Zhao Bing (赵炳) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Zhao Bing as a healer, religious leader, and student. This record brings together 7 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	Zhao Bing	赵炳	Zhao Bing
Courtesy name	Gong'a	公阿	Gong'a
Personal name	Zhao Bing	赵炳	Zhao Bing

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:093:s0209

Roles

Healer
Religious Leader
Student

Life and dates

Death

Manner: arrested and executed · Responsible Person Id: Magistrate of Zhang'an (章安令) · Cause: the magistrate of Zhang'an hated him for deluding the masses · Place: Zhang'an / 章安 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 时遭兵乱，疾疫大起（无纪年） · Western Interval: Start: AD 184 · End: AD 220
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0221

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 时遭兵乱，疾疫大起（无纪年） · Western Interval: Start: AD 184 · End: AD 220
Derived · houhanshu:093:s0209, houhanshu:093:s0210, houhanshu:093:s0213

Places and affiliations

Place: Dongyang / 东阳 · Relation: native-of
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0209
Place: Zhang'an / 章安 · Relation: moved-to · Description: went east into Zhang'an after Xu Deng's death, where the people did not yet know him · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 时遭兵乱，疾疫大起（无纪年） · Western Interval: Start: AD 184 · End: AD 220
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0217

Learning and skills

Belief: purity and frugality in worship / 贵尚清俭 · Relation: adherent-of · Note: in worshipping the spirits used only east-flowing water for libations and shaved mulberry bark for dried meat
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0215
Skill: Yue formulas (exorcistic techniques) / 越方 · Level: expert
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0209

Events and relationships

Kind: uncanny · Role: practitioner · Action: purposely climbed onto a thatched hut, set up a tripod and cooked there; the food was done and the house was undamaged, while he laughed and did not answer the startled host · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 时遭兵乱，疾疫大起（无纪年） · Western Interval: Start: AD 184 · End: AD 220
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0218, houhanshu:093:s0219
Kind: uncanny · Role: practitioner · Other Person Id: Xu Deng (徐登) · Action: sealed a withered tree so that it immediately sprouted shoots, after which the two men laughed and practised their way together · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 时遭兵乱，疾疫大起（无纪年） · Western Interval: Start: AD 184 · End: AD 220
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0213
Kind: uncanny · Role: practitioner · Action: when the boatman refused to ferry him he spread his canopy, sat within it, gave a long whistle to call the wind and crossed the turbulent current · Outcome: the people thought him divine and followers flocked to him as if returning home · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 时遭兵乱，疾疫大起（无纪年） · Western Interval: Start: AD 184 · End: AD 220
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0220
Relation: student-of · Person Id: Xu Deng (徐登) · Description: served the elder Xu Deng as his master
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0214

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: thought divine by the common people, who submitted to him · Source Text: 于是百姓神服，从者如归 · Provenance: Mode: popular-report
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0220
Item: a shrine chamber at Yongkang / 祠室于永康 · Relation: commemorated-by · Note: erected for him by the people; down to the time of writing no mosquitoes or gnats could enter it
Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0222

References in the histories

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

Book of Later Han, Chapter 93Volume 82b: Biographies of Alchemists 2 · 7 passages

Open chapter

又赵炳，字公阿，东阳人，能为越方。 Zhao Bing, styled Gong'a, of Dongyang, wielded southern exorcist rites.

炳复次禁枯树，树即生荑，二人相视而笑，共行其道焉。 Zhao Bing then charmed a dead tree until it leafed out; they exchanged a smile and went on demonstrating their craft.

登年长，炳师事之。 Xu Deng was the senior, so Zhao Bing treated him as master.

贵尚清俭，礼神唯以东流水为酌，削桑皮为脯。 Zhao Bing, having apprenticed himself to the austere Deng, poured only east-running water for the gods and shaved mulberry bark into jerky for offerings.

后登物故，炳东入章安，百姓未之知也。 After Xu Deng died, Zhao Bing moved east to Zhang'an, still unknown to the locals.

炳乃故升茅屋，梧鼎而爨，主人见之惊□，炳笑不应。 Zhao Bing climbed a thatched roof, braced a cauldron, and lit a cookfire; the innkeeper stared speechless while Zhao laughed and said nothing.

又尝临水求度，船人不和之，炳乃张盖坐其中，长啸呼风，乱流而济，于是百姓神服，从者如归。 Once he needed a ferry and the boatman refused; Zhao spread his umbrella, sat beneath it, whistled up a wind, and shot across the chop—onlookers hailed him as a god, and disciples flocked like kin coming home.