Zhou DynastyIt is the third dynasty in Chinese history after the Shang Dynasty and the longest lasting feudal dynasty in the history of Chinese civilization, with a national fortune of 791 years. During the Zhou Dynasty, the development of literature entered a relatively rapid stage, producing a large number of literary works, so the history of the Zhou Dynasty is more well known to later generations than the previous two dynasties. However, compared with Zhou Tianzi, the history of the princes of the Zhou Dynasty is richer, more detailed, and more fascinating.
The Zhou Dynasty was divided into the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, after King Wu destroyed the Shang, the Zhou Dynasty was established, that is, the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty was at its peak, but it was a pity that King Wu died of illness in one year of reign, and since then the national strength of the Zhou Dynasty has deteriorated, and the monarch has become more and more absurd from generation to generation. In the period of King You of Zhou, even in the face of the external troubles of Dog Di, in order to smile at the Pomeranians, he also made a farce of the princes of the beacon fire show, which led to the death of the country and the destruction of the country, the national capital of Haojing was breached, and the succeeding King Ping of Zhou was forced to move eastward, and the Zhou Dynasty entered the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. From this moment on, the strength of the Zhou Dynasty was greatly inferior to before.
The map of the Zhou Dynasty, the southwest direction is the strength of the dog Rong.
In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the event of the division of the three families was used as a watershed, and the history before the division of the three families was called the Spring and Autumn Period; The history after that is called the Sengoku period. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, because the Zhou Dynasty was unable to rule the princes, and the princes had fierce conflicts with each other because of territorial expansion, for a time the world was full of smoke, wars, and fierce battles.
The princes replaced Zhou Tianzi as the protagonists of this history, and the strength of many vassal states has far surpassed that of the Zhou royal family. However, even if the strength of the vassal states was very strong, in the early Spring and Autumn Period, no prince dared to easily disrespect Zhou Tianzi, on the contrary, Zhou Tianzi also used Dading to cook and kill Qi Aigong.
Although there are many wars in the world, but only exist among the princes and princes, the form of war is generally dominated by small-scale wars for hegemony, until the era of Zheng Zhuanggong, Zheng and the Zhou royal family had a war, Zhou Tianzi was shot in the shoulder, marking the previous inviolable royal power was broken, but also marked the official opening of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period. Since then, the majesty of Zhou Tianzi has been swept away, no one has obeyed his orders, and the Zhou Dynasty regime has basically existed in name only.
The many vassal states that the Zhou Dynasty divided.
After the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty, there were two great changes in the society at that time, the first was that the social system transitioned from slavery to feudalism, and the Zhou royal family artificially divided different classes to control the people of the world; The second is that the Zhou Dynasty divided the princes, from the first centralized power to the state-based state. Both of these major changes had a huge impact on the course of history that followed.
After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, King Wu considered that the territory was huge, the population was large, and it was not easy to control, so he decided to divide the land under heaven into several pieces, and rewarded them to the blood relatives of the Zhou royal family and the meritorious officials in the battle to destroy the Shang, allowing them to govern themselves in the fief and pay tribute to the Zhou royal family every year, which is the origin of the sub-feudal system. At the same time, Zhou Li also clearly stipulated that the princes should strictly abide by Zhou Tianzi's orders and obey Zhou Tianzi's command, and if anyone dared to disobey, they would be attacked by other princes, as a means of managing and restraining the princes.
Statue of King Wu of Zhou. For example, Jiang Shang, the first auxiliary minister of King Wu and an important hero in the battle to destroy the Shang, was divided into Qi and took away a large number of soldiers. According to"Historical Records, Thirty Families, Qi Taigong Family".
"When King Zhou Cheng was young, he was in charge of Cai's chaos, and Huaiyi was Zhou, so that Zhao Kang Gong ordered Taigong to say:'East to the sea, west to the river, south to Muling, north to Wudi, five marquis and nine uncles, really have to be levied. 'Qi thus had to conquer and become a great power. "From the division of Jiang Shang, we can see that in fact, the Zhou royal family also took restrictive measures in order to prevent the princes from becoming powerful, but unfortunately many accidents occurred frequently later, which led to the emergence of a bad situation.
