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卷九 魏書九 諸夏侯曹傳

Volume 9: Book of Wei 9: Biographies of the Xiahous and Caos

Chapter 9 of 三國志 · Records of the Three Kingdoms
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Chapter 9
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1
Xiahou Dun.
2
退
Xiahou Dun, styled Yuanrang, came from Qiao in Pei commandery. He traced his line back to Xiahou Ying. When he was fourteen he took a tutor; a man who humiliated that tutor was slain by Dun, and word of his fierce temper spread from that moment. In the earliest days of Cao Cao’s rise, Dun repeatedly served as a deputy commander and rode with him on every expedition. While Cao Cao held the acting title General Who Inspires Martial Might, he named Dun his chief of staff, detached him to hold Baima, advanced him to colonel of the shock corps, and added the post of governor of Dong commandery. When Cao Cao marched against Tao Qian, he left Dun behind to defend Puyang. Zhang Miao turned traitor and ushered in Lü Bu. Cao Cao’s household was still at Juancheng; Dun raced there with a light escort, ran straight into Lü Bu’s host, and joined battle. Lü Bu fell back, then doubled into Puyang and overran Dun’s baggage column before anyone could react. He sent a subordinate under false colors of surrender; the man seized Dun as a hostage and demanded ransom. Panic rippled through Dun’s camp. Han Hao, one of Dun’s commanders, drew up his men at the camp gate, called in every staff officer and captain, ordered each unit to stand fast in full kit, and so steadied the whole encampment. He strode to Dun’s position and roared at the kidnappers: “You are traitors who dare bind a commander-in-chief and still expect to walk away alive? I carry orders to extirpate rebels. Am I to spare you for the life of a single general?” Weeping, he told Dun, “The law of the realm leaves me no choice.” He ordered the assault troops forward against the hostage-takers. The kidnappers panicked, beat their heads on the ground, and cried, “We only wanted money to get away!” Han Hao berated them again and again, then had every one of them executed. After Dun was freed, Cao Cao heard the story and told Han Hao, “What you did should be the precedent for all time.” He then promulgated a rule: from that day forward, anyone who seized a hostage was to be cut down together with the victim—no one was to spare the captive for fear of the bandits. After that, hostage-taking in his armies all but disappeared. 〈Sun Sheng remarks: The Guangwu Annals record that in Jianwu 9 robbers kidnapped the mother and younger brother of Honored Lady Yin; officials, forbidden to storm the hostage to corner the outlaws, watched helplessly as the bandits murdered them. So the policy of striking hostage-takers without mercy was already an old precedent. After the An and Shun emperors, government grew slack and kidnappers no longer spared even princes of the blood, while magistrates shrank from enforcing the code. Han Hao was the first in ages to cut them down without negotiation, which is why Cao Cao praised him so warmly.〉
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使便 使 使 西 西 228西 西 266 使 使 使
After Cao Cao withdrew from Xu province, Dun joined the campaign against Lü Bu, took a stray arrow in the left eye, and was badly wounded. The Brief Account of Wei notes that he and Xiahou Yuan were then both serving as generals, and the troops nicknamed Dun "Blind Xiahou." Dun loathed the sobriquet; whenever he caught his reflection he flew into a rage and smashed the mirror to the floor. He resumed the governorship of Chenliu and Jiyin, was advanced to General Who Establishes Martial Might, and received the village marquisate of Gao'an. During a severe drought and locust plague he dammed the Taishou River into a reservoir, carried earth on his own back, and drove his soldiers to plant rice; the common people profited from the scheme. He was then named intendant of Henan. While Cao Cao subdued Hebei, Dun guarded the army's rear as grand general. After Ye was taken he became General Who Calms the Waves, kept Henan as before, and was empowered to act on his own authority outside the usual statutes. In Jian'an 12 his cumulative honors were tallied and his fief enlarged by 1,800 households, bringing the total to 2,500. In the twenty-first year, returning from the campaign against Sun Quan, Cao Cao left Dun in command of twenty-six armies, stationed at Juchao. He gave him musicians and celebrated courtesans, declaring: "Wei Jiang won music of bells and drums for pacifying the Rong—surely a general deserves no less!" In the twenty-fourth year, while Cao Cao camped at Mobei, Dun was constantly summoned to share his carriage, treated with exceptional trust, and admitted to the inner quarters—privilege none of his peers matched. He was named General of the Vanguard. The Book of Wei records that every other commander had already taken Wei titles while Dun still bore Han rank; he memorialized that he could not accept honors implying he was not a subject of the Han. Cao Cao replied: "They say the sage-emperor treats ministers as teachers, and after that as friends. A minister is a man who honors virtue—how could petty Wei make me your subject and bow you down?" Dun pressed the point until Cao Cao finally confirmed him as General of the Vanguard. He led the armies back to Shouchun and then shifted the camp to Zhaoling. When Emperor Wen ascended as king of Wei he named Dun grand general; Dun died within months. Even on campaign he sought out tutors and received classical instruction in person. He was austere by nature, gave away every surplus, drew on official funds rather than private wealth when funds ran short, and never built up family property. He was canonized as Marquis Zhong (the Loyal). His son Chong inherited the title. The Emperor, recalling Dun's service, wished to ennoble the whole line: he carved a thousand households from Dun's fief and made interior marquises of seven sons and two grandsons. Dun's brother Lian and son Mao had already held ranked marquisates in their own right. Cao Cao had earlier married his daughter—the Princess of Qinghe—to Mao. Mao rose through attendant-in-chief, minister of the masters of writing, and General Who Pacifies the West and Quiets the East, and carried the baton of command. The Brief Account of Wei gives his style as Zilin and identifies him as Dun's second son. Emperor Wen had been close to Mao since boyhood; on his accession he named Mao General Who Pacifies the West with full insignia, succeeding Xiahou Yuan as commander of Guanzhong. Mao had no talent for war but a passion for moneymaking. In Taihe 2 (228), during Emperor Ming's western expedition, an informer denounced Mao and he was recalled to court as minister of the masters of writing. While stationed in the west Mao kept a large household of entertainers and concubines, which alienated the princess. When his wife's brothers flouted decorum, Mao scolded them repeatedly; fearing punishment they conspired to accuse him of slander, the princess petitioned the throne, and an edict went out for his arrest. The Emperor meant to execute him and consulted Colonel of the Long River Duan Mo of Jingzhao, who said: "This surely stems from the princess's quarrel with Mao—a fabricated charge they hope no one will investigate. Besides, Mao's father served the late emperor in conquering the realm—think thrice before acting." The Emperor relented: "I believe you are right." An investigation traced the memorial to Mao's brothers-in-law Zizang and Zijiang, who had fabricated the case. When Chong died his son Yi inherited. When Yi died his son Shao inherited. The Annals of Jin record that in the second year of Taishi (266), Xiahou Zuo, village marquis of Gao'an and Dun's grandson, died without heirs. An edict declared: "Dun was Wei's founding pillar; his deeds stand inscribed in the annals. When Ting Jian went without sacrifice men still grieved—how could I, having received the mandate from Wei, forget its champions? Let Shao, Dun's nearest kin, be chosen to receive the enfeoffment." Han Hao came from Henei commandery. He and Shi Huan of Pei were both famed for loyal daring. Han Hao rose to chief of the protectors army and Shi Huan to commander of the central army; both held the palace guard and received ranked marquisates. The Book of Wei gives his style as Yuansi. When war engulfed the Han, his county lay close to wild hills teeming with raiders; Hao rallied a militia to shield the district. The grand administrator Wang Kuang named him an aide and sent him with troops to block Dong Zhuo at Mengjin. Dong Zhuo seized Hao's uncle Du Yang, magistrate of Heyin, and used him to summon Hao; Hao refused. Yuan Shu admired his stand and appointed him commandant of cavalry. Xiahou Dun sought him out, was mightily impressed, and took him on campaign as a commander. Amid debate over fiscal reform, Hao argued that agriculture must come first. Cao Cao approved and promoted him to protector of the army. When Cao Cao planned an expedition to Liucheng, army commander Shi Huan judged the march too long and deep to be sound policy and urged Hao to join him in counseling against it. Han Hao replied: "Our armies are at their height and nothing resists us—if we do not crush the realm's enemies now, we will rue the delay. The lord is invincible in counsel; as chiefs of staff we must not dampen the troops' spirit." He joined the victory at Liucheng, was retitled chief of the protectors army, and given chief clerk and marshal. On the campaign against Zhang Lu, Lu submitted. Some urged keeping Han Hao in Hanzhong to command the western armies, trusting his talent for border affairs. Cao Cao answered: "How can I do without my protector of the army?" Hao returned with him. That was how deeply he was trusted. At his death Cao Cao grieved deeply. Childless, he was succeeded by his adopted son Rong. Shi Huan, styled Gongliu. As a youth he lived by the sword and bore a fierce temper. When Cao Cao first raised his standard, Huan joined as a guest officer, served as acting colonel of the central army, joined every campaign, oversaw the commanders, won close trust, and rose to commander of the central army. He died in the fourteenth year. His son Jing inherited the title.
4
使 使西
Xiahou Yuan, styled Miaocai, was a younger kinsman of Xiahou Dun. While Cao Cao was still a private gentleman he tangled with the county authorities; Yuan stepped forward and took the gravest charge on himself, and Cao Cao maneuvered until the sentence was lifted. 〈The Wei lüe relates that when Yan and Yu were convulsed by rebellion, famine forced Yuan to leave his own baby son to die while he saved the orphaned girl of a dead younger brother.〉 When Cao Cao first mustered an army, Yuan joined him as chief of staff of an independent column and as chief of cavalry, then rose to governor of Chenliu and Yingchuan. At Guandu he served as acting army inspector under Cao Cao’s command against Yuan Shao. After Shao’s defeat he was put in charge of grain convoys for Yan, Yu, and Xu; provisions were dangerously low, but Yuan kept the wagons moving without a break until the host could fight again. When Chang Xi rose in revolt, Yu Jin was first sent and stalled; Yuan was dispatched to reinforce him. Together they stormed Chang Xi, overran a dozen of his camps, and drove the rebel to surrender to Yu Jin. Yuan came back and was named colonel of the headquarters guard. 〈The Wei shu notes that Yuan habitually moved faster than anyone expected; soldiers coined the rhyme: “Headquarters colonel Xiahou Yuan—five hundred li in three days, a thousand in six.”〉 Yellow Turban remnants Xu He and Sima Ju in Jinan and Le’an were storming towns and murdering magistrates; Yuan led the Mount Tai, Qi, and Pingyuan levies against them, crushed their army, beheaded Xu He, restored order county by county, and seized their grain for the troops. In the fourteenth year of the Jian’an era he was made acting commander of the guard army. After Cao Cao’s expedition against Sun Quan, he sent Yuan to direct the generals against the Lujiang mutineer Lei Xu. When Lei Xu fell, Yuan took the acting post of western army protector and oversaw Xu Huang’s sweep of the Taiyuan bandits—twenty stockades stormed, chieftain Shang Yao executed, and his stronghold put to the sword. He marched with Cao Cao against Han Sui’s coalition and fought on the south bank of the Wei. He also directed Zhu Ling in subduing the Di peoples of Yumi and along the Qian River. He met Cao Cao at Anding and accepted Yang Qiu’s surrender.
5
使 使
In the seventeenth year Cao Cao went back to Ye and named Yuan acting protector general with Zhu Ling, Lu Zhao, and others to hold Chang’an. They routed the bandit Liu Xiong in the southern hills and brought his followers to heel. He bottled up Liang Xing, a remnant of Han Sui and Ma Chao’s faction, inside Hu, stormed the town, struck off Liang Xing’s head, and received the village marquisate of Bochang. Ma Chao penned Liangzhou Inspector Wei Kang inside Ji; Yuan raced to the relief but arrived too late—Wei Kang had already lost. Still over two hundred li short of Ji, he collided with Ma Chao’s vanguard and suffered a reverse. When the Di along the Qian rose, Yuan broke off and withdrew his column. In the nineteenth year Zhao Qu and Yin Feng conspired to destroy Ma Chao; Jiang Xu raised the standard at Lucheng to back them. Zhao Qu’s party tricked Ma Chao into riding out against Jiang Xu, then slaughtered every member of his family left behind. Ma Chao bolted to Hanzhong, then swung back to invest Qishan. Jiang Xu’s men begged for immediate aid; several generals argued they must wait for orders from Cao Cao at Ye. Yuan replied, “The Duke is four thousand li away in Ye. By the time a messenger returns, Jiang Xu will be dust. That is no rescue at all.” He moved at once, sent Zhang He ahead with five thousand horse and foot through the Cangcang defile, and himself shepherded the baggage train. Zhang He’s van reached the Wei’s north shore, where several thousand Di and Qiang troopers under Ma Chao barred the way. Before the lines closed Ma Chao bolted; Zhang He pushed on and scooped up abandoned gear by the wagonload. By the time Yuan came up, every county along the route had capitulated. Han Sui was holding Xianqin; Yuan tried to fall on him by surprise, but Sui slipped away. Yuan seized Han Sui’s granaries and chased him to Lueyang, closing to within twenty li. Some captains wanted to storm Sui’s camp; others urged a strike at the Di stronghold of Xingguo. Yuan judged Han Sui’s veterans too tough and the walls of Xingguo too high for a quick win; better to hit the Qiang settlements at Changli instead. Most of the Changli Qiang were serving in Han Sui’s ranks and would race home the moment their villages burned. Leave the Qiang isolated on the heights, or draw them out to save Changli—either way our men fight them in the open and can break them for good. He left deputies to shield the train, took picked horse and foot to Changli, torched the Qiang camps, and piled up heads and prisoners beyond count. Every Qiang who had marched with Han Sui melted back toward his own tribe. Han Sui did hurry to Changli, where he drew up against Yuan’s host. His officers blanched at Han Sui’s numbers and wanted to entrench and wait. Yuan said, “We have fought our way a thousand li. If we start digging lines now the men will be played out before a blow is struck. They outnumber us, but they are rabble we can break.” He beat the advance, shattered Han Sui’s line, seized his command banners, fell back to Lueyang, then swung the whole army against Xingguo. The Di chieftain Qianwan bolted to Ma Chao; everyone else submitted. He next hit the Tuge tribesmen of Gaoping; they broke and ran, leaving grain, oxen, and horses for the taking. The court then invested him with formal insignia of command.
