|
China The Zhou Period
The last Shang ruler, a despot according to standard Chinese
accounts, was overthrown by a chieftain of a frontier tribe called
Zhou, which had settled in the Wei Valley in modern Shaanxi
Province. The Zhou dynasty had its capital at Hao, near the city of
Xi'an, or Chang'an, as it was known in its heyday in the imperial
period. Sharing the language and culture of the Shang, the early
Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, gradually
sinicized, that is, extended Shang culture through much of
China Proper (see Glossary)
north of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River). The
Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other, from 1027 to 221 B.C. It
was philosophers of this period who first enunciated the doctrine
of the "mandate of heaven" (tianming), the notion that the
ruler (the "son of heaven") governed by divine right but that his
dethronement would prove that he had lost the mandate. The doctrine
explained and justified the demise of the two earlier dynasties and
at the same time supported the legitimacy of present and future
rulers.
The term feudal has often been applied to the Zhou
period because the Zhou's early decentralized rule invites
comparison with medieval rule in Europe. At most, however, the
early Zhou system was proto-feudal, being a more sophisticated
version of earlier tribal organization, in which effective control
depended more on familial ties than on feudal legal bonds. Whatever
feudal elements there may have been decreased as time went on. The
Zhou amalgam of city-states became progressively centralized and
established increasingly impersonal political and economic
institutions. These developments, which probably occurred in the
latter Zhou period, were manifested in greater central control over
local governments and a more routinized agricultural taxation.
In 771 B.C. the Zhou court was sacked, and its king was killed
by invading barbarians who were allied with rebel lords. The
capital was moved eastward to Luoyang in present-day Henan
Province. Because of this shift, historians divide the Zhou era
into Western Zhou (1027-771 B.C.) and Eastern Zhou (770-221 B.C.).
With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou court gradually
diminished; the fragmentation of the kingdom accelerated. Eastern
Zhou divides into two subperiods. The first, from 770 to 476 B.C.,
is called the Spring and Autumn Period, after a famous historical
chronicle of the time; the second is known as the Warring States
Period (475-221 B.C.).
Data as of July 1987
|
