Qin and Han · Official

Zhi Du 郅都

Attested BC 180 - BC 140

Passages: 66
Chapters: 8
Histories: 2

Overview

The translated histories identify Zhi Du as a courtier, judge, official, and physician. This record brings together 66 passages from 8 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Zhi Du	郅都	Zhi Du
Title	Commandant	中尉
Title	Commandant of Justice	中尉	Zhōngwèi
Given	Du	都	Dū
Given	Du	都	Du
Alternate	Grey Eagle	蒼鷹	Cāng yīng
Given name	Ren	仁	Rén
Given name	Ren	仁	Ren
Surname	Zhi	郅	Zhì
Personal name	Zhi Du	郅都	Zhi Du
Personal name	Zhi Du	郅都	Zhì Dū
Personal	Zhi Du	郅都	Zhì Dū
Surname	Zhou	周	Zhōu
Personal name	Zhou Ren	周仁	Zhōu Rén
Personal	Zhou Ren	周仁	Zhōu Rén
Personal name	Zhou Ren	周文仁	Zhou Ren
Alternate name	Zhou Wen	周文	Zhōu Wén
Courtesy name		文	Wen

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · hanshu:046:s0054, hanshu:055:s0107, hanshu:055:s0131, hanshu:102:s0022, shiji:059:s0021, shiji:100:s0063, shiji:103:s0097, shiji:103:s0124
Value: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:105:s0012
Value: male
Explicit · shiji:125:s0037

Roles

Courtier
Judge
Official
Physician

Life and dates

Death

Manner: beheading
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0050

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 中尉郅都 · Western Interval: Start: BC 180 · End: BC 141
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:100:s0063
Source Date: Text: 孝景帝時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 157 · End: BC 141
Explicit · shiji:125:s0037
Source Date: Text: 廢太子時 · Western Year: BC 150
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:103:s0097
Source Date: Text: 捕栗氏 · Western Interval: Start: BC 150 · End: BC 150
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0107
Source Date: Text: 文帝時 · Western Year: BC 180
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:103:s0126
Source Date: Text: 景帝初即位 · Western Year: BC 157
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:103:s0127
Source Date: Text: 景帝為太子時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 157 · End: BC 141
Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:055:s0133
Source Date: Text: 榮自殺 · Western Year: BC 150
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:059:s0021
Source Date: Text: 武帝立 · Western Year: BC 141
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0144
Source Date: Text: 武帝立 · Western Year: BC 141
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:103:s0137
Source Date: Text: 郅都 · Western Interval: Start: BC 150 · End: BC 140
Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:046:s0054

Family

Kinship Role: descendants · Note: all reached high office · Quantity: unspecified
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0145

Career and standing

Label: physician / 医
Explicit · shiji:103:s0125
Label: physician / 毉
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0132
Label: Palace Commandant / 郎中令 · Action: appointed
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0134
Label: Palace Steward / 郎中令 · Action: appointed
Explicit · shiji:103:s0127
Label: retainer (sheren) / 舍人 · Action: appointed
Explicit · shiji:103:s0126
Label: Commandant of Justice / 中尉 · Action: held
Explicit · shiji:059:s0021
Label: household attendant / 舍人 · Action: held
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0133
Label: Palace Gentleman Commander / 郎中令 · Action: held
Explicit · shiji:125:s0037
Label: Grand Counselor of the Palace / 太中大夫 · Action: promoted
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0133
Label: Grand Palace Counselor / 太中大夫 · Action: reached
Explicit · shiji:103:s0126
Office: gentleman / 郎
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0023
Office: Jinan grand administrator / 濟南守
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0031
Office: leader of gentleman cadets / 中郎將
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0024
Office: metropolitan commandant / 中尉
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0036
Office: Yanmen grand administrator / 雁門太守
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0042
Title: palace commandant
Explicit · hanshu:105:s0012
Status: retirement-illness · Action: dismissed
Explicit · shiji:103:s0138
Status: retired · Action: entered
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0145
Status: imperial-favorite · Action: held
Explicit · shiji:125:s0037

Places and affiliations

Polity: Han / 漢 · Relation: served
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0131
Polity: Western Han / 漢 · Relation: served
Explicit · shiji:103:s0127
Polity Text: Han
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0023
Place: Dayang in Hedong / 河東大陽
Explicit · hanshu:102:s0022
Place: Rencheng (ancestral) / 任城
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0131
Place: Rencheng / 任城
Explicit · shiji:103:s0124
Place: Yangling / 陽陵 · Relation: residence
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0141, shiji:103:s0134

