Zou Yuan

Zou Yuan is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 90th of the 108 Liangshan heroes and 54th of the 72 Earthly Fiends. He is nicknamed "Forest Emerging Dragon".

Background

Zou Yuan is from Laizhou. He is famous for being righteous, honest and highly skilled in martial arts, but is also known for being arrogant and fiercely competitive. He used to lead a wandering life and spent much of his time on gambling before deciding to become an outlaw.

Zou Yuan and his nephew, Zou Run (who is about the same age as him), lead a group of bandits based on Mount Dengyun (登雲山) near Laizhou, where they rob the rich and help the poor. The Zous are close friends of Sun Xin, Yang Lin, Deng Fei and Shi Yong.

Joining Liangshan

When the Xie brothers (Xie Zhen and Xie Bao) are wrongly imprisoned and sentenced to death in Dengzhou (登州; in present-day eastern Shandong), Sun Xin and his wife Gu Dasao approach the Zous and enlist their help in staging a prison raid in Dengzhou to rescue the Xie brothers. After saving the Xie brothers, they flee to Liangshan Marsh together and join the outlaw band there.

Zou

Zou or ZOU may refer to

See also

Zou (TV series)

Zou is a French animated children's television series inspired by the books of Michel Gay made by the Cyber Group Studios. It is broadcast by Disney Junior (UK & Ireland), Disney Junior (Portugal), Disney Junior (Latin America), and PBS Kids Sprout as well as NBC Kids (United States). It has also been made available on Hulu, to members of the site's Hulu Plus paid model. The series of episodes, lasting 10 minutes each, are transmitted two at a time, the second immediately after the first one, except on PBS Kids Sprout, where the episodes are shown individually. The characters include Zou, Elzee, Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Mr Zoey, Zinnia, Zac and Elzee's mum.

Premise and format

Zou is about the day-to-day life and adventures of a young anthropomorphic zebra, Zou (Bizou), and his family and friends. Most episodes contain Zou's name in the title and usually take place at Zou's house or in his backyard. Zou lives with his mother, father, grandparents, and great-grandmother. Each episode features some simple problem or issue that Zou must deal with, usually with the assistance of his family and friends.

Zou (state)

Zou (simplified Chinese: 邹; traditional Chinese: 鄒), originally Zhu (邾) or Zhulou (邾婁), was a minor state that existed during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China.

History

King Wu of Zhou granted Cao Xie (曹挾), an alleged descendant of the Yellow Emperor through his grandson, the legendary emperor Zhuanxu, control of the small state of Zhu as a vassal ruler under the State of Lu with the feudal title Viscount (子), but later holding the title Duke of Zhu (邾公). The ancestral surname of the ruling family was Cao (曹).

Zhu subsequently changed its name to Zou. The state of Zou was located in the southwest of modern-day Shandong Province. Its territory is now the county-level city of Zoucheng.

Demise

Zou was conquered and annexed by the state of Chu during the reign of King Xuan of Chu (r. 369–340 BC). The ruling family and its descendants adopted the Zhu (朱) surname in memory of their former state of Zhu (邾).

Legacy

Zhu is one of the most common surnames of modern-day China.

The noted Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi descends from the ruling house. The small state of Zou, however, is most famous as the birthplace of the Chinese philosopher Mencius. As the overlord State of Lu was the home state of Confucius and many of his disciples, this means that Confucianism's founder, and most of its minor sages and wise men hailed from or had ancestral roots in these two ancient states of China.