Zhou dynasty

Zhou
周
c. 1046 BC–256 BC
Population concentration and boundaries of the Western Zhou dynasty (1050–771 BC) in China
Capital
Languages Old Chinese
Religion Chinese folk religion, Ancestor worship, Heaven worship[2]
Government Monarchy
King
 •  c. 1046–1043 BC King Wu
 • 781–771 BC King You
 • 770–720 BC King Ping
 • 314–256 BC King Nan
History
 •  Battle of Muye c. 1046 BC
 • Gonghe Regency 841–828 BC
 • Relocation to Wangcheng 771 BC
 •  Deposition of King Nan by Qin 256 BC
 • Fall of the last Zhou holdouts[3] 249 BC
Population
 •  273 BC est. 30,000,000 
 •  230 BC est. 38,000,000 
Currency Mostly spade coins and knife coins
Preceded by 		Succeeded by
Shang dynasty
Qin dynasty
Today part of  China
Zhou dynasty

"Zhou" in ancient bronze script (top), seal script (middle), and regular (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese 周
History of China
History of China
ANCIENT
Neolithic c. 8500 – c. 2070 BC
Xia dynasty c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC
Shang dynasty c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC
Zhou dynasty c. 1046 – 256 BC
 Western Zhou
 Eastern Zhou
   Spring and Autumn
   Warring States
IMPERIAL
Qin dynasty 221–206 BC
Han dynasty 206 BC – 220 AD
  Western Han
  Xin dynasty
  Eastern Han
Three Kingdoms 220–280
  Wei, Shu and Wu
Jin dynasty 265–420
  Western Jin
  Eastern Jin Sixteen Kingdoms
Northern and Southern dynasties
420–589
Sui dynasty 581–618
Tang dynasty 618–907
  (Second Zhou dynasty 690–705)
Five Dynasties and
Ten Kingdoms
907–960		 Liao dynasty
907–1125
Song dynasty
960–1279
  Northern Song Western Xia
  Southern Song Jin
Yuan dynasty 1271–1368
Ming dynasty 1368–1644
Qing dynasty 1644–1912
MODERN
Republic of China 1912–1949
People's Republic of
China 1949–present

The Zhou dynasty (Chinese: 周朝; pinyin: Zhōu cháo [ʈʂóu ʈʂʰǎu]) was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history. The military control of China by the royal house, surnamed Ji (Chinese: 姬), lasted initially from 1046 until 771 BC for a period known as the Western Zhou and the political sphere of influence it created continued well into Eastern Zhou for another 500 years.

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 into its almost-modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period.

History

Foundation


Traditional myth

According to Chinese mythology, the Zhou lineage began when Jiang Yuan, a consort of the legendary Emperor Ku, miraculously conceived a child, Qi "the Abandoned One", after stepping into the divine footprint of Shangdi.[4][5] Qi was a culture hero credited with surviving three abandonments by his mother and with greatly improving Xia agriculture,[4] to the point where he was granted lordship over Tai and the surname Ji by his own Xia king and a later posthumous name, Houji "Lord of Millet", by the Tang of Shang. He even received sacrifice as a harvest god. The term Hòujì was probably an hereditary title attached to a lineage.

Qi's son, or rather that of the Hòujì, Buzhu is said to have abandoned his position as Agrarian Master (Chinese: 農師; pinyin: Nóngshī) in old age and either he or his son Ju abandoned agriculture entirely, living a nomadic life in the manner of the Xirong and Rongdi (see Hua–Yi distinction).[6] Ju's son Liu,[7] however, led his people to prosperity by restoring agriculture and settling them at a place called Bin,[lower-alpha 3] which his descendants ruled for generations. Tai later led the clan from Bin to Zhou, an area in the Wei River valley of modern-day Qishan County.

