Yang Xu (142-189), the word Xingzu, Taishan Pingyang (now Tai'an, Shandong), a local official of the Eastern Han Dynasty, is a famous Qing official, known as "Hanging Fish Taishou". The grandfather of the famous general Yanghu in the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty. The biography is recorded in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Guo Dukong, Zhang Lian, Wang Suyang, Jia Lu Lie".

The seven generations of Yangxu's ancestors all served as school officials with a rank of 2,000 stone in the Han Dynasty. His grandfather's name was Yang Invasion, and he was the captain of Sili when Emperor An of the Han Dynasty. His father, Yang Ru, served as Taichang during the reign of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty. Yang Xu was appointed as Langzhong as a "descendant of loyal ministers", and was later opened by the general Dou Wufu. After Dou Wu lost power, Yang Xu was also regarded as a party, so he was imprisoned by the imperial court for more than ten years, and Yang Xu also accepted the arrangement and lived in seclusion. Later, the party ban was lifted, and Yang Xu could be an official again, subject to the Taiwei Mansion, and then relocated to Lujiang Taishou.

At that time, there were yellow turban thieves in Yangzhou who attacked Shucheng County and burned the local city. Yang Xu then ordered the conscription of men over the age of 20 in the county, all armed with weapons to fight the enemy, and weak men were also responsible for carrying water sources to fight fires and disaster relief. At that time, Yang Xu successfully gathered tens of thousands of people in the county, confronted the Yellow Turban thieves, and successfully broke the thief army, so that the situation within the county boundary was briefly peaceful. Later, An Feng's thief Dai Feng and others made a rebellion, and Yang Xu led the army and civilians to break it, beheaded more than 3,000 people, and won the thief's head Qu Shuai, as for the rest of the party members who followed Dai Feng's rebellion, they were originally just civilians, so Yang Xu rewarded them with farm tools and ordered them to engage in agricultural work.

In the third year of Zhongping (186), Zhao Ci, a Jiangxia soldier, rebelled, killed Nanyang Taishou Qinjie, and captured six counties. The imperial court worshiped the sheep and continued to be the Taishou of Nanyang and took over the affairs of Nanyang. When the sheep continued to enter the county boundary, he secretly paid a private visit, and only arranged a boy to accompany him, and watched the history everywhere in the county, inquiring about the local customs and people, and after completing the observation, he officially arrived as the new Taishou. At the beginning of his tenure, Yang Xu already knew who was corrupt and upright in the county, and he could also distinguish between good men and sages and treacherous people among the people. The officials and people in the county were all shocked when they saw that Yang Xu knew so much about the affairs of Nanyang County. After Yang continued to settle down in the county, he sent troops to attack Zhao Ci together with Jingzhou Thorn Shi ****, successfully broke the thief, and killed Zhao Ci, and won the first more than 5,000 levels, and other thieves near the six counties also surrendered one after another, Yang Xu reported to the imperial court, and asked the imperial court to forgive the thieves who followed Zhao Ci to start an incident. After pacifying Zhao Ci, Yang Xu also showed excellent governance and managed Nanyang County in an orderly manner, which was pleasing to the army and the people.

In the sixth year of Zhongping (189), Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty planned to promote Yang Xu to be the Tai Lieutenant. However, it was an era of selling official beards, and at that time, the officials who worshiped the three dukes had to offer tens of millions of dollars to the East Garden as a gift of thanks to the imperial court, and the imperial court sent a eunuch named "Zuo Yu" to supervise these sacrifice procedures; Everywhere Zuo Yu went, officials would greet them with gifts, show their respect, and bribe them lavishly. When Zuo arrived at Yang Xu's residence, Yang Xu asked him to sit on a thin mat and showed Zuo Qi his robe (a kind of coarse linen clothing worn by poor people at that time), indicating that he had no extra wealth. Zuo Yu directly informed Emperor Ling of this, and Emperor Ling was very displeased, so he dispelled the idea of letting Yang continue to be the third duke.

