Ze Rong 笮融

Ze Rong was a man of Danyang. At first he gathered a following of several hundred men and went to attach himself to Tao Qian, Governor of Xu Province. Tao Qian had him supervise grain transport in Guangling and Pengcheng, whereupon Ze Rong grew unrestrained, killed people at will, and cut off the goods being sent from three commanderies and kept them for himself. Records, Wu 4 §8

With these goods Ze Rong built a great Buddhist temple. He made a human figure of bronze, gilded its body with gold and clothed it in brocade, hung bronze discs in nine tiers, and below built multi-storied pavilions and covered walkways that could hold more than 3,000 people. He had all of them read Buddhist scriptures, let those within his territory and in neighboring commanderies who loved Buddhism come and hear the teaching, and drew them in by exempting them from other labor service, so that more than 5,000 households came from near and far. On every day of bathing the Buddha he laid on great quantities of wine and food and spread mats along the roads for several dozen li; nearly ten thousand people came to watch or to eat, and the cost ran to hundreds of millions. Records, Wu 4 §8–9

When Lord Cao attacked Tao Qian, the land of Xu was thrown into turmoil. Ze Rong fled to Guangling with tens of thousands of men and women and 3,000 horses, and Zhao Yu, Administrator of Guangling, received him with the courtesies due to a guest. Before this, Xue Li, Chancellor of Pengcheng, pressed by Tao Qian, had been stationed at Moling. Coveting the large population and wealth of Guangling, Ze Rong killed Zhao Yu when the drinking was at its height, let his troops loose to plunder widely, and then loaded up the spoils and left. On his way he killed Xue Li, and after that he killed Zhu Hao. Records, Wu 4 §9

Other biographies record that Ze Rong was at Moling together with Xue Li. The biography of Wu Jing says that Wu Jing, Yuan Shu's Army-Supervising General of the Household, attacked Ze Rong and Xue Li at Moling together with Sun Ben, and the biography of Zhou Yu says that Sun Ce crossed the river, attacked Moling and defeated Ze Rong and Xue Li. Sun Ce defeated Zhang Ying, attacked Ze Rong and Liu Yao and put them to flight, and after pacifying Moling and Qu'e took in the remnants of Ze Rong's and Liu Yao's followers. Records, Wu 5 §3 · 12Records, Wu 9 §3Records, Wu 11 §34

Liu Yao, driven back by Sun Ce, went south up the Yangtze to hold Yuzhang and encamped at Pengze. Ze Rong had arrived ahead of him, killed the Administrator Zhu Hao and entered and stayed in the commandery. Zhu Hao was the man the Han court had sent to replace Zhuge Xuan, the Administrator of Yuzhang appointed by Yuan Shu. Liu Yao advanced and attacked Ze Rong but was defeated instead; he then rallied the subordinate counties again, attacked Ze Rong and crushed him. Ze Rong, defeated, fled into the mountains and was killed by the local people. Chen Shou's main text does not state the year of his death. Records, Wu 4 §5–6Records, Shu 5 §2

In his assessment in Records of Wu 4, Chen Shou assessed only Liu Yao, Taishi Ci and Shi Xie, and did not assess Ze Rong separately. Records, Wu 4 §51