King Tai of Zhou
great Zhou clan leader
King Tai of Zhou (Chinese: 周太王; pinyin: Zhōu Tài Wáng; lit. 'Great King of Zhou') or Gugong Danfu (Chinese: 古公亶父; pinyin: Gǔgōng Dǎnfù; lit. 'The Ancient Lord Father Dan') was a leader of the Predynastic Zhou during the Shang dynasty in ancient China. His great-grandson Fa would later conquer the Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty.
Name
"King Tai" was a posthumous name bestowed upon him by his descendants. He was never a king during his lifetime. He was earlier known as Gu Gong Danfu (Ancient Patriarch Dan), for instance, in the Classic of Poetry. Occasionally, a few scholars refer to him as Ji Danfu, referencing his surname Ji (姬).
History
In the family hymns recorded in the Classic of Poetry, the Ji family is traced from the miraculous birth of the Xia dynasty culture hero and court official Houji caused by his mother's stepping into a footprint left by the supreme god Shangdi. The Records of the Grand Historian instead makes Houji the son of the Emperor Ku, connecting his family to the Yellow Emperor who was sometimes also given the Zhou's surname.
The public source identifies “King Tai of Zhou” as great Zhou clan leader. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around King, Zhou and great.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “King Tai of Zhou”, the useful work is to connect “great Zhou clan leader” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q198009.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “King Tai of Zhou”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow King Tai of Zhou primary sources, King Tai of Zhou archive and King research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “King Tai of Zhou”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “King Tai of Zhou” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.