Shi Chong 249-300

A poet and prose writer from present-day Hebei province, who started his official career as a county magistrate. Though notorious for his wealth gained by sending his men to plunder travelling merchants, Shi gradually rose to the position of palace attendant. When a civil war known as the Revolt of the Eight Kings broke out and saw one of Shi Chong's literary friends executed, Shi Chong and his henchmen decided to counter-attack. This in the end cost him his life. He is also remembered in association with Lüzhu, a concubine of his and one of the noted beauties of her time. To avoid capture by his enemies after his death, she threw herself off a storeyed building.

         close