Zhong Hui

Also known as Ren Laizhu

Zhonghui was a minister of Tang, founder of the Shang, and is known only from scattered references in early texts. The Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan), under the first year of Duke Ding of Lu, says that Xizhong, ancestor of the house of Xue, served the Xia as master of carriages and lived at Xue, and that Zhonghui later lived there too as Tang's minister of the left. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) relates that after Tang defeated the Xia and returned to Taijuantao, Zhonghui composed an announcement; the Announcement of Zhonghui now in the Book of Documents (Shangshu) belongs to the 'old text' chapters presented by Mei Ze in the Eastern Jin, which most Qing scholars judged to be forgeries. Mencius names Laizhu beside Yi Yin as one who knew Tang's way at first hand, and the Han commentator Zhao Qi suggests that Laizhu may have been Zhonghui. Officials of Xue in the Spring and Autumn period still cited Zhonghui's residence there to defend their state's standing.