Unqualified Appraisal 6: Xiàhóu Xuán
One of the greatest men of his time, and you've probably never even heard of him
Head’s up: this one’s a puff piece. With a lot of puffing. Turn back now if you don’t want to read journalism style excessive puffing.
Right, puffing time.
Time is cruel. History is not particularly fair.
Case in point, this portrayal:
Seriously, what the hell is this? This more than anything else should be proof that most of the people in charge of the various popular adaptations have no idea what the hell they are talking about. Who thought that this was a good way to portray one of the greatest men of the era?
Oh, but surely I must be going too far, right? After all, who has even heard of Xiàhóu Xuán? Just another evil minister standing in the way of the glorious Sīmǎ clan, right? Who would ever care about him?
Summary
As his name might imply, Xiàhóu Xuán was of the Xiàhóu clan closely connected to the ruling Cáo clan of Wèi, more specifically from Xiàhóu Yuān’s branch of the family. Xiàhóu Yuān's cousin's son Xiàhóu Shàng was a close personal friend of Cáo Pī, and in the early days of the Wèi empire, Cáo Pī primarily trusted his distant relatives and personal friends Cáo Zhēn, Cáo Xiū, and Xiàhóu Shàng as his chief lieutenants in military affairs. Xiàhóu Xuán was the son of Xiàhóu Shàng. His mother was a sister of Cáo Zhēn, making Xiàhóu Xuán a younger first cousin of Cáo Zhēn’s son Cáo Shuǎng.1
Calculating from his age at death, Xuán was born around 209, right as his clan had come to great prominence through their connection to the rising Cáo Cāo, and only a few years after the birth of Cáo Pī’s eldest son Cáo Ruì. Nothing further is given on Xuán’s childhood in the extant records aside that he was famed from youth, and from this one might speculate that he spent his early years in the following of his powerful senior relatives of the Xiàhóu and Cáo clans.
After being capped at around twenty, he officially entered the service of the Imperial bureaucracy, by then headed by Cáo Ruì, second reigning Emperor of Wèi. Xuán served in the Cavalier (sǎnqí) and Yellow Gate (huángmén) divisions of the Emperor’s attendants,2 which would have given him very personal access to Cáo Ruì himself. However, despite the close relationship between their fathers Cáo Pī and Xiàhóu Shàng, who had also coincidentally died within months of one another in 226,3 Xiàhóu Xuán and Cáo Ruì seem to have had a more difficult relationship.
One anecdote tells that at a gathering, Cáo Ruì had his empress’s younger brother Máo Zēng seated together with Xiàhóu Xuán. Prior to the empress Máo rising in favor due to Cáo Ruì’s personal affections, the Máo family had been of lower class origins, only to suddenly rise to fortune due to Cáo Ruì’s favors. Máo Jiā, father of the empress and Máo Zēng, was in particular mocked for his pretensions to nobility, reportedly calling himself as “lordly self” and always revealing his ignorance of actual upper class behaviors in meetings with the great ministers of the Court.4 When Máo Zēng was seated together with Xiàhóu Xuán, by one account the people of the time referred to it as “weeds leaning on a jade tree.”5 Xuán was embarrassed by this seating arrangement, and his displeasure showed on his face, so that Cáo Ruì was angered and demoted him.6
Even setting aside this anecdote, there were other accounts of more serious reasons for potential strains in their relationship, for Xiàhóu Xuán was a prominent member of a rising group of young intellectuals disliked by Cáo Ruì and the older generation of thinkers. Xiàhóu Xuán together with Zhūgě Dàn, Dèng Yáng, and their colleagues held great fame and influence in the capital, with Xiàhóu Xuán’s level known as the Sì Cōng “Four Intellects” and Zhūgě Dàn’s class known as the Bā Dá “Eight Eminents.” Cáo Ruì hated them all, decried them as pretentious and showy, and had them removed from government office.7
Zhèngshǐ
Whether due to offending the Emperor or due to the influence of his personal circles, Xiàhóu Xuán seems to have been largely repressed by Cáo Ruì, but in 239 Cáo Ruì passed away, leaving Cáo Shuǎng supported by Sīmǎ Yì as regents over the young successor Cáo Fāng. Cáo Shuǎng was Xiàhóu Xuán’s older cousin, and further adopted a more welcoming policy toward the intellectuals who had been suppressed by Cáo Ruì, and so Xiàhóu Xuán was finally able to obtain extensive use in the Wèi regime. It was probably around this time that the great intellectual Hé Yàn reportedly made a bold comment on a grand vision of what might be accomplished by the new regime:
