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Zhao Shuai
Jin official who followed Prince Chong'er through nineteen years of exile, guided him with his gift for words, and repeatedly declined high office once Chong'er became Duke Wen
Inside a tent at dusk, a low table holds a board of faint map-like lines with scattered black and white stones beside a feather fan, a lit lantern, an iron teapot and rolled bamboo slips, while one person sits with their back turned at the open flap, facing a river valley at sunset.
Also known as Zhao Chengzi · Zi Ziyu
- Roles
- Strategists
Zhao Shuai, courtesy name Ziyu, posthumously Cheng, was a Jin official. When Prince Chong'er fled Jin in 655 BC Zhao went with him; among the Di he married Shu Wei, who bore him Zhao Dun, and he stayed with the prince through nineteen years of wandering. The Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan) says that before a banquet in Qin, Hu Yan asked that Zhao go in his place because Zhao was the better speaker, and at the feast Zhao prompted Chong'er to bow in thanks for Duke Mu's ode. After Chong'er became Duke Wen, Zhao was made governor of Yuan, and when the three armies were formed in 633 BC he recommended Xi Hu as commander and turned down high posts for himself more than once. The duke gave him his daughter Zhao Ji, who insisted that Shu Wei be brought back as principal wife and Zhao Dun made heir. He died in 622 BC, and Zhao Dun later ran the Jin government for some twenty years.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–622 BCE