Everything about Zhou Dynasty 1122 Bc - 256 Bc totally explained
The
Zhou Dynasty (;
1122 BC to
256 BC) was preceded by the
Shang Dynasty and followed by the
Qin Dynasty in
China. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in
Chinese history—though the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty only lasted during the Western Zhou. During the Zhou, the
use of iron was introduced to China, while this period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese
bronze-ware making. The dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved from the ancient stage as seen in early Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, to the beginnings of the modern stage, in the form of the archaic clerical script of the late
Warring States period.
During the Zhou Dynasty, the origins of matured
Chinese philosophy developed, its initial stages beginning in the
6th century BC. The greatest Chinese philosophers, those who made the greatest impact on later generations of Chinese, were
Kong Fuzi (Latin: Confucius), founder of
Confucianism, and
Laozi, founder of
Daoism. Other philosophers, theorists, and schools of thought in this era were
Mozi (Latin: Micius), founder of
Mohism,
Mengzi (Latin: Mencius), a famous Confucian who expanded upon Kong Fuzi's legacy,
Shang Yang and
Han Feizi, responsible for the development of ancient Chinese
Legalism (the core philosophy of the
Qin Dynasty), and
Xunzi, who was arguably the center of ancient Chinese intellectual life during his time, even more so than iconic intellectual figures such as
Mencius.
Mandate of Heaven
In the Chinese historical tradition, the Zhou defeated the Shang and oriented the Shang system of
ancestor worship toward a universalized worship away from the worship of
Di and to that of
Tian or "heaven". They legitimized their rule by invoking the
Mandate of Heaven, the notion that the ruler (the "
Son of Heaven") governed by divine right but that his dethronement would prove that he'd lost the mandate. Such things that proved the ruling family had lost the Mandate were natural disasters and rebellions. The doctrine explained and justified the demise of the
Xia and Shang Dynasties and at the same time supported the legitimacy of present and future rulers. The Zhou dynasty was founded by the
Ji family and had its capital at Hào (鎬, near the present-day city of
Xi'an in the
Wei River valley). Sharing the language and culture of the Shang, the early Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, established a large imperial territory wherein states as far as
Shandong acknowledged Zhou rulership and took part in elite culture. The spread of Zhou bronzes, though, was concurrent with the continued use of Shang style pottery in the distant regions and these states were the last to recede during the late Western Zhou.
Zhou military
The early Western Zhou supported a strong military split into two major units: “The Six Armies of the West” and “The Eight Armies of Chengzhou”. The armies campaigned in the northern
Loess Plateau, modern
Ningxia and the
Huanghe floodplain. The military prowess of Zhou peaked during the 19th year of
King Zhao's reign, when the Six Armies were wiped out along with King Zhao on a campaign around the
Han River. Early Zhou kings were true commanders-in-chief. They were in constant wars with barbarians on behalf of the fiefs called 'guo', namely, statelet or principality. Charles Hucker noted that Zhou had 14 standing royal armies, with 6 stationed in Haojing, near today's
Xian, and 8 armies stationed in the east.
Zhou Zhaowang (r. 1052–1001 BC) was famous for repeated campaigns in the Yangtze areas and died in his last action.
Zhou Muwang (r. 1001–946 BC) was a legendary figure famous for fighting in the west and maybe today's Central Asia where he met and rendezvoused on Kunlun Mountain with so-called
Xi Wang Mu, namely,
Queen Mother of the West, rumored by some western historians, including Charles Hucker, to be
Queen of Sheba. (The actual place for Kunlun Mountains would be somewhere close to today's Jiuquan County,
Gansu Province. Mt Kunlun, extending for almost 2000 miles from Kara-Kunlun bordering Tibet in the west to
Qilian Mountain in the east, was a source of many Chinese myths and legends.) Later kings' campaigns were less effective.
King Liwang (r. 878–7 BC) led 14 armies against barbarians in the south but failed to achieve any victory. King Xuanwang (r 827–782 BC) fought the Jiangrong nomads in vain. King Youwang was killed by Quanrong, and capital
Haojing was sacked. Although chariots had been introduced to China since the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou period saw the use of massed
chariots in battle, a technology imported from Central Asia.
In the West, the Zhou period is often described as feudal because the Zhou's early rule invites comparison with
medieval rule in Europe. However, historians debate whether or not this description is valid; the more appropriate term for the Zhou Dynasty's political arrangement would be from the Chinese language itself: the
Fēngjiàn (封建) system. The Zhou amalgam of city-states became progressively centralized and established increasingly impersonal political and economic institutions. These developments, which probably occurred in the later Zhou period, were manifested in greater central control over local governments and a more routinized agrarian taxation. Zhou officials were not paid a salary but instead were given semi-regular gifts by the King, which often included land in the Wei River valley. Imperial stability was ensured through marriages between the Zhou court and local lords as well as the installment of Zhou lords into command over distant regions.