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使 西 西 西 鹿 使
Earlier, when Liangzhou dissolved into chaos, Song Jian of Fuhan had crowned himself “River-head King Who Pacifies the Han.” Cao Cao dispatched Yuan at the head of several columns to destroy him. Yuan invested Fuhan, stormed it after a month, and executed Song Jian together with every minister he had named. He detached Zhang He to clear Heguan, crossed into Little Huangzhong, brought every Qiang tribe west of the river to terms, and quieted the Longyou corridor. Cao Cao proclaimed: “Song Jian wallowed in rebellion for thirty years; Xiahou Yuan wiped him out at a stroke, strode the Longyou like a tiger, and nothing stood in his path. Confucius once admitted, “I am not his equal; you are not like him." ’” In the twenty-first year three hundred new households were added to his fief, bringing the total to eight hundred. On his return he struck the Di and Qiang at Xiabian in Wu commandery and carried off well over a hundred thousand hu of their grain. When Cao Cao marched west against Zhang Lu, Yuan shepherded every Liangzhou commander from marquis rank downward to rendezvous with him at Xiuting. Whenever Cao Cao paraded Qiang and Xiongnu chiefs before his tent, they went pale at the sight of Yuan. After Zhang Lu yielded and Hanzhong was settled, Yuan became acting chief protector general and oversaw Zhang He and Xu Huang in mopping up Ba commandery. Cao Cao went back to Ye but left Yuan to hold Hanzhong, promoting him on the spot to general who campaigns west. In the twenty-third year Liu Bei’s army camped at Yangping Pass; Yuan commanded the defense, and the two sides glared at each other year after year. In the first month of the twenty-fourth year Liu Bei sent men by night to burn the palisade around the camp. Yuan assigned Zhang He to the eastern sector while he took picked troops to the south face himself. Liu Bei baited Zhang He into a sortie; Zhang He’s detachment came off worse. Yuan split his command to reinforce Zhang He, walked into an ambush laid by Liu Bei, and fell fighting. He was canonized as Marquis Min (the Compassionate).
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Even while Yuan was winning fight after fight, Cao Cao used to warn him: “A commander needs moments of caution; sheer daring is not enough. Courage must be the base, but it has to be guided by calculation; rely on nothing but brawn and you are no better than a common brawler.”
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鹿 西 西 西 西 使 使 駿 使 使
」She was Cao Cao's sister-in-law. The eldest son Heng married a daughter of Cao Cao's brother, Marquis Ai of Haiyang, and enjoyed exceptional favor. Heng inherited the line and was shifted to Marquis of Anning village. In the Huangchu era the middle son Ba was ennobled; in Taihe his four younger brothers followed, all as interior marquises. In the Zhengshi era Ba served as protector general against Shu and General of the Right, was advanced to Marquis of Bochang village, and had long been a favorite of Cao Shuang. When Cao Shuang was executed he panicked and fled to Shu. Because of Yuan's old service his sons were spared and exiled to Lelang commandery. The Brief Account of Wei gives his style as Zhongquan. Because Yuan had been killed by Shu, Ba burned to avenge him. In the Huangchu era he was made lieutenant general. At the battle of Ziwu he was called up as vanguard, reached the siege lines at Xingshi, and pitched camp in Qu Valley. The Shu scouts recognized Ba and directed an assault against his position. He fought hand to hand within the palisade until reinforcements arrived and extricated him. Later as General of the Right stationed in Longxi he won over his troops and pacified the frontier tribes alike. In Zhengshi he succeeded Xiahou Ru as protector general against Shu under the western expedition command. General Who Campaigns West Xiahou Xuan was Ba's clansman-nephew and Cao Shuang's cousin on his mother's side. When the Illustrious King of Jin executed Cao Shuang he summoned Xuan east to court. Hearing of Cao Shuang's death and Xuan's recall, Ba assumed the purge would reach him and was filled with dread; He had also feuded with Guo Huai, inspector of Yong, who now replaced Xuan in the west—and so he bolted to Shu. He turned south toward Yinping, lost his way in a desolate gorge, ran out of food, killed his horse and went on foot with bleeding feet, and lay under a cliff while messengers searched in vain for a route. Shu heard of his plight and sent a party to receive him. In Jian'an 5, when Ba's cousin was thirteen or fourteen, she was gathering firewood in the district and was seized by Zhang Fei. Knowing her to be from a respectable house, Zhang Fei married her; their daughter became Empress of Liu Shan. When Yuan first fell, Zhang Fei's wife obtained leave to bury him. When Ba arrived in Shu, Liu Shan received him and said: "Your father fell in battle—it was not my forebears who killed him with their own hands." He pointed to his son and said: "This boy is your clan's nephew." Liu Shan heaped honors upon him. Ba's brother Wei rose to inspector of Yan province. A Saying of the Age gives his style as Jiquan and calls him a man of the sword. Under Emperor Gui he held both Jing and Yan provincial inspectorates. His son Jun became inspector of Bing. The next son Zhuang served as grand administrator of Huainan. Zhuang's son Zhan, styled Xiaoruo, won fame for learning and prose, rising to chancellor of Nanyang and regular attendant of scattered cavalry. Zhuang was brother-in-law to Jin's Empress Jingyang. From that branch the clan flourished extravagantly. Wei's brother Hui was grand administrator of Le'an. Collected Sayings on Literature gives his style as Zhiquan, praising his precocious talent and skill at memorial writing. He served as gentleman attendant of scattered cavalry and yellow gate attendant, debated repeatedly with Zhong Yu, and usually prevailed. He was shifted to chancellor of Yan and grand administrator of Le'an. He died at thirty-seven. Hui's brother He was intendant of Henan. A Saying of the Age gives his style as Yiquan and describes him as sharp in debate and gifted in argument. He held the Henan intendant post and the ministry of ceremonials. Yuan's third son was Cheng and his fifth Rong. His clansman-grandson Zhan composed for him 〈Preface〉 It reads: "Cheng, styled Shuquan. From childhood he gathered boys about him as a warlord among children; play always meant battle lines, and any rebel he thrashed until none dared defy him. Yuan secretly admired him and set him to read the biography of Xiang Yu and the military classics; the boy refused: 'If I have the gift I'll rely on myself—why copy another man?' At sixteen, out hunting with Yuan, he spurred after a fleeing tiger despite orders to stop and dropped it with a single arrow. Word reached Cao Cao, who seized his hand in delight and cried: 'I have found my man!' He was a close friend of the future Emperor Wen; at every feast his presence dominated the room and no wit could best him. Men of the highest reputation sought his company. He died at eighteen. His younger brother Rong, styled Youquan. He was precocious: at seven he could compose prose, recited a thousand characters a day, and never forgot what he read. The future Emperor Wen sent for him. Before a hundred guests he was shown the visiting cards known as "fief-and-hometown tablets," glanced once, and named every man without error. The emperor was astonished. At the Hanzhong disaster, aged thirteen, attendants tried to drag him away; he refused: 'My lords and kin are in danger—where would I flee and live?' He seized a sword, fought, and fell on the field." When Heng died his son Ji inherited and became commandant of the tiger guard. When Ji died his son Bao inherited.
9
广 使
Cao Ren, styled Zixiao, was a younger cousin of Cao Cao on his father’s side. 〈The Wei shu states that his grandfather Cao Bao had been governor of Yingchuan. His father Cao Chi served as attendant-in-chief and colonel of the Long River guards.〉 As a young man he was devoted to horsemanship, archery, and the chase. When the realm filled with warlords, Ren quietly recruited a thousand restless youths and ranged the country between the Huai and the Si until he joined Cao Cao as chief of an independent column, with the acting title colonel of the vanguard. At Cao Cao’s victory over Yuan Shu, Ren’s tally of killed and captured ran unusually high. During the drive on Xu province he habitually led the cavalry screen and spearheaded every assault. He detached a column against Tao Qian’s officer Lü You, broke him, rejoined the main host at Pengcheng, and helped shatter Tao Qian’s field army. He next joined the sieges of Fei, Hua, Jimo, and Kaiyang; when Tao Qian rushed relief columns to those towns, Ren rode them down in detail. During Cao Cao’s campaign against Lü Bu, Ren detached a column against Gouyang, stormed the town, and brought back Bu’s general Liu He as a prisoner. After Cao Cao crushed the Yellow Turbans, escorted the emperor to Xu, and set up his court there, Ren piled up enough victories to be named governor of Guangyang. Cao Cao prized his dash and tactical sense, kept him from a provincial desk job, and left him at court as a gentleman consultant in charge of the horse troops. On the Zhang Xiu expedition Ren ranged the outlying counties on his own and rounded up over three thousand civilians and soldiers. On the march home Cao Cao’s column was run down by Zhang Xiu and began to waver; Ren rallied the ranks until their spirit returned. Cao Cao admired the show of nerve and turned defeat into a rout of Zhang Xiu.
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使 西
While Cao Cao and Yuan Shao glared at each other across the Guandu lines, Shao detached Liu Bei to sweep the counties south of the Yin, and town after town rose at his call. South of Xu the countryside was in turmoil, and the unrest weighed on Cao Cao’s mind. Ren argued, “The southerners know our main force is pinned here and cannot march to their aid. Liu Bei is leaning on them with a heavy army, so of course they are tempted to defect. Liu Bei has only just inherited Yuan Shao’s men; he has not welded them into a weapon. Hit him now and he will shatter.” Cao Cao agreed, gave Ren the cavalry, and sent him against Liu Bei. Ren broke his line, chased him off, and brought every mutinous county back under the flag. Yuan Shao ordered Han Xun to sever the western convoy route; Ren intercepted him on Mount Jiluo and tore his command apart. After that Yuan Shao never again risked splitting his army for side operations. He joined Shi Huan in another sweep against Yuan Shao’s grain carts and put the stores to the torch.
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Once the Hebei plain was secure, he took part in the siege of Huguan Pass. Cao Cao’s order was blunt: “When the walls fall, put the entire population to the sword.” Month after month the assault failed to crack the defenses. Ren urged Cao Cao, “A siege needs a face-saving exit; only then will the garrison think surrender is possible. Tell them they are already as good as dead and every household will barricade itself for a last stand. The fort is high, the granaries deep: storming it will bleed us white, while sitting tight only stretches the calendar; and freezing an army under a sheer citadel to batter men who believe they have nothing left to lose is poor generalship.” Cao Cao took the advice; the city opened its gates. His whole record of service was entered in the rolls and he received the village marquisate at the metropolitan enclosure.
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使 退
After the conquest of Jing province he was named acting general of the southern expedition, left to hold Jiangling against Wu’s Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu came up the river with tens of thousands; only the van had closed to the walls when Ren climbed the parapet, scraped together three hundred volunteers, and ordered his client officer Niu Jin to ride out and provoke a fight. The enemy swarmed while Jin’s handful was swallowed in their midst. Chief clerk Chen Jiao stood beside him on the tower; as Niu Jin’s detachment sank beneath the odds, every face on the wall went grey. Ren flushed with battle fury and shouted for his horse; Chen Jiao and the staff grabbed his arms to hold him back. They pleaded, “The odds are impossible—no one could stand against that mass. What is the loss of a few hundred foot compared with throwing yourself into their teeth?” Ren said nothing, strapped on his armor, swung into the saddle, and led a few dozen picked horsemen out through the gate. A hundred paces from the enemy line he reached a dry moat; Chen Jiao assumed he would halt on the near bank to screen Niu Jin, but Ren splashed straight across, rammed the ring of spears, and tore the noose open around Jin. Before the rest of his squad could follow, he wheeled and charged back through the melee, pulled Niu Jin’s men clear at the cost of a few lives, and the besiegers fell back. Chen Jiao had watched him ride out in horror; when he watched him ride home again he murmured, “That man belongs to another order of being!” The whole army stood in awe of his courage. Cao Cao admired him all the more and moved his title to the village marquisate of Anping.
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西 退
During the campaign against Ma Chao he served as acting general of the western pacification, directed the defense of Tong Pass, and helped break Ma Chao on the south bank of the Wei. When Su Bo and Tian Yin rose in the north, Ren took the acting post of swift-cavalry general, commanded seven columns against them, and crushed the revolt. He was again named acting general of the southern expedition, invested with formal baton, and stationed at Fan to anchor Jing province. Hou Yin seized Wan and dragged thousands from the neighboring districts into revolt; Ren led the combined hosts against him, took his head, returned to Fan, and was confirmed as full general of the southern expedition. When Guan Yu closed on Fan, the Han burst its banks; Yu Jin’s seven armies were drowned in a night, and Yu Jin himself capitulated to Guan Yu. Ren held the town with a few thousand men while the flood lapped within a few planks of the parapet. Guan Yu brought war junks against the walls, ringed the city in depth, severed every line in or out, starved the garrison to the edge, and still no relief column appeared. Ren harangued his officers, swore they would die where they stood, and the men answered him with a single will. When Xu Huang’s corps finally fought its way in, the flood began to ebb; Huang hammered Guan Yu from the rear while Ren punched out of the ring, and Guan Yu drew off.