The duke passed over his two elder sons Taibo and Zhongyong to favor Jili, a warrior who conquered several Xirong tribes as a vassal of the Shang kings Wu Yi and Wen Ding before being treacherously killed. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly already fled to the Yangtze delta, where they established the state of Wu among the tribes there. Jili's son Wen bribed his way out of imprisonment and moved the Zhou capital to Feng (within present-day Xi'an). Around 1046 BCE, Wen's son Wu and his ally Jiang Ziya led an army of 45,000 men and 300 chariots across the Yellow River and defeated King Zhou of Shang at the Battle of Muye, marking the beginning of the Zhou dynasty.[lower-alpha 4] The Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song, which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences.

Culture

According to Nicholas Bodman, the Zhou appear to have spoken a language not basically different in vocabulary and syntax from that of the Shang. [lower-alpha 5] A recent study by David McCraw, using lexical statistics, reached the same conclusion.[10] The Zhou emulated extensively Shang cultural practices, perhaps to legitimize their own rule,[11] and became the successors to Shang culture.[12] At the same time, the Zhou may also have been connected to the Xirong, a broadly defined cultural group to the west of the Shang, which the Shang regarded as tributaries.[13] According to the historian Li Feng, the term "Rong" during the Western Zhou period was likely used to designate political and military adversaries rather than cultural and ethnic 'others.'[12]

The proto-Zhou were first located in the Shaanxi-Shanxi highland, where they absorbed elements from the Guangshe culture and from the steppe dwellers. King Liu moved his people to the lower Fen River Valley and to the western bank of the Yellow River, where they resumed agriculture. His son Qing Jie, led the Zhou to the upper valley of the Jing River. They stayed there until Dan Fu (or Tai Wang) moved again to the Wei River valley in order to avoid incursion by the Rongdi nomads. During this period, the Zhou mingled with the Qiang people, who provided them with a cultural inheritance from the Siwa and Anguo peoples and formed a political alliance with them. In all these stages, the advanced Shang bronze culture constantly imparted its influence on the Zhou. The Qi area was the region in which all these influences would come to fruition. The contact among the proto-Zhou, the native Shaanxi Longshan, the Qiang, and the northern steppe traditions, plus the tradition of the Shang produced the momentum for change and development. [14]

Western Zhou

States of the Western Zhou dynasty

King Wu maintained the old capital for ceremonial purposes but constructed a new one for his palace and administration nearby at Hao. Although Wu's early death left a young and inexperienced heir, the Duke of Zhou assisted his nephew King Cheng in consolidating royal power. Wary of the Duke of Zhou's increasing power, the "Three Guards", Zhou princes stationed on the eastern plain, rose in rebellion against his regency. Even though they garnered the support of independent-minded nobles, Shang partisans and several Dongyi tribes, the Duke of Zhou quelled the rebellion, and further expanded the Zhou kingdom into the east.[15][16][17] To maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system.[16] Furthermore, he countered Zhou's crisis of legitimacy by expounding the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven while accommodating important Shang rituals at Wangcheng and Chengzhou.[18]

Over time, this decentralized system became strained as the familial relationships between the Zhou kings and the regional dynasties thinned over the generations. Peripheral territories developed local power and prestige on par with that of the Zhou.[19] When King You demoted and exiled his Jiang queen in favor of the beautiful commoner Bao Si, the disgraced queen's father the Marquis of Shen joined with Zeng and the Quanrong barbarians to sack Hao in 771 BC. Some modern scholars have surmised that the sack of Haojing might have been connected to a Scythian raid from the Altai before their westward expansion.[20] With King You dead, a conclave of nobles met at Shen and declared the Marquis's grandson King Ping. The capital was moved eastward to Wangcheng,[1] marking the end of the "Western Zhou" (西周, p Xī Zhōu) and the beginning of the "Eastern Zhou" dynasty (東周, p Dōng Zhōu).

Eastern Zhou

Map showing major states of Eastern Zhou

The Eastern Zhou was characterized by an accelerating collapse of royal authority, although the king's ritual importance allowed over five more centuries of rule. The Confucian chronicle of the early years of this process led to its title of the "Spring and Autumn" period. The partition of Jin in the mid-5th century BC initiated a second phase, the "Warring States".[19] In 403 BC, the Zhou court recognized Han, Zhao, and Wei as fully independent states. Duke Hui of Wei, in 344 BC, was the first to claim the royal title of king (Chinese: 王) for himself. Others followed, marking a turning point, as rulers did not even entertain the pretence of being vassals of the Zhou court, instead proclaiming themselves fully independent kingdoms. A series of states rose to prominence before each falling in turn, and Zhou was a minor player most of these conflicts.

