Ancient China · Family Member

Gu Sou 瞽叟

Legendary antiquity

Passages: 11
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Gu Sou was a Family Member.

Life and dates

Attested activity

legendary antiquity
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 155, 157

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Child of Qiaoniu (橋牛)
father 父
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 155
Parent of Emperor Shun (帝舜)
father 父
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 155, 157
Parent of Xiang (象)
fathered 生
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 157
Spouse of Stepmother of Shun (舜後母)
remarried 更娶妻 · Marriage
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 157
Spouse of Birth mother of Shun (舜生母)
wife 妻 · Ended
Strongly inferred · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 157

Events and relationships

Attempted to kill
Personal · Perpetrator · With Emperor Shun (帝舜)
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 178, 181

Assessments and attributes

blind
Physical description
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 105, 157

Source notes

Historicity legendary
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 155

References in the histories

Search passages

History

11 passages

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 1Annals of the Five Emperors · 11 passages

嶽曰：「盲者子。 The Peaks answered, “He is the son of a blind father.

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.”

重華父曰瞽叟，瞽叟父曰橋牛，橋牛父曰句望，句望父曰敬康，敬康父曰窮蟬，窮蟬父曰帝顓頊，顓頊父曰昌意：以至舜七世矣。 Chonghua’s father was Gu Sou, whose father was Qiaoniu, whose father was Gouwang, whose father was Jingkang, whose father was Qiongchan, whose father was Emperor Zhuanxu, whose father was Changyi—seven generations from Shun to Zhuanxu.

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.

瞽叟愛後妻子，常欲殺舜，舜避逃； Gu Sou doted on the second wife’s child and often plotted Shun’s death; Shun slipped away.

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.

瞽叟尚復欲殺之，使舜上涂廩，瞽叟從下縱火焚廩。 Gu Sou still plotted murder: he sent Shun to roof the high granary, then fired the stacks from below.

後瞽叟又使舜穿井，舜穿井為匿空旁出。 Later Gu Sou ordered him to dig a well; Shun cut a secret lateral tunnel and climbed out.

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.

舜復事瞽叟愛弟彌謹。 Shun afterward served his father and cherished his brother with even greater care.