King Wu of Zhou did not destroy the Shang Dynasty. When did the Zhou Dynasty really destroy the Shang Dynasty?

WeChat public account | Hanshan Penshi "History of the Ancient Han Nationalities" Series 130 Zhou Gongdong's Essays/Illustrations/Compilation|In the 13th year after Hanshan Yixue was appointed (about 1045 BC), King Wu of Zhou died. The young King Cheng succeeded to the throne, and King Cheng's uncle Zhou Gongdan assumed the heavy responsibility of regent. Duke Zhou's regency aroused dissatisfaction and suspicion of Guan Shuxian and Cai Shudu. Based on the land of Guan Cai, they openly opposed Zhou Gong's regency and even used force to fight with each other. From the beginning of its founding, the Zhou Dynasty fell into civil strife within the royal family. According to "Shang Shu Jin Teng", in order to avoid civil strife in the royal family and maintain the stability of the Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Gongdan gave up his position as regent and fled to the east. "Bamboo Chronicles" also says that in the first year of King Cheng (about 1044 BC), Duke Wen of Zhou came to live in the east. To the east here is probably the Luoyang Basin. When Duke Zhou took refuge here, he might also inspect the Luoyang Basin and choose a suitable location for building the Eastern Capital. At the same time, Duke Zhou could also guard the Luoyang Basin and prevent Guan and Cai from advancing westward. After the rebellion of Guan and Cai, half of the Shang Kingdom ruled by Wu Geng also lost control. Shang King Wu Geng immediately contacted the pro-Shang princes such as Yan State, Xu State, and Pugu in the eastern region to counterattack the Zhou State, trying to revive the Shang Kingdom's dominant position in the world. "Bamboo Chronicles" records that "in the second year, the Yan people, Xu people and Huaiyi people entered Bei to rebel." In later history books, Guan and Cai's opposition to the Duke of Zhou's regency was linked to Shang's rebellion against the Zhou Dynasty, and it was said that Guan Shuxian contacted Wu Geng to rebel against the Zhou Dynasty. But in fact, Guan Shuxian could not be so stupid as to ignore the fate of the Zhou Kingdom, and openly colluded with the merchants to give the Duke of Zhou a pretext. Therefore, the more likely scenario is that Guan Cai first rebelled against the Duke of Zhou, and Wu Geng then rebelled against the Zhou Dynasty. There was no connection between the initial anti-Chou actions of the two. But it's hard to say whether the two hooked up later. After Wu Geng rebelled against the Zhou Dynasty, the situation between the Shang and Zhou Dynasties was a bit like before King Wu conquered the Shang Dynasty, except that the two changed positions. King Wu of Zhou was replaced by King Wu Geng of Shang, and the merchant nobles who opposed Emperor Xin were replaced by Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai who opposed Duke Zhou. The Zhou people contacted the merchant nobles to attack Emperor Xin, and the merchants contacted the Zhou people to rebel against the Zhou Dynasty. Under the critical situation, Zhou Gongdan was recalled to Haojing by King Cheng to discuss countermeasures with Zhao Gongxi, Bi Gonggao and Taigong Wang. In the end, Zhou Gongdan served as the Taishi, Zhao Gongshi served as the Taibao, and Taigong Wang also led the army to join. The Zhou royal court decided to conquer the "rebels" in the east and completely conquer the Shang Wangji and the pro-business princes in Shandong. Historical records say, "In autumn, when there were heavy thunder and lightning and wind, the king rebelled against Duke Wen of Zhou in the suburbs and attacked Yin." This battle of the Eastern Expedition can be regarded as the second war of the Zhou Kingdom to conquer merchants. Since the commander of the Eastern Expedition was Zhou Gongdan, later generations also called it "Zhou Gong's Eastern Expedition". Compared with the situation of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties before King Wu conquered Zhou, although the positions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties before Duke Zhou's eastern expedition were interchanged, they were not exactly the same. Although the Shang State united the anti-Zhou Dukes Guan and Cai, the Song State of the Zhou Dynasty Wei Ziqi did not join the anti-Zhou camp, but continued to side with