Gao Rou 高柔

Gao Rou, courtesy name Wenhui, was a native of Yu County in Chenliu Commandery. His father Gao Jing was Chief Commandant of Shu Commandery. Gao Rou, who had stayed in his home district, proposed that they flee, saying that since Lord Zhang (Zhang Miao) had first realized his ambitions in Chenliu, he feared upheaval would break out, but people did not think him right, saying that Zhang Miao was on good terms with Taizu (Cao Cao) and that Gao Rou was young. When his cousin Gao Gan, a nephew of Yuan Shao on his sister's side, called him from Hebei, Gao Rou followed him with his whole clan, and when Gao Jing died in the western province, he braved the perilous roads to go to Shu and bring back the coffin, returning after three years. Records, Wei 24 §23–25

When Taizu pacified the Yuan family, he made Gao Rou Chief of Guan County, and Gao Rou recalled the crooked clerks who had withdrawn on their own on hearing his name, and they all became good clerks. When Gao Gan, having surrendered, rebelled with Bing Province, Gao Rou submitted to Taizu of his own accord. Taizu, intending to find a pretext to kill him, made him Clerk for Investigating Wrongdoing, but because Gao Rou handled the law fairly and let no cases linger, he summoned him as Assistant of the Granary Section under the Chancellor. When Taizu was about to send Zhong Yao and others to attack Zhang Lu, Gao Rou remonstrated that Han Sui and Ma Chao in the west would rebel, and when Zhong Yao entered Guanzhong, Han Sui and Ma Chao did indeed rebel. When the state of Wei was first established he became Gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat, and was transferred to Officer of the Justice Section under the Chancellor. Records, Wei 24 §26–28

When the musician Song Jin and others deserted at Hefei, Taizu made even heavier the punishment of killing the wives and children of soldiers who deserted on campaign, and the official in charge proposed killing Song Jin's mother, wife and two younger brothers. Gao Rou memorialized that pardoning the wives and children would make the enemy distrust deserters and draw them to wish to return, whereas making the punishment ever heavier would only increase the number who fled. Taizu said, 'Good,' and stopped the killing, and very many people were saved thereby. Records, Wei 24 §28–30

He went out as Administrator of Yingchuan, returned, and became Officer of the Law Section. When Taizu set up the inspectors Lu Hong, Zhao Da and others to watch over his subjects, Gao Rou remonstrated that this was not the way for those above to trust those below, and that Zhao Da and the others wielded their power according to their likes and dislikes. Taizu did not listen, saying that worthy gentlemen could not be made to do this work, but later, when the crooked profiteering of Zhao Da and the others came to light, he killed them and apologized to Gao Rou. Records, Wei 24 §31–32

When Emperor Wen (Cao Pi) took the throne, Gao Rou became Attendant Secretary Who Handles Documents, was granted the rank of Marquis Within the Passes, and was transferred to Legal Enforcer of Documents. Regarding the law that killed those who spoke seditious words and rewarded their denouncers, Gao Rou asked for its abolition, saying it would open the way to a habit of false accusation; Emperor Wen did not follow at once, but when false accusations grew worse, he issued an edict that anyone who denounced slander should be punished with the crime he had denounced. When the inspector Liu Ci and others exposed wicked crimes numbering in the tens of thousands within a few years, Gao Rou asked that all be examined for truth or falsehood. In the 4th year of Huangchu (223) he was transferred to Commandant of Justice. Records, Wei 24 §33–35

Gao Rou, pointing out that the Three Excellencies took no part in government, asked that doubtful deliberations and major matters of punishment be frequently referred to them, and his request was accepted. When Emperor Wen, out of an old grudge, sought to bend the law to kill the Legal Enforcer of Documents Bao Xun, Gao Rou held firm and did not obey the edict. Emperor Wen summoned Gao Rou to the Secretariat and kept him there, sent an envoy to the Commandant of Justice's office to torture Bao Xun to death, and only then sent Gao Rou back. The biography of Bao Xun records that the acting Commandant of Justice Gao Rou, together with Zhong Yao, Hua Xin, Chen Qun and others, asked that Bao Xun's crime be pardoned. Records, Wei 24 §36–38Records, Wei 12 §75

