Good evening everyone, Loesl Montgomery again, the China History Podcast, as advertised last episode,

I said we're going to go back to ancient times. And in the history of China, the Joe Dynasty is pretty

much as far back as you could reliably go,

before you begin to get all caught up in the quagmire of Oracle Bones, myths, and maybes.

The three dynasties of China,

Shah Shangjo, offers up an admirable blend of recorded history and fantasy.

The legendary shah dynasty is roughly pegged as having begun around 2000

B.C. 4,000 years ago. There isn't much evidence besides what was gleaned from the Shang and Joe, with the Shia and so many other aspects

of these three dynasties.

We're usually left with no other choice but to hang our hat on whatever Sima Chien wrote in the Han Dynasty about you, the great and the floods,

King Chien, the fall of the Shia, and the rise and fall of the Shang and about today's story as well.

Today's subject, Jiang Zuya.

His life straddled that period in the 12th century B.C.

when the shang was on its way out and the Joe was taking over.

Jiang Zeya's dates are questionable, surprise surprise.

Let's go with 1156 to 1017B.

What's his greatest historic claim to fame? Well he has a few and

we'll look at them all but perhaps most of all he was kind of an indispensable man who arrived on the scene at a most critical hour and helped the

Chi family defeat the wicked shang ruler Jo-Shin or D-Shin' or D'Shin'

This story of how the family patriarch Geechang and his two sons,

Gee-Fah and Jee-Dhan, vanquished this most cruel of ancient kings is, in my absolutely worthless opinion,

one of the greatest stories from all of Chinese history.

...