the Zhou people. The reason is very simple. If Shang King Wu Geng successfully counterattacked Zhou and regained his position as the leader of the world, then he would lead the Zhou people to attack Emperor Xin of Shang, causing the Shang State to lose its status as the leader of the world and be forced to surrender to Zhou. The Wei Ziqi is a complete leader. Not only is his identity embarrassing, but more importantly, he will be liquidated by Wu Geng, and his position as Duke of Song will not be guaranteed. Precisely because the Song State did not join the anti-Zhou camp, the pro-merchant princes such as the Yan State in the Sishang area were blocked to the east of the Song State and were unable to directly threaten the Heluo area from the west. The Zhou army was able to use all its strength to deal with the Guan Dynasty in the northeast of Heluo. Cai's rebel army and Shang Wangji's remnant Shang army. In the winter of the second year of King Cheng (approximately 1043 BC), the Zhou army set off again, and their marching route was consistent with King Wu's route to conquer the merchants. The difference is that after the Zhou division arrived in the Luoyang Basin, they did not cross the Yellow River from Mengjin to the north, but crossed the Songshan Mountains and attacked Guan Guo (today's Zhengzhou area) at the eastern foot of the Songshan Mountains first. Although Guan Guo was Wang Ji's great eastern kingdom, its strength was still relatively weak compared to Zhou's Wang Shi. In addition, although Guan Cai and the residual merchants were nominally united, they actually fought independently. Moreover, Guan Cai's army was mainly composed of Zhou people, and fighting with the same clan could not stimulate Guan Cai's fighting spirit. In the end, Zhou Shi defeated Guan and Cai. Guan Shuxian may have been killed or committed suicide. As a result, Guan Guo was deposed, and Guan Shuxian's descendants also lost their aristocratic status. Uncle Cai was deposed as a commoner and exiled to a remote place. Uncle Guan's second son was re-titled Marquis of Cai due to some reasons in the middle and later stages of becoming king. That's a story later. After destroying Guan Cai, it was already the third year of King Cheng's reign (about 1042 BC). The Zhou army crossed the Yellow River and headed north, uniting with the armies of Wen and Tan to attack the remaining merchants.

Before attacking Chaoge, the Zhou army first occupied Weiyi to the east of Chaoge, controlled the Yellow River ferry east of Weiyi, and blocked the connections between merchants and the Am, Xu and other countries in the Sishang region to the east. Afterwards, the army marched towards the Shang capital. Due to the Zhou division's outflanking tactics, Shang King Wu Geng was unable to contact the various countries in Shandong. He could not compete with the Zhou army with only his own strength. And more importantly, the nobles within the Shang Kingdom were still on opposite ends of the spectrum and were in an ambiguous state with the Zhou people, which made Wu Geng fall into despair. In the end, Wu Geng decided to abandon the Shang capital and retreat to the north. To the north of the capital of the Shang Dynasty is the Hebei Corridor (because the eastern part of the Hebei Plain is the Northern Yellow River Flood Area, full of swamps and sparsely populated). From south to north, there are pro-Shang states such as Jing State (Xing State), Dai State, ? State, and Guzhu State. Among them, the kings of Dai State and Guzhu State are descendants of the Shang royal family, while ? State may be It was the feudal state of Jizi, Wu Geng's uncle Wang. Wu Geng's intention was obviously to rely on the princes of the same surname in the north to fight against the Zhou army in a trapped beast. But Zhou Jun did not give him such a chance. After once again occupying the capital of the Shang Dynasty, Zhou Gongdan asked Shu Feng (the seventh son of King Wen and the seventh uncle of King Cheng) who had fought well in the war against Shang to lead a part of the Zhou army to guard Chaoge City, and asked Zhao Gongxi to lead a part of the Zhou army to pursue Wu Geng northward. of the remnants. The army led by Zhao Gongxi pursued Wu Geng's remnants in hot pursuit, and finally caught up with Wu Geng's army north of Dai and south of Ji (today's Fangshan District and Zhuozhou