If you have any friends who have read the articles I wrote before, you will find that I wrote them in the order of the historical events recorded in the "Chronicle of History". The previous article wrote about the historical process of King Wu of Zhou's cutting, according to the development of history, this article should write a history of king Wu of Zhou's son. The sons and grandsons of King Wu of Zhou jointly created the first prosperous era in Chinese history, the rule of Cheng Kang, or Cheng Kang ShengShi. Let's take a look at the historical record of the first prosperous era.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the political legacy left by King Wu of Zhou</h1>
After experiencing the governance of the three generations of monarchs of the ancient Gonggong, Ji Li, and Chang, the Zhou tribe has become very powerful, directly providing strong financial and military support for the Zhou Wu King to destroy the Shang. After King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang, the Zhou Dynasty was formally established. After King Wu of Zhou established the Zhou Dynasty, he continued to continue the benevolent and moral government that had been practiced since his father in ancient times. First of all, King Wu had his two younger brothers Guan Shuxian and Cai Shudu jointly assist Wu Genglu, the son of King Shang, to gather the remnants of the Shang Dynasty together to continue to rule, so that Wu Genglu's father could continue to sacrifice the emperors of the Shang Dynasty with the help of the offerings of the remnants of the Shang Dynasty. This had a great political impact and was the embodiment of the benevolent government that the Zhou royal family had always pursued. Subsequently, King Wu rewarded the descendants of the royal family, meritorious servants, Shun, and Yu, giving them land and turning them into princes one by one, and everyone was satisfied and enjoyed peace. In addition, after king Wu won the world, he ordered the soldiers to lay down their weapons and disband the army after reorganization, so as to show the world that there would be no more use of soldiers in the future.
The Zhou royal family did this because in the historical environment at that time, he still had enough political and military power to deter the princes and maintain the authority of the Son of Heaven. Unfortunately, the life span of King Wu was not long, although the "Records of History" did not record the number of years of King Wu's reign, according to calculations, King Wu reigned between 14-15 years from the date of inheriting the Zhou tribal monarch. Because according to the records of the Zhou Benji, after the death of Xi Bochang (that is, King Wen of Zhou), King Wu of Zhou, after nine years of succession, led an army to arrive at the eight hundred princes of Mengjinhui, and after two more years, began to cut down the silk, the time of the army was December, and in February of the following year, it attacked the outskirts of the capital of the Shang Dynasty, and then destroyed the Shang, which added up to no more than 12 years. After the destruction of the Shang, after two years, the King of Wu went to ask the widow of the Shang Dynasty why the Jizi Shang perished, and then there was no other record, and the record after asking the Jizi was directly "The King of Wu fell ill" and "collapsed after the death", so the reign of the King of Wu as the Zhou Tianzi may only be two to three years, that is to say, the King of Wu should have died when he was relatively young, because when the King of Wu died, the prince Ji was young, and there was a record of the zhou dynasty setting the world.
Although King Wu of Zhou did not rule for a long time as the Son of Zhou, the various practices adopted by King Wu after he destroyed the Shang created a peaceful and prosperous environment for his sons and grandsons. It can be said that it has left a valuable political legacy for Chengwang.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, Zhou Gongdan's regency reigned</h1>
It was precisely because King Wu's crown prince Ji Shu was young when he succeeded to the throne, so at the time when the world was first decided, the Zhou royal family and the courtiers were terrified, because the Zhou Wu King, who could shock all the princes, was gone, and everyone was worried about whether the Zhou royal family could deter the princes. At this time, a juvenile Zhou Tianzi obviously had no influence and needed a figure who could deter the princes and ministers to deal with political affairs.
In this context, Zhou Gongdan was "afraid of the princes and zhou", so he took the initiative to regent the country. Why did Zhou Gongdan come out as a regent to stabilize the world? We can find the answer from the third family of the "Records of History", the Lu Zhou Gong Family.
The opening chapter of "Lu Zhou GongShijia" introduces the identity and merits of Zhou Gongdan. "Zhou Gongdan, brother of King Wu of Zhou." In addition, Zhou Gongdan was different from the sons of King Wen of Zhou, because Master Sima Qian recorded that when King Zhou Wen was still alive, Zhou Gongdan, as a son, was very filial, and he was generous, upright, and righteous, surpassing other princes. When King Wu of Zhou succeeded to the throne, Gongdan of Zhou often assisted King Wu of Zhou in presiding over the imperial government. When King Wu of Zhou succeeded to the throne for nine years, Zhou Gongdan assisted his brother King Wu of Zhou and followed the army to cut the silk, and when the army arrived in Muye, Zhou Gongdan assisted king Zhou Wu in reading the oath of the oath to the generals, "Pastoral Oath". When King Wu of Zhou entered the capital of the Shang Dynasty, Zhou Gongdan held a large cymbal in his hand, and together with Zhao Gong, who was holding a small qi, stood on both sides of King Wu to guard King Wu.
When King Wu of Zhou was discussing the merits of the seal, the first meritorious servant Taigong Wang Lü Shang (Jiang Shang, that is, Jiang Ziya) was the most powerful, the fief was the rich State of Qi, and then his younger brother Zhou Gongdan was the Duke of Lu, that is, the boss of the State of Lu, and the "Family of the Duke of Lu Zhou" recorded that the State of Lu was the ancient city of emperor Shao Hao, and the State of Lu was the place where the fief grade was second only to the State of Qi, which shows the high merits of Zhou Gongdan. However, Zhou Gongdan did not go to the State of Lu to enjoy qingfu, but stayed in the Zhou royal family to assist the government. When King Wu of Zhou was ill, he also prayed to Heaven that he would allow himself to take the place of his brother King Wu of Zhou. Such a benevolent and loyal prince was simply a sage-like existence in ancient times.
