Jilian () was the first recorded ruler of the ancient Chinese state that was later known as Chu. He adopted the clan name Mi () and was the founder of the House of Mi that ruled Chu for over eight centuries.

Ancestry

According to legends recorded in 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 hist ...

'' by

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...

, Jilian descended from the mythical Yellow Emperor and his grandson and successor

Zhuanxu Zhuanxu (Chinese: trad. , simp. , pinyin ''Zhuānxū''), also known as Gaoyang ( t , s , p ''Gāoyáng''), was a mythological emperor of ancient China. In the traditional account recorded by Sima Qian, Zhua ...

. Zhuanxu's great-grandson Wuhui(吳回) was put in charge of fire by

Emperor Ku Kù (, variant graph ), usually referred to as Dì Kù (), also known as Gaoxin or Gāoxīn Shì () or Qūn (), was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. He went by the name Gaoxin until receiving imperial authority, when he took the name Ku and th ...

and given the title

Zhurong Zhurong (), also known as Chongli (), is an important personage in Chinese mythology and Chinese folk religion. According to the ''Huainanzi'' and the philosophical texts of Mozi and his followers, Zhurong is a god of fire and of the south. The ...

. Wuhui's son Luzhong () had six sons, all born by

Caesarian section Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or mo ...

. Jilian was the youngest of the six.

Family

According to the

Tsinghua Bamboo Slips The Tsinghua Bamboo Strips () are a collection of Chinese texts dating to the Warring States period and written in ink on strips of bamboo, that were acquired in 2008 by Tsinghua University, China. The texts were obtained by illegal excavation, pr ...

, Jilian married Bi Zhui (), a granddaughter of the

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 ...

king

Pan Geng Pán Gēng (), personal name Zi Xun, was a Shang dynasty King of China. He is best known for having moved the capital of the Shang dynasty to its final location at Yīn. Records In the ''Records of the Grand Historian'' he was listed by Sima Q ...

. They had two sons:

Yingbo Yingbo () was an early ruler of the ancient Chinese state that would later be known as Chu. His father was Jilian and his mother was Bi Zhui (), a granddaughter of the Shang Dynasty king Pangeng. He had a younger brother named Yuanzhong (). Acc ...

and Yuanzhong (). However, the ''

'' recorded the name of Jilian's son as Fuju ().

References

{{Monarchs of Chu (state) Monarchs of Chu (state) Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 12th-century BC Chinese monarchs Founding monarchs