postgres Sima You (246–283), courtesy name Dayou and childhood name Taofu, was a son of Sima Zhao adopted as heir to Sima Shi and a full younger brother of Emperor Wu of Jin, with the title Prince of Qi. The Book of Jin says his talent and prestige exceeded the emperor's. In his last years Xun Xu and Feng Dan pressed the emperor to send him back to his state, and he fell ill with resentment and died vomiting blood. His posthumous name was Xian.[^wikidata][^zhwiki][^zhengshi] /en/people/sima-you/relation.html person_cn_q1143870 person sima-you 司马攸

Sima You (246–283), courtesy name Dayou and childhood name Taofu, was a son of Sima Zhao adopted as heir to Sima Shi and a full younger brother of Emperor Wu of Jin, with the title Prince of Qi. The Book of Jin says his talent and prestige exceeded the emperor's. In his last years Xun Xu and Feng Dan pressed the emperor to send him back to his state, and he fell ill with resentment and died vomiting blood. His posthumous name was Xian.[^wikidata][^zhwiki][^zhengshi]

published category-history category-people category-historical-figures tag-ancient-china wikidata https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1143870 zhwiki https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B8%E9%A6%AC%E6%94%B8 zhengshi https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%99%89%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7038 2026-10-25T00:00:00+08:00 2026-10-29T17:23:59+08:00 user:admin 7 Sima You was an imperial prince from Cao Wei into the Western Jin. The Book of Jin calls him Prince Xian of Qi, with the given name You and the courtesy name Dayou, and Wikidata's Chinese label is 司馬攸, so the title stays his personal name. This entry records his life as 246 to 283.[^wikidata][^zhengshi] ## Early years The Book of Jin says he was quick and clever as a child, and as an adult was mild and fair, close to the worthy and generous, fond of the classics, able in composition and skilled at letters, and a model for his age. His talent and prestige exceeded Emperor Wu's, and Sima Yi, the Emperor Xuan, valued him. Sima Shi, the Emperor Jing, had no son and made him his heir. He went on the campaign against Wang Ling and was made Marquis of Changle Pavilion. When Sima Shi died he was ten, and his grief moved those around him and was much admired. He inherited the title Marquis of Wuyang. He served the dowager Empress Yang Huiyu at a separate residence and became known for filial devotion, then served as mounted attendant and colonel of the infantry, and at eighteen calmed his camps with authority and kindness. When the five ranks were set up he was changed to Marquis of Anchang and became general of the guards. In mourning for Emperor Wen, Sima Zhao, he grieved beyond what ritual asked and could rise only with a staff. When those around him brought him rice, he wept and would not take it, until the empress dowager came in person to urge him and his clerk Ji Xi argued with him, and only then did he force himself to eat.[^zhengshi] ## Prince of Qi When Emperor Wu took the throne Sima You was made Prince of Qi. The court was newly founded, and he commanded the armies and calmed the realm inside and out, and everyone looked to him. When the court debated letting princes choose the senior officers of their states, he submitted a memorial against it, which was turned down three times. Later, when his chancellor reported vacancies in the state's senior posts and the secretary asked to nominate people, Sima You ordered that appointing officials was a matter for the court, not something the state should decide, and that the chancellor should petition the court. At the time princes' households were fed and clothed from the imperial stores. He wrote that the rents of his state were enough for himself and asked to stop this more than ten times, and the emperor refused each time. Although he never went to his state, he divided its taxes to pay its civil and military staff down to the soldiers, and gave gifts for sickness and death. When floods or droughts came, he lent grain to the people of the state, collected only in a good year, and cut the amount by a fifth.[^zhengshi] He rose to general of the agile cavalry with the right to open an office, treated as equal to the three excellencies, humble and trusting with others. When the rank required him to disband his camp troops, several thousand soldiers were so attached to his kindness that they refused to leave, and the emperor gave him back his troops. He then became general who guards the army, was given the rank of palace attendant, served as acting junior tutor and then grand tutor of the crown prince, and offered the prince an admonition in verse. In the second year of Xianning he succeeded Jia Chong as minister of works. In court debate he spoke with all his heart; on years of famine, for example, he urged strict orders to prefectures to check false claims that harmed farming, and to forbid extravagance and idle living in the capital.