Jichang

Jichang

Jichang (1152-1056 BC), King Wen of Zhou Dynasty, was born in Qishan County, Shaanxi Province. The founder of the Zhou Dynasty, the grandson of King Tai of Zhou, the son of Ji Li, and the father of King Wu of Zhou. Also known as Zhou Hou, Xibo, Jibo, Zhou Yuan oracle bone inscriptions for Zhou Fangbo.

He was originally a vassal of the Shang Dynasty and was granted the title of Xibo. Respect the old and show mercy to the young. Taidian, Hongyao, sanyisheng, Zhuozi and doctor Xinjia all went to work one after another. He lamented the tyranny of Shang Zhou and was imprisoned in kuali (now Tangyin north, Henan Province). After Hong Yao and others bribed Zhou to get the interpretation, offered the land of Luoxi, and asked Zhou to abolish the punishment of artillery. After returning to Zhou Dynasty, he judged the dispute between Yu (now shanxiping, Lubei) and Rui (now Ruicheng, Shanxi) and won the support of the princes, so he felled gourong and MISHU (now lingtaixi, Gansu), destroyed Chongguo (now Huxian, Shaanxi), established Fengyi (now fenghexi, Chang'an, Shaanxi), and moved his capital here. Then he felled Ying (now Jiaozuo, Henan) and Li (now southwest Changzhi, Shanxi), and returned the princes In the Analects of Confucius, Taibo said that there were two ways to serve Yin. In the 44th year of his accession to the throne, King Wen was appointed, called king and reformed.

In the 50th year of King Wen of Zhou Dynasty (about 1056 BC), he died and lived 97 years old. He was buried in Biyuan (the mausoleum of King Wen of Western Zhou Dynasty is located at the southern foot of Fenghuang Mountain in Qishan County, Shaanxi Province).

In 690, Wu Zetian called herself emperor. She called herself the descendant of Jichang and respected King Wen of Zhou as the ancestor of Emperor Wen.

Life of the characters

Father died to succeed the throne

Ji Lijing, the father of Jichang, launched a series of wars against the Rongdi tribes around the state of Zhou and won brilliant victories. The continuous expansion of Zhou's power aroused the suspicion of the king of Shang. In order to curb the influence of the Zhou people, wending, king of Shang, summoned Jili to the capital of Yin in the name of reward. He was nominally named "Fangbo", known as "zhouxibo", and was the head of the Western princes. In fact, after a period of house arrest, he killed Jili on a false charge, and Zhou people buried Jili in Chushan.

After Ji Li died, Ji Chang succeeded to the throne for Xi BoChang.

Diligent and talented

"Tang Yulin · Volume 2 · literature" contains: "Ji changhaode, LV wangqianhua. Although the city is near, the wind and cloud are still on credit. The fishing boat leans on the stone and fishes for the sand. The road is secluded, the mountain is secluded, the stream is deep and the bank is inclined. The leopard guards against evil and the Dragon seals against evil. Although we meet each other, we are still waiting for a car. When is it too late for a king to shake hands

Ji Chang was diligent in political affairs. He was able to recruit talented people from other tribes, as well as the wise men who came to join the Zhou Dynasty of Shang Dynasty. For example, Boyi, Shuqi, Taidian, Hongyao, sanyisheng, Fuxiong, Xinjia and so on were all subordinated to Jichang. Ji Changbai, LV Shang as a military adviser, asked about the general plan of the military and the country, and issued a law and order that "if there is a fugitive wasteland to read", stipulating that slaves should be searched, whose slaves belong to whom, and it is not allowed to hide the fugitive slaves. So the princes rebelled against Zhou and returned to Jichang.

Zhou Benji records that Ji Chang followed Houji and Gongliu's career, followed the law of his ancestors Gugong and his father Jili, and advocated the social atmosphere of "benevolence, respect for the elderly, kindness to the young, and courtesy to the sages", which made Zhou's social and economic development. During the period of ruling Qi, Jichang pursued the rule of virtue, advocated "protecting the small people" and vigorously developed agricultural production. He adopted the policy of "helping the farmers on September 1", that is, dividing the fields, allowing the farmers to help the public fields and paying one ninth of the tax. In the early feudal period, the politics of enriching the people was to collect taxes with restraint so that the peasants could save money to stimulate their interest in labor.

Jichang lived a thrifty life, dressed in ordinary people's clothes, and worked hard in the fields to govern the state of Zhou. Under his administration, Qi Zhou's national strength became stronger and stronger.

Benevolence and benevolence

King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty invented the torture named paoluo. That is to say, he ordered the prisoners to walk on the copper pillars covered with oil. Once they slipped, they would fall into the fire pit and die. But Daji, the favorite concubine of the Shang Dynasty, saw the tragedy, but she couldn't stop laughing. So he forced the prisoners to do this all the time to win Daji a smile. Jichang was very angry, and all the princes and the people gnashed their teeth. Jichang offered a piece of land on the West Bank of Luohe River to King Zhou in exchange for abolishing the punishment of artillery. King Zhou agreed to Xibo's request and abolished the punishment of artillery. Jichang was loved by the people all over the world.

the calamity of imprisonment

Jichang was granted the title of Sangong, and owned the territory of Yongzhou. His power extended to Jianghan area (Danjiang Hanjiang River Basin), and the vassals belonged to six states.

Zhou's national strength strengthened, which caused the anxiety of the Shang Dynasty. King Zhou's crony and slanderer Chonghou Hu secretly told King Zhou that Xibo did good deeds everywhere and established his own prestige. All the princes yearned for him, which was not good for King Zhou, so King Zhou detained Ji Chang in Jili.

