Yu Di - Background and Early Career

Background and Early Career

It is not known when Yu Di was born, but it is known that his family was from Henan Municipality (河南, i.e., the region of the Tang Dynasty eastern capital Luoyang). His family traced its ancestry to the prominent Xianbei clan Moniuyu (万鈕于) of Northern Wei, which changed its name to Yu when Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei had the Xianbei clans' names changed to Han names. Among Yu Di's ancestors were generals and officials of Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui Dynasty, and Tang, including the prominent Northern Zhou general Yu Jin (于謹). Yu Di's grandfather Yu Wang (于汪) served as the director of the archival bureau, while his father Yu Xiong (于敻) served as a military advisor to a prefectural prefect.

It was said that because of his heritage, Yu Di was made an imperial guard officer at the start of his official career, and then as the sheriff of Huayin County (華陰, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi). The surveyor of the circuit, Liu Wan (劉灣), later invited him to serve as assistant; yet later, while he was serving as the secretary general of Liyang County (櫟陽, in modern Xi'an, Shaanxi), he served under the senior official Zhang Yi at a treaty signing with Tufan. Thereafter, he served as Simen Yuanwailang (司門員外郎), a low-level official at the ministry of justice (刑部, Xingbu), as well as Shiyushi (侍御史), a low-level imperial censor. He later again served on a diplomatic mission with the Tufan, and was said to have served well and been highly regarded as a result. He later served as the magistrate of Chang'an County (one of the two counties making up the Tang capital Chang'an) and then as Jiabu Langzhong (駕部郎中), a supervisorial official at the ministry of rites (禮部, Libu).

Later, he was sent out of Chang'an to serve as the prefect of Hu Prefecture (湖州, in modern Huzhou, Zhejiang). Within his territory was a lake that, during the time of the Southern Dynasties, provided irrigation water for a large area, but which since then had become abandoned. Yu ordered that its reconstruction be carried out, and thereafter, the people received not only the benefits of irrigation but also of fishing. As the prefecture did not have much usable land, many human corpses went unburied, and Yu established more than 10 burial sites for the bodies. He later served as the prefect of Su Prefecture (蘇州, in modern Suzhou, Jiangsu), and it was said that the irrigation ditches and the streets that he constructed were still heavily relied upon at the time that the Book of Tang was written — i.e., during Later Jin Dynasty. Believing that there were too many odd temples in his territory, he had them destroyed, leaving only the temples of Wu Taibo and Wu Zixu. However, while Yu was said to be able as a prefect, he was also said to be cruel and unreasonable at times, often caning people, particularly when he was at Hu Prefecture. His superior, the circuit governor (觀察使, Guanchashi) Wang Wei (王緯) reported this to then-reigning Emperor Dezong, but Emperor Dezong took no actions against Yu. (After Yu was later promoted several times, he wrote a letter to Wang to brag, "After I received your poor comments, I was promoted three times.") Yu was later promoted to be Dali Qing (大理卿), the chief judge of the superior court, and yet later served as the governor of Shan'guo Circuit (陝虢, headquartered in modern Sanmenxia, Henan). As he believed that he was becoming powerful, he was further abusing his power and being cruel, punishing many of his subordinates daily with heavy punishments. On one occasion, a secretary, Yao Xian (姚峴), becoming distressed over Yu's cruelty, jumped into a river (probably Yellow River) to his death while rowing on the river with his brother.