The History of China - #7 - Shang 2: The Shang Triumphant

Episode Date: December 22, 2013

In this first of two parts, we look at the first half of the Shang Dynasty beginning with the victory and reign of Tang "The Perfect" and leaving off 21 emperors, five capitals, and 400 years later with the amazing reign of Wu Ding and his warrior-priestess wife Lady Fu Hao. Along the way, there are warlike redheaded Xirong, Demonic Mongols, and Blue Barbarians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Four hundred years ago, a trio of tiny kingdoms were perched on some damp islands off the coast of Europe. Within three short centuries, these islands would become the centre of an empire which ruled a quarter of the globe and on which the sun never set. I'm Samuel Hume, a historian of the British Empire, and my podcast Pax Britannica follows the people and events that built that empire into a global superpower. Learn the History of China. Episode 7-1, The Shang Triumphant, from Emperor Tong to Emperor Wu Ding. Last time, we went over the more meta story of how we came to know what we know about the Shang, its society, and customs.

So, with that in mind, today we pick up the main storyline where it left off at the end of Episode 5, the defeat and exile of Jie of Xia and the beginning of the Shang Dynasty, with the ascension of Lord Tang to King Tang. Before launching into that, though, I'd like to make a quick aside that though we know factually that most of these kings existed, and more on that in a minute, it doesn't guarantee that we know much beyond that. The Oracle Bones act as confirmation of their reigns and lines of succession, but are hardly an exhaustive body of knowledge. The other sources we use to chronicle the Shang were operating from a similarly limited knowledge set. And so we have several kings who are very, very interesting, and quite a few who will

be mentioned really only in passing. This is not because I don't think that they are all worthy of examination, but simply because there's precious little to examine at all. This leads me to my other caveat before continuing, the discrepancy between our sources. The annals of the Grand Historian, which from here on out I will once again call the Shi Ji, is where many of the more detailed descriptions come from. However, there are two kings mentioned in the Shi Ji that are notably absent from the Oracle Bones records, and there is one king recorded by the Oracle Bones who was not covered in the Shi Ji. Given the Oracle Bones are a primary source, and the Shiiji is, at best, a secondary source of information.

We'll be going with the line of succession established by the former, though still relying on Sima Qian's accounts for much of the accompanying descriptions and information. It should be mentioned that, especially given the fact that the Shiji was written a millennia after the Shang Dynasty's fall, it's still remarkably accurate. It's only at the beginning of the dynasty where the major hiccups occur. And I'll be going ahead and putting up the succession lines of both accounts on thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com if you'd like to follow along visually.

Alright, on with the show. The kings of Shang are typically referred to as just that, kings Though they controlled a wide variety of tribes and vassal states within the larger Hua Xia state Which is pretty much the definition of an empire For some reason, the preference has been to not call them emperors That said, I'm going to be likely slipping back and forth between the two terms, as in this case they're interchangeable. So, Emperor Tang of Shang stood in principle and in style of governance

as a stark, merciful contrast to his predecessor, the tyrant king, Jie. Shortly after concluding the war and taking the throne, he annulled many of the loathsome policies of Jie, most importantly, the outrageous levels of taxation that had been used to fund Jie's hedonism, and the forced conscriptions that had filled out his armies. By all accounts, Tang intended to live up to the vow he made prior to the decisive battle of Mianqiao. As word of this new Shang king's generosity, piousness, and sense of justice spread, many tribes that had steadfastly kept their distance from the Xia's death spiral were inspired to rethink their

relationship to the Hua-Xia confederacy. On the western edges of the empire, for instance, the powerful Di and Qiang tribes sent envoys to pledge their loyalty to the House of Shang. These two tribes are worth remembering, since they will end up bookending the dynasty. The rise of Shang inspired them to join the state, and its decline will ultimately force them to ally with the rebellion of Zhou some six centuries later. Understandably, Tang wished to disassociate himself from the vestiges of the Xia. Maintaining the capital in Anyi, then, was completely out of the question. Not only was it the ancestral

home of the Xia, but it absolutely reeked of Jie's debauchery. His opulent palaces and decadent self-indulgences were impossible to ignore. Tang wished to make it very clear that he was not just some continuation of the same, and that a new line of truly noble nobility had come to power. So he ordered the capital moved to the city of Bo in northern Henan, near the modern city Anyang. You may recall from last week that Anyang is where archaeologists will eventually find the ruins of Yin, the last capital of the Shang Dynasty. Both Bo and Yin are near the modern city, but are not the same places. Yin hasn't been constructed yet and won't be for about another 400 years.

