Tian Yu 田豫

Tian Yu, courtesy name Guorang, was a man of Yongnu County in Yuyang Commandery. When Liu Bei fled to Gongsun Zan and relied on him, the young Tian Yu attached himself to Liu Bei of his own accord, and Liu Bei thought very highly of him. When Liu Bei became Inspector of Yu Province, Tian Yu asked leave to go home because his mother was old, and Liu Bei, in tears, said, 'I regret that I cannot accomplish great things together with you.' Records, Wei 26 §25

Gongsun Zan put Tian Yu in charge of Dongzhou as its prefect. When Gongsun Zan's general Wang Men turned against him and attacked with more than ten thousand men on behalf of Yuan Shao, the people wanted to surrender, but Tian Yu climbed the wall and rebuked Wang Men, who had left after being treated generously and had now come back as a bandit, telling him that since he himself had been entrusted with the city, Wang Men should hurry up and attack. Wang Men withdrew in shame. Gongsun Zan knew that Tian Yu had a talent for stratagems but could not give him an important post. Records, Wei 26 §26–27

After Gongsun Zan's defeat, Xianyu Fu, who had been put forward by the local people to act as administrator, made Tian Yu his Chief Clerk. When Xianyu Fu could not decide whom to follow, Tian Yu urged him to submit quickly, saying that the one who would in the end pacify the realm was the Cao family; Xianyu Fu followed this advice and received a fief and favor. Taizu (Cao Cao) summoned Tian Yu as Military Planning Clerk to the Chancellor and appointed him prefect of Yingyin and Langling, then moved him to Administrator of Yiyang, and he governed well wherever he went. Records, Wei 26 §27

When Cao Zhang, Marquis of Yanling, campaigned against Dai Commandery, Tian Yu became his chancellor. While the army was halted north of the Yi River, barbarian cavalry lying in ambush attacked and threw the troops into confusion, but Tian Yu used the lie of the land to draw the carts round into a circular formation, had bows and crossbows drawn and aimed from inside, and filled the gaps with decoy troops. When the barbarians scattered, they pursued and inflicted a heavy defeat on them and pacified Dai Commandery, all through Tian Yu's plans. Transferred to Administrator of Nanyang, he personally met and admonished the more than five hundred men imprisoned for taking part in Hou Yin's rebellion, broke their shackles and released them, whereupon the bands of brigands dispersed overnight, and Taizu approved of this. Records, Wei 26 §28–29Records, Wei 19 §4

At the beginning of Emperor Wen's reign, when the northern barbarians had grown strong, Tian Yu was given the credentials and made Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan. When Kebineng, Mijia, Suli and other Xianbei chieftains swore a covenant not to trade horses with the Central States, Tian Yu, holding that the barbarians' unity was not to China's advantage, sowed discord among them and set them against one another. When Suli, who had broken the covenant and supplied a thousand horses to the government, was attacked by Kebineng, Tian Yu led only elite troops deep into their territory to rescue him. With his way back cut off, he gathered the dung of oxen and horses and left it burning while slipping out by another road, and when the pursuing barbarians surrounded him ten deep at Macheng, he sent flags and drums out of the south gate to draw their attention and then sent elite troops out of the north gate to attack from both sides, inflicting a heavy defeat on them. Records, Wei 26 §30–32

He also went with only a hundred-odd horsemen into the camp of Gujin, the fierce and cunning Wuhuan king, beheaded Gujin as he came out to greet him with a bow, and replaced him with his younger brother, so that the barbarians were struck with terror. When the mountain bandit Gao Ai plundered You and Ji Provinces, Tian Yu induced the tribe of the Xianbei Suli to behead him. He was enfeoffed as Marquis of Changle Village and served as Colonel for nine years, but the faction of Wang Xiong, Inspector of You Province, slandered him as stirring up trouble on the frontier, and he was transferred to Administrator of Runan with the additional title of General Who Exterminates the Barbarians. The Biographies of the Wuhuan, Xianbei and Dongyi record that in the 2nd year of Taihe (228) Tian Yu was besieged for seven days by Kebineng at Macheng and was released after Yan Zhi, Administrator of Shanggu, persuaded Kebineng to withdraw. Records, Wei 26 §33–34Records, Wei 30 §26

At the end of the Taihe era, when Gongsun Yuan rebelled in Liaodong, Tian Yu, on the recommendation of the Commander of the Central Guard Yang Ji, took command of the armies of Qing Province to go and suppress him. When Wu sent envoys to ally with Gongsun Yuan, the emperor ordered him to withdraw his army, but Tian Yu reckoned that the returning Wu ships, fearing the fierce winds of the year's end, would make for Chengshan, and he blocked and held the dangerous points along the coast. The enemy did indeed meet a violent wind, their ships struck the mountain and sank, and all of them were captured. The Biography of the Lord of Wu records that in the 9th month of the 1st year of Jiahe (232) the Wei general Tian Yu beheaded the Wu general Zhou He at Chengshan. However, Cheng Xi, Inspector of Qing Province, secretly reported to the emperor, who prized bright pearls, that Tian Yu had not handed over to the government the pearls and gold he had obtained, so his merit was not recorded. Records, Wei 26 §35–37Records, Wu 2 §72Records, Wei 3 §27

Later, when Sun Quan, claiming 100,000 men, attacked Xincheng, Man Chong, General Who Conquers the East, wanted to go to its relief. Tian Yu submitted that the enemy wanted to use Xincheng as a hostage to draw out the main army, so they should let him attack the city to blunt his edge and strike only after he had worn himself out, and the Son of Heaven followed this advice. As it happened, the enemy fled. Later, when Wu invaded again and Tian Yu was holding them off, the army raised a cry in the night that the enemy had come back, but Tian Yu lay where he was without getting up and said that anyone who moved would be beheaded, and indeed there was no enemy. Records, Wei 26 §38–39

At the beginning of Zhengshi, as General of the Household Protecting the Xiongnu and General Who Spreads Awe, he concurrently served as Inspector of Bing Province, and the barbarians beyond the frontier came to offer tribute. He was summoned to become Minister of the Guards and asked several times to retire, but the Grand Tutor Sima Xuanwang (Sima Yi) would not allow it. Tian Yu sent him a letter saying, 'To remain in office past the age of seventy is like walking on through the night without rest when the bell has rung and the water clock has run out; it makes one a criminal,' and in the end he retired on the grounds of grave illness and became Grand Palace Grandee. He died at eighty-two, and his son Tian Pengzu succeeded him. Records, Wei 26 §40–41

Tian Yu was honest and frugal; he distributed all the rewards he received among his officers and men, and the private gifts the barbarians sent him he entered in the registers and deposited with the government, so his household was always poor. In the 6th year of Jiaping (254) the court, noting that the late Xu Miao, Hu Zhi and Tian Yu had not increased their property and had left no wealth in their homes, granted grain and money to their families. In his assessment, Chen Shou wrote that Tian Yu kept himself pure and his strategies were clear and seasoned, but his office went no higher than a small province, so his abilities were not fully used. Records, Wei 26 §42 · 80Records, Wei 27 §9