Zheng Hun 鄭渾

Zheng Hun, courtesy name Wengong, was a man of Kaifeng County in Henan. His great-great-grandfather Zheng Zhong and Zheng Zhong's father Zheng Xing were both famous Confucian scholars. His elder brother Zheng Tai plotted with Xun You and others to kill Dong Zhuo, became Inspector of Yang Province, and died. Records, Wei 16 §80

Zheng Hun took Zheng Tai's young son Zheng Mao and fled the turmoil to Huainan. Yuan Shu treated him very generously with the courtesy due to a guest, but Zheng Hun knew that Yuan Shu was bound to fail, and since Hua Xin, Administrator of Yuzhang, had long been on good terms with Zheng Tai, he crossed the Yangtze and took refuge with Hua Xin. Cao Cao, the Grand Progenitor, hearing of his sincere conduct, summoned him and made him a clerk, and then transferred him to Chief of Xiacai and Prefect of Shaoling. Records, Wei 16 §81

The realm was not yet settled, and the people were fierce and frivolous and did not attend to their livelihoods; having no means to keep their children alive, most of them did not raise the children they bore. Wherever Zheng Hun went he took away their fishing and hunting gear, assigned them farming and sericulture as their tasks, had them open up rice paddies, and made the law against abandoning children more severe. At first the people feared punishment, but gradually they became well off, and there was no one who did not raise their children; they mostly gave the sons and daughters they raised courtesy names containing 'Zheng'. Records, Wei 16 §81–82

He was summoned as a clerk on the Chancellor's staff and then transferred to Left Supporter. At this time Liang Xing and others carried off more than five thousand households of officials and commoners and turned to banditry; the counties could not resist them, and all of them, in fear, moved their offices to lodge at the commandery seat. Those consulting all said that they should move to defensible places, but Zheng Hun said that Liang Xing and the others had already been broken and scattered and that most of their followers were following under coercion, so they should open wide the road to surrender and proclaim kindness and good faith, whereas holding defensible places to protect themselves would be a show of weakness. He then gathered the officials and commoners, repaired the city walls and made preparations for defence. Records, Wei 16 §82–83

Zheng Hun mobilized the people to pursue the bandits, promising them seven tenths of whatever they captured as a reward. The people were overjoyed and captured many women and much property, and the bandits who had lost their wives and children all came back and asked to surrender. Zheng Hun had them capture other women first and only then returned their wives and children, so that the bandits came to raid one another and their band scattered. He also sent officials and commoners who enjoyed trust and goodwill out among the mountains and valleys to persuade them, so that those coming out followed one after another, and he sent the senior officials of the various counties back to their own seats to settle the people. Records, Wei 16 §84

When Liang Xing and the others gathered their remaining followers at Fucheng, the Grand Progenitor sent Xiahou Yuan to help the commandery attack them, and Zheng Hun led the officials and commoners in climbing the wall first and beheaded Liang Xing and his remaining followers. The Annals of Emperor Wu record that in the 17th year of Jian'an (212) Liang Xing and others, the remnants of Ma Chao's forces, were put down by Xiahou Yuan. Zheng Hun also defeated the bandit Jin Fu and others, who had abducted the Chief of Xiayang and the Prefect of Shaoling to Mount Ai, and recovered the senior officials of the two counties, and he sent stalwart men against Zhao Qinglong, who had killed the Left Intendant (zuo neishi) Cheng Xiu, to cut off his head and display it. In all more than four thousand households came over to him, the mountain bandits were all put down, and the people settled into their livelihoods. After this he was transferred to Administrator of Shangdang. Records, Wei 16 §85–86Records, Wei 1 §118

When the Grand Progenitor campaigned against Hanzhong, he made Zheng Hun Intendant of Jingzhao. For the newly gathered people Zheng Hun made a law for resettlement, grouping households with many able-bodied men with single, unencumbered households in units of five, and pairing the kind and trustworthy with the orphaned and the old, so that they worked hard at farming; and he made the prohibitions clear so as to expose wrongdoers. As a result the people settled into farming and robbery ceased. When the great army entered Hanzhong, he was foremost in transporting army provisions, and none of the people he sent to farm in Hanzhong ran away. The Grand Progenitor praised him all the more and brought him back as a clerk to the Chancellor. Records, Wei 16 §87–88

When Emperor Wen (Cao Pi) ascended the throne, Zheng Hun became Imperial Clerk with the additional title of Commandant of Escort Cavalry, and was transferred to Administrator of the two commanderies of Yangping and Pei. The commandery lands were low and damp and suffered from floods, and the people were hungry. When Zheng Hun intended to build dykes and weirs and open up paddies on the border between the two counties of Xiao and Xiang, the people of the commandery all said it was inconvenient, but Zheng Hun said that the land was low-lying and suited to irrigation, that it would in the end bring the lasting benefit of fish and rice, and that this was the root of enriching the people. Leading the officials and commoners in person, he completed the whole work in a single winter; there were great harvests for several years in a row, tax revenue doubled, and the people carved his praises in stone and called the works 'Zheng's Dyke'. Records, Wei 16 §88–89

When he was transferred to Administrator of Shanyang and of Wei Commandery, he governed in the same way. When the people of the commandery suffered from a shortage of timber, he had them plant elms as hedges and also plant the five kinds of fruit trees; the elms all grew into hedges and the fruit bore abundantly. On entering the borders of Wei Commandery one found the villages uniformly neat, and the people had ample means and plenty to use. Emperor Ming (Cao Rui), hearing of this, issued an edict praising him and proclaiming it throughout the realm, and transferred him to Court Architect. Records, Wei 16 §89–90

Zheng Hun carried out his public duties with integrity and simplicity, so that his wife and children could not escape hunger and cold. When he died, his son Zheng Chong was made Gentleman of the Palace. Records, Wei 16 §90

In his assessment, Chen Shou said of Zheng Hun and Cang Ci that they had the right methods in caring for and governing the people, and wrote that they, together with Ren Jun, Su Ze and Du Ji, were surely all famous administrators of the Wei era. Records, Wei 16 §98