Taken together, it is indeed unfair to say that King Zhou of Yin was a tyrant. This injustice that has lasted for thousands of years should indeed be vindicated. ?

Looking at King Zhou from the prison of King Wen. The imprisonment of King Wen has always been regarded as a major crime of King Zhou's cruelty. How was King Wen imprisoned? The accounts in "Historical Records" and "Historical Records", "Jinlouzi", and "Lu Shi Chunqiu" are all contradictory. We cannot decide which statement is true or reliable. I am not going to verify which statement is correct here. I only follow the more common saying that King Wen was imprisoned in Youli instead of pardoned. What did King Wen do while he was in prison? Write a book. King Wen wrote the Book of Changes. It shows that King Wen did not suffer too much physical and mental torture. Otherwise, he would not calm down and write a book. Moreover, the Zhou people did not publicize how King Wen was mistreated in prison. If King Wen was really mistreated, the Zhou people would not give up the opportunity to attack King Zhou. From this point of view, is King Zhou cruel? "The Shang Dynasty wanted to deal with Dongyi with all its strength, and in order to stabilize the rear, it released him." ("Ancient Chinese History") After King Wen was released from prison, King Zhou "killed the cow and gave it to him." ("Huainan Hong Lie Jie Twelve") King Zhou hosted a banquet for King Wen, and said to King Wen without guilt that the person who is suing you is a man with a long nose and sharp ears. King Wen said that this was the image of Chonghou Tiger. As a king, it seems childish and ridiculous to even tell the defendant who repaid him. Later, in order to stabilize the west, King Zhou relied on King Wen and gave him bows, arrows, axes and axes, allowing him to gain the power of conquest and contribute to the consolidation of Yin's rear. In order to justify his name, Zhou named King Wen the Count of the West. There are different opinions on why King Zhou imprisoned King Wen, and there are conflicting opinions on whether he imprisoned King Wen or not. In this regard, we will have many questions. To take a step back, King Zhou imprisoned King Wen. How can we see the cruelty of King Zhou to King Wen? After releasing King Wen, King Zhou gave him cattle and gave him banquets. He also explained the reasons for his imprisonment without guilt, authorized him, and granted him official titles. The honest, enthusiastic and lovely image of King Zhou emerges vividly on the page. King Zhou had affection, trust and hope for King Wen. Even after King Wen obtained the power of conquest, he attacked Quan Rong, attacked Mi Xu, defeated the country of Qi (i.e. Li), attacked Han, and attacked Chong, King Zhou did not suspect that he had other plans. This also caused great dissatisfaction among the ministers against Zhou. The fact is that King Wen used King Zhou's trust in him to complete the strategic encirclement of King Zhou and laid a solid foundation for the destruction of Zhou. Here we cannot see the cruelty of King Zhou, but we can see the injustice of King Wen. ?

Looking at King Zhou from Boyi Touzhou Boyi Shuqi was a famous sage in ancient China. Mencius called them the holy and pure ones. The ancients have many records of Boyi and Shuqi defecting to Zhou. But few people mentioned what happened after they arrived in Zhou Dynasty. "Lu Shi Chun Qiu Cheng Lian" records: Boyi and Shu Qi defected to the Western Zhou Dynasty when they heard that the Western Zhou Dynasty was "righteous". By the time they arrived in the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Wen had died and King Wu was in power. They deeply observed the moral customs of the Western Zhou Dynasty and found that King Wu sent Shudan to instigate King Zhou's high-ranking official Jiao Ge, and signed an alliance in triplicate on the condition of "getting richer to the third level and getting an official rank". One part was treated with the blood of the sacrifice and buried in the four houses, and then each took one part and returned home. He also sent Duke Zhao to incite rebellion against Wei Zikai, and signed an alliance on the condition that he would be the chief lord from generation to generation and give the two places of Sanglin and Mengzhu to Wei Zi. In triplicate, "The blood was sacrificed, one was buried under the head, and all returned together." After hearing these things, Boyi and Shuqi looked at each other and smiled and said: Xi! Strange! This is not the "Tao" we are pursuing. In the past, when Shennong was in power, he offered sacrifices from time to time, but did not pray for himself. To the public, he is loyal and responsible, but does not ask for anything. King Wu used this method to deal with the Yin State, which was to "replace chaos with violence". .Now the world is dark and Zhou De is in decline. It is better to avoid them and keep oneself clean than to mess around in the Zhou Dynasty and sully oneself. So they lived in seclusion. "Historical Records·Biography of Boyi" says: King Wu Zaimu led King Wen to attack Zhou in the east. "Bo Yi's uncle Qi knocked on his horse and admonished him: 'If my father dies but is not buried, and our love goes to war, can we call it filial piety? Is it benevolent to kill the king with his ministers?'" Boyi's accusation against King Wu was severe, saying that he was unkind and unfilial. Although Boyi had objections to King Zhou, he recognized that King Zhou was still qualified as a king and called him a king. It is believed that the Wu Kings are more morally corrupt, and to do anything with them is to defile themselves. After King Wu destroyed Yin, Boyi and Shuqi were ashamed of it and refused to eat Zhou millet. They hid in Shouyang Mountain and ate weeds. Later, he died of starvation in Shouyang Mountain. A great sage did not hesitate to die to fight against King Wu's attack on Zhou, which shows the extent of the injustice of King Wu's attack on Zhou. It is a pity that this shocking and shocking feat did not attract widespread attention from people, nor did it attract much attention from the academic community. How pathetic! What a shame! The death of the "Holy Pure One" was in vain. Boyi Shuqi's words and deeds are representative, authoritative and reliable. We should learn something from this. ?