Previously, Xiàhóu Xuán and Hé Yàn and others had flourishing reputation at the time, Sīmǎ [Shī] also participated. Yàn once said: “Thinking with depth, and therefore able to understand the world’s will, Xiàhóu Tàichū is this; thinking with precision, and therefore able to achieve the world’s affairs, Sīmǎ Zǐyuán is this; thinking with divinity, not hurrying and yet fast, not going and yet arriving, I have heard this saying, but not yet seen the person.” Probably he wished to use divinity to refer to himself.8
Thinking with “depth,” “precision,” and “divinity” references a passage in the classic the Yì describing the thinking of a sage.9 To be more generous to Hé Yàn, probably he was envisioning that he working with Cáo Shuǎng's cousin Xiàhóu Xuán and Sīmǎ Yì’s son Shī might be able to achieve an ideal government, and his comment was a high praise for the abilities of Xuán and Shī.
Xuán was also appointed Central Protector of the Army, a position granting him supervisory authority over the Wèi military. In this role, he managed the selection of officers, and none were not exceptional, with many becoming governors and administrators in the provinces and prefectures. His orders and instructions all became examples for posterity, passed down for generations.10
Around this time, Sīmǎ Yì asked for Xiàhóu Xuán’s opinions on the times, and in a series of letters, Xiàhóu Xuán outlined a general vision for reform. The biographical entry of Xuán quotes extensively from Xuán’s letters, probably due to a need to provide evidence of Xuán’s character and ability as a defense against the vile charges that would be made against him due to later political events that would tarnish Xuán’s legacy.11
We may note a similarity to the annals of Cáo Máo in SGZ 4, where extensive quotations on seemingly trivial events are provided in order to give a more positive portrayal of Cáo Máo’s character to defend him against the vile charges that would be made against him due to later political events. Both Xiàhóu Xuán and Cáo Máo, as martyrs of Wèi, required official condemnation by Jìn historiography, but apparently provoked such sympathy and admiration from the literati class that efforts were made to provide at least some defense for their characters.
Hints at further information on Xiàhóu Xuán’s character and reputation can also be pieced together from a few mentions in the treatises, in anecdotes preserved in other compilations, and from what fragments remain of his personal writings. In the early years of Zhèngshǐ, Xiàhóu Xuán was involved in discussions on proposed law reforms and mutilation punishments,12 and extant fragments of Xuán’s writings include parts of his written arguments against mutilation punishment. Xuán evidently also compiled a philosophical work, the Xiàhóu-zǐ, though it has not survived except for three single-line fragments.13 Xuán’s appearance and bearing also reportedly inspired admiration and awe:
At the time people catalogued: “Xiàhóu [Xuán] Tàichū shines like the sun and moon entering his bosom. Lǐ [Fēng] Ānguó is dispirited like a jade mountain about to collapse.14
Péi [Xiù] catalogued Xiàhóu Tàichū: “Solemn like entering into a court temple, not cultivating veneration and yet people on their own venerate.” Another saying: “Like entering the Ancestral Temple, glimmering and only seeing the vessels of ritual and music.”15
Commander of the West
A few years later, Xiàhóu Xuán was transferred from Central Protector of the Army to Campaigning West General, placing him in command of the entire western front against Shǔ-Hàn, with Sīmǎ Shī succeeding Xuán as Central Protector of the Army.16
In late 243, the Shǔ-Hàn chief commander Jiǎng Wǎn fell ill and was recalled from Hànzhōng.17 In 244, Cáo Shuǎng and his supporters then prepared a western campaign against Hànzhōng, though the official account given in the Wèi-Jìn historiography makes no mention of Jiǎng Wǎn’s illness as a possible motivator, and instead claims that Cáo Shuǎng’s group was motivated solely by a wish to bolster Cáo Shuǎng’s military authority.18 Whatever the motivations, Cáo Shuǎng led armies west to join up with Xiàhóu Xuán, and together with Sīmǎ Shī's younger brother Zhāo as Xiàhóu Xuán's second-in-command,19 they led the Luò valley campaign.
