| Jiang Ziya 姜子牙 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jiang Ziya's portrait in theSancai Tuhui | |||||||||||||
| Duke ofQi | |||||||||||||
| Reign | 11th century BC | ||||||||||||
| Predecessor | None (Dynasty established) | ||||||||||||
| Successor | Duke Ding | ||||||||||||
| Born | 1128 BC | ||||||||||||
| Died | 1015 BC (aged 113) | ||||||||||||
| Spouse | Shen Jiang | ||||||||||||
| Issue | Duke Ding Yi Jiang | ||||||||||||
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| House | Jiang | ||||||||||||
| Dynasty | Jiang Qi | ||||||||||||
| Jiang Ziya | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 姜子牙 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Jiāng Zǐyá | ||||||||||||
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| Jiang Shang | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 姜尚 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Jiāng Shàng | ||||||||||||
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| Lü Shang | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 呂尚 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 吕尚 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Lǚ Shàng | ||||||||||||
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| Shangfu | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 尚父 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Shàngfù | ||||||||||||
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| Master Shangfu | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 师尚父 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Shī Shàngfù | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Master Shangfu | ||||||||||||
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| Titles | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Duke of Qi | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 齊太公 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 齐太公 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Qí Tài Gōng | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Grand Duke Jiang | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 姜太公 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Jiāng Tài Gōng | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Grand Duke Wang | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 太公望 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Tài Gōng Wàng | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Lü Wang | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 呂望 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 吕望 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Lǚ Wàng | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Jiang Ziya (fl. 12th century BC – 11th century BC), also known byseveral other names, was the founding monarch of theQi state.
He was a military general and strategist who assistedKing Wen of Zhou andKing Wu of Zhou overthrow theShang dynasty and establish theZhou dynasty. Following their victory in theBattle of Muye, he continued to serve as a Zhou minister. He remained loyal to the regentJi Dan (Duke Wen of Zhou) during theRebellion of the Three Guards; following the Ji Dan's punitive raids against the restiveDongyi, Jiang was enfeoffed with the land of Qi. He established his seat atYingqiu (in modern-dayLinzi,Zibo,Shandong).
He has been worshipped as a war god since the Han and, especially, Tang dynasties. He is also celebrated in Chinese literature, and is one of the main heroes in the Ming-eraInvestiture of the Gods.
The first ruler ofQi bore thegiven nameShang. The nobility of ancient China bore twosurnames, anancestral temple surname and alineage surname. His wereJiang (姜) andLü (呂), respectively. He had twocourtesy names,Shangfu (尚父; "Esteemed Father") andZiya (子牙; lit. "MasterIvory, MasterTusk"), which were used for respectful address by his peers. The names Jiang Shang and Jiang Ziya became the most common after their use in the popularMing-eranovelFengshen Bang, written over 2,500 years after his death.[1]
Following the elevation of Qi to aduchy, he was given theposthumous name齊太公Grand orGreat Lordof Qi, sometimes left untranslated as "Duke Tai". It is under this name that he appears inSima Qian'sRecords of the Grand Historian.[2][3] He is also less often known as "Grand Lord Jiang" (姜太公; Jiang Taigong), Taigong Wang (太公望), and the "Hoped-for Lü" (Lü Wang;呂望).[1] as Jiang Ziya was seen as the sage – whomKing Wen of Zhou's ancestor Revered Uncle Ancestor Lei (公叔祖類) (also titled 太公 "Great ~ Grand Lord") had prophesied about and hoped for – to help the Zhou prosper.[4]
The last ruler of the Shang dynasty,King Zhou of Shang, was a tyrant who spent his days with his favorite concubineDaji and executing or punishing officials. After faithfully serving the Shang court for approximately twenty years, Jiang came to find King Zhou insufferable, and feigned madness in order to escape court life and the ruler's power. Jiang was an expert in military affairs and hoped that someday someone would call on him to help overthrow the king. Jiang disappeared, only to resurface in the Zhou countryside at the apocryphal age of seventy-two, when he was recruited by King Wen of Zhou and became instrumental in Zhou affairs.[5] It is said that, while in exile, he continued to wait placidly, fishing in a tributary of theWei River (near today'sXi'an) using a barbless hook or even no hook at all, on the theory that the fish would come to him of their own volition when they were ready.[6]
According to legend, Jiang Ziya was born into a poor family who left him in the wild to die, but animals cared for him and kept him alive until a noble woman found him. She gave the boy the name Ziya and raised him as her son. By the age of ten, he had already mastered mystical arts, and at eighteen, he set off in search of a master. On the journey, he met a celestial being who told him that his place was not with the immortals. Instead, his destiny was to end the cruel reign of the Shang. Thus, Jiang Ziya returned home to fulfill his destiny.[7]
King Wen of Zhou, (central Shaanxi), found Jiang Ziya fishing. King Wen, following the advice of his father and grandfather before him, was in search of talented people. In fact, he had been told by his grandfather, the Grand Duke of Zhou, that one day a sage would appear to help rule the Zhou state.
