Having inherited a large area of lands conquered by his father and brother, he led the Shang kingdom through the last brief period of stability.
Zu Jia reigned during the first half of the 12th century BC, from the city of Yin, the ancient historical capital of Shang.
His period marked the rise of Predynastic Zhou, which began to develop more complex relations with the Shang court after Wu Ding's death.
He was a royal member of the Shang dynasty, which had been ruling the Yellow River valley from the 16th century BC.
After over 59 years from 1250 BC, Wu transformed Shang from a declining country into a powerful state, expanding influence out of the Yellow River to reach faraway lands of the Yangtze and modern Shaanxi.
[3] Zu Jia succeeded his brother, resuming Shang's tradition of fraternal succession.
The Bamboo Annals (竹書紀年) gives another time frame, which David Nivison identified as 1177 - 1156 BC.
The city was traditionally traced back to Pan Geng, Zu Jia's great uncle who is credited to have founded Yin around 1300 BC.
When Wu died, Zu Geng conquered and destroyed the remaining remnants of confrontational tribes that had not been fully subdued.
Oracle bone inscriptions of his reign show that he changed some aspects of Shang religion.
Nivison claimed that this was done in order to prevent the risk of outside interference; he derived the theory from the Bamboo Annals, which contains an entry detailing Yi Yin's usurpation of the throne from Tai Jia.
[7] Zu Jia solved the problem by directly granting his chosen heir a royal ganzhi name, thus ensure stability.
Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian states that succeeding Zu Jia was his son Lin Xin.
Instead, the successor was his other son Zi Xiao, who was granted the title "Geng Ding" used later as the regnal name.