Zhou Dynasty

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周æœ
Zhou Dynasty

â†
1045 BC â€“ 256 BC →

Boundaries of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1050–771 BC) in China

Capital Haojing, Luoyang

Language(s) Chinese

Religion Chinese folk religion, Hundred Schools of Thought

Government Monarchy/Feudalism

History

 - Battle of Muye 1045 BC

 - Disestablished 256 BC

Currency Cash (Chinese coin), Chinese coin

The Zhou Dynasty (Chinese: 周æœ; pinyin: ZhÅu Cháo; Wade-Giles: Chou Ch`ao; POJ: Chiu Tiau; 1045 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,^[1] 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 native 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.^[2]

[edit] Mandate of Heaven

History of China

ANCIENT

3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors

Xia Dynasty 2100–1600 BC

Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BC

Zhou Dynasty 1122–256 BC

  Western Zhou

  Eastern Zhou

    Spring and Autumn Period

    Warring States Period

IMPERIAL

Qin Dynasty 221 BC–206 BC

Han Dynasty 206 BC–220 AD

  Western Han

  Xin Dynasty

  Eastern Han

Three Kingdoms 220–280

  Wei, Shu & Wu

Jin Dynasty 265–420

  Western Jin 16 Kingdoms 304–439

  Eastern Jin

Southern & Northern Dynasties 420–589

Sui Dynasty 581–618

Tang Dynasty 618–907

  ( Second Zhou 690–705 )

5 Dynasties &
10 Kingdoms
907–960 Liao Dynasty
907–1125

Song Dynasty
960–1279

  Northern Song W. Xia

  Southern Song Jin

Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368

Ming Dynasty 1368–1644

Qing Dynasty 1644–1911

MODERN

Republic of China 1912–1949

People's Republic
of China (Mainland China) 1949–present

Republic of China
(Taiwan)
1945–present

Related Articles 

Dynasties in Chinese History
Economic history of China
Historiography of China
History of Chinese Art
History of Education in China
History of Science and Technology in China
Legal history of China
Linguistic history of China
Military history of China
Naval History of China
Timeline of Chinese History
Media history of China

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A Western Zhou bronze gui vessel, c. 1000 BC

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 had 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 where in 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 war.

[edit] 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 Chengzhouâ€. 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 along with others in the west. 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 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,^[3] the Zhou period saw the use of massed chariots in battle, a technology imported from Central Asia.^[4]

A Western Zhou ceremonial bronze of cooking-vessel form inscribed to record that the King of Zhou gave a fiefdom to Shi You, ordering that he inherit the title as well as the land and people living there

[edit] Fengjian (Feudalism)

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 FÄ“ngjiàn (å°å»º) 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.

[edit] Western and Eastern Zhou

Western Zhou Dynasty musical bronze bell

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 XÄ« ZhÅu), lasting up until 771 BC, and the Eastern Zhou (Traditional Chinese: æ±å‘¨, Simplified Chinese: 东周, pinyin: DÅng ZhÅu) 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.^[2]

[edit] 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 did not 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 did not proclaim the nominal titles of King of China.

[edit] Agriculture

Zhou vase with glass inlays, 4th-3rd century BC, British Museum.

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.

[edit] Gallery of artwork

Defang bronze ritual vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty

Dake bronze ritual vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty

You bronze ritual vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty

Qizhong Hu bronze vessel, Western Zhou Dynasty

Dou vessel with a hunting scene, Eastern Zhou Dynasty

A bo bell of the Duke of Qin, Eastern Zhou Dynasty

Pu vessel with dragon designs, Eastern Zhou Dynasty

A jade bi with two dragons, Eastern Zhou Dynasty

Eastern Zhou bronze ritual food vessel (ding) with lacquer design, 5th-4th century BC

An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze ding vessel

An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze musical bell

Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze vessels

An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze and silver canteen

A square bronze hu vessel, Eastern Zhou Dynasty

An Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze bird-shaped wine server

Embroidered silk gauze garment from a 4th century BC, Zhou era tomb at Mashan, Hubei province.

Silk painting of a man riding a dragon.

[edit] Zhou dynasty kings

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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