Records of the Three Kingdoms
Gu Yong, courtesy name Yuantan, was from Wu commandery. Cai Yong had once sighed over the boy, and the courtesy name remembers that. He rose through local office. By the time Sun Quan was governing Kuaiji, Gu Yong already held a central post. In 225 Sun Quan made him chancellor, and he stayed in that office until 243, about nineteen years.
The biography stresses that he drank little and said little at banquets. When Sun Quan was at fault he said so to his face, or explained it after court. He questioned candidates at home before he proposed them. His son Gu Shao was well known among the gentry and died before him. Gu Yong died at seventy-six. Chen Shou pairs him with Zhang Zhao among the civil ministers who helped Wu stand.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The novel rarely gives Gu Yong a scene of his own. In the Red Cliffs debate his name sits among the ministers who favor surrender, speaking after Zhang Zhao. Chancellor’s business on the novel’s court stage is more often given to Zhang Zhao, Zhuge Jin, or later Zhuge Ke.
The long-serving, silent chancellor of the histories has almost no plot of his own in the Romance.
Reference: Wikipedia · Gu Yong