The last Zhou king is traditionally taken to be Nan, who was killed when Qin captured the capital Wangcheng[1] in 256 BC. A "King Hui" was declared, but his splinter state was fully removed by 249 BC. Qin's unification of China concluded in 221 BC with Qin Shihuang's annexation of Qi.

The Eastern Zhou, however, is also remembered as the golden age of Chinese philosophy: the Hundred Schools of Thought which flourished as rival lords patronized itinerant shi scholars is led by the example of Qi's Jixia Academy. The Nine Schools of Thought which came to dominate the others were Confucianism (as interpreted by Mencius and others), Legalism, Taoism, Mohism, the utopian communalist Agriculturalism, two strains of Diplomatists, the sophistic Logicians, Sun-tzu's Militarists, and the Naturalists.[21] Although only the first three of these went on to receive imperial patronage in later dynasties, doctrines from each influenced the others and Chinese society in sometimes unusual ways. The Mohists, for instance, found little interest in their praise of meritocracy but much acceptance for their mastery of siege warfare; much later, however, their arguments against nepotism were used in favor of establishing the imperial examination system.

Culture and society

Silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon, painting on silk, dated to 5th-3rd century BC, from Zidanku Tomb no. 1 in Changsha, Hunan Province
A lacquerware painting from the Jingmen Tomb (Chinese: 荊門楚墓; Pinyin: Jīngmén chǔ mù) of the State of Chu (704–223 BC), depicting men wearing precursors to Hanfu (i.e. traditional silk dress) and riding in a two-horsed chariot

Mandate of Heaven

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 towards a universalized worship, away from the worship of Shangdi 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 and that his dethronement would prove that he had lost the Mandate. The mandate of heaven was based on rules. In return, the ruler was duty-bound to uphold heaven's principles and honor. Disasters and successful rebellions would thus show that the ruling family had lost this Mandate. The mandate asserted that Zhou moral superiority justified taking over Shang territories and that heaven had imposed a moral mandate on them to replace the Shang, whom they saw as evil men whose policies brought pain to the people through corruption.[22]

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. Before conquering Shang, Zhou was a state in Shaanxi. Gernet (1996:51) describes the Zhou state as a "city" which was in contact with the barbarian peoples of the western regions and more warlike than the Shang. The Zhou dynasty was founded by the Ji family and operated from four capitals throughout its history.[23] 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 rule 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 secede during the late Western war.[24]

Feudalism

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

Western writers often describe the Zhou period as "feudal" because the Zhou's fēngjiàn (封建) system invites comparison with medieval rule in Europe.

There were many similarities between the decentralized systems. When the dynasty was established, the conquered land was divided into hereditary fiefs (諸侯, zhūhóu) that eventually became powerful in their own right. In matters of inheritance, the Zhou dynasty recognized only patrilineal primogeniture as legal.[25][26] According to Tao (1934: 17–31), "the Tsung-fa or descent line system has the following characteristics: patrilineal descent, patrilineal succession, patriarchate, sib-exogamy, and primogeniture"[27]

The system, also called "extensive stratified patrilineage", was defined by the anthropologist Kwang-chih Chang as "characterized by the fact that the eldest son of each generation formed the main of line descent and political authority, whereas the younger brothers were moved out to establish new lineages of lesser authority. The farther removed, the lesser the political authority". Ebrey defines the descent-line system as follows: "A great line (ta-tsung) is the line of eldest sons continuing indefinitely from a founding ancestor. A lesser line is the line of younger sons going back no more than five generations. Great lines and lesser lines continually spin off new lesser lines, founded by younger sons".

