Yang Yi

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Yang Yi
Traditional Chinese: 楊儀
Simplified Chinese: 杨仪

Yang Yi (? - 235) was a minister of the Three Kingdoms period in China's history. Yang Yi was originally a subject of Cao Wei and later defected to Guan Yu, who sent him to Liu Bei. Liu Bei liked Yang Yi very after talking with him and kept him by naming him as Left General Commanding Officer (左将军兵曹掾), and after becoming an emperor, Liu Bei promoted Yang Yi as Imperial Secretary (尚书). While not a particularly spectacular general, Yang Yi inadvertently weakened the Kingdom of Shu by slaying the general Wei Yan, one of Shu's only truly capable officers.

Yang Yi participated the Northern Expeditions of Shu under the command of the strategist Zhuge Liang. He and Wei Yan did not get along well, and it was only the command of Zhuge Liang that kept them from fighting one another outright.

When Zhuge Liang died during his final campaign against the Kingdom of Wei, both Yang Yi and Wei Yan attempted to succeed him as supreme commander (not knowing that Zhuge had already appointed Jiang Wan to succeed him). Their disagreement finally broke out into a full-fledged battle, which Yang Yi eventually won. He also slew Wei Yan's entire family shortly after.

Yang Yi was later expelled from the court for complaining about his current rank. He was later jailed for his libellous criticism of Shu Han, and committed suicide in prison.

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