Look at King Zhou from his conquest of Dongyi. War can plunder property to enrich oneself. Why did King Zhou lose a lot of property in his conquest of Dongyi? It can be seen that he did not "plunder" the property there to enrich himself, but paid all the expenses himself, and perhaps subsidized the place to a certain extent. The saying "Every time King Zhou defeated a country, he would plunder all the property there" can be put to rest. King Zhou did not conquer Dongyi with the purpose of plundering property, nor did he use pure force to suppress them. He used the method of conquest plus appeasement, so Dong Zuobin used the word "conquest and appeasement". If Dongyi comes to cause trouble, I will conquer you. He also regarded the Dongyi people as his own people and comforted them. And he sent 150,000 Yin people to assimilate with them, so that they could completely integrate with themselves. How can we say that King Zhou was cruel? This is the reason why King Zhou of Yin "conquered" Dongyi and the Dongyi people "subdued".

This is why Dongyi never rebelled against Yin. This is also the reason why the Dongyi people rebelled against the Zhou Dynasty after the death of Yin, and even rebelled against the Zhou Dynasty multiple times. King Zhou's army that conquered Dongyi never surrendered to the Zhou people, so where did they go? King Zhou's 100,000-strong Eastern Expedition army became homeless wanderers overnight. There were two paths before them: either surrender to the Zhou people and suffer a disastrous fate. Or flee overseas, and the fate is not optimistic. They chose the path of risking their lives to go to sea rather than surrender to the Zhou people. According to expert research, some of them arrived in America and settled there. These are today's Indians. Regarding the issue of the Yin people's eastward journey, Chinese and foreign experts have long discussed it, and underground cultural relics have also proved it. Indians have passed down from generation to generation that they arrived in America from the Kingdom of Heaven via Tianzhi Floating Bridge Island three thousand years ago. Their ancestors were Yin people. King Zhou's Eastern Expedition army would rather risk their lives to find a new life than surrender to the Zhou people. What does it mean? It shows that they are loyal to the State of Yin and King Zhou. Otherwise, they could surrender, disperse, and fend for themselves, so why risk their lives and go to sea collectively? If King Zhou was cruel, would the army be loyal to a cruel person under such circumstances? If King Wu is kind and loving, why don't these armies rush to those who love them, and would rather die in the sea than surrender to King Wu? "The Oath of Shepherd" is King Wu's oath to defeat Zhou. It collects all of King Zhou's sins. "The Oath of Shepherd" points out the three major sins of King Zhou:?

1. Listening to women. We say that men and women are equal, and women hold up half the sky. Why can’t women listen to what they say? Why is it a sin to listen to a woman? The idea that a family will fall when the hen crows is completely wrong. This article is not only not King Zhou's fault, but shows that King Zhou's thoughts have progressed and his concepts have been updated. Not only does he no longer regard women as a disaster and discriminate against them, but he also adopts their correct opinions. This is a good thing, an advantage, and fundamental. Not a sin. In turn, it just proves that King Wu's thinking is backward. ?

