{ "contentStorage": "postgres", "title": "Sima Lang · Relations", "description": "Sima Lang (171–217), courtesy name Boda, from Wen in Henei, was an elder brother of Sima Yi and an official under Cao Cao who rose to inspector of Yan province. In 217, on the campaign against Wu, a plague broke out at Chaoxiang. He visited the sick soldiers, caught the illness himself and died at forty-seven.", "url": "/en/people/sima-lang-q1074409/relation.html", "entity": { "id": "person_cn_q1074409", "type": "person", "title": "Sima Lang", "slug": "sima-lang-q1074409", "aliases": [ "司马朗" ], "summary": "Sima Lang (171–217), courtesy name Boda, from Wen in Henei, was an elder brother of Sima Yi and an official under Cao Cao who rose to inspector of Yan province. In 217, on the campaign against Wu, a plague broke out at Chaoxiang. He visited the sick soldiers, caught the illness himself and died at forty-seven.", "status": "published", "categories": [ "category-history" ], "tags": [ "tag-ancient-china" ], "sources": [ { "id": "wikidata", "title": "Wikidata Q1074409", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1074409" }, { "id": "zhwiki", "title": "司马朗（维基百科）", "url": "https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B8%E9%A6%AC%E6%9C%97" }, { "id": "zhengshi", "title": "三国志·卷15（维基文库）", "url": "https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%9C%8B%E5%BF%97/%E5%8D%B715" } ], "createdAt": "2026-10-25", "updatedAt": "2026-10-25", "updatedBy": "user:admin", "revision": 3, "body": "Sima Lang was an official under Cao Cao at the end of the Eastern Han and an elder brother of Sima Yi. The Records of the Three Kingdoms say his courtesy name was Boda and that he came from Wen in Henei. Wikidata's Chinese label is also Sima Lang, so the heading stays the personal name. This entry records his life as 171 to 217, with a birthplace at present-day Wen county in Henan.[^wikidata][^zhengshi]\n\n## Youth and the troubled times\n\nThe Sima Biao Xuzhuan quoted in the notes names his grandfather as Sima Jun and his father as Sima Fang, and says he was the eldest of Sima Fang's eight sons, the second being the later Emperor Xuan of Jin, Sima Yi. The Records say that at nine, when a guest addressed his father by his courtesy name, he said that one who treats another's parent lightly shows no respect for his own, and the guest apologized. At twelve he passed the examination in the classics and became a boy gentleman. The examiner thought him too big for his age and suspected him of understating it. He answered that his family had grown tall for generations and that cutting years off his age to get ahead early was no aim of his, and the examiner was impressed. When armies rose in the east, Li Shao, a former inspector of Ji province, wanted to move from Yewang to Wen. Sima Lang warned that moving would unsettle the people. Li Shao did not listen, and the people of the hill border did indeed riot.[^zhengshi]\n\n## Meeting Dong Zhuo and the flight from war\n\nWhen Dong Zhuo moved the emperor to Chang'an, Sima Lang's father was a censor and had to go west. With the land in turmoil, he sent Sima Lang home with the family. Someone denounced Sima Lang as trying to flee and he was brought to Dong Zhuo, who said that he was the same age as his dead son and that he had nearly been betrayed. Sima Lang used the chance to speak of the rising troubles, the boiling provinces and the fleeing people, and begged Dong Zhuo to think again. Knowing Dong Zhuo would fall, and afraid of being held, he gave goods to Dong Zhuo's officials and won leave to go home. At Wen he urged the village elders to move east to Liyang while the roads were still open, where a marriage relative, Zhao Weisun, commanded troops. The elders were attached to the old place and none followed, except Zhao Zi of the same county, who went with his family. A few months later the armies of the east rose, tens of thousands strong, and gathered at Xingyang and Henei. The generals could not agree, soldiers plundered, and nearly half the people died. When the eastern armies dispersed and Cao Cao and Lü Bu faced each other at Puyang, he returned home. A great famine followed, people ate each other, and he looked after his clan and taught his brothers so that the family did not fall in a failing age.