The ceremonial instrument chimes of the Zhou Dynasty.
The author believes that if the Zhou Dynasty thinks that the sub-feudal system is wrong because it lost its dominance because of the sub-feudal system, this view is also wrong, in fact, from the background of the time, the sub-feudal system can be regarded as a win-win choice. At that time, the Zhou Dynasty was established, the world had not yet been completely pacified, and all the forces were concentrated near Haojing, the base camp of the Zhou Dynasty, and there were many remnants of the Shang Dynasty in the world at that time, and it was very likely that they would rebel under the banner of restoring the Shang Dynasty, and many human settlement systems that existed at the same time as the Shang Dynasty such as Laiyi, Dirong, and Dog Di were potential threats to the Central Plains. It was difficult for the Zhou royal family to distinguish who could be long-term allies and who would become mortal enemies in the future.
Jiang Shang sculpture. Rather than dealing with these strangers who could not figure out the background and ideas, it was better to get along with their own blood relatives and close comrades-in-arms, under the influence of this kind of thinking, King Wu of Zhou chose the clan relatives who could be maintained by blood relations and the courtiers who had been tested and fought side by side with him, and let them go to guard the Quartet, King Wu believed that even if these princes divided the military power, it was possible to rebel, but it was far less likely than those barbarians who had not been educated by etiquette. After these princes went to their respective fiefdoms, they would definitely build their own fiefdoms with all their might, so these fiefs would become the outer barrier to guard the Zhou dynasty.
The Jin Kingdom became strong by resisting the dogs.
And for these clansmen and heroes, getting a fief is not only an affirmation of themselves, but also a reward. They obtained the autonomy of the fief, if they and their descendants have the ability to build the fief, then it is to lay an important foundation for the development and inheritance of their own clan, and King Wu clearly stipulated that the governance policy of the fief is formulated by the princes, taxes are collected by the princes, and various resources are also owned by the princes, and the princes only need to dedicate a part of the Jin to the Zhou royal family, which can be regarded as very superior compared to the system of the Shang DynastyTherefore, in the early days of its establishment, the sub-feudal system was a win-win choice and had important epoch-making historical significance.
After the death of King Wu of Zhou, the system of sub-feudal feuds he established was still preserved, and when the monarch of the Zhou Dynasty came to King Xuan of Zhou, King Xuan of Zhou carried out another important sub-feudal system, and he gave Zheng Di (now Huaxian East in Shaanxi) to his younger brother Zheng Huangong, establishing the State of Zheng. Zheng Huan Gong was not only the monarch of Zheng State, but also the Situ of the Zhou Dynasty, he governed Zheng Di very well, and won the love of the people.
Portrait of Zheng Huan Gong.
After the death of King Xuan of Zhou, King Zhou You succeeded to the throne, King Zhou You was very absurd, so that the people resented, Zheng Huan Gong cared about the people, seeing that King Zhou You insisted on going his own way, he expected that the country would eventually cause another disaster, so he had to make another plan and think about retreating. According to"Historical Records, Thirty Families, Zheng Family".
"The king of Youxu died after his death, and the royal family governed many evils, and the princes or the side of it. So Huan Gong asked Tai Shi Bo and said:'The royal family has many deaths, and Yu'an escaped and died? 'Tai Shi Bo said:'The east of the solitary land, the south of the river can be lived. 'Gong said:'Why? 'Yes:'The land is close to Yu and Yi, and the king of Yu and Yi is greedy and profitable, and the people are not attached. Today's public is Situ, the people love the public, and the public sincerely invites him to live. The people of the public and the people are the people of the public'。"Therefore, Zheng Huan led the people in the fiefdom to move east to the two countries of Yu and Yi, and entered the rich land of the Central Plains from the front line of the Anti-Japanese War in the southwest.
Statue of Zheng Huangong, the founder of Zheng Guo.