14
使使
As a young man Cao Ren was unruly, but once he took command he enforced the code rigorously, kept regulations at hand, and judged every infraction by the book. When Marquis of Yanling Cao Zhang marched north against the Wuhuan, Crown Prince Wen wrote warning him: "A general who upholds the law should take his cue from the southern expedition commander!" On taking the royal throne he named Ren General of Chariots and Cavalry, gave him overall command of Jing, Yang, and Yi, promoted him to Marquis of Chen, and added 2,000 households to his fief for a total of 3,500. He canonized Ren's father Cao Chi as Marquis Mu of Chen and assigned ten families to tend the tomb. He was later recalled to garrison Wan. Sun Quan detached Chen Shao to seize Xiangyang, and an edict sent Cao Ren against him. Cao Ren and Xu Huang routed Chen Shao, recovered Xiangyang, resettled submitted peoples from south of the Han to the north, and Emperor Wen's envoys promptly named Ren grand general. He was ordered to Linying, promoted to Grand Marshal, again given overall command to hold the line at Wujiang, and finally garrisoned Hefei. He died in Huangchu 4 and was canonized as Marquis Zhong (the Loyal). The Book of Wei gives his age as fifty-six. Master Fu wrote that Grand Marshal Cao's valor exceeded even the legendary strongmen Ben and Yu. Zhang Liao ranked second. His son Tai inherited, rose to General Who Guards the East with baton of command, and was shifted to Marquis of Ningling. When Tai died his son Chu inherited. Tai's brothers Kai and Fan were also enfeoffed as marquises, and Niu Jin rose to General of the Rear.
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退
〈The Yingxiong ji records that he bore the courtesy name Zihe. Orphaned at fourteen, he set up his own household apart from his elder brother Ren. He took over the family fortune, kept hundreds of retainers and clients in hand, and ran the household so tightly that neighbors praised his competence. He loved books, honored men of learning, and drew scholars from every quarter until his name was known for counties around. At eighteen he entered the palace as a gentleman attendant at the Yellow Gates. At twenty he rode with Cao Cao to Xiangyi to raise troops, and from then on he was seldom absent from the field.〉 He began as a gentleman consultant on the staff of the minister of works, took charge of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and joined the siege of Nanpi. Yuan Tan sallied from the walls and the assault troops took heavy casualties. Cao Cao wanted to pause the attack; Chun warned, “We have marched a thousand li onto enemy soil: if we slacken the pressure we lose face, and a lone column this deep cannot sit idle forever. They are flush with victory and already careless; we are smarting from a check and therefore cautious—pit a wary army against a cocky one and we can still win.” Cao Cao agreed, redoubled the assault, and broke Yuan Tan’s line. A trooper of Chun’s Tiger and Leopard riders struck off Yuan Tan’s head. On the northern expedition against the Wuhuan league, Chun’s horsemen ran down the chanyu Tadun. His cumulative merit earned the village marquisate of Gaoling with three hundred taxable households. In the drive on Jing province he chased Liu Bei through Changban, seized the two princesses and the baggage train, and scooped up stragglers by the hundred. He pressed on to accept Jiangling’s surrender, then marched home with the army to Qiao. He died in the fifteenth year of the Jian’an era. When Cao Pi took the throne he canonized him as Marquis Wei, “the Formidable.” 〈The Wei shu notes that Chun’s Tiger and Leopard riders were picked champions from every army, often promoted from centurions, so that Cao Cao despaired of finding a worthy colonel for them. Chun won the post by selection and led them with such tact that the corps would have followed him anywhere. After his death the ministry proposed a replacement; Cao Cao snapped, “Where am I to find another man like Chun? Am I myself unfit to command them?” No successor was named.〉 His son Yan inherited the title, rose to general of the central army, and in the Zhengyuan period was advanced to marquis of Pingle village. When Yan died, his son Liang became heir.
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使 232 使 使宿 使使 使宿便 228 退宿 使 使 使 西
Cao Hong, styled Zikang, was a younger cousin of Cao Cao on his father's side. The Wei shu states that Hong's uncle Ding served as director of the masters of writing and secured him the post of Qichun magistrate. When Cao Cao marched against Dong Zhuo, he was routed at Xingyang by Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong. Cao Cao lost his mount with pursuers closing in. Hong leapt down and thrust the reins into his cousin's hand. Cao Cao refused; Hong insisted, "The world can spare me—it cannot spare you." They pressed on foot to the Bian River, where the flood was too deep to ford. Hong scouted the bank, found a boat, ferried Cao Cao across, and they raced back to Qiao. Inspector Chen Wen of Yang province was an old friend. Hong marched with a thousand-odd household retainers, raised two thousand crack troops from Lujiang through Wen, gathered thousands more in Danyang, and rejoined Cao Cao at Longkang. During Cao Cao's campaign against Xu province, Zhang Miao turned Yan province over to Lü Bu. Famine gripped the land. Hong pushed ahead, seized Dongping and Fan, and stockpiled grain to keep the host fed. At Puyang Cao Cao shattered Lü Bu's force; Hong then held Dong'e and swept more than ten counties—Jiyin, Shanyang, Zhongmou, Yangwu, Jing, Mi, and others—clearing them one by one. For these services he was made colonel of the soaring hawk, then promoted to martial might general of the household guards. Once the emperor moved the court to Xu, Hong received the post of remonstrating and consulting grandee. On detached service against Liu Biao he crushed Biao's lieutenants at Wuyang, Yinye, Duyang, and Bowang, won promotion to general of the keen edge, and was enfeoffed as village marquis of Guoming. Campaign after campaign he followed the colors, until he was named chief protector general. Emperor Wen made him general of the guards, then general of swift cavalry, advanced his fief to marquis of Yewang with a thousand added households for twenty-one hundred in all, and granted him the eminent rank of special advancement; later his fief was transferred to marquis of Duyang. Hong had been rich and notoriously tight-fisted. The young Cao Pi had borrowed from him and been refused; the grudge lingered. When a guest of Hong's broke the law, Pi seized the chance to have him jailed and condemned to death. The whole court interceded, yet none could move the throne. Empress Dowager Bian told Empress Guo, "Let Cao Hong die today, and tomorrow I shall command the emperor to depose you." She wept and pleaded again and again until Hong was spared the blade but stripped of rank and fief. The Wei lüe records that when Emperor Wen arrested Hong, Cao Zhen stood at his side and warned, "Execute Hong now, and he will believe I denounced him." The emperor snapped, "I will judge this myself—what is that to you?" Empress Dowager Bian then rebuked the emperor: "Between Liang and Pei, without Zikang there would be no you on the throne today." An edict at last set him free. Even so his estates were seized. The empress dowager spoke again, and in time his property was restored. In Cao Cao's days as minister of works he set the tone from the top: each year's levy was assessed by the home county on an equal-property basis. The magistrate of Qiao rated Hong's wealth equal to the state's own holdings, and Cao Cao laughed, "How could our household ever equal Zikang's!" While still heir apparent, Cao Pi once borrowed a hundred bolts of silk from Hong and found the gift wanting. When Hong fell afoul of the law he was sure he would die. Spared, he submitted a grateful memorial: "In youth I strayed from the Way and failed in my duties. Long I held office I did not deserve, yet was shown mercy. I never knew moderation, only the hunger of a wolf. Age made me greedier still, and I crashed into the law. My crimes approach three thousand counts and lie beyond pardon; I should die at the execution ground. Yet Heaven spared me, and bone and flesh live again. I lift my eyes to sun and sky and shame the spirits; looking on my faults I am afraid and ashamed. I cannot take my own life by the cord, and so with smeared face I come to your gate and bow this memorial." Hong had been a pillar of the founding reign, and many at court resented his treatment. Emperor Ming restored him as general of the rear, refiefed him as marquis of Lecheng with a thousand households, granted special advancement, and again named him general of swift cavalry. He died in Taihe 6 (232) and was posthumously titled Marquis Gong. His son Fu inherited the marquisate. Earlier Cao Cao had carved households from Hong's fief to enfeoff his son Zhen as a full marquis. Hong's kinsman Yu was grave and dutiful, rose to general of the guards, and held a full marquisate. Cao Xiu, styled Wenlie, was a clansman of Cao Cao. When the empire collapsed, the clan scattered to their native places. Xiu was barely into his teens when his father died. With a single companion he shouldered the coffin for a makeshift burial, then crossed the Yangzi with his mother to Wu. The Wei shu states that Xiu's grandfather had once governed Wu commandery. In the governor's hall he saw his grandfather's portrait on the wall, rose from his seat, bowed, and wept until all present sighed in admiration. When Cao Cao raised his banner, Xiu changed his name, slipped through Jing province, and made his way north in secret to join him. Cao Cao told his attendants, "Here is a thousand-league colt of our clan." He lodged him with the heir apparent and treated him as a son. He rode on campaign after campaign and was set to command the tiger-and-leopard cavalry as palace guard. When Liu Bei posted Wu Lan at Xiabian, Cao Cao sent Cao Hong against him and attached Xiu as colonel of cavalry on Hong's staff. Cao Cao told Xiu, "You hold the title of staff officer, but in truth you are the commander." Hearing that, Hong handed the real command to Xiu. Liu Bei sent Zhang Fei to Gushan, aiming to sever the army's line of retreat. The staff wavered. Xiu said, "Men who mean to cut a road move in ambush and silence. They have blared their intentions first—they cannot do it. Strike Lan before they mass; once Lan falls, Fei will run on his own." Hong agreed, attacked Lan, and routed him; Zhang Fei fled as predicted. After Hanzhong fell and the armies withdrew to Chang'an, Xiu was named central leader of the army. When Cao Pi took the kingship, Xiu became general of the leader of the army, his services were entered on the rolls, and he was enfeoffed as village marquis of Dongyang. At Xiahou Dun's death Xiu was made general who guards the south with credential and overall command. The emperor came in person to send him off, stepped down from the carriage, took his hand, and bade farewell. Sun Quan posted a force at Liyang; Xiu broke it, then sent troops across the river to burn thousands of enemy shelters at Wuhu. He was made general who campaigns east and inspector of Yang province, and advanced to village marquis of Anyang. The Wei shu says that in mourning his mother Xiu showed supreme filial devotion. The emperor sent an attendant to strip his mourning garb and ordered wine and meat; Xiu obeyed, yet wasted away. He begged leave to bury his mother at Qiao. The emperor sent Colonel Xue Qiao to temper his grief, let him go home, buried her after a single night, and when the rites were done Xiu presented himself at the traveling palace. The emperor received him and comforted him in person. Such was the esteem he commanded. Campaigning against Sun Quan, the emperor named Xiu grand general who campaigns east, gave him the yellow battle-axe, and set him over Zhang Liao and more than twenty provincial hosts. At Dongpu he shattered Sun Quan's great general Lü Fan. He was appointed governor of Yang province. Emperor Ming advanced his fief to marquis of Changping. The Wu general Shen De held Wan; Xiu defeated him and took his head. Wu generals Han Zong, Zhai Dan, and others came over to him in succession. Four hundred households were added to his fief for twenty-five hundred in all, and he was made grand marshal while retaining supervision of Yang province. In Taihe 2 (228) the emperor opened a two-pronged campaign against Wu, sending Sima Yi down the Han while Xiu led the main host toward Xunyang. A Wu officer pretended to defect. Xiu pushed deep, met defeat, and fell back to Shiting. That night panic swept the camp; troops threw away armor, arms, and wagons in heaps. Xiu submitted a confession of fault. The emperor sent Colonel Yang Ji to console him and heaped fresh honors upon him. A carbuncle on his back killed him; he was posthumously titled Marquis Zhuang. His son Zhao succeeded. The Shiyu records that Zhao's courtesy name was Changsi. Zhao had talent fit for his generation and served as attendant cavalier and colonel of the encampment cavalry. As Emperor Ming lay dying he was about to entrust the succession to the Prince of Yan, Yu, and others. The emperor's mind soon shifted, and an edict sent Zhao home with his marquisate. He died in the Zhengshi era. Posthumously he was granted the title general of the guards. His son Xing succeeded. Emperor Wen had carved three hundred households from Xiu's fief to enfeoff Zhao's brother Zuan as a full marquis. Zuan later became general who exterminates Wu; at his death he was posthumously named former general. Zhang Yin's Wenshi zhuan records that Zhao's grandson Shu, styled Yanyuan, was studious, principled, and accomplished in letters. Under Jin he entered the bureaucracy, served as magistrate of Luoyang, and won a name for competence. When Grand Marshal Sima Jiong of Qi held the regency, Shu and the Qi native Zuo Si both served as recorder supervisors. He left office as gentleman consultant to become governor of Xiangyang and marshal of the army campaigning south. When the empire dissolved he marched against bandits toward Wu, was defeated, and fell in battle. Cao Zhen, styled Zidan, was a clansman of Cao Cao. When Cao Cao first raised arms, Zhen's father Shao recruited followers and was killed by provincial authorities. The Wei lüe says Zhen was born a Qin and raised into the Cao clan. Some say his father Bonan had been an old friend of Cao Cao's. At the end of Xingping, partisans of Yuan Shu joined Cao Cao in a raid. Pursued by brigands, he fled into the Qin house; Bonan opened the door. Asked where Cao Cao was, Bonan answered, "I am he." The brigands killed him. Cao Cao never forgot the sacrifice and had the boy take the Cao surname. The Wei shu says Shao was loyal, capable, and trusted by Cao Cao. In Chuping, when Cao Cao raised righteous troops, Shao recruited men and rode at his side. Inspector Huang Wan of Yu province plotted against Cao Cao. Cao Cao escaped; Shao alone was killed. Pitying the orphan, Cao Cao raised Zhen with his own sons and lodged him with the heir apparent. Once on the hunt a tiger chased him; he wheeled, shot, and the beast dropped at the crack of the bow. Cao Cao marveled at his nerve and set him over the tiger-and-leopard cavalry. He reduced the bandits of Lingqiu, took the place, and was enfeoffed as village marquis of Lingshou. As lieutenant general he smashed Liu Bei's detached commander at Xiabian and was made general of the resolute center. He followed the court to Chang'an and led the central army. When Xiahou Yuan fell at Yangping, Cao Cao was deeply troubled. He named Zhen protector general campaigning against Shu, set Xu Huang under him, and broke Liu Bei's lieutenant Gao Xiang at Yangping. When Cao Cao reached Hanzhong himself he pulled the armies back and sent Zhen to Wudu to meet Cao Hong and bring the columns home to Chencang. At Cao Pi's accession as king, Zhen became general who guards the west with credential and command over Yong and Liang. His services were entered on the rolls and his fief advanced to marquis of Dongxiang. Zhang Jin rebelled at Jiuquan; Zhen sent Fei Yao to crush the revolt and beheaded Jin and his fellows. In Huangchu 3 he returned to the capital as grand general of the upper army, commander of all forces at court and in the field, with credential and battle-axe. With Xiahou Shang he campaigned against Sun Quan, stormed Niuzhu, and broke the camp. He was transferred to grand general of the central army and added as palace attendant. In the seventh year, as Emperor Wen lay dying, Zhen with Chen Qun, Sima Yi, and others received the deathbed charge to govern. Emperor Ming advanced his fief to marquis of Shaoling. Your subject Songzhi notes: Zhen's father was named Shao. A fief named Shaoling for a man whose father was Shao—unless the text is corrupt, the honor is hard to explain. He was promoted to grand general.
