Overview
Yi Zong was an official.
IdentityHistorical · Male
Life and dates
Death
Attested activity
Career and standing
one of the Nine Ministers 九卿
Held
Chang'an magistrate 長安令
Dingxiang grand administrator 定襄太守
Henei commandant 河內都尉
Nanyang grand administrator 南陽太守
right privy treasurer 右內史
Places and affiliations
- Polity Western Han 西漢 · Relation Served
- At Hedong 河東
Assessments and attributes
- Assessment used cruel, urgent, harsh, and searching methods · Mode historian-judgment
References in the histories
No matching passages.
Book of Han, Chapter 70Volume 60: Du Zhou · 1 passage
Book of Han, Chapter 102Volume 90: Cruel Officials · 19 passages
陛下縱自輕，奈宗廟太后何？」
Even if you discount your own safety, what of the altars of state and the empress dowager?"
義縱，河東人也。
Yi Zong came from Hedong.
縱有姊，以醫幸王太后。
Yi Zong's sister was a physician who caught the eye of Empress Dowager Wang.
太后乃告上，上拜義姁弟縱為中郎，補上黨郡中令。
The dowager then informed the emperor, who appointed Yi Xu's younger brother, Yi Zong, as a gentleman of the palace and posted him as interior chief of Shangdang.
義縱自河內遷為南陽太守，聞甯成家居南陽，及至關，甯成側行送迎，然縱氣盛，弗為禮。
Yi Zong was transferred from Henei to serve as grand administrator of Nanyang. Hearing that Ning Cheng had retired there, when Yi Zong reached the pass Ning Cheng approached sidelong to greet him; but the new administrator, flushed with authority, showed him no courtesy.
而平氏硃強、杜衍杜周為縱爪牙之吏，任用，遷為廷尉史。
Zhu Qiang and Du Zhou became his enforcers and rose to clerks of the commandant of justice.
軍數出定襄，定襄吏民亂敗，於是徙縱為定襄太守。
Repeated campaigns from Dingxiang had wrecked local order, so Yi Zong was sent there as governor.
縱至，掩定襄獄中重罪二百餘人，及賓客昆弟私入相視者亦二百餘人。
He swept up over two hundred capital defendants plus another two hundred visitors—kin and clients who had stolen into the jail.
縱一切捕鞠，曰「為死罪解脫」。
Zong arrested and interrogated them wholesale, declaring they "aided capital felons to escape."
是時，趙禹、張湯為九卿矣，然其治尚寬，輔法而行，縱以鷹擊毛摯為治。
Zhao Yu and Zhang Tang were harsh ministers already, but next to Yi Zong's eagle tactics they looked almost moderate.
後會更五銖錢白金起，民為奸，京師尤甚，乃以縱為右內史，王溫舒為中尉。
When debased coinage drove capital fraud, the court named Yi Zong right metropolitan superintendent and Wang Wenshu commandant of the guard.
溫舒至惡，所為弗先言縱，縱必以氣陵之，敗壞其功。
Wang Wenshu was vicious and freelanced his raids until Yi Zong sabotaged him out of sheer rivalry.
縱廉，其治效郅都。
Yi Zong stayed honest and governed with Zhi Du's pitiless edge.
上怒曰：「縱以我為不行此道乎？」
He snapped, "Does Yi Zong think I intend to abandon this route?"
至冬，楊可方受告緡，縱以為此亂民，部吏捕其為可使者。
When Yang Ke launched the wealth-reporting inquisitions, Yi Zong called them destabilizing and seized Yang Ke's deputies.
天子聞，使杜式治，以為廢格沮事，棄縱市。
The emperor charged Du Shi with the case, convicted Yi Zong of blocking state policy, and left him on the execution ground.
稍遷至廣平都尉，擇郡中豪敢往吏十餘人為爪牙，皆把其陰重罪，而縱使督盜賊，快其意所欲得。
As Guangping commandant he blackmailed a dozen fearless clerks with capital charges, then turned them loose as bandit-hunters.
義縱為內史，憚之，未敢恣治。
Privy treasurer Yi Zong kept clear of him.
及縱死，張湯敗後，徙為廷尉。
Once Yi Zong and Zhang Tang were gone he rose to commandant of justice.
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 30Treatise on the Balanced Standard · 1 passage