Hai Rui (海瑞; Hǎi Ruì ; 23 January 1514 – 13 November 1587), courtesy name Ruxian (汝贤), art name Gangfeng (刚峰), was a Chinese scholar-official of the Ming dynasty, remembered as a model of honesty and integrity in office. A play based on his career, Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, gained political significance in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution. Biography Hai Rui, was born in Qiongshan, Guangdong (modern-day Hainan) on January 23, 1513. His father died when he was three, and he was raised by his mother. His great-great-grandfather was a native of Guangzhou named Hai Da-er (海答兒, Haidar, an Arabic name), and his mother was from a Muslim (Hui) family that originated from the Indian subcontinent. Hai Rui himself however was noted primarily as a Neo-Confucian and never discussed Islam in his Confucian works. Hai took the Imperial examination but was unsuccessful, and his official career only began in 1553, when he was 39, with a humble position as clerk of education in Fujian. He gained a reputation for his uncompromising adherence to upright morality, scrupulous honesty, poverty, and fairness. This won him widespread popular support, evinced among other things by his being enshrined while alive; but he also made many enemies in the bureaucracy. Nevertheless, he was called to the capital Beijing and promoted to the junior position of secretary of ministry of Revenue. In 1565, he submitted a memorial strongly criticizing the Jiajing Emperor for the neglect of his duties and bringing disaster to the country, for which he was sentenced to death in 1566. He was released after the Emperor died in early 1567. Hai Rui was reappointed as governor of South Zhili under the Longqing Emperor but was soon forced to resign in 1570 after complaints were made over his overzealous handling of land-tenure issues. Major moneylenders in the prefecture were accused of lending at exorbitant rates to smaller landowners, then seizing their lands as collateral. Hai Rui devoted considerable time to investigate these cases, pressing for the lands' return to their previous owners, but was in turn accused by officials of violating procedures and encouraging frivolous complaints and impeached by Tai Feng-Hsiang, a supervising secretary. Hai Rui then spent 15 years in retirement in Hainan before being finally brought back to the Empire's "auxiliary capital" of Nanjing, in 1585, to serve under the Wanli Emperor. Hai Rui was promoted to censor-in-chief of Nanjing