Gu Dayong

Yu Dayong: "Zhang Yong will come for the box. He will avenge our deaths."

Shao Jun: "I am counting on it..."

—Yu Dayong's last words to Shao Jun, 1526.

Yu Dayong (谷大用; died 1526), also known as the Slaver, was one of the Eight Tigers, a group of powerful Templar eunuchs that controlled the Chinese imperial court during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor and Jiajing Emperors of the Ming dynasty.

Biography

After the Zhengde Emperor's death in 1521, the Templars ensured that his cousin Zhu Houcong would succeed him as Emperor. They then appointed eunuchs, one of them being Yu Dayong, to control the new Emperor, allowing the Eight Tigers to rule in his stead.

Possessing an interest in trade and foreign languages, Yu Dayong would subsequently enforce the slave trade, selling opponents to the Portuguese and earning huge profits while also humiliating and exiling the Templars' enemies. He later played a role in initiating the Great Rites Controversy, which resulted in the near-eradication of the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins.

In 1526, the Tiger Gao Feng entrusted Dayong with the Precursor box, an Isu artifact he had stolen from the Assassin Shao Jun. Shortly thereafter, both Feng and Ma Yongcheng were found murdered. Suspecting that he was Shao Jun's next target due to his possession of the box, Dayong doubled the patrols at his fortress in Macau.

Despite the increased security, Shao Jun managed to infiltrate Dayong's stronghold and freed many of his slaves. However, one of them, who was an Assassin spy, had been tortured by the Templar's men and succumbed to his injuries shortly after. Vowing revenge on Dayong, Shao Jun infiltrated his personal quarters and killed him, reclaiming the Precursor box in the process.

Dayong's body was discovered not long after by the Tiger Qiu Ju, who, in retaliation, ordered his men to arrest innocents and set the port of Macau ablaze.

Behind the scenes

The name of Yu Dayong, an assassination target in the 2015 video game Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China, is similar to that of Gu Dayong (谷大用), who was historically a member of the Eight Tigers. As such, it is possible that his name in the game is an incorrect transliteration of 谷大用. However, the Mandarin-speaking guards correctly pronounce his name as Yu Dayong, implying that the name change was intentional.

In the English version of Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun, the 2019 manga adaptation of Chronicles: China, this error has been rectified and the Tiger is correctly identified as "Gu Dayong". Additionally, this version portrays Dayong's death differently, as rather than assassinate him on the spot, Shao Jun stabs him in the liver to make him feel a "fraction of the pain" he inflicted onto others. As a result, Dayong's death is slower and he survives long enough to inform Qiu Ju that the Assassin is in Macau.

Another difference between the game and the manga is the fact that, in the latter, Dayong sent the Precursor box away in anticipation of Shao Jun's arrival. As a result, the Assassin does not retrieve the box in Macau, nor at any other point in the storyline.

Etymology

The surname Gǔ (谷) means "valley" while the personal name Dàyòng (大用) literally translates to "great use". Dàyòng(大用) is an archaic term which, besides the straightforward meaning of "very useful", can also mean "to empower [somebody by putting that person in a powerful position]".

Gallery

• 
  Concept Sketches
• 
  Development concept
• 
  Database image of Yu Dayong
• 
  Yu Dayong overlooking Macau's port
• 
  Shao Jun standing over Yu Dayong's body

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China
• Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun

Non-canonical appearances

• Assassin's Creed: The Ming Storm
• Assassin's Creed: Turbulence in the Ming Dynasty