2. Do not sacrifice to ancestors and God. The people of Yin believed in ghosts and gods, but King Zhou had a weak concept of ghosts and gods, and did not offer sacrifices to ghosts and gods on time enough. Therefore, King Wu also criticized King Zhou. Today, this is not a sin, it is also a kind of progress. If people do not doubt ghosts and gods, and do not give up on ghosts and gods, how can science develop and how can society progress? King Wu's accusation against King Zhou was also wrong. 3. Use escaped slaves from all over the country instead of brothers from the same clan. In a slave society, slaves are not regarded as human beings, but as property. They can be beaten, scolded, bought, sold, killed, and given away at will. It is a great thing that King Zhou of Yin can use slaves. In particular, he respected, promoted, trusted and reused many escaped slaves from all over the world. It would be even more remarkable to appoint these people as officials such as ministers and scholar-bureaucrats. King Zhou of Yin was really the first person to free slaves. King Wu also accused these liberated slaves and official slaves of treating "the common people" cruelly, and arbitrarily breaking laws and causing chaos in Shang's country. There is a concept that needs to be clarified here. The "common people" here are not what we call common people today. Fan Wenlan said in "Compendium of General History of China" that in the Shang Dynasty, "obviously, the common people were aristocrats." The liberated slaves "willfully violated the law and caused chaos" and "treated cruelly" the slave-owning aristocrats. This is a great thing, a kind of **. Undoubtedly, this harmed the interests of the nobles and would inevitably arouse strong opposition from the nobles. Appointing slaves to serve as officials naturally affected slave owners and brothers from the same clan to serve as officials. Therefore, the slave-owning nobles and brothers of the same clan all opposed King Zhou. This struggle between advanced and backward, reform and conservatism is carried out vigorously. King Wu stood completely on the side of the old conservative forces and accused King Zhou. This is also wrong. Some people say that King Zhou of the Yin Dynasty "rebelled and separated from relatives". This may be because King Zhou liberated the slaves and harmed the interests of the slave-owning nobles. Therefore, the slave owners "rebelled". King Zhou appointed slaves as officials and did not use nepotism, so he "disconnected from relatives". . If Boyi looked at the situation in Yin from the perspective of a slave-owning aristocracy and the reforms of King Zhou of Yin, he would be "chaotic", "cruel" and "dark". From today's perspective, none of the accusations against King Zhou in "The Oath of Shepherd" were sins. On the contrary, they proved that King Zhou's thinking was progressive and advanced. This is achievement and merit. Why did King Wu accuse King Zhou so much? The purpose is to encourage all people to oppose King Zhou. Science was underdeveloped at that time, and people were superstitious about ghosts and gods. King Wu accused King Zhou of treating ghosts and gods indiscriminately, achieving his purpose of mobilizing the masses to oppose King Zhou. King Zhou of Yin liberated slaves and even made slaves high-ranking officials. Therefore, many slaves from small countries came to Yin. As long as they worked hard, King Zhou would trust him. In order to win over some small countries, King Wen went against King Zhou and vigorously promoted that slaves had to be captured even if they ran to the horizon. Countries are not allowed to take in slaves from other countries. King Zhou did not listen to this and took in slaves from other countries. King Wu's attack on King Zhou's slave policy would inevitably gain the support of slave owners in other small countries, who would follow him in their rebellion against Zhou. King Wu attacked King Zhou's employment policy, thus gaining the support of the Yin slave owners, who also followed King Wu to rebel against Zhou. ?

Look at King Zhou from the reasons why King Zhou Muye was defeated. So, why did King Zhou fail in the battle between Muye? There are many reasons. "Zuo Zhuan·Xuan Gong": Relying on talent and following the crowd is the way to death. Shang Zhou followed it and was destroyed. Meaning: King Zhou relied on his own talents and powerful strength, and was arrogant and arrogant, thinking that no one could do anything to him. So it perished. "Historical Records of the Yin Dynasty" says: Emperor Zhou was qualified to identify and protect quick diseases, and he was very sensitive in hearing and seeing: he had extraordinary physical strength and fierce and silent hands. King Zhou was indeed talented, but he also relied on his talent. Relying on talent will lead to arrogance.

