Biography
She was one of the more than 60 wives of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty, the mother of Zu Jiwei. She lived in the first half of the 12th century B.C. during the reorganization of the Shang dynasty by Wu Ding, and was the earliest recorded female politician and militarist in China, the first documented female hero in Chinese history.
From the excavation of her tomb, it is inferred that her surname should be “Hao”, and “Woman” is a kind of relative title, also known as “Houmu Xin” in the bronze inscriptions.
The oracle bone inscriptions from the Yin ruins record that she conquered many neighboring states, which is rare in history. However, the battle-axe unearthed in the tomb of Wen Hao should be a ceremonial weapon, held by a special person and stood on top of the chariot. It is worth mentioning that the role of battle-axe as a ceremonial weapon is found in many early tombs of China.
The unearthed a lot of oracle bones and divination words show that Fu Hao was ordered to conquer the battlefield for many times and made great achievements for the Shang dynasty to expand the territory. She was also often ordered to officiate at various rituals such as sacrifices to the heavens, ancestors, and divine springs, and was also an official of divination. However, she unfortunately died in her thirties, but not prematurely during the Shang Dynasty, but prematurely compared to the 59-year reign of Wu Ding, who was very sad. This is very rare in the Shang Dynasty.
In 1976, her complete tomb was found in the northwest of Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan Province, and her name appears frequently in the surviving oracle bones, with more than 200 references to her in the more than 10,000 oracle bones unearthed at Anyang Yin Market alone. She was the queen of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago.
The Shang dynasty was at its peak during the time of Emperor Wu Ding, who expanded the Shang dynasty’s territory several times through a series of wars. According to the oracle bone inscriptions, one summer, a war broke out on the northern border and the two sides were at loggerheads, so Fuhao volunteered to lead the troops. After that, Wu Ding made her the commander-in-chief. From then on, she conquered and defeated more than twenty surrounding square countries (independent small countries), then in battle, the number of people deployed are small, usually only a few thousand people, and large-scale armed fighting, but according to records, when Fu Hao attacked Qiang Fang with more than 13,000 troops at a time, which means that half of the Shang dynasty’s army was given to her.
The wives of the Shang king were not only his spouses but also his warriors and ministers, and Wuhao was one of his original wives. However, Wu Ding had more than sixty wives, of which Fu Hao was only one. It is noteworthy that she did not live with Wu Ding, but often stayed in her own fief. She had her own fiefdom and property. This phenomenon never occurred again in the later history of China. But it seems to have been a common phenomenon at that time. There were at least several other concubines and female generals of Wuding besides Wenhao, and there is also a woman recorded by name, second only to Wenhao, who also led several expeditions while managing agriculture and internal affairs for Wuding. She was sealed in Jingfang, which is now Xingtai in Hebei.
Three thousand years later in two accidental discoveries 40 years apart, she nevertheless appears as the most concrete image of the Shang Dynasty to the present day. The Shang king manages a medieval marriage for his beloved wife. However, people still wonder why Fuhao was married to so many kings. Did the queen of the Shang Dynasty have the right to marry multiple times? Zhao Cheng, a veteran expert of the Chinese bookstore, has been retired for many years, but is still obsessed with the study of oracle bones, and he has his own insight into the 2636 edition of the Oracle Collection: Wu Ding was the longest reigning Shang king known, reigning for 59 years, and his cherished queen, Wen Hao, died before him. The Shang dynasty people were superstitious about ghosts and gods and revered the Mandate of Heaven. They believed that everything in the world depended on the heavens, gods and ancestors. Wuding’s feelings for Fuhao were very special, perhaps because he loved each other so much, or perhaps because he respected each other so much, and he always had a hard time letting go of Fuhao’s departure. So the enlightened monarch betrothed his beloved wife to a long-dead sage king, probably thinking that these dead ancestors would protect his wife in the afterlife, or perhaps he also thought that the excellence of Woman Hao was fully comparable to that of the great emperors. The oracle bone divination is precisely Wu Ding’s eager query to his ancestors.
