Wu (Zhou King)

King Wu

Wu , King of Zhou ( Chinese : 周武王; Pinyin : Zhōu Wǔ Wáng ) was the founder and first king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty . His reign began around 1049-1045 BC. And ended around 1043 BC. With his death. His real name was Ji Fa (姬發).

Life

Ji Fa was the eldest son of King Wen's eight sons who survived the king's death. Under Wen and his predecessors, the Zhou had developed from a tribe to the west and northwest of the Chinese Shang Dynasty to a powerful rival for the Shang. Ji Fa took over his father's business as King Wu after he had threatened the Shang heartland and wiped out some smaller states on a campaign in the direction of today's Shanxi and Henan provinces . Two years after King Wen's death, Wu and the Zhou forces reached Mengjin Fortress near present-day Luoyang , which was strategically located at a ford across the Yellow River . According to the chronicles, 800 local gentlemen were waiting for Wu there. These maneuvers were clearly directed against the Shang dynasty. Wu broke off the campaign, however, possibly to show his power and to recruit further allies.

Two years later, King Wu reappeared at Mengjin Fortress. This time he crossed the Yellow River with 45,000 soldiers and 300 chariots and approached the Shang capital Zhaoge (about 50 km south of present-day Anyang ) from the south . He avoided the western defense facilities of Shang and met the Shang troops after five days of march near Muye (in today's Henan Province ). At the Battle of Muye , the Zhou chariots defeated the Shang troops in a short time. Although later Confucian historiography claims that there was no bloodshed thanks to King Wu's great virtue and the great wickedness of Shang King Di Xin , everything points to Wu's military victory. Di Xin retired to his palace called Deer Terrace (鹿台) and had it set on fire. However, his body did not escape mutilation after it was found by Wu's forces.

The Zhou takeover was justified by the Heavenly Mandate theory . Accordingly, a king had to lead a personally exemplary life and rule justly in order to remain in possession of the heavenly mandate, which legalized his rule. Due to his allegedly unworthy lifestyle and cruel style of government, Di Xin had rightly lost his heavenly mandate, which passed to the representative of a new dynasty, Ji Fa, who called himself Wu as ruler.

King Wu secured his government by granting territorial rule to leading members of his clan and the leaders of allied peoples. The former Shang territory was now formally ruled by Di Xin's son Wu Geng , but King Wu commissioned his younger brothers Guanshu Xian and Caishu Du , and perhaps Huoshu Chu , to administer and monitor the area. He hired another of his brothers, Zhou Gong Dan , as his advisor. This structure of government remained intact as long as he lived; this is how the Fengjian system , which has now existed for several centuries, came into being . However, King Wu died just two years after his military triumph over Shang. Later Confucians considered him to be the ideal dynasty founder.

King Wu had appointed his eldest son, Song, to succeed him. Zhou Gong Dan declared Song, the future King Cheng, to be too young to lead the government and made himself the regent. The late Wu's other brothers who were in the former Shang area rebelled. In the civil war that followed, the Zhou territory was massively expanded to the east.

family

Wen of Zhou 周文王

Tai Si 太 姒

Wu from Zhou 周武王

Yi Jiang 邑 姜

Cheng from Zhou 周 成 王

Shu from Yu 邘 叔

Shu Yu from Tang 唐叔 虞

Marquis of Ying 應 侯

Marquis of Han 韓 侯

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edward L. Shaughnessy: Calendar and Chronology . In: Michael Loewe, Edward L. Shaughnessy (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Ancient China . Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-47030-7 , pp. 25 .
2. ^ ^{A b} Edward L. Shaughnessy: Western Zhou History . In: Michael Loewe, Edward L. Shaughnessy (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Ancient China . Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-47030-7 , pp. 309 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Wuwang in the Encyclopædia Britannica online
4. ↑ ^{a b} China. In: Hellmut Brunner, Klaus Flessel, Friedrich Hiller (eds.): Lexicon of old cultures. Volume 1, Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 1990, ISBN 3-411-07301-2 , p. 443.
5. ^ ^{A b} Edward L. Shaughnessy: Western Zhou History . In: Michael Loewe, Edward L. Shaughnessy (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Ancient China . Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-47030-7 , pp. 310 .
6. ↑ Wuwang. In: Helmut Freydank et al. (Hrsg.): Lexikon Alter Orient. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-928127-40-3 , p. 471.
7. ^ Edward L. Shaughnessy: Western Zhou History . In: Michael Loewe, Edward L. Shaughnessy (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Ancient China . Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-47030-7 , pp. 311 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Di Xin	King of China 1046 BC BC – 1043 BC Chr.	Cheng