Therefore, King Zhou also knew that he could distance himself from admonitions, and his words could cover up his faults; he respected people and ministers with their abilities, and raised the world with his voice, thinking that everyone was out of control. Yin is also a big country with advanced culture and rich materials. Therefore, King Zhou was even more proud. No one took him seriously, thinking that no one could do anything to him. Mencius believed that King Wu took advantage of a good opportunity to defeat Zhou. This year, the state of Zhou was suffering from famine, and the farmers were willing to go out to fight in order to obtain food. (See "Compendium of General History of China") The Yin Kingdom had an empty army and King Zhou was unprepared. Under such circumstances, the Zhou people quietly attacked. It is indeed a good time. ?

This time it took him three years to quell the rebellion. However, minor disturbances continued, and in the eighth year of his reign, Xu Yan staged another major rebellion. Moreover, King Zhou's army that conquered Dongyi never surrendered to the Zhou people, and some even risked their lives and fled overseas. From the perspective of this rebellion, there were both the original lands of Yin and the newly conquered eighteen Dongyi countries. In terms of the intensity of the resistance, it reached an almost unstoppable level, making the people of Zhou restless and uneasy. The Zhou people had no choice but to move and disperse them to weaken their power. The large number of people migrating, the vast area, and the long distances traveled are unprecedented in Chinese history and have never been achieved since. From the incident of the Yin survivors rebelling against the Zhou Dynasty, we can see that the Yin survivors rebelled against the Zhou Dynasty because of their nostalgia for Yin. The deeper the nostalgia, the stronger the resistance. The memory of Yin is actually the memory of King Zhou. It can be seen that it is wrong to say that King Zhou rebelled against his relatives and separated from his relatives, and his husband and the people were thieves. At the same time, it can also be seen that the sayings that the Yin people "desired King Wu to come in urgently" and "when King Wu came to the Shang Kingdom, the people of the Shang Kingdom stayed in the suburbs" are also untrue. Or someone arranged it deliberately. At the same time, it also reflects that King Zhou of Yin was a monarch who was deeply supported by the people. Otherwise, there would not be so many people and so determined to judge Zhou. ?

Looking at King Zhou of Yin from the place names and folk stories of Qi County. In order to forever commemorate King Zhou, the people turned King Zhou's deeds during his lifetime into place names, stories, and even myths, which were passed down from generation to generation. More than three thousand years ago, there are still many relics of King Zhou on the land of Chaoge and on both sides of the Qi River, and many stories about King Zhou are spread. King Zhou left more than 20 relics in Chaoge and its surroundings, such as King Zhou City, King Zhou Tomb, King Zhou Palace, Lutai, Juqiao, Chaoge Village, Eagle Dog City, Sheji Altar, Jiaojie, Zhou Yinmachi, etc. wait. .It is completely possible to draw a map of the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. There are more than ten stories about King Zhou, such as "The Story of Offending the Cold Water" is a typical example. Legend has it that King Zhou was training his troops in the mountains (today's King Zhou Palace) and did not return home for a long time. His wife missed him very much, so she set off on the road regardless of her upcoming pregnancy. When I walked to the west of today's Dashiyan, I felt thirsty, so I took a few sips of cold water by a stream. After walking not far to the west, I felt a stomachache. After walking for a while, the pain became too painful to walk any further, so I found a cave to stay. After a while, she had a miscarriage and gave birth to a baby boy. However, the child died. So he buried the child on a nearby hilltop. The tomb has long since disappeared, but people today still call this hilltop the Tomb of the Prince, the cave where the Prince was born is called the Sage Cave, and the place where he drank cold water is called Fenliangshui. Others, such as "The Story of Dumb Village", tell the story of King Zhou's words. To this day, all the frogs in the village are mute and cannot call. "The Story of Seedless Dates" tells the story of King Zhou, who said that to this day, such dates have no seeds. "The Story of Jinniuling" tells the story of King Zhou getting help from the sacred cow. Chaoge people were even proud of King Zhou. Sometimes they proudly say: We have had emperors sitting here. There are also two idioms unique to Chaoge. To describe something strong, one would say, "The country of King Zhou of Yin is as strong as iron and copper." There is also a idiom that is "The son of King Zhou of Yin - Biezi (or dead)." "Like King Zhou, a king was scolded for three thousand years after his death, but he left dozens of relics and more than a dozen folk stories. The locals were not ashamed of him, but proud of him, and often praised him. Talking about it with relish is probably unique in Chinese history. Among these place names and stories, there are not only the place names and stories of King Zhou, but also those of his wife, son, daughter and even grandson. This is also unique in Chinese history. Comparison is an effective method of identification. Don't be afraid of not knowing the goods, just be afraid of comparing goods. We might as well compare King Zhou with Wei. King Zhou's capital Chaoge only lasted for thirty or fifty years, but Wei's capital Chaoge lasted four hundred years. King Zhou left many place names, but Weiguo basically didn't leave any next one. Chaoge people don't know Wei at all. A king of Yin Zhou was remembered for three thousand years. There were seventeen kings in the fourteenth generation of the Wei Dynasty during the reign of the Kingdom of Wei, including Wei Kangshu and Wei Wugong, who have always been praised, but people did not remember any of them. People call Wugong Temple "Wugengsi'er". The people around Kangshu Temple don’t know what kind of temple Kangshu Temple is. Even Wei Yigong liked He. When Di Bing came, people said, He has the ability and title, so let He resist. Such interesting stories have not been handed down. Only after the reform and opening up, due to the needs of compilation and tourism, a few people began to study Wei culture and gradually expanded it. But to this day, some people in the county know about Wei, but the general public, especially in rural areas, still don’t know what Wei is. King Zhou left behind many folk stories, but Weiguo left none.

