Page 449 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

millAt and rice fields of the Yellow River valley provided ample
provision for men and horses. Near the city the invading army
had been met by the vastly greater army of Shang, but the
superior training of the men of Chou and their heavier chariots

(for Chou used four horses to a chariot, whereas Shang generally
had but two) had won the day. And the sybaritic emperor of
Shang, Chou-hsin, had committed suicide with refined courage,
retiring to a summer palace, arraying himself in his finest robes

and jewels, and setting fire to the palace. He had perished in the
flames, and his two favorite concubines had hanged themselves.
Since then, for the last seven years, King Wu of Chou had

ruled the lands of the Yellow River, in truth as far as the east­
ern sea. He had rewarded his generals and his allies with grants
of estates and with dukedoms throughout the conquered lands,
enjoining that for their fiefs they should supply contingents for

his army. What to do with the actual district of Shang had been
somewhat of a problem. The enmity of spirits as powerful as those

of the deceased Shang emperors could not be risked, and their
malevolence towards the new rulers would be certain unless
the supply of sacrifices to them was continued. And it could, of
course, only be continued by one of their own line. Fortunately

the son of the last Shang emperor was willing to co-operate. He
had been left as vassal king in the city of Shang, with the task of
continuing the offerings to his ancestors, and with two brothers

of King Wu, the dukes Kuan and Ts’ai, to take the actual burden
of ruling off his shoulders. A younger brother of King Wu was at
the same time created Duke of Chou itself.

For seven years thereafter there had been peace in Chou,
though the earls and dukes of the border marches were kept
busy repelling raids or extending their domains, and inci­

dentally those of the Chou empire, ever farther to north and
south.
But now King Wu was dead and his son was only a boy. And

the great dukes, with their personally loyal armies, needed a
warrior king to keep them in order. News soon reached the
capital at Feng that Duke Kuan and Duke Ts’ai of Shang had

refused to acknowledge the young king, and were claiming the
throne for the king of Shang, their proteg6.