King Tai of Zhou () or Gugong Danfu () was a great leader of the Zhou clan during the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty a ...

. His great-grandson Fa would later conquer the Shang and establish the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

Name

"King Tai" was a

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary name given mostly to the notable dead in East Asian culture. It is predominantly practiced in East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishm ...

bestowed upon him by his descendants. He was never a

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

during his lifetime. He was earlier known as Old Duke Danfu (Gugong Danfu), for instance, in the ''

Classic of Poetry The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, c ...

''. Occasionally, a few scholars refer to him as Ji Danfu, referencing his surname Ji ().

History

In the family hymns recorded in the ''

'', the Ji family is traced from the

miraculous birth Stories of miraculous births often include conceptions by miraculous circumstances and features such as intervention by a deity, supernatural elements, astronomical signs, hardship or, in the case of some mythologies, complex plots related t ...

of the

Xia dynasty The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradit ...

culture hero and court official Houji caused by his

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ...

's stepping into a footprint left by the supreme god Shangdi.

, "Major Hymns - Decade of the Birth of Our People
The Birth of Our People
The ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'' instead make Houji the son of the

Emperor Ku Kù (, variant graph ), usually referred to as Dì Kù (), also known as Gaoxin or Gāoxīn Shì () or Qūn (), was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. He went by the name Gaoxin until receiving imperial authority, when he took the name Ku and t ...

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...

. ''

'
"Annals of Zhou"
/ref> connecting his family to the

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...

who was sometimes also given the Zhou's surname.

goes on to record Houji's son

Buzhu Buzhu or Buku (Chinese: ) was a legendary noble during the Xia dynasty in China. He was the son of the Xia minister of agriculture, Houji, and inherited his father's position under the Xia king Kong Jia. Feeling the Xia court to be corrupt, he rem ...

abandoning court life and his fief of Tai, apparently taking up the nomadic life of the

Rong Rong or RONG may refer to: Places China * Rong County, Guangxi, Yulin, Guangxi, China * Rong County, Sichuan, Zigong, Sichuan, China Nepal * Rong, Ilam, a rural municipality in Ilam District, Nepal Norway * Rong, Norway, a village in Øygard ...

and Di tribes around Xia. His son Ju continued this before Duke Liu settled his people at a place called Bin. The rulers of Bin were listed as

Qingjie Qingjie () or Qing () was a legendary leader of the Ji clan, which eventually established the Zhou dynasty in ancient China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c ...

, Huangpu (), Chaifu (), Huiyu (), Gongfei (), Gaoyu (), Yayu (), and Gongshu Zulei (). The prosperity of Bin led to attacks from hostile peoples: the ''

'', '' Di'', and '' Xunyu'' (薰育 / 獯鬻). After four attempts to buy them off failed,

Mencius Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mèngzǐ (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, second to Confucius himself. He is part of Confucius' fourth generation of discip ...

. ''

''
"King Hûi of Liang, Part II"
the old duke refused to lead his people into battle but instead relocated his family to the foot of Mount Qishan in the Wei valley. After finding his choice confirmed by their oracle bones, the other people who had lived in Bin left the caves and huts they had fled to and followed them, erecting a new city complete with a formal palace, ancestral temple, and

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in pagan ...

. The rapid success of the new location then caused neighboring tribes of Yu and Rui to join Zhou, rather than attack. Danfu was later credited with much of the growth of the Zhou, receiving a hymn among the Great Odes of the ''Classic of Poetry'' and the "Mount Qi Song", a

zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...

melody supposedly composed by the

Duke of Zhou Dan, Duke Wen of Zhou (), commonly known as the Duke of Zhou (), was a member of the royal family of the early Zhou dynasty who played a major role in consolidating the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu. He was renowned for actin ...

. In traditional Chinese records, he was considered to have himself created the state of Zhou, sometimes taken to be an indigenous place-name for his new settlement along the Wei River. In fact, modern excavation of the Shang oracle bones have found references to a Zhou polity at least a century before this during the reign of Wu Ding. The earlier Zhou seems to be well away from the traditional locations for Bin, as well, leading scholars to posit a much longer migration west from

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-leve ...

Posterity

By his wife, the Lady

Jiang Jiang may refer to: * ''Jiang'' (rank), rank held by general officers in the military of China *Jiang (surname), several Chinese surnames **Jiang Zemin (1926–2022), as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party *Jiang River The Jiang Rive ...

, Old Duke Danfu was said to be the father of

Taibo Taibo () (circa 1150 BCE), or Wu Taibo, was the eldest son of King Tai of Zhou and the legendary founder of the State of Wu. His exact birth and death dates are unknown. Biography According to Sima Qian, Taibo was the founder of the State of Wu. ...

, Zhongyong, and Jili. Zhongyong was claimed as the ancestor of the kings of Wu; Jili, by the kings of Zhou. Later, Taibo was claimed by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

as well.

References

External links

{{wikisource, Shih_King,_the_Book_of_Odes/Part_III/The_First_Decade/Ode_3, Book of Songs III.1.3.
"In long trains" * Thomson, John.
04. Mount Qi Melody
.

Nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...

Shang dynasty people 12th-century BC Chinese monarchs Founding monarchs

Name

History

Posterity

See also

References

External links