User:Barefact/Ying Shao

Ying Shao 應劭 (ca. 150-200 CE) was a Chinese writer and historian of the Eastern Han period

Ying Shao was also a writer and historian. His most famous work is the Fengsu Tongyi, the extant parts of which can be read online here: http://lib.jmu.edu.cn/departments2/magazin...ol/index-74.htm (one passage translated to English here: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Sc...ngsutongyi.html )

was the Prefect of Taishan (Mount Tai) in the early 190s. In 191 he defeated an attack on the Prefecture by remnants of the Yellow Turban rebels (this is recorded in the Hou Hanshu). In 193, his superior Cao Cao (who was then Governor of Yanzhou province) ordered him to escort Cao's father Cao Song to Cao's base at Dingtao. Cao Song had taken refuge at Langye in neighbouring Xuzhou province during the war against Dong Zhuo in 190-191, and was now heading to Yanzhou to be reunited with Cao Cao. However, before Ying Shao could reach Cao Song, Song was murdered at Hua county in Taishan prefecture. Also killed were Cao Song's concubines and Cao Cao's younger brother Cao De. There are two versions of who Cao Song's murderer was, both found in Pei Songzhi's annotations to the Sanguo Zhi: the Shiyu says that Tao Qian (Governor of Xuzhou) secretly sent a few thousand cavarly to ambush and kill him; the Wu Shu says that Tao Qian tasked his military officer Zhang Kai with leading 200 cavalry to escort Cao Song to Taishan, but Zhang Kai murdered Cao Song, took his possessions, and fled to Huainan. In the first version, Tao Qian was ultimately the murderer; in the second version, Zhang Kai acted against Tao's orders and Tao was unfairly blamed for it.

The Shiyu also notes that Ying Shao was afraid Cao Cao would hold him responsible for Cao Song's death, so he fled Taishan and took refuge with Yuan Shao. By the time Cao Cao defeated the Yuan family and conquered Hebei, Ying Shao was already dead. However, Ying Shao cannot really be blamed for not reaching Cao Song soon enough - Hua county is actually right on the eastern edge of Taishan prefecture, and is much nearer to Langye than to Taishan city.

As is well known, Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou in 193-194 to seek vengeance for the murder of his father.

In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Ying Shao is depicted as being with Cao Song when Zhang Kai murders Song. Ying Shao manages to escape Zhang Kai's troops, and then flees to Yuan Shao.

The Fengsu Tongyi is a very valuable record of various folk customs and folk legends existing in the Eastern Han. Michael Nylan (now at UC Berkeley) wrote a PhD dissertation about this text in 1982: 'Ying Shao's Feng su t'ung yi: An Exploration of Problems in Han-Dynasty Political, Philosophical, and Social Unity'