Shùn 舜 = a filial son
His annoying stepmother
Xiàng 象 = his annoying stepbrother
Gǔsǒu 瞽瞍 (Blind Old Man) = his widowed father, easily dominated
Emperor Yáo 尧 = a legendary emperor
Éhuáng 娥皇 and Nǚyīng 女英 = the emperor’s daughters
This is the story of Emperor Shùn 舜 (reign 01a-9), a legendary figure from remote prehistory, sometimes considered the founder of the single-emperor Yú 虞 dynasty.
Once upon a time there was a man named Gǔsǒu 瞽瞍, which means Blind Old Man. (Some people write his name 瞽叟; it still means Blind Old Man.) One night Gǔsǒu had a dream in which a magical bird appeared, which had two pupils in each eye, and which was able to banish all ghosts and demons and to bring fabulous good luck. The bird fed Gǔsǒu a grain of rice and told him he would soon have a son. And sure enough, that is what happened. Oddly, the son, like the bird, was rumored to have had two pupils in each eye. And that is why artists sometimes show Emperor Shùn with two pupils in each eye.
Unfortunately, Shùn’s mother died when he was still a small child. His father Gǔsǒu remarried, and soon Shùn was joined by a younger sister and by a younger brother named Xiàng 象.
But Shùn’s stepmother was stupid, cruel, and boorish, and she spoiled her own children while treating Shùn very badly and beating him frequently. Old Gǔsǒu, under her influence, soon grew very similar. Xiàng grew up to be lazy and arrogant.
Each day Shùn worked alone in the fields on the slopes of Mount Lì 历, in Shāndōng 山东 province, and he was not allowed to return home for food until the day’s work was completed.
But Shùn’s nature was very filial, and so he was uncomplaining and not at all resentful. Shùn’s filial piety was so great that even the animals were moved. One day, as he was working, a mysterious wind arose. Suddenly elephants appeared and ploughed for him, and birds in large numbers came out of the sky and weeded for him.
Neighbors who saw this were astonished, and soon all were talking about it.
Today the story is usually told a little differently. It is said that Shùn lived near his fields, and that people came to live with Shùn, founding a little village where they fished or farmed the surrounding land or made pottery. Before Shùn began to dwell among them, we are told, the people of this region had all disputed with each other about everything, but that Shùn’s very presence made them stop all their quarrels and experience only fellowship and good will.
Whether it was because of the birds and elephants helping Shùn with his farmwork or because of the greater miracle of the difficult people around Mt. Lǐ suddenly being filled with good will, Emperor Yáo 尧 (reign 01a-8) heard that miracles were happening. He sent cattle and goats to Shùn and gave him two of his daughters, Éhuáng 娥皇 and Nǚyīng 女英, to be his wives. Emperor Yáo even sent nine of his sons to wait on him (or, some say, to join his village). Emperor Yáo also sent gold and other treasures to honor Shùn.
Some people claim that Emperor Yáo was not merely moved by Shùn’s admirable character, but also had another plan in mind: namely to see whether he was worthy to become emperor after Yáo became old and feeble. These people say that the emperor sent Shùn around the realm to work in various ways but especially to settle disputes. And it was only afterward that Yáo sent him treasures
There are people who say that Shùn had a large house built that he could live in with his troublesome parents and his annoying brother and his two loving wives.
There are others who say that he and his wives stayed in the pottery-making village, where he kept his flocks and herds and had a great storehouse filled with grain, and that under his good efforts, the little settlement flourished and flourished.
Several years passed, and Shùn’s family, envious of his fortune and his reputation, resolved to be rid of him and to take his flocks and herds and all the goods in his storehouse.
It is sometimes told that Shùn’s father Gǔsǒu and his brother Xiàng asked him to help them make repairs to a rickety old granary. His wives Éhuáng and Nǚyīng were much opposed to his doing this, for they suspected that his family’s ill will could easily become dangerous acts, but Shùn, as a virtuous son, felt he had no choice, so all his wives could do was provide him with a magical coat on which they had embroidered a colorful bird with double pupils in each eye.
Once Shùn had climbed up the ladder to the granary roof, his treacherous stepmother removed the ladder and set fire to the structure. But as the flames rose up around him, Shùn turned into a bird like the one on his magical coat and flew to safety, and then turned back into himself. (Other people say that there was no magical coat, but rather that Éhuáng and Nǚyīng had given him huge bamboo hats, and that he was able to jump off the roof using the hats, one under each arm, as wings. Most people think the bird story is more probable.)
Gǔsǒu abjectly apologized to his son on behalf of the whole family, and told him how wrong they were to try to burn him up. Because Shùn was very filial, what could he do but forgive his father and therefore the whole family?
But the family did not abandon their plans. If it worked once to ask Shùn to help them fix things up, why not give it another try? And so they invited him to help them repair their old well. Once again, Shùn’s two clever wives tried to dissuade him, and once again he told them that filial piety must trump all fears. And once again they gave him a magical coat on which they had embroidered a colorful bird with two pupils in each eye. This time they hid it under his old work coat so no-one would suspect magic.
So he went to the well and climbed down. People say different things about what happened next. Some people say that his stepmother cut the rope from which he hung, and then threw large stones down the well. He stripped off his old clothes, and the magical coat became scales and he turned into a beautiful dragon and flew out of the well, safe and sound.
Other people say that once Shùn reached the bottom, Xiàng and Gǔsǒu sealed the well, trapping him. Then they proceeded to divide up Shùn’s possessions, with the repulsive Xiàng eager to inherit Shùn’s two wives, Éhuáng and Nǚyīng. But that night Shùn suddenly appeared in the house, for he had escaped by another entry into the well.
But still he bore no resentment towards his parents or his brother, for a filial son must forgive his parents all offenses and must accept blame for any shortcomings of his younger siblings. Some say they were beyond reclamation, but most people believe that Shùn’s calm acceptance of them eventually led his family to appreciate his great virtue, so that they came to love and respect him at last.
All of this of course reached the ears of Emperor Yáo, since his daughters were married to Shùn and his sons lived with Shùn. Emperor Yáo could only be impressed that Shùn was too filial to experience resentment even when so badly treated, and he knew that Shùn was the noblest man in all the land. So he abdicated the throne in Shùn’s favor.
Shùn was a much beloved monarch. It is said that after he died his two widows, Éhuáng and Nǚyīng, the daughters of Emperor Yáo, wept so much that they left tear stains on the bamboo in the land of Chǔ 楚, which remains speckled to this day. People living in Cāngwú 苍梧 in Húnán 湖南 Province claim that he died in that place. They say also that his wives went there to be with him in his last moments, but that they both slipped and fell into the Xiāng Jiāng 湘江 river, where their spirits can still sometimes be heard singing sadly late at night.