Ancient China · Official and Statesman

Yi Yin 伊尹

Attested BC 1600 - BC 1540

Passages: 3
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Yi Yin was an official and Statesman.

Life and dates

Attested activity

BC 1600 to BC 1540 伊、呂
Strongly inferred · Book of Han 65, passages 370-371

Places and affiliations

Polity Shang 殷 · Relation Served
Strongly inferred · Book of Han 65, passage 370

Assessments and attributes

Assessment companion fit for sages; a true king could not rise without such men · Mode named-source-report Source Person Id Liu Xin (劉歆)
Directly stated · Book of Han 65, passage 371

References in the histories

Book of Han, Chapter 65Volume 56: Dong Zhongshu · 3 passages

贊曰：劉向稱：「董仲舒有王佐之材，雖伊、呂亡以加，管、晏之屬，伯者之佐，殆不及也。」 The encomium says: Liu Xiang wrote, "Dong Zhongshu had the talent to assist a true king. Even Yi Yin and Lü Wang could add nothing to him; Guan Zhong and Yan Ying, ministers to hegemons, likely fell short."

至向子歆以為：「伊、呂乃聖人之耦，王者不得則不興。 But Liu Xiang's son Liu Xin held: "Yi Yin and Lü Wang were companions fit for sages; without men like them, a true king could not rise.

然考其師友淵源所漸，猶未及乎游、夏，而曰管、晏弗及，伊、呂不加，過矣。」 Yet weighed against the lineage that produced Ziyou and Zixia, to call Guan and Yan his inferiors and rank him with Yi and Lü is going too far."