刑颙 / Xing Yong (late Han)

Overview

刑颙 is a strict late-Han official assigned to Cao Zhi’s household, presented as the corrective counselor whose practical value survives his principal’s dislike and political decline.

Current Profile

Hanji 1149 describes Xing Yong as ceremonially strict, serious, and unwilling to flatter 曹植. 刘桢 compares literary ornament with seasonal flowers and Xing Yong’s useful counsel with fruit, arguing that Cao Zhi is neglecting the more durable contribution.

After Cao Zhi loses standing, Xing Yong’s career continues because the episode grounds it in rectitude and clean administration rather than factional dependence on the prince. He is reported to reach the office of taichang and die without sharing Cao Zhi’s political fall.

Key Characteristics

• Provides strict rather than pleasing counsel.
• Represents useful correction over ornamental admiration.
• Maintains an independent reputation for ritual rectitude and clean conduct.
• Survives the decline of the principal he was assigned to advise.

Evidence

• Hanji 1149 supplies the household assignment, Cao Zhi tension, Liu Zhen comparison, and later career summary.

Qualifications

The episode gives a compact moral and career portrait rather than a complete administrative biography. Exact offices, dates, dialogue, and assessments of reputation remain source-scoped.

What Changed

• Established Xing Yong as a corrective-counsel and reputation-independence case.

Relationships

• 曹植 - prince whose formation Xing Yong is assigned to support.
• 曹操 - ruler who reportedly selects Xing Yong for that role.
• 刘桢 - literary figure who defends Xing Yong’s practical value.
• 政治托付中的自制力 - reliability frame that makes corrective counsel politically important.