Writers › Writer / Poet
Yang Xiu
Late Eastern Han scion of the Yang clan of Hongnong, Cao Cao's quick-witted registrar, executed amid the succession rivalry between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi.
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Dezu · Yang Dezu
Yang Xiu, courtesy name Dezu, came from Huayin in Hongnong and was the son of the Grand Commandant Yang Biao. Learned and brilliant, he served as registrar to the chancellor Cao Cao and became a close ally of Cao Zhi, drawing him into the contest over the succession. In 219 Cao Cao had him executed, aged forty-four by Western count, for leaking instructions and colluding with the princes. A New Account of Tales of the World credits him with decoding the riddle on the Cao E stele as 'supreme and exquisite words' before Cao Cao could. Cao Zhi's Letter to Yang Dezu is addressed to him.
Life and times
Dates 175–219 CE