Biography
Very little is known about the history of Fuhao. What is known is that Wu Ding gained the trust of his neighboring tribes by marrying their women, one of more than sixty wives from all over the world, whose tribe called itself Shang Fang. Wu Ding favored her and granted her fiefdoms on the edge of the empire.
She is known to modern scholars primarily from Shang oracle bone inscriptions at the Yin ruins. These records show that she was not only the highest-ranking priestess of the local Shang side, but also a skilled warrior general, and the oracle bone inscriptions from the ruins record that she conquered many neighboring states, which is a rarity in history.
Tomb Mound Discoveries
A striking discovery from the oracle bone inscriptions excavated at the tomb of Fuhao is that Wu Ding repeated numerous prompts to Fuhao through oracle bone fragments, asking her to preside over tribal rituals and provide sacrifices. Fu Hao often presided over various sacrifices such as sacrifices to the heavens, ancestors, and divine springs. This is very rare among all of Wu Ding’s concubines, and it is possible that Wu Ding had extreme trust in Fu Hao’s ritual abilities.
Another unusual feature is that the oracle bones excavated from Wenhao’s tomb record her leading a number of military campaigns, suggesting that the Shang side conducted a series of wars against neighboring Fang states during Wu Ding’s time. For example, Tufang was at constant war with Fuhao’s Shang side, and Fuhao eventually defeated them in a decisive battle, destroying Tufang. She then attacked the neighboring Yi, Qiang, and Ba states, the latter being the earliest recorded ambush in Chinese history. She served as commander-in-chief on many occasions, leading an army of up to 13,000 men at one point. Her impressive war record shows that she was one of the most outstanding generals of her time.
This is an anomaly, but it has been confirmed by many excavated artifacts, including a battle axe from her tomb, a ceremonial bronze censer and a large number of oracle bone fragments. There are also many blank oracle bone fragments found in the tomb that have not yet been inscribed, proving that Wen Hao had the ability to write oracle bone inscriptions.
Posthumous
After her death, Wu Ding built a tomb for her at the border of Yinxu and made a large number of sacrifices. It is said that he hoped that the spirit of Fuhao would bless the Shang side to survive the attack of the Tribute side, which threatened to tear the Shang side apart completely.
The oracle bone inscriptions
According to the oracle bone inscriptions, Wu Ding used to divine whether Fu Hao was carrying a male or female child. There is also a divination in the oracle script in which Zhen asks about the dental problems of Fuhao (Fuhao’s teeth).
There are more than 200 records of Fuhao in the Yinxu divination texts, most of which belong to the Wu Ding period and a small number to the Wu Yi and Wen Ding periods, with an interval of 100 years. According to Zhang Zhenglong, she was a hereditary female official, so there was more than one woman in the Wuding period. In the Wuding period, she was originally a multiwoman in charge of rituals in the temple, and later became the wife of Wuding.
Archaeological excavation and opening
In 1976, archaeologists excavated the tomb of Fuhao at the Yin ruins northwest of Xiaotun in Anyang, Henan province, and unearthed 1,928 artifacts, such as bronze and jade artifacts. She was buried in a coffin made of raw lacquer.
The tomb is now open to the public and has a statue of her in front of it, the earliest unearthed tomb in China with the richest collection of written artifacts, and her deeds have become a source of pride and tourist attraction for the locals.
Anecdotal Allusions
Opening up the frontier
There is a famous saying of the old ancestors: “The great matter of the state is sacrifice and military.” That is to say, the important thing of the state, apart from sacrifice and divination, is to defend the border, open up the territory and capture slaves for conquest. Wu Ding was a famous lord in the history of the Shang dynasty. During his 59-year reign, he frequently went to war and conquered the neighboring tribes in the northwest and southeast, greatly expanding the territory of the dynasty. In this process, Wen Hao was certainly a pivotal figure. The military activities she was involved in are well documented in the literature of the time.
