Cheng Ji 程畿

Cheng Ji, courtesy name Jiran, was a man of Langzhong County in Baxi Commandery. The Records has no separate biography of him. He was included in the Encomia on the Supporting Ministers of Ji Han that Yang Xi wrote in the 4th year of Yanxi (241), and for those who were included in the encomia but for whom he wrote no biography, Chen Shou recorded their lives from beginning to end as notes beneath the encomia. Records, Shu 15 §33 · 76

Under Liu Zhang he became Chief of Hanchang County. The county had Cong people, and Chen Shou wrote that their tribe was staunch and fierce, and that Gaozu had long ago used them to pacify Guanzhong. Pang Xi, the Administrator of Baxi, gathered a fair number of private troops, saying that since the realm was in turmoil the commandery needed armed defenses. Records, Shu 15 §76

When someone slandered Pang Xi to Liu Zhang, saying that he was plotting rebellion, Liu Zhang secretly suspected him. Hearing of this, Pang Xi was greatly afraid and meant to plan for his own defense; he sent Cheng Ji's son Cheng Yu to convey his wishes and ask for troops to aid him. Cheng Ji replied that the commandery had gathered private troops not with the original aim of rebelling, so that even if someone was sowing discord, what mattered was to be wholly sincere, and that harboring disloyal intentions out of fear was a principle he had never heard of. He then told Cheng Yu that he himself had received the province's favor and must give his integrity to the Governor, and that Cheng Yu, as an officer of the commandery, must exert himself for the Administrator, but must not harbor disloyal intentions on his father's account. Records, Shu 15 §77

When Pang Xi sent someone to say that Cheng Ji's son was in the commandery and that if he did not follow the Administrator, disaster would fall on his family, Cheng Ji replied that when Yue Yang of old, as a general, drank a soup made of his own son, it was not because there was no affection between father and son but because the great principle demanded it, and that even if his son were now made into soup he would surely drink it. Knowing that Cheng Ji would never take his side, Pang Xi apologized profusely to Liu Zhang and escaped blame. Hearing of this, Liu Zhang transferred Cheng Ji to Administrator of Jiangyang. Records, Shu 15 §78

When Liu Bei took on the post of Governor of Yi Province, he summoned Cheng Ji and made him Libationer Attendant Officer. Later Cheng Ji followed Liu Bei on the campaign against Wu, and when the main army was defeated they had to return upriver. When someone said that the pursuing enemy had already arrived and that only by casting off the boat and leaving lightly could he escape disaster, Cheng Ji said, 'I have never fled before the enemy while with the army, still less now that I have met with danger while following the Son of Heaven.' When the pursuers reached Cheng Ji's boat, he took up a halberd himself and fought, and some of the enemy boats capsized. When the enemy came in great numbers and attacked together, he finally died. Records, Shu 15 §78–79

The Biography of the First Sovereign records that on this campaign, in the 6th month of the 2nd year of Zhangwu (222), Lu Yi (Lu Xun) crushed Liu Bei's army at Xiaoting, and that Liu Bei returned to Zigui, gathered his scattered troops, then abandoned his boats and returned to Yufu by land. Chen Shou's main text does not state where Cheng Ji died. Records, Shu 2 §71Records, Shu 15 §79

Yang Xi's encomium said of Cheng Ji: 'The Administrator of Jiangyang was staunch and upright and established his integrity under an enlightened ruler. When the armies met and he faced the enemy, he did not bend himself; a lone man holding to a single duty, he lost his life in the army.' His son Cheng Qi (程祁, courtesy name Gonghong) was also included in the encomia, which lamented that he died young at twenty without displaying his talents. In his youth Yang Xi, who became known together with this Cheng Qi, always put him forward as the foremost among them. Chen Shou's assessment in volume 15 discusses only Deng Zhi, Zhang Yi, Zong Yu and Yang Xi and does not deal with Cheng Ji (程畿). Records, Shu 15 §76 · 80 · 27 · 85