Jiang Tai Gong Fishing

After the death of Pan Geng, eleven kings were passed on, the last one was called Zhou (pronounced zhòu) Zhou turned out to be a rather intelligent and courageous man. In his early years, he led his troops in a long war with the Eastern barbarians. He was very talented militarily and won a hundred battles in the battle, eventually pacifying the Eastern barbarians and spreading the culture of the Shang Dynasty to the Huai and Yangtze River valleys. In this case, Shang Zhou played a certain role. But during the long war, consumption was also great, which increased the burden on the people of the Shang Dynasty, and the people's suffering became deeper and deeper.

Zhou, like Xia Jie, only knew how to enjoy himself and did not care about the people's death. He built a magnificent "Deer Terrace" in his capital Charge (today's Qi County, Henan Province) to store all the gold, silver, and treasures he had scavenged; he also built a huge warehouse called "Juiqiao" to store the exploited grain. He poured wine into a pool and hung meat like a forest. He lived a life of luxury with his favorite Daji. He also used various cruel punishments to suppress the people. Whenever the vassals betrayed him or the people opposed him, he caught them and roasted them on a red bronze pole. This punishment was called "cannon branding" (pronounced luò).

Zhou's brutal behavior accelerated the fall of the Shang Dynasty. At this time, a tribe in the west was flourishing day by day, and that was the Zhou.

Zhou was an ancient tribe. At the end of the Xia Dynasty, this tribe was active in the area of Shaanxi and Gansu now. Later, because of the invasion of nomadic tribes such as Rong and Di, the leader of the Zhou tribe, Gu Gong Dan Bu (Dan yin dǎn), led the Zhou people to settle in the plains under Qishan (northeast of Qishan County in Shaanxi).

By the time the grandson of Gugong Danbury, Ji Chang (later called King Wen of Zhou), succeeded to the throne, the Zhou tribe was already very powerful. King Wen of Zhou was an able politician. His life was just the opposite of King Zhou's. King Zhou liked to drink, hunt, and punish his people indiscriminately. King Wen of Zhou forbade drinking and forbade the nobles to hunt and spoil the crops. He encouraged the people to raise more cattle and sheep and grow more food. He also received some talented people with an open mind, so some talented people came to join him.The Zhou tribe became powerful and was a great threat to the Shang Dynasty. A minister, Chong Houhu, spoke ill of King Wen of Zhou in front of King Zhou, saying that his influence was too great and that it would be bad for the Shang Dynasty if things went on like this.

King Zhou gave an order to take King Wen of Zhou into custody and imprison him in the place of Pei Li (in the area of present-day Tangyin County, Henan Province, Yǒu). The nobles of the Zhou tribe offered many beautiful women, horses, and other treasures to King Zhou, and sent many gifts to King Zhou's close ministers.

When King Zhou saw the beautiful women and treasures, he was so happy that he smiled and said, "Just one of them alone can ransom Ji Chang." Immediately, King Wen of Zhou was released.

Seeing that King Zhou was lethargic and brutal and had lost the hearts of the people, King Wen of Zhou decided to crush the Shang Dynasty. However, he lacked a person with military skills to help him command the battle. He secretly tried to find such a person.

One day, King Wen of Zhou, in his chariot, took his son and his soldiers to the northern bank of the Wei River for a hunting trip. At the Wei River, he saw an old man sitting on the bank of the river, fishing. When a large group of men passed by, the old man just ignored him and continued to fish quietly. When King Wen saw this, he got out of his car, went to the old man, and talked to him.

After some conversation, he learned that his name was Jiang Shang (also called Lv Shang, "Lv" being his ancestor's fiefdom), and he was an able man who was proficient in the art of war.

King Wen was very happy and said, "When my grandfather was alive, he once told me that there would be a great man who would help you to make the Zhou clan prosperous. You are just such a person. My grandfather has been looking forward to you for a long time." Having said that, he invited Jiang Shang to return to the palace with him.

The old man straightened his beard and followed King Wen to his car.

Because Jiang Shang was the man King Wen's grandfather had hoped for, he was later called Taigongwang; in folklore, he was called Jiang Taigong.