" King Zhou of Shang " Emperor Xin
Emperor Yi , son's surname, name Xian, son of Shang King Wen Ding, the thirtieth monarch of the Shang Dynasty . After Emperor Yi succeeded to the throne, the Shang Dynasty was in decline. In the last years of Emperor Yi's reign, he moved the capital to Yu. The eldest son of Emperor Yi was Wei Ziqi, the second son was Wei Zhongyan, and the youngest son was Emperor Xin. Wei Ziqi, Wei Zhongyan and Di Xin are brothers from the same mother. When Wei Ziqi and Wei Zhongyan were born, their mother was a concubine. Emperor Yi wanted to make Weizi Qi his heir because he was older. Weizi Qi could not inherit the throne because his mother's concubine was of low birth status, but Xin, as his legitimate son, was made the heir, and the world called him "Zhou".
When Emperor Xin was young, he was handsome, talented, and very eloquent. He often made his opponents speechless during arguments. Emperor Xin of the Shang Dynasty often refused the advice of his subordinates and was able to cover up his faults with eloquent words. He used his prestige to promote himself everywhere, and boasted about his abilities in front of ministers, thinking that no one in the world could compare with him.
Emperor Xin, the king of Shang, was not only talented and eloquent, but also strong and brave, capable of fighting ferocious beasts alone with his bare hands. At that time, there were frequent wars between tribes, and Emperor Xin began to conquer the world in south and north, greatly expanding the territory of the Shang Dynasty. During his reign, Emperor Xin was fond of drinking, having fun, and doting on women. He built court songs internally, increased taxes and regulations, strictly enforced the weekly sacrifice system, changed employment policies, implemented severe punishments, and repeatedly sent troops to attack Dongyi kingdoms externally. tribe.
The lewd and unscrupulous King Zhou of Shang and the "Fox Spirit" Su Daji
Once, Emperor Xin, King of Shang Zhou, launched a large army to attack the Su tribe. The Su clan could not withstand the attack of the powerful merchant army. Between destruction and surrender, the leader of the Su clan chose to surrender. In addition to offering cattle, sheep and horses, he also sacrificed the fallen flower of the tribe, the beautiful Su Daji. Su Daji had just turned eighteen at the time and was in the prime of her youth. She was as beautiful as a hibiscus and her country was beautiful and fragrant. King Zhou of Shang drooled over her, so he took Daji as his concubine. Since King Zhou of Shang Dynasty took Su Daji as his concubine, Daji was as charming as a vixen, seducing King Zhou to have fun with him all day long. King Zhou of Shang indulged in wine and sex all day long, and his private life became more and more indulgent.
King Zhou of Shang Dynasty especially loved Daji and obeyed her in everything. He asked the musicians to make new folk music, named Beili Dance Music and Songs of Elegance. King Zhou of Shang also increased taxes, filled the treasury of Lutai with the money collected, and filled the Juqiao granary with the looted grain. King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty collected dogs, horses and novelty toys from all over the place to fill the palace. He also expanded the garden terrace of the dunes, captured a large number of wild beasts and birds, and placed them inside. King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty also invited a large number of actors and actresses to gather in the sand dunes. They used wine as a pond and hung meat as a forest. They let men and women chase and play naked in the sand dunes, drinking and having fun all night long.
Once, King Zhou of Shang Dynasty was drinking with Daji. He saw an old man and a young man crossing a river from a distance. The child walked in front and had already crossed the river, while the old man hesitated behind. King Zhou said: "Children have strong bone marrow and are not afraid of cold; old people have empty bone marrow and are afraid of cold." Daji smiled and pursed her lips and said, "I don't believe it." King Zhou of Shang immediately ordered the soldiers to kill the old and the young. They were captured and ordered to use an ax to break open their leg bones for Daji to see. This river has since been called " Zhishan River ".
Daji told King Zhou of Shang Dynasty that she had the ability to identify whether the fetus in her belly was male or female, so King Zhou captured a hundred pregnant women for experiments. Daji asked them to sit down first and then stand up, and then said to King Zhou: "The one who lifts the left leg first is a man, and the one who lifts the right leg first is a woman." King Zhou didn't believe it, so he ordered people to cut open the pregnant woman's belly and take it out on the spot. Bloody fetus test gender.