When Emperor Ming (Cao Rui) took the throne, Gao Rou was enfeoffed as Marquis of Yanshou Village. When Emperor Ming built palaces on a grand scale and filled the harem, and imperial sons died young one after another, Gao Rou submitted a memorial proposing that once the construction was roughly finished the laborers be sent back to farming, and that the remaining women of the harem be sent home. Emperor Ming replied, 'I know that you are loyal and sincere, that your heart is with the royal house, and that you always offer upright words.' Records, Wei 24 §39 · 42–45

When Liu Gui, Agricultural Commandant of Yiyang, shot a rabbit in the forbidden park and was handed over to prison, Gao Rou asked that the name of the accuser be disclosed. Emperor Ming was enraged, but Gao Rou memorialized again and again that the Commandant of Justice was the post that upheld fairness for the realm and that the law could not be destroyed by the joy and anger of the sovereign, and Emperor Ming came to understand, disclosed the name of the accuser, Zhang Jing, and had each punished according to his crime. For Xie Hong, too, who, while mourning his father, was ordered to military duty, declined on grounds of illness and was arrested, Gao Rou explained the circumstances and obtained his pardon. Records, Wei 24 §46–48

Gao Rou asked for the abolition of the hunting ban, saying that because of the deer of the forbidden lands the area of several hundred li around Xingyang had gone almost without a harvest for a year. When Dou Li, a soldier of the camp of the Protector of the Army, failed to return and was branded a deserter, and his wife Ying and their children were made government slaves, Gao Rou questioned Ying and learned that Dou Li had lent money to Jiao Ziwen of the same camp. When he pressed Jiao Ziwen, Jiao confessed to having killed Dou Li and where he had buried him, and Ying and her children were restored to commoner status. Records, Wei 24 §51–56

After 23 years as Commandant of Justice he was transferred to Minister of Ceremonies, became Minister of Works ten days later in the 6th year of Zhengshi (245), and moved to Minister over the Masses in the 9th year of Zhengshi (248). In the 1st month of the 1st year of Jiaping (249), when the Grand Tutor Sima Xuanwang (Sima Yi) memorialized to dismiss Cao Shuang, the Empress Dowager summoned Gao Rou by edict, granted him the tally of authority, and had him act as General-in-Chief and take charge of Cao Shuang's camp. The Grand Tutor said to Gao Rou, 'You have become a Zhou Bo.' When Cao Shuang was executed, Gao Rou was promoted in enfeoffment to Marquis of Wansui District. Records, Wei 24 §57Records, Wei 4 §17 · 27–28

In the 6th year of Jiaping (254), when Cao Fang, Prince of Qi, was deposed, Gao Rou, as concurrent Grand Commandant, carried the written charge and announced it at the ancestral temple. When the Duke of Gaogui Village (Cao Mao) took the throne, Gao Rou was promoted in enfeoffment to Marquis of Anguo, and in the 1st year of Ganlu (256) he was transferred to Grand Commandant. When the Duke of Changdao Village (Cao Huan) took the throne, his fief reached 4,000 households in all, and two of his sons were enfeoffed as village marquises. He died in the 9th month of the 4th year of Jingyuan (263) at the age of ninety and was given the posthumous name Marquis Yuan, and his grandson Gao Hun succeeded him. Records, Wei 4 §44–45 · 77 · 126Records, Wei 24 §57–58

In his assessment, Chen Shou said that Gao Rou was clear in the principles of law and, together with Han Ji, Cui Lin, Sun Li and Wang Guan, all reached the rank of the highest ministers, but that Gao Rou's holding office for twenty years and remaining in his post to the end as an elder statesman was a blemish compared with Xu Miao and Chang Lin. Records, Wei 24 §81