King You of Zhou

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King You of Zhou (781 BC - 771 BC) (ch. 周幽王 zhōu yōu wáng) was the twelfth sovereign of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty and the last of Western Zhou Dynasty. He tried to impress his favorite queen Baosi (zh:褒姒) by fooling the nobles into thinking that there was danger: they came to the castle only to find themselves being laughed at by Baosi. Eventually, when danger did come, King You called for the nobles but none came, thinking that the king was fooling them again. In the end, King You was killed and Baosi was captured. King You's death marks the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

King You's folly predates Aesop's classical tale of the The Boy Who Cried Wolf by more than a hundred years.

[edit] Personal information

Family name	Ji (姬 jī) in Chinese
Given name	Gongsheng (宮湦 gōng shēng) in Chinese
Era name	none
Father	King Xuan of Zhou
Mother	unknown
Wives	1) Queen Shen, daughter of Marquess of Shen 2) Concubine Baosi
Children	King Ping of Zhou from Queen Shen and prince Bofu from Baosi
duration of reign	781 BC-771 BC
Tomb	unknown
Temple name	unknown
Courtesy name	unknown
Posthumous name	You 幽 (pinyin yōu), literary meaning: "serene"