Su Hu

Su Hu served as Marquis of Jizhou. When ordered to present his daughter as tribute to the Shang court, he refused and composed a rebellious poem denouncing the king for undermining the moral order between sovereign and minister; he then raised troops in resistance. After suffering defeat in battle, he reluctantly surrendered his daughter Daji to the Shang court—only for her to be possessed by a malevolent fox spirit en route, thus triggering the downfall of the Shang dynasty. In the Investiture of the Gods, Su Hu consistently upheld integrity and loyalty. Later, he served alongside Zheng Lun in garrisoning Jizhou; though coerced into resisting the Zhou by Shen Gongbao’s machinations, he ultimately heeded persuasion and pledged allegiance to Zhou to join the campaign against King Zhou of Shang. During the Battle of Mianchi, Su Hu and Zheng Lun were both slain by Zhang Kui. Upon the conclusion of the divine investiture, Su Hu was enfeoffed as one of the Eastern Dipper Stellar Officials. His life epitomizes the tragic tension between Confucian loyalty to sovereign and the higher imperative of preserving family and state—a poignant embodiment of the loyal minister’s dilemma in the novel.