K.E. Brashier writes in his book "Ancestral Memory in Early China" about the tsung-fa system of patrilineal primogeniture: "The greater lineage, if it has survived, is the direct succession from father to eldest son and is not defined via the collateral shifts of the lesser lineages. In discussions that demarcate between trunk and collateral lines, the former is called a zong and the latter a zu, whereas the whole lineage is dubbed the shi. [...] On one hand every son who is not the eldest and hence not heir to the lineage territory has the potential of becoming a progenitor and fostering a new trunk lineage (Ideally he would strike out to cultivate new lineage territory). [...] According to the Zou commentary, the son of heaven divided land among his feudal lords, his feudal lords divided land among their dependent families and so forth down the pecking order to the officers who had their dependent kin and the commoners who "each had his apportioned relations and all had their graded precedence""[28]

This type of unilineal descent-group later became the model of the Korean family through the influence of Neo-Confucianism, as Zhu Xi and others advocated its re-establishment in China.[29]

Fēngjiàn system and bureaucracy

There were five peerage ranks below the royal ranks, in descending order with common English translations: gōng 公 "duke", hóu 侯 "marquis", bó 伯 "count", zǐ 子 "viscount", and nán 男 "baron".[30] At times, a vigorous duke would take power from his nobles and centralize the state. Centralization became more necessary as the states began to war among themselves and decentralization encouraged more war. If a duke took power from his nobles, the state would have to be administered bureaucratically by appointed officials.

Despite these similarities, there are a number of important differences from medieval Europe. One obvious difference is that the Zhou ruled from walled cities rather than castles. Another was China's distinct class system, which lacked an organized clergy but saw the Shang Zi-clan yeomen become masters of ritual and ceremony known as Shi (士). When a dukedom was centralized, these people would find employment as government officials or officers. These hereditary classes were similar to Western knights in status and breeding, but like Western clergy were expected to be something of a scholar instead of a warrior. Being appointed, they could move from one state to another. Some would travel from state to state peddling schemes of administrative or military reform. Those who could not find employment would often end up teaching young men who aspired to official status. The most famous of these was Confucius, who taught a system of mutual duty between superiors and inferiors. In contrast, the Legalists had no time for Confucian virtue and advocated a system of strict laws and harsh punishments. The wars of the Warring States were finally ended by the most legalist state of all, Qin. When the Qin dynasty fell and was replaced by the Han dynasty, many Chinese were relieved to return to the more humane virtues of Confucius.

Agriculture
The Shi Qiang pan, inscribed with the accomplishments of the earliest Zhou kings, circa 10th century BC

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 well-field system, 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 initiated during the Zhou dynasty, ultimately as a means to aid agricultural irrigation. The chancellor of Wei, Sunshu Ao, who served King Zhuang of Chu, 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 (445-396 BC), was 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 Yellow River.

Military

The early Western Zhou supported a strong army, 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 Yellow River 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, which at that time meant "statelet" or "principality".

A bronze figure of a charioteer from the Warring States era of the Zhou Dynasty, dated 4th to 3rd century BC
An embroidered silk gauze ritual garment from an Eastern-Zhou-era tomb at Mashan, Hubei province, China, 4th century BC
An Eastern-Zhou bronze sword excavated from Changsa, Hunan Province
A drinking cup carved from crystal, unearthed at Banshan, Hangzhou, Warring States period, Hangzhou Museum.
The Bianzhong of Marquis Yi of Zeng, a set of bronze bianzhong percussion instruments from the tomb of the aforesaid marquis in Hubei province, China, dated 433 BC, Warring States period

King Zhao was famous for repeated campaigns in the Yangtze areas and died in his last action. Later kings' campaigns were less effective. King Li led 14 armies against barbarians in the south, but failed to achieve any victory. King Xuan fought the Quanrong nomads in vain. King You was killed by the Quanrong when Haojing was sacked. Although chariots had been introduced to China during the Shang dynasty from Central Asia, the Zhou period saw the first major use of chariots in battle.[31][32] Recent archaeological finds demonstrate similarities between horse burials of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and Indo-European peoples in the west.[33] Other possible cultural influences resulting from Indo-European contact in this period may include fighting styles, head-and-hooves burials, art motifs and myths.[33]

