Dong He was an official at the end of the Eastern Han and in the early years of Shu Han. The Records of the Three Kingdoms say his courtesy name was Youzai, that he came from Zhijiang in Nanjun, and that his ancestors were originally from Jiangzhou in Ba commandery, so the title stays his personal name. This entry records his death in 221; his birth year is not given.[1][3]
Under Liu Zhang
At the end of the Han, Dong He led his clan west into Yi province. The governor Liu Zhang appointed him magistrate of Niubi, then of Jiangyuan, and then prefect of Chengdu. Shu was rich and fashionable at the time, and wealthy families dressed and ate lavishly and spent their fortunes on weddings and funerals. Dong He set the example himself by dressing plainly and eating simply, and he set rules against excess. Wherever he served the customs improved, and people feared him enough not to offend. Powerful local families, afraid of his strict law, persuaded Liu Zhang to move him to be commandant of the Badong dependent state. Officials and common people, old and young, in the thousands begged to keep him, and Liu Zhang let him stay two more years before promoting him to grand administrator of Yizhou, where he was as frugal as before. In dealing with the tribes he tried to act in good faith, and people in the south loved and trusted him.[3]
Under Liu Bei
When Liu Bei settled Shu he summoned Dong He as colonel who commands the army and had him run the offices of the general of the left and the grand marshal together with the military advisor Zhuge Liang. They offered what was possible and checked what was not, and got on well. Chen Shou notes that over more than twenty years he governed distant regions outside and handled central affairs inside, and that on the day he died his household had not even a small store of grain.[3]
Zhuge Liang's remembrance
When Zhuge Liang was later chancellor, he instructed his subordinates that joint administration exists to gather many opinions, and that avoiding small friction and refusing to argue things back and forth causes loss. He said that Dong Youzai had shared the office for seven years and, when something was not right, would come back as many as ten times to tell him. If anyone could imitate a tenth of Xu Yuanzhi's clarity and Youzai's earnestness and be loyal to the state, he himself would make fewer mistakes. He added that he first befriended Cui Zhouping, then Xu Yuanzhi, then worked with Youzai, who said everything he thought, and later with Hu Ji, who often urged him to stop; these four had remained on good terms with him to the end. Chen Shou says Zhuge Liang remembered Dong He in just this way.[3]