Why did Zheng Huan insist on moving east? This is because the real reason why King Xuan of Zhou divided the Zheng State was to make Zheng Di a barrier against the attack of the Dog Rong, so he divided the Zheng State in the southwest direction of Zhou, which was often attacked by the Dog Rong, and the Zhou royal family was unbearable, so he thought of letting Zheng Huan govern the place and build an excellent army to resist the Dog Rong tribe.
But after Zheng Huan Gong is a royal family, he is no stranger to power, and he is not willing to just become a ** against foreign races. If he dies in the battle against the dogs, his fief will be inherited by his descendants, and if all his descendants die in battle, then Zhou Tianzi will only send other princes to guard here, slowly forgetting his previous merits, although these words sound a little sad, but politics is so cruel.
Cultural relics of the Kingdom of Yu unearthed in Henan.
Therefore, Zheng Huan Gong was unwilling to become the cornerstone of maintaining the rule of the Zhou family, and he wanted to take advantage of the troubled times to achieve a great cause, so he made a request to King You of Zhou to move east. After he made this request to King Zhou You, King Zhou You was actually unwilling to let him go, and the two countries of Yu and Yi were naturally unwilling to give up the land that originally belonged to them, but Zheng Huan Gong used his clan status to exert pressure, and finally forced Yu and Yi to cede five cities in each country, and squeezed out a space in the rich area in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, established Zheng State, and set up the capital of Xinzheng.
This eastward migration also laid the foundation of the Zheng State that we are familiar with in the Spring and Autumn Period, after which the Zheng State was far away from the threat of the dog Rong, got a respite and development space, and greatly increased its national strength. After the death of Duke Huan, although the successive generations of monarchs were decent and did not make great achievements, they could inherit the inheritance of their ancestors and gradually developThe fundamental reason is precisely because the Central Plains region has fertile land, developed commerce, and suitable population growth, which also laid an important foundation for Zheng Zhuang Gong to become a small tyrant in the Spring and Autumn Period.
By the time Zheng Zhuang Gong became the monarch of Zheng Guo, Zheng Guo's national strength was already very strong, and it could be called one of the powerful countries at that time, and unlike other princes, Zheng Guo also had a huge advantage, that is, the blood relationship between the Zheng royal family and the Zhou royal family was very close, far from being comparable to ordinary clan relatives, and this relationship also laid the groundwork for the Zheng Zhou War later.
Spring and Autumn Xiaoba Zheng Zhuang Gong.
Zheng Zhuang Gong was a very ambitious monarch, during his reign, in order to expand the territory of Zheng State, and the surrounding countries repeatedly clashed, and obtained huge benefits, especially in the attack on the Song State and the Wei State, which were surnamed Ji, Zhuang Gong achieved many victories, so that these princes were resentful, and they went to Zhou Tianzi to denounce Zheng Zhuang Gong.
After hearing a lot of negative news about Zheng Zhuanggong, King Zhou Huan, the son of Zhou Tianzi, also thought that Zheng Zhuanggong was causing trouble everywhere under Zhou Tianzi's nose and was suspected of disrespecting the Son of Heaven, so he decided to lead troops to fight against him, but he was defeated. According to"Historical Records, Thirty Families, Zheng Family".
"In the thirty-seventh year, Zhuang Gong did not go to Zhou, and King Huan of Zhou led Chen, Cai, Yu, and Wei to Zheng. Zhuang Gong and Sai Zhong and Gao Qu Mi sent troops to save themselves, and Wang Shi was defeated. Zhu Yan shot the king in the arm. Please follow it, Zheng Bozhi stopped, and said:'It's long and difficult, but how dare you pay tribute? 'That's it. The night order priest asked Wang Ji. "King Zhou Huan was pampered, and he had been in battle for a long time, even if he led a coalition of small countries, he was not the opponent of Zheng Zhuanggong who fought in the south and the north, and was scattered and fled, and in the process of his escape, he also met Zheng General Zhu Xuan, Zhu Xuan was a martial artist, did not know King Zhou Huan, and an arrow hit Zhou Tianzi's arm.