In contrast, isn’t it clear who lives in the hearts of the people and who is dead? In terms of contribution to history, King Zhou updated his ideas and listened carefully to women's opinions; instead of killing prisoners of war, he turned them into slaves and engaged in various productive labor, which developed productivity; Slaves relaxed their control and granted official positions to talented slaves. This cannot be said to be meritocracy, but at least it can be said to be an impact and a blow to the nepotism and employment system. The inability to sacrifice ghosts and gods on time shows that the concept of gods and ghosts is weak. This was also an impact on superstitious ideas; King Zhou conquered Dongyi, not only maintaining the security of the country and expanding its territory, but also brought the civilization of the Central Plains to the Huaihe Yangtze River Basin, accelerating the cultural exchanges between the Central Plains and the Jianghuai River; "Huainanzi" " said: The land of Zhou, the East Sea on the left, the quicksand on the right, Jiaozhi in the front, and Youdu in the back. Such a vast place can be said to be a prototype of today's China, realizing the initial unification of China. However, what historical achievements did King Wen, King Wu and Duke Zhou have? They played conspiracies and implemented brittle tactics. After two generations of "efforts", they overthrew King Zhou's advanced country with a small and backward country, causing the first major setback in the development of Chinese society. In addition, they also did other things. What happened? Divide the capital into three kingdoms: Bei, Yong, and Wei, and add the Chaoge under Wu Geng's rule to make four kingdoms. The Great Enfeoffment was also implemented. According to Xunzi, seventy-one kingdoms were enfeoffed in the early Zhou Dynasty, including fifty-three with the surname Ji. From then on, conflicts arose among the vassal states and wars continued, which lasted for eight hundred years. Is this a merit or a fault? A leadership group with a backward social system, a backward culture, and a backward legal system and etiquette has replaced a leading group with an advanced social system, advanced culture, and advanced legal system and etiquette. Is this progress or backwardness? ?

In terms of contribution to Chinese history, King Zhou was much greater than King Wen and King Wu and Duke Zhou. They were simply incomparable. In terms of damage to Chinese history, the civil and military forces far exceeded King Zhou. The Zhou Dynasty replaced Yin, which actually caused Chinese society to take a detour. ?

