Ancient China · Family Member

Xiang 象

Dates uncertain

Passages: 9
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

The translated histories identify Xiang as a family member. This record brings together 9 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	Xiang	象	Xiang
Personal name	Xiang	象	Xiang
Descriptive kinship	younger brother	弟

Identity

Historicity: Legendary
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · shiji:001:s0106

Roles

Family Member

Life and dates

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · shiji:001:s0157, shiji:001:s0163, shiji:001:s0181, shiji:001:s0183

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Child of Stepmother of Shun (舜後母)
Kinship Term: bore / 生 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son
Child of Gu Sou (瞽叟)
Kinship Term: fathered / 生 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Sibling of Shun (舜)
Kinship Term: younger brother / 弟 · Shared Parentage: paternal-half · Subject Relative Age: elder

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: speaker
Explicit · shiji:001:s0183, shiji:001:s0184, shiji:001:s0185, shiji:001:s0188

Events and relationships

Kind: personal · Role: perpetrator · Action: attempted-to-kill · Other Person Id: Shun (舜)
Explicit · shiji:001:s0181, shiji:001:s0183

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · shiji:001:s0157

References in the histories

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

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 1Annals of the Five Emperors · 9 passages

父頑，母嚚，弟傲，能和以孝，烝烝治，不至姦。」 The father is brutish, the mother spiteful, the half-brother overbearing, yet Shun has made peace in the house through filial duty and brotherly love, so that no evil takes root.”

舜父瞽叟盲，而舜母死，瞽叟更娶妻而生象，象傲。 Shun’s father Gu Sou was blind; Shun’s mother had died; Gu Sou remarried and fathered Xiang, a proud and overbearing son.

舜父瞽叟頑，母嚚，弟象傲，皆欲殺舜。 His father remained brutish, his stepmother spiteful, his brother Xiang arrogant; all three still schemed against his life.

舜既入深，瞽叟與象共下土實井，舜從匿空出，去。 When Shun had gone deep, Gu Sou and Xiang dumped earth down the shaft; Shun slipped through the side passage and vanished.

瞽叟、象喜，以舜為已死。 Father and brother rejoiced, sure Shun was dead.

象曰：「本謀者象。」 Xiang said, “I was the one who plotted it.”

象與其父母分，於是曰：「舜妻堯二女，與琴，象取之。 Xiang divided the booty with his parents, saying, “Shun’s wives, Yao’s daughters, and his zither belong to me.

象乃止舜宮居，鼓其琴。 Xiang marched into Shun’s quarters, took the zither, and played.

象鄂不懌，曰：「我思舜正郁陶！」 Xiang jolted, sullen, said, “I was brooding on you, elder brother, and strumming out my sorrow.”