瑀 Yǔ

Yu had talent and repute early, and a fine, imposing appearance. He was first enfeoffed as Duke of Longxi Commandery. He followed the emperor to Shu and, on reaching Hechi, was enfeoffed as Prince of Hanzhong and made Defense Commissioner of Shannan West Circuit. At the start of Qianyuan, when the Princess of Ningguo was married to the Uighur qaghan, an edict sent Yu, as Specially Advanced and Chief Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, holding the imperial tally, to invest the Uighur ruler as Weiyuan Qaghan. Yu also understood music. Once, on his way to the morning court, he passed through Yongxing Ward and heard a flute. He turned to his attendants and said: "Is that a musician of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices?" They said: "It is." Another day he recognized the man and asked: "Why do you play lying down?" The flautist, startled, apologized. He also heard Kang Kunlun play the pipa and said: "There is much pi and little pa; he is not yet able to play the great string of fifty-four strands." (Musicians call a stroke plucked upward against the strings pi, and a stroke plucked downward with them pa.) When Suzong ordered the horses of his officials collected to help the war, Yu, Wei Shaoyou and others held that it should not be done. The emperor was angry and demoted him to Administrator of Peng Prefecture. When he died, he was posthumously made Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent, with the posthumous name Xuan. His grandson was Jingjian. Edit