Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century B.C.-771 B.C.): From King Wu's destruction of the Shang Dynasty to the death of King You, it lasted for more than 300 years, which was an important period in China and the heyday of Chinese classical civilization. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Zhou were originally an ancient tribe that lived on the Loess Plateau in the western part of the Central Plains. The legend of the ancestor of the Zhou people is that the son of the emperor's concubine Jiang Yan was abandoned. It gradually developed into a new western power, calling itself Zhou. Zhou's development made Shang feel threatened, so he imprisoned Xi Bochang in Yili for seven years. The Zhou people ransomed Xibo with treasures and beauties, and Xibo Chang accumulated good virtues and developed production, so that more princes came to join and became the so-called appointed lords, and proclaimed himself king, that is, King Wen of Zhou, and moved the capital to Fengyi. King Wen of Zhou died. His son Fa succeeded to the throne and was called King Wu. Continue the unfinished business of King Wen. Expand the capital to Hokyo to the east of Fengshui. In December of the eleventh year of King Wen's order, King Wu's troops went out of Tongguan, united the princes of all countries, waved eastward, defeated the army of the Shang Dynasty in Muye on Jiazi Day in February of the following year, killed the king of Zhou, known as King Wu in history, and established the longest dynasty in Chinese history, the Zhou Dynasty.

After King Wu established the Zhou, he was a great feudal hero, and it is said that at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, a total of seventy-one vassal states were divided. The purpose of the feudal state was to strengthen its rule over various places and serve as a vassal of the Zhou royal family. When the king was young, the world was initially decided, and Zhou Gongdan was afraid that the princes would not accept it, so he took Uncle Wang as regent. Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai were not convinced, and Wu Geng, the son of Yin Xun, led Huaiyi to launch a rebellion. Duke Zhou resolutely led his troops to the east and put down the rebellion. In order to strengthen his rule over the East, the Duke of Zhou was ordered by King Cheng to take charge of the construction of Luoyi. After Luoyi was built, King Cheng personally came to Luoyi, assembled the princes of the world and the rulers of Siyi, and moved the remnants of Yin who followed Wu Geng's rebellion into Chengzhou in order to control it. The Duke of Zhou also made music and established various rules and regulations of the Zhou Dynasty, and established a political system centered on the patriarchal system. King Cheng personally crusaded against Dongyi and stabilized the east. After the death of King Cheng, King Kang, who succeeded to the throne, inherited the cause of the previous king, was diligent in political affairs, approachable to the people, and did not need to be punished for decades, and the society was more stable.

The three dynasties of Wu, Cheng and Kang, with clear politics, were the golden age of the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the reign of King Zhao, there was a crisis. Zhao Wanggui is the Son of Heaven, and when he toured the Han River in the south, he was plotted by the boatmen of the Chu State with a special rubber boat and buried in the belly of the fish. After King Mu of Zhou succeeded to the throne, in order to restore the prestige of the Zhou Dynasty, he established a new position as the chief of the imperial servants to strengthen the central management of the dynasty. He enacted criminal laws and reduced punishments in order to strengthen his control over his subjects and to govern the world well. He conquered the dogs in the west and the Yi people in the south, and actively defended against the intrusion of the outlying peoples, and stopped the plunder. King Mu also had the rebellion of the Xu Yi tribes led by King Xu Yan in the east, and fought against the Chu State in the south, and the princes of the General Assembly were in Tushan.

Later, the Western Zhou Dynasty gradually declined, the four generations of Gongwang, Yiwang, Xiaowang, and Yiwang, due to the continuous intrusion of the surrounding Rong, the dynasty fell into a long-term war, the national strength was greatly consumed, and the exploitation of the people had to be intensified, and the domestic contradictions became increasingly acute. Some aristocrats also began to go bankrupt, and showed resentment against reality.