The campaign was, as commonly known, a disaster, though one might suspect exaggeration by later pro-Sīmǎ historiography, since the disaster was a fundamental pillar in the Sīmǎ case against Cáo Shuǎng’s regime. Whatever the actual scale of damage, it does not seem to have been crippling enough to lead to a major shift in the line of control in the western front between Wèi and Shǔ. In the biographical entry of Xiàhóu Xuán’s subordinate officer Guō Huái, it is even explicitly claimed that Guō Huái, who led the vanguard during the invasion, did not suffer a great defeat in the campaign, and was in fact given an increase in authority after the campaign, which would suggest a strong performance.20 We may note that the Guō family, unlike the Cáo Shuǎng or Xiàhóu Xuán branches of their respective clans, remained prominent and influential during the Jìn dynasty.21
We are told that Cáo Shuǎng and Xiàhóu Xuán were mocked for their failure,22 but Xiàhóu Xuán nevertheless kept his position as overall commander of the western front, and though Xuán’s own biography makes no mention of it, there were at least two Shǔ-Hàn counter-invasions led by Jiāng Wéi in 247 and 248 that were successfully repulsed during Xuán’s tenure.23 For those who would argue that Xiàhóu Xuán was able to retain his position due to his family, one might contrast the situation with that of his father’s cousin Xiàhóu Rú: previously in 241, Xiàhóu Rú had been commander of the southern front against Wú, and repulsed an invasion by Wú officer Zhū Rán; though the campaign was a victory, Rú’s performance was still criticized, and he was summoned to the capital to take an empty position at the Nine Ministers level.24
The End of Zhèngshǐ
In 249, Sīmǎ Yì led his infamous coup that led to the slaughter of Cáo Shuǎng and at least eight other great clans of his supporters. Thereafter the central government of Wèi was firmly under the control of the Sīmǎ clan and their supporters.
Xiàhóu Xuán was immediately stripped of his command in the west and summoned back to the capital to take up powerless and empty positions at the Nine Ministers level.25 His father’s cousin Xiàhóu Bà, recognizing the danger, prepared to flee to Shǔ-Hàn, urging Xiàhóu Xuán to go with him. Xuán refused, remarking that he would not lower himself to become a guest of rebels and bandits.26 As he returned from the west, probably due to his knowledge of his situation, he did not participate in ordinary human affairs, nor did he take any wives or concubines.27 In 251, Sīmǎ Yì died, and Xiàhóu Xuán’s friend Xǔ Yǔn reportedly remarked that Xiàhóu Xuán would no longer needed to be worried. Xuán sighed and corrected him: Sīmǎ Yì due to his greater age and influence could afford to keep Xuán alive, but Yì’s sons Shī and Zhāo would not tolerate him for long.28
Xuán was right.
Death
Sīmǎ Shī inherited control of the Wèi Court from his father, but opponents to the Sīmǎ-dominated regime could yet hope for an intervention and restoration at this potentially delicate transition from the long-serving and proven statesman Sīmǎ Yì to the still comparatively untested Sīmǎ Shī. The Emperor’s closely trusted official Lǐ Fēng and the empress’s father Zhāng Qī plotted to find an opportunity to assassinate Sīmǎ Shī and replace him with Xiàhóu Xuán.29 Though the young Emperor Cáo Fāng is not named as a conspirator in the official sources, one can probably assume he was at least complicit in the plan given his connections with Lǐ Fēng and Zhāng Qī.
