King You of Zhou

Template:Short description Template:Infobox royalty Template:Chinese King You of Zhou (795–771 BC), personal name Ji Gongsheng, was a king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty and the last from the Western Zhou dynasty. He reigned from 781 to 771 BC.

History

In 780 BC, a major earthquake struck Guanzhong. A soothsayer named Bo Yangfu (Template:Lang) considered this an omen foretelling the destruction of the Zhou Dynasty.

In 779 BC, a concubine named Bao Si entered the palace and came into the King You's favour. They had a son named Bofu.<ref>Revised Chinese Dictionary, Ministry of Education, Taiwan</ref> King You deposed Template:Ill and Crown Prince Yijiu. He made Bao Si the new queen and Bofu the new crown prince.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Queen Shen's father, the Marquess of Shen, was furious at the deposition of his daughter and grandson Crown Prince Yijiu and mounted an attack on King You's palace with the Quanrong. King You called for his nobles by lighting the warning beacons on Mount Li. However, according to the Records of the Grand Historian, he had falsely lit the beacons in the past to amuse Bao Si. So his previous abuse of the beacon system meant that no nobles responded to his now genuine call for support. In the resulting battle, King You and Bofu were killed and Bao Si was captured.<ref>Cambridge History of Ancient China,1999, pages 546 and 551</ref>

With the death of King You, nobles including the Marquess of Shen, the Marquess of Zeng (Template:Lang) and Template:Ill supported the deposed Prince Yijiu becoming King Ping of Zhou<ref>Bamboo Annals</ref> and so the Zhou Dynasty was able to continue. As the national capital Haojing had suffered severe damage, and was located near the potentially dangerous Quanrong, in 771 BC, King Ping of Zhou moved the capital eastward to Luoyang, thus beginning the Eastern Zhou dynasty and ushering in the Spring and Autumn period which would last for more than 300 years.<ref>Phương Thi Danh (2001), Niên biểu lịch sử Trung Quốc</ref>

In literature

In the traditional Mao Commentary to the Classic of Poetry, the minor court hymn "Gather the Beans" (Template:Zhi) is said to be a criticism of King You for squandering feudal lords' respect and humiliating them.<ref>Classic of Poetry, Minor Court-Hymns, Decade of Sang Hu, "Gather the Beans"</ref><ref>Mao Chang (毛萇) (?) / Mao Heng (毛亨) (?), Zheng Xuan (鄭玄), Duan Yucai (段玉裁), 毛詩故訓傳定本 (Maoshi guxun zhuan dingben) "vol. 6"; p. 179 of 208, quote: (Template:Langn) </ref> Even so, this interpretation is disputed.Template:Cn

The Records of the Grand Historian states that Bao Si did not laugh easily. After trying many methods and failing, King You tried to amuse his favourite queen by lighting warning beacons and fooling his nobles into thinking that the Quanrong nomads were about to attack. The nobles arrived at the castle only to find Bao Si laughing at them for being fooled by the lit beacons. Even after King You had impressed Bao Si, he continued to misuse the warning beacons and lost the trust of the nobles.<ref>Sima Qian, Shiji, "Basic Annals of Zhou"; quote: (Template:Langn).</ref><ref>Template:Cite book Chapter 1</ref> The earliest warning beacons appeared in the Han dynasty, so this story is considered to be fabricated. According to the Xinian, as recorded in the excavated Tsinghua Bamboo Slips, King You of Zhou attacked the Marquess of Shen, who allied with the Quanrong to defeat the royal army.

Family

Queens:

• Queen Shen, of the Jiang clan of Shen (Template:Lang), a daughter of the Marquess of Shen and the mother of Crown Prince Yijiu.

Concubines:

• Bao Si, of the Du lineage of the Qi clan of Bao (791–771 BC), a daughter of Du Bo; married in 779 BC; the mother of Crown Prince Bofu.

Sons:

• Crown Prince Yijiu (Template:Lang; d. 720 BC), ruled as King Ping of Zhou from 770 to 720 BC
• Crown Prince Bofu (779–771 BC)

See also

• Family tree of Chinese monarchs (ancient)