Is “Shooting blood at Heaven and being struck dead by thunder” true?
attested in history
The Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of Yin, records that Wu Yi made a leather bag filled with blood, shot at it from above, and called it 'shooting at Heaven'; later, while hunting between the Wei River, he was struck dead by a sudden thunderstorm. The novel's use of the anecdote about the Shang ruler's debauchery aligns with the official historical record.
Wu Yi
The Shang dynasty had a tyrannical ruler; the official history records that he shot at Heaven and was struck dead by thunder, and the novel's reference to this anecdote aligns with the official history.