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Having been deified by popular acclaim he is now prayed to for fair and just decisions in the Spirit World. He cannot be bribed or corrupted and is approached by people who feel that they have had a wrong done to them which cannot otherwise be righted without aid from the Spirits.
He is a popular hero of historical significance. He went through his official life in defiance towards his superiors whose moral values were in question. Permanently fired by zeal, a high point in his career was when he stood up for right against the Emperor. The memorial he submitted to the Jiaqing Emperor criticised the Emperor's lifestyle and attitude, and accused him of being directly responsible for the evil times. Hai Rui had bought his own coffin and had bade farewell to his family before submitting it. He was imprisoned and many times the Emperor considered ordering his death. Instead he was released at the death of the Emperor and was re-employed only to be impeached once more. He returned to Hainan in forced retirement, prior to being employed again for the last time during which he died in Nanjing. Whilst in Hainan Hai Rui memorialised the throne on the subject of clashes between Chinese immigrants and the native aborigines on Hainan. Three uprisings in 1501, 1541 and 1550 had taken more than ten thousand Chinese soldiers months to subdue, and Hai Rui's proposal that a road be built through tribal territories to bring the whole area under control was not undertaken.
Hai Rui's ancestry included non-Chinese blood from the northern borders, though memories of him tend to reflect his time in Nanjing and his birthplace, Hainan where he spent his time in exile. Legend relates that he was sent to serve in the Chaozhou area of southern Fujian as a Confucian instructor at the local magistracy. He solved many problems for the locals and was very popular. Chaozhou devotees of his cult today tell of a group of corrupt officials and tyrannical landlords who oppressed the people. They were opposed by Hai Rui who was at that time still only a lowly official. He courageously opposed the minister who supported the officials and according to legend he committed suicide to make the point to the Emperor.
In the 1960s the then mayor of Peking, Wu Han, first wrote an essay in which the target of his thinly veiled criticism of the 'Emperor as being self-opinionated and unreceptive to criticism' would have been