Hu Zhi 胡質

Hu Zhi, courtesy name Wende, was a native of Shouchun County in the state of Chu. In his youth he became known between the Yangtze and the Huai together with Jiang Ji and Zhu Ji, and he served in the province and the commandery. When Jiang Ji, as Attendant Officer with Mounted Escort, went as an envoy to see Cao Cao, Cao Cao asked whether Hu Tongda, a respected elder, had any descendants, and Jiang Ji answered that his son Hu Zhi 'falls short of his father in scope and grand strategy, but surpasses him in handling affairs with precision'. Cao Cao at once summoned Hu Zhi and made him Prefect of Dunqiu. Records, Wei 27 §13

Guo Zheng, a commoner of Dunqiu County, had an affair with his cousin and killed her husband Cheng Ta, and Feng Liang, a commandery clerk held in prison as a witness, could not bear the torture, falsely confessed and was about to take the guilt upon himself. On taking office Hu Zhi observed their expressions, re-examined the case in detail, verified the evidence and obtained full confessions. Records, Wei 27 §14

He entered the court as Clerk of Deliberations in the Eastern Bureau of the Chancellor, and the province asked for him as Attendant Official. General Zhang Liao was at odds with his Protector of the Army Wu Zhou, and when he asked the Inspector Wen Hui for Hu Zhi, Hu Zhi declined, pleading illness. When Zhang Liao asked why he spurned him when he had entrusted his heart to him, Hu Zhi answered that the general had fallen out over a petty grudge even with Wu Zhou, whom he had once praised so highly; how could he himself, with his meager talent, stay on good terms to the end? Moved by these words, Zhang Liao made peace with Wu Zhou again. Records, Wei 27 §15–16

Cao Cao summoned him to be an Assistant in the Chancellor's office. During the Huangchu era he became Gentleman of the Personnel Section, and after serving as Administrator of Changshan he was transferred to Administrator of Dongguan. When a gentleman named Lu Xian was murdered, Hu Zhi said that the man had no enemies but had a young wife, and that this was why he had died; he saw all the young men of the neighborhood, and when the clerk Li Ruo changed color on being questioned, he pressed him to the end and obtained his confession. Whenever he received rewards for military merit he distributed them all among his men and took nothing home, and in his nine years in the commandery the officials and people lived in peace and the soldiers gave their all at his command. Records, Wei 27 §17

In the 2nd year of Taihe (228), Emperor Ming (Cao Rui) had Jia Kui lead four armies, including those of the General of the Front Man Chong and the Administrator of Dongguan Hu Zhi, straight from Xiyang toward the East Pass, while Cao Xiu advanced from Wan and Sima Yi from Jiangling. Records, Wei 15 §81

He was transferred to Inspector of Jing Province, with the additional title of General Who Spreads Awe and the rank of Marquis Within the Passes. In the 7th month of the 1st year of Jingchu (237), when Sun Quan sent his general Zhu Ran and others with twenty thousand men to besiege Jiangxia Commandery, the Inspector of Jing Province Hu Zhi and others attacked them and drove Zhu Ran off. When Zhu Ran besieged Fancheng, he hurried there with lightly armed troops; when others argued that the enemy was too strong to approach, Hu Zhi said that Fancheng was low-lying and had few soldiers and must be helped from outside, put his troops in order and approached the siege lines, and only then was the city calmed. Records, Wei 27 §18Records, Wei 3 §53

The biography of Zhu Ran of Wu records that in the 5th year of Chiwu (242), when Zhu Ran attacked Zhazhong, the Wei generals Pu Zhong and Hu Zhi came out, each with several thousand men. Pu Zhong blocked the narrow passes and Hu Zhi acted as his support, but when Zhu Ran met them with a surprise attack using the eight hundred soldiers under his own command, Pu Zhong fared badly and Hu Zhi and the others all withdrew. Records, Wu 11 §20

He was transferred to General Who Conquers the East, with Provisional Credentials, commanding the armies of Qing and Xu Provinces. He expanded farming and stored grain to build reserves enough for two years, set up the Office for the Eastern Campaign to have troops farm while they defended, opened canals among the commanderies to ease the passage of boats, and kept strict defenses, so that all was quiet along the coast. Records, Wei 27 §18–19

Hu Zhi was by nature calm and sincere and inwardly perceptive, but he did not hold others to the standard of his own integrity, so that wherever he went people remembered him fondly. He died in the 2nd year of Jiaping (250), and his house held no wealth beyond the clothes he had been granted and a box of books. When the Military Adviser reported this, he was posthumously enfeoffed as Marquis of Yangling Precinct with a fief of one hundred households and given the posthumous name Marquis Zhen, and his son Hu Wei succeeded him. In the 6th year of Jiaping (254) an edict praised Xu Miao, Hu Zhi and Tian Yu for having worried for the state and forgotten their private interests, so that they left no wealth in their houses at death, and granted each of their families two thousand hu of grain and three hundred thousand cash. Records, Wei 27 §20 · 9

In his assessment Chen Shou said that 'Hu Zhi's plain conduct was upright and pure', and that he, together with Xu Miao, Wang Chang and Wang Ji, held responsibility for a region, won renown and left a record of achievement as worthy ministers of the state. Records, Wei 27 §76