Biography
Studying Under Cai Yong
Gu Yong, a native of Wu County, was the great-grandson of Gu Feng, Grand Administrator of Yingchuan under the Eastern Han. In childhood he became the student of the famous scholar Cai Yong, learning the zither and calligraphy; quick of thought, calm and single-minded, he advanced daily in his arts and was beloved by Cai Yong, who gave him his name and, in honor of his teacher's praise, his courtesy name Yuantan.
Recommended by the province and commandery, he became Magistrate of Hefei in his twentieth year, successively serving as magistrate of Lou, Qu'e, and Shangyu, with achievements in every post.
Serving the Foundations of Wu
In 200 (the fifth year of Jian'an), Sun Quan was appointed General Who Exterminates the Caitiffs and Grand Administrator of Kuaiji; not taking up his seat in the commandery, he made Gu Yong Deputy of Kuaiji and acting Grand Administrator. Gu Yong suppressed the bandits, and the commandery borders were at peace, officials and people submitting. After several years he entered Sun Quan's staff as Marshal of the Left.
In 221, when Sun Quan became King of Wu, Gu Yong served as Commandant of Justice and Chamberlain of Ceremonies and managed the Masters of Writing, being enfeoffed Marquis of Yangsui Village. His family did not know of the enfeoffment until they heard of it afterward, to their astonishment.
Nineteen Years as Chancellor
In 225, Gu Yong escorted his mother from Wu County to Wuchang; Sun Quan congratulated him in person, bowed to his mother in the courtyard, and all the ministers attended the banquet, with the crown prince Sun Deng coming to celebrate as well. That year Gu Yong became Chamberlain of Ceremonies and Marquis of Liling, and soon succeeded Sun Shao as Chancellor and Manager of the Masters of Writing.
Gu Yong drank no wine, spoke little, and bore himself with perfect propriety. Sun Quan once sighed: "Lord Gu does not speak—but when he does, his words always hit the mark." At banquets the ministers dared not abandon themselves to drink, fearing lest Gu Yong see them discomfited; Sun Quan said too: "With Lord Gu at the table, we cannot be merry." Such was the awe he inspired.
As chancellor, Gu Yong modeled his statecraft on the methods of the early Han: in choosing civil and military officials he picked only the competent, never by personal preference, and once appointed, entrusted them wholeheartedly. He often visited the people to gather counsel and memorialized Sun Quan in secret; if his advice was adopted he ascribed the credit to Sun Quan, and if not, he never mentioned it again. When he had something to state at court, though his words and countenance were respectful, the principles he maintained were upright and unbending. Once, when Sun Quan asked after the successes and failures of governance, the General Who Assists Wu, Zhang Zhao, presented his collected opinions—laws too harsh, punishments too heavy, deserving reduction. Sun Quan said nothing, then turned to Gu Yong: "What do you think?" Gu Yong answered: "What I have heard is what Zhang Zhao has said." Sun Quan then deliberated on lightening punishments. When the generals at the front vied with plans for campaigns, Sun Quan asked Gu Yong, who replied: "In my view they act for their own profit and fame; they should not be heeded."
Whenever Sun Quan faced a difficult question he sent a Secretary of the Central Secretariat to consult him. If Gu Yong approved of the emperor's view, he would invite the secretary to a meal and study the matter thoroughly before seeing him off; if he disapproved, no meal and few words—so Sun Quan, having sent his secretary, no longer asked "What did Lord Gu say?" but "Did you eat?"
Impartial Justice
In his later years Sun Quan favored the harsh officials Lü Yi and Qin Bo as Masters of the Central Secretariat to audit documents from the offices and provinces; Lü Yi grew tyrannical, selling wine and levying duties for profit, denouncing officials and framing the innocent—even Gu Yong was denounced and reprimanded through their accusations. When Lü Yi's crimes were exposed and he was imprisoned in the Commandant of Justice's office, Gu Yong went to try the case, questioning him with a kindly face, and on leaving asked: "Is there anything else you wish to say?" Lü Yi could only kowtow in silence. When the Secretary Huai Xu cursed and humiliated Lü Yi to his face, Gu Yong reproved him: "The government has clear laws—why behave so?"
