| Occupation | RNOfficial · Chief Clerk to the Chancellor | Faction | Shu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appears | RN | Biography in | Book of Shu |
| Born | Native place | Xiangyang Commandery | |
| Died | Place of death | RHanjia Commandery | |
| Cause of death | RSuicide NSuicide Unverified | ||
| Existence | Historical | Mentions | R23 |
Yang Yi, courtesy name Weigong, was a native of Xiangyang. While serving as Officer of Merit to Guan Yu he won Liu Bei's recognition on a mission and rose to Master of Writing, and in Zhuge Liang's Chancellor's office he served as Army Adviser and Chief Clerk, taking charge of the disposition of units and the provisions on every campaign. Records, Shu 10 §67–68
After Zhuge Liang died in the 12th year of Jianxing (234), Yang Yi led the army back while he and Wei Yan accused each other of rebellion, and he sent Ma Dai to behead the fleeing Wei Yan. But power passed to Jiang Wan, and when he himself was made Central Military Adviser with no troops under his command, he openly showed his resentment. The following year he was deposed to the status of a commoner and moved to Hanjia Commandery, and when he submitted slanderous writings again and was arrested, he killed himself. Records, Shu 10 §63–64 · 69–72Records, Shu 3 §16
In his assessment, Chen Shou wrote that he gained renown in office but that the calamity he invited came from himself. In the Romance he first appears in Chapter 91 in the roster for the northern expedition and appears in 9 of its 120 chapters; as the title of Chapter 105, 'Marquis Wu Hides the Brocade-Bag Plan in Advance', suggests, he deals with Wei Yan by means of the brocade bag Zhuge Liang left behind. Records, Shu 10 §74Romance, Ch. 91 §42Romance, Ch. 104 §5Romance, Ch. 105 §19–21
Yang Yi, courtesy name Weigong, was a native of Xiangyang. During the Jian'an era he became Registrar to Fu Qun, Inspector of Jing Province, but he turned his back on Fu Qun and went over to Guan Yu, Administrator of Xiangyang. Guan Yu made him Officer of Merit and sent him west as an envoy to Liu Bei. Liu Bei discussed with him plans for military and state affairs and the merits and failings of government, and was so delighted that he summoned him as Officer of the Bureau of Military Affairs under the General of the Left; when Liu Bei became King of Hanzhong, he promoted Yang Yi to Master of Writing. Records, Shu 10 §67
When Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor and marched east against Wu, Yang Yi was on bad terms with the Director of the Imperial Secretariat, Liu Ba, and was demoted, being appointed in absentia as Administrator of Hongnong. In the 3rd year of Jianxing (225) the Chancellor Zhuge Liang made him Army Adviser and put him in charge of the affairs of the Chancellor's office; Zhuge Liang was then about to go south. In the 5th year of Jianxing (227) he followed Zhuge Liang to Hanzhong, and in the 8th year of Jianxing (230) he was transferred to Chief Clerk with the added title of General Who Pacifies the Army. Records, Shu 10 §68
Each time Zhuge Liang took the field, Yang Yi planned the disposition of units and calculated the provisions, accomplishing it in a moment without long deliberation. The procedures and direction of the army were left to Yang Yi to handle. Zhuge Liang deeply valued Yang Yi's ability and relied on Wei Yan's valor, so although he always regretted that the two could not get along, he could not bring himself to cast either aside. Records, Shu 10 §68–69
People of the time all avoided the arrogant Wei Yan and deferred to him, but Yang Yi alone gave Wei Yan no ground at all, and the two were like water and fire. Whenever they sat together they quarreled, and when Wei Yan sometimes raised his sword at Yang Yi, Yang Yi wept streams of tears. Each time Fei Yi stepped in between them, admonishing and separating them, so that as long as Zhuge Liang lived he was able to use both men. Records, Shu 10 §59Records, Shu 14 §24
In the 12th year of Jianxing (234) Yang Yi followed Zhuge Liang out to encamp at Gukou. In the autumn, when his illness became critical, Zhuge Liang secretly settled with the Chief Clerk Yang Yi, the Marshal Fei Yi, the Protector of the Army Jiang Wei and others the procedure for withdrawing the army after his death: Wei Yan was to cover the rear with Jiang Wei next, and if Wei Yan did not obey, the army was simply to leave. When Zhuge Liang died in the 8th month, Yang Yi kept the death secret and sent Fei Yi to sound out Wei Yan's intentions. Wei Yan said that the men of the Chancellor's office could escort the coffin home, while he would lead the armies to attack the enemy; how could he be put under Yang Yi's command as a rearguard general? Records, Shu 10 §69 · 61–62Records, Shu 3 §15
