Shun 舜 was one of the mythical Five Emperors 五帝. According to the Chuci 楚辭 poems, he must have been an ancestor deity of the Shang dynasty 商 (17th-11th cent. BCE) and probably corresponded to the divine ancestor (di 帝) Kui 夔, called Gaozu 高祖 "High Ancestor". The historian and paleographer Wang Guowei 王國維 brought forward that the deity Di Jun 帝俊 (or Qun 夋, phonetically close to Shun) mentioned in the book Shanhaijing 山海經 is identical with Kui, the character 夔 just being abbreviated to 夋. One of the Five Emperors, Di Ku 帝嚳, who is also mentioned in the Shanhaijing 山海經, might also be identical with Kui (the two names being pronounced quite similarly). The character 俊 later disappeared in historiographical sources, and only 嚳 and 舜 survived, but were used for different personalities. The book Guoyu 國語 confirms the theory derived from the oracle bone inscriptions, that Shun was an ancestor of the Shang. In the Dixi 帝系 genealogies of the Shiben 世本 books, Ku 嚳 is listed as the ancestor of Zhi 摯, Yao 堯, the Shang and the Zhou dynasty 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE). Shun/Ku himself is a descendant of Zhuan Xu 顓頊. The Confucian philosopher Mengzi 孟子, as well as the Mozi 墨子, say that Shun hailed from the southeast, around Mt. Lishan 歷山. This also corresponds to the identification of Shun as one of the Shang people. Yet both traditions, Confucians and Mohists, transform Yao, Shun and Yu the Great 大禹 into rulers of exemplarious virtue, the latter as practical founder of the Shang dynasty. Especially in the historiography of the Confucians, Yao, Shun and Yu are the sage-kings of the past to imitate which was to be the highest objective of all rulers. Yao entrusted Yu with the taming of the floods, a task which only Shun was able to bring to an end. Shun is said to have the tribal name Youyu 有虞 (or Yu 虞) and the family name Yao 姚 or Chonghua 重華 (according to the Chuci). He is therefore known as Yu-Shun 虞舜. The Shiji 史記 says that his father was called Gu Sou 瞽叟, his grandfather Qiao Niu 橋牛, who was a son of Gou Wang 句望, a son of Jing Kang 敬康, whose father was Qiong Chan 窮蟬, a son of Zhuan Xu 顓頊, who was Chang Yi's 昌意 son, the latter being a son of the Yellow Emperor 黃帝. According to legend, Shun was treated very badly by his father, step-mother and his half-brother Xiang 象, so that he had to flee to Mt. Lishan, where he tilled the soil, to Hebang 河濱, where he was a potter, and Lake Lei 雷澤, where he lived from fishing. A collection of biographies of filial persons (Xiaozizhuan 孝子傳) from the bianwen 變文 stories found in Dunhuang 敦煌 narrates how he later returned and fed his hungry step-mother during a period of draught, forgetting all former injustice. During his time as a peasant at Mt. Lishan the character bao 褒 "securing" appeared in his hand, so that he knew that he would one day become emperor. This story is told in the book Soushenji 搜神記. Shun later found to Yao who entrusted him with government affairs and gave him his two daughters as wives. In the end, Yao handed over the reign of the empire to Shun. He took residence in Puban 浦阪 (modern Yongji 永濟, Shanxi) and fought against the three unruly Miao tribes 三苗, against Gong Gong 共工, Huan Dou 驩兜 and Gun 鯀. He had two groups of ministers, the Eight Gentles (bakai 八愷) Cang Shu 蒼舒, Tui Ai 隤敳, Tao Yan 檮戭, Da Lin 大臨, Long Jiang 龍降, Ting Jian 庭堅, Zhong Rong 仲容 and Shu Da 叔達, and the Eight Primordials (bayuan 八元, sons of Emperor Di Ku) Bo Fen 伯奮，Zhong Kan 仲堪, Shu Xian 叔獻， Ji Zhong 季仲, Bo Hu 伯虎, Zhong Xiong 仲熊, Shu Bao 叔豹 and Ji Kui 季狸. Shun appointed Yu the Great as Minister of Works (situ 司空) with the duty to tame the floods. His Minister of Education (situ 司徒) was Xie 契, his Minister of Justice was Gao Yao 皋陶, his *Director of Grains (houji 后稷) was Qi 弃. Chui 垂 was the Director of Works (gonggong 共工), and the Supervisor of Forestry and Hunting (yu 虞) was Bo Yi 伯益. Shun died during an inspection tour in Cangwu 蒼梧 in the southern wilderness and was buried in Jiuyi 九疑 (later Lingling 零陵, modern Ningyuan 寧遠, Hunan). He had formerly made Yu the Great his successor. While in some sources he is said to have toured the whole empire (i.e. greater parts of modern China), the Mengzi says that he was born in Zhufeng 諸馮 (modern Zhucheng 諸城, Shandong), lived in Fuxia 負夏 (modern Puyang 濮陽, Henan) and died in Mingtiao 鳴條 (modern Kaifeng 開封, Henan), all places located more or less in the Yellow River plain. Shun on the one side belonged to the leading persons of the Shang people that lived more in the east of the Yellow River plain, but on the other he is also geneologically connected with persons from the western part of Central China and the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di 黃帝). This shows that his figure was merged with different ancestral traditions. Li Jianping 李劍平 (ed. 1998). Zhongguo shenhua renwu cidian 中國神話人物辭典, p. 662. Xi'an: Shaanxi renmin chubanshe. Liu Qiyu 劉起釪 (1992). "Shun 舜", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史, vol. 2, p. 957. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe. Xiong Tieji 熊鐵基, Yang Youli 楊有禮 (ed. 1994). Zhongguo diwang zaixiang cidian 中國帝王宰相辭典, p. 8. Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe.