尹齐 / Yin Qi (Western Han)

Overview

尹齐 / Yin Qi is a Western Han cruel official whom the current source portrays as personally clean, willing to pursue major cases, and exceptionally severe. His case separates incorruptibility from sustainable administration: fear reportedly made officials stop acting, while accumulated killing left enemies seeking revenge even after his death.

Current Profile

Hanji 348-1 introduces Yin Qi as an official used by 汉武帝 and included in 司马迁’s cruel-official frame. He is credited with investigating major cases, imposing severe judgments, and remaining financially clean, but the episode also says his strict capital administration made both officials and commoners fearful.

That fear is presented as administratively costly rather than merely unpleasant. Officials allegedly stopped taking action, government business deteriorated, and Yin was removed for inability to perform the office. He later died while serving as Huainan commandant. The episode says enemies from Suiyang whom he had harmed or whose community he had heavily punished then sought to burn his corpse, so his family secretly moved it for burial.

The current profile is therefore narrower than a full biography. It supports a contrast between private probity and proportionate public power: a clean official can still make institutions passive and leave hatred that outlives formal authority.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han official represented within the cruel-official tradition.
• Personally clean in the episode’s account, with a modest estate at death.
• Willing to investigate major cases and impose severe punishment.
• Creates enough fear that officials reportedly stop acting and government work deteriorates.
• Loses office after severity becomes an administrative liability.
• Leaves accumulated enmity active after death, culminating in an alleged attempt to burn his corpse.

Evidence

Cleanliness and coercive office:

• Hanji 348-1 describes Yin Qi as severe but clean, trusted by Han Wudi, and willing to handle major cases.

Administrative paralysis:

• Hanji 348-1 says officials became afraid to act under his strict control, government business declined, and he was removed.

Posthumous retaliation:

• Hanji 348-1 says Suiyang enemies sought to burn Yin’s corpse after his death and that his family secretly moved it for burial.

Qualifications

The page rests on one compact popular-history source rather than a complete biography or legal dossier. The exact offices, dates, cases, victim totals, relationship between fear and administrative delay, reason for removal, estate unit, Huainan posting, identity of the Suiyang enemies, attempted corpse burning, and burial sequence require primary-text comparison. Clean finances do not establish lawful or proportionate punishment, while the corpse story should not be treated as proof of every accusation made against him.

What Changed

• Created the disambiguated Western Han entity, separate from the existing AI entrepreneur Yin Qi.
• Established the current judgment that personal cleanliness and case-handling ability do not offset administrative paralysis or accumulated retaliatory hatred.

Relationships

• Emperor Wu of Han / 汉武帝 - ruler whose trust and appointments place Yin Qi inside Western Han coercive government.
• 司马迁 / Sima Qian - historian whose cruel-official tradition frames Yin Qi in the episode.
• 张汤 / Zhang Tang (Western Han) - comparison figure whose ruler-aligned legal adaptability represents a different cruel-official path.
• 赵禹 / Zhao Yu (Western Han) - comparison figure whose late softening and safe death contrast with Yin Qi’s posthumous exposure.
• 酷吏工具化统治 / Harsh Official Instrumental Rule - institutional relationship because personal severity operates through state appointment and office.
• 恐怖治理反噬 / Terror Rule Backfire - consequence relationship because fear suppresses initiative and stored hostility survives the official’s death.