The jade phoenix, 13.6 cm in height and 0.7 cm in wall thickness, was excavated in 1976 from the tomb of Wen Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Henan Province, and is now in the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. While many jade dragons were unearthed from the tomb of Wenhao, this is the only jade phoenix, indicating the extreme importance that Wenhao attached to the phoenix. It is an excellent object for studying the image of phoenix in the mind of Shang dynasty people. The jade phoenix has a high crown with a hooked beak, short wings and a long tail, standing and looking back to fly, and its long tail is naturally curved, and the tail plume is united and divided, with no pattern. The body has penetrating openings in front of the phoenix, making the body fuller and more attractive. Convex perforated round button on the back, should be for string hanging place. The shape of the phoenix is beautiful and exquisite, and the jade is so crystal-clear and moist that one cannot help but look at it and hold it for a long time. The “Shanhaijing” says: “The phoenix bird’s first text says virtue, the wing text says obedience, the breast text says benevolence, the back text says righteousness, see then the world and.” It is clear that the phoenix at that time is still a symbol of morality, benevolence and righteousness, perhaps when the woman wears this jade phoenix, in addition to the noble, but also auspicious meaning.
Long experience in the field
“Xinsi divination, boarding Fu Hao three thousand, boarding brigade ten thousand, call vaqiang.” This is the oracle bone inscriptions recorded the most troops in a war, the highest commander of this war is Fu Hao. At that time, the long experience in the battlefield, the battle of avian, feather and other Wu Ding’s favorite generals, are under the leadership of women. After that battle, the Qiang power was greatly weakened and the western border of Shang was stabilized.
At that time, there was a strong tribe, Tufang, to the west of the capital city of Anyang (south of Jinzhong). They often invaded the Shang’s borders and took away people and goods, which was a big problem for the dynasty for many years. So, Wu Ding ordered Wen Hao to lead his troops to fight, and in just one battle, he repelled the invading enemy. She took advantage of her victory to pursue the attack and completely defeated Tufang. From then on, Tufang never dared to invade again, and was finally included in the territory of Shang.
The best battle of Fuhao was the battle with Wu Ding to conquer Ba Fang. Before the battle, she and her husband agreed on a plan to ambush the enemy’s army in the west, while Wu Ding led his elite troops to launch a surprise attack on Ba’s army in the east. The army of Ba lost in the encirclement of Wu Ding’s army and that of Fu Hao’s, and was finally besieged and destroyed, and the southern border was pacified. This is probably the earliest documented “ambush war” in China.
Both civil and military
As a queen, she loved to be armed rather than dressed in red, or she loved to be armed more than dressed in red. In the tomb of Fu Hao excavated in 1976, found exquisite bone carving knife, bronze mirror, bone mat, agate beads and many other accessories for women, as well as large stone cicada, small stone pot, stone base, stone jars and other “get ware” for play, which shows that she had a feminine side of beauty. What is amazing is that in addition to these gadgets, there are also a large number of weapons in the burial objects. Fu Hao tomb unearthed 2 pieces of bronze battle-axe, one of the big battle-axe is 39.5 cm long, the blade width is 37.5 cm, weighs 9 kg. The battle-axe is decorated with double tiger pouncing on human head pattern, and there is also the inscription of two characters “婦好”. According to the article, it is said that she was holding two big battle-axes to charge into battle, and it is inferred from this that “she had amazing arm strength”. That is a misunderstanding caused by ignorance of history, that kind of giant weapon can be held by two hands, but one hand is difficult to use. In fact, this kind of ceremonial weapon as a symbol of power, like the big flag used by the army, must be held by a special person (nobleman), standing on the chariot, “Poem – long hair” said: “King Wu (Tang) carries the pennant, there is a pious Bing battle-axe. If the fire is blazing, then no one dares me.” This is to say that when (King Wu) invaded Jie, Tang himself carried a big pennant on his chariot, and his vassal You Qi carried a big battle-axe, in order to show that he was ordered by heaven to conquer. The book of history – Zhou Benji said “(Zhou) King Wu left staff yellow battle-axe, right hold white banner to command”, yellow battle-axe, white banner are symbolic power and majestic instrument, used to command the three armies (to command), not holding these two things to charge into battle. The yellow battle-axe is the bronze battle-axe, because the bronze is yellow when it is just cast out, and it is called “gold” in ancient times, and it rusts into greenish-black when it is placed for a long time. Therefore, the battle-axe was not a weapon of actual battle, but a ceremonial weapon which was a symbol of the authority of the commander-in-chief of Wen Hao, and it could be seen that Wen Hao held the power of conquest, which should be a very great thing at that time.
