Qin and Han · Han judicial official and imperial counselor

Du Zhou 杜周

Attested c. BC 120 - c. BC 95

Passages: 19
Chapters: 3
Histories: 2

Overview

Du Zhou was a Han judicial official and imperial counselor.

Life and dates

Attested activity

c. BC 120 to c. BC 95 杜周武帝時
Strongly inferred · Book of Han 70, passage 210
BC 114 to BC 110 杜周治之
Dated from the passage context · Records of the Grand Historian 30, passages 196-197
c. BC 120 to c. BC 95 武帝時
Strongly inferred · Book of Han 70, passage 1
BC 114 減宣、杜周等為中丞
Dated from the passage context · Records of the Grand Historian 30, passages 172, 177

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Parent of Du Yannian (杜延年)
youngest son 少子
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passages 23-24

Kinship Role sons · Count 3 · Du Zhou had two unnamed elder sons, both commandery governors known for harshness, and the youngest son Du Yannian.
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passages 22-23

Key source chapters

Book of Han, Chapter 70 Volume 60: Du Zhou 13 passages
Book of Han, Chapter 102 Volume 90: Cruel Officials 4 passages
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 30 Treatise on the Balanced Standard 2 passages

Career and standing

Colonel Director of Retainers 執金吾
Appointed after an earlier dismissal
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 21
Assistant Censor 中丞
Appointed
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 30, passage 177
Clerk to the Commandant of Justice 廷尉史
Appointed
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 2
Commandant of Justice 廷尉
Appointed
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 6
Censor-in-Chief 中丞
Held for more than ten years in alternation with Jian Xuan
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 4
Imperial Counselor 御史大夫
Promoted
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 21

Places and affiliations

Polity Western Han 西漢 · Relation Served
Strongly inferred · Records of the Grand Historian 30, passage 177
Duyan in Nanyang 南陽杜衍
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 1
Maoling 茂陵
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 210
At Duyan 杜衍
Directly stated · Book of Han 102, passage 117

Works and attributed material

Speech · Speaker · Mode direct-attribution Speaker Du Zhou (杜周) · Addressee Type: unnamed visitor · Topic Law consists of past statutes and present imperial commands.
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passages 10-12

Events and relationships

Expanded imperial warrant prosecutions and oversaw a coercive system implicating tens of thousands.
Judicial · Commandant
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passages 13, 20
Handled gaomin cases; few convictions overturned
Legal · Judge
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 30, passage 197
Investigated frontier losses and procured many death sentences.
Judicial · Investigator
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 3

Assessments and attributes

Rose from owning one horse to a family fortune of hundreds of millions.
Wealth · Amount hundreds of millions of cash
Directly stated · Book of Han 70, passage 22

Source notes

Historicity historical
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 30, passage 177

References in the histories

Search passages

History

19 passages

Book of Han, Chapter 70Volume 60: Du Zhou · 13 passages

杜周，南陽杜衍人也。 Du Zhou came from Duyang in Nanyang commandery.

義縱為南陽太守，以周為爪牙，薦之張湯，為廷尉史。 When Yi Zong served as governor of Nanyang, he used Du Zhou as his enforcer and recommended him to Zhang Tang, who took him on as a clerk in the office of the commandant of justice.

周少言重遲，而內深次骨。 Du Zhou was a man of few words, slow and ponderous in manner, but his cruelty ran marrow-deep.

宣為左內史，周為廷尉，其治大抵放張湯，而善候司。 When Jian Xuan held the left metropolitan superintendency, Du Zhou became commandant of justice. His judicial style broadly followed Zhang Tang's, but he was even better at reading the court and shadowing suspects.

上所欲擠者，因而陷之； Anyone the emperor wanted ruined, Zhou would find a way to ensnare;

客有謂周曰：「君為天下決平，不循三尺法，專以人主意指為獄，獄者固如是乎？」 A visitor once asked him, "You hold the scales of justice for the whole realm, yet you ignore the statute bamboo in favor of the emperor's whim—is that what law is meant to be?"

周曰：「三尺安出哉？ Du Zhou replied, "Where does the written code itself come from?

至周為廷尉，詔獄亦益多矣。 Once Du Zhou took the commandancy, the number of cases tried on imperial warrant multiplied.

周中廢，後為執金吾，逐捕桑弘羊、衛皇后昆弟子刻深，上以為盡力無私，遷為御史大夫。 Du Zhou was briefly stripped of rank, then appointed chief of police for the capital. He hunted down Sang Hongyang and the sons of Empress Wei's brothers with pitiless zeal. The emperor judged him tireless and impartial and raised him to imperial counselor.

始周為廷史，有一馬，及久任事，列三公，而兩子夾河為郡守，家訾累巨萬矣。 He had begun as a clerk with a single horse to his name; by the time he sat among the three dukes, with a son governing on each bank of the Yellow River, his family fortune ran to hundreds of millions of cash.

延年居父官府，不敢當舊位，坐臥皆易其處。 He moved into his father's official mansion but refused to use the old reception rooms, changing every hall and chamber where Du Zhou had sat.

初，杜周武帝時徙茂陵，至延年徙杜陵雲。 Du Zhou's household had been relocated to Maoling under Emperor Wu; by Du Yannian's generation the family had settled at Duling—or so the note runs.

贊曰：張湯、杜周並起文墨小吏，致位三公，列於酷吏。 The historian concludes: Zhang Tang and Du Zhou both climbed from scribal obscurity to the three highest offices and earned their place among the "cruel officials."

Book of Han, Chapter 102Volume 90: Cruel Officials · 4 passages

而平氏硃強、杜衍杜周為縱爪牙之吏，任用，遷為廷尉史。 Zhu Qiang and Du Zhou became his enforcers and rose to clerks of the commandant of justice.

而杜周任用。 Du Zhou stepped into his place.

杜周從諛，以少言為重。 Du Zhou whispered assent and weighed silence.

湯、周子孫貴盛，故別傳。」 Zhang Tang's and Du Zhou's prosperous heirs earn separate chapters.”

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 30Treatise on the Balanced Standard · 2 passages

而御史大夫張湯方隆貴用事，減宣、杜周等為中丞，義縱、尹齊、王溫舒等用慘急刻深為九卿，而直指夏蘭之屬始出矣。 At this time, Imperial Censor Zhang Tang was rising in power and controlling affairs. Jian Xuan, Du Zhou, and others were appointed assistant censors; Yi Zong, Yin Qi, Wang Wenshu, and others used cruel, urgent, harsh, and searching methods as ministers among the Nine Ministers. Officials such as the Direct Commissioner Xia Lan began to appear.

杜周治之，獄少反者。 Du Zhou handled the cases, and few convictions were overturned.