Liu Yuyi

Liu Yuyi

Contents

Liu Yuyi (simplified: 刘于义, traditional: 劉於義, pinyin: Liú Yúyì, courtesy name: Yuzan 喻旃, sobriquet: Weigang 蔚冈, jyutping: lau4 jyu1 ji6) was the Sichuan-Shaanxi Governor-General who obtained the Mandarin Duck Blades and ordered Zhou Weixin to deliver them to the Emperor in secret.

Biography

The Emperor had sought the Mandarin Duck Blades even before he took the throne, and on his accession he sent a secret edict to the governors and commanders of the eighteen provinces. The blades’ owner was caught, but two scoundrels hid them, until, by Liu’s ancestors’ accumulated virtue and the Emperor’s blessings, they came into Liu’s hands.

Liu sealed the blades in yellow cloth and entrusted them to Zhou Weixin, Escort Chief of the Weixin Armed Escort, to carry to Beijing. He sent four trusted guards with the convoy to support and watch Zhou, and brought Zhou’s family of twelve into the military barracks as hostages, promising a handsome reward if the blades reached the capital safely.1

Liu was cunning as well as cautious. As soon as the blades were his, he sent out impostor officials and decoy tribute convoys, leading the heroes of the jianghu who coveted them into trap after trap. Xiao Banhe, learning that the blades were in Liu’s hands, decided to take them on the road to the capital rather than from Liu’s guarded residence.2

Behind the scenes

Liu never appears in the novella. He is seen only through Zhou Weixin’s memory of their meeting.

Historical figure

Liu Yuyi is based on the Qing official of the same name (1675–1748), a native of Wujin in Jiangsu. He passed the jinshi examination in 1712 and served in the Hanlin Academy, then rose under the Yongzheng Emperor through the Southern Study, the Shanxi education commission, the capital granaries and the Zhili waterways. In 1732 he was sent to the northwest as acting Viceroy of Shaanxi and Gansu, and early in the Qianlong reign he was acting Viceroy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the post Jin Yong gives him in the novella.3

In 1738 he was dismissed for shielding subordinates accused of embezzling military supplies, and ordered to repay more than 30,000 liang. Recalled in 1740, he went on to serve as Governor of Fujian, Minister of Revenue, Minister of Personnel and Assistant Grand Secretary, and acting Viceroy of Zhili, and was made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent (太子太保). He died in 1748 after an audience in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. He had knelt for a long time, and as he rose he caught his robe and fell. He was given the posthumous name Wenke (文恪).4

See also

Footnotes

  1. See Part 1. ↩

  2. See Part 4. ↩

  3. See Viceroy of Shaan-Gan on Wikipedia, which lists him as acting Viceroy of Shaanxi (1732–1735) and of Chuan-Shaan (1736–1737). ↩

  4. See the biography of Liu Yuyi in the Draft History of Qing (《清史稿·刘于义传》), summarised on Baidu Baike. ↩

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