Meanwhile, the ancestral capital was re-designated to Ao, which is modern Zhengzhou City on the southern bank of the Yellow River in Henan. A word about the two different kinds of capitals. The political capital will be where the emperor lives and is an ever-shifting city, subject to the whim of any emperor at the time. But the ancestral capital is where the house itself identifies as having originated, and does not change within any dynasty. There they will keep the relics of their family line, the bones of their ancestors, and important ritual objects, and will only shift with the installation of a new dynastic house to power. Though Emperor Tang wished to establish his rule as one apart from

the Xia, he wasn't so vindictive that he wished them to be forgotten entirely. The Xia, both their good and their evil, had shaped the kingdom itself and deserved to be remembered. Thus, before departing for Bo, he ordered a memorial palace built to honor their former grandeur and to also serve as a warning for those who might stray from the righteous path, the Xia Shi. But all was not well in the new Shang kingdom. During his rebellion, queer weather had wrought havoc and sown terror across the lands, a sign that the gods had grown displeased with the licentious ways of the Xia kings.

But this did not stop when Tang had seized control. Though he was pure-hearted and pious in his devotions to the heavens, a cruel drought yet plagued the land, wreaking further havoc on the already suffering people. In reality, the lingering effects of the Minoan eruption event in Greece was the likely culprit, but Tang, obviously unaware of what was going on half a world away, could see no reason why his people should continue to suffer punishment by the gods. The rivers shrank and then dried up completely. Crops would not grow, and food became an increasingly scarce commodity as the crisis deepened.

And as in all times of crisis, vultures swooped in to prey on the weak. In their growing desperation, the poor were forced to sell all they owned, and eventually their own children into slavery to afford food. Word reached Shang of this atrocious behavior and the desperate conditions that had brought it about. He ordered coins struck from gold and distributed to the poor so that they might buy back their children with the exceedingly precious metal. Still, the drought raged on, and conditions continued to deteriorate. Seeing all of his efforts lead to no improvement, Tang grew increasingly hopeless. Had he done something wrong? Was he conducting the rituals

incorrectly, or offering the wrong sacrifices? Was he living in some way that was out of balance or despotic? Finally, he prayed to his ancestors and the gods of heaven to lift this blight from the land, and swore that he would redouble his commitment to a life of righteousness, and to do whatever may be necessary to end his people's suffering. No sooner had the words left his mouth than the sky opened up and poured down heaven's answer, rain.

The drought was, at long last, over. His ministers had witnessed the power and conviction of his prayer to heaven and its miraculous reply. They spread the word far and wide that so full of virtue and righteousness was the great King Tang, so willing to sacrifice for his people's betterment, that he had convinced heaven itself to end their punishment of the Shang people. Needless to say, this was something of a propaganda coup for his reign. The masses were won over to their new king.

And so, in the ninth year of his reign, he felt secure enough in his rule that it was time to take the next and final step in legitimizing his rule and legacy, moving the nine ceremonial bronze cauldrons, the Jioding, wrought by Yu the Great himself, from their resting place in Anyi. Signifying that his line was the legitimate successor to Yu's legacy, he had the nine massive cauldrons transferred to the Shang ancestral capital, Ao. Ultimately,

he would enjoy a nearly 30-year reign of overall prosperity and expansion. But around 1646 BCE, he died and left his throne to his son. Which son, however, is a matter of some question. As I mentioned, the first seven to nine kings diverged significantly between the Shiji and the Oracle Bones records. Tai Ding was the eldest son of Emperor Tang, and so he was a shoo-in for the throne. But the Shiji asserts that Tai Ding died young, so young that he never actually assumed power. In this telling, the throne passed to the second son of Tang, Wai Bing. But our primary source conflicts with this account,

insisting that Tai Ding was, in fact, the second emperor of Shang, and was given the posthumous regnal name Da Ding. Moreover, the oracle bones indicate that Wai Bing was not Tai Ding's little brother, but in fact his son. As earlier indicated, we're going to go with the bones and call Tai Ding the second king of Shang, though given that Sima Qian wrote him off entirely, we have very little to go on in the way of description or reign.

