King Wen of Zhou
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King Wen (Chinese: 周文王; pinyin: Zhōu Wén Wáng) (1099–1050 BC) was the founder of the later Zhou Dynasty (Chinese: 周朝; pinyin: Zhōucháo).
The Zhou state was located in the Wei River valley in present day Shaanxi Province (Simplified Chinese: 陝西; Traditional Chinese: 陕西; pinyin: Shǎnxī). King Wen planned the conquest of the current dynasty in power, the Shang Dynasty (Chinese: 商朝; pinyin: Shāngcháo), but he died before he could accomplish this.
His family name was Ji (Chinese: 姬; pinyin: jī). He married TaiSi (Chinese: 太姒; pinyin: Tàisì) and had at least two sons, Zhou Gong Dan (Chinese: 周公旦; pinyin: Zhōu Gōng Dàn) and Zhou Gong Wu (Chinese: 周公武; pinyin: Zhōu Gōng Wǔ). His second son became King Wu of Zhou (Chinese: 周武王; pinyin: Zhōu Wǔ Wáng) and completed his fathers wishes by defeating the Shang army at their capital. He eventually became the first king of the new Zhou dynasty.
King Wen is also known for his contributions to the Yi Jing (Simplified Chinese: 易经; Traditional Chinese: 易經; pinyin: Yìjīng), a manual of divination based on the eight trigrams (Chinese: 八卦; pinyin: bāguà), one of the Five Classics (Simplified Chinese: 五经; Traditional Chinese: 五經; pinyin: Wǔ Jīng). The most commonly used sequence of the sixty four hexagrams is attributed to King Wen and is usually referred to as the King Wen sequence.
