Royals › Monarch / Emperor
King You of Zhou
Last king of the Western Zhou, who set aside Queen Shen and her son for Bao Si and was killed below Mount Li when the Lord of Shen and the Quanrong sacked his capital
Mural of the event “Beacon Fire Deception”, which this person took part in.
In late Western Zhou, King You was foolish and depraved, doting on the consort Bao Si and forcibly deposing Queen Shen and Crown Prince Yijiu in favor of Bao Si's son. This enraged the powerful western state of Shen and brought frontier defense to the breaking point.
Also known as Ji Gongsheng · Baosi Zhifu · King You
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
King You of Zhou, personal name Gongsheng, succeeded his father King Xuan. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says that in 780 BCE earthquakes struck the Jing, Wei and Luo rivers together and Bo Yangfu foretold the fall of Zhou. The king doted on Bao Si, deposing Queen Shen and her son Yijiu in favour of Bao Si's son Bofu, and gave power to the grasping Guo Shifu. The Shiji also tells that Bao Si never smiled until the king lit the beacon fires and the lords rushed in to find no enemy, and that after repeated alarms they stopped answering. In 771 BCE the Lord of Shen, with Zeng and the Quanrong, attacked the capital Haojing; the beacons brought no help, the king was killed below Mount Li and Bao Si was carried off, ending the Western Zhou. The Lushi chunqiu tells the story with war drums instead of fires, and the Tsinghua bamboo text Xinian has no such trick at all.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–771 BCE
- 771 BCEBeacon Fire DeceptionTook part
- 771 BCEBeacon Fires and Western Zhou's Fall