Author/Lin Shuo (National Museum of China), the article was published in the National HumanIties History, and may not be reproduced without authorization.
With the animated movie "Jiang Ziya" being screened, the history of Shang's death zhou xing has once again attracted everyone's attention. In the previous part, "Prequel to the List of Fengshen Gods (I) Jiang Ziya can overthrow the Shang Dynasty, all relying on Zhou Tianzi to keep moving", which mainly introduces the story of the previous Generations of Zhou monarchs who accumulated national strength and did not hesitate to move the capital six times.
Next, for readers and friends, how the newly rising Zhou Ren coped with the threat from the Shang Dynasty: in the face of the oppression of the army, he calmly coped, cleverly caused the "accidental death of Wu Yi", and calmly survived the crisis.
First, the century-old game between shang and zhou
According to the "Chronology of the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty" published in 2000, the 28th emperor of the Shang Dynasty, Wu Yi, the 28th monarch of the Shang Dynasty, succeeded to the throne in 1147 BC, and until the outbreak of the Battle of Muye in 1046 BC and the loss of the kingdom of Emperor Xin of the Shang Dynasty, it was exactly the period of one hundred years and the change period of the Decline of the Shang Dynasty. During this period, the two sides had both cooperation (Gong Ji entered the Korean Wu Yi) and confrontation (Di Xin imprisoned Ji Chang), launching a century-old marathon of competitive games.
When the Zhou people began to rise, the rule of the Shang Dynasty had entered the late stage, although Wu Yi was also a generation of male lords, but the country that had been established for more than four hundred years had already spent its last energy on the conquest of Dongyi, showing a tired state of devastation. As stated in the "Book of Han and the Biography of Dongyi Lie": "Wu Yi declined, Dongyi soaked in prosperity, so it was divided into Huai and Dai, and gradually settled in Middle-earth."
2. Wu Yi moved the capital
During Wu Yi's reign, there were two major initiatives that influenced future generations: one was to seal the Zhou kingdom as a sign of co-optation; the other was to move the capital twice, and finally set the capital at Moyi.
At the beginning of Wu Yi's succession, the capital of the country was "Yin", which had special political significance for the Shang Dynasty. During the reign of the tenth Shang king Zhongding, foreign wars were frequent, and the succession systems of "brother to brother" and "father to death and son to succeed" alternately, which eventually led to the "Rebellion of the Ninth Dynasty". At the time of danger, the lord of Zhongxing, Pan Geng, appeared, first moved to Bo, then moved to Yin, practiced the government of Tang, restored the business of Tang, "Yin Dao Revival", so the Shang Dynasty was also known as "Yin Dynasty"; to the time of Emperor Wuding of Emperor Gaozong, "Yin" was a prosperous place for neighboring states, and pilgrims flocked to and fought. However, in the third year of Wu Yi's reign, he suddenly decided to move from Yindi to the north of the Yellow River, and at the same time gave the western Qiyi to the duke of zhou.
3. Give Zhou Qiyi
Regarding Wu Yi's abandonment of the old capital and the gift of Zhou Qiyi, some people believe that this is the abandonment of the ancestral industry, cutting meat and feeding the tiger, coupled with the fact that he once "shot the gods and shot the heavens", so he was described as the lord of dimwittedness, but this was not the case.
Wu Yi's above-mentioned move was mainly forced by the situation of the Shangyi War. The Shang Dynasty, which was originally born in Dongyi, was invaded by Zhuyi from the East during the Wuyi period, and showed an increasingly fierce trend, "moving huai and dai, gradually settling in middle-earth", and gradually migrating to today's northern Jiangsu, Lunan and western Henan. In the face of the menacing Dongyi invasion, Wu Yi, who was already using troops in the west and north, was unable to fight on multiple fronts, so he moved the capital to avoid its sharp edge.
