Si Huy

The old chronicles say

Si Nhiep died, and what he had built collapsed at once, in his son’s generation. According to the biography of Si Nhiep, Sun Quan split the province in two and sent Tran Thi to replace Si Nhiep as governor of Giao Chi. Si Huy declared himself governor of Giao Chi and sent out his clan’s troops to resist. An official whom Si Nhiep himself had promoted, Hoan Lan, knocked his head on the ground to remonstrate, and Huy had him flogged to death.¹

By the same biography, Lu Dai sent Si Khuong, the son of Si Nhat and an old friend of Dai’s, to persuade Huy to accept punishment: he would lose his office, but he was guaranteed to have nothing else to fear. Huy and his brothers, six men, came out stripped to the waist to meet him; the next morning Dai set up curtains and a tent, invited them in one after another, read out an edict listing their crimes, and had them bound, dragged out and killed, their heads sent to Wuchang. The biography of Lu Dai tells it differently: Sun Quan does not simply strip Huy of office but makes him General Who Brings Peace to Distant Lands, governing Cuu Chan; there is no Si Khuong and no promise — when Huy hears that Dai is coming he is afraid, leads his brothers, six men, out stripped to the waist to meet him, and Dai beheads them all.¹²

The same writer, two books, two ways to die; the records read give no grounds for saying which is right. Chen Shou, in his verdict at the end of the book, writes that Si Nhiep held the land of Nam Viet and lived at ease all his life, but in his son’s generation carelessness brought disaster down on them, and closes: this is what comes of a man of ordinary talent who covets wealth and rank and relies on rugged terrain. Ngo Si Lien, in the Complete Annals, rebukes Huy for killing the man who remonstrated, and also rebukes Lu Dai for coaxing them to surrender and then killing them.³⁴