Wu Taibo

Wu Taibo is the name of eldest son of King Tai of the Zhou dynasty and the ancestor of King Wu of Zhou. His birth and death dates are still unknown due to lack of historical records.

Biography

He had two younger brothers, Jili and Zhongyong. Both the youngest brother, Jili, and his son were renowned for their wisdom, and so King Zhou wished to make Jili his heir. For this reason, Taibo fled to Jin; thus was Jili made the king (King Ji of Zhou), and his son, Chang, later inherited his throne to become King Wen of Zhou. The Wu Taibo and his brother settled down in "meili" (梅里), which is believed to be today's Meicun of Wuxi next to Tai Lake in Jiangsu Province northeast of Shanghai. Some historic records lead to somewhere closer to Suzhou.

According to Sima Qian, the Kingdom of Wu was founded by Wu Taibo (吳太伯). The king called his kingdom "Gowu". The Wu aristocratic elite learned the written Chinese language and adopted Chinese political institutions and military technology. Meanwhile, in Jin, thousands of families of natives came to Taibo raise him as the ruler in the region, and he proclaimed himself "Gou Wu". Traditional accounts attribute the cultural changes to Wu Taibo. Originally considered a barbarian state, the people of the Wu Kingdom became Sinicized during the Warring States Period.

Taibo made Meili his capital, after which it is said that he ordered the Canal Du to be dug. During his reign, Taibo also developed irrigation, and encouraged agriculture in the region. When Taibo died, he had no heirs, so the throne was passed onto his younger brother, Zhongyong.Taibo's shrine was set up in today's Meicun and the original wood structure was destroyed during the wars over the course of history. It has been renovated several times and today's architecture is mostly from Qing dynasty. A stone carved with Confucius' comment can still be seen in today's Taibo Shrine.

Much later, when King Wu had ended the Shang dynasty, he made Zhouzhang, a descendant of Zhong Yong, the King of the State of Wu.^[1]

Diplomatic visits to Japan by the later Northern Chinese dynasties Wei and Jin Dynasty (265–420) recorded that the Wō people of Japan claimed to be descendants of the Grand Count (Tàibó) of the Kingdom of Wu.

Reference

1. ^ Records of the Grand Historian – Family of Wu Taibo(zh:《史记·吴太伯世家》)