When Yang Yi and the others sent the various camps back one after another according to the plan Zhuge Liang had laid down, Wei Yan was furious and, before Yang Yi had set out, went south ahead of him, burning and cutting the plank roads wherever he passed. Wei Yan and Yang Yi each memorialized that the other had rebelled, and urgent dispatches arrived one after another within a single day; when the Later Sovereign, Liu Shan, asked Dong Yun and Jiang Wan, both vouched for Yang Yi and suspected Wei Yan. Yang Yi and the others cut trees on the mountains to open a road and marched day and night following behind Wei Yan, and when Wei Yan seized the mouth of the Southern Valley and attacked them, they put He Ping (Wang Ping) in front to hold him off. Records, Shu 10 §62–63
At He Ping's rebuke Wei Yan's soldiers scattered, and Wei Yan fled to Hanzhong with a few of his sons. Yang Yi sent Ma Dai to pursue and behead him, and when Ma Dai presented the head, Yang Yi rose and trampled on it himself, saying, "Wretch! Can you do evil again?" Wei Yan's three sets of kin were exterminated, and Yang Yi led the armies back to Chengdu. Records, Shu 10 §64Records, Shu 3 §15
Yang Yi believed that, having brought the army back and also put down Wei Yan, his merit was very great and he ought to take charge of the government in Zhuge Liang's place. He summoned the Commandant Zhao Zheng to divine by the Book of Changes, and when the hexagram Jiaren (The Family) came up, he fell silent and was displeased. But during his lifetime Zhuge Liang had judged Yang Yi narrow-minded and impatient and had privately had Jiang Wan in mind, so Jiang Wan became Director of the Imperial Secretariat and Inspector of Yi Province. Yang Yi was appointed Central Military Adviser, but had nothing under his command and merely passed his time idly. Records, Shu 10 §69–70
Earlier, when Yang Yi was Master of Writing under Liu Bei, Jiang Wan had been a Gentleman of the Masters of Writing. Later both became the Chancellor's Army Adviser and Chief Clerk, but Yang Yi always accompanied the campaigns and bore the heavy work. Considering himself ahead of Jiang Wan in age and official seniority and superior in ability, he let his resentment and anger show in his voice and face. People feared his unrestrained words and dared not go near him; only Fei Yi, Military Adviser of the Rear, went to console him. Yang Yi told Fei Yi, "When the Chancellor died, had I taken the army over to the Wei, I would not have fallen so low as this," and said that now it was too late to undo, however much he regretted it. Records, Shu 10 §71–72
Fei Yi secretly reported his words in a memorial. In the 1st month of the 13th year of Jianxing (235), Yang Yi was deposed to the status of a commoner and moved to Hanjia Commandery. On reaching the place of exile Yang Yi again submitted a letter of slander, and as its language was vehement, an order was at last sent down to the commandery to arrest him. Yang Yi killed himself, and his wife and children returned to Shu. The Records do not separately state the year of his death. Records, Shu 10 §72Records, Shu 3 §16
In his assessment, Chen Shou said that Yang Yi gained renown in office and, together with the other figures in this volume, was held in high esteem, but that when one examines his conduct, the calamity he invited and the blame he incurred all came from himself. Yang Xi's Eulogies of the Supporting Officials of Ji Han said that he was quick-tempered and narrow, unlike other men; when at ease he kept to reason, but when pressed he harmed and encroached upon others, abandoning compliance and entering into ill fortune. Records, Shu 10 §74Records, Shu 15 §62
In Chapter 91 of the Romance, when Zhuge Liang appoints his commanders and officials before setting out on campaign, Yang Yi's name first appears as 'Acting Chief Clerk and General Who Pacifies the Army, Yang Yi'. In Chapter 95, when Zhuge Liang says that Jieting, held by Ma Su, is in danger, he volunteers to relieve Ma Su and bring him back and is taught the method of pitching camp point by point, but at the very moment he is about to leave, word comes that both Jieting and Lieliu City have been lost. In Chapter 97 he carries Zhuge Liang's second memorial on taking the field to Chengdu and presents it to the Later Sovereign, Liu Shan. Romance, Ch. 91 §42Romance, Ch. 95 §36–37Romance, Ch. 97 §8
Thereafter, as Chief Clerk, he questions and advises Zhuge Liang. In Chapter 98 he asks why they are withdrawing the troops after a great victory. In Chapter 100, when Zhuge Liang is about to behead Gou An for bringing provisions ten days late, he dissuades him, saying that Gou An is Li Yan's man and that most of the provisions come from Xichuan, so that if he is killed no one will send provisions, and the punishment is reduced to eighty strokes of the rod. In the same chapter, when Zhuge Liang orders a withdrawal while increasing the cooking stoves each day, he asks why they are increasing the stoves when Sun Bin won by reducing them. Romance, Ch. 98 §17Romance, Ch. 100 §45–46 · 50