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While Zhuge Liang pinned Qishan, Nan’an, Tianshui, and Anding threw off Wei and declared for Shu. The emperor ordered Cao Zhen to marshal the hosts at Mei while Zhang He fell on Zhuge Liang’s lieutenant Ma Su and broke him decisively. Yang Tiao of Anding dragged officials and townsfolk into revolt and barricaded Yuezhi city; Zhen invested the place. Yang Tiao told his followers, “If the grand general comes in person I mean to yield at once.” He then walked out with his hands tied behind his back. All three mutinous commanderies were brought back under control. Zhen reasoned that Zhuge Liang, smarting from Qishan, would next thrust through Chencang; he stationed Hao Zhao and Wang Sheng there and rebuilt the fortifications. The following spring Liang did lay siege to Chencang, yet the garrison was ready and he could not force an entry. His fief was enlarged until it totaled two thousand nine hundred households. In the fourth year of Taihe he was summoned to Luoyang, promoted to grand marshal, and honored with the privilege of wearing sword and shoes in the throne hall and walking the court at an easy pace. Zhen argued that “Shu keeps raiding our frontier and ought to be struck now, with several columns converging for a decisive blow.” The emperor approved the strategy. As Zhen prepared to march west, the sovereign himself attended the farewell. In the eighth month he left Chang’an and drove south through the Ziwu defile. Sima Yi was to move up the Han and link with him at Nanzheng. Other corps were to debouch from the Xie Valley or advance from Wuwei. Weeks of pounding rain washed out the plank roads; an edict recalled Zhen’s army.
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殿 使
In youth Zhen served Cao Cao alongside his kinsman Cao Zun and his townsman Zhu Zan. When Zun and Zan died young, Zhen asked to carve from his own fief and enfeoff their sons. An edict read, "The grand marshal shows Shuxiang's kindness to the orphaned and Yan Ping's constancy in old friendship. Let a gentleman crown another's merit: divide Zhen's fief and make Zun's and Zan's sons secondary marquises within the passes, a hundred households each." On campaign Zhen marched and slept as his men did. When bonuses ran short he paid from his own purse, and the ranks followed him willingly. When illness drove him back to Luoyang, the emperor came in person to his house. He died and was posthumously titled Marquis Yuan. His son Shuang succeeded. Remembering Zhen's service, the emperor decreed, "The grand marshal walked in loyalty, served both founders, neither traded on kinship nor looked down on humble men—he held his fullness and kept his place through labor and modesty. Enfeoff all five sons—Xi, Xun, Ze, Yan, and Kai—as full marquises." Emperor Wen had earlier carved two hundred households from Zhen's fief to enfeoff his brother Bin as a full marquis. Shuang, styled Zhaobo, was grave and dutiful by birth. Emperor Ming cherished him while still heir. At Ming's accession he became attendant cavalier, rose through colonel of the city gates and attendant at the palace to general of the martial guard, with favor beyond the ordinary. When the emperor lay gravely ill, he brought Cao Shuang into the bedchamber, appointed him Grand General, granted him the credential and battle-axe, made him supervisor of all military affairs inside and outside the capital and recorder of the Masters of Writing, and had him receive the testamentary edict together with Grand Commandant Sima Yi to assist the young ruler. At Ming's death and the Qi king's accession, Shuang became palace attendant, was refiefed as marquis of Wu'an with twelve thousand households, and received sword and shoes in the hall, freedom from hurried court approach, and salutation without naming. Ding Mi plotted for Shuang to have the emperor name Sima Yi grand tutor—honor in title, but power in routing memorials through Shuang first so he could weigh every matter.
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使 退 退 使 使 使 西 退 退
〈The Wei shu relates that Shuang had his brother Xi compose a memorial: “My late father Zhen served three reigns, at court stood ready to act as chief minister, in the field held supreme command. The late emperor, seeing me as kin left on the stem, heaped favors on me and gave me troops inside the palace; yet I have shown neither steady loyalty in advance nor the unstained integrity expected of a high minister. When his majesty lay ill I hurried to his bedside and tasted his physic, yet offered nothing that could compare with dutiful sons of old; unworthily I received the deathbed edict together with Grand Commandant Sima Yi, and I live torn between shame and dread with no place to unburden myself. I have read that Shun ranked worthies with Ji and Xie at the top, and Tang rewarded service with Yi and Lü foremost: careful choice and wide recommendation, fitting each man to his grade, is the great principle for ordering the realm and the shining precedent for honoring merit—through all ages it has seldom been neglected. Today I am a hollow man whose title tops the court; I know I have outstripped my deserts, and my heart quails with mingled shame and fear; yet I must speak plainly. The world recognizes three measures of standing—moral weight, noble rank, and gray hair. First, Sima Yi is by nature judicious and upright; in high office his name alone steadies the host and his sense of duty draws men after him. Second, he combines breadth of design with gifts both civil and military and has repeatedly proved himself in the field; credit for those victories runs from the capital to the marches. Third, he marched ten thousand li at the head of the host, took the late emperor’s testament in his own hands, and has steadied the throne; court and camp alike look to him. Besides, he is a graybeard who sets the tone for the realm and knows every turn of government from long practice; by moral stature he outshines Jifu and Fanzhong of old; reckoned by deeds he surpasses Fangshu and Zhaohu—Sima Yi embodies every one of these qualities. If I keep a hollow title and still rank above him, everyone will say the imperial clan is playing favorites—that I know how to climb but not how to step down. Your Majesty is astute enough to weigh what I say: appoint Sima Yi Grand Tutor and Grand Marshal—so the throne shows the world it honors true talent, so Yi’s civil and military gifts are displayed in full, and so I may escape the charge of cronyism.” The emperor then had Liu Fang of the Secretariat instruct Sun Zi to draft an edict: “Wu Han aided Emperor Guangwu, conquered the four corners, and became Grand Marshal—a name still honored today. The Grand Commandant is upright in deed and word, and his service fills the realm. The late emperor more than once meant to change his post, yet each plan fell through before long, so the promotion hung fire. Now the Grand General urges that the Grand Commandant become Grand Marshal—honoring the late emperor’s purpose, rewarding modest refusal, prizing virtue and merit, and sorting rank between elder statesman and rising men. Even the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao, even the patriarch Lü Wang, would gladly take second place to such a man—what higher praise could there be? We heartily approve. We reflect that the late emperor knew a gentleman accepts Heaven’s will: petty scruples must not become superstition—he recalled the old omen of Bairen and “Peng’s death,” and therefore hesitated until his purpose went unfulfilled. That too was how deeply he respected his chief ministers and cherished them. King Cheng of Zhou created the offices of protector and tutor; Emperor Ming of Later Han named Deng Yu Grand Tutor—both moves exalted the worthiest men with fitting dignity. Let the Grand Commandant be promoted Grand Tutor.”〉" Shuang’s brother Xi commanded the palace guard, Xun became general of the martial guard, Yan was a supernumerary attendant and lecturer, and every other brother entered the inner palace as a full marquis—no clan ever basked in such favor. He Yan of Nanyang, Deng Yang, Li Sheng, Ding Mi of Pei, and Bi Gui of Dongping were famous men on the make; Emperor Ming had judged them shallow and shelved them; but once Shuang seized the government he brought them back and made them his inner circle. Deng Yang’s clique wanted Shuang to win glory abroad and talked him into invading Shu; Shuang agreed, and though Sima Yi argued against it he could not stop them. In Zhengshi 5 Shuang moved his headquarters to Chang’an, levied sixty or seventy thousand men, and marched them in through the Luogu defile. The supply line through Guanzhong and the Di and Qiang country broke down; draft animals died by the thousands, and Han and non-Han alike wept along the highways. They had gone only a few hundred li up the valley when Shu’s defenders, dug into the heights, blocked every forward step. Staff officer Yang Wei laid the facts before Shuang: withdraw at once or face ruin. 〈The Shiyu names him Yang Wei, styled Shiying, from Fengyi commandery. When Emperor Ming raised new palaces, Wei protested: “You are felling the pines on people’s ancestral graves and smashing tomb guardians and stele columns—an outrage to the dead and a wound to the living. Such work must not become precedent for later ages.”〉 Deng Yang quarreled with Yang Wei in Shuang’s presence; Wei snapped, “Deng Yang and Li Sheng will wreck the realm—they deserve execution.” Shuang took offense and marched his army home. 〈The Han–Jin chunqiu records Sima Yi telling Xiahou Xuan: “The classic holds great men to a stern standard—your own Emperor Wu twice invaded Hanzhong and nearly came to grief, as you recall. Today the Xingping route is sheer murder, and Shu already holds the heights; if you fail to force a battle going in, you will be cut to pieces pulling out—the army is doomed. How will you answer for that?” Xuan took fright, repeated the warning to Shuang, and the column retreated. Fei Yi pushed forward and sealed the three ridges to trap Shuang; Shuang had to fight his way through defile after defile before scraping clear. The draft animals requisitioned for the march were almost all lost; Qiang and Hu cursed the expedition, and the Longyou corridor was left empty.〉
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At first Shuang deferred to Sima Yi’s age and prestige and treated him almost as a father, never daring to act alone. Once He Yan and his friends rose to power they flattered Shuang with the argument that supreme authority must not rest in anyone else’s hands. He Yan, Deng Yang, and Ding Mi were named secretaries—He Yan ran appointments, Bi Gui took the metropolitan colonelcy, Li Sheng governed Henan—and business seldom reached Sima Yi’s desk. Sima Yi thereupon pleaded illness and withdrew from Shuang’s affairs. 〈Earlier Sima Yi had treated Shuang as the dynasty’s own flesh and blood and always yielded precedence; Shuang, awed by Yi’s reputation, kept his own manner humble, and contemporaries praised the pair. After Ding Mi and Bi Gui won office they kept telling Shuang, “Sima Yi harbors grand designs and commands deep popular loyalty—never trust him with real power.” From that day Shuang watched him with unrelenting suspicion. The courtesies continued, yet every new project bypassed Sima Yi entirely. Sima Yi lacked the leverage to fight back and feared their malice, so he feigned withdrawal.〉 He Yan’s ring ran the court, carved up hundreds of qing of state mulberry land around Luoyang and Yewang, seized imperial bath demesnes for private farms, looted the treasury under color of authority, and pulled strings in every province. Magistrates read which way the wind blew and never dared defy them. He Yan’s faction hated Commandant of Justice Lu Yu; they seized on a trivial slip by one of Yu’s clerks, tortured the statutes to indict Yu, confiscated his seal and sash before the throne ever heard the case. Such was the swagger of their power. Shuang’s table, wardrobe, and carriages aped the emperor’s; the imperial workshops emptied their curios into his halls; his harem overflowed the inner courts; he helped himself to seven or eight of the late emperor’s palace women and impressed thirty-three officers’ children, craftsmen, musicians, and daughters of respectable houses into his private troupe. He forged an order shipping fifty-seven palace ladies to the Ye terrace to drill the late emperor’s maids as entertainers. He stripped the court orchestra of its instruments and the arsenal of weapons reserved for the throne. He dug a pleasure vault ringed with pierced panels where he and He Yan’s set met night after night for drinking and revelry. Xi saw disaster in this and remonstrated again and again. He composed three essays on how pride and excess invite ruin—sharp pieces in which he never named Shuang but ostensibly lectured his brothers, intending Shuang to overhear the lesson. Shuang knew the essays were aimed at him and took deep offense. When his blunt advice went unheeded Xi would rise in tears. Sima Yi meanwhile laid his plans in secret. In the ninth year’s winter Li Sheng left for his post as Jing provincial inspector and called on Sima Yi. Sima Yi played the moribund invalid and let Li Sheng see a wasted frame. Li Sheng swallowed the act whole. 〈The Wei mo zhuan says Shuang sent Li Sheng to bid Sima Yi farewell while using the visit to spy on him. When they met Li Sheng disclaimed any merit, said he owed his rise to the times alone, explained that he was bound for his home province as governor, had come to the gate for a parting audience, and never expected the honor of a private interview. Sima Yi had two maids hold his robe; the robe slipped from his shoulders; he jabbed a finger at his mouth to mime thirst; a maid brought porridge; he lifted the bowl and let the gruel spill down his chest. Li Sheng was moved to pity, wept, and said, “The emperor is still a child; the realm leans on you, my lord. Yet rumor had it your old palsy had returned—who could imagine you reduced to this?” Sima Yi then spoke in a thin, broken voice: “Age and sickness have me by the throat; I may not see another dawn. You are headed for Bing province on the Hu frontier—treat the tribes kindly. I doubt we shall meet again—ah, what is to be done?” Li Sheng said, “I am ashamed to say I go to my home province as governor, not to Bing.” Sima Yi pretended greater confusion: “So you have reached Bing province—take good care of yourself there!” He jumbled his phrases until he sounded senile. Li Sheng repeated, “My post is Jing province, not Bing.” Sima Yi feigned a flicker of understanding: “Yi is old and his wits wander; I no longer follow what you say. You return as governor of your own province—noble spirit, fierce zeal, a man who loves to win glory on the frontier. Now we must part: I feel my strength ebbing and know we shall never meet again. Let me rouse myself to play host at a humble farewell—we will toast life and death together. I ask my sons Shi and Zhao to befriend you—do not part from them; that would ease this old man’s heart.” He broke into wracking sobs. Li Sheng sighed and replied, “I shall obey your charge—once the edict is issued.” When Li Sheng emerged and met Shuang’s circle he reported, “The Grand Tutor’s mind is gone—he cannot keep the cup to his lips and mistakes south for north. He insisted I was bound for Bing; I told him again and again my post was Jing, not Bing. Only when I spoke slowly and caught a lucid interval did he grasp that my governorship was Jing. He even wanted to host a farewell feast on the road. Do not rush away—wait for that kindness.” Turning again to Shuang’s men with tears he said, “The Grand Tutor cannot recover—how it wrings the heart.”〉
