Shen Zhuliang (), Duke of Ye () or Gao, Duke of Ye () (c. 529 BCE – after 478 BCE), was a general and

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

of the Kingdom of Chu during the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fr ...

of ancient China. Shen Zhuliang's father,

Shen Yin Shu Shenyin Shu () or Shenyin Xu () (died 506 BC) was a general of the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. He was a great-grandson of King Zhuang of Chu. Killing of Fei Wuji ''Lüshi Chunqiu'', a Chinese classic text ...

, was a great-grandson of

King Zhuang of Chu King Zhuang of Chu (, reigned 613-591 BC) was a monarch of the Zhou dynasty State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period in ancient China. His personal name was Xiong Lü (), his ancestral name was Mi (), and his posthumous title was King Zhua ...

and died in the historic

Battle of Boju The Battle of Boju () was the decisive battle of the war fought in 506 BC between Wu and Chu, two major kingdoms during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. The Wu forces were led by King Helü, his brother Fugai, and Chu exile Wu Z ...

in 506 BCE. After his father's death,

King Zhao of Chu King Zhao of Chu (, died 489 BC) was from 515 to 489 BC the king of the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. He was born Xiong Zhen () and King Zhao was his posthumous title. Documents unearthed in the former state ...

enfeoffed In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of ti ...

Shen Zhuliang with the city of Ye (in present-day

Ye County Ye County or Yexian () is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Pingdingshan, Henan province, China, with a population of . The ancient town of Kunyang was located in Ye County. It was the site of the critical Battle o ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

) at the northern frontier of the Chu kingdom. He was known as ''Ye Gong'' (Duke of Ye), and became the founding ancestor of the Ye surname, which is today the 42nd most common surname in China. In 489 BCE,

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

visited Shen Zhuliang in Ye, and their conversations were recorded in the ''

Analects of Confucius The ''Analects'' (; ; Old Chinese: '' ŋ(r)aʔ''; meaning "Selected Sayings"), also known as the ''Analects of Confucius'', the ''Sayings of Confucius'', or the ''Lun Yu'', is an ancient Chinese book composed of a large collection of sayings a ...

''. In 478 BCE, during the reign of

King Hui of Chu King Hui of Chu (, died 432 BC) was the king of the State of Chu from 488 BC to 432 BC during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. He was born Xiong Zhang () and King Hui was his posthumous title. He was succeeded by his son, King Ji ...

, Shen Zhuliang put down the rebellion of and restored the king's rule. Shen Zhuliang became the Prime Minister and Chief Military Commander, the top two government posts of Chu. He did not keep both posts for long. At the same year, he appointed the grandsons of King Ping, (son of ) and (son of ), as his successors as the Prime Minister and the Chief Military Commander respectively.

Legend

In Liu Xiang's ''New Prefaces'' (), there was a story saying that the Duke of Ye loved

dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

so much that the walls of his house were decorated with dragons. The real dragons in the heaven heard that and decided to visit him. But when he saw them, he fled in terror instead. The

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...

“” was derived from this story, meaning that someone is pretending to like something which one actually dislikes or fears.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ye, Duke of Zhou dynasty generals Zhou dynasty nobility Chu state people 6th-century BC births 5th-century BC deaths 6th-century BC Chinese people 5th-century BC Chinese people Lingyin of Chu