Question 1

Is "The cruel punishment of being burned to death on a bronze pillar and the pool of wine and forest of meat" true?

Accepted Answer

The Records of the Grand Historian, 'Annals of Yin,' records that he used wine as a pool and hung meat as a forest; but the Analects, 'Zizhang,' quotes Zigong saying, 'The wickedness of Zhou is not as extreme as this,' suggesting many atrocities were later exaggerated.

Question 2

Is "His favoritism toward Daji led to the fall of the Shang dynasty" true?

Accepted Answer

The Book of Documents, 'Oath of Mu,' accuses him of 'heeding only the words of women'; but the primary causes of Shang's fall were the depletion of resources from campaigns against the Eastern Yi and internal divisions, not the bewitchment by a nine-tailed fox as in the novel.

Question 3

Is "Crushed the Shang army at the Battle of Muye" true?

Accepted Answer

According to the Book of Documents (Wucheng) and Records of the Grand Historian (Annals of Zhou), King Wu led a coalition of feudal lords to rout the Shang forces at Muye; King Zhou of Shang immolated himself, and the Zhou dynasty was established.

Question 4

Is "Relied on immortals from the Chan sect to slay generals and overcome obstacles" true?

Accepted Answer

The Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of Zhou, records that King Wu's conquest of Shang relied on the political strategies and military command of virtuous ministers such as Jiang Shang and the Duke of Zhou, with absolutely no divine protection. The original text: 「武王即位，太公望为师，周公旦为辅」（Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of Zhou, Part 1, data/raw/shiji/周本纪上.txt）

Question 5

Is "Fishing by the Wei River and emerging at seventy" true?

Accepted Answer

The Records of the Grand Historian, in the chapter on the Hereditary House of Qi, records that he was once poor and destitute, and in his old age, he sought an audience with the Earl of the West by fishing; however, in the novel, Taigong meeting King Wen at the age of eighty and possessing supernatural powers is a later legend and fiction. (Original text: 「吕尚盖尝穷困，年老矣，以渔钓奸周西伯。西伯将出猎，卜之，曰“所获非龙非彨非虎非罴；所获霸王之辅”。于是周西伯猎，果遇太公于渭之阳」, source: data/raw/shiji/齐太公世家.txt)

Question 6

Is "Slaying generals, canonizing gods, and presiding over the Fengshen Bang" true?

Accepted Answer

The Records of the Grand Historian, in the Hereditary House of Qi Tai Gong, records him as the ancestor of military strategists, who personally led the vanguard in the Battle of Muye and decisively defeated the Shang army, with absolutely no mention of the events in the Investiture of the Gods where he presided over the Fengshen Bang and the magical battles between the Chan and Jie sects. (Original text: 「武王使师尚父与百夫致师，以大卒驰帝纣师。」, source: data/raw/shiji/周本纪上.txt)

Question 7

Is "A nine-tailed fox spirit possessed her and caused harm" true?

Accepted Answer

Both the 「Guoyu·Jinyu」 and the 「Shiji·Yin Benji」 record only that she was a daughter of the Yousu clan; however, 「Fengshen Yanyi」, chapter 097, states: “众诸侯岂知你是九尾狐狸在恩州驿迷死苏妲己，借窍成形，惑乱天子”, the nine-tailed fox possessing and harming people is entirely a creation of the gods-and-demons novel.

Question 8

Is "She participated in political decisions and influenced Di Xin" true?

Accepted Answer

The Book of Documents, in the 'Oath of Mu', records King Wu of Zhou accusing Di Xin of 'heeding only his wife's words.' However, later attributing all atrocities, such as the viper pit and the dissection of a pregnant woman to verify the fetus, to Daji is literary exaggeration.

Question 9

Is "Cause of mending the sky" true?

Accepted Answer

The Huainanzi, chapter 'Lanming Xun', records that 'the four poles were broken, the nine provinces split', so Nüwa smelted five-colored stones to repair the azure sky. The Huainanzi, chapter 'Tianwen Xun', records that Gonggong angrily struck Mount Buzhou, causing 'the pillar of heaven to break, and the cords of the earth to snap'. The direct causal link between Nüwa mending the sky and Gonggong striking the mountain does not exist in early texts such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas; it is a mythological system gradually pieced together by later generations.

Question 10

Is "Making humans from clay" true?

Accepted Answer

The widely circulated myth of Nüwa making humans from clay is not explicitly recorded in early pre-Qin texts. The Songs of Chu, 'Tianwen', only raises the question, 'Nüwa has a body, who crafted it?' The Classic of Mountains and Seas, 'Dahuang Xijing', only mentions ten gods named Nüwa's intestines. The claim of making humans from yellow clay finds no basis in the aforementioned early texts; it is the result of gradual formation in later folk legends.

Question 11

Is "He ate a cake made from the flesh of Bo Yikao" true?

Accepted Answer

The Records of the Grand Historian, in the Hereditary House of Guan and Cai, only records that Bo Yikao died early without issue; the plot of Bo Yikao being chopped into meat patties and given to King Wen to eat originates from Song-Yuan historical storytellers and the Investiture of the Gods. The original text: 「故文王舍伯邑考而以发为太子。及文王崩而发立，是为武王。伯邑考既已前卒矣。」（Records of the Grand Historian, Hereditary House of Guan and Cai, data/raw/shiji/管蔡世家.txt）

Question 12

Is "He held two-thirds of the realm but still served the Shang" true?

Accepted Answer

The Analects, 'Taibo', praises him for 'holding two-thirds of the realm but still serving the Shang.' Official history records that he was benevolent, respected the elderly, and treated worthy men with courtesy, leading many诸侯 to submit to the Zhou tribe.

How Investiture Rewrote Shang and Zhou: From Muye to 365 Divine Offices

One historical frame, two systems of causation

How Daji and the nine-tailed fox became one character

Jiang Taigong: counsellor by the Wei and executor of investiture

Death becomes an entrance into divine office

The list turns scattered figures into a governed cosmos

Figure by figure