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Fu Shuo
Minister of the Shang king Wu Ding who, according to the Shiji, was a convict building walls at Fuxian until the king found him after seeing him in a dream
Mural of the event “Wu Ding's Golden Age”, which this person took part in.
After the Yin relocation Shang rule was basically stable, but vassal states crowded around and northern tribes like the Guifang repeatedly invaded. On ascending, Wu Ding determined to rule with vigor and restore the prosperity of the ancestors.
Also known as Shuo
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Fu Yue (the name is also read Fu Shuo) is known mainly from the Book of Documents (Shangshu) and the Basic Annals of Yin in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji). The Shiji says that the Shang king Wu Ding, after three years of silence while his chief steward ran the government, dreamed of a sage named Yue and had officials search the land for a man of that appearance; they found him among convicts building walls at Fuxian. After talking with him, Wu Ding judged him truly a sage and made him chief minister, and the Shiji says Yin was then well governed; because he was found at Fuxian he took Fu as his surname. The received Book of Documents has three chapters titled "Charge to Yue", generally regarded as later compositions. A Warring States bamboo text on the same theme was among the manuscripts acquired by Tsinghua University in 2008. Many families surnamed Fu honour him as their first ancestor.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; traditionally Wu Ding's minister
- 1250 BCEWu Ding's Golden AgeTook part