"Your Majesty slew Marquis Li in this hall, yet failed to consider that he guarded the Western Frontier. Now the state faces the danger of collapse; turmoil has already arisen, and hidden perils abound. I have heard that a sovereign governs his country through the Way and his people through virtue, remaining diligent and vigilant, never daring to lapse into indolence. Only then can his realm be secure as bedrock, impregnable as walls of metal and moats of boiling water. When Your Majesty first ascended the throne, you cultivated benevolence and practiced righteousness, never allowing yourself a moment's ease. You treated the feudal lords with courtesy, cared generously for your ministers, worried over the people's toil, cherished their wealth, and won the friendship and submission of the Four Barbarians. Your might reached near and far, the rains and winds came in season, and all the people prospered in their work. Even a sage or a divine ruler could have done no better."
Ji Chang looked utterly heartbroken, and his words subtly struck a chord with the feudal lords.
Indeed, how good King Zhou had been before! All that talk of Seven Years of Silence, Then a Stunning Feat was nothing but rumor. His stunning feat was to cut down a feudal lord in the hall? What kind of nonsense was that!
The feudal lords knew better than anyone what King Zhou was doing. Every move targeted them, seeking to weaken their power.
He ought to treat the feudal lords with courtesy!
For more than six hundred years, Great Shang had always been ruled jointly by the Son of Heaven and the feudal nobility.
Now King Zhou had not only discarded the title of Son of Heaven and styled himself the First Emperor, forcibly placing himself above the feudal lords, but