, Wei 14 §22–23

Cheng Xiao also set out how the Inspectors of Affairs had come about. He said that when Emperor Wu first founded the great enterprise, the various offices were not yet complete, the army was toiling and the people were uneasy, so that even small offences could not go uninvestigated; the Inspectors of Affairs were therefore established merely as an expedient of the moment, and there were means of checking them so that they did not become unrestrained. This, he said, was a temporary measure of an age of hegemons, not the proper statute of an emperor, yet afterwards the Inspectors of Affairs gradually gained trust until they watched over the palace and ancestral temples above and controlled the various offices below, so that offices no longer had distinct duties and posts no longer had limits. Records, Wei 14 §24

He went on to say that the Inspectors of Affairs made law at the tip of their brushes without following the statutes and edicts, and settled criminal cases within their own gates without regard for retrial; that in choosing their subordinates they called the cautious careless, and in handling affairs they called harshness and cruelty fairness and strictness. Outwardly they borrowed the majesty of Heaven, and inwardly they gathered the wicked to make them their confidants, so that the high ministers, though ashamed, endured it and kept silent, while the common people had nowhere to turn with their grievances. Thus it had come to the point that Yin Mo openly committed his villainies before everyone's eyes; his manifest crimes were known even to passers-by on the road, yet not even his small faults had been heard of above for years. Records, Wei 14 §25–26

Cheng Xiao said that now the high ministers and commanders oversaw the various bureaus outside the palace, the Palace Attendants and Masters of Writing managed the myriad affairs within, the Colonel-Director of Retainers supervised the capital and the Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk oversaw the palace halls. If even all these worthy men were not adequate to the task, he said, petty officials like the Inspectors of Affairs could be trusted still less; if these worthy men each devoted themselves to loyalty, the Inspectors of Affairs would add nothing; if outstanding scholars of the state were chosen to be Inspectors of Affairs, it would merely duplicate the offices of the Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk and the Colonel-Director of Retainers; and if they were chosen as before, villainy like that of Yin Mo would arise again. However one reckoned it, they were of no use. Records, Wei 14 §26–27

Finally Cheng Xiao cited Bu Shi's saying that if only Sang Hongyang were boiled alive, Heaven would send rain, and said that if the successes and failures of government must surely move Heaven and Earth, he feared it could not be said that the calamities of drought and flood were not caused by the Inspectors of Affairs. Even if the Inspectors of Affairs were of benefit to the state, he said, in terms of ritual propriety they wounded the hearts of the high ministers, and to leave them in place when their wickedness had been exposed would be failing to mend the rents in the imperial robe and losing one's way without turning back. Records, Wei 14 §27–28

Thereupon the office of Inspector of Affairs was finally abolished. Cheng Xiao was transferred to Administrator of Runan and died at a little over forty years of age. Chen Shou's main text does not record the year of his death. Records, Wei 14 §29

In his assessment of Records of Wei 14, Chen Shou called Cheng Yu, Guo Jia, Dong Zhao, Liu Ye and Jiang Ji extraordinary men of their age in talent, strategy and planning. Cheng Xiao is not included in the assessment. Records, Wei 14 §158