Zhou dynasty: A Visual History

The Zhou dynasty was founded around 1046 BC when King Wu of the Zhou people of the Wei valley defeated the Shang at Muye. The early Western Zhou kings and the Duke of Zhou parcelled out the conquered lands to relatives and allies as hereditary lords, justified the conquest by the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven and set the ritual and political patterns Confucius later idealised. Barbarian pressure and noble revolts drove the court from Hao near Xi'an to Luoyang in 771 BC; the Eastern Zhou that followed reigned but did not rule until 256 BC. In total the dynasty lasted about 790 years.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Zhou dynasty (Western Zhou). The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Zhou royal authority

A schematic of the court's real power over its lords, from strong under Kings Cheng and Kang to nominal after 771 BC.

Timeline of the Zhou dynasty (Western Zhou)

1. 1,046 BC
   Battle of MuyeThe Shang overthrown.
2. 1,042 BC
   Duke of Zhou's regency
3. 1,020 BC
   King KangThe Zhou golden age.
4. 977 BC
   King Zhao dies on the Han river
5. 841 BC
   King Li expelledThe Gonghe regency; first fixed date.
6. 771 BC
   Hao sackedWestern Zhou ends.

Conquest and the Mandate

The Zhou were a people on the western frontier who served the Shang. King Wen built alliances and King Wu led a coalition to victory at Muye, where the Shang army reportedly turned its spears round. To justify overthrowing a divinely descended dynasty, the Zhou proclaimed that Heaven gave its mandate to the virtuous and withdrew it from tyrants, a doctrine that shaped Chinese politics ever after.

The Duke of Zhou and the fengjian order

When King Wu died, his brother the Duke of Zhou served as regent, crushed a Shang revolt, built the eastern capital at Luoyang and returned power to his nephew, becoming Confucius's model of the loyal minister. Some 70 states were granted to Zhou kinsmen and allies, who owed military service and tribute; ritual bronzes inscribed with royal appointments record the system. Kings Cheng and Kang presided over the golden age.

Decline and flight east

King Zhao died campaigning in the south; King Li was expelled by a revolt in 841 BC, the first securely dated year in Chinese history; King Xuan restored some prestige. King You, infatuated with his concubine Baosi, is said to have lit the beacon fires as a joke until the lords ignored the real alarm: the Quanrong sacked Hao in 771 BC and killed him. His son moved to Luoyang, and the Zhou became figureheads over increasingly independent states.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Shang dynasty (1,600 BC to 1,046 BC)
• Eastern Zhou (771 BC to 256 BC)
• Chu (state) (1,030 BC to 223 BC)
• Xia dynasty (2,070 BC to 1,600 BC)
• Qin dynasty (221 BC to 206 BC)
• Xiongnu Empire (209 BC to 93)

Wars of the same era and region

• Warring States period and Qin's wars of unification (475 BC to 221 BC)

8 surprising things about the Zhou dynasty (Western Zhou)

1. The year 841 BC is the earliest date in Chinese history on which all sources agree.
2. The Zhou dynasty's 790 years make it the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history, though it ruled effectively for less than 300.
3. The Duke of Zhou is credited with writing the Rites of Zhou and appears to Confucius in dreams in the Analects.
4. King You's beacon-fire prank to amuse Baosi is China's 'boy who cried wolf', though it may be a later invention.
5. Zhou bronze inscriptions of up to 500 characters are the main written sources for the period.
6. The phrase 'Mandate of Heaven' (tianming) is still used to explain political legitimacy in Chinese discourse.
7. The Zhou banned the Shang practice of large-scale human sacrifice, though it did not disappear entirely.
8. The Book of Songs, China's oldest poetry, includes hymns of the Zhou court and songs of its people.

Sources

• Zhou dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Zhou dynasty Wikipedia
• Zhou Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Li Feng, Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou (2006) Cambridge University Press

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