After at least one false start, Lǐ Fēng found an opportunity to move in 254, and planned to take advantage of a ceremony for an appointment in the harem to lead troops to ambush and assassinate Sīmǎ Shī.30 The plan leaked, however, and Sīmǎ Shī summoned Lǐ Fēng to his presence. Unaware of the leak, Lǐ Fēng went, where he was killed during the interrogation. By one account, upon learning his plan had been betrayed, Lǐ Fēng denounced Sīmǎ Shī as a traitor to Wèi to Shī's face, prompting a furious Sīmǎ Shī to order his men to beat Lǐ Fēng to death.31 The remaining conspirators and their clans were all arrested.32
When Xiàhóu Xuán was arrested, he would not break under the tortures of interrogation and refused to issue a confession. Zhōng Yù, the official tasked with leading interrogation, knew that Xuán would never break, but as standard protocol required a confession be made to secure a conviction, and a conviction was absolutely required by the political situation, Zhōng Yù forged one on Xuán’s behalf.33 When shown the forged confession, Xiàhóu Xuán only nodded at it and nothing more.34
There are two variants of an anecdote concerning the need to convict and execute Xiàhóu Xuán. The story is unfortunately too good to be true, as pointed out by Péi Sōngzhī in his attached commentary, but the anecdote is still worth preserving for the information it gives us on how the literati of the time and shortly after viewed the death of Xiàhóu Xuán. First, the version preserved in Wèishì Chūnqiū:
When Xuán was arrested, Guard General Sīmǎ [Zhāo] shed tears to plead for him, General-in-Chief [Sīmǎ Shī] said: “Have you forgotten the gathering at the funeral for Excellency of Works Zhào?” Before this, Excellency of Works Zhào Yǎn had died, the General-in-Chief and his brothers had gathered at the funeral, the guests were in the hundreds. Xuán arrived after them, and the crowd of guests all rose from their seats to welcome him. The General-in-Chief because of this hated him.
Péi Sōngzhī’s attached commentary notes that Zhào Yǎn died in 245, when Xiàhóu Xuán should still have been overall commander of the western front, so he should not have been able to attend the funeral, making the story very unlikely.35
The variant version in Yǔlín is even less plausible, but perhaps an even better story:
[Sīmǎ Shī] wished to execute Xiàhóu Xuán, his intentions were not yet decided, and he asked [his uncle Sīmǎ] Fú: “Is my own talent sufficient to control him or not?”
[Sīmǎ] Fú said: “In the past at Zhào Yǎn’s funeral, when you arrived, half of the seated welcomed you. When [Xiàhóu Xuán] Tàichū later arrived, everyone seated all rose. Judging from this, I fear you do not compare.”
So [Sīmǎ Shī] killed him [Xiàhóu Xuán].36
Even if untrue in the raw facts, these anecdotes show that the literati who passed around such anecdotes believed that the real reason that Xiàhóu Xuán was executed was that he was too well-respected and admired by all for Sīmǎ Shī to tolerate his existence, and that belief may very well have been true. Xuán was condemned to death along with all his clan, but to the very end he would show his defiance in his own way:
Xuán was tolerant and magnanimous, facing execution in the east market, his facial expression did not change, his motions were at ease, at the time aged forty-six.37
Appraisals
The appraisal of Chén Shòu, written during the early reign of Jìn, must be restrained in its judgment:
Xuán for his bearing and form, the world praised his reputation, however he with Cáo Shuǎng inside and outside were bound together inseparably; his honored position was like this, but one never once hears of him rectifying and correcting his [Cáo Shuǎng’s] wrongs, and helping deliver good talents [to Cáo Shuǎng]. Raising this for discussion, how could he be able to escape it?38
But later people did not forget Xiàhóu Xuán, and their freer pens would write down alternative perspectives.