Teaching His Sons
Gu Yong was strict with his family. When Sun Quan married a niece to Gu Yong's sister's son, the wedding banquet included Gu Yong and his sons and grandson Gu Tan, then the prestigious Master of Writing for Selection. Gu Tan drank to excess, rose, and danced uncontrollably; Gu Yong was inwardly furious and left the matter to the next day. Summoning Tan, he rebuked him sternly: "A ruler's virtue is to bear humiliation and bear the burden; a minister's principle is reverence and prudence. Xiao He and Wu Han both won great merit, yet Xiao He appeared speechless whenever he saw Emperor Gao, and Wu Han served Emperor Guangwu ever diligent and careful. What exploits can you claim? You are favored merely on the standing of our Gu house—how dare you dance in such abandon? Though it came of wine, it is in truth reliance on favor and forgetfulness of respect, a failure of humility. I fear the man who will ruin our family is you." With that he turned to the wall and lay down, and Gu Tan stood in regret beside him for a full double-hour before his grandfather dismissed him.
Honored in Life, Mourned in Death
When Gu Yong's illness lightened, Sun Quan sent the court physician Zhao Quan to examine him and appointed Gu Yong's youngest son Gu Ji as Colonel of Cavalry. Hearing of it, Gu Yong said sorrowfully: "Zhao Quan knows life and death when he sees it. I shall not rise again—the sovereign wishes me to live to see Gu Ji receive his office." Gu Yong died in the eleventh month of 243 (the sixth year of Chiwu), aged seventy-six. Sun Quan attended the mourning in plain garments and conferred the posthumous title Marquis Su. Gu Ji succeeded to the title; having no son, the line lapsed at his death, until in 258 (the first year of Yong'an) Emperor Jing of Wu, Sun Xiu, decreed that Gu Yu continue the marquisate of Liling.
Gu Yong, courtesy name Yuantan, was a native of Wu in Wu commandery and came of the Gu, one of the four great surnames of Jiangdong along with the Lu, Zhu and Zhang. His great-grandfather Gu Feng was a noted official of the Eastern Han. As a youth he studied the zither and calligraphy under Cai Yong, quick in mind, calm and single-minded, advancing daily in his arts and much loved by his teacher; Cai Yong gave him his own name, so that Gu Yong's name was homophonous with his teacher's, and because of Cai Yong's praise he took the courtesy name Yuantan.
At twenty he was made magistrate of Hefei, serving afterward at Lou, Qu'a and Shangyu with good administration in each, and then as assistant in Kuaiji commandery, acting as administrator, putting down banditry and settling the commandery. Some years later he entered Sun Quan's staff as aide of the left, rising thereafter through the offices of chief justice and master of ceremonies to director of the Secretariat and supervisor of Secretariat affairs, and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Liling. In the Huangwu years he succeeded Sun Shao as chancellor and served nineteen years, offering much corrective counsel. Sun Quan generally accepted his views; a man of few words and great steadiness, he was watched once at a banquet by the emperor's men to see whether he would speak indiscreetly after drinking, and he kept his measure and never said anything amiss — an episode often cited later.
As chancellor he recommended talent, Lu Xun and Zhang Wen among those he praised, and he valued balanced government and law rather than severity. He died in 243 at seventy-six with the posthumous name Su. He is one of the leading representatives of the Jiangdong gentry in the Wu state, and his long chancellorship with good relations to Sun Quan is an important case in studying ruler-minister relations and the role of the gentry in Wu politics.
The Jiangdong gentry under Wu gradually passed from the conquered to partners of the regime after Sun Quan founded the state, the four families of Gu, Lu, Zhu and Zhang all supplying high officials. Gu Yong's long chancellorship is representative of that shift, and his manner — retiring, steady, influencing politics by counsel rather than power — became one of the typical features of Wu gentry politics.
The nineteen years of Gu Yong's chancellorship fall in the period when Wu moved from founding to stability. Sun Quan took the imperial title in the Huangwu years, and the institutions of Wu largely followed the Han, the chancellor heading the officials with limited real power; within that framework Gu Yong exerted influence through counsel and the recommendation of men. Those he recommended, Lu Xun among them, became pillars of the state, and his son Gu Shao was known for letters. After his death Sun Quan came in plain dress to mourn and honored his family greatly, unusual in the ruler-minister relations of Wu.
