Gods Supplemental 004: Ji Chang and Ji Fa
A look at the real historical figures of the Zhou Dynasty’s father-and-son founding duo.
Transcript
Welcome to the Chinese Lore Podcast, where I retell classic Chinese stories in English. This is supplemental episode 4 for Investiture of the Gods.
In this supplemental episode, I’m going to take a look at the real historical figures of Ji Chang, the Grand Duke of the West, and his son, Ji Fa. These two are credited with establishing the Zhou Dynasty, which would last for nearly 800 years. They were both leaders of the Zhou when it was still a vassal kingdom to the Shang Dynasty, before Ji Fa led the overthrow of the Shang in the year 1046 BCE.
Let’s start with the father, Ji Chang. In the novel, he was portrayed as a wise, learned ruler who was deeply interested in the finer points of Daoist mysticism and virtuous to a fault. In fact, he was so virtuous that he bore no grudge against the tyrannical King Zhou for imprisoning him for seven years, and as Ji Chang lay dying, he reminded his son Ji Fa that, as a vassal, he must always remain loyal to the Shang and never contemplate raising arms against its ruler. Oh, and he also fathered 99 sons.
Many aspects of that fictional portrayal do seem to have an element of truth in them. Ji Chang was regarded in the historical records as a conscientious ruler of his kingdom. His father played a big role in building up the Zhou’s strength by winning a series of wars against tribes along its borders. But the ascendancy of the Zhou raised the suspicion of the Shang king at the time, who was the grandfather of everyone’s favorite tyrant, King Zhou. So the Shang king summoned Ji Chang’s father to the Shang capital to … umm … honor him with the title of Grand Duke of the West, making him leader of all the nobles in the Western region of the Shang sphere of influence. But while he was at it, the Shang king also went ahead and put Ji Chang’s father under house arrest and then executed him on some made-up charge.
After his father’s execution, which took place in the late 12th century BCE, Ji Chang inherited the throne of the Zhou kingdom. And he actually married the sister of the Shang king at the time, who was the son of the man that executed Ji Chang’s father, and the father of King Zhou. So that’d actually make Ji Chang King Zhou’s uncle-in-law.
After he came to the Zhou throne, Ji Chang recruited talent from near and far, including a lot of the Zhou officials that we met in the novel. In the Records of the Grand Historian, a famous historical chronicle written nearly 1,000 years after Ji Chang’s death, he was said to have promoted a society that was, quote, “earnest, compassionate, respectful to the old, nurturing to the young, and courteous to men of talent.”
He also paid attention to the lives of the lowly commoners, heavily promoting agriculture. He was said to have implemented policies that invigorated agricultural production. One such policy divided a large tract of land into 9 parcels, arranged like squares on a tic-tac-toe board, so three rows and three columns. The center square was public land, while the surrounding eight squares were private land owned by individual families. Those families were all responsible for tilling the public parcel in addition to tilling their own parcel. He also moderated taxation, allowing civilians to accumulate some savings and enrich their lives, thus further motivating them to produce more from the land.
We also have some historical descriptions of Ji Chang’s personality. He’s said to be very frugal in his living, wearing the clothes of a commoner. He also actually worked the land every now and then. He was cautious and conscientious in his approach to governance. Oh, and apparently he was legendary for his ability to hold his liquor, as he was said to be able to consume a thousand cups of wine.
Like in the novel, Ji Chang was said to be compassionate and virtuous. One story we have is that King Zhou invented the Burning Pillar punishment that scalded people to death to amuse his queen Daji. This cruel device was quite offensive to Ji Chang, the other nobles, and the people. So Ji Chang told King Zhou that if he were to abolish said punishment, Ji Chang would present him with a piece of prime territory. King Zhou, unlike his caricature in the novel, agreed to this offer. The Burning Pillar was abolished, and Ji Chang earned the admiration of the people.
Also, like his fictional portrayal, Ji Chang was apparently very into Daoism. He was credited with creating the 64 hexagrams that would later be recorded in the I Jing, or the Book of Changes, one of the foundational texts of Daoism.
Another element from Ji Chang’s story in the novel that was true was his imprisonment by King Zhou. Just like his father, Ji Chang drew the suspicion of the Shang court as his kingdom steadily became stronger. So at one point, listening to slanderous advice from his official Chong (2) Houhu (2,2), aka Grand Duke of the North in the novel, King Zhou summoned Ji Chang to the Shang capital and then imprisoned him in the nearby town of Youli (2,3).
To secure Ji Chang’s freedom, his official San (4) Yisheng (2,1) offered lavish gifts and a beautiful woman to King Zhou. King Zhou was supposedly so taken with the woman that he pointed at her and said, “Just her would’ve been enough; you didn’t need to offer all these other treasures!” But he graciously accepted all the treasures anyway, and subsequently released Ji Chang from prison. He even gave Ji Chang the title of Grand Duke of the West and bestowed upon him the bow and axe that signified his being granted the ability to act with royal authority.