Philosophy

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 Confucius, founder of Confucianism, and Laozi, founder of Taoism. Other philosophers, theorists, and schools of thought in this era were Mozi, founder of Mohism; Mencius, a famous Confucian who expanded upon Confucius' legacy; Shang Yang and Han Fei, responsible for the development of ancient Chinese Legalism (the core philosophy of the Qin dynasty); and Xun Zi, who was arguably the center of ancient Chinese intellectual life during his time, even more so than iconic intellectual figures such as Mencius.[34]

Li

Established during the Western period, the Li traditional Chinese: 禮; simplified Chinese: 礼; pinyin: lǐ) ritual system encoded an understanding of manners as an expression of the social hierarchy, ethics, and regulation concerning material life; the corresponding social practices became idealized within Confucian ideology.

The system was canonized in the Book of Rites, Zhouli, and Yili compendiums of the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), thus becoming the heart of the Chinese imperial ideology. While the system was initially a respected body of concrete regulations, the fragmentation of the Western Zhou period led the ritual to drift towards moralization and formalization in regard to:

Kings

The rulers of the Zhou dynasty were titled Wáng (王), which is normally translated into English as "king" and was also the Shang term for their rulers.[35] In addition to these rulers, King Wu's immediate ancestors – Danfu, Jili, and Wen – are also referred to as "Kings of Zhou", despite having been nominal vassals of the Shang kings.

NB: Dates in Chinese history before the first year of the Gonghe Regency in 841 BC are contentious and vary by source. Those below are those published by Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and Edward L. Shaughnessy's The Absolute Chronology of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Personal name Posthumous name Reign period
發 Fa 周武王 King Wu of Zhou 1046–1043 BC
1045–1043 BC
誦 Song 周成王 King Cheng of Zhou 1042–1021 BC
1042/1035–1006 BC
釗 Zhao 周康王 King Kang of Zhou 1020–996 BC
1005/1003–978 BC
瑕 Xia 周昭王 King Zhao of Zhou 995–977 BC
977/975–957 BC
滿 Man 周穆王 King Mu of Zhou 976–922 BC
956–918 BC
繄扈 Yihu 周共王/周龔王 King Gong of Zhou 922–900 BC
917/915–900 BC
囏 Jian 周懿王 King Yi of Zhou 899–892 BC
899/897–873 BC
辟方 Pifang 周孝王 King Xiao of Zhou 891–886 BC
872?–866 BC
燮 Xie 周夷王 King Yi of Zhou 885–878 BC
865–858 BC
胡 Hu 周厲王/周剌王 King Li of Zhou 877–841 BC
857/853–842/828 BC
共和 Gonghe Regency 841–828 BC
靜 Jing 周宣王 King Xuan of Zhou 827–782 BC
宮湦 Gongsheng 周幽王 King You of Zhou 781–771 BC
End of Western Zhou / Beginning of Eastern Zhou
宜臼 Yijiu 周平王 King Ping of Zhou 770–720 BC
林 Lin 周桓王 King Huan of Zhou 719–697 BC
佗 Tuo 周莊王 King Zhuang of Zhou 696–682 BC
胡齊 Huqi 周僖王 King Xi of Zhou 681–677 BC
閬 Lang 周惠王 King Hui of Zhou 676–652 BC
鄭 Zheng 周襄王 King Xiang of Zhou 651–619 BC
壬臣 Renchen 周頃王 King Qing of Zhou 618–613 BC
班 Ban 周匡王 King Kuang of Zhou 612–607 BC
瑜 Yu 周定王 King Ding of Zhou 606–586 BC
夷 Yi 周簡王 King Jian of Zhou 585–572 BC
洩心 Xiexin 周靈王 King Ling of Zhou 571–545 BC
貴 Gui 周景王 King Jing of Zhou 544–521 BC
猛 Meng 周悼王 King Dao of Zhou 520 BC
丐 Gai 周敬王 King Jing of Zhou 519–476 BC
仁 Ren 周元王 King Yuan of Zhou 475–469 BC
介 Jie 周貞定王 King Zhending of Zhou 468–442 BC
去疾 Quji 周哀王 King Ai of Zhou 441 BC
叔 Shu 周思王 King Si of Zhou 441 BC
嵬 Wei 周考王 King Kao of Zhou 440–426 BC
午 Wu 周威烈王 King Weilie of Zhou 425–402 BC
驕 Jiao 周安王 King An of Zhou 401–376 BC
喜 Xi 周烈王 King Lie of Zhou 375–369 BC
扁 Bian 周顯王 King Xian of Zhou 368–321 BC
定 Ding 周慎靚王 King Shenjing of Zhou 320–315 BC
延 Yan 周赧王 King Nan of Zhou 314–256 BC