Later, Yang continued to be recruited as too often, but before he could take office, he fell ill and died at the age of 48.

Yang Xu hated the pursuit of luxury by the local tycoons and magnates, and he himself maintained a frugal life, with shabby cars and horses in and out.

Although Yang Xu has served as the Taishou of Lujiang and Nanyang counties for many years, he has never asked for bribes or used power for personal gain.

Soon after he took office in Nanyang County, one of his subordinates sent Yang Xu a well-known local specialty - Baihe carp. Hoping to please Yang Xu, Yang Xu refused to accept it, and repeatedly pushed it back, but this Fu Cheng insisted on accepting it too much. When the man left, the sheep hung the big carp on a pillar outside the house, and it became dried fish in the wind and sun. Later, the Fu Cheng sent a larger white river carp. Yang Xu took him to the pillar outside the house, pointed to the dried fish hanging from the pillar, and said, "The fish you gave last time is still hanging, and it has become dried fish, please take it back with you." The man was ashamed and quietly took the fish away.

Yang Xu said that he would not accept the fish he offered as a gift in the future, and explicitly refused to accept bribes. This behavior became an example of the integrity of ancient officials, so later generations have the idioms of "hanging fish in the vestibule", "sheep continuing hanging fish", and "hanging house fish".

After the news spread, the people of Nanyang County praised it and called it "the hanging fish is too guarded", and no one dared to give gifts to the sheep anymore. As a result, Yang Xu became a famous incorruptible official in Chinese history.

Yang Xu was too punctual in Nanyang and did not bring his wife with him. He was honest and self-disciplined in Nanyang, Henan, and did not return to his hometown to visit relatives for several years after taking office. Later, Yang Xu's wife and son Yang Mi came to look for Yang Xu, but Yang Xu closed the door and did not let his wife enter, and only took his son Yang Mi into the house and showed him his assets - a few thin clothes and broken quilts, less than a few pieces of salt wheat. He then said to his son, "I am only living like this, how can I provide for your mother?" So he sent his son and mother back to their homeland. Self-reliance.

When the sheep is dying, his last words must be thinly buried, and he will not accept gifts from others. According to the law of the time, officials with a rank of 2,000 stone would receive millions of dollars from the imperial court to deal with the funeral. The imperial court appreciated Yang Xu's incorruptibility, so he issued an edict to praise him, and ordered Taishan Taishou to give money to Yang Xu's family and let them deal with Yang Xu's basic funeral.

Yu Qian, a famous minister in the Ming Dynasty, mentioned in a poem: "There are no congratulatory guests in front of the happy leftovers, and there are hanging fish in the winning kitchen." The breeze is lying in the south window, reading a few books at the head of the bed. Among them, the phrase "hanging fish" is an allusion to the continuation of the sheep.

Yu Qian is also a Qing official, and a few poems are very famous:

Thousands of hammers were carved out of the deep mountains, and the fire burned as if it were idle. Don't be afraid of broken bones, you have to leave your innocence in the world.

The breeze went with his sleeves facing the sky, so as not to speak short and long.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were two stories comparable to Yang Xu:

Yang Zhen refused the money

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Yang Zhen passed through Changyi on his way to his post, Changyi County ordered Wang Mishan to visit him and gave him ten catties of gold. Yang Zhen said: "The old man knows the king, but the old man doesn't know the old man, why not?" Wang Mi didn't understand Yang Zhen's reproach, and said, "It's dark, and no one knows." Yang Zhen said: "God knows, God knows, you know, I know, what is ignorance?" Only then did Wang Mi understand, he was ashamed, and walked away.

One penny is too guarded

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, a man named Liu Chong was appointed as the Hui Ji Taishou, he reformed the bad government, abolished the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and was very honest and honest as an official. Later, he was transferred to the position of master craftsman by the imperial court, and before leaving, the local people took the initiative to raise money to give Liu Pet who was about to leave, but Liu Pet did not accept it. Later, it was really difficult to resist, so he took a copper coin from it and symbolically accepted it. Because of this, he was called "one money too shou".

(End of chapter)