States
Wu

Unlike its frequent antagonist Ywe, Wu is early integrated into the Sinitic scheme of things; at some point it acquires the Jou royal surname Ji, and a mythical founding ancestor, Tai-bwo, who supposedly first bore that surname. There are good reasons for believing that the incorporation of Wu into the recognized Jou ancestral states took place between the time of Jau-gung (late 06c), who took a wife from the Wu people, and the time when LY *7:31 was written, which denounces that union as consanguineous (c0342).

Given its supposed early acquisition of the Ji surname, Wu (or more accurately Tai-bwo) figures as the first of the local lineages in that section of the Shr Ji (SJ 31). This is merely an acculturation myth. Wu, like Ywe, belonged to the non-Sinitic coastal culture, which in many ways, including language and religion, was distinct from the Central Plains culture of Shang and its successors as the rulers of that territory.

• History
• Chronology
• Language
  • Lexicon
• Religion

Readings

• Luo Chia-li. Coastal Culture and Religion in Early China. UMI (1999) 9950782

8 Feb 2007 / Contact The Project / Exit to Results