Wen and wu

Differentiation between wen and wu was engaged in discussions on criminal punishment, administrative control, creation and reproduction of social order, education and moral transformation.

Expansion through wen... was natural and proper; whereas expansion by wu, brute force and conquest, was never to be condoned.”[3] Attested in Shang dynasty oracle bones, the earliest uses were in the posthumous epithets of certain Shang ancestors, the first recorded – conveniently, for both – being Wen Wu Ding.

[4] The most common use case of wen in the epigraphic record is in appellations to dead ancestors, where it shared semantic space of general positive eulogy with precisely the words huáng (皇) and liè (烈).

[6] Wen and Wu became the most popular posthumous names of regional lords during the Zhou dynasty, but Wen in particular saw no usage until nearly the end of the Western Zhou, when central power was significantly weakened, suggesting the possibility of royal exclusivity akin to a ritual trademark.

[7] The first archaeologically attested use of wen and wu as common terms outside of posthumous epithets or as synecdoche for the Zhou founders dates to the Spring and Autumn period, where a ruler of the state of Qin used them to describe some of his positive qualities while asserting his assidiousness in acting as a responsible lineage head.