Courtesy Shaoqing: an officer in Wei Qing's household who would not change masters when the younger general rose, later protector of the Northern Army. He wrote to a friend in the inner chambers to reproach him with the duty of recommending men, and got this answer.
All the old friends and household men of Wei Qing went off to follow the Brilliant Rider and got office and rank from it. Only Ren An would not.Sima Qian on the drift out of Wei Qing's household after 119 BCE; Shiji, juan 111, Biographies of the General and the Brilliant Rider; career in Shiji, juan 104
Appears in
Relations
- Wei Qing patron — He was an officer of Wei Qing's household and stayed in it after the younger general's rise made leaving the obvious move.
- Sima Qian colleagues — He wrote at his friend in the inner chambers about the duty of recommending worthy men, and this letter is the answer he got.
Myth vs record
Ren An is remembered as a good man because a great one wrote him a letter.
The histories keep him for two stubborn acts and not one line of his own writing. He would not change masters when the Brilliant Rider rose, in an age when everybody else did and got office for it; and twenty-eight years later, as Protector of the Northern Army, he took the crown prince's credential out of his hand, closed the gate on it, and would not move either way — and was sentenced for watching and waiting. He died in the year the reply to his letter is dated to, and his own letters did not survive the age that copied this one.