southwest of Beijing). Due to the hot pursuit of the Zhou army, Wu Geng did not have enough time to contact and integrate the forces of the northern princes, and Dai, He, and Guzhu all defected to Zhou. Wu Geng, the king of Shang who was at the end of his rope, fought the final battle with the Zhou people here. , was eventually defeated and killed. This period of history is recorded in the inscription "Taibao Gui" in "Seven Weapons of Liangshan". The content is: "The king defeated and recorded Zisheng. The king sent an order to Dabao. Dabao Kejing died and condemned. The king Yongdabao granted him a rest. The rest of the land, use the Yi to make the order." Among them, the Luzi Sage was Wu Geng, the king of Shang. After chasing Wu Geng and surrendering to the northern princes, Zhao Gongxi returned to the south to reinforce Zhou Gongdan's Shandong battlefield. Just when Zhao Gong divided his troops and went north to pursue Wu Geng, Zhou Gong also led a part of the Zhou army to conquer the Shang Kingdom in the east. The army set off from Chaoge, passed through the ancient Yellow River ferry in Weidi, crossed the Yellow River, and submitted to the Yan State (Southern Yan State, today's Huaxian and Yanjin areas) east of the Yellow River, and then continued eastward, passing through Gudi ( Southwest of Puyang) arrived at Caodi (in the Dingtao area of ​​​​Heze), where they were ready to cross the Jishui River and enter the land of Sishang. There are many local princes in Sishang, including Xu and Fei with the surname of Ying, Su, Xuju and Zhuanyu with the surname of Feng, Ren, Xue and Zhu with the surname of Ren, Zhu with the surname of Ji, and Zhu. There is Biyang State with the surname, and there are Ji State, Zhang State and Guan State with unknown surnames. These were the small vassal states with non-Ji and Jiang surnames that survived the Western Zhou Dynasty, and there may have been many that were destroyed by the Zhou people. On average, each of these twenty small Fang States was only equivalent to the size of a county in later generations. The largest Fang State among them was the Yan State, which was also the leader of the Sishang princes. This state of Yan was located in the current area of ​​Jining and Yanzhou. It was the capital of the Shang Kingdom before Pan Geng moved to Yin. After Pan Geng moved to Yin, he enfeoffed the nobles of the Shang royal family with the surname Zi as the monarchs of the Yan State and guarded the Sishang area. Compared with other small countries, the area of ​​​​奄国 may be equivalent to the size of more than half of a prefecture-level city, and its strength is not weak. If the other Fang Kingdoms on Si are added together, the strength controlled by the entire Yan Kingdom can be compared with half of the Shang Kingdom (the Shang Kingdom controlled by Wu Geng). Compared with Wu Geng's remnant merchants, the Sishang area had not been occupied by the Zhou people, and its war potential had not been exhausted. Moreover, there were no aristocratic forces on both sides of the Sishang area, so the Zhou people could no longer use the internal and external pincer strategy to defeat Sishang. Faced with this situation, Xin Jia, the doctor of Zhou State, proposed a battle plan to Duke Zhou. This Xinjia, also known as Xin Gongjia and Doctor Xinjia, was the natal family of Taisi, the grandmother of King Cheng of Zhou, a nobleman of the Shen Kingdom, and might even be Taisi's brother or nephew. According to the relationship between relatives, Xin Gongjia may be the uncle of King Cheng, and he may also be the uncle of Zhou Gongdan. During the reign of Emperor Yi and Emperor Xin, Xin Gongjia served as a historian in the Shang court and had a relatively good understanding of the situation in the Shang Dynasty. His suggestion to Zhou Gongdan was that there were many small countries in the Sishang area, with complex surnames and complicated pursuit of interests, so it was impossible to twist them into a single rope and listen to the command of the country. Therefore, before attacking the country of Yan, you can attack these small countries first. Those who are willing to surrender will be allowed to surrender, and those who are unwilling to surrender will be completely attacked and destroyed. After clearing out the surrounding small countries, we can launch a general attack on the country of Yan.

