King Wu of Zhou

King Wu of Zhou (died  BC), personal name Ji Fa, was the founding king of the

Zhou dynasty of China. He is considered one of the inaugurators of the Chinese dynastic cycle and a model ruler in the Confucian tradition.

King Wu's rule of the Predynastic Zhou began around 1050 BC, when he succeeded his father King Wen. Working with Jiang Ziya, he set out to complete his father's unfinished task of overthrowing the tyrannical Di Xin and his Shang dynasty. In 1046 BC, leading a coalition that included eight other states, King Wu routed Di Xin's army at the Battle of Muye and captured the Shang capital Yin, marking the end of the Shang and the rise of the Zhou.

As King of China, King Wu consolidated his rule by granting territory to his relatives and allies. He is regarded as a virtuous ruler by later Confucians, and his overthrow of the Shang features prominently in Chinese historiography as an example of the Mandate of Heaven.

Name

thumb|left|100px|[[Li gui (vessel)|Li gui showing , top-right.]]

In bronze inscriptions, such as the Li gui, King Wu's name is occasionally contracted to wǔ . It is generally considered to be a ligature, though it is subject to scholarly debate, with some arguing that it could be seen as a specialised variant of wu . The Yinggong ding () records his name as "Wǔ Dì Rì Dīng" () "King Wu, the Thearch of the Ding Day."

The Li gui inscription goes as follows:

珷征商隹甲子朝

King Wu's campaign against Shang, on the morning of the jiazi day.

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King Wu's personal name was Ji Fa .

Lineage

King Wu was the second son of the Predynastic Zhou elder Ji Chang (posthumously titled King Wen of Zhou) and Tai Si. His older brother was Bo Yikao, who was passed over as a result of tradition. This is reflected in the Book of Rites. King Wu's grandfather Jili had likewise inherited Zhou despite having two older brothers.

In later accounts of Bo Yikao being passed over, it is said that Di Xin had killed him by lingchi. Among the earliest accounts of this lie in Records of Emperors and Kings () of the 9th Century, which was then transmitted and quoted through later texts, such as the historical fiction Fengshen Yanyi. Given this only appears in accounts several centuries ahead of Di Xin's time, the historicity of this account is vanishingly unlikely.

Reign

The chronology of King Wu's overall reign is disputed. However, his reign as the ruler of Predynastic Zhou is thought to have begun in 1050 BC, and his reign as King of China is thought to have begun around 1046 BC. He is then thought to have died around three years later.

King of Predynastic Zhou

thumb|200px|The [[Li gui (vessel)|Li gui, cast seven days after the Battle of Muye.]]

Upon his succession as king of Predynastic Zhou, King Wu worked with his father-in-law Jiang Ziya to accomplish an unfinished task: overthrowing the Shang dynasty and its ruler, Di Xin, who was alleged to be a cruel and inept tyrant. that Di Xin had lost the Mandate of Heaven, and it was time to exact Tian's punishment.

Battle of Muye

On the jiazi day of the second month () by current estimates, King Wu began his match on Muye. Sima Qian records that two boys, Boyi and Shuqi, remonstrated King Wu and pulled on the reigns of his horses before setting off, believing that the mourning period for King Wen had not finished, and that by attacking Di Xin, he was overstepping a significant boundary between ruler and citizen; therefore, King Wu was breaking away from the filial piety expressed by Emperor Shun and Emperor Yao. The Zhou army wanted to execute the boys, but Jiang Ziya stepped in and led the boys away, after which they would go on a hunger strike until their deaths. As the boys were led away, King Wu took advantage of Shang disunity to begin the attack on the plain along with many neighbouring elders, beginning the Battle of Muye.

Upon approaching the battlefield, King Wu delivered the Oath at Muye (), recorded in the Book of Documents, which states that King Wu united people from the states of Yong (), Shu (), Qiang, (), Mao (), Wei (), Lu (), Peng (), and Pu () to aid his assault. Di Xin, hearing of the rebellion, deployed 700,000 soldiers to intercept the oncoming assault. Despite the numbers advantage, many Shang soldiers, who were slaves or otherwise disliked Di Xin, defected to King Wu's combined army, allowing for a total defeat. The Battle of Muye destroyed Shang's forces and then-ruler Di Xin set himself and the Deer Terrace Pavilion on fire, killing himself within. However, its authenticity is disputed.

The methods used by King Wu at the Battle of Muye are uncertain. Wang Xingguang and Zhang Qiang argue that King Wu had attacked from the north, based on geographic evidence and the manner in which the Yellow River must have flowed at the time.

King of China

thumb|200px|The [[Tianwang gui, thought to refer to King Wu performing a ritual to King Wen of Zhou.]]

King Wu followed his victory by composing the Great Martial Music (). The Shi Qiang pan and Yi Zhou Shu imply that King Wu continued his campaign into the Dongyi to eliminate further threats, including the Cuo (), Biao (), and Yitong ().