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Addressee Person Id: Emperor Xiaojing (孝景皇帝)
Explicit · shiji:103:s0131

Events and relationships

Kind: legal · Role: arresting-officer · Action: arrested-Li-clan · Other Person Id: Confucius (孔子)
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0107
Kind: legal · Role: arresting-officer · Action: arrested-Li-clan
Explicit · shiji:103:s0097
Kind: legal · Role: interrogator · Action: rebuked · Other Person Id: Rong (榮)
Explicit · shiji:059:s0021

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: bordering-on-sycophancy · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · shiji:103:s0155
Assessment: favor beyond ordinary but not very deep · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
Explicit · shiji:125:s0037
Assessment: gentlemen mocked his filthy disguise · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0160
Assessment: secretive, reticent, accepted no bribes · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · hanshu:055:s0135, hanshu:055:s0143
Kind: habit · Statement: wore patched clothes and soiled trousers deliberately
Explicit · shiji:103:s0128

Source notes

Statement: had sons and grandsons (unspecified number) · Kinship Role: sons and grandsons
Explicit · shiji:103:s0138

References in the histories

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

Book of Han, Chapter 46Volume 37: Ji Bu, Luan Bu and Tian Shu · 1 passage

嘗為中司馬，中尉郅都不敢加。 He served as a marshal of the center; even Commandant Zhi Du would not touch him.

Book of Han, Chapter 55Volume 46: The Lords of Wan, Wei, Zhi, Zhou and Zhang · 10 passages

卷四十六萬石衛直周張傳第十六 Volume 46: Biography 16 — The Lords of Wan, Wei, Zhi, Zhou, and Zhang.

上以綰為長者，不忍，乃賜綰告歸，而使郅都治捕栗氏。 Jing still treated Wan as an elder he would not soil with that purge, sent him on leave, and handed the Li roundup to Zhi Du.

周仁，其先任城人也。 Zhou Ren’s family hailed from Rencheng.

景帝為太子時，為舍人，積功遷至太中大夫。 While Jing was still heir apparent Ren served as household attendant and climbed to Grand Counselor of the Palace.

景帝初立，拜仁為郎中令。 At the beginning of Jing’s reign Ren became Palace Commandant.

仁為人陰重不泄。 Ren was close-mouthed, imperturbable, and impossible to read.

於後宮祕戲，仁常在旁，終無所言。 When the consorts staged their private entertainments he stood by in silence year after year.

上時問人，仁曰：「上自察之。」 If the emperor asked his opinion of a man, he answered only, “Your Majesty must judge that yourself.”

仁乃病免，以二千石祿歸老，子孫咸至大官。 He resigned on grounds of illness, retired on a minister’s stipend, and left descendants who rose to the highest ranks.

至石建之澣衣，周仁為垢汙，君子譏之。 Still, later moralists have smiled at Shi Jian scrubbing bedpans and Zhou Ren’s studied squalor.

Book of Han, Chapter 102Volume 90: Cruel Officials · 40 passages

其後有郅都、甯成之倫。 Men such as Zhi Du and Ning Cheng followed.

郅都，河東大陽人也。 Zhi Du came from Dayang in Hedong Commandery.

上目都，都不行。 The emperor motioned Zhi Du to intervene; Zhi Du stood fast.

上欲自持兵救賈姬，都伏上前曰：「亡一姬復一姬進，天下所少寧姬等邪？ When the emperor reached for arms to rescue her, Zhi Du blocked him: "Lose one favorite and another takes her place—is the empire short of such women?

太后聞之，賜都金百斤，上亦賜金百斤，由此重都。 The dowager rewarded Zhi Du with a hundred catties of gold; the emperor matched it, and both sides henceforth prized him.

濟南瞷氏宗人三百餘家，豪猾，二千石莫能制，於是景帝拜都為濟南守。 More than three hundred households of the powerful Jian lineage dominated Jinan beyond any governor's control, so Emperor Jing named Zhi Du to the post.

居歲餘，郡中不拾遺，旁十餘郡守畏都如大府。 Within a year lost goods lay untouched in the streets, and a dozen neighboring governors feared him like a senior minister.

都為人，勇有氣，公廉，不發私書，問遺無所受，請寄無所聽。 Zhi Du was bold and upright: no private mail was opened, no gift or plea got a hearing.

