Ancient History: The Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty existed from 1046 BCE to 256 BCE. This dynasty came after the Shang Dynasty and went away when the Qin army captured Chengzhou. It was one of China’s dynasties that also existed longer than any other dynasties in China. But, what is a dynasty? A dynasty is a set of rulers from the same family or group. Basically, it is a family of rulers overtime. The Zhou Dynasty provided some of the most influential people of the Chinese tradition. People like Confucius, Laozi, and Mozi all came from the Eastern Zhou period, which is the last period of the Zhou Dynasty. The first period of the Zhou Dynasty is Western Zhou. This period lasted from 1046 BCE to 771 BCE. As I mentioned earlier, the Eastern Zhou period is the

First of all, these people started out not invading anybody or any place. In fact, they moved away from people who seemed like they were trying to take over. They protected themselves rather than attacking. These people were just people who spoke Chinese who were from the Longshan Neolithic culture. As they tried to move away from dangerous people, they moved towards the lower Wei River valley. The Wei River valley is the most western agricultural basin of North China. They started to grow food similar to the Shang Dynasty. Here, they also built a city in a place called Plain of Zhou. They used the name of this land to name theri dynasty and their state. The Shang Dynasty are really close. They went to fighting to peace then back to fighting then back to peace for a while. They just kept alternating between fighting and peace. The Shang Dynasty calls the Zhou Dynasty “semi barbarous country

Wu surprisingly did not fully get rid of the Shang Dynasty. But, the Shang did become much weaker. Unfortunately, Wu died young when he returned to Haojing. Wu had a son who took his spot on the throne. King Cheng was the new ruler while he was still a child. The Zhou had a goal to conquer the eastern plain left by the Shang Dynasty. But, King Wu never made a plan to conquer the leftovers of the Shang. Luckily, King Wu had a brother. He was known as the Duke of Zhou and he found out how the Zhou dynasty will use their power to move across North China. The Duke of Zhou was now the chief with his nephew, King Cheng. But, just because they are family doesn’t mean you like them or are automatically friends with them. When the Duke of Zhou told everybody that he was regent over King Cheng, his brothers in Youli joined the Shang dynasty. There, they started a rebellion to get the old Shang order back. The Duke of Zhou was furious! So furious, that he essentially stole the throne from his young nephew! The Duke of Zhou won’t let anything stop him so he can demolish that rebellion made by his brothers. He immediately set out a plan to organize his military strength to take down the rebellion. He even produced many plans to move eastwards to take the entire Yellow River plain! In the process, he was destroying small states and trying to gain as much power as he can! You would think that the Duke of Zhou