Ziban

Ziban (Chinese: 子般; pinyin: Zǐ Bān; lit. 'Son Ban'; died 6 October 662 BC), personal name Ji Ban, was a ruler of the Lu state. He is generally known in historiography as Ziban due to his reign being less than a year long, as Ziban died in the same year as his father, Duke Zhuang.

Ziban 子般
Ruler of Lu
Reign	662 BC
Predecessor	Duke Zhuang of Lu
Successor	Duke Min of Lu
Died	6 October 662 BC
Names Ancestral name: Ji (Chinese: 姬) Given name: Ban (Chinese: 般 or 斑)
House	Ji
Dynasty	Lu
Father	Duke Zhuang of Lu
Mother	Meng Ren (Chinese: 孟任)

Ziban's mother was Meng Ren (孟任), a woman from the Dang (黨) family who Duke Zhuang saw from a tower he built, which overlooked the Dang residence. Duke Zhuang followed her and promised to make her his concubine. Meng Ren agreed and made a covenant with him by cutting her arm. Later, Ziban was born.

After the death of Duke Zhuang in 662 BC, Prince You (友), Duke Zhuang's brother, installed Ziban to the Lu throne.

Two months into his reign, Ziban was murdered by Qingfu (慶父), another one of Duke Zhuang's brothers, who installed Qi (Duke Min), his brother, to the Lu throne. Prince You fled to the Chen state.

Bibliography

• Zuo Zhuan, Duke Zhuang
• Shiji, vol. 33
• Dong, Zhongshu; Queen, Sarah A.; Major, John S. (2016). Luxuriant gems of the spring and autumn. Translations from the Asian classics. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-16932-5
• Durrant, Stephen; Li, Wai-yee; Schaberg, David (2016). Zuo Tradition/Zuozhuan: Commentary on the "Spring and Autumn Annals" (1st ed.). Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-99915-9
• Miller, Harry (2015). The Gongyang Commentary on The Spring and Autumn Annals. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. doi:10.1057/9781137493002 ISBN 978-1-349-50514-2
• Blakeley, Barry B. (1977-05). "Functional Disparities in the Socio-Political Traditions of Spring and Autumn China: Part I: Lu and Ch'i". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 20 (2). doi:10.2307/3631778