Shu Yu of Tang
founder of the State of Tang during the early Zhou Dynasty
Ji Yu, commonly known as "Yu, [Royal] Uncle of Tang" (Chinese: 唐叔虞; pinyin: Táng Shū Yú), was the founder of the Tang state (later renamed "Jin" by his son and successor, Ji Xie). He was a son of King Wu of Zhou and Yi Jiang and the younger brother of King Cheng of Zhou. He was accorded the fief of Tang by King Cheng of Zhou.
Personal life
Shortly after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, King Wu of Zhou died. His son, Prince Song, ascended the throne and became King Cheng of Zhou. Since he was very young and too inexperienced to run the newly founded dynasty, his uncle, the Duke of Zhou, served as regent and handled all political affairs until King Cheng of Zhou became old enough to rule. In the year that King Cheng of Zhou ascended the throne, the people of a land called Tang (唐) rebelled, so the Duke of Zhou conquered them.
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, one day, King Cheng of Zhou was playing with his younger brother, Prince Yu. King Cheng of Zhou suddenly picked up a parasol tree leaf and gave it to Prince Yu. Then he said playfully," Let this be a proof that I will make you a feudal lord." Prince Yu happily got the leaf and he then told this to the Duke of Zhou.
“Shu Yu of Tang” enters the record as founder of the State of Tang during the early Zhou Dynasty. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tang, founder and State can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1052091. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shu Yu of Tang” 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.