Nobles of the Ji family proclaimed Duke Hui of Eastern Zhou as King Nan's successor after their capital, Chengzhou, fell to Qin forces in 256 BC. Ji Zhao, a son of King Nan, led a resistance against Qin for five years. The dukedom fell in 249 BC. The remaining Ji family ruled Yan and Wei until 209 BC.

Later tradition

Fittings in the form of tigers, Baoji, Shaanxi province, Middle Western Zhou dynasty, c. 900 BC, bronze

Claimed descendants

The Han dynasty bestowed the hereditary title 周子南君 upon the Zhou dynasty royal descendant Ji Jia 姬嘉 and his descendants.[36] This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences.

According to the New Book of Tang the Sui dynasty Emperors were patrilineally descended from the Zhou dynasty Kings via Ji Boqiao 姬伯僑, who was the son of Duke Wu of Jin.[37] Ji Boqiao's family became known as the "sheep tongue family" 羊舌氏.

The Yang of Hongnong 弘農楊氏[38][39][40][41][42] were asserted as ancestors by the Sui Emperors like the Longxi Li's were asserted as ancestors of the Tang Emperors.[43] The Li of Zhaojun and the Lu of Fanyang hailed from Shandong and were related to the Liu clan which was also linked to the Yang of Hongnong and other clans of Guanlong.[44] Duke Wu of Jin was claimed as the ancestors of the Hongnong Yang.[45] The Yang of Hongnong, Jia of Hedong, Xiang of Henei, and Wang of Taiyuan from the Tang dynasty were claimed as ancestors by Song dynasty lineages.[46] There were Dukedoms for the offspring of the royal families of the Zhou dynasty, Sui dynasty, and Tang dynasty in the Later Jin (Five Dynasties).[47]

The Zhou dynasty King Ling's son Prince Jin is assumed by most to be the ancestor of the Taiyuan Wang lineage.[48] The Longmen Wang were a cadet line of the Zhou dynasty descended Taiyuan Wang, and Wang Yan and his grandson Wang Tong hailed from his cadet line.[49] Both Buddhist monks and scholars hailed from the Wang family of Taiyuan such as the monk Tanqian.[50] The Wang family of Taiyuan included Wang Huan.[51] The Taiyuan Wang family produced Wang Jun who served under Emperor Huai of Jin.[52] A Fuzhou-based section of the Taiyuan Wang produced the Buddhist monk Baizhang.[53] During the Tang dynasty the Li family of Zhaojun 趙郡李氏, the Cui family of Boling 博陵崔氏, the Cui family of Qinghe 清河崔氏, the Lu family of Fanyang 范陽盧氏, the Zheng family of Xingyang 滎陽鄭氏, the Wang family of Taiyuan 太原王氏, and the Li family of Longxi 隴西李氏 were the seven noble families between whom marriage was banned by law.[54] Moriya Mitsuo wrote a history of the Later Han-Tang period of the Taiyuan Wang. Among the strongest families was the Taiyuan Wang.[55] The prohibition on marriage between the clans issued in 659 by the Gaozong Emperor was flouted by the seven families since a woman of the Boling Cui married a member of the Taiyuan Wang, giving birth to the poet Wang Wei.[56] He was the son of Wang Chulian who in turn was the son of Wang Zhou.[57] The marriages between the families were performed clandestinely after the prohibition was implemented on the seven families by Gaozong.[58] Their status as "Seven Great surnames" became known during Gaozong's rule.[59]

The Zhou dynasty Kings are the ancestors of the Zhou clan of Runan.