Participation in government affairs
The divination records the Fu Hao participation in political affairs are also quite a lot, Wu Ding often sent Fu Hao out to do things, so the divination in Zhen asked Fu Hao is not to come to the big business? Wu Ding ordered Wen Hao to go to a certain place, did it go well?
Fu Hao to send people to do things. Wenhao also cooperated with the minister to do things for the king. She also met with many women, “many women” is the common name of Wu Ding’s concubines, Wu Ding’s concubines are found in the divination, there are more than 60 concubines, come from different Fang States and tribes, all have noble status. The fact that she summoned Duowei in the land of wandering shows that her status was higher than that of Duowei.
She also met with the elderly. The ruler met with the old man (the old man of the vassal noble who was old and virtuous at that time) in order to show his respect for the old man and his love for his subjects. This is something that Wu Ding also sent Wen Hao to do, which shows the trust of Wen Hao, but also to see the noble status of Wen Hao extraordinary.
The Fu Hao also to the great Shang tribute, the divination says “Fu Hao show ten tun. Bin.” (Hegyi) “Show” means to offer, “Tun” means “pure”, which is the unit of measurement of the oracle bones used for divination, two pieces of cow scapulae (i.e. left and right scapulae) are one pure, “ten tun (pure)” means twenty pieces of cow scapulae. The last “Bin” was a divination official during the time of Wuding, who received the divination bones from Wen Hao, so he engraved his name on the bones to indicate that he had signed for them. It is also recorded that she tributed divination turtles to the Great Shang, and the divination script says “good into fifty”, where the divination script says how many tun (pure) is divination bones, and only the number without saying the quantity is divination armor, which is the turtle nail for divination, which is a very rare and valuable thing in ancient times, called “treasure turtle”, and she tributed 50 pieces at a time, which means that she is very rich.
When a prisoner or a slave escaped, she was also asked to capture her, the divination says: “Zhen: call the Fu Hao execution” (“collection”), “execution” oracle bone writing is like the hands holding the shape of “Xing”, “Xing” is the shackle prisoner torture device, the “execution” in the divination means to capture the prisoner.
In short, she was involved in a lot of affairs of the great merchant, whatever the men could do, she was involved in, and she was a woman.
Acting as a divination officer
In addition to her status as a queen and a first-class military general, the importance of Fuhao was also reflected in the fact that she held a special position as a divination officer who conducted rituals. In her time, people superstitiously believed in ghosts and gods, revered the fate of heaven, and were very popular with ritual divination, especially the Shang royal family and the slave-owning ruling class, who had to repeatedly divine and pray to ghosts and gods for almost all state affairs. Therefore, rituals were one of the most important state activities. The priests, who held the highest priesthood power, had to have extensive knowledge and high status, and by communicating with the gods and spirits, they became the actual decision makers of the country’s major state affairs.
