崔烈 / Cui Lie (late Han)
Hanji 933 backfills Cui Lie before the later office-churn marker. The episode presents him as a Jizhou notable and tingwei who obtains the situ office after paying five million cash through 程夫人, 汉灵帝’s wet nurse. Emperor Ling’s regret that he might have charged ten million makes Cui Lie’s appointment the source case for 买官名节损耗.
The damage is visible through 崔钧. Cui Jun says people did not previously think Cui Lie unworthy of the Three Excellencies, but after the purchase they describe a “stink” around him. The episode therefore treats Cui Lie as a figure who gains office while losing the public reputation that made the office socially plausible.
Hanji 934 adds the policy consequence after that bought-office branch. Cui Lie proposes abandoning 凉州 because rebellion and tax pressure have made it burdensome, but 傅燮 attacks the proposal as dangerous enough to justify “斩司徒，天下乃安.”
This makes Cui Lie more than a reputational caution. Hanji 934 turns him into the negative case for 弃边失屏: a senior minister reads a troubled frontier as removable cost, while Fu Xie reads the same province as the western shield whose loss would strengthen future enemies.
崔烈 / Cui Lie (late Han) also appears through Hanji 938 as the situ who becomes taiwei after 张温 is removed for ineffective pacification. The same episode later removes Cui Lie and appoints 曹嵩 as taiwei.
Together the two sources make Cui Lie a late-Han office-order marker. Hanji 933 shows appointment credibility weakened by purchase; Hanji 938 shows high-office movement failing to restore crisis capacity during Liangzhou, Youzhou, Wuhuan, Changsha, and Xiongnu-linked disorder.
Connections
- Hanji 933, 程夫人, 崔钧, and 汉灵帝 - bought situ appointment and reputation collapse.
- Hanji 934, 傅燮, 凉州, and 弃边失屏 - proposal to abandon Liangzhou and the court rebuttal.
- 袁隗 - predecessor removed before Cui Lie’s situ appointment in Hanji 933.
- 张温 - predecessor removed after the western pacification failure.
- 曹嵩 - successor as taiwei in the source’s office sequence.
- 买官名节损耗, 朝廷开府任官失序, 名器合法性, and 道德名望政治资本 - adjacent office, title, and reputation frames.