Zhu Ju was a man of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period—tall, handsome, incredibly strong, and a brilliant debater who could hold his own in any argument.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Ji Yan, the Minister of Personnel in the Kingdom of Wu, was outraged by corrupt officials and wanted to punish them. Zhu Ju advised him, "The realm is still unsettled, and this is a time to employ talent. You should weigh each official's merits and faults fairly, not focus solely on their flaws. If you demote them, you'll only invite trouble for yourself." Ji Yan ignored the warning and disciplined a group of officials, who then united to slander him. Their attacks stirred the displeasure of Emperor Sun Quan, and Ji Yan was ultimately driven to suicide.
Sun Quan greatly valued Zhu Ju's talents, considering him a man of both civil and military prowess—following the learned and brilliant general Lü Meng and the eloquent scholar Zhang Wen—so he enfeoffed him as Marquis of Yunyang, appointed him General of the Left, and married a princess to him.
Once, General Zhu Ju's troops were owed thirty thousand strings of cash, but a man named Wang Sui swindled the money away. Inspector Lu Yi suspected Zhu Ju had embezzled it, so he tortured one of Zhu Ju's subordinates to death. Zhu Ju, knowing the man was innocent, gave him a lavish burial. Lu Yi then told Sun Quan, "Zhu Ju buried him richly because the man was covering up his crime." Unable to trace the missing funds, Zhu Ju could only await punishment. Months later, the truth came out, and Sun Quan sighed, "If even a man like Zhu Ju can be wronged, what hope is there for common officials and the people?"
Zhu Ju was ultimately framed and died at the age of fifty-seven.
The *Records of the Three Kingdoms* says Zhu Ju was "modest in receiving scholars, light with wealth and fond of giving," often running short of salary due to his generosity. Later, the idiom "light with wealth and fond of giving" came to mean valuing generosity over material possessions.
Source: *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, Book of Wu, "Biography of Zhu Ju"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "轻财好施" came to describe valuing generosity over material possessions.