程畿 / Cheng Ji (late Han)

Overview

程畿 / Cheng Ji is a late-Han Yi Province official whose wiki role is defined by his refusal to help 庞羲 turn fear of 刘璋 into armed self-protection. He becomes the source case for 守职胜私命: a subordinate can remain willing to serve a superior in office while rejecting an unrighteous mobilization order.

Current Profile

Cheng Ji appears after 赵韪’s revolt has been put down and Pang Xi worries that Liu Zhang will move against him. Pang Xi sends for Cheng Ji and wants him to gather Cong forces, but Cheng Ji argues that slander and suspicion should be met through loyal explanation, not two-heartedness. When threatened, he invokes 乐羊 eating his son during the Zhongshan campaign to say that great public duty can override private attachment. Pang Xi abandons the armed path, apologizes with gifts, and Liu Zhang later promotes Cheng Ji to Jiangyang administrator.

Key Characteristics

• Refuses to treat a superior’s fear as permission for disloyal mobilization.
• Separates legitimate service under Pang Xi from participating in an unrighteous act.
• Uses classical precedent to make his refusal intelligible inside elite moral language.
• De-escalates a local militarization path and is recognized by Liu Zhang afterward.

Evidence

• Loyal-duty refusal: Hanji 1055 has Cheng Ji reject Pang Xi’s request to mobilize Cong people and argue that suspicion should be answered by explanation and loyalty.
• Moral-precedent language: Hanji 1055 reports his Le Yang comparison as a way to subordinate private ties to public duty.
• Political effect: Hanji 1055 says Pang Xi apologizes and Liu Zhang later elevates Cheng Ji to Jiangyang administrator.

Qualifications

The page is bounded to the Hanji 1055 episode. It does not reconstruct Cheng Ji’s full career outside this incident, and it treats the Le Yang comparison as Cheng Ji’s rhetoric rather than proof that every private tie must yield to political office.

What Changed

• Created Cheng Ji as the official-duty refusal case from Hanji 1055.
• Added his role as the exemplar for 守职胜私命.

Relationships

• 庞羲 - superior whose self-protective command Cheng Ji refuses while preserving a service relationship.
• 刘璋 - provincial ruler whose suspicion triggers the crisis and who later rewards Cheng Ji.
• 乐羊 - classical precedent Cheng Ji uses to justify public duty over private attachment.
• 守职胜私命 - concept directly exemplified by Cheng Ji’s refusal.
• 益州 - provincial setting where the incident converts personal suspicion into a governance test.