Western Zhou

For a state during the Warring States period, see Western Zhou (state).

The Western Zhou (Chinese: 西周; pinyin: Xīzhōu; c. 1046 – 771 BC) was a period of Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended in 771 BC when Quanrong pastoralists sacked the Zhou capital at Haojing and killed King You of Zhou. The "Western" label for the period refers to the location of the Zhou royal capitals, which were clustered in the Wei River valley near present-day Xi'an.

The early Zhou state was ascendant for about 75 years; thereafter, it gradually lost power. The former lands of the Shang were divided into hereditary fiefs that became increasingly independent of the Zhou king over time. The Zhou court was driven out of the Wei River valley in 771 BC: this marked the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period, wherein political power was wielded in actuality by the king's nominal vassals.

Sources

The Western Zhou are known from archaeological finds, including substantial inscriptions, mostly on bronze ritual vessels. In contrast to earlier periods, this direct evidence can be usefully compared with texts transmitted through the manuscript tradition. These include some Confucian classics, the oldest parts of which are thought to date from this period. Texts from the Warring States period and Han dynasty provide fuller accounts, though further removed from the original events.

Archaeology

Zhou ritual bronzes have been collected since the Song dynasty and are now scattered in collections around the world. Scientific excavations began in the core Wei River valley and the Luoyang areas in the 1930s and expanded to a broader area from the 1980s. Bronze vessels are a key marker of Western Zhou sites, including buildings, workshops, city walls and burials. Elite burials usually contain sets of vessels, which can be dated using known variations in styles, as well the paleography and content of inscriptions. Hundreds of hoards of bronzes have been found in Shaanxi, dating from the fall of the western capital in 771 BC. A hoard typically contains treasured vessels accumulated by a family over three centuries, carefully buried to hide them from the invaders.

Inscriptions

Main article: Chinese bronze inscriptions

The Zhou produced thousands of inscriptions, mostly on bronze ritual vessels and often considerably longer than those of the Late Shang. A vessel was typically cast for some member of the Zhou elite, recording a relevant event or an honour bestowed on the owner by the king. In the latter case, the inscription might include a narrative of the ceremony and report the speech of participants. These give a rich insight into Zhou governance and the upper levels of Zhou society.

Many inscriptions contain details that may be compared with later histories. More than a hundred of them commemorate a royal appointment to some government position. More than 50 of them describe military campaigns. Naturally the picture is incomplete, as very few inscriptions touch on military defeats or failures of government.

Inscriptions usually contain some dating information, but not the name of the current king. Scholars have devised a range of criteria to narrow down the reign of an inscription, including the style of the vessel, the form of the characters and details within the text.

Classics

Further information: Chinese classics

The earliest received texts, including parts of the Book of Odes and the Book of Documents, are believed to date from the Western Zhou period.

The Book of Odes is a collection of songs, traditionally divided as 160 State Airs, 105 Court Songs (Major and Minor) and 40 Hymns (Zhou, Lu and Song), set to melodies that have since been lost. Most specialists agree that the Zhou Hymns date to the early Western Zhou, followed by the Court Songs and the State Airs. The Airs are said to have been collected from throughout the Western Zhou domains, but have a consistency and elegance that suggests that they were polished by the literati of the Zhou court.

The Book of Documents is a collection of formal speeches presented as spanning two millennia from the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the Spring and Autumn period. Most scholars agree that the "Old Script" chapters are post-Han forgeries, but many of the remaining "Modern Script" chapters were written long after the periods they purport to represent. The five "announcement" (or "proclamation") chapters use the most archaic language, similar to that of bronze inscriptions, and are thought to have been recorded close to the events of the early Western Zhou reigns they describe. Four more chapters, "Catalpa Timbers", "Many Officers", "Take No Ease" and "Many Regions", are set in the same period, but their language suggests that they were written late in the Western Zhou period. The prefaces written for each chapter, tying the Documents together as a continuous account, are thought to have been written in the Western Han period.

Early histories

Further information: Sima Qian

History

The Lai (or Qiu) pan, from the reign of King Xuan, bears an inscription listing all the kings from King Wen to King Li.

The Han historian Sima Qian felt unable to extend his chronological table beyond 841 BC, the first year of the Gonghe Regency, and there is still no accepted chronology of Chinese history before that point. The Cambridge History of Ancient China used dates determined by Edward L. Shaughnessy from the "current text" Bamboo Annals and bronze inscriptions. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project produced a schedule of dates based on received texts, bronze inscriptions, radiocarbon dating and astronomical events.

