by TigerTally » Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:44 am
Wow...a reply two years ago!
Dong Zhou was talking about the historical Xu Shu, who had managed to climb to the position of Imperial Minister/Censor (御史中丞 yushi zhongcheng) at the Wei court. This post is responsible of "maintaining disciplinary surveillance over officials of the palace and central government". Under the 9-rank system it is placed at the fourth rank, which is as important as a province inspector. It is not a military post, but a decent one nonetheless.
Meanwhile, the historical Xu Shu displayed no "stratagems mastery" at all. Liu Bei did trust him. Zhuge Liang befriended him and even praised his capability of handling domestic affairs. Yet there were not any direct evidence to his military arts, except that he was pretty good at fencing/swordsmanship.