[a] A harsh, cruel and treacherous man, he freely abused his powers by falsely accusing many officials of serious offences, resulting in some of them being wrongfully arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
Although the full name of Lü Yi's position was zhongshu dianxiao lang (中書典校郎; "Gentleman Auditor of the Palace Writers"), he was also referred to as xiaoshi (校事; "auditor/inspector") or xiaoguan (校官; "auditing/inspecting official") in short.
[a] A harsh, cruel and treacherous man, Lü Yi abused the emperor's trust in him by picking on trivialities and falsely accusing numerous officials of committing serious offences.
Along with his colleague Qin Bo (秦博),[3] Lü Yi freely abused his powers to investigate and prosecute officials, many of whom were wrongfully arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
[4][5] Some of the officials who fell victim to Lü Yi's abuses of power were the general Zhu Ju, the Imperial Chancellor Gu Yong, and the commandery administrators Diao Jia (刁嘉) and Zheng Zhou (鄭胄).
[6][b] As for Gu Yong, Lü Yi initially prepared to make a case against him for incompetence and ask Sun Quan to remove him from office.
[9] Pan Jun, having heard of Lü Yi's abuses of power, sought permission to leave his position and return to the imperial capital, Jianye (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu), for an audience with the emperor Sun Quan.
The senior general Lu Xun, along with Pan Jun,[12] frequently spoke up about Lü Yi's behaviour in front of Sun Quan, to the point of breaking down in tears.
[13] Bu Zhi, another high-ranking general, also wrote to Sun Quan on at least four occasions to speak up for Lü Yi's victims, and advise the emperor to rely on capable officials such as Gu Yong, Lu Xun and Pan Jun.
[16] After the entire scandal was over, Sun Quan sent Yuan Li (袁禮) as his personal representative to meet all his senior generals and make an apology on his behalf.