Du Qiong 杜瓊

Du Qiong, courtesy name Boyu, was a man of Chengdu County in Shu Commandery. In his youth he studied under Ren An and researched Ren An's arts in depth. Under Liu Zhang he was summoned to be an Attendant Officer, and when Liu Bei pacified Yi Province and took the post of its Governor, he made Du Qiong Attendant Officer for Deliberation. He Zong, also of Shu Commandery, had likewise studied under Ren An and so shared a teacher with Du Qiong, and Chen Shou wrote that He Zong's reputation was higher than Du Qiong's. Records, Shu 12 §18Records, Shu 15 §52

In the 25th year of Jian'an (220), when Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor and word spread that the Han emperor had been killed, reports of auspicious omens came in from many places one after another. Thereupon the Consultant Liu Bao, the Marquis of Qingyi Xiang Ju, the Lieutenant Generals Zhang Yi (張裔) and Huang Quan, the Headquarters Attendant Officer Yang Hong, the Libationer Attendant Officer He Zong, the Attendant Officer for Deliberation Du Qiong, and the Attendant Officers for Encouraging Learning Zhang Shuang, Yin Mo and Qiao Zhou, among others, submitted a document that cited the River Chart, the Luo Writing and the prophetic and apocryphal texts of the Five Classics, asking Liu Bei to ascend the imperial throne. Records, Shu 2 §55–56

When the Later Sovereign, Liu Shan, took the throne, Du Qiong was appointed Grandee Remonstrant and was transferred to General of the Household of the Left, Grand Herald and Minister of Ceremonies. He was quiet by nature and spoke little, and he kept his gate closed, guarding himself and taking no part in worldly affairs. Jiang Wan, Fei Yi and others all held him in high regard. Records, Shu 12 §18

In the 8th month of the 12th year of Jianxing (234), when Zhuge Liang died in camp, the Later Sovereign issued an edict sending Du Qiong, General of the Household of the Left bearing the Staff of Authority, to confer on Zhuge Liang posthumously the seal and ribbon of Chancellor and Marquis of Wuxiang and to give him the posthumous name Marquis Zhongwu. Records, Shu 5 §38–40

Although Du Qiong's learning had gone deep, he never looked at the heavens to offer views on them. When Qiao Zhou, a broadly learned scholar of the younger generation, kept asking him why, Du Qiong answered that to understand this art one had to observe in person and recognize the shapes and colors, and could not rely on others; one came to know it only after toiling hard morning and night, and then had to worry that it might leak out, so it was better not to know, and that was why he no longer looked. Records, Shu 12 §19

When Qiao Zhou asked what the late Summoned Gentleman Zhou had meant by saying that 'Dangtu Gao' was Wei (魏), Du Qiong answered that wei was the name of a gate tower, which stood high facing the road, so the sages had spoken by analogy. He added that in ancient times the names of offices did not use cao (曹), but since the Han they had all used it, so that officials were called shucao and soldiers shicao, and this was probably the will of Heaven. Records, Shu 12 §19–20

Du Qiong died in the 13th year of Yanxi (250) at over eighty. He wrote the Hanshi Zhangju (Commentary on the Han Odes) of more than 100,000 words, but he did not teach his sons, so no one received his esoteric learning. Records, Shu 12 §21

Taking Du Qiong's words as a starting point and extending them to similar cases, Qiao Zhou said that Liu Bei's personal name Bei (備) meant 'complete' and the Later Sovereign's personal name Shan (禪) meant 'hand over', as if to say that the Liu house was already complete and should hand over to others. In the 5th year of Jingyao (262), when a great tree in the palace broke of itself for no reason, Qiao Zhou wrote on a pillar, 'Many and great, at the appointed time they shall gather; completed and handed over, how could it rise again?', and when Shu fell, everyone thought his words had come true. Qiao Zhou said this was merely an extension of Master Du's words. Records, Shu 12 §21–24

In his assessment, Chen Shou said that Zhou Qun divined the heavens with proven results, and that Du Qiong, reticent, cautious and meticulous, was the purest among scholars. Records, Shu 12 §102