King Li, who succeeded to the throne, not only did not take measures to appease the people and develop the people's livelihood, but instead appointed ministers, squandered them on a large scale, and fought foreign wars for many years, intensified deprivation, monopolized the benefits of the mountains, and aroused dissatisfaction and discussion among the people. He sent sorcerers to watch and kill those who were talking, making the conflict even more acute. Three years later, the angry residents of Hojing finally launched a rebellion and exiled King Li to Yi, where Zhou Gong and Zhao Gong jointly ruled the Zhou Zhao Republic. In 841 B.C., the first year of the Republic, Chinese history began with a definite and continuous chronology. After the death of King Li, his son King Xuan rectified the government and once revived the Zhou Dynasty. But by the time of King You of Zhou, the crisis of the dynasty was even more serious. When serious natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides and river depletion occurred in the Guanzhong region, King Zhou You not only did not care for the victims, but became more extravagant and corrupt and insatiable. In order to win a smile from the favored concubine, King Youhu raised a beacon fire to deceive the princes to come to King Qin. The most serious problem is that King You decided to depose the queen Shen, kill the crown prince Yijiu, and set up Bao Xi as the queen, and set up Bao Xi's son Bofu as the crown prince. Empress Shen's father, Shen Hou, then united with the dog Rong, raised troops to attack Hojing, killed King Youwang at the foot of Li Mountain, and kidnapped Bao Xi. When Yijiu, the son of King You, ascended the throne, Guanzhong was sacked by soldiers and ruined, and the dog Rong came to harass him from time to time. King Ping of Zhou had to move the capital to Luoyi, which was known as King Ping's move to the east, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty began.

Eastern Zhou

Dacheng Most Holy Prophet Confucius

Dacheng Most Holy Prophet Confucius

The Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 BC - 256 BC), which began with the eastward migration of King Ping and died in the Qin State, was divided into the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Spring and Autumn Period: referred to as the Spring and Autumn Period, 770 BC - 476 BC, the power of the King of Zhou in the Spring and Autumn Period weakened, the princes were in dispute, Qi Huan Gong, Jin Wen Gong, Song Xiang Gong, Qin Mu Gong, Chu Zhuang King successively hegemon, known as the "Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons" (one said that it is the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Jin Wen, the King of Chuzhuang, the King of Wu Lu, and the King of Yue Goujian). The Spring and Autumn period was followed by the Warring States period.

The name of the Spring and Autumn period was given because Confucius revised the Spring and Autumn Period. This book records the history from the first year of Lu Yin (722 BC) to the fourteenth year of Lu Ai (481 BC). For the sake of convenience, modern scholars generally start from the first year of King Ping of Zhou (770 BC) to the forty-third year of King Jing of Zhou (477 BC), which is called the "Spring and Autumn Period". As a result, starting with the reform of Li Kui in Wei, various countries rushed to carry out a reform movement with the goal of enriching the country and strengthening the army.

The most direct way to increase the amount of exploitation is to plunder more land, and the easiest way to plunder land is through war.

With the construction of water conservancy, the use of iron tools and the promotion of cattle farming, the economy of the vassal states developed in the middle and late Spring and Autumn periods, and the political situation also changed accordingly. The power of the ministers and doctors in the vassal states gradually developed, such as the three huans of the Lu state, the Tian family of the Qi state, and the six secretaries of the Jin state. They used their economic power to control and divide the office, and fought each other to expand their territory. The six kings of the Jin State fought to the end, leaving the Han, Wei, and Zhao families. In the twenty-third year of King Weilie of Zhou (403 BC), King Zhou officially recognized the three families as princes. In the eleventh year of King An of Zhou (391 BC), Tian Min abolished the Duke of Qi Kang and established himself as the monarch, which was also recognized by King Zhou. The victory of the Sanjin and Tian clans proclaimed the political law of the remnants of cheese in which the strong survive and the weak are eliminated, and the slave society was replaced by the feudal society with the collapse of the Ida system. (To be continued.) )