李邑 / Li Yi (Eastern Han)

Overview

Li Yi / 李邑 is the Eastern Han Wei Hou sent by Emperor Zhang to escort Wusun envoys westward and who becomes the slanderer in the Ban Chao episode. His profile is source-bounded to Hanji 753 and Hanji 705-4, where fear at the frontier turns into a damaging accusation against the commander already holding Shule.

Current Profile

Li Yi reaches Yutian/Khotan while Qiuci is attacking Shule, becomes afraid to advance toward Wusun, and writes back that the Western Regions project cannot succeed. He also attacks Ban Chao’s motives by claiming that Ban Chao is settled abroad with his wife and children and no longer misses the Han center.

Zhangdi rejects the accusation because it conflicts with the behavior of the Han troops still following Ban Chao despite their own homesickness. After Zhangdi tells Ban Chao he may use Li Yi if useful, Ban Chao sends Li Yi back east with the Wusun hostage prince instead of keeping him as a subordinate or punishing him for private satisfaction. Hanji 705-4 supplies the 李邑 spelling and keeps the same mission sequence: fear after hearing of Qiuci’s Shule attack, slander against Ban Chao, imperial trust in Ban Chao, and Ban Chao’s non-retaliatory dispatch.

Key Characteristics

• Mission failure becomes slander: Li Yi’s fear in Yutian/Khotan and refusal to continue toward Wusun are narrated as the immediate source of his pessimistic memorial and personal accusation.
• Motive accusation targets family attachment: his charge tries to reframe Ban Chao’s household presence abroad as proof of disloyal comfort.
• Negative test case for evidence judgment: Zhangdi measures the accusation against observable troop behavior rather than accepting Li Yi’s report at face value.
• Catalyst for non-retaliation: Ban Chao’s handling of Li Yi becomes an example of public duty taking priority over private grievance.
• Stable-route name correction: the wiki keeps the existing LiYiEasternHan route while updating the displayed canonical name to 李邑.

Evidence

• Mission failure and motive accusation: Hanji 753 describes Li Yi reaching Yutian/Khotan, fearing the Qiuci attack on Shule, and reporting both the failure of the Western Regions effort and Ban Chao’s supposed attachment to life abroad.
• Evidence-based rejection: Hanji 753 has Zhangdi ask why the soldiers would still follow Ban Chao if the slander were true.
• Public-duty handling: Hanji 753 presents Ban Chao sending Li Yi back with the Wusun hostage prince, precisely because Li Yi had slandered him and keeping him would satisfy private feeling rather than loyal service.
• Name and mission confirmation: Hanji 705-4 gives the envoy’s name as 李邑, describes the Wusun escort mission, and repeats the Qiuci-Shule fear and slander sequence.

Qualifications

• The current page is not a full biography of Li Yi; it records only the role documented in two overlapping source notes.
• Li Yi’s wider career and relationship to Xu Gan remain source-scoped until additional evidence appears.
• The page treats Li Yi as an accusation case, not as proof that all negative field reports are false.
• The existing route is preserved for link stability. Hanji 705-4 supplies 李邑, while the older source note used 李毅; the page treats them as the same Wei Hou mission actor rather than creating a split.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 705-4 as a confirming source for the Wusun mission, slander sequence, and 李邑 spelling.
• Corrected the visible canonical name to 李邑 while preserving the existing LiYiEasternHan route.
• Kept the page classified as a slander and evidence-testing case rather than a standalone frontier-policy biography.

Relationships

• 班超 / Ban Chao (Eastern Han) - slanders Ban Chao and becomes the object of Ban Chao’s non-retaliatory handling.
• 汉章帝 / Emperor Zhang of Han - reports to Zhangdi and is rebuked when the emperor compares accusation against troop behavior.
• Behavioral Evidence Loyalty Judgment / 以行动证忠 - functions as the negative case that prompts Zhangdi’s behavioral evidence test.
• Public Duty Over Private Grievance / 对事不对人式公义 - provides the grievance Ban Chao refuses to convert into personal retaliation.
• 于阗国 / Khotan Kingdom (late Han) - reaches Yutian/Khotan before turning back from the worsening Western Regions situation.
• 龟兹 / Qiuci Kingdom - Qiuci’s attack on Shule supplies the immediate danger that triggers Li Yi’s fear.
• 疏勒 / Shule Kingdom - the threatened command center whose defense context makes the accusation operationally serious.