A lightning strike transmigrated Zu An into another world. In that world, he was known as the tr*sh of Brightmoon City, but for some reason, he was married to the gorgeous and highly talented daugh...
Zuan looked at the fourth set of murals and said, "Hey, there's a woman in this mural, and she's quite pretty."
Mi Li snorted: "You're so obsessed with whether women are pretty or not, it's disrespectful to our ancestors. This is Fu Hao, the queen of Wu Ding, one of the greatest monarchs of the Shang Dynasty. After Pan Geng moved the capital, the Shang Dynasty gradually stabilized. By the time of Wu Ding, the once declining state had become strong again. Besides Wu Ding's abilities, his queen Fu Hao played a significant role."
"At that time, the Guifang, Tufang, Qiangfang, Renfang, and Hufang tribes surrounding the Shang Dynasty were all very powerful and also coveted the Shang Dynasty's land and wealth..."
Zuan interrupted her and asked, "Fang? What do you mean?"
“Fang was the Shang Dynasty’s name for the surrounding foreign tribes and countries,” Mi Li explained, then looked at Fu Hao’s portrait. “At that time, the Shang Dynasty was in dire straits. As the queen, Fu Hao personally led the army to fight and defeated the invading foreign tribes one by one. She also took the opportunity to destroy several Fang states, which brought the Shang Dynasty to complete stability. Such an extraordinary woman is truly admirable.”
Noticing the gleam in her eyes and the look of longing on her face, Zu An remembered that she was also an empress, and perhaps she was deeply moved by seeing Fu Hao's achievements.
Mi Li approached the next set of murals and suddenly frowned: "Strange!"
"What's wrong?" Zuan asked curiously. The murals in front of them were located on the bank of a large river. There were many large boats on the river, decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, looking quite festive. On both sides of the river, there was a procession escorting the bride and groom, as if a grand wedding was being held.
Mi Li pointed to a few words on the side and said, "The theme of this mural is 'A Match Made in Heaven,' but if I remember correctly, 'A Match Made in Heaven' comes from the Book of Songs, Odes of the Kingdom of Zhou, Da Ming, which describes the story of Ji Chang, the founding monarch of the Zhou Dynasty, marrying Tai Si."
"When Ji Chang was still the Marquis of Xibo, he met Tai Si on the banks of the Wei River. He was amazed by her beauty. Later, he learned that Tai Si was kind, reasonable, and lived a simple life. Ji Chang decided to marry Tai Si. Because there was no bridge over the Wei River, Ji Chang decided to build boats on the Wei River as a bridge, connecting the boats to form a pontoon bridge. He personally welcomed Tai Si in a grand ceremony."
Zuan asked curiously, "What you're saying is the same as what's depicted in this painting, so what's so strange about it?"
“That’s the strange thing,” Mi Li frowned. “Tai Si was a noblewoman from the State of Xin. Although the State of Xin was part of the Shang Dynasty, it was definitely not a true princess of the Shang royal family. However, the inscription next to this mural records that King Di Yi of Shang married his beautiful sister to Ji Chang, which led to a perfect match. But how is that possible? It contradicts the records in the Book of Songs and even in the literature of various dynasties.”
"Di Yi?" Zu An was dizzy from hearing this. The names of these Shang kings were all sorts of different ones, and it was really overwhelming.
Mi Li replied, "He was the penultimate ruler of the Shang Dynasty, the father of the well-known King Zhou."
“King Zhou,” Zu’an’s eyes lit up. “I know him. It’s common knowledge that he favored the fox spirit Daji and acted tyrannically, which led to the downfall of the Shang Dynasty. I wonder how beautiful Daji was to bewitch him like that.”
Whether in textbooks or in the novel "Investiture of the Gods," King Zhou of Shang and Daji are not portrayed as positive figures. However, he doesn't care about these things; he is more curious about what the most famous fox spirit in Chinese history actually looks like—a femme fatale.
"What a lecherous man!" Mi Li spat. Interrupted by him, she stopped worrying about the mural "A Match Made in Heaven" and pointed to the remaining set, saying, "The Daji you want to see is right here."
Zuan hurriedly ran over out of curiosity and discovered a woman with graceful lines in the mural. Unfortunately, the mural was too blurry to make out her features clearly, but he could only judge from the lines that she was indeed a stunning beauty: "Wow, what a slim waist! And such big breasts, almost as big as Da Manman's..."
Mi Li rolled her eyes, clearly used to his lecherous look, and continued to explain while looking at the murals: "This set of murals tells the story of the fall of the Shang Dynasty. This section depicts the Battle of Muye, where the Shang army defected and suffered a complete defeat... In despair, King Zhou and Daji committed suicide by burning themselves on the Deer Terrace. The Zhou Dynasty was established, and King Zhou's crown prince, Wu Geng, was enfeoffed in Yin to continue his ancestral sacrifices."
"Huh?" Zu'an asked curiously, "Wasn't the Shang dynasty destroyed by the Zhou? How could they tolerate King Zhou's crown prince continuing to stay in its capital and use the Shang dynasty's name?"
“There was an unspoken rule in ancient times called ‘when you destroy a country, you don’t extinguish its ancestral sacrifices,’ but it was just a nice-sounding saying,” Mi Li sneered. “In the end, it was because the remaining forces of the other side were strong enough that the side that destroyed the country had to make some compromises. In history, the Zhou people destroyed many small countries, but I have never heard of them preserving their sacrifices. Our Qin country is not so hypocritical. If we want to destroy a country, we will destroy it directly. If we say we will kill their whole family, we will kill their whole family.”
Zuan: "..."
Looking at Mi Li's eyes shining with a frenzied look, Zu An couldn't help but swallow hard. This woman was really too fierce.
Mi Li continued, "The Shang Dynasty had been established for hundreds of years. Even after King Zhou died, its remaining forces were still very strong. The Zhou people left Wu Geng in Yin to continue as the Shang king. Don't be fooled by how easily the Zhou people defeated King Zhou in the Battle of Muye. Four years later, Wu Geng rebelled in Yin. This time, it took the Zhou people more than three years to completely defeat him."
"Even if Wu Geng's lineage were wiped out, the Shang people still had two powerful forces. King Zhou's uncle, Ji Zi, refused to submit to Zhou, so he led a part of the Yin people to migrate north and establish the Joseon Kingdom, historically known as Ji Zi Joseon. King Zhou's brother, Wei Zi Qi, led his troops to establish the Song Kingdom. The Song Kingdom was quite famous in history, you should know that. During the Spring and Autumn Period, many jokes were about the people of Song, such as waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree stump, the wise man suspecting his neighbor, the people of Song finding sunbathing comfortable and presenting it to the king as a secret recipe, and the people of Song thinking they were clever and hoarding a lot of hats to sell in the Yue Kingdom where hats were not worn, only to lose a lot of money... The protagonists of this series of stories were all foolish people from Song."
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