"The Punishment of Burning"
One day, King Zhou of Shang Dynasty and Daji were playing in the woods, and suddenly a bolt of lightning struck a tree. After the tree was split, it caught fire. There were many ants crawling from one end of the tree to the other. Some ants fell from the trunk and fell into the fire, perhaps because they couldn't stand the heat. King Zhou did not find it interesting, but Daji came up with the command of "the punishment of burning with fire" from this scene.
This idea of Daji aroused the curiosity of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, and then he ordered Youhun to supervise the production of the torture instruments of the cannon and ironing pillars: first make a hollow pillar of copper, strip the prisoner naked and tie him to the pillar, and then tie the prisoner to the pillar. Red-hot coals were put into the copper pillars to execute the prisoners. In order to increase the fun and appreciation, King Zhou of Shang Dynasty also had stricter requirements for the cannons and pillars, and even asked the prisoners to die slower. The first is to make the prisoners crawl naked like ants through the red flaming copper pillars, and make the prisoners scream loudly, hoping for life but not death. The second is to tie the naked prisoner to a copper pillar, then heat and burn it with charcoal fire until the prisoner is cooked and the smell of human flesh is emitted.
BIgan Dixin
The performance of King Zhou of Shang when he first came to power can be regarded as a wise monarch. He personally led an army to conquer Xu Yi, charging and killing on the battlefield, and was extremely brave. Chief Xu Yi was so frightened that he tied his hands behind his back, held the national treasure jade in his mouth, wore mourning clothes, and pulled a coffin to surrender to King Zhou. King Zhou led his army to fight all the way to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Dongyi tribes surrendered one after another.
When King Zhou returned in triumph, Bigan and his civil and military ministers walked dozens of miles to greet him. The folk song at that time even sang: King Zhou's country is as big as an iron barrel. But soon King Zhou became corrupted. He built a lot of construction projects, forced slaves to build palaces for him, and also built a tall star-catching tower, where he spent the whole day with beautiful women and fine wine, singing in the morning and dancing every night. From then on, the capital of the Shang Dynasty was renamed "Chaoge".
Bigan saw the scene where King Zhou and Daji of Shang were harming others for fun. He was so angry that he trembled all over. He said to himself, "I am the emperor's uncle, and I am strong in admonishing the king." He walked quickly to King Zhou and bluntly pointed out his mistakes. , and requested that Daji be beheaded and the whole family die! King Zhou sat there angrily without saying a word. Bigan continued: "At the time of King Tang, there was a great disaster in the world, and people died of hunger on the road. King Tang got out of the car and caressed the corpse and cried, blaming himself for his immorality. He immediately opened a warehouse to help the poor, so that the hungry were fed, and the cold were clothed. Praise. What you did today is contrary to the benevolent government of the late king. If you don't repent, the world will be in danger!" After hearing this, King Zhou walked away in anger.
Bigan returned home and invited Jizi and Weizi to discuss and let them give advice to King Zhou. The next day, Jizi went to persuade King Zhou, but King Zhou cut off Jizi's hair and imprisoned him. Weizi remonstrated, but King Zhou still refused to listen, so Weizi had no choice but to carry his ancestors' sacrificial vessels and flee away from home. Minister Xinjia remonstrated seventy-five times, but King Zhou did not change at all, so he defected to King Wen of Zhou..
King Zhou of Shang soon fell into a hopeless situation and was alienated from his relatives, but Bigan still felt that a minister could not just leave like Weizi. Even if he beheaded and had his heart removed, he had to fight hard and enter the palace for three consecutive days. Criticize King Zhou for his mistakes. King Zhou of Shang Dynasty was speechless after being criticized by Bigan, and asked angrily: "Why do you insist on it like this?" Bigan said: "A king has his critics, his father has his sons, and his officials have their friends. As ministers, they advance and retreat. You have your own great righteousness!" King Zhou asked again: "What is great righteousness?" Bigan replied: "If Xia Jie does not practice benevolent government, he will lose the world. My king also imitates this unruly king. Isn't he afraid of losing the world? "Is it true that I am admonishing you today?"
King Zhou was furious when he heard this, so he said, "I heard that the heart of a saint has seven orifices, and there are many beliefs." After that, he ordered people to cut open Bi Gan's body. With his heart in his chest, Bigan showed no fear and died generously. Jizi was frightened when he saw this, so he pretended to be crazy and became a slave. When King Zhou of Shang knew about it, he imprisoned Jizi again. The grand masters and young masters of Yin State took the sacrificial vessels and musical instruments and fled to Zhou State .
