The Di氐

The Di are a separate branch of the Western Yi (西夷). About the time of the Three Dynasties they seem to have had rulers of their own, who came to court once in each reign. So the Book of Songs says, "From those Di and Qiang, none dared not come to the king." Emperor Wu of the Han made an end of them and made their land Wudu commandery. From the Qian and the Wei as far as Ba and Shu their kinds were very many indeed. At the end of the Han there was a Di chief, Yang Ju (楊駒), who first held Baiqing at Chouchi, and his was the strongest of the clans. Afterward they grew stronger by degrees, and he called himself king. By the time of his descendant Zuan (纂) they were destroyed by Fu Jian. When Jian was beaten, a kinsman of theirs, Ding (定), again called himself king. When Ding was killed by Qifu Qiangui, Ding's cousin Sheng (盛) held the country in his place. For generations they received titles and appointments from the house of Wei, and they sent envoys to Jiangzuo as well. But their tribes were scattered, and they revolted or submitted by no fixed rule, so that the country between Long and Han suffered from them many times.

A descendant of Sheng was called Jishi, and the Wei enfeoffed him as king of Wuxing. When Jishi died his son Shaoxian ascended the throne, and then took the great title upon himself. The Wei general Fu Shuyan made an end of him, seized Shaoxian and sent him back to the capital, and made his land the Wuxing garrison. When the house of Wei had not yet settled its capital at Luoyang and all under Heaven fell into disorder, Shaoxian fled back to Wuxing and again set himself up as king. After Taizu had pacified Qin and Long, Shaoxian called himself a vassal and sent his wife and children as hostages. In the first year of Datong Shaoxian asked for his wife and daughter, and Taizu reported it to the emperor of Wei and sent them back. When Shaoxian died his son Bixie ascended the throne.

In the fourth year Fu Anshou, a Di of South Qizhou, rebelled, attacked and took Wudu, and named himself King Taibai. By edict the grand commander Houmochen Shun and Zhangsun Cheng, governor of Weizhou, struck and broke him, and Anshou surrendered with his host. In the ninth year Li Shuren, a Di chieftain of Qingshui, held the steep places and made rebellion, and the Di chief Liang Daoxian revolted and attacked Nanyou; Taizu sent the dianqian Zhao Chang to speak to them, and Shuren and the rest came over one after another. The account is in the chapter on Chang. In the eleventh year East Yizhou was set up at Wuxing, and Bixie was made its governor.

In the fifteenth year the Di of Anyi rebelled once more. Zhao Chang was then commandery governor, and he took the twenty and more ringleaders and beheaded them, and the rest were quieted. So Chang was put in charge of the affairs of South Qinzhou. The Di chief Gai Nao (蓋鬧) and others then led one another into rebellion. Nao held Beigu, his fellow Tan Luo gathered at Taozhong, Yang Xingde and Fu Shuang laid siege to the city of Pingdi, and Jiang Fankuai threw Wujie into disorder; and to the west they made common cause with Liaogan of the Dangchang Qiang and together raised Gai Nao as their lord. Chang sent men by several roads to make ruin and fortune plain to them, and then sent out troops and struck them. He took Gai Nao alive and scattered what was left of his party. When the rebel Di of Xingzhou pressed upon South Qizhou again, its governor Chiluo Xie sent word of the danger, and Chang led troops to the rescue and broke them greatly once more.

Before this, a Di headman, Yang Fashen, held Yinping and called himself king; he too was a descendant of Sheng. In the Xiaochang years of the Wei he brought his host over and submitted, and from that time his tribute and service did not cease. In the first year of the Deposed Emperor, Fashen was made governor of Lizhou in Yinping. In the second year Yang Bixie held his prefecture and rebelled, and the several Di again joined him in defiance. By edict Chiluo Xie and Zhao Chang struck them and put them down. Taizu then made the great general Yuwen Gui grand commander, commissioner for the military affairs of the six prefectures, and governor of Xingzhou. The awe of Gui's name had gone before him, and the several Di feared and obeyed him well enough. That year Yang Fashen followed Yuchi Jiong in pacifying Shu, and when the army came back Fashen returned to his garrison as well. Before long he and the men of his kind, Yang Chongji and Yang Chenzuo, each gathered a host and fell to attacking one another. Zhao Chang was then commissioner for the military affairs of the three prefectures Cheng, Wu, and Sha, and governor of Chengzhou, and he sent men to make peace between them, and Fashen and the rest obeyed the order. Their tribes were then divided, and prefectures and commanderies were set up anew to settle them.

At the end of the reign of Emperor Gong of Wei the Di of Wuxing rebelled and laid siege to Lizhou of the Di country, and Wei Tianwang and the other Di of Gudao in Fengzhou gathered a host in answer. The great general Doulu Ning and others struck them and put them down.

In the time of Shizong, Duan Zha, a man of Xingzhou, and the people of the two counties Xiabian and Baishu rebelled, and together they broke the Langao garrison. The Di chieftain Jiang Duo in turn led the Di and Shu of Chuzhong, attacked and took Luocong commandery, and answered them. Zhao Chang led a host, struck the two counties and put them down, and beheaded Duan Zha as well. But the Di of the two commanderies Yinping and Lubei gathered here and there once more and answered Chuzhong, so Chang picked out crack horsemen, came out where he was not looked for, and went straight into Chuzhong. Reaching Dazhuping, he broke seven stockades one after another and put their headmen to death, and both commanderies surrendered. When Chang went back, the Di of Chuzhong fell to raiding again, and Chang sent the yitong Liu Chongyi and Yuwen Qi to lead troops into Chuzhong and strike them. They broke the Di host greatly and beheaded Jiang Duo and Fu Siwang and the rest. With this the several Di were all put down. When Wang Qian raised troops, the Di chief of Shazhou, the kaifu Yang Yong'an, also held his prefecture and answered Qian, and the great general Daxi Ru struck him and put him down.