Background
It is not known when Gao Jiong was born. His father Gao Bin (高宾/高賓) was an official of Eastern Wei who, in 540, fearful of false accusations against him, fled to Western Wei. Gao Bin served on the staff of the general Dugu Xin (独孤信/獨孤信), and on the orders of Western Wei's paramount general Yuwen Tai in 554, changed his family name to Dugu as well. Because of this connection, after Dugu Xin was forced to commit suicide in 557 after the founding of Western Wei's successor state Northern Zhou, Dugu Xin's daughter Dugu Qieluo often visited Gao Bin's home. Gao Bin eventually served as a provincial governor and died during such a posting.
Gao Jiong was himself skilled in history and rhetoric while young. When he was 16, Yuwen Xian the Prince of Qi made Gao Jiong a member of his staff. He inherited the title of Count of Wuyang that had been created for his father. He apparently served under Yuwen Xian when Yuwen Xian was a major general in the campaign of his brother Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou in destroying rival Northern Qi, (Eastern Wei's successor state) and was promoted to a mid-level post in the imperial govǒernment.
In 580, after the death of Emperor Wu's son Emperor Xuan, Emperor Xuan's father-in-law Yang Jian (Dugu Qieluo's husband) seized power as regent over Emperor Xuan's son Emperor Jing (by Emperor Xuan's concubine Empress Zhu Manyue). Yang Jian, knowing that Gao was intelligent and full of strategies, sent his associate Yang Hui the Duke of Yu to request that Gao join his staff. Gao, seeing that Yang had great ambitions, responded, "I am willing to be driven by him. Even if the Duke's ambitions could not be carried out, I am willing to have my clan slaughtered over this." He therefore agreed to serve as Yang's secretary. When the general Yuchi Jiong, suspicious of Yang's intentions, rebelled at Xiang Province (相州, roughly modern Handan, Hebei), Yang needed someone to oversee the operations against Yuchi, but his associates Cui Zhongfang (崔仲方), Liu Fang (劉昉), and Zheng Yi (鄭譯) each declined. Gao volunteered, and he not oversaw the operations but also personally defeated Yuchi's son Yuchi Chun (尉遲淳). After the major general Wei Xiaokuan defeated Yuchi Jiong and forced Yuchi Jiong to commit suicide, Gao Jiong was created the Duke of Yi'ning. (As Yang soon declared that Yuwen Tai's system of requriing Han officials and generals to change their names to Xianbei should be rescinded, Gao after this point did not use the family name Dugu any more.)
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