So Tai Ding's eldest son, Tai Jia, succeeded as the third king upon his father's death. The oracle bones do not provide effective dating, but Sima Qian dates the beginning of Taijia's reign at 1535 BCE. Though given that Sima calls him the fourth emperor while the oracle bones consider him the third, there's some wiggle room in that date. Taijia, like his father and grandfather, reigned from Bo.

But Taijia was a dark shadow of his grandfather's wisdom and justice. He quickly proved himself an autocrat and perfectly willing to break his own laws to suit his whims. This caused a panic in the court. Had the Shang so quickly fell victim to the avarice and cruel hedonism that had brought down the House of Xia? His prime minister, Yi Yin, yes, that Yi Yin, Lord Tang's right-hand man and most trusted advisor during his rebellion decades ago, urged the young emperor to change his ways before it was too late. But Tai Jia, headstrong, arrogant, and dismissive of any opinion but his own, paid no mind to this crotchety old man's ravings.

But as conditions continued to deteriorate in Bo and the empire as a whole, and Taijia's intransigence threatened to unmake everything his grandfather had strived to achieve, Yi'in realized he had no choice. To save both the dynasty and the country itself, he seized authority from the young emperor and ordered his arrest. No doubt, there was at least one palace guard who said something on the order of, Wait, you want us to arrest who again? But Yi'in's moral authority was beyond repute.

Taijia was taken into custody and stripped of his powers. Yi'in then commanded him carted off to Tong Palace, far to the southwest, and safely out of the way. This choice of forced vacation destination was no accident, by the way. Tong Palace was the final resting place of Tai Jia's grandfather, the sage Emperor Tang. Yi'in instructed the emperor to utilize this time in the penalty box to reflect on his ancestor, his wisdom, and the terrible, terrible choices that he'd made that led him to this little time out. Back in Bo, Yi'in assumed the regency, a position he would hold for three years,

while occasionally checking back with Taija to see if he'd learned his lesson yet. Towards the end of his third year, Yi'in finally decided that, yes, the young monarch had taken his grandfather's ways to heart and was ready to return. The king was invited back to the capital, and his powers reinstated. Yi'in would continue to keep a watchful eye on Taija's reign, but remain satisfied that the repentance was genuine. For the remainder of his reign, Taijia would rule with wisdom and justice. And that's the story according to the Shiji, Mencius, and the Zuojiang. However, the bamboo annals offers a different account. Rather than impudent whelp and grandfatherly instructor of

virtue, the annals cast Tai Jia and Yi Yin as bitter enemies who struggled for power following King Tai Ding's death. Minister Yi would gain the upper hand and expel the young prince from the land, locking him up at Tong Palace and throwing away the key. Not to learn from his departed grandfather, mind you, but merely to be interred with him. For eight years, he ruled the land with an iron fist and absolute authority, before Tai Jia was able to make a secret and daring escape. Bent on revenge, Tai Jia covertly traveled back to Bo and assassinated his usurper before

returning to his rightful place on the throne. Yeah, I realize I basically just gave a synopsis of The Count of Monte Cristo. And like Alexander Dumas' magnum opus, this telling is compelling, interesting, and almost certainly a work of fiction. Archaeological evidence shows that Minister Yi'in was literally worshipped as a god by the court of Shang for generations after his death. It's hard to imagine a ruling family would continue to venerate the memory of a man who had tried to oust them from power entirely. From Fort Sumter to the Battle of Gettysburg. From the Emancipation Proclamation to Appomattox Courthouse. From the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Compromise of 1877.

From Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. To Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The Civil War and Reconstruction was a pivotal era in American history. I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. And we're the hosts of a podcast that takes a deep dive into that era, when a war was fought to save the Union and to free the slaves. And when the work to rebuild the nation after that war was over turned into a

struggle to guarantee liberty and justice for all Americans. Look for The Civil War and Reconstruction wherever you find your podcasts. So, in the Shijis' telling, Yi'in restores Taija to power and serves him for the remainder of his reign, which, alas, is not all that long, considering that the minister who was his grandfather's and his father's minister will outlive this king as well. Yes, Yi'in just absolutely refuses to die. Okay, so one final time-out moment before continuing with the Oracle Bones' line of kings. It behooves me to mention in passing, at least, the two emperors which, in Sima Qian's rendition, sandwich King Taizha. The Shiji lists Emperor Zongren as preceding Taizha and being Taiding's younger brother,

but ruling for only four years before dying and having his nephew ascend. It also mentions Taizha's supposed eldest son, Wojia, succeeding his father before again dying and leaving the throne to his younger brother, Taigeng. Shang emperors, you'll quickly see, have a very bad habit of dropping like flies. As I mentioned earlier, though, all of the archaeological evidence makes no mention of either of these figures, and they're largely considered apocryphal anymore. It's super confusing, I know. It took me four tries before I was able to map all of this out, the finally successful results of which I'll be posting up on this

episode's companion post on thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com. The oracle bones indicate that while Taija was able to produce an heir, in fact, as many as five sons, the boy was deemed too young to take power when his father perished. As such, the throne went to Taija's younger brother, Wai Bing. Wai Bing kept the chair warm for two years before dying. By this point, there were no more brothers to pass the throne to, so, ready or not, here comes Taija's son, Tai Geng. Tai Geng may or may not have succumbed to the same curse of early death that seemed to haunt the line of Shang. The bamboo annals indicate he may have dropped after only five years, but the Shiji says he reigned for as many as 25. Xiaojia was the next in line, as he was either the brother or son of Taigun. He reigned for 17 years.

Now, after chewing through five or six emperors in the span of a century or so, the throne of Shang finally seated its seventh occupant, Taiwu, who would remain in power for a full 75 years. In the seventh year of his reign, the queen of Xirong sent an envoy to the capital. The Xirong are best described by the name given to them by the Huaxia people, as it translates to warlike barbarians from the west. Remember that, as it was used by the ancient Chinese, the term barbarian is applied to pretty much everyone who isn't from Hua Xia, much as the catch-all label foreigner is used in China today. Like Hua Xia itself, the Xirong clan

was a political union of several western tribes, some of which are described as looking very strange indeed. In the 7th century CE, one historian would write, among the various Rong tribes of the western regions, the Wusun's shape is the strangest, and the present barbarians who have green eyes and red hair and are like a macaque belonged to the same race as the Wusun. Incidentally, the Wusun people are still found today in Kyrgyzstan, suggesting that the reach of the Xirong Confederation reached all the way into Central Asia. Strange and warlike though they were, King Taiwu reciprocated the diplomatic gesture and sent an envoy of his own back to the Queen of Xirong. Though, as their epithet suggests, long-term relations between the Chinese and the war-like western barbarians would remain rocky at best. Tai Wu's reign was a fruitful one, as the Shang state's power and influence continued to expand, but then so too did its need for more

strongholds and cities from which to govern. Notably, in his 58th year as monarch, Tai Wu ordered the construction of the great city Pugu. Three years later, he accepted a party of nine envoys from yet more western barbarian tribes. Tai Wu had at least two sons, but deemed that his younger brother would succeed him. And so, when he finally died, the youngest son of Taizha, Yongji, would take the reins. Of course, by the time he was enthroned, he was absolutely ancient. Using our given timeline, had Yongji been born on the day his father died, he would be at minimum 99 years old upon becoming the king of Shang. Still, you gotta give the guy some credit because he managed to remain upright for about a decade

before finally giving up the ghost and passing the throne on to his nephew, Zhong Ding. Zhong Ding is most noteworthy for his decision that, though it had been the political capital of Shang since the dynasty's inception, which is approaching two centuries at this point, Bo just really didn't fit his vibe. So he moved the capital south to Ao, which you'll recall was also the ancestral capital. Once settled in, in his sixth year, he would attack the people known as the Lan Yi,

which awesomely translates to the Blue Barbarians. Ultimately, this would end in stalemate and with peace terms signed, but with bad blood lingering on both sides of the conflict. Fear not, we have not seen the last of the Blue Barbarians. In all, Zhongding would rule for between nine and ten years. Upon his death, power transferred to Zhongding would rule for between 9 and 10 years. Upon his death, power transferred to Zhongding's younger brother, Huairan. He would rule for 10 to 15 years. Toward the end of his life, the states of Pei and Xiang broke out in rebellion. These two states were militarily quite powerful, and it would take years for them to be effectively quelled.

