King Kang of Zhou (康)

Overview

The translated histories identify King Kang of Zhou as a ruler. This record brings together 13 passages from 11 chapters across 5 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	King Kang of Zhou	康	Kang
Temple name	Kang	康	Kang
Title	Kang	康	Kang
Regnal abbreviation	Kang	康	Kāng
Regnal	Kang	康	Kang
Personal name	Kang	康	Kāng
Title	King Kang	康	Kang
Regnal	King Kang	康王	Kāng Wáng
Personal	King Kang	康王	Kang Wang
Alternate	King Kang	康	Kang
Title	King Kang	康王
Personal	King Kang Zhao	康王釗	Kang Wang Zhao
Given	Zhao	釗	Zhao

Identity

Historicity: Uncertain
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · hanshu:006:s0191
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:025:s0304, houhanshu:032:s0100, shiji:013:s117

Roles

Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · hanshu:006:s0191, shiji:099:s0021
Source Date: Text: BC 1020-996 · Western Interval: Start: BC 1020 · End: BC 996
Strongly inferred · houhanshu:032:s0100
Source Date: Text: 康王 · Western Interval: Start: BC 1020 · End: BC 996
Explicit · shiji:013:s117
Source Date: Text: 康王 · Western Year: c. BC 1020
Explicit · mingshi:115:s0024
Source Date: Text: 成康 · Western Interval: Start: BC 1005 · End: BC 978
Explicit · hanshu:025:s0304
Source Date: Text: 顯德二年 · Western Year: AD 955
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:115:s0014

Family

Kin of King Cheng (成王)
Kinship Term: Cheng and Kang / 成康 · Subject Relative Age: elder

Places and affiliations

Label: Zhou / 周 · Relation: ruled
Strongly inferred · hanshu:025:s0304
Polity: Zhou / 周 · Relation: ruled
Explicit · hanshu:006:s0191, shiji:013:s117

Events and relationships

Kind: legal · Role: ruler · Action: set-aside-punishments · Label: punishments set aside in Cheng-Kang era / 成康刑錯
Explicit · hanshu:025:s0304

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 · shiji:099:s0015
Statement: For more than forty years punishments were laid aside / 刑錯四十餘年
Explicit · shiji:013:s117

References in the histories

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

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

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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 25Volume 23: Treatise on Punishment and Law · 1 passage

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成康刑錯，雖未可致，孝文斷獄，庶幾可及。 We may not reach the ideal era of Cheng and Kang, when punishment was scarcely needed, but we can still aspire to the humane judicial standard associated with Emperor Wen.

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

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

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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 · 1 passage

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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.

Book of Han, Chapter 89Volume 78: Xiao Wangzhi · 1 passage

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

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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.'

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

Open chapter

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 · 1 passage

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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 13Genealogical Tables of the Three Dynasties · 1 passage

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康王釗，刑錯四十餘年。 King Kang (Zhao): for more than forty years punishments were laid aside.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 99Biographies of Liu Jing and Shusun Tong · 1 passage

Open chapter

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.