Over a century after Xuán’s death, the compilation Yì Yuàn recorded an anecdote that reportedly took place around 311, over fifty-seven years after Xuán’s death:
During the disaster of Yǒngjiā, there was a shaman who met the Emperor, and shedding tears said: “That your family and state are overturned is because of the redressing of the wrongs done to Cáo Shuǎng and Xiàhóu Xuán.” Shuǎng for being of a powerful clan was executed, Xuán for being the hope of his time was killed.39
Even decades after his death, with the legitimacy of the Imperial Sīmǎ clan firmly established by the Jìn dynasty, there were still those who remembered what they had done to Cáo Shuǎng and Xiàhóu Xuán.
They particularly remembered Xiàhóu Xuán for how he could not be broken even to the very end, for they passed around a more fanciful story:
Xiàhóu Tàichū once was leaning on a pillar and writing. At the time it rained heavily, and a lightning bolt shattered the pillar he was leaning on, his clothes were singed, but his facial expression did not change, and he went on writing as before. The guest retainers and left and right attendants all stumbled back and forth unable to be still.40
But as the centuries went on the memories faded, and they were replaced with utter nonsense by revisionists trying to replace what we are told with a moralist agenda rather than learn from it. From Sānguó Yǎnyì chapter 109 “Cáo Fāng is deposed as the Wèi House indeed suffers retribution,”
Therefore ordered to lead the three men [Xiàhóu Xuán, Lǐ Fēng, Zhāng Qī] to be waist bisected in the market, exterminating their three clans. The three men cursed without end, by the time they entered the east market, their teeth had been completely knocked out, each man unintelligibly repeatedly cursing and died.41
I can think of few examples this disgustingly shameless in how idiotic moralist revisionists can completely misrepresent who a man was and what he lived and died for. And this is how the popular imagination will forever remember one of the greatest men of his era, because of how immoral the “moralists” are.
At least there remain a few comments that recall the actual presentation in the historiography.
Southern Sòng dynasty scholar Chén Liáng wrote: “Xiàhóu Tàichū, when between death and life, disaster and fortune, yet did not move [in disturbance], his reputation was not emptily obtained. But he encountered the wrong time.”42
Yuán dynasty scholar Hǎo Jīng wrote: “Xuán for his heavy reputation and high integrity was a model for a generation. His speech and commentary set standards, deeply seeing the forms of governance, amiable with a great minister’s air. The towering is easy to break, the illustrious is easy to dirty, holding upright the standard and great, utterly without guile, how can one be able to produce the sophistication of a great thief? Observing his reply to Xǔ Yǔn’s words, dying for his state had already been decided for a long time; treading naked blades and not fearing, he was between death and life and yet was not disturbed, seeing what his whole life had led up toward, impressive! It is the world’s utmost valor.43
Qīng dynasty scholar Wáng Míngshèng wrote: “With the imprisonment of Xiàhóu Xuán and Lǐ Fēng, and then [Sīmǎ] Shī and [Sīmǎ] Zhāo’s succession, their treacherous nature is clear. Those sirs who died with their clans exterminated, all were the Wèi House’s loyal servants.”44
Xiàhóu Xuán faced his death completely at ease. We can only ever speculate as to what he was thinking when he faced his end, but I would guess that he was at ease because he was content in the knowledge that he was dying with a clean conscience, that he was dying for his country. We might contrast the story of the execution of Xiàhóu Xuán with the account of Sīmǎ Yì suffering nightmares of being haunted by the vengeful ghosts of Wáng Líng and Jiǎ Kuí.45
夏侯太初淵深高節,雖未能存魏,而臨死不亂,顯其忠誠純潔之心。46
I suppose that’s enough puffing for now. Should probably do another hit piece soon to balance out all the positivity; just need to find an appropriate target. Suggestions welcome.