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殿宿 宿 便
In the first month of the tenth year the emperor went to sacrifice at the Gaoping tombs, and Shuang with every brother of his rode in the train. 〈The Shiyu notes that Shuang’s brothers often left the capital together; Huan Fan warned, “You control the government and the palace guard—you should never leave town at once: if someone slammed the gates, who would let you back in?” Shuang laughed, “Who would dare?” After that they avoided traveling in a pack. On this occasion, however, they all rode out together. Sima Yi struck first: he seized the imperial arsenal, then marched his men to the floating bridge over the Luo. He laid charges against Shuang: “When I returned from Liaodong the late emperor called Your Majesty, the Prince of Qin, and me to his couch, took my arm, and spoke of what must come after his death. I answered, ‘Your two imperial forebears gave me the same charge—Your Majesty witnessed it—so set your mind at rest; should anything go amiss, I will give my life to execute your clear command. Director of the Yellow Gates Dong Ji and the palace women who nursed him heard every word. Now Grand General Shuang has torn up the deathbed trust and trampled the law: inside the palace he apes the sovereign, outside it he wields unchecked power; he has dismantled the guard battalions, pocketed the palace army, and stuffed every key office with his creatures; the night watch inside the halls—men who had served for generations—he has cashiered wholesale in order to plant his own men; his roots and teeth are everywhere, and his arrogance grows by the day. Worse still, he set the eunuch Zhang Dang over all liaison with the throne, spying on Your Majesty, coveting the regalia, driving wedge between the two palaces, and wounding the imperial kin. The realm seethes with fear while Your Majesty sits as a mere figurehead—how can that endure? This was never what the late emperor meant when he took our hands on that couch. Though I am old and worn, dare I forget the oath I swore then? When Zhao Gao ran amok, the house of Qin fell; the Lü and Huo clans were destroyed in time, and the Han line endured for generations. These are warnings writ large for Your Majesty—and the very hour I accepted my charge from the throne. I, Grand Commandant Jiang Ji, Secretary Director Sima Fu, and the rest have memorialized the empress dowager at Yongning: Cao Shuang shows disloyalty to the throne; his brothers must not hold military command or the palace guard. The empress dowager has ordered me to execute that memorial to the letter. I have instructed the proper bureaus and the director of the Yellow Gates to strip Shuang, Xi, and Xun of their guards and staff, confine them to their marquisates as nobles without office, and forbid them to loiter and obstruct the imperial train; anyone who tarries will answer under military law. Though ill, I have mustered the strength to bring troops to the Luo floating bridge to guard against any coup.” 〈The Shiyu relates that Sima Yi first marched his men from under the palace gate toward the arsenal; at the gate of Shuang’s mansion retainers blocked the carriage. Shuang’s wife Liu ran panic-stricken to the outer hall and told the house guard, “My husband is still away with the court. Soldiers are moving in the capital—what are we to do?” The captain answered, “Do not fear, my lady.” He climbed to the gate tower, strung crossbows, and prepared to loose. Behind him general Sun Qian seized his arm and cried, “No one yet knows how the day will fall!” He repeated the plea three times until Sima Yi’s column was allowed through.〉
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宿鹿 宿 使 使 使使殿 使 便 便
Shuang never received Sima Yi’s memorial in time; trapped and bewildered, he could not think of a move. 〈Gan Bao’s Jin ji says Shuang halted the emperor south of the Yi, felled timber for chevaux-de-frise, and threw up a cordon of several thousand armored men. The Wei mo zhuan adds that Sima Yi told Sima Fu, “The emperor must not bivouac in the cold—rush tents and the imperial kitchen gear to his camp.”〉 Huan Fan of Pei, the grand minister of agriculture, hearing of the coup, ignored the dowager’s call, forged an order to open Pingchang Gate, armed himself at sword point, impressed the gate officer, and galloped south to Shuang. Sima Yi heard the news and said, “Huan Fan will offer counsel—but Shuang lacks the wit to follow it.” Huan Fan urged him to escort the emperor to Xuchang and call in armies from the provinces. The brothers dithered; Fan turned to Xi and demanded, “Do you imagine you can sink back into obscurity after this day? A common kidnapper with a single hostage still bargains for his life—yet you hold the emperor and could issue orders to the realm. Who would refuse you?” Xi still would not act. Attendants Xu Yun and Secretary Chen Tai talked Shuang into surrendering at once. Shuang dispatched Xu and Chen to Sima Yi, confessed his crimes, offered his life, and only then did Yi’s memorial reach him. 〈Gan Bao’s Jin shu notes that when Huan Fan rode to Shuang, Sima Yi told Jiang Ji, “The brains of the plot have arrived.” Jiang Ji answered, “Fan is clever—but a broken-down nag clings to its manger; Shuang will never heed him.” The Shiyu adds that Sima Yi sent Xu Yun and Chen Tai with terms, Jiang Ji wrote privately, and palace colonel Yin Damu, whom Shuang trusted, swore on the Luo that only office would be lost. Shuang believed them and stood his army down. The Wei shi chunqiu records that after laying down arms Shuang said, “At worst I retire a very rich commoner.” Huan Fan wept, “Cao Zhen was a hero among men—yet he sired you two calves! Who could have dreamed that listening to you would wipe out our houses!”〉" Shuang and his brothers were stripped of office and sent home under marquis’ titles only. 〈The Wei mo zhuan says the county impressed eight hundred civilians to ring Shuang’s compound, building watchtowers at each corner from which guards spied on every move. Shuang, at his wits’ end, wandered the rear garden with a pellet bow while a voice from the tower cried, “The ex–grand general is moving southeast!” Shuang went back to the hall, huddled with his brothers, still unsure how far Sima Yi meant to go, and wrote Yi begging, “Your worthless son Shuang trembles with guilt. I brought this ruin on myself and deserve extinction. Servants I sent to meet a grain convoy have not returned; we are hungry. Please send food to tide us over.” Sima Yi feigned shock and replied at once, “I had no idea you were short of grain—how mortifying. I am sending a hundred hu of rice, dried meat, salted beans, and soy.” The supplies arrived almost immediately. The brothers failed to read the omen, rejoiced at the gift, and told each other they would live.
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使 宿 使使 鹿 西 宿 使 忿 宿 使 宿 忿 退 簿巿 祿
At first Zhang Dang privately presented to Shuang the talented women Zhang and He whom he had selected. Suspecting impropriety, authorities arrested Zhang Dang for punishment. Dang testified that Shuang, He Yan, and others had secretly plotted rebellion, trained troops, and planned to rise in the third month; Yan and the rest were jailed. The court deliberated under Spring and Autumn principle: "Against ruler or parent, no armed defiance is permitted; defiance demands execution." Shuang, a collateral kinsman long favored, had received the late emperor's handclasp charge to govern the realm, yet harbored treason, scorned that trust, and with Yan, Yang, Dang, and others sought the throne; Huan Fan's faction shared the crime—all were capital traitors." Shuang, Xi, Xun, Yan, Yang, Mi, Gui, Sheng, Fan, Dang, and others were seized, executed, and exterminated to the third degree. The Wei lüe names Deng Yang, courtesy name Xuanmao, a descendant of Deng Yu. He won scholarly fame in the capital while young. Under Emperor Ming he served as a Masters of Writing gentleman, then Luoyang magistrate; dismissed for an offense, he became a central gentleman and later concurrent Secretariat gentleman. He and Li Sheng had been flashy companions; when the "flashy" scandal broke in the Secretariat he was expelled and never re-employed. At the opening of Zhengshi he became governor of Yingchuan, then the grand general's chief clerk, then palace attendant and secretary. Yang loved profit; while in inner office he promised Zang Ai a high post in exchange for Ai's father's concubine—hence the capital jingle: "Trade office for a wife—Deng Xuanmao." Most of his promotions followed that pattern. He Yan's appointments failed largely because Yang was unfair; Yang shared their guilt for choosing unworthy friends. The Wei lüe names Ding Mi, courtesy name Yanjing. His father Fei bore the courtesy name Wenhou. Fei had followed Cao Cao, who favored him as a townsman. Fei loved profit, repeatedly offended, and was always pardoned. As colonel of the army of records he controlled inner and outer affairs, and his proposals were usually followed. At the end of Jian'an he followed the campaign against Wu. On campaign he swapped his weak household oxen for official ones, was reported, jailed, and stripped of office. Cao Cao later asked, "Wenhou, where are your seals?" Knowing the jest, Fei answered, "Traded for cakes." Cao Cao laughed and told attendants: "Clerk Mao of the Eastern Bureau keeps denouncing this man; I know he is crooked, yet I keep him. Fei is like a thieving dog that catches rats—the petty theft is worth the full granary." Fei was restored to office. He died of illness several years later. Mi in youth shunned company and read widely. He was deep, resolute, and strategically gifted. In the Taihe era he lived at Ye in a borrowed empty house. Princes also wanted the house, unaware Mi had it, and walked straight in. Mi saw a prince, lay cross-legged without rising, and shouted to servants, "What sort are these? Drive them out!" The prince, furious at the insult, reported him. Emperor Ming jailed him at Ye but released him as a hero's son. Later, hearing he had his father's ways, the emperor made him a revenue-department gentleman. Cao Shuang, long his friend while general who guards martial majesty, repeatedly praised him to the emperor. When the emperor died and Shuang took power, Mi was made supernumerary cavalry attendant, then secretary. Outwardly careless, Mi was inwardly jealous. In the central offices he blocked business with constant impeachments. He looked down on peers such as He Yan and Deng Yang, bowing only to Shuang's power. Shuang respected him and followed his every word. A lampoon ran: "Three dogs in the offices—two dogs' cliff firewood none can withstand; one dog leans on Mo and festers like a boil." The three dogs were He Yan, Deng Yang, and Ding Mi. Mo was Shuang's childhood name. All three bit at others; Mi most of all. Mi planned the dowager's removal to a separate palace, Prince of Le'an's dispatch north to Ye, and Wen Qin's recall to Huainan. Sima Yi therefore hated him deeply. Bi Gui bore the courtesy name Zhaoxian. His father Zili had been an agricultural colonel in Jian'an. Gui won early fame for talent. When Emperor Ming was crown prince, Gui served in the literary academy. At the end of Huangchu he became a chief clerk. Under Emperor Ming he became a Yellow Gate gentleman; his son married a princess and his household grew wealthy. He was made inspector of Bing. In Bing he earned a name for arrogance. When barbarians raided, he marched against the Xianbei leader Kebineng and lost. Protector of the Army Jiang Ji memorialized: "Gui's past fault should be forgiven, but repetition would be dangerous. Talents differ and cannot be forced. Gui's cultivated mind makes him a fine instrument. Transfer him from Bing to another post without ruining his gifts, and the state will benefit. This bears on safety and peril—please consider it." By Zhengshi he was protector of the army, then palace attendant and secretary, then metropolitan commandant. Long friendly with Shuang, he was usually obeyed. Li Sheng bore the courtesy name Gongzhao. His father Xiu, styled Zilang, was a strategist. When Zhang Lu was general who guards the north, Xiu served as his marshal at Nanzheng. When sweet dew fell in Hanzhong, Zilang urged Zhang Lu, with tens of thousands of troops and a fortress in four directions, to declare himself emperor as the Han mandate waned; Lu refused. After Lu's defeat Cao Cao enfeoffed Xiu as a marquis within the passes for urging submission and sent him to Ye. In Huangchu he governed Shangdang and Julu, then retired as an adviser. Sheng traveled the capital in youth, showed talent, and befriended Shuang. Emperor Ming banned flashy display; someone reported that Sheng's hall had "four windows and eight openings," each named for a patron. He was arrested but pardoned because many were implicated; he was confined several years. After the emperor's death Shuang made him Luoyang magistrate. Xiahou Xuan as General Who Conquers the West made Sheng his chief clerk. Xuan had long been close to Sheng. In the Luogu campaign Sheng's plan was adopted, and Sima Yi disliked him for it. He rose to governor of Yingyang and then Henan. Every post he held won praise; as Henan governor, a repair timber in his hall fell and killed clerk Shi Hutou who was receiving credentials. Ten days later he was made governor of Jing but fell before taking office. Huan Fan, styled Yuanze, came from a leading clan. At the end of Jian'an he entered the chancellor's staff. In Yankang he was left colonel of the feathered forest. For his scholarship he helped Wang Xiang compile the Imperial Overview. Under Emperor Ming he was chief of the palace guard and secretary, then general who captures barbarians and east central commander with credentials over Qing and Xu