Taibo () (circa 1150 BCE), or Wu Taibo, was the eldest son of

King Tai of Zhou King Tai of Zhou () or Gugong Danfu () was a leader of the Predynastic Zhou during the Shang dynasty in ancient China. His great-grandson Fa would later conquer the Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty. Name "King Tai" was a posthumous name besto ...

and the legendary founder of the State of Wu. His exact birth and death dates are unknown.

Biography

According to

Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...

, Taibo was the founder of the State of Wu. Born into the Jī clan () of

predynastic Zhou The Predynastic Zhou or Proto-Zhou (; ) refers to the ancient Chinese state ruled by the Ji (surname 姬), Ji clan that existed in the Guanzhong region (modern central Shaanxi province) during the Shang dynasty, before its rebellion and subsequen ...

, Taibo was the eldest son of

. He had two younger brothers, Zhongyong and Jili. The King of Zhou wished to make his youngest son Jili to inherit the reins of power, so Taibo and Zhongyong traveled southeast and settled in Meili in present-day Jiangsu province. There, Taibo and his followers set up the State of Wu, and made Meili its capital. Taibo's grand-nephew,

King Wu of Zhou King Wu of Zhou (; died ), personal name Ji Fa, was the founding king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty. The chronology of his reign is disputed but is generally thought to have begun around 1046 BCE and ended with his death three years later. Ki ...

, overthrew the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...

and started the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military ...

. However, the tale of Taibo being the founder of the State of Wu is disputed. During his reign, Taibo developed irrigation, encouraged agriculture, and dug Taibo River (泰伯瀆) which is called Bodu River (伯瀆河) today. When Taibo died, he had no heir and passed the throne to his younger brother Zhongyong. Taibo's shrine was set up in today's Meicun. Although the original wood structure was destroyed during later wars, it has been renovated several times. Present architecture is mostly from the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. A stone carved with Confucius's comment can still be seen in today's Taibo Shrine. Taibo is also customarily known as the propagator of all people with the surname Wu 吳. After the conquest of Shang dynasty, King Wu of Zhou found Zhouzhang, a great-grandson of Zhongyong, and made him the King of Wu.

Connection to ancient Japan

Ambassadorial visits to Japan by the later Chinese

Cao Wei Wei () was one of the major Dynasties in Chinese history, dynastic states in China during the Three Kingdoms period. The state was established in 220 by Cao Pi based upon the foundations laid by his father Cao Cao during the end of the Han dy ...

and Jin dynasties recorded that the Wajin people of Japan claimed to be descendants of Taibo of Wu. Several scholars suggest that the

Yamato people The or David Blake Willis and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu''Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity,'' p. 272: "Wajin," which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read "Yamato no hito" (Yamato person). ar ...

and the

imperial dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

are descendants of the Wu ruling clan and possibly Taibo.

References

{{Monarchs of Wu (state) Shang dynasty people Monarchs of Wu (state) 12th-century BC Chinese monarchs Founding monarchs in Asia