Biography
Early service
Cui Hao came from the prominent Qinghe Cui clan and was the son of Cui Hong, another major Northern Wei minister. He mastered the classics, historical texts, astronomy, and calligraphy. Under Emperor Daowu he worked on secretariat documents and court writings. Under Emperor Mingyuan he lectured on the classics and was consulted on omens and state policy.
Political and military advice
When drought and famine struck Pingcheng in 415, many officials proposed moving the capital. Cui argued that abandonment of the northern base would expose the state to enemies and suggested sending the poorest households to food-producing provinces. The harvest recovered in 416. During Liu Yu's northern expedition, Cui advised the court to let Liu proceed into Guanzhong and wait for his inevitable withdrawal. He later supported timely campaigns against the Xia, Northern Liang, and the Rouran.
The National History Inquisition
Cui supervised the compilation of Northern Wei history. His direct treatment of the ruling house and the public display of historical inscriptions offended powerful aristocratic groups. In 450 the court opened the National History Inquisition, and Cui and his relatives were executed. The case ended the career of one of Northern Wei's most influential advisers.
His Family and Early Years
Cui Hao, courtesy name Boyuan, was a man of Qinghe and the eldest son of Cui Xuanbo, duke of Baima. From youth he loved letters and read widely in the classics and histories, and of the mysteries of the heavens and the yin-yang and the sayings of the hundred schools there was nothing he did not master, refining the meaning of the classics so that none of his time could match him; before he came of age he was a gentleman of the court. In the Tianxing period he was given charge of the secretariat and made a compiler, and Emperor Daowu, because he was skilled in calligraphy, kept him always about him. In the emperor's last years he took the cold-food powder and was violent and capricious, and the officers of the palace and court were mostly punished for trifling faults, so that all fled and hid to escape the peril of the moment; and Cui Hao alone was reverent and diligent and never slack, sometimes not going home all day. The emperor, learning of it, had gruel sent him. At that time Cui Xuanbo neither offended Tabgatch Gui nor flattered him, so that of all men only father and son Cui Hong and Cui Hao were never reproved.
The Reign of Emperor Mingyuan and His Study of Heaven and Man
Early in the reign of Taizong Cui Hao was made libationer of the erudites and given the rank of viscount of Wucheng, and he often lectured the emperor on the classics; and at every suburban sacrifice father and son rode in light carriages together, which men of the time thought a glory. Taizong loved the arts of yin-yang and numbers, and hearing Cui Hao expound the Changes and the Five Phases of the Great Plan was pleased with him, and had him divine fortunes and consult the heavens and settle doubts; and Cui Hao, joining the way of Heaven to the affairs of men and examining them together and setting out their main lines, used them to divine all prodigies and changes, and was mostly fulfilled. He was constantly in the great counsels of army and state and was much favoured and trusted. At that time hares appeared in the inner palace, and the gatekeepers being questioned, the hares could not have entered at all; and Emperor Mingyuan thought it strange and had Cui Hao judge whether it was an evil omen, and Cui Hao held that a neighbouring state would send tribute of palace women, which was a good omen; and the next year Yao Xing indeed sent daughters.
His Remonstrance against Moving the Capital
In the second year of Shenrui the autumn grain failed, and the grand astrologer Wang Liang and Su Yuan, through the princess of Huayin and others, cited the prophecy books to say that the state should rule from Ye with great joy for fifty years, and urged Taizong to move the capital. Cui Hao with the special advance Zhou Dan told Taizong that to move the capital to Ye might save that year's famine but was no long-term policy; that the men of the eastern provinces had always held that the state dwelt in the vast desert with untold people and livestock, called a multitude like cow's hair; that if the old troops were left and families moved south they would scarce fill the provinces, and dwelling mixed in the commanderies among the thickets, unused to the soil and water, dying of plague, their true state would show and the people's spirit would flag; that the four quarters hearing of it would think lightly of the state, and Qugai and the Rouran would come up together, so that Yunzhong and Pingcheng would be in danger, and separated by the thousand-li barrier of Heng and Dai, rescue would be hard; so that both name and substance would suffer. He said that remaining in the north, if Shandong changed, light horse could come south and display majesty in the home country, and none knowing how many they were, the people would be awed at the dust of their coming, which was the state's long policy for overawing the Xia. Taizong thought it very right and said that these two men alone agreed with his own mind. And sending a palace favourite to ask them again what was to be done if they could not eat until the next autumn or if the next autumn also failed, Cui Hao and the other answered that the poorest households might be sent to the provinces to seek grain, and that if the next autumn were again barren they would think again, but that the capital must not be moved. Taizong followed them and distributed the people among the three provinces of Shandong for food and issued grain from the granaries, and the next year there was a great harvest.