都遷為中尉，丞相條侯至貴居也，而都揖丞相。 Promoted to metropolitan commandant, he greeted even the mighty Chancellor Zhou Yafu with no more than a waist-level bow.

是時，民樸，畏罪自重，而都獨先嚴酷，致行法不避貴戚，列侯宗室見都側目而視，號曰「蒼鷹」。 At the time the people were plain and restrained by fear of punishment, but Zhi Du alone made harshness his lead. He enforced the law without sparing noble in-laws, ranked marquises, or imperial kin, who could only glance at him sideways and called him "Grey Eagle."

臨江王征詣中尉府對簿，臨江王欲得刀筆為書謝上，而都禁吏弗與。 Prince Rong of Linjiang was hauled to headquarters for interrogation and begged for knife and stylus to draft an apology to the throne; Zhi Du barred clerks from supplying them.

竇太后聞之，怒，以危法中都，都免歸家。 Empress Dowager Dou, enraged, pinned a capital offense on Zhi Du and dismissed him.

景帝乃使使即拜都為雁門太守，便道之官，得以便宜從事。 Emperor Jing immediately commissioned him Yanmen governor by express edict with discretionary powers en route.

匈奴素聞郅都節，舉邊為引兵去，竟都死不近雁門。 The Xiongnu, respecting his iron integrity, pulled back from the frontier and never again pressed Yanmen while he lived.

匈奴至為偶人像都，令騎馳射，莫能中，其見憚如此。 They fashioned straw effigies of him for mounted archery drills that no one could strike—such was their dread.

乃中都以漢法。 They maneuvered the Han court into indicting him.

景帝曰：「都忠臣。」 Emperor Jing protested, "Zhi Du is a loyal servant."

於是斬都也。 Zhi Du went to the executioner's block.

稍遷至濟南都尉，而郅都為守。 He rose to commandant of Jinan while Zhi Du governed there.

始前數都尉步入府，因吏謁守如縣令，其畏都如此。 Earlier commandants had walked to headquarters and petitioned the governor through petty officers like county magistrates—such was Zhi Du's grip.

及成往，直凌都出其上。 Ning Cheng strode in and topped even Zhi Du.

都素聞其聲，善遇，與結歡。 Zhi Du, knowing his name, treated him generously and won his goodwill.

久之，都死，後長安左右宗室多犯法，上召成為中尉。 After Zhi Du died, imperial relatives around Chang'an ran riot until the emperor recalled Ning Cheng as metropolitan commandant.

其治效郅都，其廉弗如，然宗室豪傑人皆惴恐。 His methods rivaled Zhi Du's ferocity without the same honesty; still every noble house quaked.

為守，視都尉如令； As governor he treated his commandant like a county chief;

為都尉，陵太守，奪之治。 as commandant he bullied governors and stole their authority.

後由為河東都尉，與其守勝屠公爭權，相告言，勝屠公當抵罪，義不受刑，自殺，而由棄市。 Later, as Hedong commandant, he feuded with Governor Shengtu Gong until both denounced the other; Shengtu Gong chose suicide over sentence and Zhouyang You died by public execution.

以佐史補中都官，用廉為令史，事太尉周亞夫。 He rose from aide to capital posts, won recommendation as honest, became chief clerk under Grand Commandant Zhou Yafu.

以捕按太后外孫脩成子中，上以為能，遷為河內都尉。 His arrest and investigation of Zhong, a maternal grandson of the empress dowager, impressed the throne, and he became military governor of Henei.

甯成家居，上欲以為郡守，御史大夫弘曰：「臣居山東為小吏時，甯成為濟南都尉，其治如狼牧羊，成不可令治民。」 The emperor considered Ning Cheng for a governorship, but Gongsun Hong objected: "As Jinan commandant he shepherded men like a wolf among sheep; do not put him over civilians."

上乃拜成為關都尉。 Ning Cheng was named commandant of the imperial passes instead.

縱廉，其治效郅都。 Yi Zong stayed honest and governed with Zhi Du's pitiless edge.

稍遷至廣平都尉，擇郡中豪敢往吏十餘人為爪牙，皆把其陰重罪，而縱使督盜賊，快其意所欲得。 As Guangping commandant he blackmailed a dozen fearless clerks with capital charges, then turned them loose as bandit-hunters.

遷關都尉，聲甚於甯成。 As pass commandant he terrified travelers worse than Ning Cheng.

後復為淮陽都尉。 He resurfaced as Huaiyang commandant.

