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 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

of the

Kingdom of Chu Chu (, Old Chinese: ''*s-r̥aʔ'') was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Their first ruler was King Wu of Chu in the early 8th century BC. Chu was located in the south of the Zhou heartland and lasted during the Spring and A ...

during the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period () was a period in History of China, Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou (256 BCE), characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject t ...

of ancient China. Shen Zhuliang's father, Shen Yin Shu, was a great-grandson of

King Zhuang of Chu King Zhuang of Chu (), personal name Xiong Lü, was a monarch of the Chu state. He was one of the "Five Hegemons" who attempted to wrest control of China during the Spring and Autumn period. Life The son of King Mu, King Zhuang ascended the th ...

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 (), personal name Xiong Zhen, was from 515 BC to 489 BC the king of the Chu state. King Zhao succeeded his father, King Ping, and was in turn succeeded to the throne by his son, King Hui. Life In 506 BCE, King Helü of the S ...

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 t ...

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

Ye County Ye County or Yexian () is a County (People's Republic of China), 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 ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

) 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 (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...

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

Analects of Confucius The ''Analects'', also known as the ''Sayings of Confucius'', is an ancient Chinese philosophical text composed of sayings and ideas attributed to Confucius and his contemporaries, traditionally believed to have been compiled by his followers. ...

''. In 478 BCE, during the reign of

King Hui of Chu King Hui of Chu (), personal name Xiong Zhang, was a monarch of the Chu state. Succeeding his father, King Zhao, in 488 BC, he ruled until his death in 432 BC. He was in turn succeeded by his son, King Jian. In 478 BC, Xiong Sheng (熊勝), t ...

, , a grandson of King Ping, rebelled against King Hui, killed Prime Minister and Chief Military Commander , making the top two government posts of Chu vacant, and kidnapped the king. Shen Zhuliang put down the rebellion of Baigong Sheng and restored the king's rule. Shen Zhuliang became the Prime Minister and Chief Military Commander. He did not keep both posts for long. At the same year, he appointed the grandsons of King Ping, (son of Zixi) and (son of Ziqi), 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 magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

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 largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ye, Duke of Generals of the Spring and Autumn period 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