In Chapter 101 he proposes dividing the troops into two groups that relieve each other every three months, and when the Wei army surges forward on the day of relief, he asks that the troops due to go home be kept for a while, but Zhuge Liang refuses, saying he cannot break faith. Then, together with Ma Zhong, he leads 10,000 crossbowmen to lie in ambush on the Mumen Road at Jiange. In Chapter 102, when he reports that the provisions are difficult to transport, Zhuge Liang produces the wooden oxen and gliding horses. Romance, Ch. 101 §4 · 33–34 · 40Romance, Ch. 102 §42
In Chapter 104, the gravely ill Zhuge Liang gives Yang Yi a brocade bag, charging him to open it when he faces Wei Yan before the battle lines, for Wei Yan will surely turn traitor. He also names commanders who can be entrusted with tasks, such as Wang Ping and Liao Hua, and instructs him not to announce the death and, if Sima Yi pursues, to seat a carved wooden image of him in a carriage and send it out. Yang Yi bows in tears and receives the orders. Romance, Ch. 104 §5 · 8–9 · 11–12
When Zhuge Liang dies, Yang Yi and Jiang Wei lay out the body as he had instructed and convey to Wei Yan the order to cover the rear. Hearing from Fei Yi that Wei Yan has said he cannot cover the rear for the sake of a mere Chief Clerk, Yang Yi says that sending the military tally was meant to sound out his true intentions, sets out first himself escorting the coffin, and has Jiang Wei cover the rear. In Chapter 105, when Wei Yan burns the plank roads and blocks the way, the two submit memorials one after another accusing each other of treason, and Yang Yi goes around behind the Southern Valley and sends He Ping ahead as the vanguard. Romance, Ch. 104 §20 · 26–28Romance, Ch. 105 §1 · 11–12
Opening the brocade bag before the city of Nanzheng, Yang Yi tells Wei Yan that if he cries out 'Who dares to kill me?' three times, he will hand over Hanzhong, and the instant Wei Yan shouts it, Ma Dai, behind him, cuts him down. When Yang Yi returns to Chengdu, binds himself and asks to be punished, the Later Sovereign has his bonds loosed and adds the post of Central Military Adviser. Romance, Ch. 105 §17–21 · 25
When Jiang Wan becomes Chancellor and General-in-Chief in accordance with Zhuge Liang's last instructions, Yang Yi complains that he has been placed beneath Jiang Wan despite his seniority in age and office and has received no great reward, and he grumbles to Fei Yi that had he led the whole army to surrender to Wei when the Chancellor died, he would not be so neglected. When Fei Yi secretly reports this, the Later Sovereign is enraged, has him thrown into prison and means to behead him, but Jiang Wan, citing his services, asks that he be made a commoner, and he is banished to Hanjia Commandery. Yang Yi, in shame, cuts his own throat and dies. Romance, Ch. 105 §32–34
First appearance: The Romance first lists him in Chapter 91 in the roster for the northern expedition as 'Acting Chief Clerk and General Who Pacifies the Army'. In the Records he was Registrar to Fu Qun, Inspector of Jing Province, before becoming Guan Yu's Officer of Merit; under Liu Bei he served as Officer of the Bureau of Military Affairs under the General of the Left and as Master of Writing, and he was also demoted to Administrator of Hongnong because of his bad relations with the Director of the Imperial Secretariat, Liu Ba. This earlier career does not appear in the Romance. Romance, Ch. 91 §42Records, Shu 10 §67–68
Timing of his posts: In Chapter 91 of the Romance he is already Chief Clerk and General Who Pacifies the Army when Zhuge Liang first sets out. In the Records he became Army Adviser and took charge of the affairs of the Chancellor's office in the 3rd year of Jianxing (225), and it was in the 8th year of Jianxing (230) that he was transferred to Chief Clerk with the added title of General Who Pacifies the Army. Romance, Ch. 91 §42Records, Shu 10 §68
Jieting: In Chapter 95 of the Romance, Yang Yi volunteers to relieve Ma Su and hold Jieting. This episode is not in the Biography of Yang Yi in the Records. Romance, Ch. 95 §37Records, Shu 10 §66–72
The Chief Clerk's proposals: His plea in Chapter 100 of the Romance to spare Gou An, and his proposal in Chapter 101 for a three-month rotation and his request to hold back the troops due for relief, are not in the Biography of Yang Yi in the Records. The Records state that on every campaign Yang Yi planned the disposition of units and calculated the provisions, accomplishing it in a moment. Romance, Ch. 100 §46Romance, Ch. 101 §4 · 34Records, Shu 10 §66–72
