During the Yuan Dynasty, the scholar Huang Jin, just a few months old and still in his mother's arms, would focus intently whenever he heard someone reading aloud. By age four or five, he entered school and could recite poems and texts after a single glance. After passing the imperial examinations, he was assigned to serve as an official in Ninghai, a coastal county in Taizhou.
In Ninghai, where land was scarce and the sea abundant, wealthy families reclaimed tidal flats for salt fields, profiting handsomely by trading southern salt up north.
Salt was a state-monopolized commodity, and producing and selling it involved issues of taxation, pricing, and more. However, the wealthy landowners colluded with court officials, claiming that the tidal flats reclaimed from the sea were not recorded on the county's official maps, so local magistrates had no authority over them. Since these areas fell outside government jurisdiction, national laws did not apply there. Thus, the landowners acted like petty tyrants, freely exploiting and oppressing the salt workers, even resorting to private torture that left several laborers dead from their injuries.
"All under heaven is the king's land—how can wicked people be allowed to poison a region?" Huang Jin decided to severely punish several wealthy ringleaders.
"Sir, it's best to be cautious in handling this. As the saying goes, wealth and power are connected—those wealthy landowners along the tidal flats curry favor with officials from various prefectures, all colluding together. If this escalates, it could harm your future prospects." The advisor beneath the curtain offered this well-meaning counsel.
Huang Jin remained unmoved. He submitted a report to his superiors outlining his proposed measures, while simultaneously prosecuting several tyrannical landowners for illegally trading salt, assault, and murder. The region was thus restored to peace.
The imperial court honored Huang Jin by promoting him to the position of Deputy Salt Transport Commissioner for the Two Zhejiang regions, placing him in charge of salt administration and coastal defense. By long-standing custom, all patrol boats under the transport commission were to be replaced every three years, with superiors merely inspecting the new vessels without questioning costs, while the expenses for building and docking these ships were entirely imposed on the local populace. Previous commissioners had grown wealthy by arbitrarily approving ship-related fees. Upon taking office, Huang Jin first audited his predecessor's accounts, rigorously investigating all inflated expenditures, recovering the misappropriated funds, and returning them to the people.
During the Yuan Dynasty, paper currency known as "Baochao" was the official legal tender. Unscrupulous individuals secretly forged these notes, then intimidated ordinary people into using them. When a forgery case was exposed, these criminals colluded with corrupt officials, who instead framed innocent civilians as the guilty parties. In the counties of Xinchang, Tiantai, Ninghai, and Dongyang, hundreds of households were implicated in such counterfeit cases, all locked away in maximum-security prisons, suffering terribly. The official Huang Jin first sent agents to investigate in secret, uncovering the full truth of the matter. In one decisive sweep, he arrested both the corrupt officials and the forgers, securing the release of the innocent people.
Huang Jin served with integrity, keeping his sleeves clean of corruption. When his monthly salary was insufficient, he preferred selling family assets rather than asking the court or the people for help. Promoted to Grand Master of Central Devotion, he refused to flatter the powerful and maintained his moral purity. Everyone praised him as "pure as a jade ruler in an ice vessel, untouched by the slightest dust."
"Bing Hu Yu Chi" is also written as "Bing Hu San Chi." A "bing hu" is a jade pot for holding water. This idiom describes noble character and pure heart.
Source: *History of Yuan*, "Biography of Huang Jin"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "冰壶玉尺" came to describe how noble character and pure heart.