The Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC – 256 BC) was the third dynasty in Chinese history after the Shang Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty passed down a total of 32 generations and 37 kings, enjoying a total of 790 years. For the Zhou Dynasty, because its history is close to 800 years, it naturally became the longest-existing dynasty in ancient history. However, in fact, at the beginning of the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, it was subjected to a major rebellion, and in this rebellion set off by the son of the King of Shang, the Western Zhou Dynasty almost came to an end. Because King Wu of Zhou had just died at that time, this led to The Situation of Internal and External Troubles in Western Zhou, that is, the son of King Huan almost succeeded in restoring the country. Below, let's talk about the Rebellion of the Three Prisons (Wu Geng's Rebellion) in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
One
First of all, the Rebellion of the Three Prisons, also known as the Rebellion of Guan Cai or the Rebellion of Wu Geng. It was a rebellion in the early Western Zhou Dynasty that took place in the Shang Wangqi region (near present-day Anyang, Henan Province).
At the beginning of the 11th century BC, in the last years of the Shang Dynasty, the power of the Zhou royal family became increasingly powerful. On the one hand, it conquered small nearby countries and expanded its strength; on the other hand, it moved its capital from Zhouyuan to the west bank of Fengshui in present-day Chang'an District, and built Fengjing. For the increasingly powerful Zhou royal family, the King of Shang was also wary, for example, the Shang King Emperor Xin (Shang Yi Wang) once imprisoned Xi Bochang in Qiangli.
After the death of Ji Chang, the King of Zhou Wen, Ji Fa, took the throne. Taking advantage of the fact that the main force of the Shang Dynasty was outside, King Wu of Zhou launched the Battle of Muye in 1046 BC. The Battle of Makino was a decisive battle fought by the combined forces of King Wu of Zhou and the shang dynasty army at Muye (present-day south of Qi County, north of the Wei River, near Xinxiang City). Because Di Xin (king of Shang) first conquered Li in the northwest and then in the southeast of Ping, although he won a victory, he was exhausted, which aggravated the contradictions within the Shang Dynasty, and finally committed suicide in defeat and the Shang Dynasty perished. Therefore, the "Left Biography" said: "Qiu Kedongyi and damaged his body."
After King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he basically controlled a large area of the original Shang Dynasty and conquered many small countries around it. However, how to control the large territory of the original Shang Dynasty became a serious problem faced by King Wu of Zhou. Therefore, King Wu of Zhou adopted the strategy of dividing the feudal system, dividing his clans with the same surname and the meritorious strategists to establish princely states, such as the first monarch of the State of Qi, Jiang Ziya, who was the hero of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the princely states such as the State of Lu, which were the same surname clan of the Zhou royal family.
Of course, considering that the original Shang Dynasty was still relatively powerful, King Wu of Zhou sealed Wu Geng, the son of Shang, in Shangdu in order to control the descendants of the Shang Dynasty royal family; moreover, King Wu of Zhou made his brothers Guan Shu, Cai Shu, and Huo Shu as marquises to supervise Wu Geng. For King Wu of Zhou, although the plan was relatively perfect at the beginning, because of the sudden illness of King Wu of Zhou, it eventually led to the rebellion of Wu Geng.
Two
Wu Geng, son of the King of Shang, after the fall of the Shang Dynasty, Wu Geng managed the descendants of the Shang Dynasty, Yin Min Dayue. And this naturally laid a good foundation for Wu Geng to launch a rebellion. In this regard, King Wu of Zhou was naturally guarded against this. According to the Records of History and other historical records, king Wu of Zhou, in order to prevent the rebellion of Wu Geng, set up the three kingdoms of Shao, Shao, and Wei around Chaoge (the former capital of the Shang Dynasty). The state of Wei was set up to the east of Chaoge, so that Uncle Guan was sealed by Guan Migration, and the state of Zhaoge was set up west and south, so that Uncle Cai was sealed by Cai Migration; north of Chaoge was Shao, so that Uncle Huo was sealed from Huo. Jointly monitor Wu Geng.
At this time, Wu Geng stayed in the Palace of Qi (陳宫, in present-day Xitan, Sanhai, qi county) to continue Yin's heir. However, in 1043 BC, Ji Fa, the King of Zhou Wu, died, and his son Ji Ji of Zhou Cheng was young (13 years old), and King Wu of Zhou's brother Ji Dan of Zhou took the place of King Zhou Cheng in charge of the imperial government. In this regard, Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai, who were also the younger brothers of King Ji fa of Zhou Wu, were dissatisfied, spread rumors that Zhou Gong wanted to usurp the throne, and colluded with Wu Geng to rebel. In this regard, the famous Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty said in the poem that "zhou gong fears rumor day". For Zhou Gong Ji Dan, not only to face the rumors of usurpation, but also to put an end to this rebellion set off by Wu Geng, the son of king of Shang, as soon as possible and unite with the Zhou royal family. Further, it was precisely because some of the Zhou royal families participated in this rebellion, which led to the newly established Western Zhou, facing a situation of internal and external troubles, and if it was not careful, it was likely to be doomed.
