King Wu of Zhou (Ji Fa)

Also known as Ji Fa · King Wu · King Wu of Zhou

King Wu of Zhou, personal name Fa of the Ji clan, succeeded his father King Wen and took Taigong Wang as tutor and his brother the Duke of Zhou as aide. The Basic Annals of Zhou in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says he once marched east to the Meng ford, where eight hundred lords joined him unbidden, but he judged the time unripe. Two years later he led three hundred chariots and three thousand elite troops against Shang, swore an oath at Muye on a jiazi day and routed the army of King Zhou, who burned himself on the Deer Terrace. He kept the Shang line alive under Wugeng, set his brothers Guan and Cai to watch him, enfeoffed Taigong Wang in Qi and the Duke of Zhou in Lu, and ruled from Hao. Another Shiji chapter says he died two years after the conquest, before the realm was settled. The early Western Zhou Li gui bronze records that King Wu attacked Shang on a jiazi morning.