Fei Yi
| Fei Yi | |||
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| Traditional Chinese | 費禕 | ||
| Simplified Chinese | 费禕 | ||
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Fei Yi, style name Wenwei (文偉), was an official of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. He succeeded Jiang Wan as regent of Shu Han, and avoided major expedition against rival state, Cao Wei. It remains dubious if Cao-Wei sent an assassin to kill Fei, but the latter was indeed murdered by Guo Xun, a former Wei subject.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early career
Fei Yi was from Jiangxia Commandery (in present-day eastern Hubei). His father died when he was still young and he was raised by his distant relative Fei Boren (費伯仁), who was a cousin of the warlord Liu Zhang, who controlled Yi Province (present-day Sichuan and Chongqing). Sometime around 211, Liu Zhang sent messengers to escort Fei Boren to his domain, and Fei Yi joined the former as a foreign student into Yi Province.[1] Fei remained in Yi Province after Liu Bei conquered it in 214. He was comparable with Xu Shulong (許叔龍) and Dong Yun, who were his close friends and scholars in Sichuan.
After Liu Bei declared himself emperor in 221 and made Liu Shan crown prince, both Fei and Dong became Liu Shan's servants. When Liu Shan succeeded to the throne in 223, Fei was only made Imperial servant of the Yellow Gate, despite his intimate relation with the new emperor. When regent Zhuge Liang was back from his southern subjugation, many officials came out several tens of li to buy him off, however, Zhuge asked Fei, among the majority who had higher posts than the latter, to take a ride with him. Zhuge's action surprised many, and they changed views on Fei because of that.[2]
[edit] During Zhuge Liang's regency
It is not clear how Zhuge Liang got to know Fei Yi's abilities, but by the time the former returned from the south and acquired military paramountcy, he had arranged a series of resources reallocation, and Fei, who was among those Zhuge repeatedly announced "most capable of the officials," was assigned with important tasks.
[edit] As an ambassador
Following the reestablishment of the Wu-Shu alliance, Fei Yi served as an ambassador to Eastern Wu, it was said in his personal biography of Records of the Three Kingdoms that Fei was not bended when debating with Wu scholars (detail of the debate is not shown in his biography). However, several other biographies of the same book, points out Fei was largely ridiculed during his mission. According to Dong Yun's biography, the Wu emperor, Sun Quan, once asked a rude but critical question during a banquet. Stated as being drunk, Sun said," Yang Yi and Wei Yan, although somehow contributed to Shu, were problematic, if Zhuge Liang dies, they'll cause mischief! Are you guys retarded not to prepare for the generations?" Fei was not able to answer, and kept looking around for help. Dong Hui then told Fei to answer that Yang and Wei fought against each other due to personal feud and both did not possess great ambition; in light of current situation, it would not be wise to not use them. Sun Quan laughed at Fei.[3] In a log from the note in Zhuge Luo's biography, the facetious Sun Quan once made a joke on Fei by telling his Wu officials to keep dinning when Fei entered the vestibule. Seeing that, Fei said," when a phoenix arrives, a unicorn will spit its food in mouth. Now the donkeys are ignorant, so they keep on eating. Zhuge Luo promptly replied in his seat," we planted sterculiaceae to wait for a phoenix to glide upon, but where comes a small bird instead? Why don't we spring him and send him back to where he belongs?" Fei stopped eating his cake in mouth, and requested a pen (brush), while Zhuge also asked the same, they each wrote a poem, and admired on each others work.[4] Nevertheless, Sun Quan apparently liked this Shu diplomat much, which he openly praised Fei's talents on numerous occasions. When Fei finally needed to go back to Shu, Sun gave him his personal sword to the former, and said, "you are a pure person, and will be used by Zhuge, I bet you will not be able to come visit me often in the future." Fei sincerely accepted Sun's gift, and encouraged the latter to assist the Han court together.[5]
[edit] As a trusted aide of Zhuge Liang
After Fei's repatriation, he received a promotion and resumed his work in the palace agency. Under recommendation of Zhuge Liang, Fei's power in the palace became influential, as Zhuge asked Liu Shan that all decisions, big and small, be consulted with Fei and his comrades.[6] When Zhuge went to Hanzhong and rearranged Wei Yan's area of responsibility, Fei was asked to go to the front-line as Zhuge's Military Adviser to handle conflict between Wei Yan and Yang Yi. It was said that Wei would flash his saber in front of Yang during a debate, and Yang would cry like a baby.[7] Then a Fei Yi would come in between and reconcile them. Fei was thus credited for keeping them working together. However, he was ultimately unsuccessful in trying to prevent them from boiling into an open armed conflict after Zhuge's death in 234 (which resulted in Wei's death).
