Elai ({{zh, t=惡來, p=Èlái) was a bodyguard for

King Zhou King Zhou (; ) was the pejorative posthumous name given to Di Xin of Shang () or King Shou of Shang (), the last king of the Shang dynasty of ancient China. He is also called Zhou Xin (). In Chinese, his name Zhòu ( 紂) also refers to a horse cr ...

of the Chinese

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

. He was an ancestor of

Feizi Feizi (; died 858 BC), also known by the title Qin Ying, was the founder of the ancient Chinese state of Qin, predecessor of the Qin Dynasty that would conquer all other Chinese states and unite China in 221 BC. Mythical origin of Qin Accordi ...

, the founder of the state of Qin. His brother Jisheng ( 季勝) was an ancestor of

Zaofu Zaofu (), formerly romanized Tsao Fu, was an exceptionally-skilled charioteer who is said to have lived around 950 BC. He was counted as a member of the House of Ying, the founder of Zhao and a relative of Feizi, the founder of Qin, but his explo ...

, the founder of the

state of Zhao Zhao () was one of the seven major states during the Warring States period of ancient China. It was created from the three-way Partition of Jin, together with Han and Wei, in the 5th century BC. Zhao gained significant strength from the mil ...

. According to the ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'' (''Shiji'') by Sima Qian, Elai was known for his immense physical strength. In the historical novel ''

Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD ...

'' by Luo Guanzhong, Cao Cao, impressed with

Dian Wei Dian Wei (; died February or March 197) was a military general serving under the warlord Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Famed for his enormous strength, Dian Wei excelled at wielding a pair of '' ji''s (a halberd-like weapon), ...

's strength, states "This is old Elai again." Thus this fictional nickname of Dian Wei stuck with him, and he was henceforth known as "Elai" Dian Wei.

References

* Sima Qian. ''

''. * Luo Guanzhong. ''

'', Chapter 10. 11th-century BC Chinese people Shang dynasty people