Hai Rui 海瑞

海瑞（1515－1587），字汝贤，号刚峰，广东琼山（今属海南）人。明朝著名清官。历任知县、州判官、户部尚书、兵部尚书、尚书丞、右佥都御史等职。为政清廉，洁身自爱。为人正直刚毅，职位低下时就敢于蔑视权贵，从不谄媚逢迎。一生忠心耿耿，直言敢谏，曾经买好棺材，告别妻子，冒死上疏。海瑞一生清贫，抑制豪强，安抚穷困百姓，打击奸臣污吏，因而深得民众爱戴。他的生平事迹在民间广泛流传，经演义加工后，成为了许多戏曲节目的重要内容。

Hai Rui (1515-1587), courtesy name Ruxian and pseudonym Gangfeng, was a native of Qiongshan (present-day Hainan Province). Hai was a famous Chinese official of the Ming Dynasty for his honesty and integrity. He successively held the posts of county magistrate, prefecture judge, minister of revenue, minister of war, aide to the imperial secretary, Youqian Duyushi (deputy censor-in-chief of the right). In his official career, Hai was honest, incorruptible, impartial, upright, never yielding to pressure, daring to contemn bigwigs even when he was just in humble positions, and never flattering. Throughout his life, Hai was loyal to the emperor and dared to speak out the truth and remonstrate with the emperor. He had risked his life to submit a memorial to the throne impeaching the emperor. Before going to the court, he bid farewell to his wife and children, and had a coffin purchased. Though living in poverty, Hai Rui was committed to the suppression of despotic class, propitiation of the poverty-stricken and struggling with treacherous and corrupt court officials throughout his life. His conducts won him widespread popular support. Hai’s life story was widely spread among common people and became the plots of many opera plays after adaptation.