Before we begin, a quick meta note to the subscribers: it turns out that Gmail automatically flags certain emails as “probable advertisements” (or “probable spam”) and sends those to your “promotions” tab instead of your inbox (or just outright blocks it). Apparently things like emails being very long, having a lot of pictures, having spelling and grammar errors, and having a lot of links can help trigger this flagging, so sorry about that. Adding the sender email address to Contacts helps get around this, but I’ll also try to keep these emails shorter with fewer pictures and links in the future.
And now, back to an email that is probably too long and has too many pictures and spelling problems.
Today, let’s start fulfilling a special request from a premium subscriber. “Start,” because the topic turned out to be bigger than I initially thought it would be, so once again, we’re splitting things up into smaller articles.
The request reads:
Who were the greatest buddies of the Three States period?
Or at least, that’s part of the request. The full text goes on a bit more detail to explain how the term “buddies” is to be understood, using additional terms like “bromance” and “fujoshis” (whatever that is), but I think the first sentence on its own should be enough to get the basic idea across.
Jiàn'ān
When people think “brothers,” they think of Liú Bèi, Guān Yǔ, Zhāng Fēi. Our special premium request even mentioned them at one point:
Obviously the Peach Bros come to mind, but they aren't Three States, and I don't even know if the relationship they're known for is even founded on fact.
“Peach Bros” here refers to the legend of the three swearing brotherhood in a ceremony in a garden of blossoming peach trees. The comment that Liú-Guān-Zhāng trio “aren’t Three States” is not a mistake: Guān Yǔ died in early 220, before the formal end of the Hàn dynasty, and the vast majority of the careers of all three occurred during the final years of Hàn during the Jiàn'ān period. So yes, the Peach Bros are more Fall of Hàn than Three States. The last comment about wondering if the relationship is even founded on fact is no doubt a sign of someone who has discovered that the Sānguó (zhì) Yǎnyì is not nearly as historically accurate as most people believe.
I better get back on topic fast before I’m tempted to go off on a rant about just how much damage Sānguó (zhì) Yǎnyì has done to scholarship.
Liú-Guān-Zhāng
But no worries, the legend of Liú-Guān-Zhāng does indeed have some basis in the extant historiography. While there is no record of any sort of brotherhood ceremony in a garden of blossoming peach trees, the historiography does note that the three were personally close:
[Liú Bèi] with the two men [Guān Yǔ and Zhāng Fēi] when sleeping then shared bed, treating them like brothers.1
Zhāng Fēi is also specially mentioned as having treated Guān Yǔ like an older brother:
[Zhāng Fēi] when young with Guān Yǔ together served [Liú Bèi]. Yǔ was older by several years, Fēi served him as he would an older brother. 2
Guān Yǔ reportedly also once claimed that he had sworn together to die with Liú Bèi:
I completely understand that Cáo [Cāo] has treated me generously, however I have received Liú [Bèi’s] generous treatment, have sworn to share even death, and cannot abandon him.3
After the death of Guān Yǔ, the advisor Liú Yè reportedly remarked that Liú Bèi would certainly seek to take revenge, remarking:
Moreover Guān Yǔ and [Liú] Bèi, their relationship was as ruler and minister, their endearment like father and son.4
Unfortunately, we don’t have any specific information on the exact age of Guān Yǔ to know if Yǔ was young enough relative to Bèi for that “father and son” comparison to work from an age perspective. It may be that Liú Yè used “father and son” in order to better fit his previous comment of “ruler and minister,” due to the linking of the ruler-subject relationship to the father-son relationship in ancient political theory, rather than to specifically make comment on their relative ages.
Anyways, the point is that while the glorious picture of three men swearing to die together in a peach tree garden is fictitious, we do at least have evidence that the three were indeed buddies. But as stated, they were more Jiàn'ān era (and earlier) buddies than Sān Guó era buddies. There were many, many other great friendships beyond the Liú-Guān-Zhāng trio recorded in the historiography of the Jiàn'ān era, but the request was about the Three States, so let’s skip over those other Jiàn'ān buddies for now (I might come back to Jiàn'ān era buddies later) and look at the great buddies from the Three States period proper.