The Linghu of Dunhuang 敦煌令狐氏 were descended from King Wen of Zhou through his son Duke Gao of Bi 畢公高

The Zheng family of Xingyang 滎陽鄭氏 claim descent from the Zhou dynasty Kings via the rulers of the State of Zheng.

The Marquis of Xingyang rank was created for Zheng Xi.[60] The Xingyang Zheng spawned Zheng Daozhao and Zheng Xi.[61] Zheng Wanjun was a member of the Xingyang Zheng.[62] The Xingyang Zheng spawned Zheng Yuzhong (Zheng Qiao).[63] The Xingyang Zheng spawned Zheng Jiong.[64]

The Zheng of Xingyang may have been miswritten in the records as the Zheng of Xingyang 滎陽鄭氏.[65][66]

東野家族大宗世系 Family Tree of the descendants of the Duke of Zhou in Chinese

The main line of the Duke of Zhou's descendants came from his firstborn son, the State of Lu ruler Bo Qin's third son Yu (魚) whose descendants adopted the surname Dongye (東野). The Duke of Zhou's offspring held the title of Wujing Boshi (五經博士; 五經博士; Wǔjīng Bóshì).[67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77]

Duke Huan of Lu's son through Qingfu (慶父) was the ancestor of Mencius. He was descended from Duke Yang of the State of Lu 魯煬公 Duke Yang was the son of Bo Qin, who was the son of the Duke of Zhou. The genealogy is found in the Mencius family tree (孟子世家大宗世系).[78][79][80] Mencius's descendants were awarded the Wujing Boshi title.[67]

One of the Duke of Zhou's 72 generation descendants family tree was examined and commented on by Song Lian.[81]

Astrology

Zhou is represented by two stars, Eta Capricorni (週一 Zhōu yī, "the First Star of Zhou") and 21 Capricorni (週二 Zhōu èr, "the Second Star of Zhou"), in "Twelve States" asterism.[82] Zhou is also represented by the star Beta Serpentis in asterism "Right Wall", Heavenly Market enclosure (see Chinese constellation).[83]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Fenghao is the modern name for the twin city formed by the Western Zhou capitals of Haojing and Fēngjīng.
  2. ↑ The exact location of Wangcheng and its relation to Chengzhou is disputed. According to Xu Zhaofeng, "Chengzhou" and "Wangcheng" were originally synonymous and used to name the same capital city from 771 to 510 BC. "The creation of a distinction between Wangcheng and Chengzhou probably occurred during the reign of King Jing", under whom a new capital "Chengzhou" was built to the east of the old city "Wangcheng". Nevertheless, the new Chengzhou was still sometimes called Wangcheng and vice versa, adding to the confusion.[1]
  3. ↑ The exact location of Bin remains obscure, but it may have been close to Linfen on the Fen River in present-day Shanxi.[8][9]
  4. ↑ Sima Qian was only able to establish historical dates after the time of the Gonghe Regency. Earlier dates, like that of 1046 BC for the Battle of Muye, are given in this article according to the official PRC Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project, but they remain contentious. Various historians have offered dates for the battle ranging between 1122 and 1027 BC.
  5. ↑ Bodman (1980), p. 41: "Moreover, Shang dynasty Chinese at least in its syntax and lexicon seems not to differ basically from that of the Zhou dynasty whose language is amply attested in inscriptions on bronze vessels and which was transmitted in the early classical literature."

