于定国 / Yu Dingguo

Overview

于定国 / Yu Dingguo enters the wiki through Hanji 524 as the father of 于永 and a Western Han senior official whose career background helps explain Yu Yong’s prestige. Hanji 417 adds an earlier Dijie 1 / 69 BCE legal-career layer: Yu becomes tingwei and is praised for cautious, fair handling of doubtful cases. Hanji 471 adds his Chuyuan 3 policy role supporting 贾捐之’s proposal to abandon 珠崖郡 and Dan’er rather than launch another costly campaign. Hanji 476 adds the Yongguang 1 / 43 BCE exit scene: after cold, crop failure, famine, and displacement, Yu resigns alongside 史高 and 薛广德, and 汉元帝 accepts it with honor gifts.

Current Profile

The source set now gives Yu Dingguo as more than a high-status predecessor. Hanji 417 makes his judicial temperament visible before the later chancellorship: as tingwei, he treats doubtful or weakly evidenced cases with restraint, and the episode says both court and common people take reassurance from that fairness. Hanji 524 says he later replaces Huang Ba as chancellor, is enfeoffed as Xiping Hou, remains respected after Han Yuan’s accession, and is allowed to retire with carriage, horses, and gold. Hanji 471 gives one concrete policy judgment before that retirement: Yu sides with Jia Juanzhi’s capacity-bound argument that Zhuya and Dan’er should be abandoned under famine and campaign-cost pressure. Hanji 476 places his eventual retirement in a disaster-accountability sequence, where resignation absorbs political responsibility after a famine shock. He dies in his seventies, and Hanji 524 treats that end as relatively fortunate.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han senior official and father of 于永.
• Tingwei whose judicial reputation in Hanji 417 rests on caution, fairness, and leniency under evidentiary doubt.
• Replaces Huang Ba as chancellor in the episode’s retrospective.
• Receives the Xiping Hou title and retains respect under Han Yuan.
• Supports Jia Juanzhi’s Zhuya-abandonment recommendation against a suppression line.
• Resigns during the Yongguang 1 disaster-accountability sequence and retires with honor gifts.
• Dies in old age, treated by Hanji 524 as a relatively fortunate official end.

Evidence

Judicial office and temperament:

• Hanji 417 says Yu Dingguo becomes tingwei in Dijie 1 / 69 BCE.
• Hanji 417 says he handles difficult cases impartially and gives lighter judgments where evidence is not firm.
• Hanji 417 says the court praises him and common people feel safer from wrongful conviction.

Chancellor succession and honor:

• Hanji 524 says Yu Dingguo replaces Huang Ba as chancellor.
• Hanji 524 says he is enfeoffed as Xiping Hou.

Policy judgment:

• Hanji 471 says Yu Dingguo supports Jia Juanzhi’s proposal to abandon Zhuya and Dan’er while Cheng Wannian favors suppression.

Retirement and disaster exit:

• Hanji 524 says Han Yuan gives him carriage, horses, and gold to retire.
• Hanji 476 says Yu Dingguo resigns after severe cold, ruined crops, famine, and displacement, and Yuan accepts the resignation with a four-horse carriage and sixty jin of gold.

Longevity:

• Hanji 524 says he dies in his seventies.

Qualifications

This page is source-scoped to Yu Dingguo’s tingwei reputation in Hanji 417, his role as Yu Yong’s career background in Hanji 524, his Zhuya policy stance in Hanji 471, and his resignation context in Hanji 476. It still does not reconstruct his full legal docket, complete chancellorship, family line, or broader Western Han reputation.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 417’s tingwei layer, filling in the previously missing legal-career profile through cautious treatment of doubtful cases.

Relationships

• 于永 - son whose appointment prompts the retrospective.
• 汉宣帝 - ruler under whom Yu Dingguo’s tingwei role appears in Hanji 417.
• 汉元帝 - ruler who accepts Yu Dingguo’s resignation and honors his retirement.
• 贾捐之 - memorialist whose Zhuya-abandonment proposal Yu supports.
• 珠崖郡 - frontier commandery at the center of Yu’s policy stance.
• 史高 and 薛广德 - fellow senior officials resigning in the same disaster sequence.
• 西汉 - dynastic setting for Yu Dingguo’s officeholding.