The Debate on Lending the River Road to Liu Yu
In the first year of Taichang Liu Yu, a general of Sima Dezong, attacked Yao Hong, his fleet going from the Huai and the Si into the Qing and wishing to go up the Yellow River, and he asked leave to pass through the state. The decree put it to the ministers to discuss, and the outer court all said that the Hangu pass was called a natural barrier where one man with a spear could hold off ten thousand, and that Liu Yu with boats and infantry could not go west, and that if they took him in the rear his retreat would be hard, and that they should send troops first to cut the upper reaches of the river and not let him pass west; and the inner court agreed with the outer, and Taizong was about to follow them. Cui Hao alone said that this was not the best policy, for if they blocked his western road Liu Yu would surely land and come north, so that Yao would be untroubled and they themselves attacked; that the Rouran were raiding within and the people had little food, so that they could not send troops, for sending them south would bring the northern enemy on them and sending them to relieve the north would put the eastern provinces in danger; that it was better to lend him the river road, let Liu Yu go west, and then raise troops to block his eastern return, which was the trick of Bian Zhuang stabbing the tiger and getting both; for if Liu Yu won he would be grateful for the loan of the road, and if the Yao won they would not lose the name of helping a neighbour; and that even if Liu Yu took the passes, they were far and hard to hold, and he could not hold them, so that in the end they would be theirs. He said that without moving troops or horses they could sit and watch the outcome, shutting in two tigers and reaping a long profit, which was the best policy. The councillors still argued that if Liu Yu entered the pass he would have no road of advance or retreat and be attacked front and rear, and that if he landed he would come north; and Taizong followed the many and sent Zhangsun Song with troops against him, and they were beaten at Pancheng by Liu Yu's general Zhu Chaoshe with heavy losses, and Taizong, hearing of it, regretted not using Cui Hao's plan.
His Judgement of Liu Yu and the Portent of the Comet
In the second year Wang Yi, the grand administrator of Qijun under Sima Dezong, came over and memorialised a plan, saying that Liu Yu was at Luoyang and advising the state to cut his rear with troops so that his army could be taken without a battle; and the memorial being presented, Taizong thought it good. And when Cui Hao came forward to expound the books, Taizong asked him how Liu Yu's western campaign stood and whether in his judgement it would succeed; and Cui Hao answered that Yao Xing had loved empty fame without real use, and his son Hong was ill and his men and kin were parted from him, and that Liu Yu taking the chance of his peril, with keen troops and brave generals, would surely conquer him. Taizong asked how Liu Yu's martial ability compared with Murong Chui, and Cui Hao said Liu Yu was the stronger; and being asked to explain, he said that Murong Chui, inheriting the estate of a father and grandfather who had been lords, was noble from birth, and his kind turned to him as moths to fire, so that with a little support he could win merit; but Liu Yu rose up out of humble poverty, with no foot of land to stand on and not one soldier to use, and shouting aloud he destroyed Huan Xuan, took Murong Chao in the north and broke Lu Xun in the south, and so the usurped Jin declined and he held the state's command; and that if Liu Yu, having pacified Yao, returned, he would surely usurp his own lord, for such was the tendency of things. And the land of Qin, mixed of Rong and Yi, a country of tigers and wolves, he could not hold; and customs being different and men's hearts hard to change, to spread the teaching of Jing and Yang over the three Qin would be like flying without wings or walking without feet. And if he left a host to hold it, that would only help the enemy. And they should polish their arms and put off their armour, rest the people and guard the frontier, awaiting his return, for the land of Qin would in the end be theirs and could be held at ease. Taizong laughed and said that his reckoning was thorough. In the third year a comet came out of the Tianjin, entered the Taiwei, passed through the Beidou, wound through the Ziwei and trespassed on the Tianbang, and after more than eighty days reached the Han and vanished; and Taizong again summoned the scholars and diviners and asked in what state the portent of calamity would fall, since the realm was not yet one and the four quarters stood opposed, and he feared it greatly and bade them speak fully and hide nothing. All put Cui Hao forward to answer, and he said that the ancients had it that prodigies arise from men, and that where men gave no occasion portents did not act of themselves; that when men failed below, the change appeared above, and the constant signs of Heaven's affairs did not alter through a hundred ages; that the Han History recorded that before Wang Mang usurped the throne comets came and went just as now; that in the state the lord was honoured and the ministers low and there was order above and below with no strange hopes among the people; and that only the usurped Jin, base and diminished, had weak lords and strong ministers and had been oppressed for generations, so that Huan Xuan had seized and Liu Yu held power; and that comets, born of evil vapour, were the sign that the usurped Jin would perish and Liu Yu usurp. None could better his words, and Taizong firmly believed them. In the fifth year Liu Yu indeed deposed his lord Sima Dewen and made himself emperor, and Taizong summoned Cui Hao by post and told him that the sign of the comet he had spoken of had come true and that only today did he believe in the way of Heaven.
