Is “Continuing Shang rites and the Rebellion of the Three Guards” true?
attested in history
The Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of Zhou, records that after King Wu of Zhou conquered Shang, he enfeoffed Wu Geng, son of King Zhou, at Yin. After King Wu's death, Wu Geng allied with Guan Shu in rebellion and was executed by the Duke of Zhou. The novel's account of Wu Geng's fief and lineage matches official history.
Wu Geng
In official histories, he is the son of King Zhou of Shang, enfeoffed at Yin in the early Zhou to continue ancestral rites, later involved in the Rebellion of the Three Guards and executed; the novel retains his lineage and fief background.