See the biographies of the Xiàhóu and Cáo in SGZ 9.
SGZ 9: 少知名,弱冠為散騎黃門侍郎。
JS 13: 四月,征南大將軍夏侯尚薨。五月,帝崩。
SGZ 5: 嘉本典虞車工,卒暴富貴,明帝令朝臣會其家飲宴,其容止舉動甚蚩騃,語輒自謂「侯身」,時人以為笑。
SSXY 14.3: 魏明帝使后弟毛曾與夏侯玄共坐,時人謂「蒹葭倚玉樹」。
SGZ 9: 嘗進見,與皇后弟毛曾並坐,玄恥之,不悅形之於色。明帝恨之,左遷為羽林監。
Annotated to SGZ 28: 世語曰:是時,當世俊士散騎常侍夏侯玄、尚書諸葛誕、鄧颺之徒,共相題表,以玄、疇四人為四聡,誕、備八人為八達,中書監劉放子熈、孫資子密、吏部尚書衞臻子烈三人,咸不及比,以父居勢位,容之為三豫,凡十五人。帝以構長浮華,皆免官廢錮。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 魏氏春秋曰:初,夏侯玄、何晏等名盛於時,司馬景王亦預焉。晏嘗曰:「唯深也,故能通天下之志,夏侯泰初是也;唯幾也,故能成天下之務,司馬子元是也;惟神也,不疾而速,不行而至,吾聞其語,未見其人。」蓋欲以神況諸己也。
Zhōu Yì: 夫易,聖人之所以極深而研幾也。唯深也,故能通天下之志。唯幾也,故能成天下之務。唯神也,故不疾而速,不行而至。子曰:「易有聖人之道四焉」者,此之謂也。
SGZ 9: 正始初,曹爽輔政。玄,爽之姑子也。累遷散騎常侍、中護軍。Annotated to SGZ 9: 世語曰:玄世名知人,為中護軍,拔用武官,參戟牙門,無非俊傑,多牧州典郡。立法垂教,于今皆為後式。
SGZ 9. For a translation of the series of letters, see Timothy M Davis, “Ranking Men and Assessing Talent: Xiahou Xuan’s Response to an Inquiry by Sima Yi.”
JS 30: 斯皆魏世所改,其大略如是。其後正始之間,天下無事,於是征西將軍夏侯玄、河南尹李勝、中領軍曹羲、尚書丁謐又追議肉刑,卒不能決。其文甚多,不載。
Quán Sān Guó Wén 21.
SSXY 14.4: 時人目「夏侯太初朗朗如日月之入懷,李安國頹唐如玉山之將崩」。Lǐ Ānguó is Lǐ Fēng.
SSXY 8.8: 裴令公目夏侯太初:「肅肅如入廊廟中,不修敬而人自敬。」一曰:「如入宗廟,琅琅但見禮樂器。見鍾士季,如觀武庫,但睹矛戟。見傅蘭碩,江廧靡所不有。見山巨源,如登山臨下,幽然深遠。」A variant version also appears in JS 35: 嘗目夏侯玄云「肅肅如入宗廟中,但見禮樂器」,鍾會「如觀武庫森森,但見矛戟在前」,傅嘏「汪翔靡所不見」,山濤「若登山臨下,幽然深遠」。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 魏略曰:玄既遷,司馬景王代為護軍。
SGZ 33: 六年冬十月,大司馬蔣琬自漢中還,住涪。十一月,大赦。以尚書令費禕為大將軍。
SGZ 9: 颺等欲令爽立威名於天下,勸使伐蜀,爽從其言,宣王止之不能禁。JS 1: 尚書鄧颺、李勝等欲令曹爽建立功名,勸使伐蜀。帝止之,不可,爽果無功而還。
JS 2: 大將軍曹爽之伐蜀也,以帝為征蜀將軍,副夏侯玄出駱谷,次于興勢。
SGZ 26: 五年,夏侯玄伐蜀,淮督諸軍為前鋒。淮度勢不利,輒拔軍出,故不大敗。還假淮節。
It is important to clarify that it was Cáo Shuǎng’s and Xiàhóu Xuán’s branches that suffered notoriety, since other branches of the larger extended Cáo and Xiàhóu clans did remain prominent and influential during Jìn, such as the descendants of Cáo Cāo’s son Zhí and the descendants of Xiàhóu Yuān’s son Wēi. See JS 50 for Cáo Zhí's son Zhì and JS 55 for Xiàhóu Wēi's grandson Zhàn.