稍遷至主爵都尉，上以為能。 He rose to chief of merit nobilities with imperial praise.

大群至數千人，擅自號，攻城邑，取庫兵，釋死罪，縛辱郡守、都尉，殺二千石，為檄告縣趨具食； Thousand-strong hosts seized towns, looted arsenals, freed felons, trussed governors, slew ranking officials, and demanded grain by manifesto;

於是上始使御史中丞、丞相長史使督之，猶弗能禁，乃使光祿大夫范昆、諸部都尉及故九卿張德等衣繡衣，持節、虎符，發兵以興擊，斬首大部或至萬餘級。 Thereupon the sovereign first sent the Palace Assistant Censor and the Chancellor's Chief Clerk to supervise the matter, but they still could not stop it. He then sent Household Grandee Fan Kun, the commandants of the various departments, and former Nine Ministers such as Zhang De, wearing embroidered robes and bearing credentials and tiger tallies, to mobilize troops and strike; in the largest groups, more than ten thousand heads were cut off.

攻次遷河南都尉，以殺伐為治。 Merit promotion brought him to commandant of Henan with a slash-and-burn style.

贊曰：「自郅都以下皆以酷烈為聲，然都抗直，引是非，爭大體。 Appraisal says: "From Zhi Du downward all took fierce severity as fame—yet Du resisted straight—cited right and wrong—contended great principle.

Book of Han, Chapter 105Volume 93: Flatterers · 1 passage

景帝唯有郎中令周仁。 Jing's circle held only Zhou Ren, the palace commandant.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 59House of the Five Clans · 1 passage

中尉郅都責訊王，王恐，自殺。 The Commandant Zhi Du interrogated the king with harsh rebukes; terrified, Rong took his own life.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 100Biographies of Ji Bu and Luan Bu · 1 passage

嘗為中司馬，中尉郅都不敢不加禮。 He once served as a Palace Marshal, and even Zhi Du, the Commandant of Justice, did not dare treat him with anything less than full courtesy.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 103Biographies of Wan Shi and Zhang Shu · 11 passages

上以為綰長者，不忍，乃賜綰告歸，而使郅都治捕栗氏。 The emperor regarded Wan as a venerable elder who could not bear such matters, and so granted Wan leave to retire. He then dispatched Zhi Du to arrest the Li clan.

郎中令周文者，名仁，其先故任城人也。 The Palace Steward Zhou Wen, whose given name was Ren, had ancestors originally from Rencheng.

景帝為太子時，拜為舍人，積功稍遷，孝文帝時至太中大夫。 When Emperor Jing was still Crown Prince, Ren was appointed as a retainer. Through accumulated merit he was gradually promoted, reaching the rank of Grand Palace Counselor by Emperor Wen's time.

景帝初即位，拜仁為郎中令。 When Emperor Jing first ascended the throne, he appointed Ren as Palace Steward.

仁為人陰重不泄，常衣敝補衣溺袴，期為不絜清，以是得幸。 Ren was by nature secretive and discreet, never divulging anything. He habitually wore threadbare patched clothes and soiled trousers, deliberately making himself appear unkempt, and thus won the emperor's favor.

景帝入臥內，於後宮祕戲，仁常在旁。 When Emperor Jing retired to his private chambers and engaged in secret amusements in the rear palace, Ren was always at his side.

至景帝崩，仁尚為郎中令，終無所言。 Until Emperor Jing's death, Ren still served as Palace Steward, and to the end he never uttered a word about what he had seen.

上時問人，仁曰：「上自察之。」 When the emperor occasionally asked his opinion of people, Ren would say, "Your Majesty should examine them yourself."

武帝立，以為先帝臣，重之。 When Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he regarded Ren as a minister of the former emperor and treated him with great respect.

仁乃病免，以二千石祿歸老，子孫咸至大官矣。 Ren eventually fell ill and was relieved of his duties, retiring on a salary of two thousand bushels. His sons and grandsons all rose to high office.

塞侯微巧，而周文處讇君子譏之，為其近於佞也。 The Marquis of Sai was possessed of subtle skill, while Zhou Wen dwelt in flattery—the gentlemen censured him for bordering on sycophancy.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 125Biographies of Flatterers · 1 passage

孝景帝時，中無寵臣，然獨郎中令周文仁，仁寵最過庸，乃不甚篤。 During Emperor Jing's reign, there were no notable court favorites. Only Zhou Ren, the Palace Gentleman Commander, enjoyed favor somewhat beyond the ordinary, and even that was not very deep.