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Wu Xian
Minister of the Shang king Taiwu who, according to the Book of Documents, ordered the royal household, and whom the Shiji names as the Shang master of celestial lore
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Xian Wu · Wu Wu
Wu Xian was a minister of the Shang king Taiwu. In the Book of Documents (Shangshu), the Duke of Zhou recalls that under Taiwu there were Yi Zhi and Chen Hu to serve the king and Wu Xian to order the royal household. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) tells how a mulberry and a paper tree grew together overnight at the Shang capital, how Yi Zhi urged the king to mend his conduct, and how Wu Xian then governed the royal house well and wrote two pieces, now lost. The Shiji treatise on the heavens names him as the Shang transmitter of celestial lore, and the Tang astrological compendium Kaiyuan zhanjing lists a Wu Xian school of star names beside those of Gan De and Shi Shen. The Annals of Lu Buwei (Lushi chunqiu) credits him with inventing milfoil divination, and the Han commentary to the Documents makes Wu Xian, minister to King Zuyi, his son.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; minister of the Shang king Tai Wu