The magistrate of Pingyang County, originally from a poor farming family who passed the imperial exams. He had one wife and three concubines but was deeply frustrated by having twelve daughters with no male heir. After his wife Lady Cao died in childbirth giving birth to their thirteenth child (a daughter), he called the baby a calamity and ordered her to be thrown away. He later learned his second concubine had miscarried a male fetus.
