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Duke of Shao
Early Zhou statesman, enfeoffed with Yan by King Wu, who governed the lands west of Shan as grand protector and is remembered in the ode The Sweet Pear Tree
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Zhao Gong · Zhao Bo · Ji Shi
Shi, Duke of Shao, belonged to the royal Ji clan; the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says only that he shared the Zhou surname, while Huangfu Mi made him a son of King Wen by a lesser consort. King Wu enfeoffed him at Northern Yan after the conquest of Shang, but he stayed at court and, according to the Suoyin commentary, sent his eldest son to the fief. During King Cheng's minority he served as grand protector and shared the realm with the Duke of Zhou, ruling the lands west of Shan, and the Announcement of the Duke of Shao in the Book of Documents (Shangshu) shows him surveying the site of the new city at Luo. He and the Duke of Bi later saw King Kang onto the throne. He was said to have heard lawsuits under a sweet pear tree, and the ode The Sweet Pear Tree in the Book of Songs tells how the people refused to cut it down.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; early Western Zhou