In fact, King Huairen would never see peace restored to his kingdom. He would die in the course of the war, though it's not indicated that it was anything battle-related that did him in. Thus, the suppression of the Pei and Xiang peoples would be left to his son, Jianjia. King Jianjia, who is also known as He Danjia, appointed his minister of war, Peng Bo, to personally oversee the campaign in Pei. It took a further two years of fighting, but Peng Bo's able command turned the tide of combat and finally put an end to the rebellious state's thrashings. That left only Xian to contend with. Or at least it would have, if Jianjia hadn't decided that now was a great time to go and open up another front against the, yes they're back, blue barbarians.

Picking up where his uncle Zhongding had left off, he launched a second invasion of their territory. But as it turns out, splitting one's army in half mid-war is not always the best strategy, and the Xian weren't nearly as close to defeat as Jianjia had assumed. Seeing their enemy's attention and strength divided, the Xian launched a full assault on the Hua Xia's holding, capturing the city of Banfang in the fifth year of Jianjia's reign. Once again, Minister Peng Bo was called in to deal with the situation, this time with his trusty sidekick Minister Wei Bo in tow. In short order, their forces converged on the captured city

and smashed the Xian forces stationed there. The capture of Banfang had been their big move, and the bulk of their forces had been caught there when the Shang Hammer dropped. The writing was on the wall, and the Xian sent envoys to the capital Ao to negotiate a peace, beg forgiveness, and reintegrate their wayward state with the Shang Empire. In all, Jianjia would sit for nine years before meeting his end. His son, Zuyi, assumed command. Zuyi is notable for being rather indecisive in terms of where he ought to rule from. He was enthroned in the city of Shang, and then he moved his capital to the city Geng,

and then he moved it again to the city Bi, and then he moved his capital to the city Geng, and then he moved it again to the city Bi, and then he died some 19 years into his reign. His son, Zu Xin, replaced him for a further 14 to 16 years, and then died. His son was too young to ascend, and so his brother, Wo Jia, assumed leadership. Wo Jia held the crown for 20 to 25 years and produced a son before dying, but once again the son was too young to be crowned, so the mantle reverted to the now of-age son of Zuxin, Zuding. Thanks to the Xia Shangzhou Chronology Project, or as I'm going to refer to it from here on out, XSZCP, we are able to arrive at a specific date for Zuding's reign, the 32-year period between 1368 and 1333 BCE. This places his life and death as contemporaneous with the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten,

who was first called Amenhotep IV before founding and aggressively promoting his cult of Aten, who would later be known as Ra, the sun god. This would ultimately fail, as habits tend to die slower than kings. Today, it's not his sun cult that he's most remembered for, but his consort Nefertiti and his son and heir Tutankhaten. But as the worship of Aten faded, the young pharaoh realized that having his name associated with a deity in decline was not favorable. So he changed it to something known across the world today.

Tutankhamen. King Tut. Tzu Tung had at least four children, but once again, none of which were of age upon the emperor's death in 1336 BCE. So power would again shift back to his cousin, Nan Geng, son of Wo Jia. Nan Geng ruled for about 29 years, but was completely unable to produce an heir.

So with one final ping of the pong, the throne of Shang was given to Zhu Ding's eldest son, Yangjia, circa 1307 BCE. Yangjia was not a terrible emperor, but by no means was he good either. During his seven-year tenure, the country slipped into decline, along with his health, until he died young and airless. So in 1300 BCE, Yangjia's second brother, Panggen, took over. And so here, at the dawn of the 13th century, we finally get to the last and greatest Shang capital, Yin. Yin was at the northern edge of the Shang Empire, and before it was re-designated as the capital, it was called Beimeng, meaning literally, northern city in the land of the Mongols.