The Love of Husband and Wife
Wu Ding was the twenty-third king of the Shang Dynasty and the nephew of Pan Geng, the twentieth king. When Pan Geng succeeded to the throne, the Shang dynasty was already showing signs of internal and external troubles, and Pan Geng moved the capital of the Shang dynasty to Beimeng (now Anyang, Henan Province) to escape from the difficulties. A few years after Pan Geng’s feat of moving to Yin, Wu Ding, the rising king of the Shang Dynasty, took over the scepter.
Wu Ding’s experience is similar to that of Peter the Great of Russia, nearly three thousand years later.
Wu Ding’s father, Xiao Yi, was the fourth brother of Pan Geng and never dreamed that he would succeed to the throne. Therefore, when Wu Ding was young, Xiao Yi sent his son Wu Ding to live among the people. Wu Ding did not reveal his royal lineage to anyone, but learned all kinds of labor knowledge and experienced all kinds of hardships like an ordinary person, thus laying the foundation for his future succession to the dynasty. It was also this experience that gave him Fu Shuo, a slave from Chikuya.
Wu Ding was a monarch with a very strong personality, and also very rich in emotion and ambition. Before she married Wu Ding, she was a princess of the northern tribe of the Shang kingdom, with extraordinary origins and insights. She was very intelligent and had exceptional courage and wisdom. She was the husband of Wu Ding, the most successful king of the Shang Dynasty, and she is credited with a significant portion of the martial arts achievements of the Wu Ding era. The Shang dynasty carries a strong legacy of matrilineal clans, and there is no problem with these adjectives being used for the Queen of Shang. The arm strength of Fuhao was so great that one of the weapons she used weighed nine kilograms, which shows her physical strength. The weapon was a large axe, which shows her bravery.
She and Wuding were a good couple who were truly like-minded. When they were first married, Wu Ding did not know much about Fu Hao’s ability to lead troops into battle. One summer, a foreign invasion occurred at the northern border, and the general sent to conquer the problem could not solve it for a long time, so she volunteered to lead the troops to help in the war. Wu Ding was very hesitant about his wife’s request, and after a long consideration, he decided to let the queen go to war through divination. She was very hesitant about her wife’s request, but after a long consideration, she decided to let the queen go by divination.
Wu Ding was so impressed with his wife that he made her the military commander of the Shang Dynasty and gave her command of the battle. From then on, she led her army to conquer and defeat more than twenty small states, including the Northern Tufang, Southern Yixiang, Southern Bafang, and Gifang, and made monumental achievements for the Shang Dynasty. In the battle against Qiangfang, Wu Ding gave her more than half of the Shang Dynasty’s troops: 13,000 men. This battle was a great victory and the largest military deployment during the reign of Wu Ding.
In addition to leading the army in battle, she was also in charge of the Shang Dynasty’s rituals and divination ceremonies, and often presided over such ceremonies. She was a veritable cleric, the highest priest.
One of the greatest battle feats that Fu Hao accomplished for Wu Ding and the Shang dynasty was leading an army of 13,000 men to conquer an enemy army in the northwest, along the Inner Mongolian Loop. This battle was of great epochal significance to the Yin Shang dynasty and to Chinese history as a whole.
Of course, Wu Ding was not just a useless man who would stay in the palace and ask for divinations for his wife, who was on a military expedition, but he also led his own armies in repeated campaigns. When he attacked the Ba Fang Kingdom (present-day southwestern Hubei), he led the army together with Wen Hao and divided the work – he had Wen Hao set up an ambush formation in the southwest, while he led the various marquis and boars to attack from the east, driving the enemy into Wen Hao’s iron barrel formation and destroying them in one go.
Whenever she went on a solo expedition and triumph, Wu Ding could not contain his joy and went out to meet her, once going more than 80 kilometers to meet her. When the couple finally met in the countryside with their respective troops, the excitement of their long-awaited reunion made them forget their identities as king and queen and leave their troops behind as they drove side by side through the wilderness. The two of them drove together side by side, chasing and galloping in the wilderness. And Wudin regarded his wife as very important and even loved and respected her, and this romantic ride was left in the historical records, while the love that did not appear in the text was naturally more. The harmony of the qin and the se, the envy of future generations.
