The original work of Investiture of the Gods was an ancient Chinese novel, The Romance of the Gods, written by Xu Zhonglin, a novelist of the Ming Dynasty. The novel was written between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. It was a long novel with the story of the Investiture of the Gods as the main story. It told the story of King Wen's son, King Wu of Zhou, Ji Fa, who attacked the Shang Dynasty after the fall of the Shang Dynasty at the end of the Zhou Dynasty. This novel was regarded as one of the four famous works of ancient China, and it had a profound influence on Chinese literature and culture.