SGZ 9: 與曹爽共興駱谷之役,時人譏之。
SGZ 26 details these defensive campaigns from the perspective of Guō Huái, boasting of them as great victories. Note however that Xiàhóu Xuán was still Guō Huái’s overall commander at this time, but Xuán’s own entry in SGZ 9 gives no information on these victories. One might suspect political expedience motivated this omission.
Annotated to SGZ 15: 魏略曰:儒字俊林,夏侯尚從弟。初為鄢陵侯彰驍騎司馬,◻◻為征南將軍,都督荊、豫州。正始二年,朱然圍樊城,城中守將乙脩等求救甚急。儒進屯鄧塞,以兵少不敢進,但作鼓吹,設導從,去然六七里,翱翔而還,使脩等遙見之,數數如是。月餘,及太傅到,乃俱進,然等走。時謂儒為怯,或以為曉以少疑衆,得聲救之宜。儒猶以此召還,為太僕。
SGZ 9: 爽誅,徵玄為大鴻臚,數年徙太常。玄以爽抑絀,內不得意。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 魏氏春秋曰:初,夏侯霸將奔蜀,呼玄欲與之俱。玄曰:「吾豈苟存自客於寇虜乎?」遂還京師。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 魏略曰:玄自從西還,不交人事,不蓄華妍。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 太傅薨,許允謂玄曰:「無復憂矣。」玄歎曰:「士宗,卿何不見事乎?此人猶能以通家年少遇我,子元、子上不吾容也。」
SGZ 9: 中書令李豐雖宿為大將軍司馬景王所親待,然私心在玄,遂結皇后父光祿大夫張緝,謀欲以玄輔政。
SGZ 9: 豐陰令弟兗州刺史翼求入朝,欲使將兵入,并力起。會翼求朝,不聽。嘉平六年二月,當拜貴人,豐等欲因御臨軒,諸門有陛兵,誅大將軍,以玄代之,以緝為驃騎將軍。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 魏氏春秋曰:大將軍責豐,豐知禍及,遂正色曰:「卿父子懷姦,將傾社稷,惜吾力劣,不能相禽滅耳!」大將軍怒,使勇士以刀環築豐腰,殺之。
The degree of Xuán’s involvement is somewhat uncertain; his own biographical entry records only that Lǐ Fēng wished to have Xuán replace Shī, with no mention of Xuán actually participating in the plot. Wèishū and Shìyǔ claim that Xuán was informed of the plot, which would make him guilty by association for not reporting it.