[^zhengshi]\n\n## Under Cao Cao\n\nAt twenty-two he was summoned by Cao Cao as a clerk in the office of the minister of works, made magistrate of Chenggao, left because of illness, and then served as chief of Tangyang. His rule was lenient: he used no flogging, and the people did not break the rules. When the county had to build boats, the people who had been moved away came back on their own to help. He then became magistrate of Yuancheng and entered the court as a record keeper to the chancellor. He argued that the collapse of the realm followed from Qin's abolition of the five ranks of nobility and from the commanderies lacking any preparation for drill, and proposed that provinces and commanderies keep troops against the four barbarians and against the disloyal, and also that the well-field system be revived. The proposals were not carried out, though keeping troops in the provinces had been his intention. He became inspector of Yan province, where his government was widely effective. Even on campaign he wore coarse clothes and ate plain food as an example. When Zhong Yao and Wang Can wrote that only a sage can bring about peace, he held that figures like Yi Yin and Yan Hui, though not sages, could bring peace if they were followed by several generations. The note quoting the Wei Shu says Emperor Wen liked his argument and had it copied by the secretaries.[^zhengshi]\n\n## Death and descendants\n\nIn 217 he joined Xiahou Dun, Zang Ba and others in the campaign against Wu. At Chaoxiang a great plague broke out among the soldiers. He went round to see them in person and provided medicine, caught the illness himself, and died at forty-seven. He left orders to be buried in plain cloth and a headscarf in everyday clothes, and the people of Yan province remembered him. When Emperor Ming took the throne, Sima Lang's son Sima Yi (written 遗, a different character from his brother's name) was made Marquis of Changwu with a hundred households. His brother Sima Fu then gave his own son Sima Wang to succeed Sima Lang. After that son died, Sima Wang's son Sima Hong inherited the line. Chen Shou's closing comment praises this group of officials as ones whose reputations matched their substance.[^zhengshi][^zhwiki]\n\n## Basic facts\n\n- Name: Sima Lang[^zhengshi]\n- Courtesy name: Boda[^zhengshi]\n- Dates recorded on this entry: 171–217[^wikidata]\n- Home: Wen, Henei[^zhengshi]\n- Birthplace: [[place_cn_410825|Wen county]][^wikidata]\n- Era: Eastern Han[^wikidata]\n- Portrayal: [[person_cn_q124155359|Sima Lang]] (a character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms)", "url": "/people/sima-lang-q1074409.html", "lang": "en", "availableLangs": [ "zh", "en" ], "birth": { "year": 171, "display": "171" }, "death": { "year": 217, "display": "217" }, "personCategory": "historical figure" }, "entities": null, "relations": [ { "id": "relation_cnpeople_born_q1074409", "fromId": "person_cn_q1074409", "relationType": "born_in", "toId": "place_cn_410825", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "person_cn_q1074409", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "Born in", "targetId": "place_cn_410825", "targetTitle": "Wen County", "targetUrl": "/en/places/wen-410825.html", "incoming": false }, { "id": "relation_cnportray_q124155359", "fromId": "person_cn_q124155359", "relationType": "based_on", "toId": "person_cn_q1074409", "note": "作品中的人物形象，原型为该历史人物。", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "person_cn_q124155359", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "Portrayals", "targetId": "person_cn_q124155359", "targetTitle": "Sima Lang", "targetUrl": "/en/people/sima-lang-sanguo-q124155359-q1074409.html", "incoming": true } ], "mentions": [ { "fromId": "person_cn_q124155359", "fromTitle": "司马朗", "fromUrl": "/en/people/sima-lang-sanguo-q124155359-q1074409.html", "fromType": "person" } ], "relationGroups": [ { "type": "born_in", "label": "出生于", "items": [ { "id": "relation_cnpeople_born_q1074409", "fromId": "person_cn_q1074409", "relationType": "born_in", "toId": "place_cn_410825", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "person_cn_q1074409", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "出生于", "targetId": "place_cn_410825", "targetTitle": "温县", "targetUrl": "/en/places/wen-410825.html", "incoming": false } ] }, { "type": "based_on", "label": "衍生形象", "items": [ { "id": "relation_cnportray_q124155359", "fromId": "person_cn_q124155359", "relationType": "based_on", "toId": "person_cn_q1074409", "note": "作品中的人物形象，原型为该历史人物。", "sourceRefs": [ { "entityId": "person_cn_q124155359", "sourceId": "wikidata" } ], "label": "衍生形象", "targetId": "person_cn_q124155359", "targetTitle": "司马朗", "targetUrl": "/en/people/sima-lang-sanguo-q124155359-q1074409.html", "incoming": true } ] } ], "lang": "en", "availableLangs": [ "zh", "en" ], "infoFields": [ { "key": "birth_date", "label": "Birth", "value": "171" }, { "key": "death_date", "label": "Death", "value": "217" }, { "key": "person_category", "label": "Person category", "value": "historical figure" } ], "pagination": { "page": 1, "pageSize": 50, "total": 2, "pageCount": 1 }, "relationsTotal": 2, "mentionsTotal": 1 }