Liu Fu 劉馥

Liu Fu, courtesy name Yuanying, was a man of Xiang County in Pei State. He had taken refuge from the disorders in Yang Province, and at the beginning of Jian'an he persuaded Yuan Shu's commanders Qi Ji and Qin Yi to lead their followers and go with him to Cao Cao. Cao Cao was pleased, and the office of the Minister over the Masses summoned him as a clerk. Records, Wei 15 §2

Later Li Shu, whom Sun Ce had installed as Administrator of Lujiang, attacked and killed Yan Xiang, Inspector of Yang Province, and Mei Qian, Lei Xu (雷緒), Chen Lan and others of Lujiang gathered followers numbering tens of thousands and settled between the Yangtze and the Huai, so that the commanderies and counties were laid waste. Cao Cao, then occupied with the war against Yuan Shao, judged that the affairs of the southeast could be entrusted to Liu Fu and memorialized to make him Inspector of Yang Province. Records, Wei 15 §2–3

On receiving his orders, Liu Fu rode alone to Hefei, then an empty city, set up the provincial seat, and to the south won over Lei Xu and the others and settled them all, so that tribute was sent in one after another. Within a few years his kindly rule spread widely, the people delighted in his government, and refugees who returned across rivers and mountains numbered in the tens of thousands. He then gathered scholars and established schools, expanded the military-agricultural colonies, and repaired the dikes of Quebei, Rubei, Qimen and Wutang to irrigate the rice fields, so that both the government and the people had reserves. Records, Wei 15 §4

He also built the city walls high and stockpiled timber and stone in quantity, wove several tens of millions of straw mats, and laid in several thousand hu of fish oil in preparation for fighting and defense. Records, Wei 15 §5

According to the Biographies of the Imperial Clan in the Records of Wu, after Sun Yi, Wu's Administrator of Danyang, was murdered, Gui Lan and Dai Yuan killed Sun He and sent men north to welcome Liu Fu, Inspector of Yang Province, intending to have him stay at Liyang and to support him with Danyang. But just then Sun Yi's retainers Xu Yuan, Sun Gao, Fu Ying and others killed Gui Lan and Dai Yuan. The Biographies of the Imperial Clan do not record how Liu Fu responded to this. Records, Wu 6 §41–42

Liu Fu died in the 13th year of Jian'an (208). When Sun Quan led a host of 100,000 and besieged and attacked the city of Hefei for more than 100 days, continuous rain threatened to bring down the walls, so the city was covered with straw mats and rain capes, and at night oil was burned to light up the ground outside the walls so that the enemy's moves could be watched and countered, and the enemy was defeated and fled. The gentry and people of Yang Province cherished his memory all the more, and held that even Dong Anyu's defense of Jinyang could not have surpassed it. Chen Shou wrote that the benefits of the dikes and reservoirs he built were still in use in his own day. Records, Wei 15 §6

His son Liu Jing was transferred in the Huangchu era from Gentleman of the Yellow Gate to Administrator of Lujiang, and the edict said, 'Your father once governed that province, and now you in turn hold this commandery; you may be called one able to carry on the family's work.' Chen Shou wrote that Liu Jing's government at first seemed petty and meticulous, but in the end the people found it convenient, so that it carried the lingering manner of Liu Fu. Records, Wei 15 §8 · 10

Chen Shou's text does not record the year of Liu Fu's birth, his age at death, or the place where he died. In the assessment at the end of Fascicle 15, Chen Shou said that from the end of the Han, inspectors had governed several commanderies and administered affairs in the provinces, and that the men of this fascicle, all thoroughly versed in the workings of affairs and displaying both majesty and kindness, were able to bring order over ten thousand li and be recorded for later ages. Records, Wei 15 §1–6 · 89