The Jiangdong gentry under Sun Quan were both employed and guarded against, as his late suspicion of ministers and his handling of the succession show. Gu Yong's career falls precisely in the phase when the system was steadier: he won trust by a calm and steady manner, members of his family held high office, and the Gu became one of the core gentry groups of the state. Later discussion of Wu politics often takes Gu Yong and Lu Xun as examples of how the Jiangdong gentry moved from conflict with the Sun house to cooperation.
The chancellorship in Wu differed somewhat from Han and Wei practice: though head of the officials, the chancellor's real power lay largely with the secretariat, the attendants and Sun Quan himself, his role appearing chiefly in deliberations and appointments. During Gu Yong's tenure Zhang Zhao, Bu Zhi and others served at the same time, Sun Quan generally drawing on several opinions for great decisions, while Gu Yong's counsel was noted for its steadiness.
The standing of the Gu family lasted to the end of Wu: his grandson Gu Rong crossed south at the end of the Western Jin and is named with Lu Ji and Lu Yun as one of the representative Jiangdong gentry of the turn from Western to Eastern Jin. The course of Gu Yong's house — from local officials at the end of the Eastern Han to a chancellor's family under Wu and then to aristocratic gentry under the Eastern Jin — is a complete sample of how the great families of Jiangdong persisted and changed over several centuries.
After his death Sun Quan made Lu Xun chancellor, and the state's politics entered another phase. The successive chancellorships of Gu Yong and Lu Xun are often compared as showing the difference in gentry standing between the earlier and middle periods of Wu.
His family style and learning were much admired among the Jiangdong gentry, the Gu younger generation known for classical study and administrative ability, in keeping with the tradition of learning and lineage among the four great surnames of Wu commandery.
The histories sum up his character in a few points — few words, steady, never saying the wrong thing after drinking — precisely the qualities Sun Quan valued in a man who would serve as chancellor with the duty to remonstrate.
Wu was founded on Jiangdong, its institutions largely inherited from the Han while its personnel had to come from the great families of the region; Gu Yong's career is a product of that pattern of Han institutions and Jiangdong men.
The political network formed by the four great surnames of Jiangdong under Wu evolved into the aristocratic houses dominating the court in the Eastern Jin, that continuity being a major subject in the study of the medieval Chinese gentry.
The political struggles of late Wu were bound up with conflicts within its gentry groups, the position of the Gu shifting with the political situation.
Both Wu's official documents and later histories judge him favorably, a result of his manner and of his relation with Sun Quan.
In office he also took part in discussions of Wu's law, arguing for moderation in punishment, an attitude consistent with his steady manner.
The diplomatic and military standoff among Wu, Wei and Shu-Han continued through his chancellorship, so that Wu's domestic government was long interwoven with frontier and foreign considerations.
He and Zhang Zhao were both great ministers of Wu with very different manners: Zhang spoke his mind and contended with Sun Quan repeatedly, while Gu Yong was known for mildness and steadiness, the contrast often used to discuss two models of ruler-minister relations in Wu.
In Wu's bureaucracy the Jiangdong gentry and men who had come south from the north coexisted, and Gu Yong's position made him a channel between the two.
The genealogy and members of his family are recorded in some detail in the Wu chapters of the *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, important material for the study of the Gu of Wu commandery.
He served in the same court with Zhuge Jin, Bu Zhi and others, and Wu's central government stayed comparatively stable for a long stretch.
Several of his memorials and sayings are preserved in his biography in the *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, mostly concerning appointments and law.
Politics in Wu grew tense in Sun Quan's last years, but Gu Yong died before that, his family accordingly less touched by the later struggles.
His tenure as chancellor was notably long among the chief ministers of the three states, which is why the historians take care to note that he served nineteen years.
Wu's histories and the opinion of the scholars of the time agree in crediting him with uprightness and even-handedness.
The Jiangdong gentry of Wu gradually gained high office after Sun Quan founded the state, the successive chancellorships of Gu Yong and Lu Xun marking the near completion of that process.
His son Gu Shao died young, and Gu Yu and Gu Ji held office under Wu, the family remaining prominent to the state's end.