Wèi Imperial Favorites
Why don’t we start at the figurative top? As in, the personal friendships of Emperors and their heirs and such.
Friends of Wèi Wén
When Cáo Cāo first rose up, he did so primarily by relying on the private resources of his extended family. Therefore, his very first officer corps was mostly made up of distant cousins in the Cáo-Xiàhóu clan.5 However, as his own power grew, Cáo Cāo expanded his power base by seeking the support of the scholarly literati classes. To solidify these relationships into the next generation, Cáo Cāo encouraged friendships between his sons and the younger generations of these two power bases (we are skipping Cáo Cāo himself for now because he is a Jiàn'ān figure).
The two favored candidates for the succession, Cáo Pī and Cáo Zhí, both cultivated friendships with celebrated literary men Wáng Càn, Xú Gàn, Chén Lín, Ruǎn Yǔ, Yìng Chàng, Liú Zhēn (though unfortunately, again, most of these friendships are on the Jiàn'ān side of the cutoff, so we won’t go into detail on them).6 Meanwhile on the military side, Cáo Pī became close with several distant cousins of martial leanings such as Cáo Zhēn, Cáo Xiū, and Xiàhóu Shàng.7 When Cáo Pī was formally established as Cáo Cāo’s heir in 217, Pī’s close friends Sīmǎ Yì, Chén Qún, Wú Zhì, and Zhū Shuò formed his retinue of “Four Friends.”8
When Cáo Pī became Emperor (posthumous name Wén, “the Cultured” or “the Literary”), though he continued to maintain many of the former government and bureaucracy structures of Hàn, he also relied heavily upon his personal friends to achieve his aims without need to rely on the formal bureaucracy, to the point that there were complaints that the Three Excellencies were rarely being allowed to participate in government affairs.9 Personal friends Sīmǎ Yì, Chén Qún, Wú Zhì, and Zhū Shuò all held intimate and supervisory positions in the Emperor’s inner staff, while the Emperor’s cousins Cáo Zhēn, Cáo Xiū, and Xiàhòu Shàng commanded armies in the field.
In 225, Xiàhóu Shàng fell seriously ill and was recalled to Luòyáng, where the Emperor Cáo Pī personally went to check on his illness, even holding his hand and crying. However, in the fourth moon of 226, Xiàhóu Shàng died.10 Cáo Pī reportedly wrote:
[Xiàhóu] Shàng from youth was an attendant follower, thoroughly sincere and exhaustive integrity, though he was called by a different surname, he yet was a bone and flesh [relative], and therefore when entering he was a belly and heart [inner civil official] and when going out he was claws and teeth [outer military officer]. His wisdom and strategy was deep and clever, his planning and practice surpassed other men, my misfortune he early perished. It was fate, what can be done?11
By the fifth moon of that same year, Cáo Pī was seriously ill himself, and as he lay on his deathbed, on the very day before his own death, Cáo Pī hastily named his eldest son Ruì as his successor and entrusted Ruì and the future of Wèi to his closest surviving friends Cáo Zhēn, Chén Qún, Cáo Xiū, and Sīmǎ Yì12 (most of his other friends, like Xiàhóu Shàng, had already passed away).
