Yu Fan was a classical scholar and official of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period. The Records of the Three Kingdoms say his courtesy name was Zhongxiang and that he came from Yuyao in Kuaiji. Wikidata's Chinese label is also Yu Fan, so the heading stays the personal name. This entry records his life as 164 to 233, with a birthplace at present-day Yuyao in Zhejiang.[1][3]
Early years and Sun Ce
The Records say that Wang Lang, grand administrator of Kuaiji, made him a clerk of merit. When Sun Ce marched on Kuaiji Yu Fan was in mourning for his father. He came to the office gate in mourning dress, took it off to go in, and urged Wang Lang to avoid Sun Ce. Wang Lang would not listen, was defeated and fled by sea. Yu Fan followed and protected him as far as Houguan, where the county chief shut the gates until Yu Fan went and persuaded him to let them in. Wang Lang then told Yu Fan that he had an old mother and should go home. After he returned, Sun Ce reappointed him clerk of merit and treated him as a friend, even visiting his house. Sun Ce liked riding out to hunt, and Yu Fan warned him that a ruler who is not grave has no authority; Sun Ce agreed that he was right. Yu Fan later became chief of Fuchun. When Sun Ce died and the officials of the counties all wanted to go to the funeral, Yu Fan said hill people in neighboring counties might cause trouble and stayed to mourn in his own county. The other counties followed, and the region stayed calm. The province later recommended him as a talented scholar, the Han court summoned him as imperial censor, and Cao Cao called him to the office of the minister of works, but he took none of these posts.[3]
Under Sun Quan
Sun Quan made him cavalry commandant. He repeatedly remonstrated to Sun Quan's face and Sun Quan was not pleased. He was also out of step with the customs of the day and was often slandered, and was exiled to Jing county in Danyang. When Lü Meng planned to take Guan Yu's territory, he feigned illness and went back to Jianye, and asked to take Yu Fan along on the grounds that Yu Fan knew medicine, which was also a way to have him released. When Lü Meng's army went up west and the grand administrator of Nan commandery, Mi Fang, opened the city to surrender, Lü Meng played music on the sand before taking the city. Yu Fan reminded him that not everyone in the city could be trusted and that he should go in and take control first. Lü Meng followed this, and there turned out to be an ambush in the city that his warning prevented. After Guan Yu's defeat Sun Quan had him divine, and he said that within two days Guan Yu would be beheaded, which came true. Sun Quan said he was no match for Fu Xi but could be compared to Dongfang Shuo.[3]
Blunt speech and its cost
The Records tell how the Wei general Yu Jin had been taken prisoner by Guan Yu, and Sun Quan freed him and rode out with him side by side. Yu Fan rebuked Yu Jin as a surrendered captive who dared ride level with his lord and was about to strike him with a whip, but Sun Quan stopped him. Later Yu Jin wept at the music at a banquet on the ship, and Yu Fan said he was seeking pardon by pretense, which displeased Sun Quan. After Sun Quan became King of Wu, at the end of a feast he rose to pour wine himself, and Yu Fan lay on the floor pretending to be drunk and would not take it. When Sun Quan left, Yu Fan got up and sat again. Sun Quan was furious and drew his sword to strike him. The minister of agriculture Liu Ji got up and held him back with a remonstrance, and Yu Fan was spared. Meeting Mi Fang on the river, he once shouted at him that one who had lost loyalty and good faith had no right to serve a lord, and when a gate was shut against his carriage at Mi Fang's camp, he again protested, so that Mi Fang looked ashamed. He was open and had many lapses when drunk. When Sun Quan and Zhang Zhao spoke of immortals, he pointed at Zhang Zhao and said they were all dead men talking about immortals, and that there were no immortals in the world. Sun Quan's anger had piled up over time, and he finally moved Yu Fan to Jiaozhou.[3]
Exile and death
The Records say that although he was in exile he never tired of teaching, and often had several hundred pupils. He also wrote commentaries on the Laozi, the Analects and the Guoyu that were passed down. The notes quote the Fan Biezhuan with his memorial on his own commentary on the Changes and another pointing out errors in Zheng Xuan's commentary on the Book of Documents. He spent more than ten years in the south and died at seventy. His body was returned to his old grave and his wife and children were allowed to go home. The Jiangbiao zhuan in the notes says that when Sun Quan's expedition to Liaodong lost many men in a storm, he regretted it, called Yu Fan a straight speaker and the Zhou She of the state, and ordered him found, but Yu Fan had already died.[3]