In ancient times, the throne was generally inherited by the eldest son and eldest grandson, but the throne of King Taiwang passed to his youngest son, Ji Li. According to the order of the eldest and youngest of the brothers' "Uncle Ji", Ji Li is the youngest son in the family.
It is said that because Ji Li was the most talented of the sons, the other sons voluntarily gave up the throne to him. The eldest and second sons of the prince, who had abdicated the throne, left Zhou Yuan and went south along the Yellow River to present-day Hunan. Therefore, there is a saying that the ancestors of some ethnic minorities in Hunan are the eldest and second sons of King Taiwang. Later, when King Wu established the Western Zhou Dynasty, the descendants of King Tai's eldest son and second son also returned to the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Whether voluntarily or politically, the throne was passed to his youngest son, Ji Li, who in turn passed the throne to his son, the historical King Wen of Zhou.
After the tribe of Zhou Yuan, who cultivated and weaved and lived and worked in peace and contentment under the Qishan Mountain, became richer and stronger, King Wen of Zhou was divided into feudal titles by the Yin Shang Dynasty. Because Zhou Yuan was in the west of Anyang (now Anyang, in northern Henan), the capital of the Yin Shang Dynasty, King Wen of Zhou was named Xibohou. Because King Wen of Zhou's surname is Ji Mingchang, it is also known as Xibochang.
During the reign of Xi Bochang, he was diligent in political affairs, attached importance to agricultural production, was a corporal of Lixian, recruited talents, worshiped Jiang Shang (Jiang Ziya) as a military advisor, formulated a military plan, subdued the surrounding neighboring countries, and formed a sphere of influence of "the world is divided into three, and the second is returned to Zhou".
When"The tribe of "Zhou" developed more and more powerful under the governance of Xibohou, so strong that it had affected the rule of the Yin Shang Dynasty, which aroused the vigilance of the king of the Yin Shang Dynasty, and the matter of "Fengming Qishan" strongly stimulated the king of Zhou, so the king of Zhou recruited Xibochang to Anyang, the capital of the Yin Shang Dynasty, and found an excuse to detain him in Jinli (now Tangyin, Henan), which lasted for seven years.
Legend has it that when Xi Bochang governed Zhou Yuan better and better, a phoenix flew around Qishan and flew around Qishan and chirped for seven days and seven nights before leaving, which is the legendary story of the famous "Fengming Qishan". The phoenix is also auspicious.
Fengming Qishan" may be due to the expansion of Xibochang's sphere of influence, he is building momentum, but no matter how this phoenix came about, "Fengming Qishan" strongly stimulated the king of Shang Shang, the monarch of the Yin Shang Dynasty at that time.
It is also written in the Fengshen Bang that the king of Shang tortured and insulted Xi Bohou during his detention, and even killed Xi Bochang's eldest son Bo Yi Kao. From the perspective of the common people, they will think that the king of Shang is extremely cruel, and for the king of Shang, he is just self-preservation, which is a counterattack by the king of Shang.
During the seven years that Xi Bochang was detained in Jinli, he endured the killing of his eldest son and deduced "Zhou Yi". "Zhou Yi" is the "Book of Changes".
Under the deduction of Xi Bochang, the Book of Changes deduced 64 hexagrams from the eight trigrams founded by Fu Xi. Because the "Book of Changes" of the sixty-four hexagrams was deduced by Xi Bochang, and Xi Bochang was later respected as King Wen of Zhou, the "Book of Changes" of the sixty-four hexagrams was crowned with the word Zhou, and it was called "Zhou Yi".
Sima Qian once wrote in his work: Xibo detained and played Zhou Yi. This is the King of Wen who can achieve something in the face of adversity. His title of King Wen was only given to his son King Wu after he established the Western Zhou Dynasty, and he was always called Xibohou during his reign.
He was imprisoned for seven years, and the king of Xu, believing that he had surrendered, released him. After the released Xi Bochang returned to Zhou Yuan, he and his second son, Ji Fa, began to take revenge and overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Shang king.
Ten years after the death of Xibohou (1046 BC), his second son Ji Fa succeeded in destroying Shang and established the Western Zhou Dynasty, Ji Fa was named King Wu of Zhou, and his father Xibohou Ji Chang was posthumously named King Wen of Zhou.