Duke Yin, Part I

Abstract

Translator’s summary: This chapter, covering only one year, establishes many of the conventions used thereafter, and it introduces Duke Yin, the first of several praiseworthy men in this book who show some reluctance to assume power. In Yin’s case, he becomes duke only as a de facto regent for his brother Huan. Ominously, though, the chapter also includes the affair of the Earl of Zheng and his brother Duan, which illustrates the corrosive effect that power may have upon brotherly love.