When Zhuge Liang became ill during his final campaign against Cao Wei on Wuzhang Plains, Liu Shan sent messengers to inquire the former as to who should succeed him. Zhuge recommended Jiang Wan as his successor, and Fei as Jiang Wan's successor. After Zhuge's death later that year, a dispute on whether to abort the campaign followed. Wei Yan, who was assigned area responsibility over Liang Province, assumed his autonomous authority to vie for the continuity on the battle, while the majority consented on Yang Yi's view to retreat. Fei picked Yang Yi side and went to Wei Yan's tent to observe the latter. Wei, arguing the death of one individual should not alter their ultimate goal of restoring the Han, forced Fei to help him reorganize the army for the expedition. Fei tricked Wei by saying "I'll go explain the issue to Yang. He is just a civil officer inept at military, and will not defy your order."[8] Wei let Fei go, but regretted on second thought; however, Fei galloped out of his camp and could not be caught up. Both Wei and Yang sent letters to the Emperor in accusation against each other, and at the end, Wang Ping and Ma Dai killed Wei Yan, ending the turmoil. After the commotion, Jiang Wan formally succeeded Zhuge to be the new regent, and Fei was soon made his chief assistant.
[edit] During Jiang Wan's regency
As the chief assistant to the regent Jiang Wan, Fei Yi handled mostly domestic matters. He was described as so quick in his comprehension and decisions that he only needed mornings to carry out his duties, and he spent the afternoons entertaining guests. He was particularly skillful at playing weiqi. When Dong Yun succeeded the role Fei previously held, he tried to follow Fei's schedule, but after several days, the paperwork quickly backlogged, forcing him to work all day. Dong thus became amazed at Fei's amazing abilities.
Jiang Wan was often in ill-health, and in 243 he moved the armies to Fu County from Hanzhong. He consequently transferred his military authority to Fei and civil responsibility to Dong Yun, while remaining himself regent. In 244, when Cao Wei's regent Cao Shuang attacked the less-guarded Hanzhong, Fei was granted the staff of authority as a commander, and was urged to go the front-line. Lai Min (來敏), visited Fei and invited the latter for a game of Go. Despite the urgency, Fei played the game, and was so indulged in it that he showed no sign to concern with the military. Lai Min suddenly said, “I was just testing your reaction! You are indeed a trustworthy man and the one who can crush the invaders!” Since Cao Shuang made a serious flaw in his logistic, the Wei suffered a major defeat, and retreated as soon as Fei arrived the field. The victory on Cao-Wei further inflated Fei's fame, and after Jiang Wan's death in 245, Fei became regent.
[edit] Regency
One near-immediate task that Fei faced was finding a chief assistant for himself, as Dong Yun, who had been serving in that role since 243, died soon after Jiang Wan's death. He decided on the general Jiang Wei. However, as both he and Jiang Wei were largely involved with military matters, the domestic matters soon apparently fell into the hands of Huang Hao, a eunuch described to be treacherous and corrupt, but was trusted by Liu Shan. The effective administration that Zhuge Liang had created and Jiang Wan had continued began to deteriorate, although the key effects would not be visible during Fei Yi's regency.
