Xu Zhi 許芝

In Chapter 69 of the Romance, Cao Cao sees corpses all rising up in a black wind, falls ill from shock, and does not recover even with medicine. Just then Xu Zhi, Assistant to the Grand Astrologer, comes from Xuchang to see Cao Cao, and Cao Cao has him divine by the Changes. Xu Zhi asks whether the great king has heard of the marvelous diviner Guan Lu, and when Cao Cao says he has heard the name often but does not know his arts, Xu Zhi tells him about Guan Lu in detail. Romance, Ch. 69 §1–3

The Guan Lu that Xu Zhi describes, courtesy name Gongming, was a man of Pingyuan, rough and ugly in appearance and fond of wine, who from childhood loved to gaze up at the stars. He expounded the principles of the Changes from dawn to dusk before Shan Zichun, Administrator of Langya, and was called a divine prodigy; he identified the lameness afflicting Guo En and his brothers, three in all, as the vengeance of a female ghost in the family tomb; and he said that the wife and son of the Prefect of Xindu were ill because two corpses lay at the western corner of the house, and when the place was dug up, two coffins were indeed found. Romance, Ch. 69 §3–8

Xu Zhi goes on to tell how Guan Lu correctly guessed the swallow's eggs, wasps' nest and spider that Zhuge Yuan, on his transfer to Administrator of Xinxing, had hidden in three boxes, and the seal pouch and pheasant feathers hidden by the Administrator Liu Bin; and how, for the nineteen-year-old Zhao Yan, who had the aura of death between his eyebrows and would die within three days, he had him offer wine and dried meat to two men playing go on the Southern Mountain and beg for longer life, whereupon the two men changed nineteen to ninety-nine. He then advises that Guan Lu, fearing to divulge the secrets of Heaven, no longer divines lightly, but is now in Pingyuan, and that if Cao Cao wishes to know good and ill fortune he should summon him. Romance, Ch. 69 §8–17

Cao Cao is greatly pleased and at once sends a messenger to Pingyuan to summon Guan Lu. Guan Lu says that Cao Cao's illness was caused only by an illusion and there is nothing to worry about, and Cao Cao, set at ease, gradually recovers. Romance, Ch. 69 §17–18

In Chapter 79, when reports come in that around the 8th month of that year a phoenix has come dancing at Shiyi County, a qilin has appeared at the city of Linzi, and a yellow dragon has appeared in Ye Commandery, Li Fu (李伏), General of the Household, and Xu Zhi, Assistant to the Grand Astrologer, propose that since these various auspicious omens are signs that Wei will replace Han, the rites for receiving the abdication should be prepared. Then, together with more than forty civil and military officials including Hua Xin, Wang Lang, Xin Pi, Jia Xu, Liu Yi, Liu Ye, Chen Jiao, Chen Qun and Huan Jie, they go straight into the inner palace and ask Emperor Xian to yield the throne to Cao Pi, King of Wei. Romance, Ch. 79 §39

In Chapter 80, when Emperor Xian says he cannot bear to abandon the great heritage of his ancestors and tells them to deliberate again, Hua Xin brings Li Fu and Xu Zhi forward and says that if His Majesty does not believe it, he should ask these two men. After Li Fu lists the auspicious omens, Xu Zhi reports that, as it is his office to watch the heavens, he observed the celestial signs at night and saw that Han's allotted fortune is already exhausted, that His Majesty's imperial star is hidden and dim, and that the celestial signs of Wei stretch from the ends of heaven to the ends of earth. He then interprets the words of the prophetic text as the three characters Wei (魏), Xu (許) and Chang (昌), meaning that Wei must receive Han's abdication at Xuchang, and urges him to abdicate soon. Emperor Xian dismisses them, saying that auspicious omens and prophecies are all baseless things. Romance, Ch. 80 §2–5