Shun's story

According to legend, Shun's family is very poor. Although he is a descendant of Emperor Zhuan Xu, the fifth one is Shu Ren, who is in the lower class. Shun's experience is more unfortunate. His father Gu Sou was blind and his mother died young. After remarriage, the stepmother gave birth to a younger brother named Xiang. Shun lives in a family environment of "stubborn father, arrogant mother, arrogant elephant". His father was dishonest, his stepmother was duplicitous, his brother was arrogant and unruly, and several people conspired to kill Shun. But Shun has not lost his filial piety to his parents, and he is also very friendly to his younger brother. He has never slackened off for years. Shun fled in time when his family wanted to harm him; If you are a little better, go back to them immediately and help them as much as possible, so you can't kill them; It is a unique aspect of his legendary story that Shun can show extraordinary moral character and handle family relations well under such unfortunate circumstances.

Shun was born in a poor family, engaged in all kinds of manual labor and experienced ups and downs. He farmed in Lishan (now east of Ruicheng County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province), fished in Leize (now Shouyang Township, yongji city City, Shanxi Province) and made pottery on the banks of the Yellow River. In short, his life is very difficult, he is moved from one place to another, and he runs around to support his family.

According to legend, Shun became famous at the age of 20. He is famous for his filial piety. Because he can stick to filial piety to his parents who abused and persecuted him, he was called Yang in his youth. 10 years later, Yao asked Siyue (the head of the four governors) for an heir, and Siyue recommended Shun. Yao married his two daughters to Shun to test his character and ability. Shun not only makes the two daughters live in harmony with the whole family, but also shows outstanding talents and noble personality strength in all aspects. "Shun Li Gengshan, people who have experienced mountains give way; Fishing for Razer, Razer makes way for everyone. As long as he works, the wind of comity will rise; " Pottery riverside, riverside utensils are not bitter ",making pottery can also drive people around to engage in earnest, strive for perfection, and put an end to the phenomenon of shoddy. Wherever he goes, people are willing to follow him, so "one year, he lived together (together is a village), two years, he became a city, three years, Chengdu (with four counties as the capital)". Yao was very happy to learn these things, and gave Shunyi clothes (fine ge cloth clothes) and Qin cattle and sheep, and built a cowshed for him.

Shun got these rewards, and Xiang was very jealous. They want to kill Shun and seize the property. Gu Sou asked Shun to repair the roof of the barn, but set fire to the barn below. Shun made wings with two hats, jumped down from the house and survived. Later, Shun was asked to dig a well. The well was dug deep, but the joint was filled with soil. They want to plug the well and bury Shun alive. Fortunately, Shun was alert in advance, dug a passage next to the shaft and hid through the passage for a while. He Xiang thinks this plot is successful. Xiang said that the idea came from him, that is, to share things with a piano, that Yao's two daughters should be his wives, and that cows, sheep and sheds should be shared with their parents. The elephant lives in Shun's house and plays Shun's piano. Shun went to see him. The elephant was surprised, but the boss was unhappy. He just said, "I think Shun is boring!" " "Shun doesn't take it to heart, as always, he is filial to his parents and friendly to his brothers; And more sincere and cautious than before.

Later, Yao asked Shun to participate in politics, manage officials, receive guests and undergo various tempering. Shun not only handled political affairs in an orderly way, but also improved the employment situation. Yao's unused "eight yuan" and "eight opening" have a long reputation, and he ordered "eight yuan" to manage the land and make "eight opening" keep discipline; There are also "Four Fierce Families", namely Hundun, a fatuous scholar in Di Hong, Qiong Qi, a fatuous scholar in Shaoluo, a fatuous scholar in Zhuan Xu and a gluttonous scholar in Jinyun. Although notorious, Yao failed to deal with them, and Shun exiled the "Four Fierce Families" to remote and wild places. The implementation of these measures shows Shun's general plan of governing the country and his political talent.

After many experiments, Shun finally got Yao's approval. Choose an auspicious day and hold a ceremony. Yao and Shun, located in Shun, are called "the last Wen Zu" in Shangshu. Legend has it that Yao ruled the emperor in Shun Dynasty, although he had the right of the emperor, but he did not hold the title of the emperor. Contrary to these two statements, the legend is that Shun imprisoned Yao and prevented his son from seeing him. Shun himself became the son of heaven, similar to the court coup of later generations, usurping power and seizing power.

