A universal guide for China studies

Chinese History - Zhou Dynasty 周代 (11th cent.-221 BC)

Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [[Location: Home > History > Zhou > event history] [bottom]


Zhou Dynasty
event history

period before (Shang)
--The Feudal Lords
next period (Qin)
Map and Geography I
Map and Geography II
Map and Geography III

Western Zhou History - King You and the end of Western Zhou Period - Spring and Autumn Period -The ba hegemonial system - Era of the Warring States - Coalitions to rule the world

An Outline of Western Zhou History

The Western Zhou (Xizhou 西周) period is a highlight of moral government and enlightened rule in the thinking of the Confucianists. In the Zhou Dynasty's eyes, heaven-appointed King Wen "the Cultured" 周文王 received the heavenly mandate (tianming 天命) of overthrow the depraved last king of the Shang Dynasty.
Shang oracle bones and careful examination of the historical texts instead show that the conquest of the Shang area was mere a result of the general eastern expansion of the Zhou people. Myths of the moving of the capital Bin 豳 (or 邠) to Qishan 岐山 or Hao 鎬 are proved archeologically. Around 1150 BC, the Zhou moved the Fen River 汾水 valley in modern Shanxi to the Wei River 渭水 valley in Shaanxi where they settled among the Rong 戎 and Di 狄 barbarians.
After overthrowing the Shang Dynasty (a defeat that must have come quite suddenly for the Shang), Zhou rulership was in no way assured. It was not a foreigner who now acted as the enemy, but King Wu's 周武王 own half-brothers that challenged his rule. It was only after the defeat of his own family that the Zhou king could establish a reign that expanded rapidly beyond the old political borders of the Shang states.
When King Wu died, he wanted his half-brothers Duke Dan of Zhou (Zhou Gong Dan) 周公旦 and Duke Shi of Shao 召公奭 to assist the young ruler King Cheng 周成王 in government. The later tradition sees in Duke Dan a founder of Chinese civilisation, more than the kings themselves. The Duke was said to have invented historiography, the strucure of government (see the Classic Zhouli), the divining by milfoil stalks (shi 蓍), and much more. The Zhou rulers had two capitals, Zongzhou 宗周 (near Xi'an/Shaanxi) in the east in their homelands, and Chengzhou 成周 (or Luoyi 雒邑; near Luoyang/Henan) in the east where the Shang culture had its cradle. The Zhou were successful in subduing the Shang people and the tribes to the east. Their rule stretched modern Shaanxi to the Shandong peninsula and the Peking area. But the "barbarians" (Non-Chinese) of the south and the west were strong enough to repel the Chinese Zhou. The Xu 徐 people of modern Jiangsu even attacked the eastern capital during the reign of King Mu 周穆王, King Zhao's 周昭王 southern campaign against the peoples of Chu 楚 failed. An attack of the Quanrong 犬戎 or Xianyun 玁狁 at the begin of the 8th century BC forced the Zhou elite to leave the western capital and to settle down east in Chengzhou (near modern Luoyang), an event that for the first time proved the superiority of the steppe warriors over the settled agriculturist Chinese. The following later half of the Zhou period is called "Eastern Zhou" (Dongzhou 東周).

King You and the End of Western Zhou Period

Although the Confucianists see the Western Zhou period as a time of glory, humanity and perfect government, it was a hard time for the Zhou rulers to survive the attacks of the southern and western tribes. But for more than two centuries, they reigned without severe interruption. The case of King You 周幽王 gives nourishment to the Confucian writers who blame him to have followed the words of his consort Baosi 褒似, thus making him equal to King Zhou 商王紂 of the Shang Dynasty and tyrant Jie 夏王桀 of the mythical Xia Dynasty. King You had established a warning system of towers that had to light a fire when the barbarians would attack. Baosi abused this system just for fun. When the Quanrong nomads 犬戎 really attacked, nobody hurried to the weapons. The fleeing Zhou elite had to dig their precious bronze vessels in hoards, a great luck for today's archeologists.