Oracle bone evidence from Zhouyuan (), Qishan County, seems to imply that King Wu of Zhou had communicated with Shang prince Wu Geng at some point shortly after the Battle of Muye:

…巳，王其乎更，厥父陟。

On the __si day, the King may call Geng; his father then/had ascended.

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Lu Guoquan () and Wang Junmei () interpret the line geng () as being the geng () in Wu Geng's name, using paleographic evidence from Liezi. They furthermore note that the zhi () is a euphemism for Di Xin's death, using evidence from the Book of Documents. The scholars therefore believe that Wu Geng was away from Yin at the time and King Wu summoned him to give the news and organise what to do thereafter. He also made a sacrifice to King Wen of Zhou around this time, which is detailed on the Tianwang gui, thought to date to King Wu's reign. Furthermore, Wu Geng, also known as Lu Fu () and one of the heirs to the Shang throne, was allowed to preserve his state and continue Shang religious practices. He also enfeoffed Jiang Ziya at Yingqiu, which became Qi; Duke Dan of Zhou was enfeoffed in Qufu, becoming Lu; the Duke of Shao was enfeoffed in Yan, and then his brothers Shu Xian () in Guan and Shu Du in Cai (). Despite his victory, King Wu did not fully understand why Shang had fallen, and upon asking Jizi two years later, he was too uncomfortable to say. He also allegedly enfeoffed Jizi in Chaoxian (), which would become Joseon, Korea.

The Bamboo Annals record King Wu hunting in Mount Song and moving the Nine Tripod Cauldrons to Luo () in his 15th year. In the next year, Jizi came to his court and Pugu () was annihilated. In his final years, he ordered Wang Shizi to recite at his court, and he died in winter, at 54 years old.

予仁若考，多才多藝，能事鬼神。

乃元孫某，不若旦多才多藝，不能事鬼神。

I am benevolent and compliant like my ancestors, possessed of many talents and arts, and am able to serve the ghosts and gods.

As for your primary grandson (King Wu), he is not like me, Dan, in being possessed of many talents and arts, nor is he able to serve the ghosts and gods.

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thumb|200px|The [[Kang Hou gui (), made after subduing the Rebellion of the Three Guards following King Wu's death.]]

After 5 years of ruling China, in the 17th year of his rule of the Zhou, King Wu died in the winter.

Despite the nigh-unanimous veneration of King Wu at the time, the Yi Zhou Shu's Shi Fu () chapter notably portrays him in a more brutal light, taking captives, decapitating Shang soldiers, and going to the temple covered in blood to perform the ritual to King Wen of Zhou. The text was largely ignored by scholars and condemned by Mencius. Furthermore, the received text is extremely corrupted, as shown by quotes in the Book of Han being markedly different.

Evaluation within Confucianism

King Wu of Zhou is considered a culture hero in Confucianism and a model ruler to learn from, having replicated Tang of Shang's defeat of a perceived tyrannical ruler; in Tang's case, it was Jie of Xia, and in King Wu's case, it was Di Xin.

Xunzi and Mencius defend King Wu's regicide of Di Xin within the thought of the Mandate of Heaven: As Di Xin had seemingly lost the mandate and retired from royal affairs, he was, then, more of a commoner than ruler. Therefore, in the eyes of these two philosophers, it could not be called regicide, but a punitive exhibition. In Xunzi proper, Sun Qingzi () groups King Wu's deposition of Di Xin with that of the Three Sovereigns deposing their archnemeses in addition to Tang of Shang's role. To restrain violence and eliminate harm, it must be reduced by eliminating propagators of greater harm. Within Zhenglun (), Xun Kuang also states that as it cannot be called a regicide, it is not so simple to call King Wu an usurper either, as Di Xin did not necessarily control the state to begin with if he had lost the mandate and not managed the people. In The Faults of Qin, he argues that Qin failed because, unlike Kings Wu and Tang, they sought power without virtue, or in other words, innate power. Because Tang and Wu had expanded their reach and cultivated their innate power, they were able to found dynasties that ruled for hundreds of years, whereas Qin Shi Huang failed to cultivate an effective successor that could make choices with care.

Han Fei, similar to Lord Shang, believes in the idea of enriching the state with new ideas, and uses Tang and Wu as models for this; in new eras, new methods are necessary to maintain a stable state. However, within this model, he also condemns the regicide of Di Xin in the strongest possible terms, as with Tang of Shang's regicide of Jie of Xia. By allowing regicide to occur, the hierarchical society of his era was reduced, thus causing instability. He says:

臣其君，湯、武為人臣而弒其主、刑其尸，而天下譽之，此天下所以至今不治者也。

Tang and Wu, as ministers, assassinated their sovereigns and mutilated their corpses, yet the whole world praised them—this is why the world remains in disorder to this day.

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Han Fei therefore expounds an absolutist perspective: Even is a sovereign is not worthy, they should still be served. At the time of writing, the states of Qi and Song had experienced usurpations of their own, which Han Fei believed were due to the precedents set by Tang and Wu.