Around the year 200, he came to serve the warlord Sun Quan, who controlled the Jiangdong territories, and performed well in office as an acting commandery administrator.
After Sun Quan became the ruler of the independent state of Eastern Wu in 222, Gu Yong steadily rose through the ranks as a minister and ultimately became Imperial Chancellor.
His great-grandfather Gu Feng (顧奉) was a former Administrator (太守) of Yingchuan Commandery (潁川郡; around present-day Xuchang, Henan).
[8][2] The Administrator of Wu Commandery heard of Gu Yong's fame and recommended him as a talent to join the civil service.
[11][2] In 222,[12] after Sun Quan became the King of Wu (吳王), he promoted Gu Yong to the positions of Minister of Imperial Ancestral Ceremonies (大理奉常) and Prefect of the Masters of Writing (尚書令) in his kingdom.
As Gu Yong went straight back to his office after his conferment ceremony, his family did not know that he had been made a marquis so they were very surprised when they found out later.
When she arrived, Sun Quan greeted and welcomed her in person, and later paid his respects to her in his imperial court in the presence of all his subjects.
[16] Although Gu Yong always maintained a polite and respectful tone when he spoke up on issues in the imperial court, he was also known for standing by his principles and holding his ground when he had to.
[17] On one occasion, when Sun Quan sought feedback from his subjects on policy matters, Zhang Zhao used the opportunity to ask for a review of the laws.
[21] Around the time, many Wu military officers in charge of defending the border along the southern banks of the Yangtze River wanted to gain credit for making contributions in battle, so they often wrote to the imperial court to suggest launching small raids on Wu's rival state Wei in the north.
[22] When Sun Quan sought Gu Yong's opinion on this, the latter said: "I heard that in warfare, one should refrain from trying to make petty gains.
[23] Throughout his tenure as Imperial Chancellor, Gu Yong never shared his opinions on policy issues except when he spoke to Sun Quan in person.
[24] Around the 230s, Sun Quan appointed Lü Yi, whom he highly trusted, as the supervisor of the bureau in charge of auditing and reviewing the work of all officials in both the central and regional governments.
Along with his colleague Qin Bo (秦博), Lü Yi freely abused his powers by picking on trivialities and falsely accusing numerous officials of committing serious offences.
However, after an official Xie Gong (謝厷) pointed out that Pan Jun, the Minister of Ceremonies, would most likely become the next Imperial Chancellor if Gu Yong were to be removed from office, Lü Yi immediately dropped the case against Gu Yong because he knew that Pan Jun resented him and would take action against him if he became Imperial Chancellor.
[26] Lü Yi's abuses of power finally came to an end in 238[27] when Sun Quan learnt the truth about him and understood the gravity of the situation.
After removing Lü Yi from office, Sun Quan had him imprisoned under the watch of the Ministry of Justice, and then ordered Gu Yong to conduct an investigation.
"[28] The Eastern Jin dynasty historian Xu Zhong (徐衆) disapproved of Gu Yong's handling of Lü Yi's case.
If that happened, then, in Xu Zhong's opinion, the efforts of Sun Deng, Pan Jun, Lu Xun and the others who stood up to Lü Yi's abuses of power would have been in vain.
At the time, Gu Tan held an important position as Master of Writing in the Selection Bureau (選曹尚書; the equivalent of a present-day human resources director) of the government.
[31] During the celebrations, he became drunk and started dancing wildly in an unrestrained manner in front of his grandfather, Sun Quan and the other guests.
[35] When Gu Yong heard about it, he sadly remarked: "(Zhao) Quan is an expert at assessing whether someone will live or die.
"[39] Whenever Gu Yong attended festive celebrations, he was usually a spoilsport because his mere presence often made his colleagues feel uneasy.
"[41] Gu Yong married a daughter of Lu Kang, an official who served as the Administrator of Lujiang Commandery (廬江; around present-day Lu'an, Anhui) in the late Eastern Han dynasty.
Gu Shao died around the age of 30 while holding office as the Administrator of Yuzhang Commandery (豫章郡; around present-day Nanchang, Jiangxi).