☯️

King Wen of Zhou

Given / Temple NameJi Chang

Founder of the Western Zhou who laid the groundwork for conquering Shang, and the attributed author of the Book of Changes

Holders of the Mandate · Emperors & Kings

The Western ZhouDeducing the Book of ChangesBenevolent rule

Who they are

King Wen of Zhou, Ji Chang, served as the Earl of the West in the late Shang, ruling the Zhou people of the Guanzhong region. He did not conquer Shang with his own hand, but completed every preparation for it: recruiting talent widely (drawing Jiang Ziya out from the banks of the Wei River), gnawing away at Shang’s vassal states, and extending Zhou power until it "held two-thirds of the realm." During his seven years imprisoned by King Zhou of Shang at Youli, he is said to have deduced the eight trigrams into sixty-four hexagrams — and so the Book of Changes is attributed to him. Confucius honored him as the prototype of the ideal ruler, and "the governance of King Wen" became the source of later narratives of benevolent rule.

Key stories

Deducing the Changes at Youli

Wary of Zhou’s growth, King Zhou imprisoned Ji Chang at Youli for seven years. In prison, it is said, he stacked Fuxi’s eight trigrams two by two and deduced the sixty-four hexagrams — expanding a set of divinatory symbols into a system covering the changes of all things. Fact and attribution are hard to separate, but this prototype of "the sage writing amid adversity" was placed by Sima Qian in the lineage of works born of frustration: King Wen deduced the Changes in captivity, Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals in distress.

Settling the dispute of Yu and Rui

The states of Yu and Rui had quarreled over farmland for years without resolution and agreed to ask the Earl of the West to arbitrate. Entering Zhou territory, they saw farmers yielding boundaries to one another and travelers yielding the road, and turned back in shame: "What we quarrel over is exactly what the Zhou people are ashamed of." The two states ended their dispute of their own accord. As word spread, the lords came flocking to submit — the political power to subdue others without fighting dissolved the Shang realm faster than any battle.