His Proposal to Set up the Heir, and His Filial Piety and Mourning
Taizong was always troubled by slight illness and portents appeared again and again, and he sent a palace favourite to ask Cui Hao secretly what was to be done, since he had been ill for years without cure and feared that if he suddenly died his sons were all young. Cui Hao said that the eastern palace should be established early, with loyal and worthy ministers whom the emperor trusted for tutors and trusted attendants about him as friends, so that he might within direct all business and without command the armies, acting as regent and comforting the troops with the six handles in his hand; that thus the emperor might take his ease, nourish his spirit and lengthen his years and take his medicines; and that after ten thousand years the state would have a grown lord and the people a place to turn, so that the wicked would lose hope and none would covet; and that this was the eternal statute and the great defence against calamity. And he said that the eldest son Tao, now nearly grown, bright, wise, mild and gentle, was the hope of all hearts, and that to set up the eldest son was the great rule of the rites. Taizong accepted it, and had Cui Hao announce it by decree at the ancestral temple and made the Shizu deputy lord of the state to hold court in the main hall; and the minister over the masses Zhangsun Song, the duke of Shanyang Xi Jin and the duke of Beixin An Tong were the left assistants seated in the eastern chamber facing west, while Cui Hao with the grand commandant Mu Guan and the cavalier attendant in ordinary Qiu Dui were the right assistants seated in the western chamber facing east, and the hundred officials attended to them. Taizong withdrew to the western palace and watched them in secret and heard his decisions, and was much pleased, saying to his attendants that Zhangsun Song was an old minister of long virtue who had served four reigns and preserved the altars of state, that Xi Jin was ready of speech and full of devices and famed far and near, that An Tong understood the feelings of the common sort and was practised in affairs, that Mu Guan understood the essentials of government and knew his mind, and that Cui Hao was widely read and strong of memory and versed in the meeting of Heaven and man; and that with these six to assist him he and they might range the four frontiers, punishing rebels and soothing the obedient, and have their will in the realm. When the ministers sometimes submitted doubts, Taizong said that this was not for him to know, and that it should be decided by their lord of the state. Earlier, when Cui Hong lay gravely ill, Cui Hao cut his nails and his hair and by night prayed facing the North Star in the courtyard for his father's life, begging to take his place, knocking his head till it bled, and for more than a year without ceasing, and scarce any of the household knew of it; and when his father died he mourned with all propriety, and men of the time praised him. Cui Hao inherited the rank of duke of Baima; and the court's ceremonies, its gracious decrees and edicts and the records of army and state were all in his charge. Cui Hao could make miscellaneous discourse but was not good at composition, and set his mind rather on institutions, statutes and the language of the classics; he made rules for the family sacrifices, set in order the five branches, and fixed the rites of the seasonal offerings and the measures of plenty and scant, whose meaning was clear and worth seeing. He disliked by nature the books of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and never read more than a few dozen lines before throwing them down, saying that such false and pretentious talk was not near to human feeling and could not have been written by Laozi; that Lao Dan practised the rites and was the teacher of Confucius, and how could he have made a book that ruined the law and disordered the teaching of the former kings.