This article is part of CGTN’s “China In Ink” project. The project brings the tremendous world of classic Chinese literature to the fingertips of global audiences.
The morning sun came amid rain and cold. Chilled swords and dagger-axes numbed the palms holding them. The grass of the battlefield was wet, waiting for the chariots to roll towards a destiny in the making, for the warriors and the early Chinese civilization.
The stage was set for the Battle of Muye, one of the most extolled combats in ancient Chinese history. It was fought between Shang, the second Chinese dynasty, and Zhou, a throne challenger at the time which would go one to rule China until 256 BC.
The public interest in the historic battle was rekindled following the success of a Chinese fantasy franchise, Creation of the Gods, an adoption of a 16th-century novel about the Shang and Zhou conflict. The second installment was released on Wednesday, the first day of the Chinese New Year. It builds up to Muye’s showdown where in the film demi-gods of opposing camps are poised to fight, for glory or in defiance of a higher providence – a hybrid between Homer’s Iliad and X-Men.
Historians agree that the battle actually happened, though minus the supernatural. Late February 1046 BC is a likely date, but this is not without doubt given that ancient sources are not only hard to come by but also border on myth.
Later records of the battle often follow a narrative of a righteous prince taking on an infamous king with both claiming to have been approved by the Heaven to rule.
The story begins with a mythical figure named Xie. Legend has it that Xie’s mother conceived him after swallowing a black bird’s egg. And as fairy tales usually go, the child was born for greatness.
The clan that Xie is credited with starting is called Shang. Around the late 17th century BC, Xie’s descendants founded a dynasty in the clan’s name.
For the next 600 years, 30 Shang kings ruled the kingdom, which spread in the North China Plain along the Yellow River. During their reign, China entered the Bronze Age.
Shang is the first Chinese dynasty to leave written records. That is Jiaguwen, the oracle bone inscriptions.
Many of these scripts have been discovered in central China’s Anyang. It was the ancient kingdom’s capital for nearly three centuries, going by the name of Yin.
Shang moved its capital several times and Yin was the last. But the fall of Shang came to be in Zhaoge, some 20 kilometers away from Yin. Whether Zhaoge ever served as a capital remains debated, but the consensus is that the dynasty was mired in troubles during the Zhaoge era. The corrupt court and wars with hostile clans left people suffering.
The last nail in the Shang coffin was at the hands of an infamous king named Di Xin. He built an ostentatious pavilion in Zhaoge, where he lived extravagantly and killed indiscriminately. He had ruled so savagely that his name is still a synonym for tyranny in China.
It was in Zhaoge that Di Xin and Shang met their fates, and the man who sealed that fate was Ji Fa. The clan under his leadership also had a mythical origin, allegedly owed to a woman who got pregnant after stepping on the footprint of a deity.
Before Ji Fa was born, his clan had migrated for centuries in search for secure and fertile lands. Along the way, they came to refer to themselves by the name of Zhou. Eventually, they settled at the foot of Qi Mountain in today’s Shaanxi Province. According to the deciphered oracle bone inscriptions, Zhou was drawn into Shang’s orbit by the 12th century BC, probably by force.
Zhou’s expansion must have intimidated its enfeebled Shang overlord. Ji Fa’s grandfather, a very celebrated Zhou leader, was killed by the order of Di Xin’s grandfather.
When Ji Fa succeeded as King Wu of Zhou, the showdown between him and Di Xin was inevitable, though it was over quickly.
A bronze vessel known as “Li gui” provides the key and earliest evidence. It has 32 characters inscribed on the surface in commemoration of King Wu’s conquest of Shang that was “on the morning of jiazi.” Jiazi (甲子) is the first day on the ancient Chinese time-recording system. Efforts continue to find the corresponding date for this jiazi on the modern calendar.
On that fateful morning, the new Zhou king had six regiments marching towards Zhaoge.
“Upon the Heaven’s decree I am to punish Di Xin,” Ji Fa declared in his call to arms.
Muye was a heavily guarded gateway to Zhaoge. Securing it could render Di Xin defenseless. Ji Fa decided to launch a surprise attack. An elite vanguard of 300 chariots and 3,000 warriors raced on.
A later Zhou source says that it began to rain before King Wu’s troops took up their formation.
On the king’s order, the Zhou men started to charge despite being outnumbered. But the size of the Shang troopers did not boost their morale. Years of war had already sapped the kingdom’s military strength. Its command system was in disarray under a corrupt court and a corrupt king.
Zhou soldiers quickly tore down the Shang defense line. The defenders deserted their positions and surrendered in haste. The battle ended with a runaway victory for Zhou.
Having lost at Muye, Di Xin knew his days were numbered. He returned to his beloved pavilion and set himself on fire.
Ji Fa didn’t stop at the death of his foe and continued to hunt Shang loyalists. But he failed to see the fruits of his effort. Two years after the fall of Zhaoge, Ji Fa died of sickness.
But the new kingdom of Zhou he created lived on for another 800 years.