during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China.
Life
Yang Xiu was the son of Yang Biao (楊彪) and a grandson of Yang Ci (楊賜). His mother, Lady Yuan (袁氏), was Yuan Shu's sister.
Sometime during the 200s, Yang Xiu was nominated as xiaolian and became a Registrar (主簿) under Cao Cao, the Imperial Chancellor. He was said to have been skilled in both civil and military affairs and understood Cao Cao well. Because of this, Yang Xiu became an influential figure in the government.
Yang Xiu was a close friend of Cao Cao's son, Cao Zhi, and became involved in the succession struggle between Cao Zhi and his brother Cao Pi. Yang Xiu's close links with Cao Zhi caused him misfortune during Cao Zhi's occasional misbehaviour such as the incident in Ye city, where Cao Zhi drunkenly rode through the gate reserved for only the emperor. But the final blow was when Yang Xiu was discovered to have leaked the council's discussion agenda to Cao Zhi so that his friend could prepare beforehand and impress Cao Cao. Because of this and remembering his connection with Yuan Shu, Cao Cao had Yang Xiu executed.
However Cao Pi personally did not dislike Yang Xiu. Cao Pi's favourite sword was a gift from Yang Xiu and was regularly kept aside by Cao Pi. Later, after became the emperor, Cao Pi remembered that Yang Xiu once said the sword was originally belong to Wang Miao. A nostalgic Cao Pi then searched for Wang Miao's whereabout and awarded Miao with food and clothes.
Yang Xiu's death was commonly related to the story of "chicken ribs", which was once mentioned in Pei Songzhi's annotation of the Sanguozhi, and was popularized by the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It was thought that Xiu died not really because his relationship with Cao Zhi, but because he correctly guessed the hidden thinking of Cao Cao, which was taboo, and carelessly told this thinking to other people, which was even more forbidden. People like Cao Cao always wanted to mystified themselves and had political secrets which could not be arbitrarily shared with anyone, hence subordinates like Yang Xiu were considered as an imminent threat.
Prior to Yang Xiu's death, Cao Cao had written a letter to his father Yang Biao, reproaching him for his son's arrogance. After news of his execution, Yang Biao was struck by grief and self-blame, becoming gray-haired and thin. Upon hearing this, Cao Cao sent Yang Biao many gifts to compensate for the loss of his son.
Anecdotes
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms
In the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao thinks that Yang Xiu is too boastful and overconfident in his cleverness, and eventually kills him after what is known as the "chicken rib" incident.
At that time Cao Cao's army was fighting against Liu Bei during the famous Hanzhong campaign. The battle had been unfavourable for Cao Cao and he planned to retreat, but did not openly admit that the battle is lost. In one night, when a messenger as for the night verbal code, Cao Cao saw some chicken ribs in his supper soup and thoughtlessly answered "chicken rib". Yang Xiu immediately seen Cao Cao's message as a metaphor for "retreat" and told all generals to make the soldiers pack their bags and get ready to retreat. The intepretaing of Xiu is that: the chicken ribs is not tasty and not favourable but it is not completely worthless, which is similar to the difficult situation that Cao Cao was facing. When Cao Cao was alerted of Yang Xiu's action, he became immensely angered and executed Yang Xiu.
Later on, as the battle became even more unfavourable, Cao Cao finally made a retreat. At that time Cao Cao remembered Xiu's word, he then had Xiu's body collected and made a proper funeral for Xiu.
In an earlier chapter, Yang Xiu was described by Mi Heng as one of the two sole "talented" officials under Cao Cao (the other being Kong Rong). This however should be taken with a grain of salt, as Mi Heng's expressed opinions on other characters, as well as his own actions and the disaster that befell him because of them, make him appear as a poor judge of character.
Yang Xiu (175–219), courtesy name Dezu, was an official and adviser serving under the warlord Cao Cao during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China.