from Xiapi. He quarreled with Xu inspector Zheng Qi over a house, drew credentials to behead him, was impeached, found in the wrong, and dismissed. He became inspector of Yan, sullen and unhappy. He then heard he was to become shepherd of Ji. Ji was then under General Who Guards the North Lü Zhao, whom Fan outranked in seniority yet resented. Fan told his wife Zhongchang, "I would rather kneel before the Three Excellencies than bow to Lü Zizhan." His wife replied, "In the east you nearly beheaded Xu's inspector and were called unfit to serve below—now you refuse to bow to Lü; are you fit to rule above?" Enraged that she spoke truth, Fan struck her pregnant belly with a knife ring. She miscarried and died. Fan claimed illness and never went to Ji. In Zhengshi he became grand minister of agriculture. Once famed in the central offices for knowing affairs, as minister of agriculture he was praised for frugality. He compiled excerpts from the Book of Han into his Essentials of the Age Treatise. When Grand Commandant Jiang Ji met Fan at an earth-god rite, Fan meant to show him his book. Fan passed the book along; Ji refused to read it, and Fan resented him. Changing the subject in anger, Fan snapped, "My house has thin virtue—what are men like you?" Jiang Ji, though tough, knew Fan's temper; he glanced away and they parted. In Pei commandery Fan ranked after Cao Zhen. When Shuang governed he respected Fan as a hometown elder but was not intimate. When Sima Yi closed the gates, he summoned Fan, famed for knowing affairs, to lead the palace guard. Fan meant to obey, but his son urged flight south while the emperor was abroad. He hesitated; his son urged again. Clerks tried to stop him. Fan broke through to Pingchang Gate, already shut. Gate warden Si Fan, once Fan's nominee, was hailed with a forged summons: "Open the gate!" When Si Fan asked to see the edict, Fan roared, "You were my clerk—how dare you?" The gate opened. Leaving the city Fan called back, "The Grand Tutor rebels—come with me!" Si Fan on foot could not catch up and hid aside. Fan rode south to Shuang and urged him to take the emperor to Xuchang and summon armies from every quarter. Shuang hesitated; Xi said nothing. Fan told Xi, "The case is clear—what good is all your reading? Today your house is finished!" Neither answered. Fan added, "Your separate camp lies south of the palace; Luoyang's agricultural office is outside the walls—call them at will. Reach Xuchang by midnight; its storehouses can supply you; grain is the worry, and I hold the minister of agriculture's seal." The brothers stayed silent; at the fifth watch Shuang threw down his sword and told the court, "I think the Grand Tutor only wants us to submit. I alone have failed the realm!" He told the emperor, "Issue an edict dismissing us and report the empress dowager's order." Fan knew Shuang would surrender first and he would pay for urging resistance. Fan cried, "This year I sit with your whole clan!" After Shuang surrendered, the emperor returned to the palace with Fan in tow. North of the Luoshui floating bridge he saw Sima Yi, descended, and kowtowed in silence. Sima Yi called, "Grandee Huan—why act thus?" An edict restored Fan to office. Fan submitted an apology at the palace gate and waited. Si Fan surrendered to the grand herald and reported Fan's words at the gate. Sima Yi demanded, "What is the penalty for falsely crying rebellion?" The officer answered, "The accuser suffers the crime." Fan was seized below the palace gate. As officers seized him, Fan said, "Slowly—I too am a man of honor." He was sent to the commandant of justice. The Shiyu says Shuang dreamed two tigers holding the Thunder Lord, sized like a two-sheng bowl, set in the courtyard. He asked diviners; Ma Xun of the Spirit Terrace said, "Troops bring trouble." Ma Xun withdrew and told his wife, "Shuang will die by arms within ten days." The Han–Jin chunqiu says Huangfu Mi of Anding dreamed in winter of the ninth year that he reached Luoyang, left a temple amid vast chariots, and presented an offering: "Execute Grand General Cao Shuang." Awake, he told a townsman, who scoffed, "You dream like a Cao man! Where is there a Gongsun Jiang at court? Shuang and his brothers hold the army and the Secretariat—who would dare plot?" Mi replied, "Shuang lacks an uncle's plea for mercy; lose Heaven's moment and power avails nothing. Yan Xian of Han leaned on the empress dowager yet nineteen eunuchs slew him in a morning—how much less can Shuang rely on force?" The Shiyu says when Shuang marched out, Sima Luzhi in the office heard trouble and prepared to cut through Jinfang Gate with cavalry to join him. After Shuang's execution Luzhi was promoted commandant of the censorate. As Shuang surrendered his seals, chief clerk Yang Zong stopped him: "You hold the emperor and power—will you abandon this for the execution ground?" Shuang would not listen. Authorities accused Zong of abetting rebellion; Sima Yi said, "Each served his lord." He was pardoned and made a Masters of Writing gentleman. Luzhi, styled Shiying, was from Fufeng. He later rose to special advancement and household counsellor. Zong, styled Chubo, later became chief clerk to Sima Zhao. Pei Songzhi notes that Xiahou Zhan's epitaph and Gan Bao's Jin ji make Luzhi inspector of Bing and Zong an eastern staff officer immediately after Shuang's fall. This differs from the Shiyu. In the Jiaping era Cao Zhen's collateral descendant Xi was enfeoffed village marquis of Xinchang with three hundred households to continue Zhen's sacrifices. Gan Bao's Jin ji says Jiang Ji secured the enfeoffment lest Cao Zhen's line die out. Jiang Ji, ashamed that his counsel had misled Shuang, sickened and died.
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祿 宿 使使 使 使 滿 使
He Yan was the grandson of He Jin. His mother, Lady Yin, entered Cao Cao’s harem as a consort. He grew up inside the palace, married an imperial princess, won early fame as a prodigy, doted on Laozi and Zhuangzi, and produced the Dao de lun plus dozens of essays and fu. 〈His courtesy name was Pingshu. The Wei Summary states: “When Cao Cao was Minister of Works, he took He Yan’s mother as a consort and raised He Yan in his household. At the same time Qin Yilu’s son Asu also came with his mother into Cao Cao’s household, and both boys were favored like sons of the family. That A Su is Qin Lang. Qin Lang was careful by temperament, but He Yan dressed and swaggered like the crown prince; Emperor Pi loathed him, never used his name, and called him the “sham son.” Because he had married a princess and chased every pretty face, he held no post during the Huangchu years. Under Emperor Ming he idled in sinecures. At the opening of Zhengshi he curried favor with Cao Shuang; Shuang, valuing his brilliance, named him supernumerary cavalry gentleman, then palace attendant and secretary. His princess marriage had already won him a full marquisate, and with his mother still in the inner palace he grew vain, never without a cosmetic box, and minced along studying his reflection. As secretary he ran appointments and promoted every old crony in sight." The Wei mo zhuan names his wife as the Princess of Jinyang—He Yan’s own younger sister by the same mother. The princess was a woman of sense. She told her mother, the Princess Dowager of Pei, “He Yan’s crimes mount by the day—how will he save himself?” Her mother laughed, “You are simply jealous of your brother!” Soon after, He Yan was executed. He left a son of five or six; Sima Yi sent officers to take the child. He Yan’s mother smuggled the boy into the Prince of Pei’s palace, then threw herself before the escort, slapping her own face and begging for the child’s life; the officer reported everything to Sima Yi. Sima Yi had also heard the princess’s warning and admired her judgment; and for the prince’s sake he spared the boy. The Wei shi chunqiu records that Xiahou Xuan, He Yan, and their circle once dominated polite society, and Sima Shi moved among them. He Yan once said, “Only depth can fathom the mind of the world—there stands Xiahou Xuan; only subtlety can finish the world’s business—there stands Sima Shi; only the sage moves without haste yet arrives without walking—I have heard the phrase, but never met the man.” He meant the third name to be his own. Sima Yi first set He Yan to interrogate Cao Shuang’s associates. He Yan hounded every accomplice, hoping to buy mercy with zeal. Sima Yi said, “Eight great houses are implicated.” He Yan named seven houses—the Ding, Deng, and the rest. Sima Yi said, “You are short one.” He Yan, cornered, cried, “Surely you cannot mean me!” Sima Yi answered, “Precisely you.” He Yan was arrested. Pei Songzhi notes: the Wei mo zhuan claims He Yan married his own uterine younger sister—a deed polite society shrinks from naming; even the Chu king’s incestuous unions seem mild beside it. If such a tale surfaced in a canonical history we would doubt it—how much more a gossip sheet from the gutter! Note: 〈Biographies of the imperial princes〉 The Prince of Pei was Lady Du’s son by Cao Cao. He Yan’s mother was surnamed Yin; if the princess were Lady Du’s daughter like the Prince of Pei, she could not be He Yan’s uterine sister. Huangfu Mi’s Lienu zhuan tells of Lady Lingnu, daughter of Xiahou Wenning of Qiao, wife of Cao Wen Shu, a cousin of Cao Shuang. When Wen Shu died young she finished mourning, knew she was childless and still in her prime, and feared her in-laws would remarry her; she sheared her hair as a vow of widowhood. When the clan pressed a new marriage she sliced off both ears with a knife and clung to Cao Shuang’s protection. After Shuang fell, every Cao kinsman linked to him was put to death. Her uncle petitioned to annul the marriage to the Caos and had her dragged home by force. Her father Xiahou Wenning, then minister of Liang, pitied her youth and upright heart, knew the Cao line was extinct, and hoped her resolve would weaken; he sent a private messenger to probe her mood. She sighed through tears, “I have weighed it—perhaps I should yield.” The household took her at her word and relaxed the watch. She stole to her chamber, cut off her nose with a knife, and lay swathed in quilts. Her mother called; she did not answer. Throwing back the coverlet they found the bed awash with blood. The kinfolk ran in panic; every onlooker felt a stab in the nose. Someone urged her, “Life is dust on dew—why torture yourself so? Your husband’s clan is extinct—who benefits from this mutilation?” She answered, “They say the humane do not bend principle to fortune, the righteous do not swap loyalty for life. While the Caos flourished I meant to see my vow through; now that they are gone, how could I betray them? Birds and beasts would not stoop so low—shall I?” Sima Yi praised her, let her adopt an heir for the extinguished Cao house, and her fame spread through the realm.〉
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Xiahou Shang.
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使 西
Xiahou Shang, styled Boren, was a nephew of Xiahou Yuan. Emperor Wen counted him among his closest friends. 〈The Wei shu says Shang was a strategist whom Emperor Wen prized as a friend from commoner days.〉 After Cao Cao conquered Ji, Shang served as army marshal, led cavalry on campaign, then became literary aide to the heir apparent. When the kingdom of Wei was founded he rose to gentleman attendant at the Yellow Gates. When the Hu of Dai rebelled, Cao Zhang, Marquis of Yanling, was sent against them with Shang on his staff; they pacified Dai and marched home. When Cao Cao died at Luoyang, Shang carried the imperial baton and convoyed the bier to Ye. His past service was entered in the rolls; he received the village marquisate of Pingling, was named supernumerary cavalry attendant, then chief of the palace guard. When Cao Pi took the throne Shang’s fief shifted to Pingling village, he became general of the southern expedition with concurrent duty as Jing provincial inspector, baton in hand over all southern armies. Shang memorialized: “Liu Bei’s detached force holds Shangyong over treacherous mountain tracks; they will not expect us. A silent column that strikes from nowhere can take them alone.” He led the combined hosts, stormed Shangyong, reduced three commanderies and nine counties, and was raised to grand general of the southern expedition. Though Sun Quan paid tribute as a vassal, Shang kept tightening the screws for war; Quan soon showed his duplicity. In Huangchu 3 the emperor traveled to Wan and ordered Shang with Cao Zhen to invest Jiangling. Sun Quan’s Zhuge Jin drew up opposite Shang across the Yangzi, crossed to a midstream sandbar, and split his fleet in the channel. Shang sent fire ships by night, slipped more than ten thousand men across the river below the enemy, fell on Jin’s camps, torched his fleet from both banks, and overran him by land and water. Before the walls fell a plague broke out; an edict recalled Shang’s army. Six hundred new households were added to his fief, bringing the total to nineteen hundred; he received the ceremonial axe and promotion to provincial shepherd. Jing was a shattered frontier touching barbarian country, fronting Wu across the Han, while most of the old Han population had fled south of the stream. He cut a supply road west from Shangyong for over seven hundred li; hill tribes and barbarians submitted by the thousand household, until within five or six years several thousand families had come over. In the fifth year his title was moved to the village marquisate of Changling.
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Cao Shang still kept a favored concubine whose attentions displaced those of his principal wife; The principal wife was a Cao clanswoman, so Emperor Wen had her strangled. Grief and shock left Shang delirious; after the concubine was buried he could not bear the longing, went out, and looked upon her grave again. When Emperor Wen heard of it he fumed: "Du Xi was right to look down on Shang." As an old servant of the house, however, Shang's favor never waned. In the sixth year, mortally ill, Shang returned to the capital; the emperor visited him again and again, clasped his hand, and wept. Shang died and was posthumously titled Marquis Dao. The Book of Wei preserves an edict: "From boyhood Shang served at my side with utter loyalty. Though not of our surname, he was as close as kin—my confidant within, my talon without. His mind was keen and his counsel surpassed other men's; that he died young was fate—what can be done? He is granted the seals of General Who Conquers the South and Marquis of Changling." His son Xuan succeeded him. Three hundred households from Shang's fief were also set aside for his younger cousin Feng, who was enfeoffed as a marquis within the passes.
