Ancient China · Ruler

King Cheng of Zhou 周成王

Zhou Cheng Wang

Attested c. BC 1042 - BC 1021

Passages: 32
Chapters: 17
Histories: 6

Overview

The translated histories identify King Cheng of Zhou as a ruler. This record brings together 32 passages from 17 chapters across 6 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	King Cheng of Zhou	周成王	Zhou Cheng Wang
Temple name	Cheng	成	Cheng
Regnal abbreviation	Cheng	成	Chéng
Personal name	Cheng	成	Chéng
Title	King Cheng	成王	Cheng Wang
Personal name	King Cheng	成王
Title	King Cheng	成	Cheng
Regnal	King Cheng	成王	Chéng Wáng
Personal	King Cheng	成王	Cheng Wang
Personal	King Cheng	成	Cheng
Title	King Cheng	成王
Title	King Cheng	成王	Chéng Wáng
Alternate	King Cheng	成	Cheng
Regnal	King Cheng	成王	Cheng Wang
Personal name	King Cheng of Zhou	周成
Title	King Cheng of Zhou	周成王
Regnal	King Cheng of Zhou	周成王	Zhou Cheng Wang
Descriptive kinship	the boy king	成王

Identity

Historicity: Uncertain
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · beiqishu:031:s0127, hanshu:006:s0191, houhanshu:131:s0050, shiji:088:s0078
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:008:s0144, houhanshu:032:s0100
Value: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:070:s0162

Roles

Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · beiqishu:031:s0127, hanshu:006:s0191, houhanshu:037:s0092
Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:050:s0123
Source Date: Text: BC 1042-1021 · Western Interval: Start: BC 1042 · End: BC 1021
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:032:s0100
Source Date: Text: 周公抱成王宴居 · Western Interval: Start: BC 1042 · End: BC 1021
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:131:s0050
Source Date: Text: 周成王 · Western Year: c. BC 1042
Explicit · mingshi:115:s0006
Source Date: Text: 周成王初立 · Western Interval: Start: BC 1042 · End: BC 1021
Explicit · shiji:088:s0078
Source Date: Text: 昔 · Western Year: BC 1042
Strongly inferred · hanshu:008:s0144
Source Date: Text: 顯德二年 · Western Year: AD 955
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:115:s0014

Family

Kin of Duke of Zhou (周公)
Kinship Term: Duke of Zhou to King Cheng / 周公 · Line: paternal
Kinship Term: Duke of Zhou / 周公 · Subject Role: uncle-regent · Object Role: king

Places and affiliations

Polity: Zhou / 周 · Relation: ruled
Explicit · hanshu:006:s0191, shiji:088:s0078

Events and relationships

Relation: student-of · Person Id: Duke of Zhou (周公)
Explicit · mingshi:115:s0024

Assessments and attributes

Description: praised in the edict as supremely enlightened / 詔中稱為至明 · Western Year: AD 955 · Provenance: Mode: narrator
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:115:s0014

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · beiqishu:031:s0127

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 31Volume 31 Biographies 23: Wang Xin; Wang Xi · 1 passage

晞曰：「周公抱成王朝諸侯，攝政七年，然後復子明辟，幸有故事，惟殿下慮之。」 Wang Xi said, "The Duke of Zhou held King Cheng in his arms and received the feudal lords, regent seven years, then returned the government and made the son clear sovereign — fortunately there is precedent; only Your Highness must weigh it."

Book of Han, Chapter 6Volume 5: Annals of Emperor Jing · 1 passage

周云成康，漢言文景，美矣！ Zhou is praised for Cheng and Kang, Han for Wen and Jing—what excellence!

Book of Han, Chapter 8Volume 7: Annals of Emperor Zhao · 2 passages

贊曰：昔周成以孺子繼統，而有管、蔡四國流言之變。 In appraisal: In antiquity King Cheng of Zhou succeeded to the throne as a young child, and there arose the affair of the four states of Guan and Cai spreading slanderous rumors.

成王不疑周公，孝昭委任霍光，各因其時以成名，大矣哉！ King Cheng did not doubt the Duke of Zhou; Emperor Zhao entrusted Huo Guang with power. Each, in his own time, achieved renown thereby. How great this was!