As regent, Fei Yi was not as non-aggressive militarily as Jiang Wan, but he did not resume the full-scale military confrontations that Zhuge Liang advocated and carried out. He had Jiang Wei harassed Cao Wei's borders with periodic attacks, but never authorized the latter to launch an all-out assault. Jiang Wei persistently pushed for a revival of Zhuge's plan and requested more troops, but Fei followed Zhuge's treatment on Wei Yan and only assigned 10,000 men to Jiang. During one intrusion on the territory of Wei in 250, Jiang Wei brought back Guo Xun (郭循), who submitted to Jiang and entered Shu-Han politics. From a note in Jiang Wei's biography in the Records of Three Kingdoms, it is stated that "Jiang Wei possessed a group of assasins in secrecy," but it is not clear if Guo was one of Jiang's assasins.
One major characteristic that Fei Yi was known and admired for was his easy-going nature. That might, however, have caused his death. As he was hosting a feast at his mansion for key officials, one of the guests was the aforementioned Guo Xun, who took the opportunity to assassinate Fei Yi during the meeting. The historian Yu Xi (虞喜) commented, "Fei Yi was so open and honest and so unworried about others, and he was eventually assassinated by Guo Xun, a surrendered man. Is it not that his fault came from his virtues?" Fei Yi was given the posthumous name Jing (敬侯, literally, "alert" or "honorable"), which, however, appeared to be inappropriate.
[edit] Appointments and titles held
- Chief Imperial Secretary (尚書令)
- Secretary to the General-in-Chief (大將軍領尚書事)
- Marquis of Cheng (成鄉侯)
- Marquis Jing (敬侯) - granted to Fei Yi posthumously
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ (璋遣使迎仁，仁將禕遊學入蜀。) San Guozhi. Chapter 44, biography of Fei Yi.
- ^ (丞相亮南征還，群僚於數十里逢迎，年位多在禕右，而亮特命禕同載，由是眾人莫不易觀。) Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms, Volume 44.
- ^ (孫權嘗大醉問禕曰：「楊儀、魏延，牧豎小人也。雖嘗有鳴吠之益於時務，然既已任之，勢不得輕，若一朝無諸葛亮，必為禍亂矣。諸君憒憒，曾不知防慮於此，豈所謂貽厥孫謀乎？」禕愕然四顧視，不能即答。恢目禕曰：「可速言儀、延之不協起於私忿耳，而無黥、韓難御之心也。今方掃除強賊，混一區夏，功以才成，業由才廣，若捨此不任，防其後患，是猶備有風波而逆廢舟楫，非長計也。」權大笑樂。) Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms, Volume 39, Biography of Dong Yun.
- ^ (权尝飨蜀使费祎，先逆群臣曰：‘使至，伏食勿起。’祎至，权为辍食，而群下不起，祎啁之曰：‘凤凰来翔，骐驎吐哺，驴骡无知，伏食如故。’恪答曰：‘爰植梧桐，以待凤凰，有何燕雀，自称来翔？何不弹射，使还故乡！’祎停食饼，索笔作麦赋，恪亦请笔作磨赋，咸称善焉。) Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms, Biography of Zhuge Luo.
- ^ (祎别传曰：权乃以手中常所执宝刀赠之，祎答曰：“臣以不才，何以堪明命？然刀所以讨不庭、禁暴乱者也，但愿大王勉建功业，同奖汉室，臣虽闇弱，终不负东顾。”). Legend of Fei Yi. Note Fei likely would not ask Sun to assist the "Han Court" (this source is only a supplementary to official history).
- ^ (宮中府中俱為一體，陟罰臧否，不宜異同。若有作奸犯科及為忠善者，宜付有司論其刑賞，以昭陛下平明之理，不宜偏私，使內外異法也。侍中、侍郎郭攸之、費禕、董允等，此皆良實，志慮忠純，是以先帝簡拔以遺陛下。愚以為宮中之事，事無大小，悉以咨之，然後施行，必能裨補闕漏，有所廣益。). Records of Three Kingdoms, Volume 35, Biography of Zhuge Liang.
- ^ (每至並坐爭論，延或舉刀擬儀，儀泣涕橫集。) Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms, Volume 44.
- ^ (禕紿延曰：「當為君還解楊長史，長史文吏，稀更軍事，必不違命也。」禕出門馳馬而去，延尋悔，追之已不及矣。). Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms, Volume 44.
[edit] References
- Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms, Volume 44, Biography of Fei Yi.
- Sima Guang. Zizhi Tongjian.
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