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Xiahou Xuan bore the courtesy name Taichu. He won fame while young and at twenty became supernumerary cavalry gentleman at the Yellow Gates. Once at court he was seated beside the empress’s brother Mao Zeng; the pairing disgusted him and his face showed it. Emperor Ming took offense and busted him down to colonel of the feathered forest guard. When the Zhengshi era opened, Cao Shuang directed the regency. Xuan was Shuang’s cousin—son of Shuang’s aunt. He rose step by step to supernumerary cavalry attendant and protector of the army. 〈The Shiyu says the Xiahous were famed as judges of character; as protector of the army Xuan picked every martial post from gate guard upward for talent, and many of his men became governors and shepherds. The regulations he framed are still cited as models.〉
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使 使 使 使使 使
Grand Tutor Sima Yi asked his view of the times. Xuan answered: “Matching office to talent is how the state steers itself—so high policy belongs to the central ministries, while village reputation for filial piety belongs to local appraisal. If you want clean government and fair promotion, keep those two spheres apart and let neither swallow the other. Why? Let the center reach down too far and patronage replaces principle; let local appraisal climb the ladder and backstairs influence multiplies. When common gossip sets rank, the people hold the lever of power; when many doors open for intrigue, chaos follows. Since the nine-rank system began, years of crossed wires have produced no order—because the two functions were never kept distinct. Let the local grader rank only moral conduct among peers; when those grades are fair, appointments can follow. Why? Filial sons at home make loyal officials at court. Men praised for kindness within the clan govern with the same breadth. Fair dealing with neighbors shows capacity for responsibility. Where the local grader vouches for such qualities, you know the man can serve even before he holds a title. Character has degrees, peers have ranks—so the pool of appointees sorts itself clearly. Why force local graders to duplicate the ministry’s scales while ministers lean on village gossip—top and bottom gnawing at each other until nothing is clear? The ministries already watch every bureau, morning and night, with a chain of responsibility—nothing is more thorough. Let alley gossip overrule appointed heads and the whole machine panics—you will never see honest customs that way. The capital is far from the district; ordinary folk give up hope of justice. What they can touch is the local boss—who will not polish a façade to win him? Once favor runs through private channels, staying home to build virtue loses to courting the neighborhood elite. Courting the neighborhood elite loses to pulling strings at the provincial capital. Open that path and even harsh laws against the graders cannot stop men from faking virtue and forgetting substance. Better each keep his lane: let every chief send up a candid rating of his staff; let the ministries weigh those ratings against village reputation, match peers fairly, and forbid favoritism. The local grader then records conduct, sorts grades, fixes peer rank, and does not shuffle appointments on his own. The ministries synthesize the lists; if anything is wrong, blame rests with the bureaus. Chiefs rank ability, graders assign peer bands, and men are used in order; if a man fails in office, blame lies outside the grading chain. Court and country then check each other; credit and blame have addresses—who can paper over the truth? Hearts steady, right men in right posts—you may yet purify manners and pick true talent.”
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使 便
He also argued: “Ancient offices existed to nurture the people and order the world—hence rulers set magistrates to shepherd them. Shepherds need a single chain of command: unity fixes each man’s job and calms the ranks; specialization keeps duties sharp and business light. Light business, clear duties, a quiet chain of command—under that order nothing stays broken. The ancient kings split the realm into myriad polities—details are lost, but each lord held his own ground without a pile of overlapping overseers. Under Yin and Zhou the feudal ladder differed only in size and rank; lord, minister, and commoner did not answer to two rival chains of command. Split command and duties decay; decayed duties never simplify government; tangled government never calms the people; restless people breed crime and fraud. The sage kings saw this and gave each office a single line of authority. The Qin turned from the Way, ran offices by private whim, and set subordinates up for betrayal; fearing magistrates would slack, they piled on inspectors; fearing inspectors would bend, they added auditors; magistrate sat on magistrate, spy on spy, until every rank pursued a different purpose. Han inherited the tangle and never straightened it. Wei’s founders had no leisure to fix everything; the Zhou feudal model could not return overnight, yet a rough standard could still unify command. Today a county magistrate answers to the people, then to a governor, then to an inspector—triple harness on one horse. If the governor only repeats the inspector’s summary, the middle layer is dead weight. Abolish the commandery governor and leave the inspector alone; first, oversight survives while tens of thousands of redundant clerks go back to the plow, cutting cost and filling granaries. Second, able heads of large counties could be governors themselves; yet right and wrong suits breed feuds—yield and you are safe, stand on principle and you quarrel. Good stew needs mixed flavors; ruler and ruled should help each other—forced harmony is one note on two strings. Remove the middle layer and offices shrink while work clears—second gain. Third, commandery parasites who “supervise” counties really shield cronies; they trip any magistrate who resists. Merge the layers and you plug that spring of abuse. Fourth, in these ruined times talent is thin yet posts multiply; the commandery takes credit for county work while the real pain is downstream. Clerks are the people’s lifeline yet are often coarse men. Merge the ranks, pick honest clerks, and peace flows to the villages. Fifth, name ten-thousand-household counties “governor,” five-thousand-household seats “commandant,” smaller units “magistrate” as now, promote by merit up a ladder of wider responsibility—once the ladder is fixed, talent and achievement both stand clear. Abolish the governor and counties report straight up—no logjam, no dead files. We may not recover the Three Dynasties, but we can approach their lean government; the savings and relief to the people are here.”
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使 輿使使
He added: “Civil polish and plain substance alternate like the seasons; the king must read the times—when the age is crude, teach ritual; when it grows decadent, return to simplicity. We stand at the tail of a hundred reigns, heir to Qin and Han excess; the age grows ever flashier—sweep it clean to shift popular ambition. Under the present sumptuary regulations, everyone from dukes and full marquises downward, and every rank from Grand General upward, may wear damask, brocade, gauze, patterned silk, fine white silk, and objects ornamented with carved gold and silver. Below them, variegated garments reach even lowly people. Although upper and lower grades are each marked by distinctions, the dress of court ministers has already come to match the sovereign’s, and the colors black and yellow have already passed down below. You cannot ban gaudy goods in the market, rare luxuries in the shop, or filigree in the workshop while the law itself dresses everyone like an emperor. Strike at the root, measure dress against ancient mean between ornament and plain, and encode it in ritual. Simplify carriages, robes, and badges; outlaw vulgar finery so no court family flaunts brocade, two-tone silks, or gewgaws—let rank show only in modest steps of plain dress. Rewards of merit from the throne should be registered with the ministry before they may be worn or used. What the ruler does, the people follow like grass bending in the wind. Let this court practice austerity and the lust for display dies in the lanes below.”
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使
Sima Yi wrote back: “Tighter appointments, fewer layers of office, simpler dress—excellent proposals. Village conduct as root, court examination as branch—your outline is sound. Yet habit piles up through reigns and cannot be overturned at a stroke. Qin knew no inspectors—only governors and magistrates. Han’s inspectors rode circuit on the six articles—mobile auditors, not resident lords—until the post hardened into another bureaucracy. Jia Yi once pleaded for sumptuary reform; even Emperor Wen in homespun could not force the realm to follow suit. I fear these three reforms will need worthier times before they can succeed."
33
Xuan answered again: “Emperor Wen’s homespun was personal theater—he never rewrote the code; court and harem still flouted dress laws while favorites took limitless gifts. He cared for reputation, not systemic reform. Today you lords steer the age toward the ancient ideal—cut excess and mend the root. Set the pattern at the top and the whole realm will follow. When the moment calls for reform, the realm will answer an edict like an echo—yet you still hide behind false modesty and say ‘wait for worthier men.’ That is not how Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou once straightened the fallen houses of Shang and Zhou. Frankly, I cannot accept that.”
34
西 宿祿 使 254 祿 使 便 便 使 使 滿祿滿 漿 252 使 駿 駿 便 巿 西 244
」Shortly afterward he was made General Who Conquers the West, with credentials to command all forces in Yong and Liang. The Wei lüe says that after Xuan was moved, Sima Shi replaced him as protector of the army. The protector commanded all generals and controlled military appointments; none of his predecessors had been able to stop bribery. When Jiang Ji held the post, people said, "A halberd gate command costs a thousand bolts of silk; a company captain, five hundred." Sima Yi, on good terms with Jiang Ji, asked him about it; Ji could not explain it away and joked, "In Luoyang markets, trade stalls if a single cash is missing." The two men laughed together. When Xuan replaced Ji he still could not shut the door on such obligations. When Sima Shi replaced Xuan he tightened the laws until no one dared transgress. He joined Cao Shuang in the Luogu Valley expedition, which contemporaries ridiculed. After Shuang's execution Xuan was recalled as grand minister of splendid happiness, then after several years made grand minister of worship. Humiliated by Shuang's fall, Xuan brooded in discontent. Director of the Secretariat Li Feng had long been favored by Sima Shi, yet privately backed Xuan; he joined the empress's father, Household Counsellor Zhang Ji, in a plot to install Xuan as regent. Feng already wielded inner power; his son had married a princess, and he shared Zhang Ji's home commandery—so Ji trusted him. Feng secretly ordered his brother Yi, inspector of Yan, to request audience so he could march troops in and join the rising. Yi's request for audience was denied. In the second month of Jiaping 6 (254), when a noble consort was to be invested, Feng planned to strike during the imperial audience, with gate guards at every portal: kill the grand general, put Xuan in his place, and make Zhang Ji general of agile cavalry. Feng secretly told Yellow Gate Supervisor Su Shuo, Director of the Office of Eternal Tranquility Yue Dun, deputy director of attendants Liu Xian, and others: "You inside the palace have many offenses; the grand general is stern and has warned you repeatedly—remember Zhang Dang." Su Shuo and the rest all pledged obedience. The Book of Wei says Xuan had always been eminent; Shuang's fall left him demoted and perpetually sour. Li Feng, Xuan, and the empress's father Zhang Ji plotted together; Ji, a clever schemer from Feng's home commandery, had been recalled from Dongguan to serve the empress's kin and was equally resentful. Feng himself held confidential office, and his son Tao, a full marquis and director of attendants married to the Princess of Qi the Long, gave the family weight at court—yet Feng felt uneasy. He secretly told Tao: "Xuan is a man of national stature still in his prime, yet permanently shelved; he is also Cao Shuang's cousin by marriage and bears a grudge against the grand general. A letter from Xuan has me deeply worried. Ji has ability, yet was pulled from a major command and left idle at home. Each of us is thwarted—I want you to confide the plan to him." When Ji lay wounded, Feng sent Tao to visit him; Tao sent servants away and said: "I have married a princess; my father and I stand near the inner secrets. The grand general holds power and we fear we are not trusted; the grand minister of worship is deeply anxious too. Though you are the empress's father, your safety is uncertain—we share the same fears, and my father wishes to plot with you." Ji was silent a long while, then said: "We are in the same boat—where could I flee? This is a grave matter; failure means the destruction of our clans." Tao then reported back to Feng. Feng again secretly told Su Shuo and the others; they answered, "We follow your plan alone." Feng said: "When the noble consort is invested today, camp soldiers will mass at the gates. When the emperor faces the hall we will seize the moment, force the ministers and soldiers with us, and kill the grand general. You must all secretly report this plan." Su Shuo asked, "What if the emperor refuses?" Feng replied, "There are expedients: if he will not listen, seize the general and go. Would he not have to obey?" They agreed. Feng warned, "This is a matter of extermination—keep it secret. Succeed, and you will all be enfeoffed marquises and made regular palace attendants." Feng secretly informed Xuan and Ji as well. Ji sent his son Miao to join Feng in the plot. The Shiyu says Feng sent Tao to tell Xuan; Xuan replied only, "This needs careful thought," and reported nothing. The grand general caught wind of the plot, summoned Feng, and killed him when he came unaware. The Shiyu adds that attendant Wang Yang proposed summoning Feng: "If he is unprepared, bent by pressure, he will come; if not, I alone can handle him; but if he knows the plot is out, he may force his way through Cloud Dragon Gate with an armed escort, seize the emperor, and rally three thousand men on Lingyun Terrace—then I could not stop him." Sima Shi sent Wang Yang with a carriage to fetch him. Cornered, Feng went with Yang. The Wei shi chunqiu says the grand general rebuked Feng, who answered coldly: "You and your father plot treason against the state; I regret I am too weak to destroy you!" Enraged, the grand general had warriors beat Feng to death with knife rings. The Wei lüe gives Feng the courtesy name Anguo; he was son of the former commandant of the guard Li Yi. In the Huangchu era he entered service through his father's appointment. As a young man of seventeen or eighteen in Ye he was famed for integrity and for judging character; the empire took notice. Later, serving at Xuchang, his fame grew daily. His father disapproved and shut the gates to visitors. When Emperor Ming was crown prince, Feng served in the literary academy. After his accession he questioned Wu captives: "Whom do they call China's leading gentlemen?" One answered, "I hear of a Li Anguo." Feng was then a gentleman of the Yellow Gates; the emperor asked where Anguo was, and attendants named Feng. The emperor said, "So Feng's name reaches even Wu and Yue?" He was later made cavalry commandant and director of attendants. After Emperor Ming's