Family Background
Ran Min's father Ran Liang (冉良), who later changed his name to Ran Zhan (冉瞻), and from Wei Commandery (魏郡, roughly modern Handan, Hebei) and was a descendant of an aristocratic family, but one who must have, in the serious famines circa 310, joined a group of refugees led by Chen Wu (陳午). When Later Zhao's founder Shi Le defeated Chen in 311, he captured the 11-year-old Ran Zhan as well, and for reasons unknown, he had his nephew Shi Hu adopt Ran Zhan as his son and change his name accordingly to Shi Zhan. Ran Min's mother was named Wang (王). It is not known when he was born, but he would have been known as Shi Min.
A Shi Zhan was mentioned to have died in battle when Shi Hu was defeated by Han Zhao's emperor Liu Yao in 328, but it is not clear whether this Shi Zhan was Shi Min's father.
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