Looking at King Zhou from the discussion of the ancients. The ancients followed the old saying that many people criticized King Zhou, but there were also many people who complained about King Zhou. Zigong once defended King Zhou angrily. Zigong said: Zhou's bad deeds are worse than this. Therefore, if a gentleman lives in the lower class, all the evil in the world will end. ("The Analects of Confucius·Zizhang") In "The Analects of Confucius", Confucius and his disciples never criticized King Zhou. "Mencius Gongsun Chou" said, "How can King Wen be worthy of being king?" From Tang Dynasty to Wu Ding, there were sixty-seven works by virtuous and sage kings. The world has been returning to Yin for a long time, and it will be difficult to change after a long time. The princes of Wu Ding Dynasty controlled the world, and they were still in the palm of luck. When Zhou Zhi left Wu Ding for a long time, the customs of his old family and the good governance were still there; there were also Weizi, Weizhong, Wangzi Bigan, Jizi, and Jiaoge, all of whom were virtuous, and they supported each other, so for a long time And then lost it. The ruler and the land must be his, and the people must be his ministers. However, King Wen was still a hundred miles away, which was why it was difficult. There is a saying from Qi people: "Although you have wisdom, it is better to take advantage of the situation; although you have magnesium foundation, it is better to wait for the time." Now it is easy. Although Mencius criticized King Zhou, Mencius' words are quite thought-provoking. .Mencius here admitted that Zhou had "good governance". Even the Zhou people had to admit this (see "Zhao Gao"). . "Customs and Customs·Emperor Xiaowen" says: The reputation and reputation in the world cannot be true. There are few who judge the appearance, but many who follow the sound, or even think of nothingness as existence. Therefore, it is said that Yao and Shun could not defeat their good deeds, and Jie and Zhou could not defeat their evil deeds. Jie and Zhou did not kill their fathers and kings, but there are people in the world who kill kings and fathers, and all of them are as unrighteous as Jie and Zhou. Han Yingshao believed that King Zhou was unjustly destroyed. Some even fail to "examine the form" and fail to realize the reality, "taking nothing as something". ?

Looking at King Zhou from modern discussions - Mao Zedong: Most of today's discussions on King Zhou follow the ancients, but more and more people admit that King Zhou still made great achievements in conquering Dongyi. of. Many people complained about King Zhou. The following mainly quotes a few paragraphs from Chairman Mao and Guo Tianruo's discussion of King Zhou of Yin: Why is the dynasty called the "Shang" dynasty? It is because of commodity production, which Guo Moruo verified. It is wrong to regard King Zhou, Qin Shihuang, and Cao Cao as bad people. In fact, King Zhou was a very capable, literary and military man. He managed the southeast and consolidated the unification of Dongyi and the Central Plains, which was historically meritorious. King Zhou attacked the barbarians in Xuzhou and won the battle, but the losses were heavy and there were too many captives to digest. King Wu of Zhou took advantage of the opportunity to attack, and a large number of captives defected, resulting in the fall of the Shang Dynasty. History books say: When King Wu of Zhou defeated Zhou, "blood flowed and drifted away". This is an exaggeration. Mencius did not believe this statement. He said: "It is better to have no books than to believe in books." Guo Moruo: At that time, Wei Zi was connected to foreign countries. Why was King Zhou destroyed? Mainly Bigan was against him, Jizi was against him, and Weizi was against him. King Zhou went to fight against Xu Yi (which was a big country near present-day Xuzhou). He fought for several years and destroyed that country. King Zhou was very talented, and those bad words behind him were all spoken by the people of the Zhou Dynasty, so don’t listen. Why is his country divided? It's because these three people are all opponents. Wei Zi was the worst, a traitor. He sent two people as representatives to the Zhou Dynasty to invite troops. King Wu went to Mengjin to observe the troops for the first time and returned, and then he continued to fight for two years. He said that it was okay to fight because there was internal support. King Zhou killed Bigan and imprisoned Jizi, but he was not prepared for Weizi. He only knew that he was an opponent and did not know that he had foreign connections. This is the reasoning behind the overturning of King Zhou's case. King Zhou was very famous at that time, and the people of the Shang Dynasty supported him very much. King Zhou committed suicide because he refused to surrender. Wei Zi was a traitor, and Zhou should have sealed him, but he did not dare to, and instead sealed Wu Geng, the son of King Zhou. Later, Wu Geng rebelled, and Wei Zi was granted the title of Song Dynasty, which is Shangqiu.

?

Guo Moruo: King Zhou of Yin opened up Dongyi, Huaiyi, and Huyi (Renfang, Linfang, and Hufang), and his contribution will last forever. Today, China has Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangzhou and other territorial waters, which were opened up by Emperor Xin. (See Ye Yumeng's "The Shang Dynasty's Eastward Journey to America")?

