Fei Zhong

Fei Zhong was a favourite of Zhou, the last Shang king. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says the king put him in charge of government, that he was a flatterer greedy for gain, and that the people of Yin did not trust him; the king also employed Elai, a slanderer, and the lords drifted further away. According to the Shiji's annals of Zhou, when Ji Chang, the Lord of the West, was imprisoned at Youli, Hong Yao and others gathered beautiful women, fine horses and rare objects and presented them to the king through Fei Zhong, and the delighted king set Ji Chang free. The Shiji says nothing of his fate after the Zhou conquest. The Ming novel Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen yanyi) pairs him with You Hun as a pair of slanderous courtiers, the image later carried into opera and storytelling.