Favorites of Wèi Míng
The tradition of seeking to continue relationships through the generations also occurred with Cáo Pī's son Cáo Ruì (posthumous name Míng, “the Enlightened” or “the Brilliant”), who reportedly became very close with and Cáo Xiū's son Cáo Zhào and Cáo Zhēn's son Cáo Shuǎng.13 He also apparently became very close with his step-uncle Qín Lǎng and uncle Cáo Yǔ, and a Xiàhóu Xiàn (whose exact lineage is unknown), for when Cáo Ruì was himself near death, he initially considered creating a council of regency from these friends, with Cáo Yǔ as the lead and supported by Cáo Zhào, Cáo Shuǎng, Qín Lǎng, and Xiàhóu Xiàn.14
Qín Lǎng in particular is recorded as having personal access to Cáo Ruì’s inner chambers and always accompanying in Cáo Ruì’s retinue when Ruì’s chariot went out. He also sat together with Ruì when Ruì heard judicial cases, and reportedly never disagreed with Ruì’s judgments, for which Ruì favored him. Ruì always called Lǎng by his childhood name Ā'Sū, frequently bestowed him with rewards, and built a large mansion for him in the capital.15 This relationship was such that the history Wèi lüè placed Qín Lǎng in its “flatterer intimates” chapter.16
Though not recorded in the Standard Histories, a close relationship between Cáo Ruì and Cáo Zhào is reported in other sources such as the Míng dynasty compilation Qíng shǐ “History of Passions,” which includes an anecdote:
Cáo Zhào had unusual beauty, Wèi Míng-dì [Cáo Ruì] doted on him, when sleeping and resting they were always together. Once he played a game with the Emperor involving gambling clothes, he did not get his winnings, and at once entered the private curtains to take it and directly left. His meeting with intimate favor was all like this.17
A variant version of this anecdote preserved in the Sòng dynasty encyclopedia Tàipíng Yùlǎn however instead attributes the story to Zhào's younger brother Cáo Zuǎn instead of to Zhào himself.18
Favorites of Qí, Gāoguì, and Chénliú
Cáo Ruì's adopted son Cáo Fāng (also know as the Prince of Qí) was enthroned as a child of about eight and deposed at around twenty-three. Perhaps due to his unfortunate end, there is not too much recorded of his personal relationships, aside from the rather slanderous account preserved in the formal document impeaching and deposing him. This document preserves the name of a two individuals who apparently came to bad ends: the performers Guō Huái19 and Yuán Xìn. According to the impeachment document, Cáo Fāng would watch them perform licentious plays.20 The document also claims that when walking and playing in the rear gardens, Cáo Fāng would sometimes hold hands with some of his close attendants, though no names are given (this is cited in the impeachment because the Emperor holding hands with others was considered improper).21 After Cáo Fāng was deposed, Guō Huái and Yuán Xìn were executed.22
Slightly more is recorded about Cáo Fāng’s successor Cáo Máo (Duke of Gāoguì xiāng). Reportedly he would regularly gather with Sīmǎ Wàng, Wáng Shěn, Péi Xiù, and Zhōng Huì for discussions and feasts, together composing written prose and debates. All four of these were given affectionate nicknames, though only Péi Xiù's and Wáng Shěn’s are still extant in the sources.23 However, the friendships were rather tragic. Sīmǎ Wàng was a cousin of Sīmǎ Zhāo, and in anxiety over the tensions in loyalty, requested and was permitted to take up positions outside the capital.24 Wáng Shěn also later betrayed Gāoguì to Sīmǎ Zhāo, leading to Gāoguì’s death. For this, Wáng Shěn was heavily rewarded by Sīmǎ Zhāo, though many commentators still criticized Shěn for disloyalty.25 One account of the Gāoguì incident also names a Lǐ Zhāo and a Jiāo Bó who were with the Emperor at the capture of Língyún tower, though nothing else of them is recorded.26
Little is recorded of the relationships of the last Emperor of Wèi, Cáo Huàn, (Prince of Chénliú after his abdication), which is perhaps to be expected. His predecessor had built a close following that had almost ruined Sīmǎ Zhāo’s ambitions. Most probably Sīmǎ Zhāo maintained much tighter control over Cáo Huàn’s interactions, and if Cáo Huàn had any close friends, there were evidently not many considered significant enough to receive attention by the historiography compilers.
Of course, there were many other friend groups recorded beyond the Wèi Imperial ones, namely the Shǔ and Wú Imperial favorites, which will be next. And then after that we still have the non-Imperial friend groups. Make sure to subscribe to be ready for it all:
SGZ 36: 先主與二人寢則同床,恩若兄弟。
SGZ 36: 少與關羽俱事先主。羽年長數歲,飛兄事之。
SGZ 36: 吾極知曹公待我厚,然吾受劉將軍厚恩,誓以共死,不可背之。
SGZ 14: 且關羽與備,義為君臣,恩猶父子。
SGZ 9: 夏侯、曹氏,世為婚姻,故惇、淵、仁、洪、休、尚、真等並以親舊肺腑,貴重于時,左右勳業,咸有效勞。
SGZ 21: 始文帝為五官將,及平原侯植皆好文學。粲與北海徐幹字偉長、廣陵陳琳字孔璋、陳留阮瑀字元瑜、汝南應瑒字德璉、東平劉楨字公幹並見友善。
See SGZ 9 for the three.