References

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  4. 1 2 Shijing, Ode 245.
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  6. ↑ Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of Zhou, §3.
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  9. ↑ Wu (1982), p. 273.
  10. ↑ David McCraw (2010). "An ABC Exercise in Old Sinitic Lexical Statistics" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers (202).
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  12. 1 2 Li, Feng (2006), Landscape And Power In Early China, Cambridge University Press, p. 286.
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  16. 1 2 Chinn (2007), p. 43.
  17. ↑ Hucker (1978), p. 32.
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  19. 1 2 Hucker (1978), p. 37.
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  29. ↑ The Confucian Transformation of Korea: A Study of Society and Ideology Written By Martina Deuchler https://books.google.com/books?id=NQeeYOyUx64C&pg=PA129
  30. ↑ ChinaKnowledge.de encyclopedia, http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Zhou/zhou-admin.html.%5B%5D Alternatively, the sequence was translated as prince, lord, elder, master, chieftain: Brooks 1997:3 n.9.
  31. ↑ Ebrey, Walthall & Palais (2006), p. 14.
  32. ↑ Shaughnessy (1988).
  33. 1 2 Krech & Steinicke 2011, p. 100
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  35. ↑ Thorp, Robert L. (2005). China in the Early Bronze Age. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-8122-3910-2.
  36. ↑ 《漢書‧楊胡朱梅雲傳》：初，武帝時，始封周後姬嘉為周子南君，至元帝時，尊周子南君為周承休侯，位次諸侯王。使諸大夫博士求殷後，分散為十餘姓，郡國往往得其大家，推求子孫，絕不能紀。時，匡衡議，以為「王者存二王后，所以尊其先王而通三統也。其犯誅絕之罪者絕，而更封他親為始封君，上承其王者之始祖。《春秋》之義，諸侯不能守其社稷者絕。今宋國已不守其統而失國矣，則宜更立殷後為始封君，而上承湯統，非當繼宋之絕侯也，宜明得殷後而已。今之故宋，推求其嫡，久遠不可得；雖得其嫡，嫡之先已絕，不當得立。《禮記》孔子曰：『丘，殷人也。』先師所共傳，宜以孔子世為湯後。」上以其語不經，遂見寢。
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  38. ↑ Howard L. Goodman (2010). Xun Xu and the Politics of Precision in Third-Century Ad China. BRILL. pp. 81–. ISBN 90-04-18337-X.
  39. ↑ Bulletin. The Museum. 1992. p. 154.
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  41. ↑ Peter Bol (1 August 1994). "This Culture of Ours": Intellectual Transitions in T?ang and Sung China. Stanford University Press. pp. 505–. ISBN 978-0-8047-6575-6.
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  45. ↑ 《氏族志》
  46. ↑ Peter Bol (1 August 1994). "This Culture of Ours": Intellectual Transitions in T?ang and Sung China. Stanford University Press. pp. 66–. ISBN 978-0-8047-6575-6.
  47. ↑ Ouyang, Xiu (5 April 2004). Historical Records of the Five Dynasties. Richard L. Davis, translator. Columbia University Press. pp. 76–. ISBN 978-0-231-50228-3.
  48. ↑ Ding Xiang Warner (2003). A Wild Deer Amid Soaring Phoenixes: The Opposition Poetics of Wang Ji. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 156–. ISBN 978-0-8248-2669-7.
  49. ↑ Ding Xiang Warner (15 May 2014). Transmitting Authority: Wang Tong (ca. 584–617) and the Zhongshuo in Medieval China's Manuscript Culture. BRILL. pp. 98–. ISBN 978-90-04-27633-8.
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  65. ↑ Bryan J. Cuevas; Jacqueline Ilyse Stone (2007). The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 264–. ISBN 978-0-8248-3031-1.
  66. ↑ James A. Benn (2007). Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 304–. ISBN 978-0-8248-2992-6.
  67. 1 2 H.S. Brunnert; V.V. Hagelstrom (15 April 2013). Present Day Political Organization of China. Routledge. pp. 493–494. ISBN 978-1-135-79795-9.
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  69. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/presentdaypoliti00brun#page/492/mode/2up
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Works cited

Further reading

Preceded by
Shang dynasty		 Dynasties in Chinese history
1046–256 BC 		Succeeded by
Qin dynasty
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