Zhang Yu 張裕

At the end of the Han, Deng Zhi went into Shu but found no one who recognized him. At that time Zhang Yu, Attendant Officer of Yi Province, was skilled at reading faces, so Deng Zhi sought him out and followed him, and Zhang Yu told Deng Zhi, 'You will live past seventy, rise to the rank of General-in-Chief and be enfeoffed as a marquis.' Deng Zhi was later enfeoffed as Marquis of Yangwu Precinct and rose to General of Chariots and Cavalry. Records, Shu 15 §2 · 7–8

Earlier, when the First Sovereign met Liu Zhang at Fu, Zhang Yu was sitting in attendance as Liu Zhang's Attendant Officer. Zhang Yu had a heavy beard, and the First Sovereign mocked him, saying that formerly, when he lived in Zhuo County, there were especially many people surnamed Mao, so that the prefect of Zhuo said, 'The many Maos dwell all around Zhuo!' Zhang Yu at once replied that when a man who had been Chief of Lu County in Shangdang Commandery was transferred to Prefect of Zhuo, and then left office and returned home, people writing letters to him found that if they wrote 'Lu' they left out 'Zhuo', and if they wrote 'Zhuo' they left out 'Lu', so they addressed him as 'Lord Luzhuo'. Since the First Sovereign had no beard, Zhang Yu used this to mock him. Records, Shu 12 §13–14

When the First Sovereign, intending to contend with Lord Cao for Hanzhong, asked Zhou Qun, Zhou Qun said that he would gain the land but not the people, and that if he sent out a detached force it would surely fare badly. At that time Zhang Yu of Shu Commandery, Major of the Rear Division of Yi Province, was also versed in divination by signs and more gifted by nature than Zhou Qun, and he remonstrated with the First Sovereign that Hanzhong must not be contested and that the army would surely fare badly. The First Sovereign in the end did not use Zhang Yu's advice, and he did indeed gain the land but not the people. The generals Wu Lan, Lei Tong and others whom he sent into Wudu were all lost and did not return; everything was as Zhou Qun had said. Records, Shu 12 §11–12

Zhang Yu also said privately to others, 'When the year star is in gengzi, the realm will change dynasties and the fortunes of the Liu house will come to an end. When my lord gains Yi Province, he will lose it nine years later, between a yin year and a mao year,' and someone secretly reported his words. The First Sovereign had long borne a grudge over his insolence, and, angered as well that he had let these words slip, he made public that Zhang Yu's remonstrance against contesting Hanzhong had not come true, and had him imprisoned to be executed. When Zhuge Liang submitted a memorial asking that his offense be pardoned, the First Sovereign replied, 'Even a fragrant orchid, if it grows at the gate, cannot but be weeded out.' Zhang Yu was at last executed in the marketplace. Records, Shu 12 §13–15

Later, the accession of the Wei house and the death of the First Sovereign both came about as Zhang Yu had predicted. He was also versed in the art of reading faces, and whenever he took up a mirror to look at his face, he knew that he would die by execution and never failed to throw the mirror to the ground. Chen Shou's main text does not record the year of his execution, and the assessment of volume 12 says only that Zhou Qun divined the heavens with proven results, without mentioning Zhang Yu. Records, Shu 12 §15 · 102