King Cheng (成王) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify King Cheng as a ruler. This record brings together 2 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	King Cheng	成王	Cheng Wang
Temple name	Cheng	成	Cheng
Temple name	King Cheng	成王	Cheng Wang

Identity

Historicity: Legendary
Identification: Named
Sex: Uncertain

Roles

Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · shiji:099:s0016

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Kin of King Kang of Zhou (康)
Kinship Term: Cheng and Kang / 成康 · Subject Relative Age: elder
Child of King Wu of Zhou (武王)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · shiji:099:s0015

References in the histories

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Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 99Biographies of Liu Jing and Shusun Tong · 2 passages

Open chapter

成王即位，周公之屬傅相焉，乃營成周洛邑，以此為天下之中也，諸侯四方納貢職，道裏均矣，有德則易以王，無德則易以亡。 When King Cheng ascended the throne, Zhou Gong's kinsmen served as his tutors and ministers. They then built Chengzhou at Luoyi, making it the center of the realm, so that the feudal lords from the four directions could submit tribute and service over balanced routes. With virtue, one could easily become king; without virtue, one could easily perish.

今陛下起豐沛，收卒三千人，以之徑往而卷蜀漢，定三秦，與項羽戰滎陽，爭成皋之口，大戰七十，小戰四十，使天下之民肝腦涂地，父子暴骨中野，不可勝數，哭泣之聲未絕，傷痍者未起，而欲比隆於成康之時，臣竊以為不侔也。 Now Your Majesty arose from Feng and Pei, gathered three thousand soldiers, and with them swept through Shu and Han, pacified the Three Qins, battled Xiang Yu at Xingyang, and fought for the pass at Chenggao. In seventy great battles and forty small battles, the people of the realm had their livers and brains smeared on the ground, and fathers and sons exposed their bones in the fields beyond counting. The sound of weeping has not ceased, the wounded have not yet risen, and yet you wish to compare your flourishing age with the time of Cheng and Kang. I privately think they are not equal.