Western and Eastern Zhou
Initially the Ji family was able to control the country firmly. In
771 BC, after
King You had replaced his queen with a concubine
Baosi, the capital was sacked by the joint force of the queen's father, who was the powerful
Marquess of
Shen, and a nomadic tribe, the
Quanrong. The queen's son
Ji Yijiu was proclaimed the new king by the nobles from the states of
Zheng,
Lü,
Qin and the Marquess of Shen. The capital was moved eastward in
722 BC to
Luoyang in present-day
Henan Province.
Because of this shift, historians divide the Zhou era into the
Western Zhou (西周,
pinyin Xī Zhōu), lasting up until
771 BC, and the
Eastern Zhou (
Traditional Chinese: 東周,
Simplified Chinese: 东周,
pinyin: Dōng Zhōu) from
770 up to
256 BC. The beginning year of the Western Zhou has been disputed —
1122 BC,
1027 BC and other years within the hundred years from late
12th century BC to late
11th century BC have been proposed. Chinese historians take
841 BC as the first year of consecutive annual dating of the history of China, based on the
Records of the Grand Historian by
Sima Qian. The Eastern Zhou corresponds roughly to two subperiods. The first, from
722 to
481 BC, is called the
Spring and Autumn Period, after a famous historical chronicle of the time; the second is known as the
Warring States Period (403 to 221 BC), after another famous chronicle and initiated by the partitioning of
Jin. The
Warring States Period extends slightly past the 256 BC end date of the Eastern Zhou; this discrepancy is due to the fact that the last Zhou king's reign ended in 256, 35 years before the beginning of the
Qin dynasty which ended the Warring States period. The Eastern Zhou period is also designated as a period of a
hundred schools. This is a reference to the different schools of historical Chinese intellectual thought. There were four main distinct schools which were the Ru, Mohist, Daoist, and Legalists. These schools of thought contributed to social, philosophical and political change which played a large part in the decline of the Zhou dynasty.
Decline
With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished, and the fragmentation of the kingdom accelerated. From Ping Wang onwards, the Zhou kings ruled in name only, with true power lying in the hands of powerful nobles. Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the nobles didn't even bother to acknowledge the Ji family symbolically, rebelled and declared themselves to be kings. The dynasty was ended in 256 BC, before
Qin Shi Huang's unification of China in 221 BC, when the last king of Zhou died and his sons didn't proclaim the nominal titles of King of China.
Agriculture
Agriculture in the Zhou Dynasty was very intensive and in many cases directed by the government. All farming lands were owned by nobles, who then gave their land to their serfs, a situation similar to European
feudalism. For example, a piece of land was divided into nine squares in the shape of the character for "water well," jing (井), with the grain from the middle square taken by the government and that of surrounding squares kept by individual farmers. This way, the government was able to store surplus food and distribute it in times of famine or bad harvest. Some important manufacturing sectors during this period included
bronze smelting, which was integral to making weapons and farming tools. Again, these industries were dominated by the nobility who directed the production of such materials.
China's first projects of
hydraulic engineering were founded during the Zhou Dynasty, ultimately for means to aid agricultural
irrigation. The
Prime Minister of
Wei,
Sunshu Ao, who served
King Zhuang of Chu (楚莊王) (died
591 BC) dammed a river to create an enormous irrigation
reservoir in modern-day northern
Anhui province. For this Sunshu is credited as China's first hydraulic engineer. The later Wei statesman
Ximen Bao, who served
Marquis Wen of Wei (文侯) (
445 BC-
396 BC), is the first hydraulic engineer of China to have created a large irrigation canal system. As the main focus of his grandiose project, his canal work eventually diverted the waters of the entire
Zhang River to a spot further up the
Huang He River.
Gallery of artwork
Image:Defang Ding.jpg|Defang bronze ritual vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty
Image:Dake Ding.jpg|Dake bronze ritual vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty
Image:You with zigzag thunder pattern.jpg|You bronze ritual vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty
Image:Qizhong Hu.jpg|Qizhong Hu bronze vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty
Image:Dou with an inland hunting scene.jpg|Dou vessel with a hunting scene, Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Image:Bo of Duke of Qin.jpg|A bo bell of the Duke of Qin, Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Image:Pu with openwork interlaced dragons design.jpg|Pu vessel with dragon designs, Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Image:Bi with two dragons and grain pattern.jpg|A jade bi with two dragons, Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Image:Zhou ritual food vessel p1070295.jpg|Eastern Zhou bronze ritual food vessel (ding) with lacquer design, 5th-4th century BC
Image:Freer 005.jpg|An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze ding vessel
Image:Freer 007.jpg|An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze musical bell
Image:Freer 009.jpg|Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze vessels
Image:Freer 028.jpg|An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze and silver canteen
Image:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - square bronze hu.jpg|A square bronze hu vessel, Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Image:Freer 032.jpg|An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze bird-shaped wine server
Image:Chinese silk, 4th Century BC.JPG|Embroidered silk gauze garment from a 4th century BC, Zhou era tomb at Mashan, Hubei province.
Image:Changshadragon.jpg|Silk painting of a man riding a dragon.
Zhou dynasty kings
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