Ancient China · Ruler

Shun 舜

Legendary antiquity

Passages: 2
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Shun was a ruler.

Life and dates

Attested activity

legendary antiquity
Directly stated · Book of Han 25, passage 289

Source notes

Historicity legendary
Directly stated · Book of Han 25, passage 289

References in the histories

Book of Han, Chapter 25Volume 23: Treatise on Punishment and Law · 2 passages

孫卿之言既然，又因俗說而論之曰：禹承堯舜之後，自以德衰而制肉刑，湯武順而行之者，以俗薄於唐虞故也。 Xunzi, having made this argument, went on to reason from the conventional account: Yu succeeded Yao and Shun but, believing that moral virtue had declined, instituted mutilating punishments; Tang and King Wu retained them because customs were less refined than in the age of Yao and Shun.

今漢承衰周暴秦極敝之流，俗已薄於三代，而行堯舜之刑，是猶以鞿而御駻突，違救時之宜矣。 Now Han has inherited the utter exhaustion left by declining Zhou and violent Qin. Customs are already less refined than under the Three Dynasties, yet to apply the punishments of Yao and Shun would be like trying to control a savage, bolting horse with a light bridle: it would run contrary to what the times require.