Yi Yin

Also known as Zhi · A Heng · Shang Yuansheng

Yi Yin was the leading minister of the early Shang. The Art of War (Sunzi) mentions a Yi Zhi in Xia, so his personal name is usually taken to be Zhi, while the Annals of Yin in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) calls him Aheng. That chapter keeps two stories of his rise: a servant in a bride's dowry train who won Tang over by talking of cooking, or a recluse who served only after Tang's envoys came five times. He helped Tang defeat Jie of Xia and served the kings Wai Bing and Zhong Ren. When Taijia ignored Tang's laws, Yi Yin banished him to Tong and governed for three years, restoring him once he repented. The Shiji says Yi Yin died under Wo Ding and was buried at Bo, but fragments of the old Bamboo Annals claim he seized the throne and was killed seven years later by Taijia, who slipped out of Tong. Shang oracle-bone inscriptions record royal sacrifices to him.