Qin and Han · Diviner

Zuo Ci 左慈

Attested AD 196 - AD 208

Passages: 10
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Zuo Ci was a Diviner.

Other names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal name		放	Fang
Courtesy name	Yuanfang	元放	Yuanfang

Life and dates

Age

more than one hundred up to two hundred
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 355

Attested activity

AD 196 to AD 208 司空曹操
Dated from the passage context · Book of Later Han 93, passage 308

Places and affiliations

Polity Eastern Han 东汉 · Relation Lived under
Strongly inferred · Book of Later Han 93, passage 308
At Lujiang 庐江
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 306
At Yangcheng Mountain 阳城山 · Relation Fled to
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 324

Learning and skills

Skill spirit arts 神道 · Level had from youth
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 307

Works and attributed material

Speech · Speaker · Quote true
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 309, 316, 326

Events and relationships

Fished perch from basin and fetched Shu ginger
Banquet miracle · Wonder worker
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 308, 310, 313, 318
Vanished into wall, market doubles, and sheep flock
Escape · Fugitive
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 322-324, 327

References in the histories

Search passages

History

10 passages

Book of Later Han, Chapter 93Volume 82b: Biographies of Alchemists 2 · 10 passages

左慈字元放，庐江人也。 Zuo Ci, styled Yuanfang, came from Lujiang.

放于下坐应曰：“此可得也。” From the lower seats Zuo Ci answered, "That can be arranged."

放乃更饵钩沉之，须臾复引出，皆长三尺余，生鲜可爱。 Zuo baited again, dipped the line, and pulled up more perch, each over three feet long, gleaming and firm.

放曰：“亦可得也。”」 Zuo said, "Ginger can be had as well."

后操使蜀反，验问增锦之状及时日早晚，若符契焉。 When the real envoy returned from Shu, his report of the extra brocade matched Zuo's tale to the hour.

后操出近郊，士大夫从者百许人，慈乃为赍酒一升，脯一斤，手自斟酌，百官莫不醉饱。 Once Cao rode to the suburbs with a hundred officials; Zuo produced a pint of wine and a pound of jerky, poured for each man himself, and left every guest drunk and stuffed.

操怀不喜，因坐上收，欲杀之，慈乃却入壁中，霍然不知所在。 Suspicious and angry, Cao ordered his arrest at table; Zuo stepped backward into the plaster and vanished.

或见于市者，又捕之，而市人皆变形与慈同，莫知谁是。 Spotters cornered him in the market, yet every shopper wore Zuo's face—no one could tell which was real.

后人逢慈于阳城山头，因复逐之，遂入走羊群。 Later they sighted him on Yangcheng peak; chasing him, they watched him bolt into a flock of sheep.

甘始、元放、延年皆为操所录，问其术而行之。 Cao Cao retained Gan Shi, Zuo Ci, and Yannian, questioned their regimens, and tried them himself.