Royals › Monarch / Emperor
King Wu of Zhou (Ji Fa)
Zhou king, son of King Wen, who led the allied lords to victory over the last Shang king at Muye and founded the Western Zhou with its capital at Hao
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 Ji Fa · King Wu · King Wu of Zhou
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
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.
Life and times
- UnknownBorn
Shang
Zhoufounding king of the Western Zhou - 1046 BCEBattle of Muye
Took partKing Wu's coalition defeated Shang at Muye as troops turned against their commanders, ending Shang and founding Western Zhou.- Fall of Shang at Muye BattleIn 1046 BCE, King Wu's coalition defeated Shang at Muye and the dynasty fell; later tradition says Di Xin burned himself at Lutai, making the terrace a symbol of the final collapse.
- Fall of Shang at Muye Battle
- 1042 BCEDuke of Zhou Codifying Rites
PrecursorThe Duke of Zhou paired enfeoffment and lineage systems with rites and music to organize rank, kinship, and early Zhou rule. - 1042 BCERebellion of the Three Guards
PrecursorThe crucial war that consolidated the newly founded Zhou dynasty and feudalism. - UnknownDied
Works
Literature · Prose1
Family tree
- Direct kin
King Wu of Zhou (Ji Fa)
Connections
- Shared events1
- Teachers and students1
- Interactions1
- Rulers and officials1
