Wugu Sunze, a Jurchen official serving under the Yuan dynasty's Kublai Khan during the conquest of the Southern Song, managed military documents for the Mongol general Suodu. After Yuan forces captured Xinghua, Suodu ordered a massacre of the city's inhabitants. Wugu Sunze urgently pleaded, "General, slaughtering the innocent will only breed lasting resentment and undermine your authority. Spare them, and you will win the people's loyalty." Persuaded, Suodu revoked the order, sparing countless lives. This story illustrates how one voice of reason can turn the tide of cruelty, showing that true power lies not in destruction but in mercy.
Soon after, Wugusun Ze was appointed governor of Xinghua. On the day he took office, the locals welcomed him with singing and dancing. The war had just ended, and the people were struggling. He ordered food and clothing distributed and orphans taken in. When an official proposed confiscating the property of fallen Southern Song soldiers' families, he stopped him, saying:
"The war between two states should not implicate their families; we cannot confiscate their property."
Wugusun Ze, a devoted Confucian scholar, established a school in Xinghua City where he invited teachers to lecture on the Confucian classics. The local scholars held him in such high esteem that they hung his portrait in the school as a mark of respect.
When Wu Gusun Ze was later transferred to serve as a magistrate in Yongzhou, the powerful chancellor Sangge sought to intensify exploitation of the Han people by increasing taxes in the Jiangnan region, sending officials to audit the grain and treasury accounts of six provinces including Jianghuai and Huguang. Many local officials, eager to curry favor with Sangge, falsified inflated reports, sparking widespread resentment among the people.
Wugusun Ze sighed, "If this continues, the common people won't be able to survive!"
When Ugun Suneze reported the actual figures, the Huguang governor Yaosumu flew into a rage, declaring, "Every other region has increased its tax revenues without exception—why hasn't Yongzhou? This is clearly Ugun Suneze showing me no respect! I'll have him arrested and put to death!" It was only after the corruption scandals involving Sangge and Yaosumu came to light and they were executed that Ugun Suneze was finally released from prison.
Wugu Sunze lived frugally, not caring about food or clothing, wearing the same garment for years. While in Xinghua, he donated all the saved rent rice to schools. He often said:
“A scholar cannot cultivate integrity without frugality, nor virtue without integrity.” Historical records say his wife also lived “plain and unadorned, as all remarked.” Later, the idiom “plain and unadorned” came to describe someone simple and not flashy.
Source: *History of Yuan*, "Biography of Wugusun Ze"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "朴素无华" came to describe how someone simple and not flashy.