 After his father's death, he was nominated as a "maocai" (茂才) and was appointed as the Prefect of Wu County (巫縣; present-day Wushan County, Chongqing).In 187, the Han central government reassigned him to be the Administrator (太守) of Jiaozhi Commandery (交趾郡) in Jiao Province.Around the time, Zhu Fu (朱符) had been appointed by the Han government to serve as the Inspector of Jiao Province.