From Yin, Panggeng sought to rekindle the waning power of the Shang, and ruled for 28 years, but again being unable to produce an heir. The third of Zhu Ding's sons, Xiao Xi, took power then, but reigned for just three years before being snuffed out of existence. Thus, the baby brother, Xiao Yi, would sit himself on the throne. Xiao Yi ruled for ten years, and all in all did not accomplish much. He did, however, accomplish something that none of his brothers apparently had been able to, have a son.

This son, Wu Ding, is our third real landmark Shang emperor. Not only is his life and reign and wife really interesting, but he's actually the earliest Chinese emperor ever that can be confirmed from contemporary evidence. His ancestors are considered historical because of the oracle bones, but at Yin we have his tomb, his relics, and his wife. He reigned for 58 years, from around 1250 to 1192 BCE. Prior to his reign, his father Xiaoyi had removed him from his home and placed him in the backwater provincial town of He. This was not out of some animosity toward the child, but because his father wanted him to live a life apart from the trappings, distractions, and corrupting influences of court life.

Instead, he was placed in the care of the local noble Gan Pan, to live among the common people and become familiar with their lives, concerns, and day-to-day problems. Wu Ding and Gan Pan ended up getting along so well that the young emperor would promote his guardian to prime minister once he took the throne. In 1250 BCE, that day arrived when news of his father's passing reached He. Wu Ding was summoned back to the capital with all due haste and was coronated shortly thereafter. Like most, if not all, Chinese emperors, to say nothing of leaders worldwide for that matter, Wu Ding was an accomplished bigamist. It is recounted that he had as many as 60 wives, or concubines, whom he kept at his capital. This was not, it must be said, a situation driven entirely out of lust. As it was in virtually every society until the later 20th century CE,

marriage of nobility was nothing so much as a political contract to seal alliances and increase power. Women were seen and used as property, to be bought and sold by suitor and father respectively, as each family sought the best situation to increase their standing and political power. Wu Ding then simply took this game to its logical conclusion. Why use this great tactic only once? Instead, he would marry a daughter from each of his neighboring tribes' chieftains, binding them all to his rule and instantly expanding his empire. Sixty wives, expanded territory, plus dowries from each of the fathers? Yeah, it's pretty hard to see the downside. But there is one wife in particular

who stands above the rest. My personal opinion and hope is that she gains some wider recognition for her singularly incredible life. You likely remember her from last time, since her tomb was discovered intact at Yin and is one of the most amazing and complete finds ever unearthed concerning the Shang Dynasty. I speak, of course, of the Lady Fu Hao. Fu Hao's early life, as with most imperial concubines, was deemed of so little importance that it has been lost to time, if it was ever recorded at all. Most likely, she was the daughter of an outlying tribal lord who sought to gain favor with the mighty Shang Empire. The concubine system was, let's not mince words, effectively slavery for the women within it. But this is what they had been raised and expected to do with their

lives, serve, honor, obey, and produce children. To do so with the Emperor of Shang, then, rather than some local prince or upjumped lordling, was the highest honor any of them could have hoped to achieve. Well, any of them except Fu Hao. She quickly figured out the semi-matriarchal hierarchy that composed the harem system at the palace, and rose quickly through its ranks to a position of dominance over her fellow wives. This was achieved, no big surprise, largely by doing whatever was necessary to endear herself to the emperor and become his favored

consort. At the emperor's side, she proved her brilliant mind and tactical genius. Wu Ding was so impressed with his wife's abilities, so far beyond what was expected or even thought possible of women at the time, that he allowed her to observe the most sacred duty within the empire, the bone divination rituals and offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors for the dynasty's continued good fortune. As her knowledge of the rituals increased, Wu Ding eventually allowed her to become more and more a part of the ceremonies themselves, eventually to be inducted as a full priestess with power to conduct the rites herself, as evidenced by the numerous oracle pieces engraved prepared by Fu Hao.

