Product Code Database
Yue Guang (; died 29 February 304 bing'wu day of the 1st month of the 1st year of the Yong'xing era, per Emperor Hui's biography in Jin Shu and vol.85 of Zizhi Tongjian. Vol.04 of Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian Kaoyi, citing Jin Chunqiu (晋春秋), recorded that Yue Guang committed suicide in the 8th month of the 2nd year of the Tai'an era; the month's first day was a ren'yin day and thus the month has a bing'wu day, which corresponds to 22 Sep 303 in the Julian calendar.), courtesy name Yanfu (彥輔), was a Chinese calligrapher, politician who was one of the pure conversation leaders in the Jin Dynasty, and an individual with a literary reputation by others at that time.
Yue Guang was born to a poor family and lived in the lowest social class, but was appreciated by several high-ranking government officials due to his moral integrity and ability in his childhood. With their assistance, Yue Guang began his political career and served as assistant minister, archer coordinator, and tutor of the crown prince. He was later involved in a complicated political struggle, and his leader lost trust in him because of his identity as the father-in-law of another political party’s leader.
Western Jin (266-316) is one of two main divisions in the history of Jin, which was established by Sima Yan, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Jin. After the kingdom of Eastern Wu was eliminated to improve the poor situation left by the war, Sima Yan took Luoyang as his capital and adopted a series of measures throughout the country, such as focusing on agricultural production and protecting the interests of the gentry. These measures contributed to freeing the people from the war and making the country work on development. While emphasizing the development of production, Sima Yan strongly opposed extravagance and advocated frugality. Yue Guang was promoted to a higher position during that period.
After a period of stable development, the royal family of Western Jin gradually decayed. Sima Yan became immersed in his achievements and forgot what he advocated. In order to dominate the country and bolster the power of the Sima clan, most of his relatives were awarded different lands, which resulted in the War of the Eight Princes, since every prince wanted to rule the whole country rather than only part of it. A succession of crises caused higher taxes and destroyed the social economy. However, the ruling classes were still busy contending for power and after the War of the Eight Princes, the hidden class contradiction broke out. Eventually, the common folk began to revolt against the domination. At the same time, with the uprising of the five barbarians, Western Jin lost control of northern China.
After his father's early death, Yue Guang was left poor and alone. He devoted his energy and time to studying, but was unknown at that time. He was modest and never looked forward to enjoying luxury, which helped him earn a reputation for being frugal and hard-working. In addition, he was good at analysing things with terse and lively language, but he always kept silent while being asked something he did not understand. He was later recommended as a scholar and invited to become Wei Guan's sons’ tutor because of his reputation.
In the first year of Yongkang (300 AD), Sima Yu, known as the crown prince Minhuai, was deposed and detained in Jin Yong City. The imperial court forbade the old minister of the prince from seeing him. Those people could do nothing but sigh indignantly, but eventually, all of them decided to violate the decree and went to worship, and the government clerk arrested them and sent them to jail. However, those who were sent to prison in Henan, which was governed by Yue Guang at that time, were released by him, which was considered illegal. One of the assistant prosecutors said to the manager, "The reason why the prince was deposed is he overused his authority and enjoyed luxury every day. Now those old ministers risked bidding farewell to the prince, It seemed that the evil prince deserved to be missed. If they are punished severely, this thing will be circulated widely, and in people’s eyes, it looks like those people were attracted by the virtue of Sima Yu, which is an absolute misunderstanding, so it is better to release them like Yue Guang." After listening to his opinions, Yue Guang was not punished.
Yue Guang was promoted to the Ministry of the Department of Shang Shu later. He took over the position of Wang Rong, who recommended him as a scholar at the beginning of his political career.
Yue Guang had three sons:
Yue Guang had two daughters. One of them married the Prince of Chengdu, Sima Ying, and the other one married Wei Jie, a grandson of Wei Guan, who was famous with his literary talent.(玠妻父乐广，...) Jin Shu, vol.36
While Sima Ai suspected that Yue Guang would be rebellious during the War of the Eight Princes, Yue Guang explained "it was impossible to sacrifice his three sons’ lives for one of his daughters." (2018). 9781315626758 ISBN 9781315626758
A legend said that there was a monster in Henan palace and the previous masters of Henan were all afraid of living in the palace. Yue Guang did not believe that and tried to find out the truth after he was promoted to master of Henan. At midnight, he stayed in the palace with some soldiers and the door suddenly opened following some harsh and menacing noise, everyone was scared at that time except Yue Guang. He looked around and found a small hole in the wall. After the wall was broken, a little fox jumped out.
Although Yue Guang was well-liked, he did not accept the behavior of some of his peers. When Wang Cheng and Hu Wufuzhi served as high officials, they almost did whatever they wanted, such as streaking and insulting others. Yue Guang disagreed and said "They are able to find happiness in Qingtan. Why do they have to do that?"
|
|