[^zhengshi] ## His fall and death The Book of Jin says Sima Zhao especially loved him, often patting the couch and calling him by his childhood name, saying it was Taofu's seat, and nearly made him heir. As he lay dying he wept as he told Emperor Wu the stories of the Prince of Huainan of Han and Cao Zhi of Wei, put Sima You's hand into the emperor's, and urged the brothers to live in peace. In the emperor's later years his sons were young and the crown prince was weak, and officials inside and out looked to Sima You. Xun Xu, director of the secretariat, and Feng Dan, attendant, advanced themselves by flattery, and Sima You had long despised them. Fearing that he would succeed, they told the emperor that the crown prince could not be established, because all the officials had turned to the Prince of Qi, and that if he were told to go to his state the whole court would say it could not be done. Feng Dan added that if the princes were to be sent to their states, one should begin with the closest relative, and no one was closer than the Prince of Qi. The emperor believed them, and in the third year of Taikang issued an edict appointing him grand marshal with command over Qing province and sending him back to Qi. Sima You was displeased, knew it was Xun Xu and Feng Dan who had plotted against him, fell ill from anger and asked to guard the tombs of the former empress, which was refused. The emperor sent court physicians, who guessed his wishes and all said there was no illness. As the illness worsened he was still pressed to depart. He forced himself to go and take leave, still kept up his dress and bearing and acted as usual, so the emperor suspected him of feigning. Two nights after leaving the palace he vomited blood and died.[^zhengshi] The Book of Jin says he was thirty-six when he died, that the emperor wept bitterly, and that Feng Dan, standing beside him, said the Prince of Qi's name exceeded his reality and the realm had turned to him, so that his death was good fortune for the state, at which the emperor wiped away his tears. His funeral followed the precedent of Sima Fu, Prince of Anping, and he was given a place at the imperial ancestral temple. His son Sima Jiong succeeded him. Chinese Wikipedia gives the date of his death as the guichou day of the third month of the fourth year of Taikang, 27 April 283, at the age of thirty-eight, and adds that the emperor later executed the physicians after Sima Jiong told him they had lied that his father was not ill, and that his posthumous name was set as Xian. The sources do not agree on his age, thirty-six in the Book of Jin and thirty-eight in Chinese Wikipedia, and Wikidata's English description even gives 248 as the year of birth, so this entry does not try to reconcile them and uses only Wikidata's structured dates of 246 and 283.[^zhengshi][^zhwiki][^wikidata] ## Character The Book of Jin says he restrained himself by ritual and rarely erred. When he borrowed a book he would correct its mistakes by hand before returning it. He was unusually sincere, and was moved to tears whenever something touched on his parents' names, and even Emperor Wu respected and feared him, choosing his words carefully when they were together. He had three sons, Sima Rui (司马蕤), Sima Zan (司马赞) and Sima Shi (司马寔), and the Book of Jin has a separate biography of his son Sima Jiong.[^zhengshi] ## Basic facts - Name: Sima You, courtesy name Dayou, childhood name Taofu[^zhengshi][^zhwiki] - Life: 246 to 283[^wikidata] - Title: Prince of Qi, posthumous name Xian[^zhengshi] - Description: Cao Wei official and Western Jin imperial prince[^wikidata] - State or dynasty: Cao Wei, Western Jin[^wikidata] - Derived figure: [[person_cn_q124732043|Sima You]] (character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms) /people/sima-you.html en zh en 246 246 283 283 historical figure relation_cnportray_q124732043 person_cn_q124732043 based_on person_cn_q1143870 作品中的人物形象，原型为该历史人物。 person_cn_q124732043 wikidata Portrayals person_cn_q124732043 Sima You /en/people/sima-you-sanguo-q124732043.html true person_cn_q124732043 Sima You /en/people/sima-you-sanguo-q124732043.html person based_on Portrayals relation_cnportray_q124732043 person_cn_q124732043 based_on person_cn_q1143870 作品中的人物形象，原型为该历史人物。 person_cn_q124732043 wikidata Portrayals person_cn_q124732043 Sima You /en/people/sima-you-sanguo-q124732043.html true en zh en birth_date Birth 246 death_date Death 283 person_category Person category historical figure 1 50 1 1 1 1