But here’s where we find one major discrepancy between the fictional portrayal of Ji Chang and his real-life counterpart. In the novel, after Ji Chang returned to his kingdom, he bore no grudge against King Zhou for his imprisonment. The real Ji Chang, however, started plotting the overthrow of the Shang almost as soon as he got home. It was also around this time that he recruited Jiang Ziya into his service.
In the ensuing years, Ji Chang continued to increase his prestige among the other nobles through a combination of settling disputes, repelling barbarian invasions, and conquering neighboring states. In the novel, we kept hearing various people mention how two-thirds of the realm had already submitted to the Zhou. Well, that didn’t just happen by accident or just from Ji Chang emanating a halo of virtue from his throne. It happened through both diplomatic cunning and military prowess.
The height of Ji Chang’s success came when he conquered the state ruled by Chong Houhu, the rival noble whose slander had landed him in trouble with King Zhou. Although, is it really slander if you tell the Shang king that hey this guy’s success could be bad for you, and that’s exactly what happened?
Anyway, the conquest of Chong Houhu’s territory proved to be a key victory for the Zhou, because it gave them control of Mengjin, which was a ford where you could relatively easily cross the Yellow River, the main geographical barrier that protected the Shang capital from an attack from the West. So now, Ji Chang was positioned to launch such an attack. And you could tell that’s exactly what he was thinking, because that same year he moved the Zhou’s capital from its original location in the Western Qi Mountains to a spot 60 miles to the east, putting him that much closer to Shang territory.
However, Ji Chang would never get that chance. The following year, he died before he could ford the Yellow River. He was 97 at the time, and in the 50th year of his reign as the king of Zhou. As he lay dying, he feared that he would not last long enough to see his heir apparent Ji Fa to leave him instructions in person, so he dictated a message. This message was transcribed, and a copy of it was actually found among a collection of bamboo scrolls from the late Warring States period some 800 years later. It was inscribed on a scroll of 11 bamboo strips, each one just under a foot long and containing about 22 characters. Half of one strip was illegible, but most of the text was preserved, and here’s roughly what it said:
“In the 50th year of his reign, King Wen became seriously ill. He sensed that he was not long for this world, and was worried that he would not have the time to instruct his heir face to face. So one day, he washed his face. The next day, he summoned his prince Ji Fa and told him, ‘My illness is serious, and I fear I don’t have enough time to instruct you in detail. In the past, when someone leaves dying instructions, they saw to it that their words were memorized. With me being as sick as I am, you must remember my words and obey them in your actions. Do not indulge yourself.
‘The sage king Shun (4) was born a commoner and personally participated in labor. He sought out the proper path and was able to engage in self-reflection to ensure he acted properly. After he attained the proper path, he remained diligent and never let up. Thus did Shun earn the praise of the sage king Yao, who then passed his throne to Shun.’ ”
So in the novel, when Ji Chang lay dying, he told his son Ji Fa that he must never entertain thoughts of attacking his lord, the king of Shang. In reality, however, it was the exact opposite. As the real Ji Chang lay dying, he told his son Ji Fa that he should attack the Shang as soon as possible. This is really ironic, because the portrayal of Ji Chang that has come down through the ages is that of a man so virtuous and bound to propriety that even though he possessed most of the land, he refused to overthrow the lord to whom he had pledged allegiance. In fact, this ideal was so powerful that it would become something for posterity to emulate.
For instance, in both the historical and fictional account of the Three Kingdoms era, the prime minister Cao Cao had attained such prestige and power that he could have easily overthrown the puppet emperor and established his own dynasty. Yet, he went to his grave as merely the highest official in the land, so as to preserve this idea of being a loyal vassal. Instead, he left the business of establishing a new dynasty to his son, Cao Pi.
Anyway, back to Ji Chang’s heir, Ji Fa. Now, in the novel, Ji Fa had 99 brothers, including an adopted brother who was a demigod with wings. In reality, Ji Fa’s father was not quite so prolific, producing ONLY 19 sons. Ji Fa was the second oldest. There’s some disagreement in the historical records about how he ended up as heir apparent ahead of his elder brother, Bo (2) Yikao (4,3). Some records said that Bo Yikao, as it was relayed in the novel, was in fact turned into minced meat buns and served up to his father by King Zhou during Ji Chang’s imprisonment. But, as you can imagine, this account has been frequently disputed. Some speculated that Bo Yikao simply died early, while others have posited that Ji Chang decided to elevate his second son Ji Fa ahead of his elder son, which was against customs, and the whole meat bun thing was a later cover story.
Whatever the reason, Ji Fa did become the heir and then the new ruler of Zhou after Ji Chang’s death. Whereas in the novel, Ji Fa was kind of this milquetoast who kept hesitating about even setting out on campaign against the Shang, his real-life counterpart had no such qualms. With his father’s dying words ringing in his ears — the part about attacking the Shang as soon as possible, not the fictional part about never attacking the Shang — Ji Fa marched on the Shang capital in the second year of his reign. During this march, he was actually still referring to himself as merely the heir apparent of the Zhou and displaying banners with his father’s name, signifying that he was acting on his father’s behalf.
