Early Career
Sima Yong was the grandson of Sima Fu Prince Xian of Anping, the younger brother of Sima Yi and granduncle to Jin Dynasty's founder, Emperor Wu. His father Sima Gui (司馬瑰) was the Prince of Taiyuan, and after his death, Sima Yong inherited his principality. In 276, he was sent to his principality (roughly modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), but in 277 his principality was moved to Hejian (河間, roughly modern Cangzhou, Hebei). He became known for his knack for finding capable associates, and when he visited Lthe capital Luoyang on an official visit, Emperor Wu became impressed by him and stated that he could be a good example to other princes. In 299, during the reign of Emperor Hui, he was put in charge of defending the important city of Chang'an -- a post which Emperor Wu had left instructions that only someone who was closely related to the emperor should be allowed to take, but which the high level officials found appropriate for Sima Yong due to his reputation.
Read more about this topic: Sima Yong
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“Today’s pressures on middle-class children to grow up fast begin in early childhood. Chief among them is the pressure for early intellectual attainment, deriving from a changed perception of precocity. Several decades ago precocity was looked upon with great suspicion. The child prodigy, it was thought, turned out to be a neurotic adult; thus the phrase “early ripe, early rot!””
—David Elkind (20th century)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)