Xiang Tu (; ? – ?) was an ancient Chinese noble, an ancestor of 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 ...

. His family name is Zi (子), and his other name is Cheng Du (乘杜). His hometown is in

Shangqiu Shangqiu ( zh, ), Postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shangkiu, is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast ...

(商丘),

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

(河南), and he was the third leader of the Predynastic Shang.

History

He was the son of Zhao Ming of Shang and thus the grandson of

Xie of Shang Xie () also appearing as Qi or Xie () was an ancient Chinese nobleman, an ancestor of the kings of the Shang dynasty. He is the first known Shang ancestor and ruler of the Predynastic Shang. His consort is unknown, but it is known he was a f ...

, being also an ancestor of the King

Tang of Shang Cheng Tang (born Zi Lü), recorded on oracle bones as Tai Yi or Da Yi, was the first king of the Shang dynasty. Tang is traditionally considered a virtuous ruler, as signified by his common nickname Tang the Perfect. According to legend, as th ...

. In the beginning, people still did not know the horse drawn cart is used for travel. It was said that he raised horses. The horse is tamed and trained, so the horse can pull the car and become one of the important means of transportation. It can be seen that in the time of Xiang Tu, the Shang people have migrated from the nomadic life to the life of animal husbandry and agricultural cultivation. He developed forces in the east by force, on the coast of the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

(黃海) and in the nearby islands.《索隱》相土佐夏，功著於商，詩頌曰“相土烈烈，海外有截”是也。左傳曰“昔陶唐氏火正閼伯居商丘，相土因之”，是始封商也。

Family

*Grandfather: Xie (契) – a 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 ...

ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

**Father: Zhao Ming (昭明) ***Son: Chang Ruo (昌若)

Bibliography

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 ...

. ''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

'' (史記)
Volume 3.

Notes

{{Shang dynasty topics Xia dynasty people