Emperor Shun
legendary ruler of ancient China, one of the Five Emperors
Emperor Shun (Chinese: 帝舜; pinyin: Dì Shùn) was a leader of the Youyu clan of ancient China and is regarded by some sources as the last of the Five Emperors among the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. According to tradition, people bearing the surname Hu (胡) are descended from Emperor Shun. Later rulers of the Chen state and the Chen dynasty claimed descent from him.
In later centuries, Confucian philosophers praised Yao and Shun for their virtue. Shun was particularly noted for his modesty and filial piety (xiao 孝).
Names
Shun's clan name (姓) was Yao (姚), his lineage name (氏) was Youyu (有虞), and his given name was Chonghua (重華). Shun is sometimes referred to as Great Shun (大舜), Yu Shun, or Shun of Yu (虞舜). "Yu" was the name of the fief that he received from Yao.
Biography
Under Emperor Yao, Shun was appointed Minister of Instruction, General Regulator, and Chief of the Four Peaks, and is said to have brought state affairs into order within three years. Yao is said to have been so impressed that he appointed Shun as his successor.
“Emperor Shun” enters the record as legendary ruler of ancient China, one of the Five Emperors. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Emperor, Shun and legendary can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Emperor Shun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.