Zu Ding

Zu Ding (Chinese: 祖丁) was a King of China in the early shang dynasty (商朝). His pre-reign name was Zi Xin (Chinese: 子新).

In the Records of the Grand Historian he was listed by Sima Qian as the sixtteenth Shang king, succeeding his uncle Wo Jia (Chinese: 沃甲). He was enthroned in the year of Dingwei (Chinese: 丁未) with Bi (Chinese: 庇) as his capital. He ruled for about 32 years before his death. He was given the posthumous name Zu Ding and was succeeded by his cousin Nan Geng (Chinese: 南庚).

Oracle script inscriptions on oracle bones unearthed at Yinxu alternatively record that he was the fifthteenth Shang king.

The Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Project, a broad Chinese academic enquiry, published results in 2000 placing Zu Ding as a contemporary of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten — the latter's reign beginning later than Zu Ding's, but both terminating in the mid-1330s BCE.

Last update 15-06-2012

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