San Yisheng, the Minister of Zhou state, bought a large sum of money from Yu, Jisi Zhicheng, Lirong Wenma, Xiong Jiusi and Shen's beauties to King Zhou. King Zhou Dayue said, "this is enough, not to mention so many treasures!" So he ordered Ji Chang to be pardoned and released from prison, and gave him bow and arrow (SH ǐ) and axe and Yue (Yu è), so that Ji Chang could be granted special power.

Judge the case and be king

According to the records of the historian Zhou Benji, there was a dispute between the states of Yu and Rui. When I came to Zhou, I saw that the people of Zhou were humble and polite to each other. I was very ashamed and said, "what I'm fighting for and what the people of Zhou are ashamed of, what can I do? I'm only insulting." Give way to each other. When the princes heard about this incident, they came to Jichang to judge any disputes.

At this time, Jichang was still a vassal, but he had become a moral model of the vassals in the world. The dispute between xibochang and Rui also became a landmark event, which was called the first year of xibochang's mandate by Zhou people. There is no doubt that the name of "Gaoyi" is of great significance. So xibochang was called king and Zhouwen was called king in history.

Advocate the middle way

Baoxun in Qinghua bamboo slips is a will from King Wen of Zhou Dynasty to King Wu of Zhou Dynasty. It tells us that "the things of yin and Yang should be measured in order, the things of salt and Shun should not be rebellious, and Shun should get the middle". The core idea is the middle way.

"In the past, Shun was born among the people and took part in the labor himself, so he went to seek" Zhong "and was able to examine himself and do things well. After winning the "middle", Shun worked harder and never slacked off. Shun's behavior was appreciated by Yao, and Yao passed on his throne to shun. "

From the bamboo slips of Baoxun, we can further understand the complicated relationship between Shang and Zhou, the strategy of King Wen of Zhou, the idea of governing the country of Zhou people, and the origin and development of Confucianism.

Qi Zhou died of illness

In the 50th year of King Wen of Zhou Dynasty, he died and lived 97 years. The prince Ji Fa succeeded to the throne as King Wu of Zhou Dynasty.

Achievements

explore and expand

In the second year of King Wen of Zhou Dynasty, Zhou attacked and destroyed Ying (now Qinyang north, Henan), mi (now Lingtai, Gansu) and Li (now Changzhi County, Shanxi) in the third year, which relieved the worries of the north and the West. The suppression of Li and Han actually constituted a direct threat to the song of the Shang capital.

Move capital to Fengjing

In the sixth year of King Wen of Zhou Dynasty, Zhou miechong (now in Huxian County of Xi'an city) established Fengyi (now on the West Bank of Fenghe River in Chang'an District of Xi'an city), built Lingtai, and moved the capital of Zhou Dynasty from Qishan Zhouyuan to Weishui plain, known as Fengjing.

Then King Wen of Zhou extended his power southward to the Yangtze River, Hanjiang River and Rushui River, forming a situation of "two in three parts of the world". The saying in the Analects of Confucius Taibo shows that Qi Zhou had actually controlled most of the world, and most of the princes in the world were subordinated to Zhou, while the Shang Dynasty was in an extremely isolated situation.

Evolution of Zhouyi

It is said that the king of Wen was good at performing the Zhouyi. Today's Zhouyi has the power of sorting out the Zhouyi, from which we can see some political ideas of the king of Wen.

It is said that in ancient times, Fuxi created Xianxian Yi (Xianxian Bagua), Shennong created Lianshan Yi (Lianshan Bagua), Xuanyuan created guicang Yi (guicangbagua). Later, it is said that after the careful study of King Wen, it was standardized and organized. It was deduced into 64 hexagrams and 384 hexagrams. There were hexagrams and hexagrams, which were called Zhouyi. It uses simple images and numbers, and the opposite changes of yin and yang to explain the diverse and complicated social phenomena. It shows thousands of even infinite numbers, with the characteristics of showing more with less, showing more with simplicity, and full of changes. After the inference and interpretation of the later Duke of Zhou and Confucius, the book of changes, which has been handed down to the present, was formed. Through the inheritance of scholars and the ruling class, the book of changes has become the Bible of China, the source of all schools of thought, and even people's daily life.

Influence of later generations

Politically, the Western Zhou regime established by King Wen of Zhou Dynasty is the precursor of feudal autocracy in China for thousands of years. The book of changes has a profound influence and great change on Chinese ancient traditional culture. It is the cultural source of the Chinese nation, changing the track of ancient cultural development and affecting today's cultural matrix In ancient Chinese cultural history, there has always been a saying that Fuxi painted eight trigrams and Wenwang performed sixty-four trigrams. Shiji also thinks that the author of Zhouyi is King Wen of Zhou. Of course, some people have questioned the fact that the sixty-four hexagrams in the book of changes recorded the historical events after King Wen of Zhou. They think that the hexagrams were deduced by King Wen of Zhou, and the words were written by the Duke of Zhou or others. As a matter of fact, it is difficult for a classic work like the book of changes to be completed overnight. It must have a long process from its embryonic form to its enrichment and perfection. It must be conceived, collected, written, revised, supplemented and polished by many people and even generations before the text of the book of changes we see today can be formed. Although there is no conclusive evidence to confirm that the author is King Wen of Zhou, we can at least infer that King Wen of Zhou played a crucial role in the process of the book of changes

Chinese PinYin : Ji Chang