Ancient China · Younger Brother of Shun

Xiang 象

Legendary antiquity

Passages: 11
Chapters: 2
Histories: 1

Overview

Xiang was a Younger Brother of Shun.

Life and dates

Attested activity

legendary antiquity
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 157, 163, 181, 183, 265; Records of the Grand Historian 83, passage 202

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Child of Stepmother of Shun (舜後母)
bore 生
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 157
Child of Gu Sou (瞽叟)
fathered 生
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 157
Sibling of Shun (舜)
younger brother 弟 · Uncertain siblings
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 265
Sibling of Emperor Shun (帝舜)
younger brother 弟 · Paternal half siblings
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 106, 157

Key source chapters

Career and standing

feudal lord 諸侯
Received
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 265
feudal lord 諸侯
Held
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 265

Works and attributed material

Speech · Speaker
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 183-185, 188

Events and relationships

Attempted to kill
Personal · Perpetrator · With Emperor Shun (帝舜)
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passages 181, 183

Source notes

Historicity legendary
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 1, passage 157

References in the histories

Search passages

History

11 passages

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 1Annals of the Five Emperors · 10 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.”

封弟象為諸侯。 He ennobled his brother Xiang as a lord.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 83Biographies of Lu Zhonglian and Zou Yang · 1 passage

不合，則骨肉出逐不收，朱、象、管、蔡是矣。 But when minds are at odds, even flesh and blood are cast out and never recalled—as the cases of Zhu, Xiang, Guan, and Cai demonstrate.