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I6 THE ANALECTS : INTRODUCTION.
After this declaration Fa led on the attack against the
enervated host of this wanton Emperor, and on the plains
of Mu _ obtained a brilliant victory. The tyrant fled to
the palace of Lu T'ai, the splendid scene of his vile debaucheries
and crimes, and having arrayed himself in his
Imperial robes, set fire to the palace and perished in the
flames, while the evil consort of his shameful vices was
seized and executed.
Thus began the great dynasty of Chou, which dating
from B. C. I122 ended 867 years later in B.C. 255.
King Wu, reigned for seven brief before joining his forefathers.
He died it is said when 93 years of age, leaving
a son, a minor of thirteen, in charge of his brother, Duke
W6n 3_ of Chou _, a man noted through later ages for
his noble character and statesmanlike conduct.
Wu and W6n planted the House of Chou, as William
the Conqueror planted the Norman dynasty, in a soil
volcanic and unstable, that contained within it the sure
elements of its own disintegration. Desiring to reward
those who had stood by him in his destruction of the
Shang dynasty, and at the same time of binding them to
his own House, Wu establish the baronial order, partitioning
the Empire into fiefs, great or small, according to the
merit or position of each baron.
These territorial magnates, with their independent
powers, Wu left as a heritage of woe to his descendants,
and it was but a short time ere they reduced the imperial
power to little more than an empty name. Uncler a
powerful sovereign refractory barons could be forced into
submission, but with a weakling swaying the sceptre, as