The story behind "The Great Qin Fu" Why was there a distinction between the Eastern Zhou and the Western Zhou during the Warring States Period?
Later generations divided the Zhou Dynasty into two periods, the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, to interpret the history of the Zhou Dynasty, and to 771 years"King Ping moved eastward"As a node, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is divided into the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. According to the division of time, the Warring States period obviously belonged to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but"Eastern Zhou"、"Western Zhou"and other words can still be found in historical materials and film and television works, such as "Historical Records - Qin Benji"."King of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty"。The king of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty rebelled against the princes, and the minister of Qin Lü Buwei killed him.
Actually,"Eastern Zhou"with"Western Zhou"They existed during the Warring States period, but they were only the names of two vassal states (for the time being, they were called vassal states), and they should be called"Eastern Zhou"with"Western Zhou", or simply call it"Eastern Zhou"with"Western Zhou", the territory of the Zhou royal family was divided into Eastern Zhou and Western Zhou. The Kingdom of Zhou is called"Eastern Zhou"with"Western Zhou", or simply as it is"Eastern Zhou"with"Western Zhou", the Zhou royal territory was divided into three parts: the Zhou royal territory was divided into three parts: the Eastern Zhou, the Western Zhou, and the Zhou royal family. Judging from the similarity of the names alone, it is very easy to be confused with the two historical periods of the Eastern Zhou and Western Zhou dynasties.
Principality of Western Zhou: 440 BC - 256 BC, four dynasties.
In 441 BC, King Ji Ji of Zhou ended his 28-year reign with four sons. After his death, serious civil strife broke out within the already weakened Zhou royal family, which eventually led to what became known"Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty"The small country went out from the Zhou royal family.
After the death of King Zhending of Zhou, his eldest son Ji Zaifi ascended the throne and was the king of Zhou Ai. However, just three months after his accession to the throne, his second brother Uncle Ji killed him and set himself up as King Si of Zhou. Only five months after his accession to the throne, his third brother Ji Wei killed him and set himself up as King of Zhoukao.
After Ji Wei ascended the throne, he began to worry that his fourth brother Ji Ji would kill him like the first two Zhou kings, so he decided to let his younger brother inherit the throne as well. Thus, in the first year of King Kao of Zhou (440 BC), the newly enthroned Ji Wei ceded the southern land of the Zhou River to his younger brother Ji Wei, and established a small vassal state belonging to the Duke Huan of the Western Zhou Dynasty, who owned the territory west of the Qian River and south of the Luo River.
In the eighth year of King Wu of Zhou (307 BC), King Wu of Qin expelled King Wu from the court of the Zhou Dynasty for refusing his attempt to abolish the Ding Furnace of the Zhou Dynasty, and the King of Zhou had to move to the Western Zhou Dynasty, after which the Zhou Dynasty power began to fall into the hands of the Western Zhou rulers.
In the fifty-ninth year of King Zhou (the fifty-first year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, 256 BC), the Qin army captured Yangcheng and the Xiongnu in Korea. On behalf of the King of Western Zhou, Duke Wen, Ji Gu, and Ji Yan called on the six states of Shandong to unite against Qin, but only Chu and Yan sent troops, which ended in failure.
In the same year, the Qin State followed the route taken by the Eastern Zhou army, successively captured Yangcheng and Nishang in Korea, and marched to Luoyi, the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty hurried to the state of Qin, kowtowed to the king of Qin to confess his guilt, and offered 36 yi and 30,000 people to the king of Qin Zhaoxiang. The state of Qin drove the monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the pillar, made him look like a commoner, and then released him back to the Western Zhou.
Soon, King Zhou Xun and King Wen of Western Chu died one after another, the people of Western Chu fled eastward, and Qin easily obtained Jiuding and other treasures. Since the Western Zhou State did not establish a new monarch, after the rule of four generations of monarchs, including the Western Zhou Huan Gong, the Western Zhou Ji Zhuo, the Western Zhou Weizi, the Western Zhou Hui Gong, the Western Zhou Ji Dynasty, the Western Zhou Wengong, and the Western Zhou Ji Gui, the Zhou Dynasty, which had been inherited for eight hundred years, perished.
Eastern Zhou: 367 BC (or 369 BC) - 249 BCE, 4 dynasties.
The Eastern Zhou Principality was indeed closely related to the Western Zhou Principality, but there are two theories about the origin of the Eastern Zhou Principality. First, after the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty was passed to the Duke of Hui of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in the second year of Zhou Xiansheng (367 BC), the surname Ji was named Ji Banyu Gonggong, and the king of Zhou was assisted as the monarch of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Secondly, in the seventh year of King Li of the Western Zhou Dynasty (369 BC), after the death of Duke Wei of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Duke Gen, with the support of the State of Zhao and Korea, represented the monarch of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Gonggong to build the capital.
Not only are there two theories as to how the Principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was founded, but it is difficult to determine the identity of its original ruler, but it is now certain that the first ruler was the Duke Hui of the Eastern Zhou. One theory holds that Huigong of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was the son of Ji Zhao, the younger brother of the Huigong Ji Dynasty of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Another theory holds that Huigong of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was the grandson of the Duke of Ji Zhao of the Western Zhou Dynasty, that is, the son of the Duke of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
According to the more popular theory, there were four generations in the Eastern Zhou Principality: Ji Ban of Hui Gong of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Ji Zhao, the younger brother of Hui Gong, Ji Xuan, Wu Gong of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and Ji Ji Ji, the Duke of Wen of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Although the Principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty had the same roots, they were full of contradictions and often conflicted.
After the death of King Zhou Xun, the Zhou royal family and the Western Zhou Dynasty were both defeated, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty inherited the bloodline of the Zhou royal family, but continued to be called the king but not the king. In the first year of King Xiang of Qin Zhuang (249 BC), the rulers of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty attempted to remobilize the six kingdoms of Shandong in a life-and-death struggle, but the result was still unsuccessful, and the Duchy of Eastern Zhou was destroyed by the Qin state, and the territory under its rule was also annexed by the Qin state.