Robber Zhi (盜跖) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Robber Zhi as a bandit and named individual. This record brings together 8 passages from 8 chapters across 6 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Robber Zhi	盜跖	Dào Zhí
Personal	Dao Zhi	盜跖	Dao Zhi
Epithet	great knave of the eastern mound	東陵之巨猾	Dongling zhi juxia
Personal name	Robber Zhi	盜跖	Dào Zhí
Personal	Robber Zhi	盜跖	Dao Zhi
Alternate	Robber Zhi	盜跖	Dào Zhí
Personal name	Robber Zhi	盜蹠	Dào Zhí
Nickname	Robber Zhi	盜蹠	Dào Zhí
Nickname	Robber Zhi	盜跖	Dào Zhí
Epithet	Robber Zhi	盜跖	Dào Zhí
Epithet	Robber Zhi	盜蹠
Personal	Zhi	跖	Zhí
Personal name	Zhi	跖	Zhí

Identity

Historicity: Uncertain
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · beiqishu:047:s0074, shiji:061:s0042, shiji:084:s0155
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:143:s0163, shiji:124:s0014

Roles

Bandit
Named Individual

Life and dates

Death

Manner: died-of-old-age
Explicit · shiji:061:s0042

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 跖、蹻暴戾 · Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · shiji:124:s0014
Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit event contextual date · beiqishu:047:s0074
Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · liangshu:014:s0244, qingshigao:143:s0163, shiji:084:s0155, songshu:062:s0167
Source Date: Text: undated contrast with Bo Yi and Shu Qi · Western Year: c. BC 500
Explicit · shiji:061:s0042

Family

Sibling of Liu Xiahui (柳下惠)
Kinship Term: brother / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: uncertain · Parentage: uncertain · Provenance: Mode: quotation · Speaker Person Id: Cui Ting (崔挺) · Negated: false

Places and affiliations

Place: Dongling / 東陵 · Relation: associated-with
Explicit · liangshu:014:s0244

Events and relationships

Kind: criminal · Role: bandit-leader · Action: killed-innocent-ate-human-flesh-gathered-thousands-rampaged
Explicit · shiji:061:s0042

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: clearest counterexample to heaven rewarding the good · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0042, shiji:061:s0043, shiji:061:s0044
Assessment: violent and cruel yet praised by followers · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
Explicit · shiji:124:s0014

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · liangshu:014:s0244
Historicity: uncertain
Explicit · shiji:061:s0042

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 47Volume 47 Biographies 39: Cruel Officials · 1 passage

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對捍使者尚得死坐，況遊道吐不臣之言，犯慢上之罪，口稱夷、齊，心懷盜跖，欺公賣法，受納苞苴，產隨官厚，財與位積，雖贓汚未露，而姦詐如是。 Resisting an envoy earns death; how much more unministered words, slighting superiors, mouth naming Yi and Qi while heart harbors robbers, deceiving the public, taking bribes—wealth piled with rank though bribery was not yet exposed.

Book of Han, Chapter 104Volume 92: Youxias · 1 passage

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至若北道姚氏，西道諸杜，南道仇景，東道趙佗羽公子，南陽趙調之徒，盜跖而居民間者耳，曷足道哉！ As for the Yao gang on the northern road, the Du clans on the western, Qiu Jing in the south, the so-called Zhao Tuo princeling in the east, Zhao Diao in Nanyang—they were bandits in broad daylight, hardly worth ink.

Book of Liang, Chapter 14Volume 14: Jiang Yan; Ren Fang · 1 passage

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若衡重錙銖，纊微彯撇，雖共工之蒐慝，驩兜之掩義，南荊之跋扈，東陵之巨猾，皆爲匍匐委蛇，折枝舐痔，金膏翠羽將其意，脂韋便辟導其誠。 If the scale weighs heavy as a cash-weight and the gossamer stirs the slightest breath, though Gong Gong's evil, Huan Dou's masked righteousness, southern Jing's arrogance, eastern mound's great knavery—all crawl and writhe, break branches and lick hemorrhoids; gold paste and kingfisher plumes suit their intent, grease and rush smooth their sincerity.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 143Volume 143 Treatises 118: Penal Law 2 · 1 passage

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夫以一人之故而波及全家，以無罪之人而科以重罪，漢文帝以為不正之法反害於民，北魏崔挺嘗曰『一人有罪，延及闔門，則司馬牛受桓魋之罰，柳下惠膺盜跖之誅，不亦哀哉』，其言皆篤論也。 Punishing an entire family for one person's crime and imposing heavy penalties on the innocent—Emperor Wen of Han called such law harmful to the people; Cui Ting of Northern Wei wrote that when one person's guilt reaches the whole household, "Sima Niu would suffer Huan Tui's punishment and Liu Xiahui would bear Zhi's execution—is this not lamentable?"—sound judgment all.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 61Biographies: Biography of Bo Yi · 1 passage

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盜蹠日殺不辜，肝人之肉，暴戾恣睢，聚黨數千人橫行天下，竟以壽終。 Robber Zhi daily killed the innocent and ate human flesh. Violent and arrogant, he gathered a band of several thousand men and rampaged across the realm, yet in the end died of old age.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 84Biographies of Qu Yuan and Master Jia · 1 passage

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世謂伯夷貪兮，謂盜跖廉； The world calls Bo Yi greedy and Robber Zhi virtuous;

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 124Biographies of Knight-errants · 1 passage

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跖、蹻暴戾，其徒誦義無窮。 Robber Zhi and Zhuang Qiao were violent and cruel, yet their followers sang praises to their righteousness without end.

Book of Song, Chapter 62Volume 62 Biographies 22: Yang Xin, Zhang Fu, Wang Wei · 1 passage

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家本貧餧，至於惡衣蔬食，設使盜蹠居此，亦不能兩展其足，妄意珍藏也。 Our family was originally poor, to the point of coarse clothes and plain food; even Robber Zhi dwelling here could not stretch both feet twice, vainly dreaming of hoarded treasure.