As one of the vassal states surnamed Ji during the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu has always been regarded as a descendant of the Zhou royal family. However, one question is thought-provoking: before the destruction of the Shang Dynasty, was it really possible for the Zhou people, who were still accumulating strength in Xiqi, to expand their sphere of influence in Jiangsu and Zhejiang?
On this issue, is the record in "Wu Taibo's Family", the head of the "Historical Records" family, in line with historical facts?
According to the record of "Wu Taibo's Family", the two sons of King Tai of Zhou, Tai Bo and Zhong Yong, in order to fulfill the virtuous younger brother Ji Li, crossed south to the wild Wu land, expanded the territory, and founded the state of Wu.
Another theory is that Taibo and Zhongyong may have been sent by King Tai of Zhou to the east to establish a stronghold of the Zhou people, forming an encirclement of the Yin Shang with the Zhou people's homeland in Xiqi, and laying out the Zhou people's Jiangshan Sheji in advance.
From a strategic point of view, this move is undoubtedly a bold attempt. However, the key is whether the Zhou people at that time had the ability to cross thousands of mountains and rivers, avoid the control areas of the Shang Dynasty, cross the numerous barbarian tribes, and successfully reach the land of Wu and report the safety of the Zhou people's hometown in Xiqi?
During the reign of King Taiwang of Zhou, the state of Zhou was still a small country in Xiqi, and due to the attack of Rong Di, it was forced to leave its hometown and migrate to Zhou Yuan at the foot of Qishan Mountain, and was in the stage of restoring national strength and accumulating strength.
At that time, the Shang Dynasty was a behemoth for them, and even in the face of the princes of Xirong and the East, the Zhou State had no advantage. At least in the time of King Tai of Zhou, the Zhou people did not have the ability to colonize over long distances.
Through the efforts of the two generations of Zhou Gong Jili and King Wen of Zhou, the Zhou State had the strength to compete with the Shang Dynasty. On the map, the distance from Xiqi to Wu is about two thousand kilometers, which is an insurmountable distance for the Zhou people in the 12th century BC, even beyond the scope of their geographical knowledge.
Under the transportation conditions at that time and the national strength of the Zhou State, it was an impossible task to open up colonies from today's Shaanxi and Gansu regions to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Moreover, to the west and north of the land of Wu, there were tribes such as Dongyi, Xu Rong and Huaiyi who were good at fighting, and they were not easy to match, Taibo and Zhongyong, as well as the few followers, could not pass smoothly at all.
Even after King Wu established the Zhou Dynasty, most of the first vassal states of the Zhou people were in today's Henan region, and later the vassal states surnamed Ji such as Lu, Qi and Yan in the east were all in present-day Henan when they were first sealed, that is, in the territory of the original Shang Dynasty near the Yellow River Valley.
Shandong, Hebei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were still out of reach for the Zhou people, who had just replaced the Shang Dynasty. It was not until after the Eastern Expedition of the Duke of Zhou that the Zhou Dynasty gradually extended its tentacles to these regions and divided or migrated the princes surnamed Ji there.
In the world ruled by the Zhou Dynasty, the reclamation of the southeast region was not an easy task, especially during the reign of King Taiwang of Zhou, three or four generations ago, King Wu of Zhou and King Cheng of Zhou, father and son, three or four generations ago, even if the Zhou people at that time were ambitious to prepare for the Shang Dynasty, they could not compete with the Shang Dynasty, and it was impossible to talk about dividing troops and attacking the strange and distant southeastern regions.
Before the rise of the Zhou people to the destruction of the Shang, they did have the foresight to establish a number of strategic strongholds that later generations called vassal states, such as Yu and Yu, but these places were distributed not far from the periphery of Zong Zhou Haojing, and were outposts and supply bases that were the only way to attack the Shang Dynasty, which was the maximum range that the Zhou people could control.
In the founding of the Wu Dynasty, the large-depth and large-scale roundabout outflanking of the Shang Dynasty from the flank and rear can only be imagined in the minds of later generations. Therefore, the so-called Taibo and Zhongyong went to the southeast to create the Wu State, which is completely a myth of the later generations of Wu people clinging to the Zhou Tianzi family, and the descendants mixed in a lot of water, passed on by word of mouth, over time, to the Spring and Autumn Period, no one understands the real history at that time.
As a result, mythology became history, and the state of Wu had a noble founding ancestor. In Chinese history, there are countless examples of this kind of clinging to historical celebrities to make themselves shine, such as the Xiongnu after the Jin Dynasty and the small countries surnamed Liu in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, all of whom like to say that they are descendants of Han Gaozu; The Li Tang Dynasty traced its ancestors back to Laozi Li Er; Zhu Yuanzhang even wanted to be related to Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty, such a smeared life experience is not uncommon in history, and it can even be said to be a common thing for the king of a country.
Although the origin and development of the state of Wu has been sealed in the long history, we can speculate that it may have been an indigenous vassal state developed by local tribes, and it was related to the Yue kingdom.
It is worth mentioning that both Wu and Yue have the experience of clinging to royal relatives, Wu is attached to the Zhou royal family, and Yue is attached to the Xia Dynasty (Yue claims to be a descendant of Xia Yu).
In the Western Zhou Dynasty and the early Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Wu was unknown and did not really enter the historical stage until the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period. It is speculated that this may have been due to the fact that the exiled nobles of some vassal states entered the state of Wu, thus promoting the process of Huaxia of the state of Wu.
Although the process of Huaxia of Wu was later than that of Qin and Chu, it was about the same time as that of Yue. At the same time, the state of Wu also actively absorbed Chinese civilization, and its practices were similar to the Sinicization reforms implemented by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty in later generations.
In the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, the state of Wu had completed the transformation of the state of China, and in order to integrate into the social circle of the Chinese princes, obtain an official name, and improve its status in the competition in the Central Plains, the state of Wu fabricated the glorious history of the son of King Tai of Zhou as an ancestor.
At that time, the early history of various countries was chaotic, and the archival records were few and difficult to check, and no one could be sure of the ** of Wu. Since Wu Guo claimed to be a descendant of the surname Ji, this did not affect everyone, and everyone was happy to admit this identity.
As a result, the princes regarded Wu as part of the princes surnamed Ji, and recognized Wu's fictitious early chronicles and royal lineage.
In the mid-to-late Spring and Autumn Period of the Lu State, the people of the Lu State could not remember the history of the Lu Yin Gong era before 722 BC. They can only learn the upper limit of history that people could know in the time of Confucius.
In the state of Wu, people could make up history at will, and myths and stories had become a history of faith in Sima Qian's time. The people of Wu found Taibo and Zhongyong as their ancestors, which were no different from the god-making movement in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.