Yin Mo


Yin Mo, courtesy name Siqian, was a Confucian scholar and official of the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period of China.

Life

Yin Mo was from Fu County, Zitong Commandery, which is located east of present-day Mianyang, Sichuan. At the time, many people in Yi Province preferred contemporary writing over ancient prose, which they were very unfamiliar with. Yin Mo travelled east to Jing Province with Li Ren, who was from the same hometown as him, to learn ancient prose from Sima Hui and Song Zhong. He became well versed in Confucian classics and history and specialised in the Zuo Zhuan. He followed in the footsteps of earlier scholars such as Liu Xin, who used the Zuo Zhuan to explain the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Zheng Zhong and Jia Kui, who annotated the Zuo Zhuan. Yin Mo's works became so popular that readers did not need to refer to the original version after reading his annotated works.
In 214, after the warlord Liu Bei seized control of Yi Province from its governor Liu Zhang, he appointed Yin Mo as an Assistant Officer of Education. In 221, Liu Bei declared himself emperor and founded the state of Shu Han, after which he designated his son Liu Shan as the Crown Prince. Yin Mo, who was appointed as the Crown Prince's Coachman, tutored Liu Shan in the Zuo Zhuan and Confucian classics. Liu Bei died in 223 and was succeeded by Liu Shan, who appointed Yin Mo as a Counsellor Remonstrant in the Shu imperial court. Around 227, when the Shu chancellor-regent Zhuge Liang garrisoned military forces in Hanzhong in preparation for a series of campaigns against Shu's rival state Cao Wei, Yin Mo was appointed as an Army Libationer under Zhuge Liang. In 234, after Zhuge Liang's death, Yin Mo returned to the Shu capital Chengdu and held the position of a Palace Counsellor. He died on an unspecified date. His son, Yin Zong, inherited his legacy and became an Academician in the Shu court.

Appraisal

, who wrote Yin Mo's biography in the Sanguozhi, commented on Yin Mo as follows: "Yin Mo was versed in the Zuo Zhuan. Even though he did not have a reputation for being virtuous, he was still a scholar of his time."