King Wu of Zhou

King Wu of Zhōu (Chinese: 周武王; pinyin: Zhōu Wǔ Wáng; Wade–Giles: Chou¹ Wu³ Wang²) or King Wu of Chou was the first sovereign, or ruler of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The dates of his reign are 1046-1043 BCE or 1049/45-1043.^[1] Various sources quoted that he died at the age of 93, 54 or 43. He was considered a just and able leader. Zhou Gong Dan was one of his brothers.

King Wǔ was the second son of King Wen of Zhou. After ascending to the throne, King Wǔ tried to accomplish his father's dying wish: the defeat of the Shang Dynasty. King Wu used many wise government officials—most notably Prime Minister Jiang Ziya, a man evidentially declared as "the master of strategy"—resulting in the Zhou government growing far stronger as the years elapsed.

In 1048 BCE, King Wǔ marched down the Yellow River to the Mengjin ford and met with more than 800 dukes. In 1046 BCE, seeing that the Shang government was in a shambles, King Wǔ launched an attack along with many neighboring dukes. In the Battle of Muye, Shang forces were destroyed, and King Zhou of Shang set his palace on fire and burned himself to death.

Following the victory, King Wǔ established many smaller feudal states under the rule of his brothers and generals.^[2] He died three years later, in 1043 BCE.

See also

• Fengshen Yanyi

References