Abominable double standards. There must be unified standards for classifying things, unified standards for evaluating things, and unified standards and unified perspectives for evaluating people. Such as the life of kings and emperors. Which monarch does not have the highest living standard in the country? Why is King Zhou just greedy for pleasure but others are not? Another example is for women. It was a grave sin for King Zhou to pamper a Da Si. Why was it normal for emperors to have seventy-two concubines in three palaces, six courtyards, etc.? "It is illegal to marry King Wen at the age of thirty and give birth to King Wu at the age of fifteen." (See "Huainanzi·Si Lun Xun") Why was it that when King Wen had his second son King Wu when he was fifteen, he was not lustful, and even "illegal" was not a sin? King Wen "built the jade gate, built the spiritual platform, looked after the virgins, and beat the bells and drums." His country was so small and poor, and King Wen lived so luxuriously. It was not a sin. And King Zhou's country was so big and rich, so building a deer platform would be a serious crime? It's unfair that the same thing has completely opposite properties for different people. King Zhou's conquest of Dongyi was both self-defensive and pacifying. Some people said that King Zhou "wasted his troops to redeem his troops." After King Wen obtained the right to conquer, he would attack Quanrong next year. Cut down the beard next year. Defeat Qi next year. Next year we will cut down Han. Next year the Chonghou Tiger will be cut down. Anyone who doesn't listen to me will be killed by me. Not only did no one say that "the troops were spared to redeem the force," but they praised it for completing the strategic encirclement of Zhou. They were also dissatisfied with the leaders of their own country. They called Jizi, Bigan, and Weizi, the three opponents of Zhou, the "three benevolences." Moreover, Weizi had already committed treason, so he still wanted to be called "benevolence." The opposition "three supervisors" who called King Wu rebelled against Zhou and were traitors. King Zhou was cruel when he killed Bigan, but Duke Zhou killed Guan Shu, but he said, "It is benevolent for Duke Zhou to kill his brother." What kind of logic is this? Zhou is a small country, and the Zhou people themselves said that they are a small country. When some people emphasize Zhou's victory, they also say that Zhou is a small country. Because a small country defeats a big country, which is amazing. However, when emphasizing King Zhou's mediocrity, he also said that King Wen offered Luoxi a thousand miles of red soil to ask for the punishment of being burned with cannons, and King Zhou agreed to do so. Since it is a small country with a hundred miles, how can it be thousands of miles away? When emphasizing King Wen's benevolence, he said that King Wen divided the world into two and served Yin. Since it is a small country of a hundred miles, how can it be two-thirds of the world? Aren’t these statements contradictory? The winner is the king, the loser is the thief. It should not be the standard by which we measure things.

Just because King Wu defeated King Zhou, we cannot say that King Wu is right, everything is right, good, everything is fine. When King Zhou failed, it was said that King Zhou was bad and everything was bad. Everything should be realistic and realistic. This is the attitude we should adopt. ?

How did King Zhou's notoriety come about? The cruelty of King Zhou was imposed on King Zhou by the Zhou people in order to justify the attack on Yin and to consolidate their rule. Later generations were afraid of offending the Zhou people, so they all shouted. There is a saying: A lie repeated a thousand times will become the truth. Those who came later could not understand the truth. There are few who judge the appearance, but many who follow the sound, or even think of nothingness as existence. As a result, the so-called sins of King Zhou were piled up from generation to generation, and rumors were passed down from generation to generation. If someone tells the truth, it will not create a climate or change the situation. Therefore, people in the past dynasties complained about Zhou, and the trend of the past dynasties said that King Zhou was a tyrant. Now, let’s look at King Zhou’s so-called sins in stages. ?

