Tai Wu

Also known as Zi Taiwu · Zhong Zong · Da Wu

Taiwu was a Shang king, son of Taigeng; according to the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), the Shang had declined under his elder brother Yongji, whose vassals stopped coming to court, and Taiwu succeeded him. He made Yi Zhi, son of the minister Yi Yin, his chief minister. When a mulberry tree and a stalk of grain grew together in the court at Bo and within a night were thick enough to fill two hands, Taiwu was alarmed, Yi Zhi urged him to improve his conduct, and the plants withered. Yi Zhi then recommended Wu Xian, whose management of the royal household restored the dynasty, so that the vassals returned and Taiwu was honoured as Zhongzong. The Book of Documents (Shangshu) lists Yi Zhi, Chen Hu and Wu Xian as his ministers and credits Zhongzong with a reign of seventy-five years. In the oracle-bone inscriptions from Anyang, however, the title Zhongzong usually refers to the later king Zuyi.