Tai Jia () or Da Jia, personal name Zǐ Zhì, was the son of Prince Da Ding and a king of the ancient Chinese

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally suc ...

Biography

In the ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'' he was listed by Sima Qian as the fourth Shang king, succeeding his uncles

Wai Bing Bu Bing or Wai Bing, personal name Zǐ Shèng, was a Shang dynasty King of China. In the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', he was listed by Sima Qian as the second Shang king, succeeding his father Tang, following the earlier death of his eld ...

and Zhong Ren. He was enthroned in BCE 1535 with

Yi Yin Yi Yin (, born Yī Zhì ( 伊挚), also known as A Heng ( 阿衡)), was a Chinese politician who served as a minister of the early Shang dynasty, and one of the honoured officials of the era. He helped Tang of Shang, the founder of the Shang dyna ...

as his prime minister and Bo () as his capital. He was an

autocratic ruler Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...

who treated his people badly and broke his own laws. A few years into his reign saw internal disorder among the court. Prime Minister Yi Yin advised him to change his ways but the headstrong king ignored the advice of the elder statesman. Eventually Yi Yin had no other choice but to exile the king to the Tong Palace (), in present-day Southwest Yanshi county,

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

province near the tomb of the first Shang king Tang, to repent. Sima Qian says that following the exile Yi Yin ruled the country as regent for three years until he felt that the king had sufficiently changed and invited him back to the capital to reclaim his throne. From that point on the king took care of his people and managed the government well. So that in the 10th year of his reign Yi Yin resigned from his post and retired, honoring the king, after his death, as Zhong Zong (中宗). The '' Bamboo Annals'' however tell a very different story; claiming that after the exile Yi Yin seized the throne and ruled as king for seven years later until Tai Jia secretly returned to the palace and killed his former Prime Minister. Afterwards the king assigned Yi Yin's land and castle to his sons, Yi She () and Yi Fen (). Since archaeological evidence shows that Yi Yin was still worshipped by the Shang people several hundred years after his death, the former account is widely considered the more reliable. According to both sources the king ruled for 12 years before death. He was given the posthumous name Tai Jia () and was succeeded by his son Wo Ding ().

Oracle script Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millennium BC, and is the earliest kno ...

inscriptions on bones unearthed at

Yinxu Yinxu (modern ; ) is the site of one of the ancient and major historical capitals of China. It is the source of the archeological discovery of oracle bones and oracle bone script, which resulted in the identification of the earliest known Chines ...

alternatively record that he was the third Shang king, succeeding his father Da Ding (), given the posthumous name Da Jia (), and succeeded by his brother Bu Bing ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tai Jia Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Shang dynasty kings