Book of Han, Chapter 65Volume 56: Dong Zhongshu · 2 passages

成、康不式，四十餘年天下不犯，囹圄空虛。 Kings Cheng and Kang refused that model, and for forty years no one broke the law and the jails stood empty.

武王行大誼，平殘賊，周公作禮樂以文之，至於成康之隆，囹圄空虛四十餘年，此亦教化之漸而仁誼之流，非獨傷肌膚之效也。 King Wu cut down Zhou’s cruelty, and the Duke of Zhou set rites and music to refine the realm; by the peace of Cheng and Kang the jails stood empty forty years—because custom had shifted and kindness spread, not because men were merely flayed into fear.

Book of Han, Chapter 70Volume 60: Du Zhou · 2 passages

見鳳專政泰重，戒之曰：「昔周公身有至聖之德，屬有叔父之親，而成王有獨見之明，無信讒之聽，然管、蔡流言而周公懼。 Seeing Wang Feng's grip on power grow oppressive, Du Qin warned him: "The Duke of Zhou was the paragon of sagehood and the king's uncle, and King Cheng was a discerning sovereign who refused slander—yet the rumor spread by Guan and Cai still struck terror into the duke.

唯將軍不為四國流言自疑於成王，以固至忠。」 Do not, like the Duke of Zhou, let slander from the four quarters shake your faith in your king—hold fast to perfect loyalty."

Book of Han, Chapter 74Volume 64a: Yan, Zhu, Wuqiu, Zhufu, Xu, Yan, Zhong, Wang, and Jia 1 · 2 passages

名何必夏、子，俗何必成、康！ You need not yet rival Yu and Tang in fame, nor Cheng and Kang in the purity of your age.

雖然，臣竊以陛下天然之質，寬仁之資，而誠以天下為務，則不難侔，而成、康之俗未必不復興也。 Yet given your natural breadth of mind, if you make the people's peace your daily work, you may yet rival the sage founders, and the age of Cheng and Kang may rise again.

Book of Han, Chapter 75Volume 64b: Yan, Zhu, Wuqiu, Zhufu, Xu, Yan, Zhong, Wang, and Jia 2 · 3 passages

臣聞周有天下，其治三百餘歲，成康其隆也，刑錯四十餘年而不用。 I am told the Zhou held the realm for over three hundred years of rule; the reigns of King Cheng and King Kang were its high point, when criminal penalties lay unused for more than forty years.

故周至成王，然後制定，而休徵之應見。 The house of Zhou did not complete its statutes until the reign of King Cheng; only then did propitious omens begin to answer its virtue.

武丁、成王，殷、周之大仁也，然地東不過江、黃，西不過氐、羌，南不過蠻荊，北不過朔方。 Wu Ding of Shang and King Cheng of Zhou were paragons of humanity, yet Shang territory reached east only to the Jiang and Huang domains, west only to the Di and Qiang, south only to the Man tribes of Jing, and north only to Shuofang.

Book of Han, Chapter 76Volume 65: Dongfang Shuo · 2 passages

朔對曰：「堯、舜、禹、湯、文、武、成、康上古之事，經歷數千載，尚難言也，臣不敢陳。 Shuo answered, "The deeds of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang lie so far back in time that even after millennia they are hard to discuss clearly; I would not presume to rehearse them here.

朔對曰：「自唐、虞之隆，成、康之際，未足以諭當世。 Shuo answered, "Not even the heights of Yao and Shun's age, nor the peace of King Cheng and King Kang, gives us a fair yardstick for today.

Book of Han, Chapter 89Volume 78: Xiao Wangzhi · 2 passages

今士見者皆先露索挾持，恐非周公相成王躬吐握之禮，致白屋之意。」 Yet every caller is searched and pinioned first. That is hardly the Duke of Zhou's way with the young King Cheng—interrupting meals and baths to see a petitioner—nor does it show the regard due men in rough cottages."

若此不怠，成、康之道其庶幾乎！ Persevere in this, and the age of Kings Cheng and Kang is not beyond reach.

Book of Han, Chapter 96Volume 85: Gu Yong and Du Ye · 2 passages

四輔既備，成王靡有過事。 With the four counselors in place, the young King Cheng never stumbled.