After the outbreak of the Three Prisons Rebellion, in order to protect the Zhou Dynasty, the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Zhao, in order to protect the Zhou Dynasty's Jiangshan, "the father and brother of the Inner Emperor, the princes of the outer care", the Duke of Zhou led an army to the East on the orders of King Zhou Cheng, and attacked the Chaoge rebels.
Three
After Wu Geng's rebellion, the princely states of Pugu, Xiong Ying, Xu Yi, Tan, Mane, Yu, Zhou, Hang, Li, Xiao, Fei, Xian, Huang, Ge, and Tan all supported and actively participated in Wu Geng's battle to restore the country. From this, it is very obvious that although the Shang Dynasty is heading for extinction, the forces loyal to the Shang Dynasty are still relatively strong. Further, when King Wu of Zhou was able to eliminate the King of Shang, he also took advantage of the opportunity of the Shang Dynasty's main force to march east and the capital city was empty. Otherwise, it would not be so easy for Western Zhou to replace the Shang Dynasty.
Of course, for the Zhou Dynasty, there were naturally forces that supported themselves, such as Jiang Ziya, who reminded King Wu of Zhou not to relax his vigilance against Wu Geng just before the Wu Geng rebellion. Sure enough, as Taigong Jiang expected, when King Wu of Zhou died of illness, Wu Geng actually lived in the Palace of Sui (present-day Xitan, around yunhai) to continue to worship. After the rebellion broke out, Zhou Gong and Zhao Gong stayed up all night, actively deployed battle plans, and finally at the initiative of Jiang Ziya, the Duke of Zhou led an army to the East on the orders of King Zhou Cheng. Jiang Taigong personally came to the scene to assist Zhou Gong Jidan, and once again returned to Makino to kill Chaoge.
In this regard, in the face of the large army of the Zhou royal family, Wu Geng, who had long been prepared, personally led the descendants of Yin Shang to frantically counterattack and stubbornly resisted. However, in the end, because of the many help of the Tao, the lack of help of the Lost Dao. Wu Geng still could not resist the joint efforts of Jiang Ziya and Zhou Gongjidan, thus eating a defeat and even completely disintegrating. After the rebellion was quelled by Western Zhou, Wu Geng and Uncle Guan were executed, Uncle Cai was exiled, and Uncle Huo was reprimanded. After The Duke of Zhou put down this rebellion, he made Uncle Kang the Prince of Wei in the name of King Cheng of Zhou and built the capital Chaoge. Thus, it is very obvious that in order to prevent the recurrence of the Wu Geng rebellion, the Zhou royal family enfeoffed the Wei state as a princely state with the surname of Ji in the area around the original capital of the Shang Dynasty.
Four
Finally, in order to stabilize the descendants of the Shang Dynasty, after quelling the rebellion of the Three Prisons, The Duke of Zhou, Ji Dan, on the orders of King Cheng of Zhou, enfeoffed Wu Geng's uncle WeiZi in Song (present-day Suiyang District, Shangqiu City, Henan Province), and called him the Duke of Song to worship Shang Yin, which is the origin of the "State of Song". During the Spring and Autumn Period, when the Qi civil unrest was in strife, Song Xianggong helped the Prince of Qi to restore the country, and Dai Qi became one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period as an ally. After the Battle of Hongshui, the national strength of the Song state was damaged. During the Song Jinggong period, the Cao state was destroyed, and the national strength gradually flourished. During the Warring States period, King Kang of Song implemented the change of law, and the Song state became strong. In 286 BC, after defeating Qi in the east, Chu in the south, and Wei in the west, the three kingdoms of Qi, Chu, and Wei joined forces to destroy the Song state and divide the territory of the Song state.
To a certain extent, the Song Dynasty can be seen as a continuation of the Shang Dynasty. After the fall of the Song Kingdom, its descendants did not forget the homeland, taking Song as the surname, ZunWeizi as the ancestor of the Song surname, and Shangqiu as the ancestral land of the Song clan, which is the reason why "the World Song Clan is a family" and "the World Song Clan originates from the Shang".
After the Wu Geng Rebellion was put down, the Duke of Zhou built Luoyi in present-day Henan. Located in the middle of the world, it is the place where the four rivers of Yi, Luo, Ying and Jian flow through, the land is wide and flat, and it is a natural granary. In the east, there is also the dangerous pass of Yique, which is a strategic point that can be attacked and retreated. In this way, from Zhou Yuan in the west to Luoyi in the east, that is, the area around Wei, Jing, He, and Luo was the land of The King of Zhou. The west, centered on Hojing, is the birthplace of the Zhou people, called "Zong Zhou"; the east side, centered on Luoyi, is the center of gravity of the Zhou Dynasty's control of the east, called "Chengzhou". In this regard, in the author's opinion, this move of the Duke of Zhou laid the foundation for the king of Zhou Ping to move east to Luoyi in advance, which became one of the reasons why the Zhou Dynasty was able to continue for nearly 800 years.