Imprisoned XibohouJi Chang
At that time, King Zhou of Shang valued Ji Chang, Jiuhou and Ehou and named them the Three Dukes. Jiu Hou had a beautiful daughter who married King Zhou of Shang, but she was more upright and disliked lewdness. King Zhou of Shang was furious and killed her, and at the same time, Jiu Hou was also tortured and chopped into minced meat. The Marquis of E strongly remonstrated and argued fiercely with King Zhou of Shang. As a result, the King of Shang Zhou became furious and the Marquis of E was also beheaded and made into dried meat. King Zhou of Shang was so dissolute that the people resented him and some princes betrayed him, so he increased the punishment and arrested many people who opposed him and had them burned at the stake.
Ji Chang sighed secretly when he heard this. Chonghou Hu learned that he reported Ji Chang to King Zhou of Shang, and King Zhou of Shang imprisoned Ji Chang in Youli. Ji Chang's ministers Hong Yao and others brought beautiful women, rare objects and fine horses to the Shang King, and the Shang King released him. After Ji Chang was released, he offered a piece of land west of Luoshui to King Zhou of Shang Dynasty and requested that the punishment of cannon grid be abolished. King Zhou of Shang agreed to him and gave Jichang a bow, arrow and axe, so that he could conquer other princes. In this way, he became the leader of the princes in the western region, namely Xibo Chang.
At that time, King Zhou of Shang appointed Fei Zhong to manage national affairs. Fei Zhong was good at flattery and greedy for wealth, so no one in Yin State was close to Shang. King Zhou of Shang also appointed Wei Lai, who was good at slander and was fond of slander. As a result, the princes became more and more alienated from Shang.
After Xibohou returned to China, he secretly cultivated his virtues and implemented good governance. Many princes betrayed King Zhou of Shang and came to submit to Xibohou. Xibohou became more powerful, and King Zhou of Shang gradually lost his power.
King Zhou of Shang committed suicide
King Zhou of Shang was tyrannical and many people rebelled against their relatives. Minister Zu Yi listened to the advice: "Son of Heaven! God has cut off the longevity of our Yin Kingdom. No matter it is predicted by those who can know the good or bad fortune of the sky, or it is predicted by a big tortoise. There are no good signs in the divination. I think it’s not that the late king didn’t help our descendants, but that you, the great king, were so licentious and violent that you destroyed yourself from heaven. That’s why God abandoned us and left us with no food to eat, and you didn’t understand God’s will. And they don't follow the normal laws. Nowadays, the people in our country don't want the Yin Kingdom to perish early. They say: "Why hasn't God shown your power? Why hasn't the order to destroy Zhou come yet?" What do you want to do now? ?"
King Zhou of Shang said: "My life is not in heaven, so why worry!" Zuyi retorted: "Alas! You have many faults, you are lazy and aloof, how can you pray to heaven for your life? is about to perish. If you want to guide your political affairs, you must work hard for your country." After Zuyi returned, he said: "Zhou can no longer persuade him!"
After the death of Xibo Chang, King Wu of Zhou led his army to the east. During the alliance with Jin, the princes betrayed Emperor Xin and came to join forces with King Wu of eight hundred countries. The princes all said: "It's time to attack Zhou!" King Wu of Zhou said: "You don't understand the destiny of heaven." So he returned to his country with his troops.
In the thirtieth year of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, King Wu of Zhou took the oath of Mengjin. King Zhou of Shang sent troops to resist in Muye. As a result, King Zhou's generals turned against him and his army was defeated. King Zhou of Shang fled to Lutai, put on his jade clothes, ran into the fire and burned himself to death. King Wu of Zhou arrived, cut off his head, and hung it on a white flag pole to show the public.
After the death of King Zhou of Shang, King Wu of Zhou executed Daji again, released Jizi, repaired Bigan's tomb, commended Shang Rong's lanes, let King Zhou's son Wu Geng succeed to the throne, and ordered him to implement Pan Geng 's virtue policy. After that, Yin and Shang became a vassal state of Zhou. After King Cheng of Zhou came to the throne, Wu Geng was killed because of his rebellion with Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai . Zhou changed the title of Wei Zi to the Song Dynasty to continue the descendants of Yin.
