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King Tai of Zhou


King Tai of Zhou (Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōu Tài Wáng; literally: "Great King of Zhou") or Gugong Danfu (Chinese: ; pinyin: Gǔgōng Dǎnfù; literally: "Old Duke Danfu") was a great leader of the Zhou clan during the Shang dynasty. His great-grandson Fa would later conquer the Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty.

"King Tai" was a posthumous name bestowed upon him by his descendants. He was never a king during his lifetime. He was earlier known as Old Duke Danfu (Gugong Danfu), for instance, in the Classic of Poetry. Occasionally, a few scholars refer to him as Ji Danfu, referencing his surname Ji ().

In the family hymns recorded in the Classic of Poetry, the Ji family is traced from the miraculous birth of the Xia dynasty culture hero and court official Houji caused by his mother's stepping into a footprint left by the supreme god Shangdi. The Records of the Grand Historian instead make Houji the son of the Emperor Ku, connecting his family to the Yellow Emperor who was sometimes also given the Zhou's surname.

Sima Qian goes on to record Houji's son Buzhu abandoning court life and his fief of Tai, apparently taking up the nomadic life of the Rong and Di tribes around Xia. His son Ju continued this before Duke Liu settled his people at a place called Bin. The rulers of Bin were listed as Qingjie, Huangpu (皇仆), Chaifu (差弗), Huiyu (毀隃), Gongfei (公非), Gaoyu (高圉), Yayu (亞圉), and Gongshu Zulei (公叔祖類).


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