At the same time, the Shang Dynasty took the initiative to imprison the Zhou State, making it guard the Western Province and send troops to Northern Di; it could concentrate on suppressing the Eastern Yi departments. With this as the beginning, Shang and Zhou entered the honeymoon period. In the fifteenth year of the Shang Dynasty (1133 BC), Wu Yi, who had shrunk his forces, stabilized the situation in the war against Dongyi and once again moved the capital from the north of the Yellow River to Moyi, which returned to Henan. After all, Moyi, located on the shore of the Qishui River, is closer to the active area of Dongyi, and it is convenient to control the dynamics of the latter, and it is close to the bullet pressure. Another name of Moyi is the "Chaoge" in "Chaoge Night String Fifty Miles, Eight Hundred Princes Chaoling Mountain". But Wu Yi did not expect that this would be the last capital of the Shang Dynasty. Because in the twelve years of this late Shang monarch's reign, the Zhou people, under the leadership of Gong Ji, walked out of the Qishan Mountains and rose to the West.
4. Entering the DPRK in the public season
Gong Ji (公季), also known as Ji Li (姬历), is also known as the Ji Calendar (公季) because he is the younger son (younger son) of the father of prince Tai of Zhou. After the death of King Xue of Zhou, Gong Ji succeeded to the throne as his youngest son, and in the thirty-fourth year of Wu Yi (1114 BC), he entered the pilgrimage and was given thirty miles of land, ten pairs of jade, and eight horses. Not only that, Gong Ji also married Tairen from Yin Shang, that is, "Zhi Zhongshi Ren, from Yin Shang, from Yin Shang, to marry Zhou, concubine yu Jing", which was also the mother of Ji Chang, the future King of Zhou.
The author believes that Gong Ji's entry into the DYNASTY is not what he said to future generations, but is to paralyze Wu Yi and make him relax his vigilance. In fact, at that time, the Zhou State did not have the strength to compete with the central government, and the two sides did not belong to the same heavyweight. Gong Ji's above-mentioned practice is actually due to his lack of confidence in succeeding to the throne as a young son. According to the "History of Zhou Benji", the eldest son of the father-in-law, Taibo and the second son Zhongyong, found that his father had a crush on the son of the third brother, Ji Chang, a good grandson, and automatically let Xian stage a play of "Brothers and Brothers Gong"; but after that, the two went out of Jiangdong, which was quite a bit of exile. Although in the pre-Zhou period, the patriarchal society's "primogeniture inheritance system" had not yet been formed, but the zhou king's abandonment of the eldest son and the second son to pass on the younger son, it was inevitable that people would argue that the gongji was not in the right place; coupled with the fact that the eldest brother and the second brother established the state of Wu in the south, it is not known whether he will make a comeback in the future.
Therefore, Gong Ji's top priority is to gain the support of the co-lord shang king of the world and sit firmly on the throne. The act of "establishing a saintly grandson" by the father-in-law was also frequently imitated by later generations, such as the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty who was interested in his grandson Emperor Xuande, and the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty who favored his grandson The Qianlong Emperor.
5. Wu Yi died violently
However, at the critical moment of the Honeymoon Period of Shang Zhou, a generation of male lords Wu Yi was struck by lightning and violently died in Weishui. The "History of Yin Benji" believes that this is Wu Yi disrespecting the heavens, shooting the gods into the sky, and receiving retribution. However, if the whole incident is reviewed, it will be found that Sima Qian used the "Spring and Autumn Brushwork" here.
Because the area where Wu Yi led his troops to hunt was the core area of Zhou Rule, the Weishui River Valley. In ancient times, "hunting" had multiple meanings. Sometimes in order to hide the eyes and ears, the attacking party often pretends to be "hunting" in order to achieve a surprising victory effect. Another example is Cao Mengde's command of Yushui, Lu Xiong's division Chen Bing Chibi, and Sun Zhongmou on the other side of the book said that "Fang and the general will hunt in Wu", which reflects the contempt and disdain for the military horses of Jiangdong.
It can be seen from this that the Shang King's soldiers linweishui are by no means as simple as they are literal, at least they contain the meaning of showing off their force, shocking and beating the Zhou Kingdom, and warning gongji not to overextend. Unexpectedly, Wu Yi "died violently" while hunting, which is intriguing. In this regard, the Shang Dynasty chose to calm down the people. Just as in the Western Zhou Dynasty, when King Ji of Zhou Zhao invaded the Chu kingdom in the south, the "Year of the Bamboo Secretary" and other documents also used the "Spring and Autumn Brushwork", which was recorded as "only hunting south" and "southern tour does not return". Author/Lin Shuo (Deputy Research Librarian, National Museum of China), the article was published in the National Humanities History, and may not be reproduced without authorization.
To be continued, stay tuned for the next article.