Cui Qi (崔器) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Cui Qi as a judge and official. This record brings together 18 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Cui Qi	崔器	Cui Qi
Surname	Cui	崔	Cui
Personal name	Cui Qi	崔器	Cui Qi
Given name	Qi	器	Qi

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · jiutangshu:119:s0001

Roles

Judge
Official

Life and dates

Death

Manner: illness · Cause: leg edema turning critical; after visions of Daxi Xun / 腳腫疾亟 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 上元元年七月 · Lunar Month: 7 · Western Year: AD 760
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0026, jiutangshu:119:s0028

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 上元元年七月 · Lunar Month: 7 · Western Year: AD 760
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0026
Source Date: Text: 天寶六載 · Western Year: AD 747
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0006
Source Date: Text: 天寶六載 · Western Year: AD 747
Explicit event contextual date · jiutangshu:119:s0007, jiutangshu:119:s0006
Source Date: Text: 天寶十三年 · Western Year: AD 754
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0009
Source Date: Text: 天寶十五載 · Western Year: AD 756
Explicit event contextual date · jiutangshu:119:s0010

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Descendant of Cui Gongli (崔恭禮)
Kinship Term: great-grandfather / 曾祖 · Generation Distance: 3 · Line: paternal · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: great-grandfather · Object Role: great-grandson
Child of Cui Suran (崔肅然)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son · Line: paternal

Career and standing

Label: administrator / 吏
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0005
Label: Vice Minister of Revenue / 戶部侍郎 · Action: appointed · Concurrent: true
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0014
Label: Supervisory Censor / 監察御史 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 天寶六載 · Western Year: AD 747
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0006
Label: Magistrate of Fengxian / 奉先令 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 天寶十三年 · Western Year: AD 754
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0009
Label: Vice Director in the Ministry of Justice / 都官員外郎 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 天寶十三年 · Western Year: AD 754
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0009
Label: Commissioner of Court Ritual / 禮儀使 · Action: appointed
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0015
Label: Commissioner of the Three Offices / 三司使 · Action: appointed
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0016
Label: legal aide / 判官 · Action: appointed
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0007
Label: Vice Censor-in-Chief / 御史中丞 · Action: appointed
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0014
Label: Warden of Wannian County / 萬年尉 · Action: appointed · Start Date: Source Date: Text: 天寶六載 · Western Year: AD 747
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0006
Label: Censor-in-Chief / 御史大夫 · Action: recommended-for
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0025
Label: Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel / 吏部侍郎 · Action: recommended-for
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0025
Label: Recorder of Jingzhao Prefecture / 京兆府司錄 · Action: transferred · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 天寶十三年 · Western Year: AD 754
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0009
Status: exile · Action: entered
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0008

Places and affiliations

Label: Tang / 唐 · Relation: served
Strongly inferred · jiutangshu:119:s0001
Place: Anping in Shen prefecture / 深州安平
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0001
Place: Anping / 安平 · Relation: native-of
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0001

Learning and skills

Credential: Mingjing / 明經 · Action: earned
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0005

Works and attributed material

Kind: memorial · Role: author · Summary: proposed death for all officials who served rebels
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0019
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Summary: Daxi pleaded and I refused
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0027

Events and relationships

Kind: military · Role: actor · Action: burned-rebel-credentials-and-summoned-loyal-troops · Place: Wei River / 渭上
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0012
Kind: political · Role: subject · Action: fell-into-rebel-hands-but-held-Fengxian · Place: Fengxian / Western Capital / 奉先／西京 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 天寶十五載 · Western Year: AD 756
Explicit event contextual date · jiutangshu:119:s0010
Kind: travel · Role: actor · Action: fled-north-to-Lingwu · Place: Lingwu / 靈武
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0013
Kind: travel · Role: follower · Action: followed-emperor-to-Fengxiang · Other Person Id: Emperor Suzong (肅宗) · Place: Fengxiang / 鳳翔
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0015
Kind: medical · Role: subject · Action: saw-apparition-of-Daxi-Xun · Other Person Id: Daxi Xun (達奚珣)
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0026, jiutangshu:119:s0027
Kind: legal · Role: protocol-author · Action: staged-humiliation-of-officials-who-served-rebels · Place: Hanyuan Hall / 含元殿
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0017
Relation: friend-of · Person Id: Lü Yin (呂諲)
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0014
Relation: aide-of · Person Id: Song Hun (宋渾)
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0007

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: cruel, secretive, delighted in others' ruin; ruthless · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0019
Assessment: heaped severity and delighted in disaster; hidden guilt revealed by Daxi apparition · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0132, jiutangshu:119:s0136
Assessment: upright, inflexible, little tact; scrupulous integrity · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · jiutangshu:119:s0005

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Old Book of Tang, Chapter 119Volume 115 Biographies 65: Cui Qi, Zhao Guozhen, Cui Guan, Jing Kuo, Wei Yuanfu, Wei Shaoyou, Wei Boyu, Li Cheng · 18 passages

Open chapter

崔器，深州安平人也。 Cui Qi came from Anping in Shen prefecture.

器有吏才，性介而少通，舉明經，歷官清謹。 Qi had a gift for administration. Upright and unyielding, with little tact, he passed the Mingjing examination and served throughout with scrupulous integrity.

中丞宋渾為東畿采訪使，引器為判官； When Chief Censor Song Hun served as visiting commissioner of the Eastern Capital circuit, he took Qi on as his legal aide;

渾坐贓流貶嶺南，器亦隨貶。 when Hun was convicted of graft and exiled to Lingnan, Qi was banished along with him.

逆胡陷西京．器沒於賊，仍守奉先。 When the rebel armies seized the Western Capital, Qi was caught in occupied territory yet continued to govern Fengxian.

又渭上義兵起，一朝聚徒數萬，器懼，所受賊文牒符敕，一時焚之，榜召義師，欲應渭上軍。 Patriot militia also rose along the Wei River, and within a single morning tens of thousands had assembled. Terrified, Qi burned every rebel commission, pass, and order in his possession, posted notices calling loyal troops, and prepared to march to the Wei River army.

及渭上軍破，賊將崔乾祐先鎮蒲、同，使麾下騎三十人捉器，器遂北走靈武。 When the Wei River force was broken, the rebel general Cui Qianyou—already holding Pu and Tong—sent thirty horsemen to seize Qi, and Qi fled north to Lingwu.

器素與呂諲善，諲引為御史中丞、兼戶部侍郎。 Qi had long been close to Lü Yin, who recommended him as vice censor-in-chief and concurrent vice minister of revenue.

器草儀註，駕入城，令陷賊官立於含元殿前，露頭跣足，撫膺頓首請罪，以刀杖環衛，令扈從群官宰臣已下視之。 Qi drafted the ceremonial protocol. When the imperial procession entered the city, he had officials who had served the rebels stand before Hanyuan Hall bareheaded and barefoot, beating their breasts and kowtowing for pardon, ringed by guards with blades and staves, while every accompanying official from the chief ministers down was made to watch.

器性陰刻樂禍，殘忍寡恩，希旨奏陷賊官準律並合處死。 Qi was secretive, cruel, and delighted in others' ruin—ruthless and devoid of mercy. Currying favor, he memorialized that every official who had served the rebels deserved death under the statutes.

及聞崔器議刑太重，眾心復搖。」 When we heard that Cui Qi's proposed punishments were too harsh, our hearts wavered anew."