Zhuge Liang's charge: In Chapter 104 of the Romance, Zhuge Liang secretly tells Yang Yi that Wei Yan will surely turn traitor and leaves him a brocade bag. In the Records, Zhuge Liang merely settled the procedure for withdrawing the army with Yang Yi, Fei Yi, Jiang Wei and others, saying that if Wei Yan did not obey, the army should simply leave. Romance, Ch. 104 §5 · 28Records, Shu 10 §61
Wei Yan's end: In Chapter 105 of the Romance, Yang Yi, following the plan in the brocade bag, has Wei Yan cry out 'Who dares to kill me?' before the city of Nanzheng, and Ma Dai, lying in wait, cuts him down. In the Records, Wei Yan's soldiers scattered at He Ping's rebuke, and when Wei Yan fled to Hanzhong, Yang Yi sent Ma Dai to pursue and behead him, and Yang Yi trampled on the head when it was presented. Romance, Ch. 105 §19–21Records, Shu 10 §64
Treatment after the return: In Chapter 105 of the Romance, when Yang Yi binds himself and asks to be punished, the Later Sovereign, Liu Shan, praises his merit and adds the post of Central Military Adviser. In the Records, Yang Yi believed he should take charge of the government in Zhuge Liang's place, but because Zhuge Liang had had Jiang Wan in mind during his lifetime, Jiang Wan became Director of the Imperial Secretariat and Inspector of Yi Province, and Yang Yi was left as Central Military Adviser with nothing under his command. Romance, Ch. 105 §25Records, Shu 10 §69–70
How he was deposed: In Chapter 105 of the Romance, the Later Sovereign, hearing his resentful words, is enraged and means to behead Yang Yi, and Jiang Wan, citing his services, dissuades him and has him made a commoner. The Records state only that after Fei Yi secretly reported his words in a memorial, he was deposed to the status of a commoner in the 13th year of Jianxing (235) and moved to Hanjia Commandery; neither the Later Sovereign's anger nor Jiang Wan's remonstrance appears. Romance, Ch. 105 §33–34Records, Shu 10 §72Records, Shu 3 §16
Death: In Chapter 105 of the Romance, Yang Yi, banished to Hanjia Commandery, cuts his own throat in shame. In the Records, on reaching the place of exile he again submitted a letter of slander, and when, because its language was vehement, the commandery was ordered to arrest him, he killed himself. Romance, Ch. 105 §34Records, Shu 10 §72
Written by 3KDEX (not yet reviewed) — The tags at the end of each paragraph link to the exact passage in the Records volume or Romance chapter it is based on.
The Records score (Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms, main text) is the baseline. Each ability compares how the Romance redrew the same person, and the evidence from both sources explains the difference.
RTurned his back on his superior Fu Qun; trampled Wei Yan's head and exterminated his three sets of kinShu 10 §67Shu 10 §64Shu 10 §71
NReceived the last orders in tears, but later complained that he should have surrendered to WeiCh. 104 §9Ch. 105 §33
RNarrow-minded and impatient, so people feared him and kept awayShu 10 §70
NNo direct record — estimated from his conductCh. 105 §33
RWorked out unit dispositions and provisions in a moment; Zhuge Liang valued his abilityShu 10 §68Shu 10 §74
NSaw to the transport of provisions and the rotation schedule; praised as quick and capableCh. 102 §42Ch. 101 §33Ch. 105 §10
RAs Guan Yu's envoy, discussed military and state plans with the First Sovereign and greatly pleased himShu 10 §67
NNo direct record — only delivering the memorial on taking the fieldCh. 97 §8
RDeposed to commoner for showing resentment, killed himself after slandering again; the assessment: the calamity came from himselfShu 10 §71Shu 10 §74
NBanished as a commoner for voicing resentment, and took his own lifeCh. 105 §33
RLed the army back after Zhuge Liang's death and put down Wei YanShu 10 §61Shu 10 §63
NWithdrew slowly as instructed in the last orders, eliminated Wei Yan and brought back the coffinCh. 104 §28Ch. 105 §12Ch. 105 §25
RNo direct record — estimated from his career as a civil officialShu 10 §68
NNo direct record — estimated as a man of lettersCh. 105 §7
RNo direct record — estimated from his duty of planning troop dispositionsShu 10 §68
NSounded out Wei Yan's true intentions with the military tally; warned of the harm of executing Gou AnCh. 104 §28Ch. 100 §46
RNo direct record — estimated from his career as a civil officialShu 10 §69
NNo direct record — estimated from the record calling him a man of lettersCh. 105 §7
RNo direct record — only his discord with Liu BaShu 10 §68
NNo direct record — estimated from his conductCh. 95 §37
Records Romance Unverified No direct record; scored from their actions (evidence grade C)
3KDEX scoring — the Records use the main text of Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms; the Romance uses the 120-chapter Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Click a source tag to open that passage in the reader.
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