Overview
Hou Wen was a former subordinate of Sun Bao.
Life and dates
Death
Attested activity
References in the histories
No matching passages.
Book of Han, Chapter 88Volume 77: Gai, Zhuge, Liu, Zheng, Sun, Wujiang and He · 12 passages
故吏侯文以剛直不苟合，常稱疾不肯仕，寶以恩禮請文，欲為布衣友，日設酒食，妻子相對。
He courted his old clerk Hou Wen with feasts and treated him as an equal.
文求受署為掾，進見如賓禮。
Hou Wen accepted a clerkship and got guest-of-honor treatment.
數月，以立秋日署文東部督郵。
On Beginning of Autumn he named Hou Wen eastern circuit inspector.
入見，敕曰：「今日鷹隼始擊，當順天氣取奸惡，以成嚴霜之誅，掾部渠有其人乎？」
When Wen entered to see him, Bao instructed him, saying, "Today the hawks and falcons first strike. One should follow the qi of Heaven, seize the wicked, and complete the punishment of severe frost. Is there such a man in your circuit?"
文卬曰：「無其人不敢空受職。」
Wen looked up and said, "If there is none I dare not accept the office empty."
文曰：「霸陵杜稚季。」
"Du Zhiji of Baling," said Hou Wen.
文曰：「豺狼橫道，不宜復問狐狸。」
"When wolves sit the road," Hou Wen said, "you do not hunt foxes."
寶前失車騎將軍，與紅陽侯有隙，自恐見危，時淳于長方貴幸，友寶，寶亦欲附之，始視事而長以稚季托寶，故寶窮，無以復應文。
Sun Bao feared Hongyang and needed Chunyu Zhang—who had just asked him to spare Du Zhiji—so he could not touch Hou Wen's target.
文怪寶氣索，知其有故，因曰：「明府素著威名，今下敢取稚季，當且闔閣，勿有所問。
Wen was surprised that Bao's spirit had ebbed, and knew there was some reason for it. He therefore said, "Your Excellency has always had a fearsome reputation. Now, if you dare to take Zhiji, you should for the moment close the office and ask about nothing else.
稚季耳目長，聞知之，杜門不通水火，穿捨後牆為小戶，但持鋤自治園，因文所厚自陳如此。
Du Zhiji walled himself in, bored a postern, and hoed his garden until Hou Wen vouched for him.
文曰：「我與稚季幸同土壤，素無睚眥，顧受將命，分當相直。
Wen said, "Zhiji and I are fortunately from the same region, and I have never held the slightest grudge against him. I have merely received the general's order, and by my role must face him directly.
文復去吏，死於家。
Hou Wen went home and died.