It is difficult to overstate how truly outstanding an achievement this was in a patriarchal society where such religious events were deemed to be of paramount importance. It's akin to the Catholic Church allowing not just a female priest, but making her the priestess of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. She was already so far beyond her allotted station, and yet Fu Hao was just getting started. Emperor Wu Ding grew so confident in his wife's abilities, and especially her tactical mind, that he came to rely on her advice more and more to conduct the near-constant warfare of the Shang. Oh yeah, did you think that marrying all of the outlying tribes had put a stop to the state's expansionism? Don't be ridiculous. Of course not. Enveloping all

of the border states simply meant new border states to envelop. In an event absolutely without precedent, Fu Hao would eventually be named as Supreme Commander and General of the Shang armies. And make no mistake, this was no ceremonial position. The oracle bones tell of her repeatedly leading the army into battle and victory. The Tufang people had been engaged in a low-level war with the Shang for generations at this point. And yet in the course of a single battle, Fu Hao was able to so badly outmaneuver and crush them that they capitulated then and there. Subsequent campaigns against the Yi tribe,

whom you may recall from Episode 2, to the south of the empire, and the Qiang in Sichuan in eastern Tibet, and the Ba Confederation of central Sichuan, are also recorded, each ending in decisive victory. Of these outlying regions, she was granted direct governance of several. The Ba Confederation, however, would retreat and lick its wounds. Outwardly, it submitted to the Shang's authority, but they would continue to harbor bitter resentment toward their imperial overlords. This will factor in heavily some three centuries from now,

when the rogue state of Zhou rises up in rebellion against the, spoiler alert, final king of Shang. As if the oracle bones themselves might not be considered reliable enough to verify such a wildly improbable event, Fu Hao was interred with hundreds upon hundreds of ceremonial bronze and jade weapons, and given a sacrificial honor guard in death. Honors bestowed only upon great military and religious commanders. The Lady Fu Hao, consort, priestess, general, governor, and mother. She and her husband would produce Prince Jie, as well as at least one daughter. Ultimately, she would die before her husband. Wu Ding

constructed an enormous tomb for her on the edge of the royal cemetery at Yin, and would frequently offer sacrifices and prayers to her spirit. As he had relied on her in life to lead his armies, so too would he call on her spirit to lead them to further victories from beyond. One such instance was in the 32nd year of Wu Ding's reign, when he took the bold step of invading Guifang. The name of this territory is translated, revealingly, as the Land of the Demons. The people who lived there constantly harassed the northern and western borders of the empire, and were greatly feared for their battle and raiding prowess.

They excelled in a style of mounted combat unique to their homelands, precision archery from horseback. Later authors, including Sima Qian, concluded that these northern demons would later come to be known as the loose confederacy of steppe warrior peoples known as the Xiongnu during the Han dynasty and as the Hun or Mongolian hordes that would brutally subjugate most of Eurasia in the 13th century CE. Two thousand years prior, the Shang may have been the first to refer to these fearsome warriors as demons, but they would by no means be the last. For now, however, the demons were still containable, and with the blessings of Fu Hao's spirit,

the Shang armies would emerge triumphant after three years of brutal combat and terrible losses. Recognizing their defeat, the Guifang sent emissaries from their Qiang and Di tribes to negotiate a peace with Emperor Wuding around 1215 BCE. Wuding would rule and expand his empire for another 23 years before joining Fu Hao in the Royal Crypts in 1192 BCE. He is regarded as one of the best of the Shang emperors, as he had so greatly expanded the reach and power of the empire, which by this point numbered as many as 13.5 million people. Moreover, culture flourished during his reign, with great advancements made in areas such as textile manufacture, medicine, and astronomy. With the death of Wuding, we will have passed the high watermark of the Shang dynasty. It's all downhill from here. In part two of this week's two-part special,

we're going to follow that slide down all the way to its end, with the last emperor of Shang, King Zou Xin, meeting his end at the hands of the lord of Zhou, Ji Fa. Thank you for listening. History isn't black and white, yet too often it's presented as such. Grey History, The French Revolution is a long-form history podcast dedicated to exploring the ambiguities and nuances of the past. From a revolution of hope and liberty to the infamous reign of terror, you can't understand the modern world without understanding the French Revolution. So search for the French Revolution today.