The character ning 寧 in ning-wang 寧王 , ning-wu 寧武 , ning-k'ao 寧考 , ch'ien ning-jen 前寧人 , ning jen 寧人, and ch'ien wen-jen 前文人 from the Book of Documents was interpreted as an 安（calm , stability）by scholars from the Han to the Sung Dynasties . According to them ning-wang means "a king who brings peace and stability to the world" , but in my opinion this definition is not acceptable . During the Ch'ing Dynasty Wu Ta-ch'eng 吳大澂 discovered that the character wen 文 had been mistaken for ning , and he convinced later generations . But later Chang Ping-lin 章炳麟 and the Swedish scholar Bernhard Karlgren argued that in terms of character form wen and ning were very unlikely to have been mistaken for each other , and thus another controversy began . In my article I examine the Classics together with their exegeses , history books , philosophy books , bronze inscriptions , and recent articles and prove that it was believed that King Wen 文王 had become the founder of the Chou Dynasty due to his merits as a ruler . The Book of Documents is filled with such praises of him . At the end of this article I conclude that ning-wang is without doubt the mistaken form of wen-wang.