The first meeting between King Wen and Jiang Ziya is recorded in the book that records Jiang's teachings to King Wen and King Wu, theSix Secret Teachings (太公六韜). The meeting was recorded as being characterized by a mythic aura common to meetings between great historical figures in ancient China.[5] Before going hunting, King Wen consulted his chief scribe to perform divination in order to discover if the king would be successful. The divinations revealed that, "'While hunting on the north bank of the Wei river you will get a great catch. It will not be any form of dragon, nor a tiger or great bear. According to the signs, you will find a duke or marquis there whom Heaven has sent to be your teacher. If employed as your assistant, you will flourish and the benefits will extend to three generations of Zhou Kings.'" Recognizing that the result of this divination was similar to the result of divinations given to his eldest ancestor, King Wen observed a vegetarian diet for three days in order to spiritually purify himself for the meeting. While on the hunt, King Wen encountered Jiang fishing on a grass mat, and courteously began a conversation with him concerning military tactics and statecraft.[8] The subsequent conversation between Jiang Ziya and King Wen forms the basis of the text in theSix Secret Teachings.
When King Wen met Jiang Ziya, at first sight he felt that this was an unusual old man who is angling with astraight hook hanging out of water, and began to converse with him. He discovered that this white-haired fisherman was actually an astute political thinker and military strategist. This, he felt, must be the man his grandfather was waiting for. He took Jiang Ziya in his coach to the court and appointed him prime minister and gave him the title Jiang Taigong Wang ("The Great Duke's Hope", or "The expected of the Great Duke") in reference to a prophetic dream Danfu, grandfather of Wenwang, had had many years before. This was later shortened to Jiang Taigong. King Wu married Jiang Ziya's daughter Yi Jiang, who bore him several sons.
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After King Wen died, his sonKing Wu, who inherited the throne, decided to send troops to overthrow the King of Shang. But Jiang Taigong stopped him, saying: "While I was fishing at Panxi, I realised one truth – if you want to succeed you need to be patient. We must wait for the appropriate opportunity to eliminate the King of Shang". Soon it was reported that the people of Shang were so oppressed that no one dared speak. King Wu and Jiang Taigong decided this was the time to attack, for the people had lost faith in the ruler. The bloodyBattle of Muye then ensued some 35 kilometres from the Shang capitalYin (modern day Anyang, Henan Province).
Jiang Taigong charged at the head of the troops, beat thebattle drums and then with 100 of his men drew the Shang troops to the southwest. King Wu's troops moved quickly and surrounded the capital. The Shang King had sent relatively untrained slaves to fight. This, plus the fact that many surrendered or revolted, enabled Zhou to take the capital.
King Zhou set fire to his palace and perished in it, and King Wu and his successors as the Zhou dynasty established rule over all of China. As for Daji, one version has it that she was captured and executed by the order of Jiang Taigong himself, another that she took her own life, another that she was killed by King Zhou. Jiang Taigong was made duke of theState of Qi (today'sShandong province), which thrived with better communications and usage of its fish and salt resources under him.
As the most notable prime minister employed by King Wen and King Wu, he was declared "the master of strategy"—resulting in the Zhou government growing far stronger than that of the Shang dynasty as the years elapsed.
An account of Jiang Ziya's life written long after his time says he held that a country could become powerful only when the people prospered. If the officials enriched themselves while the people remained poor, the ruler would not last long. The major principle in ruling a country should be to love the people; and to love the people meant to reduce taxes and corvée labour. By following these ideas, King Wen is said to have made the Zhou state prosper very rapidly.
Histreatise on military strategy,Six Secret Strategic Teachings, is considered one of theSeven Military Classics of Ancient China.
In theTang dynasty he was accorded his own state temple as the martial patron and thereby attained officially sanctioned status approaching that ofConfucius.
