Shun (舜) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Shun as a ruler. This record brings together 10 passages from 7 chapters across 4 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Shun	舜	Shun
Personal name	Shun	舜
Personal	Shun	舜
Alternate	Shun	舜	Shun
Alternate name	Yu	虞
Alternate	Yu	虞

Identity

Historicity: Legendary
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · beiqishu:030:s0002
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:101:s0022, jiuwudaishi:147:s0035

Roles

Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · beiqishu:025:s0205, beiqishu:030:s0116, hanshu:101:s0039, jiuwudaishi:010:s0007, jiuwudaishi:010:s0068, jiuwudaishi:147:s0035, songshu:003:s0006
Source Date: Text: 顯德二年 · Western Year: AD 955
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:115:s0014

Works and attributed material

Work: Shun's canon / 舜典 · Relation: subject-of-exemplum · Provenance: Mode: memorial-historical-exemplum
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:010:s0061, jiuwudaishi:010:s0068

Events and relationships

Kind: military · Role: legendary ruler · Action: used arms when unavoidable · Provenance: Mode: edict-historical-exemplum · Speaker Person Id: Later Liang Last Emperor (末帝)
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:010:s0005, jiuwudaishi:010:s0007

Assessments and attributes

Description: praised in the edict as a supreme sage / 詔中稱為上聖 · Western Year: AD 955 · Provenance: Mode: narrator
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:115:s0014

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:147:s0035

References in the histories

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

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 25Volume 25 Biographies 17: Zhang Zuan; Zhang Liang; Zhang Yao; Zhang Qi; Xu Yuan; Wang Jun; Wang Hong · 1 passage

Open chapter

伏願陛下哀忠念舊，愛孤恤寡，矜愚嘉善，舍過記功，敦骨肉之情，廣寬仁之路，思堯、舜之風，慕禹、湯之德，克己復禮，以成美化，天下幸甚。」 I venture to hope Your Majesty will pity the loyal and remember the old, cherish the orphaned and comfort the widowed, pity the foolish and praise the good, pardon faults and record merit, thicken kinship among flesh and bone, broaden the path of generous forbearance, think of the manner of Yao and Shun, admire the virtue of Yu and Tang, restrain yourself and return to ritual to complete a transformation of culture — all under Heaven would be greatly blessed."

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 30Volume 30 Biographies 22: Cui Xian; Gao Dezheng; Cui Ang · 2 passages

Open chapter

帝以衆人意未協，又先得太后旨云：「汝父如龍，汝兄如虎，尚以人臣終，汝何容欲行舜、禹事？ Because the men's hearts were not yet one, Gao Yang had also received the empress dowager's word earlier: "Your father was like a dragon and your brother like a tiger, yet both died as subjects — how can you think to play Yao and Shun?

旭云：「五行遞運，有始有終，齊王聖德欽明，萬方歸仰，臣等昧死聞奏，願陛下則堯禪舜。」 Xu said, "The Five Agents turn in succession — all things have beginning and end. The Prince of Qi's sacred virtue is bright; the ten thousand regions look to him. We risk death to report: we pray Your Majesty will follow Yao in yielding to Shun."

Book of Han, Chapter 101Volume 89: Upright Officials · 2 passages

Open chapter

宣帝最先褒之，地節三年下詔曰：「蓋聞有功不賞，有罪不誅，雖唐、虞不能以化天下。 Emperor Xuan singled him out for praise early on. In the third year of Dijie an edict declared: "They say that where merit goes unrewarded and guilt unpunished, not even the sage-kings Yao and Shun could civilize the realm.

曰：「臣聞膠西王有諛臣侯得，王所為擬於桀、紂也，得以為堯、舜也。 Gong Sui explained: "He kept a flatterer named Hou De who masked conduct worthy of Jie and Zhou with praise fit for Yao and Shun.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 10Volume 10 Book of Later Liang 10: Later Emperors Annals 3 · 2 passages

Open chapter

而炎、黃有戰伐之師，堯、舜有干戈之用，諒不獲已，其猶病諸。 Even the Yellow and Flame emperors and Yao and Shun resorted to arms when they had no choice, though war grieved them.

而且周德見乎殷紀，舜典存乎禹功，非唯十世可知，庶成一朝大典。 As Zhou virtue appears in Yin records and Shun’s canon in Yu’s deeds, ten generations may be known and our dynasty’s great history completed.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 115Volume 115 Book of Later Zhou 17: Shizong Annals 2 · 1 passage

Open chapter

雖堯、舜、禹、湯之上聖，文、武、成康之至明，尚猶思逆耳之言，求苦口之藥，何況後人之不逮哉！ Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang were supreme sages; Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang were supremely enlightened—yet they still welcomed unwelcome counsel and sought bitter medicine for the state. How much more must lesser rulers do so!

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 147Volume 147: Treatises 9 Punishment and Law · 1 passage

Open chapter

伏以刑法者御人之銜勒，救弊之斧斤，故鞭撲不可一日弛之於家，刑法不可一日廢之於國，雖堯、舜淳古之代，亦不能舍此而致理矣。 Penal law is the bridle by which people are governed and the tool by which abuses are cut away. Flogging cannot be relaxed for a day in the household, nor penal law abandoned for a day in the state—even the pure antiquity of Yao and Shun could not achieve good order without it.

Book of Song, Chapter 3Volume 3 Annals 3: Emperor Wu 3 · 1 passage

Open chapter

越俶唐、虞，降暨漢、魏，靡不以上哲格文祖，元勳陟帝位，故能大拯黔首，垂訓無窮。 From Yao and Shun down through Han and Wei, none failed to have a supreme sage align with the founding ancestor of civilization and a chief merit-holder ascend the throne, thereby greatly rescuing the common people and handing down instruction without end.