Hundreds of nobles flocked to his banner. They met at Mengjin and crossed the Yellow River. At this point, King Zhou of Shang was already politically isolated, and the nobles all encouraged Ji Fa to attack the capital and finish the job. But Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya both felt that the time was not ripe yet for such a move, so they marched the army back across the Yellow River and went home. So this false start became known as the Inspection of the Army at Mengjin.
Over the next couple years, Ji Fa continued to keep a close eye on the affairs of the Shang, and the reports were all pointing to the poop continuing to hit the fan. He got word that the high minister Bi (3) Gan (4) had had his heart cut out by King Zhou. And that King Zhou had enslaved and imprisoned one of his brothers, while another brother had fled.
Feeling that the time had come, Ji Fa mobilized another army in the fourth year of his reign. Again he convened with the 800 nobles at Mengjin, and this time, he swore an oath to punish the Shang. After that, their combined forces marched toward the Shang capital, vanquishing all resistance in their way.
Waiting for them at the Shang capital, however, was a massive force of 700,000, compared to the Zhou army of just 50,000. So on the surface, this was a huge mismatch. But beneath the surface, it was a different story. Most of the Shang’s forces were temporary conscripts, slaves, and prisoners of other wars. So you can imagine how not willing they were to put their lives on the line for a king that they despised. The two sides squared off on the outskirts of the capital, and the Zhou army routed the Shang, with many of the Shang’s soldiers surrendering and turning against their own side shortly after the battle commenced. Seeing that all was lost, King Zhou committed suicide, incinerating himself atop his pleasure terrace.
And so the Shang was gone, and Ji Fa became the king of a new ruling dynasty, the Zhou. To guard against anyone else trying to do what he just did, he doled out territories to all the high officials and relatives who had rendered service, making them essentially lords of their fiefdoms and setting up some 71 such fiefdoms in all. This set the stage for the “feudal” system that would come to characterize the Zhou Dynasty. In time, this system will present problems of its own, but for the next few centuries, the Zhou kept humming along.
Also in the political arena, Ji Fa and his father Ji Chang established the powerful principle of the Mandate of Heaven. This is the idea that a particular ruler comes into power because heaven had willed it so, but that heaven’s will is not fixed and can change depending on the conduct of the ruling house. Also wrapped up in this idea is the notion that a ruler doesn’t need to be of noble birth, only of noble conduct. That’s why you see all these descriptions about the immaculate virtue of Ji Chang and Ji Fa. That serves as justification for their ascension to power. On the other hand, if your ruling house descends into debauchery and tyranny on the level of King Zhou, then heaven will bestow its favor upon somebody else, and people are justified in rebelling against such tyrants. So you can see how this could be a very convenient political philosophy for the victors. But it also had a powerful resonance, as founders of subsequent Chinese dynasties have all pointed to it as the basis for their legitimacy.
In addition to the political changes, Ji Fa also implemented agricultural reforms like the division of public and private lands that we mentioned earlier. He institutionalized a patriarchal clan system that defined relations among groups and stratified power. This system helped to define who was in your group and who was out, who you could marry, how property and titles were inherited, and even where you could be buried after your death.
Ji Fa also helped put in place an elaborate ritual and music system designed to maintain the social order. This system was divided into a ritual component and a music component. The ritual portion primarily concerned itself with people’s identity, social norms, and hierarchy. The music part is mostly based on the hierarchical system of etiquette and seeks to use music to resolve social conflicts. And this turned out to be a pretty big deal, as the rituals of the Zhou became an enshrined ideal for later philosophers, most notable among them — Confucius.
For all that was attributed to him, Ji Fa actually only reigned for three years after overthrowing the Shang. He died in 1043 BCE, around the age of 33. Between him and his father, however, they had gotten the Zhou Dynasty off to a smashing start. As their posthumous titles, Ji Chang was named King Wen (2), which meant the Cultured King, while Ji Fa was named King Wu (3), or the Martial King. These titles were reflective of the overall themes that supposedly characterized their respective reigns. In this telling, Ji Chang ruled as a scholar king to lay the foundation for the dynasty, while his son demonstrated the martial prowess needed to finish the job of overthrowing the Shang and establishing the new golden age. And it did turn out to be a golden age, as the Zhou is generally seen as the first powerhouse dynasty in Chinese history. Sure there had been two long-lived dynasties before it — the Xia and the Shang — but the Zhou was when many aspects of what would come to define Chinese civilization for centuries were established. So it’s little wonder that Ji Chang and Ji Fa’s titles of Wen and Wu would frequently be bestowed upon particularly capable rulers of subsequent dynasties.
Alright, that does it for this supplemental episode. I hope you enjoyed that overview of the reigns of two of the most influential and revered rulers in Chinese history. I’ll see you next time on the Chinese Lore Podcast. Thanks for listening!
Music in This Episode
- “Sao Meo” by Doug Maxwell / Zac Zinger