Cang Ci 倉慈

Cang Ci, courtesy name Xiaoren, was a man of Huainan. He was at first a commandery clerk. In the Jian'an era, when Taizu began recruiting settlers for agricultural colonies in Huainan, he made Cang Ci Commandant for Gathering and Settling. At the end of the Huangchu era Cang Ci became Prefect of Chang'an; he was incorruptible, frugal and methodical, so that the officials and people both feared and loved him. Records, Wei 16 §92

In the Taihe era he was transferred to be Administrator of Dunhuang. Dunhuang Commandery lay on the western frontier and had been cut off by the upheavals, going without an administrator for twenty years, so that the overbearing ways of the great clans had at last become the custom. Earlier administrators such as Yin Feng had merely followed old practice and corrected or reformed nothing. Records, Wei 16 §92–93

On arriving, Cang Ci suppressed the powerful clans and comforted the poor and weak, governing very much according to reason. Formerly the great clans had more land than they needed, while the poor people had not even enough ground to stand an awl in; Cang Ci distributed land to all according to the number of mouths in each household and had them gradually pay its original price in full. Records, Wei 16 §93

Before this, lawsuits in the subordinate counties had been numerous and complicated, and as the counties could not settle them, most were sent up to the commandery seat. Cang Ci went in person to examine them, sorted out the light from the serious, and, unless the crime merited death, merely had the offender whipped or caned and sent home. In a single year fewer than ten people were sentenced. Records, Wei 16 §93

Usually, when the various Hu of the Western Regions wished to come and offer tribute, the powerful clans mostly blocked and cut them off, and in trade too they cheated and insulted them, so that dealings were often unfair, and the Hu constantly harbored resentment. Cang Ci comforted them all. For those who wished to go to Luoyang he sealed and issued travel passes, and for those who wished to return home from the commandery the government bought their goods at fair prices; he often had them trade using goods held in the commandery offices, and had officials and people escort them on the road. Because of this, Chinese and foreigners alike praised his virtue and kindness. Records, Wei 16 §94

Several years later Cang Ci died in office. The officials and people grieved as if they had lost a kinsman, and painted his likeness to cherish the image he had left behind. When the various Hu of the Western Regions heard of Cang Ci's death, they all gathered below the offices of the Wuji Colonel and the senior officials to mourn him; some slashed their faces with knives to show their sincerity in blood, and they also built a shrine and sacrificed to him together from afar. Chen Shou's main text does not record the year of his death. Records, Wei 16 §95

In his assessment, after judging Ren Jun, Su Ze and Du Ji in turn, Chen Shou said that Zheng Hun and Cang Ci had sound methods in caring for and governing the people, and asked whether they were not all renowned administrators of the Wei era. Records, Wei 16 §98