According to Xin Gongjia's suggestion, Zhou Gongdan indeed surrendered the Su, Xuju, Zhuanyu, Ren, Xue, Zhu, Zhu, Biyang, Ji, Zhang, Guan and other countries, expelled the Xu State, attacked Fei State and other countries. Several Fang Kingdoms. "Book of Yizhou" states that "seven out of ten Xiong Ying tribes were conquered, and nine Weiwei cities were captured." That is to say, the Zhou army conquered 17 Sishang small kingdoms and captured (captured) 9 of them. Fang Guo. When cleaning up the small country of Sishang, Zhao Gongxi also arrived on the battlefield and joined the battle. Before attacking the state of Yan, the young King Cheng of Zhou also came to the front line from Haojing to boost morale. In the end, forced by the overwhelming strength of the Zhou army, the monarch of the state of Xi chose to surrender. After learning the lesson of the rebellion of the remnant merchants, Zhou Gongdan did not let the Hu State continue to exist, but split it up. The monarch of the state of Yan and some of the people of the state of the state were moved to Pugu downstream of Jishui by Zhou Gong, and were handed over to Taigong Wang to manage. The remaining people of the state of the state were left in place and were guarded and managed by Boqin, the eldest son of the Duke of Zhou. The reason why Taigongwang appeared in the lower reaches of Jishui River is that after the Zhou army arrived in Caodi, when they were preparing to clean up the Xiaofang Kingdom in Sishang, Zhou Gongdan asked Taigongwang to divide his troops and go eastward along Jishui River to conquer Pugu and other countries in the lower reaches of Jishui River. Taigongwang led his troops eastward along the Jishui River, and first conquered the small countries of Xuju, Su, Zhang, Zhu and others on the northeastern shore of Onezawa, and then arrived in the Zhangqiu area of ​​present-day Jinan. This was the territory of (犭禃) Fang during the Sino-Shang Dynasty. During the Shang King Wu Ding's period, the merchants conquered (犭禃) Fang and later enfeoffed the royal family and nobles to establish the country of Tan. Taigongwang, who was brave and skillful in fighting, quickly surrendered to Tan Guo and continued to march through the Changbai Mountain Pass in Shandong and into the western edge of the Jiao Lai Basin, which was the Zi River Basin. This is the economic lifeline of the Shang Kingdom - the Bohai Salt Fields. In order to guard the salt fields, the Shang King ennobled the Chou family and the Ge family to guard this place. The Pugu Kingdom and the Ji Kingdom were feudal states of the two families respectively. In addition, there are Qi Guo and Feng Guo with unknown surnames, who also serve as caretakers of the Bohai Salt Fields. Taigong Wang knew very well that Zhou Gongdan appointed him to conquer Pugu, with the purpose of seizing the Bohai Salt Farm and holding this economic lifeline in the hands of the Zhou people. Therefore, unlike the previous surrenders of Xuju, Tan and other countries, this time Taigong Wang made one effort and destroyed the four Fang Kingdoms. Therefore, after Zhou Gong destroyed Yan, he could move the monarch of Yan to Pugu and hand it over to Tai Gongwang for his care. The wars to conquer the states of Am and Pugu were recorded in the bronze inscriptions of the early Zhou Dynasty. The inscription on Zhougong's Eastern Expedition Ding (爯ding) reads: "Only when Zhougong went to conquer Dongyi, Fengbo and Puguxian returned and recommended them to Zhou Temple. In Wuchen, he drank Qin's drink, and he rewarded hundreds of clam shells for use. "Zunding Ding" The inscription of Qin Gui: "The king attacked the Marquis of Hu, Zhou Gong planned, Qin Zhu, Qin also supported Zhu, the king bestowed hundreds of gold coins, and the birds were used as treasures." In the history books, this war is called "Zhou Gong Jian Xi" . For example, in "Shang Shu·Da Zhuan", "The Duke of Zhou was regent, one year to save trouble, two years to conquer Yin, and three years to practice death." There is actually the second half of this sentence, "Four years to build a marquis and guard, five years to form a camp, six years to make rituals and music, and seven years to become a king." People who know a little bit about history must know that after Duke Zhou went to the east and conquered Yin Jian's dying state, the next part of history was the enfeoffment by Duke Zhou. So how did Duke Zhou divide the feudal lords? What factors did he consider, and which vassal states did he enfeoff? This question will be further explained in the next section. -END- This article is an original article by Hanshan Penshi. When reprinting, please indicate the source and original author of the article. To see more historical articles, please follow the public account Hanshan Spray History