Annotated to SGZ 9: 世語曰:玄至廷尉,不肯下辭。廷尉鍾毓自臨治玄。玄正色責毓曰:「吾當何辭?卿為令史責人也,卿便為吾作。」毓以其名士,節高不可屈,而獄當竟,夜為作辭,令與事相附,流涕以示玄。玄視,頷之而已。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 世語曰:玄至廷尉,不肯下辭。廷尉鍾毓自臨治玄。玄正色責毓曰:「吾當何辭?卿為令史責人也,卿便為吾作。」毓以其名士,節高不可屈,而獄當竟,夜為作辭,令與事相附,流涕以示玄。玄視,頷之而已。
Annotated to SGZ 9: 魏氏春秋曰:初,夏侯霸將奔蜀,呼玄欲與之俱。玄曰:「吾豈苟存自客於寇虜乎?」遂還京師。太傅薨,許允謂玄曰:「無復憂矣。」玄歎曰:「士宗,卿何不見事乎?此人猶能以通家年少遇我,子元、子上不吾容也。」玄嘗著樂毅、張良及本無肉刑論,辭旨通遠,咸傳于世。玄之執也,衛將軍司馬文王流涕請之,大將軍曰:「卿忘會趙司空葬乎?」先是,司空趙儼薨,大將軍兄弟會葬,賓客以百數,玄時後至,眾賓客咸越席而迎,大將軍由是惡之。臣松之案:曹爽以正始五年伐蜀,時玄已為關中都督,至十年,爽誅滅後,方還洛耳。案少帝紀,司空趙儼以六年亡,玄則無由得會儼葬,若云玄入朝,紀、傳又無其事。斯近妄不實。
Péi-zǐ Yǔlín: 景王欲誅夏侯玄,意未決,間問安王孚云:「己才足以制之不?」孚云:「昔趙儼葬兒,汝來,半坐迎之。泰初後至,一坐悉起;以此方之,恐汝不如。」乃殺之。
SGZ 9: 玄格量弘濟,臨斬東巿,顏色不變,舉動自若,時年四十六。
SGZ 9: 玄以規格局度,世稱其名,然與曹爽中外繾綣;榮位如斯,曾未聞匡弼其非,援致良才。舉茲以論,焉能免之乎!
《異苑》曰:晉宣帝誅王陵后寢疾,日見陵逼,帝呼曰:「彥云緩我。」身上便有打處。賈逵亦為祟,少日遂薨。初,陵既被執,過賈逵廟,呼曰:「賈梁道,王陵魏之忠臣,惟爾有神知之。」故逵助焉。及永嘉之亂,有覡見帝,涕泗云:「家國傾覆,是曹爽、夏侯玄訴怨得伸故也。」爽以勢族致誅,玄從時望被戮。
SSXY 6.3: 夏侯太初嘗倚柱作書。時大雨,霹靂破所倚柱,衣服焦然,神色無變,書亦如故。賓客左右,皆跌蕩不得住。
SGYY 109: 遂令將三人腰斬於市,滅其三族。三人罵不絕口。比臨東市中,牙齒盡被打落,各人含糊數罵而死。
陳亮《龍川集·卷七》:「夏侯太初處死生禍福之際而不動,名不虛得也,而遇非其時矣。」
郝經《續後漢書》:「玄以重名高節,表儀一世。其言議規格,深見治體,藹然有大臣之風。嶢嶢者易折,佼佼者易污,挺持正大,曠無單復,焉能出大盜之城府哉?觀對許允之言,則以身死國,前定久矣,蹈白刃而不懼臨,死生之際而不亂,生平所養至此乃見,壯哉乎!天下之至勇也。」
王鳴盛:「若夏侯玄、李豐之獄,則師、昭相繼,逆節彰著,諸公身死族滅,皆魏室忠臣也。」
JS 1: 六月,帝寢疾,夢賈逵、王淩為祟,甚惡之。
Xiàhóu Tàichū was deep and profound with high integrity, though he was not able to preserve Wèi, yet he faced death without disturbance, revealing his loyal and pure heart.
Discovering Xiahou Xuan, and with him the Zhengshi era, was one of the most rewarding 3 Kingdoms explorations in recent years that I've had, and it's an era I'd say isn't nearly studied as much as it should.
I went from dismissing the figures from the era, such as Xuan, Cao Shuang, and their supporters, to really looking into their records and revising and reappraising them and what they did. It made for a great and rewarding re-examination. And I'd really like to thank daolun for that, as he was the one that presented that viewpoint, and presented new argumentation. So thank you daolun, and thank you Jack for continuing with these thematics.
“Should probably do another hit piece soon” ok but this is perfectly a hit peace in my book. Really. Thank you.
I’m surprised it never occurred to me to look up Xian’s depictions in media. I just did and .. it was unpleasant.