杜密 / Du Mi (late Han)

Overview

杜密 / Du Mi is a late-Han scholar-official whose current profile now begins in the first Party Prohibition field. Hanji 875 presents him as a reputation peer of 李膺, an early recognizer of 郑玄, and a critic of closed-door self-protection. Hanji 884 later places him among renowned worthy figures entering the reform court under 窦妙 / 窦皇太后, 陈蕃, and 窦武, while Hanji 893 leaves him in the later reputation-danger environment.

Current Profile

Du Mi’s profile now joins three roles that had previously been separated: party-prohibition fame, talent recognition, and public-duty ethics. In Hanji 875, Du Mi and Li Ying have similar reputations and are imprisoned together. The same source grounds Du Mi’s名望 in concrete discernment: while serving in the Beihai / Gaomi context, he notices Zheng Xuan, appoints him locally, and sends him toward Luoyang and Taixue study.

The episode also gives Du Mi a sharper ethical profile. Against Liu Sheng’s closed-door posture, Du Mi argues that a士人 should recommend worthy people and expose those who violate the right way. This makes his public reputation more than a passive label; it is tied to active judgment, recommendation, and correction.

Hanji 884 then shows how that reputation can become reform capital when famous士人 enter the court center. Hanji 893 shows the reverse side: the same public reputation can become dangerous once the party network is recoded as a threat. Du Mi therefore functions as a bridge between public-duty ethics, reform hope, and reputation-based exposure.

Key Characteristics

• Renowned late-Han士人 arrested in the first Party Prohibition field alongside Li Ying.
• Talent recognizer whose discernment helps move Zheng Xuan toward the Taixue and later scholarly status.
• Public-duty moralist who rejects closed-door self-protection when recommendation and exposure are possible.
• Reform-cohort figure in the 168 CE court-repair field under Dou Miao, Chen Fan, and Dou Wu.
• Reputation-danger node whose public standing later remains legible inside the party-prohibition accusation field.

Evidence

• First Party Prohibition reputation: Hanji 875 says Du Mi and Li Ying have similar reputations and are imprisoned together.
• Talent recognition: Hanji 875 says Du Mi recognizes Zheng Xuan in the Gaomi setting, gives him local employment, and later sends him to study at Luoyang Taixue.
• Public-duty critique: Hanji 875 says Du Mi criticizes Liu Sheng for not recommending good people or exposing evil, framing private purity without public action as culpable silence.
• Reform-core entry: Hanji 884 places Du Mi with Li Ying, Yin Xun, and Liu Yu among famous worthy figures entering the power center.
• Public hope field: Hanji 884 says the entry of such figures makes士人 expect a peaceful or repaired political order.
• Crackdown-name caution: Hanji 893 keeps Du Mi among minor names in Cao Jie’s accusation-list field, showing later exposure without enough detail for a full case.
• Reputation-peer function: Hanji 893 supports the broader claim that famous士人 reputation can become an arrest or death-risk signal.

Qualifications

The current source notes do not reconstruct Du Mi’s full career, office sequence, family network, or later fate. Hanji 875 renders Zheng Xuan as “郑璇”; this page normalizes to 郑玄 because the Gaomi recognition and later Taixue-scholar sequence match the established route. Liu Sheng and Wang Yu remain source-scoped here pending stronger disambiguating evidence.

What Changed

• Hanji 875 moves Du Mi’s profile earlier into the first Party Prohibition arrest field alongside Li Ying.
• The page now treats Du Mi’s reputation as grounded in talent recognition and public-duty ethics, not only later reform-court visibility.
• The current synthesis connects his anti-withdrawal critique to the later risk that public reputation becomes an accusation handle.

Relationships

• 李膺 - peer in the first Party Prohibition and later famous士人 reputation field.
• 郑玄 - scholar whose early promise Du Mi recognizes and helps route toward Taixue study.
• 士大夫公共责任 - ethical concept exemplified by Du Mi’s duty to recommend worthy people and expose wrongdoing.
• 受罚作为名节凭据 - reputation field in which Du Mi’s imprisonment helps make prison a mark of moral belonging.
• 陈蕃 - reforming senior official whose restored court field later includes Du Mi.
• 窦武 - anti-eunuch powerholder whose coalition creates the 168 CE entry window.
• 名望榜单迫害目标化 - later mechanism that turns public honor into vulnerability.
• 朋党网络谋反化 - accusation frame that makes士人 networks legible as ruler-security threats.