Spring and Autumn - A Period of Disintegration

One of the oldest traditional texts of China is the chronical of the state of Lu 魯, beginning in 722 BC and stretching down to 481 BC. It covers political events not only of the mere small state of Lu itself but also of the major states of Qi 齊, Jin 晉, Qin 秦 and Chu 楚 that dominated the politics of these three centuries. The entries in the Lu chronicle are regulary noted down per year and per season, thus giving the whole historical period the name of "Spring and Autumn" (Chunqiu 春秋時代). Historically seen, the period started when the Zhou 周 rulers had to flee their western territories in 770 BC and moved their base Zongzhou 宗周 to Chengzhou 成周 (or Luoyi 雒邑/modern Luoyang) in the Yellow River Basin, furthermore not being able to expand their domains. The end of the period came, when the few states taking over the de facto rule of old China, disintegrated by intern quarrels and gave up their decade-long politics of (almost) peaceful coexistence during the middle of the 5th century BC.
The second great historical writing of the Spring and Autumn period is the collection Guoyu 國語 "Discourses of the States", which accounts anecdotes of the states Zhou, Lu, Qi, Jin, Zheng 鄭, Chu, Wu 吳 and Yue 越. Said to be a composition of Zuo Qiuming 左丘明 (because much of the material is similar to the Annals of Zuo 春秋左傳, a kind of complement to the Spring and Autumn Annals), its oldest parts must have been compiled at the end of the 5th century BC. See a table of the feudal lords (zhuhou 諸侯) of the whole Zhou period.

The ba 霸 Hegemonial System: Lord Protector to Overlord

The fleeing Zhou elite had no strong foothold in the eastern territories. The Zhou kings had to rely on the help of their neighbour states not even to protect themselves raids by other powers but also to solve intern power struggles. The first lord to help the Zhou kings was Duke Zhuang of the state of Zheng 鄭莊公 (r. 743-701). He was the first to establish the system of hegemonial rulers (ba 霸), which was intended to keep up the old feudal system once founded by King Wu of Zhou 周武王 in the 11th century BC. Later historians said it was intended to protect the original Chinese states the intruding barbarian tribes Man 蠻, Rong 戎 and Yi 夷. But in fact, all states of old China had a multi-ethnic population, which could not really be divided into Chinese and Non-Chinese. Tribes that were ethnically and culturally different the ruling elite were scattered all over the country.
After Duke Zhuang's death, the two dukes Huan of Qi 齊桓公 (r. 685-643) and Wen of Jin 晉文公 (r. 636-628) made a step further in institutionalizing the system of the hegemon. The protecting task of the overlord gradually lost its original intention to become a system of hegemony of one major state over weak satellites of Chinese and "barbarian" origin. The attitude to help small states during internal quarrels changed to regular intervention into political affairs to the advantage of the great states. The two states not only perfected their own strength but repelled the southern State Chu whose ruler had proclaimed himself king and whose armies step by step intruded into the Yellow River Basin. The contending states Qi, Qin, Jin and Chu finally met for a disarmament conference.
During the relatively peaceful 6th century, the two southern coastal states Wu 吳 and Yue 越 emerged as new powers. After defeiting king Fuchai 吳王夫差 of Wu, king Goujian 越王句踐 of Yue (r. 496-465; actually a "barbarian") became the last overlord. The hegemons are also called Wu Bo 五伯 ("Five Counts"), identified as Duke Huan of Qi 齊桓公, Duke Wen of Jin 晉文公, Duke Mu of Qi 秦穆公, Duke Xiang of Song 宋襄公, and King Zhuang of Chu 楚莊王.
During the Spring and Autumn period, more and more land was made arable by implementing the system of rotating crops, thereby enhancing the general nourriture. Additionally, iron ploughshares became widespread during the 5th century. The peasants who had to render a slavelike civil and military service to their lords, worked the so-called well-fields (after the character for well jing 井) with nine compartiments. The fruits of the central field had to be rendered to the lord. Theoretically, all fields belonged to the king, but even in the several independent states, a crop tax of a nominal tenth was gradually introduced.
Iron was thought to be an inferior metal and thus only used for ploughshares, not for weapons. Industrial production of ceramics and bronze tools became widespread during the Spring and Autumn period. Interstate relationship was not only conferred to war and peace conferences, but there was also an intensive trade between the different regions. As commerce slowly emerged, it was also necessary to produce and to standardize coins.

