絺疵 / Chi Ci

Overview

Chi Ci is Zhi Yao’s adviser during the Battle of Jinyang, presented as correctly detecting Wei-Han defection before withdrawing when Zhi Yao compromises the warning.

Current Profile

Chi Ci infers disloyalty from an incentive mismatch: Zhao is close to collapse, yet Wei Ju and Han Hu appear worried rather than pleased. He warns that Zhao’s destruction would leave Wei and Han next in line. Zhi Yao rejects the diagnosis and repeats it to the suspected allies; after reading their changed demeanor, Chi Ci concludes that his own position is unsafe and leaves under the pretext of a mission to Qi.

Key Characteristics

• Reads behavior against expected incentives rather than accepting formal alliance labels.
• Identifies sequential elimination as the allies’ reason to defect.
• Recognizes that a disclosed warning can endanger the adviser as well as the plan.
• Chooses exit when the principal will neither use nor protect accurate counsel.

Evidence

• Defection diagnosis: Chi Ci cites Wei and Han’s anxiety at the moment they should expect victory and predicts that they fear being next. Zhouji 03
• Exit judgment: after Zhi Yao reveals the warning, Chi Ci reads the allies’ behavior and leaves on a nominal Qi mission. Zhouji 03

Qualifications

This is a single-source profile, and its fine-grained reading of facial expression, gait, and private motive is narrative evidence rather than independently verified observation. The source ends before Sima Guang’s full explicit judgment on Zhi Yao’s failure.

What Changed

• Created the profile from the Jinyang evidence.

Relationships

• 智瑶 / Zhi Yao - principal who rejects and exposes his warning.
• 魏驹 / Wei Ju - suspected ally whose incentives Chi Ci reads accurately.
• 韩康子 / Han Kangzi - suspected ally whose incentives Chi Ci reads accurately.
• Threat-Driven Alliance Reversal / 威胁感驱动的同盟反转 - strategic mechanism his warning identifies.
• Court Feedback Collapse / 君臣反馈失灵 - adjacent failure in which usable counsel does not correct leadership.