Wives:
Sons:
Daughters:
His descendants acquired his personal nameShang as their surname.[9]
In the popular Ming-era novel Investiture of the Gods, Jiang Ziya is represented as a disciple of the Kunlun sect practicing Chan Taoism. Aside from fortune-telling, he is able to perform supernatural feats such as mounting clouds,[10] using his internal energy to breathe out a divine fire from his mouth,[11] releasing thunder[11] and lightning[12] at will, creating illusions to conceal the presence of an entire army,[13] and through the use of ritual and incantation, of summoning wind storms to carry away hundreds of refugees,[10] of bringing about snow in order to freeze the Shang army encamped in a mountain valley,[14] and of conjuring a barrier made of the water of the North Sea in order to protect the Zhou capital.[15]
He is ruthless with his enemies, usually executing captive generals from the Shang side, but is loyal to the Zhou cause. When outmatched by another wielder of supernatural powers, Zhao Gongming, he employs underhanded means on the advice of another thaumaturge named Lu Ya, employing a voodoo-like ritual involving building a straw effigy of his rival which is later shot at with arrows, leading to Zhao's death.[16]
Jiang Ziya has been revered as a god in temples throughout China since the Han dynasty. The height of his worship as a war god occurred under the reign ofEmperor Xuanzong of Tang, when Jiang was to be worshipped by candidates for military examination, and by generals before and after victory in military campaigns.[17]
InChinese andTaoist belief, Jiang Ziya is sometimes considered to have been a Taoist adept. In onelegend, he used the knowledge he gained atKunlun to defeat the Shang's supernatural protectorsQianliyan andShunfeng'er, by using magic and invocations.[18] He is also a prominent character in the Ming-eraInvestiture of the Gods, in which he is Daji's archrival and is personally responsible for her execution. The storyline present throughout the novel revolves around the fate of Jiang Ziya. He is destined to deify the souls of both humans and immortals who die in battle using the "List of Creation" (Fengshen bang, 封神榜), an index of preordained names agreed upon at the beginning of time by the leaders of the three religions. This list is housed in the "Terrace of Creation" (Fengshen tai, 封神臺), a reed pavilion in which the souls of the deceased are gathered to await their apotheosis. In the end, after defeating the Shang forces, Jiang deifies a total of 365 major gods, along with thousands of lesser gods, representing a wide range of domains, from holy mountains, weather, and plagues to constellations, the cyclical nature of time, and the five elements.
There are twoxiehouyu about him:
Liexian Zhuan, a book on Taoist immortals, contains his short legendary biography:
呂尚者冀州人也。
生而內智，預見[or 豫知]存亡。
避紂之亂，隱於遼東四[or 三]十年。
適西周，匿於南山，釣於溪[or 磻溪, or 卞谿]。
三年不獲魚，比閭皆曰：「可以止矣。」
尚曰：「非爾所及也。」
已而，果得大鯉，有兵鈐在腹中。
文王夢得聖人，聞尚，遂載而歸。
至武王伐紂，尚作陰謀百餘篇。
服澤芝地衣石髓[or 澤芝地髓]，
具二百年而告亡。
有難而不葬。
後子葬之，無屍，
唯有《玉鈐》六篇在棺中云。
呂尚隱釣，瑞得赬鱗。
通夢西伯，同乘入臣。
沈謀籍世，芝體煉身。
遠代所稱，美哉天人。
Lü Shang was fromJizhou.
Born with inherent wisdom, he could foresee life and death.
Avoiding the chaos ofking Zhou, he has been hiding inLiaodong for 40 [or 30] years.
Then atWestern Zhou he fled toNanshan, and fished in mountain creeks [or inPanxi, or in Bianxi].
For three years he hadn't caught any fish, and the villagers told him, "You maybe should stop".
But he said: "That's not what you can understand".
And after a while, he finally caught a large carp with a military book in its belly.
King Wen saw a sage in a dream, and then heard of Lü Shang, and ordered to bring him [to the Court].
And then, whenking Wu foughtking Zhou, Lü Shang suggested more than 100 military gimmicks.
He consumedzézhī lotus, lichen and rock-marrow [orzézhī lotus and earth-marrow],
lived two hundred years, and thenannounced his death.
Due to the difficulties, he wasn't buried.
His descendants buried him with no corpse,
onlySix Chapters of Jade Tactics were placed to the coffin.
Lü Shang hid and fished, blessed with pale-red scales.
Passed in a dream ofLord Zhou, and was carried to him to become a minister.
He carefully planned his years, refined his body with lotus.
For generations it'll be said, "Oh, beautiful saint!"
The story was Jiang Taigong (Jiang Ziya, a historical figure) went fishing, but he only used a hook without any bait at all. According to Jiang's philosophy, bait was unnecessary. "If the fish wants to be caught, the fish will get itself hooked voluntarily."
Duke Tai of Qi | ||
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| New creation | Ruler ofQi 11th century BC | Succeeded by |
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