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Jiang Ziya
Early Zhou counsellor who, according to the Records of the Grand Historian, helped Kings Wen and Wu overthrow the Shang and became the first ruler of Qi
Mural of the event “Battle of Muye”, which this person took part in.
The last Shang king Zhou was depraved and brutal, plundering at home and overstretching abroad, having lost the hearts of the people. Risen in the west under King Ji Fa, the Zhou tribe resolved to launch a punitive war on behalf of the suffering populace.
Also known as Lu Shang · Jiang Shang · Tai Gongwang · Lu Wang · Jiangtai Gong
Jiang Ziya is the figure better known as Lu Shang: his clan was Jiang, his ancestors had been enfeoffed at Lu, and his personal name was Shang. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) gives three accounts of how he came to serve the Zhou lord Xibo; the best known says Xibo met him fishing by the Wei River, said his grandfather had long hoped for such a man, named him Taigong Wang and made him his tutor. King Wu honoured him as Shi Shangfu, and the Basic Annals of Zhou says that at Muye he led a hundred men to open the battle. After the conquest he was enfeoffed in Qi with his seat at Yingqiu, where, tradition holds, he simplified rites and promoted crafts, trade, fishing and salt. The Shiji says he lived past a hundred; the Six Strategies (Liu tao) attributed to him is a later work. In 760 Emperor Suzong of Tang named him Prince Wucheng and ordered temples built for him.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; late Shang to early Zhou
- 1046 BCEBattle of MuyeTook part