When they conquered Zhou, the Zhou people only raised three major crimes against King Zhou. We have already analyzed these three crimes before. They are not crimes, but the inevitable result of the update of concepts and the progress of thinking. This shows that the people of Zhou could not find out the true crime of King Zhou at this time. Before Zhou Gong's eastern expedition, the Zhou people did not criticize King Zhou for any of his crimes. No imperial edicts were issued regarding King Zhou's crimes. This further proves that King Yin was not guilty. After Duke Zhou's Eastern Expedition, the people of Zhou saw that King Zhou was too influential. If they did not make King Zhou miserable, it would directly affect the consolidation of his dominance. Therefore, we must intensify our criticism of King Zhou. However, apart from saying that King Zhou drank and enjoyed himself, no more questions could be raised. An unavoidable question faced by the Zhou people was the question of the Yin people, why did they destroy Yin? What's the reason? The Zhou people were speechless. Facing the remnants of the Yin Dynasty, they could not fabricate the sins of King Zhou, so they had to take advantage of the Yin people's belief in ghosts and gods to shift the blame to God. They said to the people of Yin, it is not my little Zhou who dares to seize the great destiny of the Yin state, because God does not give great destiny to those who are good at talking and misbehaving, so He only supports our Zhou state. If God did not give it to us, we would not dare to ask for this great position. God is holy and majestic, and we, the people, can only act in accordance with God’s will. ("Toast") You Yin people don't resent us either. ?

In the subsequent development, the Zhou rulers and their imperial literati did not hesitate to "make something out of nothing", adding many "unfounded" charges to King Zhou, comparing King Zhou to King Jie of Xia, and comparing King Zhou to King Jie of Xia. King Jie's crime was placed on King Zhou. According to Jie's portrayal of Zhou, this is very inappropriate. Did Jie die for his country? Did the Xia survivors rebel against Shang for Jie? No. Therefore, Jie and Zhou cannot be compared. This aroused the dissatisfaction of many righteous people at that time. Zigong, a student of Confucius and a fellow countryman of King Zhou, protested angrily and complained for King Zhou. . Accusing villains of blaming all the bad things in the world on the head of King Zhou. For example, Liu Xiang's "New Preface to Jieshi" said: "Jie is a wine pool, which is enough to transport boats. The hills are enough to see for seven miles. With a drum, an oxen can drink for a thousand people in three years." Jia Yi's "Xin Shu Liu Chun Qiu" said: King Kang of the Song Dynasty... cut open the back of the beheaded man and broke the shin of Chao She, which shocked the people of the country.

Later, people blamed King Zhou for the broken shin in the wine pool. This is the example. ?

End?

Throughout history, there are historical events such as King Zhou imprisoning King Wen, believing in the Western Zhou Dynasty, indulging the villain, generously sacrificing his country, barbarians and Qi blaming the Zhou Dynasty, and Yin survivors rebelling against the Zhou Dynasty. Look, from the fact that people in Chaoge use place names and folk stories to commemorate King Zhou, King Zhou of Yin was not a tyrant, let alone a typical example of a tyrant. .On some issues, King Zhou not only was not cruel, but actually seemed quite benevolent. For example, to King Wen and his opponents... Coupled with his indelible contribution to the history of our country, it should be said that King Zhou of Yin was a king who could sing and cry. Of course, no one is perfect, and King Zhou of Yin must have had his shortcomings and mistakes. We cannot ask King Zhou of Yin to be perfect, but we must distinguish the relationship between nine fingers and one finger. Some accusations also need to be analyzed historically, such as the accusation that King Zhou indulged in wine and sex, and the Yin people he led also loved drinking. It may be true that King Zhou loved drinking. Because the agriculture of the Yin State was developed and there was a lot of food, there was a lot of wine made and a lot of people drank it. Zhou State's agriculture was backward and there was little food. It was difficult to fill the stomach. If there was food, it could be used to make wine. Therefore, there is little wine, wine has become a rarity, and drinking is a luxury. Therefore, King Wen opposed drinking, and he blamed anyone who drank. King Zhou drank a lot, and drank a lot. Because there was a lot of wine, the people of Yin also drank. In the eyes of Zhou people, this situation was a sin. Don't say that King Zhou is lecherous. If King Zhou was really addicted to wine and sex, would he still drag the Nine Oxes to support the Liang Yizhu? Will he still lead his troops to conquer Dongyi personally and go to the battlefield of Makino in person? According to ancient regulations, a man could not get married until he was thirty. However, King Wen had King Wu at the age of fifteen and had already given birth to two children. How can this be explained? King Wu, Duke Zhou, and Taigong Jiang were a group of thugs. They used and played with various means to successfully defeat King Zhou, so they used their power to vigorously beautify themselves, vilify and insult King Zhou. Later generations followed their predecessors. King Zhou suffered injustice for thousands of years. To evaluate King Zhou of Yin historically and objectively is a historical mission before us.

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