Western Zhou kings

Period	Ruler name		Reign (all dates BC)
	Posthumous	Personal	Shaughnessy	XSZ Project
Pre-conquest	King Wen	Chang (昌)	1099–1050
	King Wu	Fa (發)	1049–1043	1046–1043
Early
	King Cheng	Song (誦)	1042–1006	1042–1021
	King Kang	Zhao (釗)	1005–978	1020–996
	King Zhao †	Xia (瑕)	977–957	995–977
Middle	King Mu	Man (滿)	956–918	976–922
	King Gong	Yihu (繄扈)	917–900	922–900
	King Yih	Jian (囏)	899–873	899–892
	King Xiao	Pifang (辟方)	872–866	891–886
	King Yi	Xie (燮)	865–858	885–878
Late	King Li	Hu (胡)	857–842	877–841
	Gonghe Regency		841–828	841–828
	King Xuan	Jing (靜)	827–782	827–782
	King You †	Gongnie (宮涅)	782–771	781–771

Conquest of the Shang

See also: Predynastic Zhou and Battle of Muye

The Shi Qiang pan, from the reign of King Gong, bears an inscription with a brief account from King Wen to the time of the vessel.

The origins of the Zhou are obscure. The archaeology of pre-conquest Wei valley is varied and complex, but no material culture comparable to the dynastic Zhou has been found. Archaeologists searching for the predynastic Zhou have focused on the Qishan area, which is mentioned in early texts and was a key ritual centre of the Western Zhou. Two different pottery types are found in this area, and archaeologists differ on whether one or the other group of people, or a mixture of the two, produced the Zhou. It is likely that several groups from across Shaanxi banded together to conquer the Shang.

The conquest is reflected in the material record by the sudden appearance throughout the Wei River basin of burials in the Shang style and sophisticated bronze vessels of all the types produced by the Shang, from which the Zhou had evidently acquired skilled craftsmen, scribes and abundant resources. They also expanded the Late Shang practice of inscribing bronze vessels to create lengthy texts recording the accomplishments of their owners and honours bestowed on them by the king. The inscriptions also show that the Zhou had adopted Shang ancestor ritual. This adoption of Shang features suggests an effort to legitimate Zhou rule. However, the Zhou did not adopt human sacrifice, which was so extensive in the Late Shang, or even mention it in any of their texts.

The Shi Qiang pan, part of a family cache found in western Shaanxi, was cast in the reign of King Gong by the latest in a family of scribes descended from a scribe brought to Shaanxi after the conquest. The lengthy inscription, summarizing the history of the Zhou and that of the Wei (微) family, begins:

Accordant with antiquity was King Wen! (He) first brought harmony to government. The Lord on High sent down fine virtue and great security. Extending to the high and low, he joined the ten thousand states.

Capturing and controlling was King Wu! (He) proceeded and campaigned through the four quarters, piercing Yin [= Shang] and governing its people. Eternally unfearful of the Di (Distant Ones), oh, he attacked the Yi minions.

Longer accounts are found in later sources. Both the Historical Records and the Bamboo Annals describe campaigns by King Wen in southern Shanxi. On King Wen's death, his oldest son became King Wu and expanded the campaigns to the Shang, defeating them in the decisive Battle of Muye, which is also described in the "Great brightness" song of the Classic of Poetry. According to the Yi Zhou Shu, the Zhou army spent two months in the area mopping up resistance before returning to the Wei valley. King Wen left two or three of his brothers (depending on the source) to oversee the former Shang domains, nominally ruled by Wu Geng, the son of the last Shang king.

Civil war and expansion

Western Zhou royal domain (dashed outline), Ji states (black squares) and archaeological sites

King Wu died two or three years after the conquest, triggering a crisis of the young state. According to the traditional histories, one of King Wu's brothers, the Duke of Zhou declared himself regent for King Wu's son, the future King Cheng. Later Confucian Scholars, who glorified the Duke of Zhou, described the young king as a babe in his mother's arms, but other evidence indicates that he was a young man at the time. Some authors suggest that the Duke appointed himself king, and in the "Announcement to Kang" chapter of the Book of Documents he seems to speak as a king.

Wu Geng and the brothers of King Wu tasked with supervising him rebelled against the new regime. The Duke of Zhou and his half-brother, the Duke of Shao, organized another eastern campaign. After three years they had regained the lost areas and expanded their domain over an area stretching into Shandong.

The victorious triumvirate of the Duke of Zhou, Duke of Shao and King Cheng then consolidated their control over this expanded territory. They built an eastern capital at Luoyi or Chengzhou (modern day Luoyang) and began founding colonies or states at strategic points in their domain. The most important were placed under members of the ruling Jī (姬) family. These colonies are listed in the Zuozhuan, and some have been confirmed by archaeological finds. The inscription on the Mai zun narrates the ceremony in which King Cheng appointed a son of the Duke of Zhou to rule Xing.

Kings Cheng and Kang mounted numerous military campaigns to expand their domains. The Xiao Yu ding relates a victory over the Guifang, presumably in the Ordos region, late in the reign of King Kang. This phase of expansion came to an end in a disastrous southern campaign, in which King Kang lost his armies and his own life.

Middle period

The fifth king, Mu is remembered for his legendary visit to the Queen Mother of the West. Territory was lost to the Xu Rong in the southeast. The kingdom seems to have weakened during Mu's long reign, possibly because the familial relationship between Zhou Kings and regional rulers thinned over generations so that fiefs that were originally held by royal brothers were now held by third and fourth cousins; peripheral territories also developed local power and prestige on par with that of the Zhou royal family.

