Wei Ji 衞覬

Wei Ji, courtesy name Boru, was a native of Anyi County in Hedong Commandery. He matured early and was praised for his talent and learning. Cao Cao summoned him as a clerk on the staff of the Minister of Works, and he was appointed Prefect of Maoling and Gentleman of the Masters of Writing. When Cao Cao attacked Yuan Shao, Liu Biao supported Yuan Shao and the generals of Guanzhong stayed neutral; since Liu Zhang, Governor of Yi Province, was on bad terms with Liu Biao, Wei Ji went as an envoy to Yi Province as Attending Secretary for Documents, intending to have Liu Zhang send his troops down to pin down Liu Biao's army. But when he reached Chang'an the roads were blocked and he could not go on, so he stayed there and kept Guanzhong pacified. Records, Wei 21 §35

At that time many people were returning from all directions, and the generals of Guanzhong drew them in as their own retainers. Wei Ji wrote to Xun Yu that more than 100,000 households of Guanzhong people who had drifted into Jing Province wished to return, but those who came back had no means of making a living and the generals vied to take them on as retainers, so that the commanderies and counties were weak while only the military houses grew strong; if a crisis arose one day, it would surely become a worry for the future. He then said that salt was a great treasure of the state, so envoys should be appointed as before to supervise its sale and the proceeds used to buy plough oxen to provide to returning people; and if the Colonel-Director of Retainers were stationed in Guanzhong to govern it, the generals would dwindle day by day while the government and the people would flourish day by day. Records, Wei 21 §36–37

Xun Yu reported this to Cao Cao, who followed it, sending for the first time a Supervisor of Internuncios to oversee the salt offices and having the Colonel-Director of Retainers govern from Hongnong. When Guanzhong submitted, it was proposed that Wei Ji be recalled, and he was gradually promoted to Master of Writing. Records, Wei 21 §38

When the state of Wei was founded he was appointed Palace Attendant and took charge of institutions together with Wang Can. When Cao Pi succeeded as king he was transferred to Master of Writing, and soon afterward he returned to the Han court as a Gentleman Attendant, where he urged and assisted the cause of the abdication and drafted the edicts proclaiming it. When Cao Pi ascended the imperial throne he again became a Master of Writing and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Yangji Village. Records, Wei 21 §39

When Emperor Ming took the throne, Wei Ji's fief was raised to Marquis of Wenxiang with 300 households. Wei Ji argued that the Nine-Chapter Code was subtle in its principles for judging punishments and crimes, so that all senior officials governing a hundred li ought to know the law; that penal law was valued by the state yet scorned in private opinion, and that prison officers, on whom the lives of the people depended, were looked down on by those who selected officials. He therefore requested that Academicians of Law be established to teach it in turn. This was eventually put into effect. Records, Wei 21 §40–41

At that time the people were exhausted and impoverished while labor service was at its height, so Wei Ji submitted a memorial. He said that the wealth and honor subjects desire and the poverty and death they dread are all in the hands of the ruler, so subjects vie to follow his wishes and avoid going against them, and that those who now offered opinions liked pleasing words, likening His Majesty to Yao and Shun when they spoke of government and likening the two enemies to wildcats and rats when they spoke of campaigns. Yet the realm was divided into three, each serving its own master, no different from the time when the Six States ruled separately; for a thousand li there was no cooking smoke and the surviving people were in distress, so if His Majesty did not give it heed, the realm would wither and be hard to revive. Records, Wei 21 §41–43

He went on to say that the measure of extravagance and frugality must be set according to the plenty or want of the age, and that in the time of Emperor Wu (Cao Cao) the meals of the palace women did not exceed one meat dish and their clothes used no brocade or embroidery, and so he was able to pacify the realm and leave blessings to his descendants. Now, he said, the gold and silver objects made by the Imperial Workshop were multiplying and public works never ceased, so that the treasury grew emptier day by day; Emperor Wu of Han had been criticized for erecting immortals' palms to catch dew, but His Majesty, without even seeking dew, had erected them for nothing, and so this should be weighed and restrained. Chen Shou recorded that Wei Ji, serving through Han and Wei, offered loyal advice from time to time, generally of this kind. Records, Wei 21 §44–47

Wei Ji received an edict to take charge of compilation and wrote the Wei Guanyi (Official Rites of Wei), and his writings came to several dozen pieces in all. He loved ancient script, bird-seal script, clerical script and cursive script, and there was none he did not write well; Pan Xu at the end of Jian'an and Wang Xiang (王象) in the Huangchu era were famed for their writing together with him. The Biography of Hu Zhao also records that Hu Zhao was famous for his calligraphy together with Zhong Yao, Handan Chun, Wei Ji and Wei Dan. When Wei Ji died he was given the posthumous name Marquis Jing, and his son Wei Guan succeeded him and became General Who Guards the West in the Xianxi era. Chen Shou's main text does not record the year of his death. Records, Wei 21 §48Records, Wei 11 §109

In his assessment, discussing Wang Can and other men of letters, Chen Shou wrote that Wei Ji, too, knew many precedents and helped shape the institutions of the ruler of his day. Records, Wei 21 §99