subject: A brief talk about Chinese History - Western Zhou Dynasty [print this page] A brief talk about Chinese History - Western Zhou Dynasty
To the west of Shang was a place named Zhou. The head of this state was named Jichang, under the management of Jichang; Zhou's power grew while the Shang dynasty power declined. In 1066 BC Jichang son Jifa, launched a war on the Shang dynasty and ended the Shang dynasty thus founding the Zhou dynasty and changing his name to Emperor Wu.
Emperor Wu used the Mandated of Heaven, which was created in the Shang dynasty to legitimize his rule. The system that the Zhou Dynasty used to govern was a feudal based one. Emperor Wu distributed the land among vassal lords and created vassal states. These vassal lords were people who made a serious contribution to the war effort.
The vassal lords would then redistribute the land to officials, retainers and scholars who maintained the lands with the use of slaves and peasants. Even though the vassal states had to pay tributes and had an agreement to donated there military arms when called by the emperor; they were in affect kings in there own right. They had control of their financial and military affairs.
The western Zhou Dynasty was from 1046 771 BC and spanned 285 yeas however the Zhou dynasty is the longest dynasty throughout Chinese history.
The fall of the Western Zhou dynasty is because of a serious of bad leaders and a woman. The 12th Emperor, Emperor Li did not care for his people, he brought all the lakes are river under imperial control and forbade people from living or working on them. This caused a panic and started an attack on the imperial place from its own people.
After Emperor Li died Emperor You was continued the decline of the Zhou dynasty. However the worst moment of his rule was because of a concubine named Baosi.Emperor You was fixated on Baosi and wanted to please her because she would never smile.
One day Emperor You thought of a clever and funny idea, he bought Baosi to the top of his place then told him officers to light the beacons. These beacons were signals to the vassal states that the emperor demanded their military presents because of war. Within days many armies arrived at the placed but were confused and baffled by no present of any enemy.
Baosi laughed and laughed as thousands of men were humiliated. Emperor You would repeatedly do this to amuse Baosi. Emperor You also decided to get rid of his current wife and their son and make Baosi queen and their son crowned prince.
However Queen shen's Father Marquis shen joined forces with the Quanroung, a northern ethnic group up north. United these 2 forces attacked Emperor You's place; when Emperor You order the beacons to be lit no armies came to support their emperor. Emperor You died in the attack and his son, ping became emperor.
This was end of the western Zhou dynasty as Emperor Ping moved the capital east to Luoyi. The next period of this dynasty is called the East Zhou dynasty however historian also split this dynasty up into future sub-sections of the spring and autumn period and the warring states period.