JS 1: 魏國既建,遷太子中庶子。每與大謀,輒有奇策,為太子所信重,與陳群、吳質、朱鑠號曰四友。
SGZ 24: 魏初,三公無事,又希與朝政。
JS 13: 七年正月,驃騎將軍曹洪免為庶人。四月,征南大將軍夏侯尚薨。Once again, Wikipedia proves itself to have garbage quality control by incorrectly dating Xiàhóu Shàng’s death to 225, and of course everyone just copies Wikipedia’s incorrect information, so the wrong date may as well be carved into stone now.
Annotated to SGZ 9: 魏書載詔曰:「尚自少侍從,盡誠竭節,雖云異姓,其猶骨肉,是以入為腹心,出當爪牙。智略深敏,謀謨過人,不幸早殞,命也奈何!贈征南大將軍、昌陵侯印綬。」
SGZ 2: 夏五月丙辰,帝疾篤,召中軍大將軍曹真、鎮軍大將軍陳群、征東大將軍曹休、撫軍大將軍司馬宣王,並受遺詔輔嗣主。
SGZ 9: 爽字昭伯,少以宗室謹重,明帝在東宮,甚親愛之。For the sources on the alleged close friendship with Cáo Zhào, see further below.
Annotated to SGZ 3: 漢晉春秋曰:帝以燕王宇為大將軍,使與領軍將軍夏侯獻、武衛將軍曹爽、屯騎校尉曹肇、驍騎將軍秦朗等對輔政。
Annotated to SGZ 3: 魏略曰:朗游遨諸侯間,歷武、文之世而無尤也。及明帝即位,授以內官,為驍騎將軍、給事中,每車駕出入,朗常隨從。時明帝喜發舉,數有以輕微而致大辟者,朗終不能有所諫止,又未嘗進一善人,帝亦以是親愛;每顧問之,多呼其小字阿穌,數加賞賜,為起大第於京城中。四方雖知朗無能為益,猶以附近至尊,多賂遺之,富均公侯。
Annotated to SGZ 3: 魏略以朗與孔桂俱在佞倖篇。The other “flatterer intimate” Kǒng Guì was a favorite of Cáo Ruì's grandfather Cáo Cāo.
《情史》曰:曹肇有殊色,魏明帝寵愛之,寢止恆同。嘗與帝戲,賭衣物,有不獲,輒入御帳服之逕出。其見親寵類如此。
《曹肇別傳》曰:肇之弟纂,字德思,力舉千鈞,明帝寵之,寢止恒同。嘗與戲,賭衣物,有所獲,輒入御帳取而出之。
Guō Huái 郭懷 should not be confused with the more famous General Guō Huái 郭淮.
Annotated to SGZ 4.
Annotated to SGZ 4: 帝至後園竹間戲,或與從官攜手共行。熙白:『從官不宜與至尊相提挈。』
JS 2: 誅郭懷、袁信等。
Annotated to SGZ 4: 傅暢晉諸公贊曰:帝常與中護軍司馬望、侍中王沈、散騎常侍裴秀、黃門侍郎鍾會等講宴於東堂,并屬文論。名秀為儒林丈人,沈為文籍先生,望、會亦各有名號。帝性急,請召欲速。秀等在內職,到得及時,以望在外,特給追鋒車,虎賁卒五人,每有集會,望輒奔馳而至。
JS 37: 時景文相繼輔政,未嘗朝覲,權歸晉室。望雖見寵待,每不自安,由是求出,為征西將軍、持節、都督雍涼二州諸軍事。
JS 39: 及高貴鄉公將攻文帝,召沈及王業告之,沈、業馳白帝,以功封安平侯,邑二千戶。沈既不忠於主,甚為眾論所非。
Annotated to SGZ 4: 魏氏春秋曰:戊子夜,帝自將宂從僕射李昭、黃門從官焦伯等下陵雲臺
This is an incredibly cool article concept. Looking forward to the next one.
Take it up to Rafe de Crespigny for putting Xiahou Shang's death year at 225 in his biographical dictionary.