After Shun came to power, it is said that there were a series of major political actions and great efforts were made to govern the country. He revised the calendar and held a ceremony to worship the gods of the four seasons of heaven and earth and mountains and rivers. He also collected the imperial edicts of the governors, then set an auspicious day, called the governors from all over the country, held a grand ceremony and re-issued the imperial edicts. When he ascended the throne, he traveled around the world, offering sacrifices to famous mountains, calling governors and observing people's feelings; It also stipulates that a patrol will be conducted in the next five years to check the improvement of the political achievements of the ruling party and stipulate rewards and punishments. It can be seen that Shun attached importance to the connection with the local government and strengthened its rule over the local government.

Legend has it that Shun's general plan of governing the country is also to "take the punishment as an example and shed five punishments", and draw the shape of five punishments on the utensils to play a warning role; Use exile instead of corporal punishment to show leniency. But there are also punishments of flogging, beating and redemption, especially for criminals who refuse to repent. Shun exiled the workers to Youzhou, Huandou to Chongshan, Sanmiao to Sanwei, and Gun who failed in water control to Yushan. The bad guys were punished and everyone was convinced.

According to the legend of Historical Records, Yao died after 28 years of regency. After three years of mourning, Shun gave way to the son of Yao and retreated to the south of Nanhe River. However, all the governors in the world went to see Shun, but ignored Dani; People in the court also complained to Shun, and the people made up many songs to praise Shun and ignored them. Shun felt that the will of the people and providence could not be shirked, so he returned to the capital and ascended the throne of the son of heaven. However, the legendary capital of Shun and the capital of Yao are not in the same place. According to Shi Mao Justice written by Confucius in the Tang Dynasty, Huangfu Mi said; "Shunying Capital, or Yunpu Sakamoto." Puban was Hedong County in the Tang Dynasty, which is now Yongji County, Shanxi Province.

After Yao's death, Shun had another great political revolution. Yu, Qi, Abandon, Boyi, Wei Xiao, Long, Cui, Yi, etc. Used in the past, I don't know. At this time, Shun ordered Yu to be Shu Ren, managing water and soil; Abandoned as Hou Ji, in charge of agriculture; Life contract as the implementation of Stuart Enlightenment; Hao Tao was appointed as a "scholar" in charge of criminal law; Life hangs as a "* * * worker" and is in charge of all kinds of work; Life benefits are "dangerous" and are in charge of the mountains; Boyi was appointed as "Rank Zong" and presided over the etiquette; He was appointed music officer, in charge of music and education; Order the dragon to "answer the phone" and be responsible for issuing orders and collecting opinions. It is also stipulated that political achievements should be inspected every three years, and promotion or dismissal should be decided by the results of three inspections. Through such rectification, all work has taken on a new look. These people have made brilliant achievements, among which the rest are the greatest. He devoted himself to flood control, set an example, cut mountains and dredged rivers, and finally conquered the flood, making people all over the world live and work in peace. At that time, "the merits of Emperor Shun were cherished in the four seas" and "the virtues of the world began with Emperor Shun", showing an unprecedented peace situation.

Shun was old and thought his son was corrupt, so he decided to let Yu, who had the highest prestige, be his successor, and Yu was in charge of administrative affairs. Therefore, Shun, like Yao, is the sage of Zen.

According to legend, after Yao's death, Shun was in office for thirty-nine years. During his southern tour, he died in the wild of Cangwu and was buried in Jiuyi Mountain in the south of the Yangtze River, known as Lingling in history.

Shun, like Yao, was the ancient and modern holy king respected by Confucianism and Mohism in the pre-Qin period. Shun is of special significance to Confucianism. Confucianism attaches importance to filial piety, and Shun's legend is also famous for filial piety, so his personality image is only a model of Confucian ethics. Mencius is a person who has made great contributions to the development of Confucianism after Confucius. He strongly praised Shun's filial piety and advocated people to strive to be as filial as Shun. Said: "Shun, people are also; Me too. Shun is the law of the world, but it can be passed on to future generations. I am (still) a countryman, but I can worry. What is there to worry about? It's just awkward. He even imagined that Shun was the son of heaven and was arrested for murder. Although Shun won't use his power to break the criminal law and pardon him, he must secretly escape from prison behind his father's back and live a carefree life together, forgetting the status of the son of heaven in order to enjoy family happiness. Due to the propaganda of Confucianism, Shun's legendary deeds have had a far-reaching impact on China's cultural traditions.