After the death of King Wu of Zhou, in order to stabilize the situation, Zhou Gongdan undertook the heavy responsibility of governing the country and replaced King Cheng of Zhou in charge. This caused dissatisfaction among the other princes of the Zhou royal family, most obviously Guan Shuxian and Cai Shudu, who were sent to "assist" the son of King Huan, Wu Genglu, to govern the remnants of the Shang Dynasty, and they directly rebelled with Wu Genglu's father, and Zhou Gongdan, in the name of Zhou Tianzi Zhou Cheng, killed Wu Genglu's father and Guan Shuxian and exiled Cai Shudu. In this way, other members of the Zhou royal family did not dare to jump out, after all, Zhou Gongdan could accomplish a lot of things through King Zhou Cheng, which can be said to be the earliest narrow heavenly son to order the princes. Considering the merits and abilities of Zhou Gongdan, the entire Zhou Dynasty supported this regent. Zhou Gongdan did a good job, and later in Cao Cao's famous poem "Short Song Line", there is a mention of Zhou Gongdan's positive deeds, that is, "Zhou Gong vomits and feeds, and the world returns to the heart." Of course, Cao Cao compared himself to Zhou Gongdan, only flaunting that he was only narrow-minded for the sake of the world to order the princes, but only to buy people's hearts. But Zhou Gongdan was different, he really put the interests of the Zhou Dynasty first, when he was regent for seven years, King Zhou Cheng became an adult, Zhou Gongdan returned the power to King Zhou Cheng, and returned to the group of courtiers in a disciplined manner, facing the north and claiming the title of subject. In short, the regency of Zhou Gongdan stabilized the Zhou Dynasty, which had just won the world, allowed the princes to conscientiously manage their own territory, pay tribute to the Zhou royal family on time, and everything developed smoothly and orderly as expected when the Zhou Dynasty was established. Zhou Gongdan made an important contribution to the emergence of the rule of ChengKang.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the merits of King Cheng of Zhou</h1>
The reign of Cheng Kang refers to the reign of King Wu's son King Cheng and King Cheng's son King Kang, during the reign of Guotai Min'an, the thriving Taiping Dynasty. Let's start with the next week's kingship. After King Zhou Cheng came to power, the first thing to do was to build a new capital, why? Because King Wu had a wish to build a capital in Los Angeles, but unfortunately he died too early and was not completed. After King Zhou Cheng took power, he ordered the summoning of the duke to measure the city of Los Angeles and began to consider building a new capital. After Zhou Gongdan became the king, he personally presided over the construction of the new capital many times, and finally the new capital was built, and the Zhou royal family moved the Jiuding, which symbolized state power, to Los Angeles, and declared: Los Angeles is the center of the country, because the journey to Pay tribute to Los Angeles will be the same. The reason for the construction of the new capital also came out, that is, Los Angeles was the center of the world at that time, which facilitated the overall governance of the world.
The second thing King Zhou Cheng did was to conquer Huaiyi and the Yan kingdom. King Cheng of Zhou ordered Zhao Gong as Taibao and Zhou Gong as Taishi to lead an army against Huaiyi and destroy the State of Xiang. After King Zhou Cheng destroyed the kingdom, he wrote the "Many Sides" to warn the princes. Subsequently, King Cheng of Zhou completely eliminated the remnants of the Shang Dynasty and defeated Huaiyi. After returning to the capital of the Zhou Dynasty, he wrote the "Zhou Guan", which clarified the official positions and employment methods set up by the Zhou Dynasty.
The third thing King Zhou Cheng did was to reformulate the country's liturgical and musical systems and revise the decrees. After a series of governance by King Cheng of Zhou, the people of the Zhou Dynasty were harmonious and the voices of praise were everywhere. Soon, King Cheng of Zhou conquered Dongyi.
When King Cheng of Zhou was about to die, he was afraid that the crown prince Ji Zhao would not be able to take on a heavy responsibility, so he ordered the princes led by Zhao Gong and Bi Gong (at this time Zhou Gongdan had died) to assist the prince. After king Cheng's death, Zhao Gong and Bi Gong led the princes to the temple of the ancestors with the crown prince Ji Zhao, and repeatedly warned the prince with the difficulty of king Wen and King Wu to create the Zhou Dynasty, telling him to be frugal, not greedy, and to govern political affairs single-mindedly, and take out the "Gu Feng" written before King Cheng's death to order the group of ministers to assist the prince. As a result, the crown prince officially succeeded to the throne, and he was the King of Zhou Kang.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the merits of King Kang of Zhou</h1>
There are not many records of King Kang of Zhou in the Records of History. After King Kang succeeded to the throne, he repeatedly publicized the exploits of King Wen and King Wu to the princes, and wrote the "Kang Zhen". King Kang ordered Bi Gong to write a letter of strategy for the people to live in on the outskirts of the city, which was used to form a barrier to the capital of the Zhou Dynasty. Then there is basically no record of King Kang.
However, Sima Qian was very positive about King Kang, writing that during the reigns of King Cheng of Zhou and King Kang, the Zhou Dynasty was peaceful and stable, and the punishment was shelved for more than forty years. This is also the reason why the reigns of King Cheng of Zhou and King Kang were called the reign of Cheng Kang or the prosperous era of Cheng Kang.
After King Kang's death, his son King Zhao succeeded to the throne, and King Zhao began, and the power of the Zhou Dynasty began to decline. None of the later Zhou kings could recreate the glory of Zhou Tianzi, so it is said that the reigns of King Cheng and King Kang were a period of subversion of the Zhou Dynasty.
Well, the story of king Wu's cutting in the history is introduced here. I am midnight ink, also called scorching double-edged, thanks for watching.