大風暴過，成王怛然。 when the gale tore the mulberry grove, King Cheng trembled.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 32Volume 28b: Biography of Feng Yan · 1 passage

頌成、康之載德兮，詠《南風》之歌聲。 I hymn Cheng and Kang's virtue and the tune of the 'South Wind.'

Book of Later Han, Chapter 37Volume 32: Biographies of Fan Hong; Yin Shi · 1 passage

成王賢主，崇明師傅。 King Cheng was a wise king who honored his teachers.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 131Volume 120: Treatise on Carriages and Dress, Part Two · 1 passage

袍者，或曰周公抱成王宴居，故施袍。 Commentators link the robe to the Duke of Zhou cradling the boy king at ease—hence the loose outer robe.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 50Volume 50 Book of Later Tang 26: Biographies 2: Imperial Family · 1 passage

史臣曰：昔武皇發跡於陰山，莊宗肇基於河朔，雖奄有天下，而享國日淺，眷言枝屬，空秀棣華，固未及推帝堯敦敘之恩，廣成王封建之義。 The historiographer writes: The Martial Emperor rose from the Yin Mountains and Emperor Zhuangzong founded his rule in Hebei. Though they briefly held the realm, their dynasties were short-lived. Their kinsmen bloomed like catalpa blossoms yet bore no fruit—they never attained Emperor Yao's generous ordering of kin or broadly extended King Cheng's principles of enfeoffment.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 115Volume 115 Book of Later Zhou 17: Shizong Annals 2 · 1 passage

雖堯、舜、禹、湯之上聖，文、武、成康之至明，尚猶思逆耳之言，求苦口之藥，何況後人之不逮哉！ Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang were supreme sages; Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang were supremely enlightened—yet they still welcomed unwelcome counsel and sought bitter medicine for the state. How much more must lesser rulers do so!

History of Ming, Chapter 115Volume 115 Biographies 3: Emperor Xingzong Xiaokang, Emperor Ruizong Xingxian · 2 passages

吳元年，年十三矣，命省臨濠墓，諭曰：「商高宗舊勞于外，周成王早聞《無逸》之訓，皆知小民疾苦，故在位勤儉，為守成令主。 In the first year of the Wu regime, when he was thirteen, he was sent to inspect the ancestral tombs at Fengyang. Hongwu instructed him: "The Shang High Ancestor once labored in the provinces; King Cheng of Zhou was taught the 'Against Idleness' early on—both understood the people's hardships, and so ruled diligently and frugally as successful heirs.

昔周公教成王克詰戎兵，召公教康王張惶六師，此居安慮危，不忘武備。 The Duke of Zhou taught King Cheng to master arms; the Duke of Shao taught King Kang to keep the six hosts on alert—security that still remembers war.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 88Biography of Meng Tian · 6 passages

昔周成王初立，未離襁緥周公旦負王以朝，卒定天下。 Long ago, when King Cheng of Zhou first came to the throne, he was still an infant in swaddling clothes. The Duke of Zhou carried the young king in his arms to hold court and ultimately brought peace to the realm.

及成王有病甚殆，公旦自揃其爪以沈於河，曰：『王未有識，是旦執事。 When King Cheng fell gravely ill, the Duke of Zhou cut his own fingernails and sank them in the river as an offering to the spirits, praying: 'The King is still too young to know right from wrong. It is I, Dan, who have governed in his stead.

及王能治國，有賊臣言：『周公旦欲為亂久矣，王若不備，必有大事。』 When the King came of age and assumed power, a treacherous minister whispered: 'The Duke of Zhou has long plotted rebellion. If Your Majesty does not act, disaster will surely follow.'

王乃大怒，周公旦走而奔於楚。 The King flew into a rage, and the Duke of Zhou was forced to flee to the state of Chu.

成王觀於記府，得周公旦沈書，乃流涕曰：『孰謂周公旦欲為亂乎！』 But when King Cheng later examined the royal archives and discovered the Duke of Zhou's prayer, he wept and said: 'Who dared claim that the Duke of Zhou wished to rebel!'

夫成王失而復振則卒昌； King Cheng erred but corrected his course, and his dynasty ultimately flourished.