trad kingdom simp death_date wg pinyin post title zi birth_date article_title other name
程昱 cao cao 程昱 220 -lrb- aged 79 -rrb- ch ` eng yü chéng yù marquis su -lrb- -rrb- strategist zhongde -lrb- -rrb- 141 cheng yu
 cheng li -lrb- 程立 -rrb- cheng yu
cheng yu

cheng yu -lrb- 141-220 -rrb- , originally named cheng li -lrb- he changed his name to yu -lrb- lit .
`` lifting the sun '' -rrb- , after dreaming of the sun on top of mount tai -rrb- , courtesy name zhongde , was one of the major strategists serving under the warlord cao cao in the late eastern han dynasty .
he died in the same year when the state of cao wei was established by cao cao 's successor cao pi , which marked the start of the three kingdoms period .
cheng yu was described to be a very tall man -lrb- approximately 1.91 m -rrb- with a beautiful long beard .
he was from dong ' e county , dong commandery -lrb- near present day liaocheng , shandong -rrb- .
cheng yu was best known at his time for his abnormal approach to outwit a shortage on grain : instead of sending hostage to yuan shao for food , he advised cao cao to feed the army with human !
he was also noted for his expertise in military tactics , which helped cao cao defeat his rival yuan shao in northern china .
it was widely agreed that his numerous contributions laid the foundation of wei , the reason he was not promoted to the rank of a duke was only because of his fore-mentioned strategy to cope with the food shortage in yan province .
cheng yu was given the posthumous name of `` marquis su '' , meaning `` solemn marquis '' .
cheng yu 's son , cheng wu , continued to serve in wei .
