Puyang Xing 濮陽興

Puyang Xing's courtesy name was Ziyuan, and he was a man of Chenliu. His father, Puyang Yi, fled the disorder at the end of the Han to the region east of the Yangtze and rose to be Administrator of Changsha. Puyang Xing had a reputation as a scholar from his youth; under Sun Quan he was appointed Prefect of Shangyu and gradually rose to the Left Bureau of the Masters of Writing (shangshu zuocao). As General of the Household of the Five Offices he went as an envoy to Shu, and on his return he became Administrator of Kuaiji, where he formed a close friendship with Sun Xiu, Prince of Langye, who was then living in Kuaiji. Records, Wu 19 §104

When Sun Xiu took the throne, he summoned Puyang Xing, made him Minister of Ceremonies and General of the Guards with a voice in military and state affairs, and enfeoffed him as Marquis of Waihuang. Records, Wu 19 §104

In the 3rd year of Yong'an (260), the Commandant Yan Mi proposed damming a lake in Danyang to create farmland, and the Puli Embankment was to be built. When the officials were assembled by edict to discuss it, all said that it would take great labor and that the farmland could not be guaranteed; only Puyang Xing said it could be done. In the end soldiers and commoners were gathered for the work, but the cost of labor and wages was beyond counting, soldiers died or took their own lives, and the people bitterly resented it. Records, Wu 19 §105

In the 10th month of the 5th year of Yong'an (262), Puyang Xing, General of the Guards, became Chancellor. Because Sun Xiu owed old favors to Chancellor Puyang Xing and to Zhang Bu, General of the Left, he entrusted affairs to them: Zhang Bu oversaw the palace, and Puyang Xing took part in military and state affairs. As Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu, Sun Xiu's favorite, worked hand in glove, the realm was disappointed. Records, Wu 3 §37Records, Wu 19 §105

In the 6th year of Yong'an (263), around the time the army sent to relieve Shu was halted on news that Liu Shan, the ruler of Shu, had surrendered to Wei, Chancellor Puyang Xing proposed taking 10,000 men from the military farm colonists to serve as soldiers. Records, Wu 3 §43–44

In the 7th month of the 7th year of Yong'an (264), Sun Xiu died. At that time Shu had just fallen and Jiaozhi had rebelled, and the realm, in fear, wanted a ruler of mature years. Wan Yu, Left Army Director (zuo dianjun), who had once been Prefect of Wucheng and was on good terms with Sun Hao, Marquis of Wucheng, praised Sun Hao's talent and insight as clear and decisive and spoke of this several times to Chancellor Puyang Xing and to Zhang Bu, General of the Left. Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu persuaded the Empress Dowager, Lady Zhu (Sun Xiu), Sun Xiu's consort, and she said, 'I am a widow; how should I judge the affairs of the state? So long as Wu suffers no loss and the ancestral temples have someone to rely on, that is enough.' So the two set aside Sun Xiu's legitimate heir and welcomed and enthroned Sun Hao, and on taking the throne Sun Hao made Puyang Xing a Palace Attendant in addition and had him serve concurrently as Governor of Qing Province. Records, Wu 3 §46 · 48–49Records, Wu 19 §106

Once Sun Hao had what he wanted, he became coarse, violent and arrogant and fond of wine and women, and Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu secretly regretted what they had done. Soon afterwards Wan Yu slandered them, saying that Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu repented of the earlier affair. On the first day of the 11th month of that year, when the two came to court, Sun Hao seized the opportunity to arrest them and send them into exile in Guang Province, then had them pursued and killed on the way and their families exterminated to the third degree. Records, Wu 3 §51Records, Wu 19 §106

In his assessment Chen Shou said that although Puyang Xing held the post of chief minister, his thoughts did not extend to governing the state; he joined in Zhang Bu's wickedness and accepted Wan Yu's counsel, so it was fitting that he was executed and his family exterminated. In the assessment of the Biographies of the Three Successor Rulers he also wrote that Sun Xiu, out of old affection and long-standing favor, employed Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu and failed to promote men of excellent talent and reform the government. Records, Wu 19 §109Records, Wu 3 §88