Ministers › Statesman / Official
Yang Deyi
Western Han man of Shu and Keeper of the Hounds to Emperor Wu, who told the emperor that the Zixu Fu he admired was by his fellow townsman Sima Xiangru, leading to Xiangru's summons.
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Yang Deyi, Keeper of the Hounds
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Yang Deyi, a man of Shu commandery, served Emperor Wu of Han as Keeper of the Hounds. According to the Shiji biography of Sima Xiangru, when the emperor read the Zixu Fu and sighed that he could not have lived in the author's time, Yang Deyi told him that Sima Xiangru, from his own town, claimed to have written it. The astonished emperor summoned Xiangru, who offered to write a rhapsody on the imperial hunt, the Shanglin Fu, and was made a gentleman of the palace. Yang Deyi is remembered as the man who brought Xiangru to court; he appears only in this biography.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the Jianyuan era of Emperor Wu (140–135 BCE)