Western Zhou kings were customarily succeeded by their oldest sons. However, Sima Qian states, without explanation, that King Yih was succeeded by his uncle, who became King Xiao, and that later "the many lords restored" King Yih's son, King Yi. Bronze inscriptions of the time use two different royal calendars, and the Bamboo Annals mentions King Yih moving out of the capital. Some authors suggest that King Yih was forced out by his uncle, and the two were rivals for a time, but whatever happened is now obscure. The succession was already presented as a linear sequence of kings in the Lai pan, cast in the reign of King Yi's grandson.

The ninth king is said to have boiled the Duke of Qi in a cauldron, implying that the vassals were no longer obedient.

Late period

The tenth king, Li (877–841 BC) was forced into exile and power was held for fourteen years by the Gonghe Regency. Li's overthrow may have been accompanied by China's first recorded peasant rebellion. When Li died in exile, Gonghe retired and power passed to Li's son Xuan (827–782 BC). King Xuan worked to restore royal authority, though regional lords became less obedient later in his reign.

The conflicts with nomadic tribes from the north and the northwest, variously known as the Xianyun, Guifang, or various "Rong" tribes, such as the Xirong, Shanrong or Quanrong, intensified towards the end of the Western Zhou period. These tribes are recorded as harassing Zhou territory, but at the time the Zhou were expanding northwards, encroaching on their traditional lands, especially into the Wei River valley. Archaeologically, the Zhou expanded to the north and the northwest at the expense of the Siwa culture.

The twelfth and last king of the Western Zhou period was You (781–771 BC). When You replaced his wife with a concubine, the former queen's powerful father, the Marquess of Shen, joined forces with Quanrong barbarians. The Quanrong put an end to the Western Zhou in 771 BC, sacking the Zhou capital of Haojing and killing the last Western Zhou king You. Thereafter the task of dealing with the northern tribes was left to their vassal, the state of Qin.

His killing resulted to beginning wars between local states which continued until the completion of Qin's wars of unification five centuries later. Some scholars have surmised that the sack of Haojing might have been connected to a Scythian raid from the Altai Mountains before their westward expansion. Most of the Zhou nobles withdrew from the Wei valley and the capital was reestablished downriver at the old eastern capital of Chengzhou near modern-day Luoyang. This was the start of the Eastern Zhou period, which is customarily divided into the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.

References

Works cited

• Bagley, Robert (2018), "The Bronze Age before the Zhou dynasty", in Goldin, Paul R. (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History, Routledge, pp. 61–83, ISBN 978-1-138-77591-6.
• Chinn, Ann-ping (2007), The Authentic Confucius, Scribner, ISBN 978-0-7432-4618-7.
• Falkenhausen, Lothar von (2006a), Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence, Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California Press, ISBN 978-1-931745-31-4.
• ——— (2006b), "The Inscribed Bronzes from Yangjiacun: New Evidence on Social Structure and Historical Consciousness in Late Western Zhou China (c.800 BC)" (PDF), Proceedings of the British Academy, 139: 239–295.
• Hucker, Charles O. (1978), China to 1850: A short history, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-0958-0.
• Kern, Martin (2009), "Bronze inscriptions, the Shijing and the Shangshu: The evolution of the ancestral sacrifice during the Western Zhou", in Lagerwey, John; Kalinowski, Marc (eds.), Early Chinese Religion, Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC–220 AD), Brill, pp. 143–200, doi:10.1163/ej.9789004168350.i-1312.23, ISBN 978-90-04-17208-1.
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• Li, Feng (2006), Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045–771 BC, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-85272-2.
• ——— (2013), Early China: A Social and Cultural History, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-89552-1.
• ——— (2018), "The Western Zhou state", in Goldin, Paul R. (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History, Routledge, pp. 84–107, ISBN 978-1-138-77591-6.
• Nylan, Michael (2001), The Five "Confucian" Classics, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-08185-5.
• Rawson, Jessica (1999), "Western Zhou archaeology", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 352–449, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
• Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1992), Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-07028-8.
• ——— (1999a), "Calendar and Chronology", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 19–29, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
• ——— (1999b), "Western Zhou history", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 292–351, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
• ——— (2001–2002), "New sources of Western Zhou history: recent discoveries of inscribed bronze vessels", Early China, 26/27: 73–98, doi:10.1017/S0362502800007240.
• ——— (2017), "Newest Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels, 2000–2010", in Shaughnessy, Edward L. (ed.), Imprints of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China, Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, pp. 133–188.
• XSZCP Group (2000), Xià Shāng Zhōu duàndài gōngchéng 1996–2000 nián jiēduàn chéngguǒ bàogào: Jiǎn běn 夏商周断代工程1996—2000年阶段成果报告: 简本 [The Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project Report for the years 1996–2000 (abridged)], Beijing: 世界图书出版公司, ISBN 978-7-5062-4138-0.

Further reading

• Li Feng (2003), "'Feudalism' and Western Zhou China: a criticism", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 63 (1): 115–144, doi:10.2307/25066693, JSTOR 25066693.
• —— (2018), "The Bronze Age before the Zhou dynasty", in Goldin, Paul R. (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History, Routledge, pp. 84–107, ISBN 978-1-138-77591-6.