At some point, a mound of earth was discovered on the beach of the Nanqi River in Qi County, Henan Province. There was a monument next to it with the words "Tomb of Su Daji" written on it. According to experts or popular opinions on the Internet, Su Daji was actually an ordinary concubine, not the vicious woman who aided the emperor in his misfortune. Is that true? Let me also share my views.

The tombstone is a mystery

From the many pictures of tombstones circulated on the Internet, we can clearly see that the words on the tombstone are actually in regular script. This makes me very curious, when did regular script become popular in the Shang Dynasty during the Oracle era?

For this reason, I specifically searched for the oracle bone inscriptions with the three characters Su Daji, but unfortunately I could not find them. But if the character "Da" is split into the characters "女" and "Dan", and the character "Ji" is added, the oracle bone inscriptions of these three characters are as follows.

The oracle bone inscription with the character "Su" has not been found, but you can refer to the evolved Xiaozhuan and official script.

The regular script evolved from the official script and was first formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. According to historical records, the earliest regular script was created by Wang Cizhong. According to this, if this tombstone is authentic, it was also a tombstone erected by people after the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Is Daji really innocent?

According to online news, from the information in Daji’s tomb, we learned that she was just an ordinary concubine of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty. She was a woman obtained by King Zhou from his crusade against the Su tribe. She did not instigate it. King Zhou went to do those unscrupulous things. The statement about Daji's destruction of the country actually comes from the novel "The Romance of the Gods".

So, is this really the case?

According to the "Book of Zhou Mu Oath", the king said: "The ancients said: 'There is no morning for a hen; the morning for a hen is only a rope for the family.' Now the king of Shang accepts the words of his wife..." . At the swearing-in meeting before the Battle of Muye, King Wu of Zhou clearly pointed out that King Zhou of Shang only listened to women. Couldn't this woman be the murdered Queen Jiang? Obviously, she is Daji.

In fact, history books have never concealed Daji’s identity. She was the daughter of the Su family, and no one said otherwise, right?

However, don’t ignore the following six words, which are to build a royal palace and establish a jade gate. According to historical records, King Zhou built Qiongshi, Lutai, Yumen, Wine Pond and Meat Forest in Chaoge. So, wasn’t Chaoge built for Daji? Doesn't this also reflect King Zhou's love for Daji, and because of this, he embarked on the path of arrogance and extravagance?

Who will bury Daji?

According to "Historical Records", King Wu of Zhou beheaded King Zhou and Daji and left. So, who will collect and bury their bodies? Only Wu Geng, the son of King Zhou. Because after King Wu of Zhou established the Zhou Dynasty, he enfeoffed Chaoge (formerly Yiyi, now Qi County, Henan) to Wu Geng, the son of King Zhou. After Wu Geng's rebellion, Wei Zi was canonized in the later Song Dynasty.

After Wu Geng's rebellion, the Song Dynasty moved its capital to Shangqiu

For Wu Geng, although he hated what King Zhou and Su Daji did, he was his father after all, and he died. It is even more impossible to stand from the perspective of the Zhou people and criticize their evil deeds in the documents in the tomb. Therefore, it is quite normal that the information in Daji's tomb contains only a brief description of his life but no relevant information about his evil deeds.

As for the simplicity of Daji’s tomb, it is not difficult to understand. Under the supervision of the Zhou royal family, could Wu Geng still be able to do so much for the concubines of the previous dynasty? It would be more reasonable to bury the matter hastily.

Exterior view of Daji’s tomb

Conclusion

The documents in Daji’s tomb unearthed in Henan seem to cry out injustice to the world. She was responsible for the fall of the Shang Dynasty for thousands of years. The black pot. However, the text on the stone tablet in front of the tomb is difficult to understand. Why did the regular script characters that appeared after the Eastern Han Dynasty appear on the tombstone in the late Shang and early Zhou Dynasties?

The records in the "Bamboo Chronicles" once again proved to the world that Chaoge City was indeed built by King Zhou to please Daji. The person most likely to bury King Zhou and Daji was Wu Geng, the son of King Zhou who was enfeoffed in Qiyi. It was impossible for him to criticize them in their tomb documents, but under the supervision of the Zhou royal family, he could only bury them. Buried hastily.