1122 BC

1122 BC marks the Zhou conquest of Shang, the decisive campaign in which King Wu crossed the Yellow River and brought the Shang dynasty to an end. The date anchors the political transition from Shang to Zhou and gives historical force to the I Ching’s recurring image of crossing a great stream: a dangerous undertaking approached only after a long wait for the conditions of success.

The campaign and the dynastic change

The book dates the replacement of Shang by Zhou to 1122 BC. King Wu, son of King Wen, led the crossing of the Yellow River in the revolutionary movement against the Shang ruler. The event stands as more than a change of sovereigns: the text identifies it as one of the greatest deeds in Chinese history and as the point at which Zhou rule followed Shang.

The campaign’s setting reaches back to the conflict between King Wen and the last Shang sovereign. King Wen had been imprisoned at Youli in 1143 BC, then released the following year after his friends appeased his enemy’s suspicion. The later conquest thus follows a prolonged period in which Zhou’s leaders confronted Shang power under conditions that made open action dangerous.

Waiting and the “great stream”

In the commentary on the hexagram of waiting, “going through a great stream” is read as undertaking hazardous enterprises or encountering great difficulties. The commentator considers the Yellow River the more natural specific reference: the lords of Zhou had to cross it in their revolutionary movement against Shang. In this interpretation, the image makes political risk legible through a physical obstacle, while the crossing becomes a test of timing as well as resolve.

The commentary emphasizes that King Wu’s crossing was preceded by “long waiting,” until success could be considered assured. The episode therefore gives the hexagram’s counsel a historical dimension: strength confronted by peril should not rush blindly into action. Waiting is not passivity in this account, but restraint maintained until circumstances permit a consequential advance.

Historical frame and textual memory

The conquest also helps date the formation of the I Ching as the book presents it. King Wen is associated with an earlier portion of the text, while a larger share is attributed to his son, the Duke of Zhou, whose material alludes to King Wu and events in the early years of the next reign. Since the Duke of Zhou died in 1105 BC, the commentator concludes that the received work was complete a few years before then, in the last decade of the twelfth century BC. The 1122 BC campaign consequently lies within the political history evoked by the text’s attributed authorship, rather than being merely a later example attached to it.

That history is also distinguished from the divinatory procedure itself. The book describes stalk manipulation as a means of forming hexagrams, which were then interpreted through King Wen’s judgments and the Duke of Zhou’s line statements; numbers helped make the figures, rather than functioning as an independent explanation of all events. The conquest offers a concrete historical referent for one powerful image, but the commentator’s account of divination limits its purpose to judging whether contemplated plans and circumstances would prove fortunate or unfortunate, not absolutely foretelling the future.