Ji Fa was the founder of the Western Zhou and its first Son of Heaven, generally called King Wu of Zhou, where Wu is a posthumous title. Chinese Wikipedia states plainly that his surname was Ji and his given name Fa. Wikidata lists Ji Fa among his Chinese aliases and gives Ji Fa as an English alias, so the title is Ji Fa. He was the second son by the main wife of the Count of the West Chang, later honored as King Wen, and Tai Si, and his chief wife was Yi Jiang.[1][2]
The fall of Shang
Chinese Wikipedia says he carried out King Wen's wish and marched east against Shang around the middle of the eleventh century BC. Around the eleventh year of his mandate the last Shang king, Di Xin, had worn out the state by repeated wars against the eastern and southeastern peoples. Ji Fa judged the time ripe, allied with the Yong, Shu, Qiang, Mao, Lu, Peng and Pu peoples, and personally led three hundred chariots, three thousand elite guards and forty-five thousand armored soldiers against Zhaoge, the secondary Shang capital, and fought at Muye. The article cites the Book of Documents line on blood floating pestles, and the Lunheng's doubts about it. The Shang troops turned their weapons around on the field, the king burned himself on the Deer Terrace, and Ji Fa cut the body with a battle-axe, which is called the conquest of Yin. The article also sets out scholars' differing views on the turn-about, either slaves hastily armed or a revolt of nobles.[2]
Founding the Zhou
After the conquest Ji Fa founded the Zhou and made Haojing his capital. He honored his father the Count of the West as King Wen, reburied Bi Gan, who had been wrongly killed by the Shang king, and freed the imprisoned Jizi. Since the Shang remnants were still strong, he followed a policy of conciliation and enfeoffed the Shang king's son Wu Geng at Yin, then enfeoffed three of his own younger brothers, Guan Shuxian, Cai Shudu and Huo Shuchu, at Guan, Cai and Huo to keep watch over Wu Geng, an arrangement called the Three Overseers. The article adds that he enfeoffed descendants of Shennong, the Yellow Emperor, Yao, Shun and the Xia at places such as Jiao, Zhu, Ji, Chen and Qi, and that meritorious followers such as Duke Shao were enfeoffed at Yan and Taigong Wang at Qi. A full enfeoffment system took shape only under King Cheng and the Duke of Zhou's regency.[2]
Death and age
The article says he died three years after the conquest, about 1043 BC, and King Cheng succeeded him. He was buried at Bi in the sixth month of the first year, with the Duke of Zhou, Duke Shao and Taigong Wang assisting. The article lists several traditions about his age at death: ninety-four in the current text of the Bamboo Annals, ninety-three in the Book of Rites, more than sixty in the Records of the Grand Historian, fifty-four in the Annotated Bamboo Annals, and forty-five in Tao Hongjing's Zhengao. The article's own estimate, based on King Cheng's age, puts his birth around 1076 BC and his age at thirty-four. Wikidata gives his birth as 1150 BC, which does not agree, so both are noted here without choosing. The article also mentions that the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project dates his reign to 1046 to 1043 BC and that the Cambridge History of China suggests about 1049 to 1043 BC.[1][2]
The Ten Ministers and his family
The Book of Documents has him say that he has ten ministers of one mind, and later writers use the Ten Ministers for the men who helped him govern. The article lists the Duke of Zhou, Duke Shao, Taigong Wang, Duke Bi Gao, Rong Bo, Tai Dian, Hong Yao, San Yisheng, Nangong Kuo, and the Mother Wen, who is either his mother Tai Si or, on another view, his wife Yi Jiang. Among his family, the article names his wife Yi Jiang, daughter of Lu Shang, Taigong of Qi. King Cheng Song and Tang Shuyu were his sons by Yi Jiang, and further children are Yu Shu, the Marquis of Ying, the Marquis of Han, and his eldest daughter Da Ji, wife of Duke Hu of Chen. His brothers include Bo Yikao, Guan Shuxian, the Duke of Zhou, Cai Shudu and Huo Shuchu.[2]
Variant writing
The article notes that in some histories in the Sinitic cultural sphere the name was written as King Hu of Zhou because of taboo avoidance or copying habits. Goryeo works such as the Samguk Yusa and the Jewang Un'gi changed Wu to the homophone Hu to avoid the name of King Hyejong, Wang Mu. Wikidata also keeps the variant forms King Hu of Zhou and King Wu among its aliases.[1][2]