Song Zhong (宋忠) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Song Zhong as an envoy and official. This record brings together 5 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Song Zhong	宋忠	Song Zhong
Personal	Song Zhong	宋忠	Sòng Zhōng

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · shiji:127:s0007

Roles

Envoy
Official

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 久之，宋忠使匈奴 · Western Interval: Start: BC 178 · End: BC 169
Explicit · shiji:127:s0104
Source Date: Text: 宋忠為中大夫，賈誼為博士 · Western Interval: Start: BC 178 · End: BC 169
Explicit · shiji:127:s0007

Career and standing

Label: Palace Grandee / 中大夫 · Action: held
Explicit · shiji:127:s0007
Status: charged-with-crime · Action: sentenced · Label: charged with a crime / 抵罪
Explicit · shiji:127:s0104

Places and affiliations

Polity: Western Han / 漢 · Relation: served
Explicit · shiji:127:s0007

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Speaker Person Id: Song Zhong (宋忠)
Explicit · shiji:127:s0016, shiji:127:s0017, shiji:127:s0024, shiji:127:s0025, shiji:127:s0026, shiji:127:s0027, shiji:127:s0028, shiji:127:s0029, shiji:127:s0094, shiji:127:s0095, shiji:127:s0096, shiji:127:s0097, shiji:127:s0098, shiji:127:s0099, shiji:127:s0100, shiji:127:s0101, shiji:127:s0102

Events and relationships

Kind: diplomatic · Role: envoy · Action: mission-to-Xiongnu-failed-and-returned · Place: Xiongnu / 匈奴
Explicit · shiji:127:s0104
Kind: visit · Role: visitor · Action: visited-divination-market · Other Person Id: Sima Jizhu (司馬季主)
Explicit · shiji:127:s0011
Relation: colleague-of · Person Id: Jia Yi (賈誼)
Explicit · shiji:127:s0007, shiji:127:s0011, shiji:127:s0094

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: pursued blossoms while cutting off roots · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
Explicit · shiji:127:s0106

References in the histories

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

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 127Biographies of Soothsayers · 5 passages

Open chapter

宋忠為中大夫，賈誼為博士，同日俱出洗沐，相從論議，誦易先王聖人之道術，究遍人情，相視而嘆。 Song Zhong was a Palace Grandee and Jia Yi an Erudite. One day, during their rest day, the two went out together, conversing as they walked. They discussed the Book of Changes and the arts of the Way as practiced by the ancient kings and sages, examining the full breadth of human affairs, until at last they looked at one another and sighed.

宋忠、賈誼瞿然而悟，獵纓正襟危坐，曰：「吾望先生之狀，聽先生之辭，小子竊觀於世，未嘗見也。 Song Zhong and Jia Yi were startled into awareness. They straightened their cap strings, adjusted their lapels, and sat upright. "Gazing upon your bearing, sir, and listening to your words," they said, "in all our years observing the world, we have never encountered anyone like you.

宋忠、賈誼忽而自失，芒乎無色，悵然噤口不能言。 Song Zhong and Jia Yi were overcome with shame. The color drained from their faces, and they could only sit in dejected silence, unable to utter a word.

居三日，宋忠見賈誼於殿門外，乃相引屏語相謂自嘆曰：「道高益安，勢高益危。 Three days later, Song Zhong encountered Jia Yi outside the palace gate. They drew each other aside and spoke in private, sighing to one another: "The higher one's moral cultivation, the greater one's peace; the higher one's political power, the greater one's peril.

久之，宋忠使匈奴，不至而還，抵罪。 Some time later, Song Zhong was sent on a mission to the Xiongnu. He failed to reach his destination, turned back, and was charged with a crime.