The Era of the Warring States

A very intensified warfare, not in number of battles, but in length and professionalism of the particular campaigns gave this period its name. The old army of a fighting aristocracy was replaced by a general led infantry (similar to old Greece and Rome and the European Middle Age), with peasants pressed to be human material and commanders almost being independent their lord. New weapons like halberds and crossbows came up, chariots and archers supported the armor and iron helmet protected infantry. The warring states erected garrisons and walls along their frontiers, military advisors tried to defeat foreign armies, and wandering persuaders (the most famous being Su Qin 蘇秦) proposed the best alliances with other and against other states. In this time of political division, a great diversity of thinkers (called the "Hundred Schools" baijia 百家) tried to persue different rulers to make their best way.

Coalitions to Rule the World

The Warring States Period began with the brutal extinguishing of the ruling house of Qi (the Jiang 姜 clan) by the house of Tian 田. The Tian clan took over the rulership of Qi in 481 BC. In the small state of Lu 魯, already in 562 BC the three Huan 桓 families had replaced the house of Ji 姬. At the begin of the 5th century, five families in the state of Jin 晉 began to engage in a civil war for the rulership of this state. Three of them, the clans Wei 魏, Hann 韓 (written with two "nn" to distinguish it the Han 漢 Dynasty) and Zhao 趙, finally overcame their rivals and founded their own states, dividing Jin. In 424 BC they mutually recognized their independence. The king of Zhou only recognized this partition in 403 BC.
A century later, when the different states had already begun many of their interal strucural reforms, marquis Hui of Wei was the first ruler to call himself king (wang 王): King Hui the Benevolent of Liang 梁惠王. Besides the "barbarian" (Non-Chinese) states of Chu 楚, Wu 吳 and Yue 越 in the south, he was the first ruler to disrespect the traditional position of the powerless kings of Zhou. One by one, the other states followed.
But they were in no case united against the kings of Zhou: the Zhou rulers were not more than the lords of a small territory. Warfare became the normal situation for the next century. Seven major states, Qin, Wei, Hann, Zhao, Yan 燕, Qi and Chu, fought in ever changing coalitions (zongheng 縱橫) against each other. In the end, only the well-reformed and half-barbarian state of Qin was able to overcome the others, being "like a wolf or a tiger". King Ying Zheng 贏政 of Qin conquered one state after the other and proclaimed himself the First Emperor in 221 BC, having unified the whole territory of ancient China.

Go back to the Zhou Dynasty introduction page and learn more about Zhou Dynasty economy, arts, literature, government...

[HOME and sitemap: ][top]

e clans all belonged to the immigrated northern aristocracy. The first phase is dominated by the family Wang the old Langye 琅邪 (Wang Dao 王導, Wang Dun 王敦), the second phase by the Yu clan Yingchuan 穎川 (Yu Liang 庾亮), the third phase by the Huan clan Qiao 譙 (Huan Wen 桓溫), and finally the fourth phase by the Xie clan Chen 陳 (Xie Shang 謝尚, Xie An 謝安, and Xie Xuan 謝玄, the victor of Feishui). Some of these potentates were real challengers of the imperial throne like Wang Dun who tried to make himself emperor in 323 or Huan Wen who dethroned Sima Yi 司馬奕 (Duke of Haixi 海西) in 371 and nominated Sima Yu 司馬昱 as emperor (posthumous Jin Jianwendi 晉簡文帝 - see titles of emperors). Huan Wen’s power was crushed by the new e