Ancient China · Legendary Sage

Gao Yao 咎繇

Dates uncertain

Passages: 3
Chapters: 3
Histories: 3

Overview

Gao Yao was a Legendary Sage.

Other names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Epithet	planter of virtue	種德

Life and dates

Attested activity

legendary antiquity
Directly stated · Book of Han 25, passage 86; Records of the Grand Historian 91, passage 168; Book of Zhou 23, passage 406

Family

Ancestor of Ying Bu (英布)
descendant 後 · paternal line
ancestor 先 · paternal line
Uncertain · Records of the Grand Historian 91, passage 168

Key source chapters

Career and standing

judicial officer 士
Appointed · Authority Shun (舜)
Directly stated · Book of Han 25, passage 86

Source notes

Historicity legendary
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 91, passage 168

References in the histories

Book of Han, Chapter 25Volume 23: Treatise on Punishment and Law · 1 passage

若夫舜修百僚，咎繇作士，命以「蠻夷猾夏，寇賊姦軌」，而刑無所用，所謂善師不陳者也。 As for Shun ordering the hundred officials and Gao Yao serving as judicial officer, entrusted with cases of 'Man and Yi disturbing Xia, bandits, rebels, and traitors,' yet with punishments having no occasion to be used: this is what is meant by one who is good at commanding not forming ranks.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 91Biography of Qing Bu · 1 passage

太史公曰：英布者，其先豈春秋所見楚滅英、六，皋陶之後哉？ The Grand Historian remarks: Could Ying Bu's ancestors have been those recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals, from the states of Ying and Liu that Chu destroyed—descendants of the ancient sage Gaoyao?

Book of Zhou, Chapter 23Volume 23 Biographies 15: Su Chuo · 1 passage

若乃庖廚、胥靡、種德、微管之臣，罕聞於世； Men like the cook, the convict laborer, the planter of virtue, and Guan Zhong in humble obscurity are rarely celebrated in their own time;