Wu Ding

Also known as Zi Wuding · Shang Gaozong

Wu Ding, of the royal Zi clan, was the son of King Xiao Yi. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) say that on coming to the throne he wished to restore the dynasty but had no able minister, so for three years he left decisions to his chief steward and did not speak. He is said to have dreamt of a sage named Yue, found a convict of that name building walls at Fuxian and made him minister. The same annals tell of a pheasant crowing on a sacrificial cauldron, which the counsellor Zu Ji took as a call to virtuous government. The Book of Changes speaks of Gaozong attacking the Guifang and subduing them in three years, and the Book of Documents gives him a reign of fifty-nine years. His son Zu Geng founded a temple for him as Gaozong. More oracle-bone inscriptions from Yinxu date to his reign than to any other, and the tomb of his consort Fu Hao was excavated there in 1976.