State of Song

Song
宋
State
11th century BC–286 BC
Capital		Shangqiu (商丘)
Religion		Chinese folk religion, ancestor worship, Taoism
Government		Monarchy
History
•	Established	11th century BC
•	Conquered by Qi	286 BC
Currency		Chinese coin
Succeeded by Qi (state)

Song
"Song" in ancient seal script (top) and modern (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese	宋
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Sòng Gwoyeu Romatzyh Sonq Wade–Giles Sung4 IPA [sʊ̂ŋ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Sung Jyutping Sung3 Southern Min Tâi-lô Sòng Old Chinese Baxter-Sagart *[s]ˤuŋ-s

Sòng (Chinese: 宋; Old Chinese: *[s]ˤuŋ-s) was a state during the Zhou dynasty of ancient China, with its capital at Shangqiu. The state was founded soon after King Wu of Zhou conquered the Shang dynasty to establish the Zhou dynasty in 1046/46 BC. It was conquered by the State of Qi in 286 BC, during the Warring States period. Confucius was a descendant of a Song nobleman who moved to the State of Lu.

After King Wu overthrew the last ruler of Shang, marking the transition to the Zhou Dynasty, the victor was honor-bound by feudal etiquette to allow the defeated house (Shang) to continue offering sacrifices to their ancestors. As a result, for a time Shang became a vassal state of Zhou, with the Shang heir Wu Geng allowed to continue ancestor worship at Yin (殷). This practice was referred to as Èr wáng Sān kè ().

However, after King Wu’s death, Wu Geng fomented a rebellion and was killed by the Duke of Zhou. Another Shang royal family descendant, Weizi (微子), was granted land at Shangqiu (商邱 ‘the hill of Shang’), where the capital of the new State of Song was built.

A sign of its descent from the Shang is that the Song in its early period followed the succession principle of agnatic seniority, rather than agnatic primogeniture like the Zhou.