Wu Ding was a very insightful king, he did not think that because she was his wife, she deserved to give freely to his country. After her great achievements, Wu Ding did not forget her and gave her a fiefdom when rewarding her for her achievements.
In her fief, she was the master of everything, presiding over all affairs within the fief, owning the income from the fields and the slaves. She also paid a certain amount of tribute to her husband, Wu Ding, and everything was done according to the etiquette of kings and vassals. She never abrogated public affairs for personal gain. Fu Hao’s fief must have been one of the richest places in the Shang dynasty, because in her fief she had her own independent direct army of more than 3,000 men – in those days, the entire strength of ordinary small states did not necessarily reach this number. Because of her financial independence, she was able to forge large-scale bronze products for herself, one of which is the surviving Feminine Even Square Tripod.
Wu Ding and Fu Hao were not only a couple in terms of relationship, but also a partner in terms of business. In order to manage her fief, she often left the palace and went to live in the fief (a bit like a professional woman who travels for business today). Although she was often separated from Wu Ding for warfare and administration, she still gave birth to many children for him.
However, she died at the age of thirty-three. Although her life was not short compared to that time, it was too short compared to her husband, Wu Ding, who enjoyed a long reign of fifty-nine years.
Wu Ding was so distressed by the tragic death of Wu Hao that he buried her next to his palace where he handled military affairs, so that he could always see his wife and watch over her day and night.
Even so, Wu Ding still felt that his guardianship was not strong enough to reach the underworld. So, he led his sons and grandsons to hold mass rituals for her, and held several marriages for her, and promised her soul to three previous Shang kings: Wu Ding’s sixth ancestor Zu Yi, eleventh ancestor Taijia, and thirteenth ancestor Cheng Tang. After finally betrothing her to Cheng Tang, Wu Ding finally put his mind at ease, thinking that with as many as three great ancestors looking after her, she would be safe and cared for in the afterlife.
She left behind a son for Wu Ding, named Xiao Ji. And who were the daughters that Fuhao bore in her hardships? Wu Ding had at least two daughters who served as officials in the Shang government and had their own fiefdoms, as Fu Hao did. They were Zi Tou and Zi Mei, the owners of Zi Tou Ding and Zi Mei Ding. Who were the daughters of Fuhao? Or maybe there was someone else besides Zi Tou and Zi Mei.
About the status
According to Yang Shengnan, “the order of sacrifice of Wu Ding’s three spouses is not in the order of the twelve earthly branches, but in the order of their death. This is why some scholars believe that “the mother of Wu Ding was the first wife of her mother. In the Yinxu Tomb of Woman Hao, it is stated that “Woman Hao probably died in the late Wuding period, and the tomb is dated according to the staging sequence of the Yinxu culture, the upper limit of her burial being roughly in the late Wuding period, and the lower limit not later than Zugeng, when the late thirteenth century B.C. to the early twelfth century B.C.”
The Shang emperor was monogamous, and “wife” referred to the main wife, the same as the queen of the Zhou dynasty, the Shang king could have many wives (concubines, concubines, etc.), but only one main wife could be established at a time, and only after the death of the main wife could a new main wife be established. Then we can know that her mother, Xin Fuhao, was not the first wife of Wu Ding, but also the last of his three wives, and she was the latest of the three wives and died the latest, with the other two wives, E and K, preceding her.
From the divination, although she was the latest, she was the first wife for the longest time, from the middle of Wuding to the late Wuding period, and she had great power and achievements in war, rituals and other political affairs, so she was probably the most favored and most powerful wife of Wuding, which is evidenced by the large number of divination records about her in the middle and late Wuding period and the rich burial objects in her tomb.
