In the long river of China's thousands of years of history, many dynasties have arisen, and these dynasties have existed for different lengths of time, some have disappeared after decades, and some have experienced hundreds of years of historical precipitation. Today we will turn to what happened in one of the longest dynasties in our history. The Zhou Dynasty was a special dynasty because it existed the longest. It has endured more than 800 years of history and eventually led to destruction. It was also the last dynasty in history to use the feudal system. Although the Zhou Dynasty did not really rule for such a long time, it was recognized by the princes of the time and was therefore known as the 800-year dynasty.
As we all know, the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty is closely related to the great wisdom of this era, Jiang Ziya. There are many legends about his story, the most famous of which is that King Wen of Zhou met him at the edge of the Wei River. It is said that in order to test King Wen of Zhou, Jiang Ziya found a reason to say that he was too old to walk for a long time. He hoped that King Wen of Zhou would carry him for a while. King Wen of Zhou understood that this was a test and agreed. Finally, King Wen of Zhou walked 808 steps with all his strength on his back. At this time, King Wen of Zhou said that he did not have the strength to continue to move forward, so Jiang Ziya began to walk alone. During this period, Jiang Ziya said that the king walked 800 steps behind me, and the Zhou Dynasty would exist for 800 years. This sentence is full of myths. However, the Zhou Dynasty did exist for 800 years in history, and then it collapsed. But during this time, King Wen of Zhou made a fatal mistake. What's going on? Let's see.
Let's first understand what happened. As we all know, Jiang Ziya was very poor, and before he met King Wen of Zhou, he couldn't even eat enough. During this time, he worked as a butcher and a beggar. However, Jiang Ziya has great ambitions. In fact, Jiang Ziya's birth is not bad. He was born into an aristocratic family in the Xia Dynasty, but it declined. In this case, how did King Wen of Zhou find Jiang Ziya? That's the beauty of mythology. Every time Before Going Out, King Wen of Zhou liked to count himself up. This time, King Wen of Zhou calculated that he could meet a talent in Weishui that could help him achieve his grand cause. So he went to Weishui to try his luck. It happened that Jiang Ziya was fishing by the Wei Water, and because Jiang Ziya was poor, there was no bait. People laughed at him. Jiang Ziya then said, "Jiang Taigong fishes, and the willing one takes the bait," and it was this sentence he said that caught the attention of King Wen of Zhou, who thought he was saying that he was the fish who had voluntarily taken the bait. So he went over and talked to Jiang Ziya. After talking, he found that Jiang Ziya was the talent he was looking for, so he invited him to Xiqi to become an official.
Jiang Ziya agreed, but on the way, Jiang Ziya found a reason to ask King Wen of Zhou to carry him for a while. It was in this process that King Wen of Zhou made a mistake by taking 300 steps in the opposite direction with Jiang Ziya on his back, and then 508 steps in the right direction with Jiang Ziya on his back. Everyone thinks this is strange, because the Western Zhou Dynasty has existed for 300 years, which is the period when the Zhou Dynasty really ruled. If King Wen of Zhou knew that because of his own momentary negligence, which led to the formation of the Eastern and Western Zhou, he would definitely be remorseful and indignant about this big mistake he had made.
Although it is a legend, it is enough to prove that the talent and cultivation of King Wen of Zhou and Jiang Ziya are worth learning from many people who have known each other in later generations. Later history also proves that the history of the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou Dynasties combined is exactly 800 years. Everyone is welcome to talk in the comments section.