death he became grand steward of Eternal Tranquility but was little used—his reputation outran his role. In the Zhengshi era he rose to palace attendant and vice director of the secretariat. In the central offices Feng often feigned illness; regulations allowed dismissal after a hundred sick days, yet he would rise briefly every few dozen days and then return to bed—for years. When Tao was chosen to marry a princess, Feng outwardly declined but inwardly was not much alarmed. His brothers Yi and Wei both became commandery governors within a few years. Feng once publicly admonished his brothers before others that rank ought to be used with restraint. When Sima Yi lay long ill, his brother Wei, a two-thousand-bushel official, drank himself into misrule in Xinping and Fufeng, yet Feng did not recall him—people thought he traded on favor. When Cao Shuang monopolized power, Feng trimmed between him and the Simas; a lampoon ran: "Shuang's heat boils like soup, the Grand Tutor and son are cold as gruel, the Li Feng brothers drift like will-o'-the-wisp light." The point was that Feng looked pure outwardly while plotting within—like drifting light. When Sima Yi memorialized against Shuang and halted below the palace gate, Feng within hearing was terrified—his breath failed and his legs gave way. After Sima Yi died in Jiaping 4 (252), the directorship fell vacant; the grand general asked the court, "Who can fill it?" Some named Feng. Feng knew it was no glittering appointment, yet through imperial marriage ties he wished to cling to the throne and accepted without demur. For two years as director the emperor repeatedly summoned Feng alone—what passed between them is unknown. Sima Shi learned Feng had plotted against him, summoned him, and killed him when he would not confess. The affair was kept secret. Through two reigns Feng cared nothing for household wealth and lived on salary alone. Though Tao had married a princess, Feng forbade him to seize anything; gifts of money or silk went to kin; palace women given him he passed to nephews and younger kin. After his death officials inventoried his home and found no surplus. The Wei shi chunqiu says Feng's corpse was sent at night to the commandant of justice; Zhong Yu refused, saying, "This is outside the law office's jurisdiction." Only after orders were reported and repeated did he accept. The emperor meant to interrogate Feng's dying intent; the empress dowager, fearing scandal, called him in and stopped it. An envoy was sent to arrest Yi. The Shiyu says Yi's second wife, sister of Xun Yi, told him: "The secretariat plot is exposed—you can still reach Wu before the warrant arrives. Why sit here and die? Who among your household would follow you through fire?" Yi hesitated; his wife said, "You command a great province yet do not know who would die with you—even flight will not save you." Yi said, "My two sons are small; I will not flee. If I accept joint punishment, my sons will be spared." It happened as Yi predicted. Yi's son Bin was Yang Jun's nephew by marriage. Under Emperor Hui of Jin he was governor of Henan and died with Yang Jun—see the Jin shu. The case went to the courts; Xuan, Ji, Shuo, Dun, Xian, and others were sent to the commandant of justice. The Shiyu says Xuan at the commandant of justice refused to confess. Zhong Yu personally tried him. Xuan rebuked him: "What confession should I make? You are a clerk judging a man—write it yourself." Yu, knowing Xuan's unbending dignity yet needing to close the case, composed the confession by night, weeping as he showed it to him. Xuan looked and merely nodded. Yu's younger brother Hui, younger than Xuan and not his friend, tried that day at Yu's seat to be familiar; Xuan refused. Sun Sheng's zayu says Hui in prison tried to befriend Xuan, who answered coldly, "Lord Zhong, why press me so?" Zhong Yu memorialized: "Feng and the rest plotted to coerce the emperor and murder the chief minister without authority—great treason warranting legal judgment." The assembled dukes, ministers, court officials, and Commandant of Justice all held: "Feng and the others each received extraordinary favor and controlled confidential affairs; Zhang Ji inherited the honor of the empress's father in the pepper chambers; and Xuan, prepared as a hereditary minister, held rank with them. Yet they harbored treacherous hearts, plotted fierce rebellion, colluded with eunuch attendants, and entrusted them with wicked schemes. Fearing Heaven's majesty, they dared not plot openly, but wished to coerce the ruler and threaten the sovereign, unleash their fraud and cruelty, kill good assistants, establish another on their own authority, overturn the capital house, and endanger the altars of soil and grain. Yu's findings matched the statutes; let them be executed." An edict pleaded: "The Princess of Qi the Long was the late emperor's beloved—spare her three sons." Feng, Xuan, Ji, Dun, and Xian were exterminated to the third degree; the Book of Wei adds that Tao, as imperial son-in-law, was granted death in prison. Other kin were exiled to Lelang. Xuan met execution at the eastern market with unchanged color and composed bearing; he was forty-six. The Wei lüe says that after returning from the west Xuan withdrew from public life and kept no luxuries. The Wei shi chunqiu says when Xiahou Ba prepared to flee to Shu he called Xuan to come along. Xuan said, "How could I basely save myself by lodging with bandits?" He returned to the capital instead. When the Grand Tutor died, Xu Yun told Xuan, "You need worry no more." Xuan sighed: "Shizong, can you not read the times? He still treated me as a family friend's son; Ziyuan and Zishang will not spare me." Xuan wrote treatises on Yue Yi, Zhang Liang, and abolishing corporal punishment that circulated widely. When Xuan was arrested, Sima Zhao wept and begged for him; the grand general said, "Have you forgotten Minister of Works Zhao Yan's funeral?" Earlier at Zhao Yan's funeral the Sima brothers saw every guest rise to welcome the late-arriving Xuan—hence their hatred. Pei Songzhi notes: Cao Shuang invaded Shu in Zhengshi 5 (244), when Xuan was already metropolitan protector of Guanzhong; he returned to Luoyang only after Shuang's fall in the tenth year. The annals place Zhao Yan's death in the sixth year, so Xuan could not have attended his funeral; nor do annals or biography record such a court appearance. The story is nearly certainly false. In the Zhengyuan era Shang's collateral descendant Ben was enfeoffed village marquis of Changling with three hundred households to continue Shang's sacrifices.
35
便 滿 使 使 便 便便
Earlier, Xu Yun of Gaoyang, chief of the palace guard, had been close to Li Feng and Xiahou Xuan. Someone had forged an edict on the one-foot board naming Xuan Grand General and Xu Yun Grand Commandant, jointly to oversee the Secretariat. Before dawn a horseman thrust the wooden edict into Xu Yun’s gatehouse, cried “Imperial order!” and vanished at a gallop. Xu Yun threw the paper straight into the fire and never showed it to Sima Shi. When Li Feng’s plot surfaced, Xu Yun was transferred to general of the northern march, with baton over Hebei armies. Before he could depart he was charged with embezzling state property, handed to the commandant of justice, sentenced to exile in Lelang, and died en route. 〈The Wei lüe names him Xu Yun, styled Shizong, from a great lineage. His father Xu Ju had been an agricultural colonel and a commandery governor. In youth he and his townsman Cui Zan won fame in Ji and were drafted into the army. Under Emperor Ming he served in the Secretariat’s appointments bureau opposite Yuan Kan of Chen; both were jailed over a paperwork dispute; the emperor’s edict demanded a death—and hinted the more upright man should hang. Xu Yun told Yuan Kan, “You are a hero’s son—the eight grounds for clemency cover you; you will not hang.” Kan read between the lines and took the heavier sentence himself. After his term Xu Yun returned to office, became a governor, then rose to palace attendant, secretary, and chief of the palace guard. When Li Feng was arrested Xu Yun started for Sima Shi’s mansion, hesitated at the gate, doubled back for a pair of trousers, and by the time he returned the roundup was over. Sima Shi heard of Xu Yun’s panic and said, “I arrested Li Feng myself—why were the ministers scurrying about?” Many officials had been rushing that day, but rumor said Sima Shi’s eye was really on Xu Yun. When Liu Jing, general of the northern march, died, the court named Xu Yun his successor. He took the baton and tallies and moved to an outer residence to prepare his column. Sima Shi wrote, “The northern command is quiet, yet it rules a whole quadrant—imagine yourself with war drums and crimson baton riding through your native commandery: the proverbial homecoming in silks.” Xu Yun was delighted and asked the ministry to upgrade his band and banners for the parade. His nephew Xu Su had heard whispers that Xu Yun was under suspicion and urged him, "Just ride—why fuss over finery?" Xu Yun snapped, “A pedant like you would not understand—I mean to honor the state, which is why I want the full panoply.” The emperor, thinking Xu Yun was leaving, called a full court and drew him to his side; Xu Yun, once a palace attendant, behaved as if bidding the emperor a last farewell, weeping openly. When the audience ended an edict hurried him out of the capital. The censorate then charged him with diverting kitchen funds to entertain actors and staff; he was jailed, interrogated, spared execution, and banished to the border. He left in the autumn of Jiaping 6 without his family, and died that winter before reaching his place of exile. The Wei shi chunqiu notes that as appointments secretary he picked a governor. Emperor Ming thought his choices out of sequence and summoned him for punishment. His wife Lady Ruan ran out barefoot and told him, “A wise emperor yields to argument, not tears.” Xu Yun nodded and went in. He explained, “One candidate’s paperwork arrived first though his seniority date was later; another’s file came later though his eligibility date was earlier.” The emperor checked the files himself and let him go. Seeing Xu Yun’s threadbare coat he said, “There goes an honest official.” and rewarded him with cloth. When named general of the north he told his wife, “Now I am safe!” She answered, "Disaster shows its face here—where is safety?" Xu Yun read omens in official seals; before his investiture he had a flawed seal recut three times. He said, “The new seal is already dishonored before it reaches my hand.” The courier admitted he had tucked it in his robe and dropped it into a latrine. The Book of Seal Physiognomy says: “The art of reading seals originally came from Chen Changwen. Changwen taught it to Wei Zhongjiang; the seal craftsman Yang Li learned the method from Zhongjiang and passed it on to Xu Shizong. Yang Li’s mantic reading was right eight or nine times in ten. Wei Dan asked Chen Qun where the art came from. Qun said it began in Han: treatises on seal and tablet omens, plus tracts on hawks, oxen, and horses. The craftsman Zong Yang passed it to Cheng Shenbo—hence the thirteen schools of seal lore." ’” Xu Yun’s wife Lady Ruan was wise but plain; after the wedding bows he refused to join her in the bedchamber. She sent a maid to watch; learning a visitor named Huan had come, she said, “That is Huan Fan—he will talk my husband inside.” Huan Fan did just that. Xu Yun went in, rose almost at once, and his wife grabbed his robe to stop him. He turned on her: “A wife should have the four virtues—which do you have?” She answered, “Among the four I lack only beauty. A gentleman needs a hundred virtues—which do you possess?” Xu Yun said, “Every one of them.” She retorted, “Virtue heads the list—yet you love looks, not virtue. How is that ‘complete’?” Xu Yun flushed, saw she was extraordinary, and thereafter honored her as a partner. They had two sons, Xu Qi and Xu Meng, both promising boys. When Sima Shi executed Xu Yun, a student rushed to tell Lady Ruan; she sat at her loom unmoved and said, “I expected this.” The student wanted to hide the boys; she said, “Leave my sons out of it.” After they moved near the grave, Sima Shi sent Zhong Hui to interview the sons—if they rivaled their father in talent, arrest them. She told them, “You are clever but not brilliant—speak from the heart with Zhong Hui, show neither genius nor deep grief, and stop when he stops. Ask a few harmless questions about court business.” They obeyed. Zhong Hui reported that they were harmless mediocrities, and the danger passed—entirely their mother’s lesson. For all Zhong Hui’s sharp eye, he was outplayed by a wise wife. Fortune later smiled on the line—only posthumous titles for the descendants. The Shiyu names the sons Xu Qi (Zitai) and Xu Meng (Zibao), both able administrators. Under Western Jin’s Yuankang, Qi became metropolitan colonel and Meng governor of You. Fu Chang’s Jin zhugong zan calls Xu Meng the age’s finest Confucian stylist in ritual and music. Qi’s son Xu Xia (Sizu) was famed for integrity and rose to palace attendant. Meng’s son Xu Shi (Yizu) was capable, ending as Puyang interior secretary and governor of Pingyuan.〉
36
Wang Jing of Qinghe was ranked with Xu Yun among Ji province's celebrated gentlemen. In the Ganlu era he served as secretary and was executed in the noble township affair. When Jing first became a commandery governor, his mother warned him: "You are a farmer's son risen to two thousand bushels—excess invites misfortune; stop while you can." Jing would not listen; he served two terms as provincial inspector and as metropolitan commandant, and was ruined. The Shiyu names him Wang Jing, styled Yanwei; he first governed Jiangxia. Grand General Cao Shuang sent twenty bolts of silk ordering trade with Wu; Jing refused the order, resigned, and went home. His mother asked why he returned; he told the truth. His mother, angry that he had abandoned command without leave, had the escort clerk beat him fifty strokes; Shuang heard and did not punish further. As metropolitan commandant he recruited Xiang Xiong of Henei; when Wang Ye went out without reporting to Jing, disaster followed. Jing was executed at the eastern market; Xiong wept until the whole market was moved. When Jing's mother was executed, former Yong clerk Huangfu Yan buried her at his own expense. The Han–Jin chunqiu says Jing took leave of his mother when arrested. Her color never changed; smiling she answered, "Who does not die? I did not stop you before lest you fail to meet your proper end. To die together now—what regret could there be?" Emperor Wu of Jin's Taishi inaugural edict said: "Former Secretary Wang Jing, though punished by law, held firm purpose worth praise. His house was destroyed; I have long pitied it—grant his grandson the post of gentleman of the palace gate." Xu Yun's friend Cui Zan of the same commandery had also warned that worldly eminence was perilous. Xun Chuo's Record of Ji Province says Zan's son Hong, styled Liangbo, was pure and scrupulous with unbending integrity, and became Jin's director of the ministry of personnel and grand minister of agriculture.
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The historian remarks: The Xiahous and Caos had intermarried for generations, so Dun, Yuan, Ren, Hong, Xiu, Shang, Zhen, and the rest rose as kinsmen at court, basked in unique favor, and gave solid service on campaign and in council. Cao Shuang’s virtue was slight while his power was vast; he drowned in excess—the very fault the Yijing warns against and Daoist teachers curse. "Xiahou Xuan won fame for scope and style, yet he was bound tight to Cao Shuang inside and out; with rank and glory such as his, he never once rebuked Shuang's misrule or brought worthy men to his aid. Judged by that, how could he hope to escape ruin?"
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