After her death, Wu Ding installed her as his queen. This woman was even more powerful than her predecessor. Among the more than 10,000 oracle bones unearthed at the Yin ruins in Anyang alone, there are more than 200 references to Fuhao. She was a queen, an important minister, a high priest, a vassal, and a great general.
She lived in her fief and, like other vassals, was obligated to participate in warfare and pay tribute. The tribute she paid was mainly turtle armor and animal bones. During her life, she fought more than 90 battles and conquered more than 20 countries! She was a truly great general.
She was also the High Priestess, who presided over all national events such as wars and natural disasters, as well as sacrifices to the ancestors of the Shang kings and mountain springs, which shows the high status of Fuhao.
The mystery of her death
From the oracle bones that have been translated, there are several possibilities for the cause of the death of Fu Hao.
On one oracle bone divination, there is a record that: “Fu Hao is about to give birth, but it is not good. It must be bad. A girl.” Did she die because of a difficult delivery?
There is also an oracle bone on the record is: “out of the chaste …… king …… in the mother Xin …… hundred zai …… blood.” And can’t help but speculate that the woman died because of the battle, or at least died of a recurrence of war wounds – war in those days, in fact, was a massive armed fight, trying not to be wounded, I’m afraid it’s impossible. That’s why Wu Ding fought for her revenge.
Character evaluation
From the historical records, it can be found that many years after the death of Wen Hao, Wu Ding still remembered her. Whenever there was a war in the country, Wu Ding would personally lead his sons and ministers to hold a large-scale ritual for Fu Hao, asking her spirit in heaven to bless him with a victory. The generous burial goods of Fuhao not only reflected Wu Ding’s respect and love for his wife, but also the colorful life of Fuhao during her lifetime. She was not only a general, able to fight and drink well, but also a noble woman who loved beauty and was good at grooming, and a noble lord with independent financial ability and a large slave population. She was the first truly legendary woman and great queen in Chinese history.
Fu Hao conquered in the east and the west, pacified the Demon Fang and fixed the Tu Fang, and defeated more than twenty Fang states.” Xin Si Bu, Deng Wen Hao 3,000, Deng Brigade 10,000, Hoo Va Qiang.” This battle was the largest battle with troops recorded in the oracle bone inscriptions, with Wenhao as the supreme commander of this battle. During his reign, Wu Ding expanded the territory of the Shang dynasty several times, and in terms of contributions, she was a great success! She not only fought for Wu Ding, but also mastered the Shang Dynasty’s rituals and divination due to her extensive knowledge, and presided over many rituals of various names and types, intervening in the political sphere of the Shang Dynasty in the name of divine power.
The independence of Woman Hao should be a pioneer of modern women, as she was a queen but never dependent on her husband. She had her own fief and property. In appreciation of her contribution, Wu Ding gave her a fiefdom in Jing Fang. She also had her own army of more than 3,000 men within her fief, and she paid tribute to her husband Wu Ding according to the etiquette of kings and vassals, and did not mess up the rules because of her status. She was not only a great success in her career, but also in her relationship with Wu Ding, and she was in love with him. The woman is a wife and a minister and a confidant to Wu Ding. Whenever she went to war, Wu Ding would offer sacrifices to the sky to pray for her safety. Whenever she returned from war, Wu Ding would lead a group of men and horses out of the city to welcome her.
The life of Fuhao was fixed at the age of 33, and Wu Ding was saddened. Wu Ding, uncharacteristically, buried her next to the palace where he handled military affairs, so that he could keep watch over her at all times. However, despite this, Wu Ding was still worried about her death, so he led his children and grandchildren to hold several large rituals, and held a marriage for her, entrusting her ghost to the care of Wu Ding’s three ancestors, Zu B, the 11th ancestor, Tai Jia, and the 13th ancestor, Cheng Tang. From then on, whenever Wu Ding went to war, he had to hold rituals for her, asking her spirit in heaven to bless the war. The love of Wu Ding for Fu Hao is thus evident.