Although after the war, Zheng Zhuang accepted it when he saw it, and pretended to visit Zhou Tianzi and inquire about his condition, but Zhou Tianzi completely lost his last dignity because of this arrow. Since then, due to the experience of Zheng Zhuanggong's men who shot and injured Zhou Tianzi but were not held accountable, all the princes, regardless of their strength or not, tore their faces and completely expressed their opposition to Zhou Tianzi and even the Zhou royal family, and the scale of the war between the princely states also expanded.
Zhou-Zheng War. The author believes that although the Zhou royal family is gradually weakening, the identity of Zhou Tianzi is still there, as long as no other country overthrows the rule of the Zhou Dynasty and establishes a new dynasty, then all the princes are subjects of Zhou Tianzi. If any of the princes jumped out at this time to threaten the Zhou royal family, then the other princes could legitimately unite to destroy him and thus divide his fiefdom, under this potential threat, although all the princes basically did not obey the orders of Zhou Tianzi, but no one dared to disrespect the Zhou royal family.
Only Zheng Guo is an exception, due to the blood relationship between the two, even if Zheng Zhou went to war, no prince dared to ask Zheng Guojun for his guilt, and it could only be regarded as an internal contradiction of the same family, so Zheng Zhuang dared to ignore Zhou Tianzi when he opened up the territory, and made many provocative crimes. Finally, King Zhou Huan couldn't bear it anymore, and personally led the coalition army to ask Zhengzhuang Gongxing for his guilt.
Schematic diagram of the array of fish beauty invented by Zheng Zhuang Gong.
Although the Zhou royal family still had a certain amount of power at this time, and the number of coalition forces also exceeded that of the Zheng army, Zheng Zhuang Gong had already prepared and invented the Yuli Array, that is, the chariot was arranged in front and the infantry was evacuated on both sides and the rear of the chariot, so as to form a whole with the coordination of the chariot and the flexibility of attack and defense, easily repelled the coalition army led by King Zhou Huan, and also achieved his political goal. And King Huan of Zhou was accidentally shot by an arrow when he fled, although it was not intentional by Duke Zheng Zhuang, but it did cause Zhou Tianzi to be swept away, which opened the prelude to the vigorous Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Timeline of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
In fact, from the moment King Wu decided to implement the feudal system, the society at that time stepped into the state-building system from the ** centralized system, although he believed that the blood kinship and the friendship between the monarch and the minister, as well as the Zhou rites established by Zhou Gongdan, could become a link to maintain the relationship between the two sides, so that the princes could smoothly obey the rule of the Zhou Dynasty, but it turned out that in the face of interests, it was difficult to maintain only feelings and systems.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the history of Chinese civilization moved from a slave society to a feudal society, and the great changes in the nature of society also brought great changes in people's lives. After two or three generations of development, the policies implemented by many vassal states were adapted to local conditions, and gradually drifted away from the policies implemented by the Zhou royal family, and the gap between the two sides became wider and wider. Therefore, more and more vassal states hope to completely get rid of the rule and shackles of the Zhou royal family, establish independent states in fiefdoms and maintain their own independence and unity.
1. Freedom and development, and the establishment of a new system. This kind of change is in line with the development of history, and it is also the result of the people's choice, which is the trend of the times and cannot be stopped.
The beacon tower of the princes of the beacon fire.
However, in order to safeguard their own interests, the Zhou royal family disregarded the actual needs of the people in the world, forcibly divided everyone in the world into multiple classes to manage, and after dividing the princes, they still regarded themselves as the Son of Heaven, thinking that the nobles of the whole world were their own courtiers, and the people of the whole world were their own slaves.
Zheng Zhuanggong was the leading figure among the princes who dared to resist the rule of the Zhou Dynasty at that time, although the starting point of most of his actions was to protect the interests of himself and the Zheng clan, but objectively it did play a role in resisting the power control of the Zhou Dynasty. Especially later, he repeatedly provoked the Zhou royal family and forced King Zhou Huan to lead the coalition army to crusade against Zheng Guo, which was also intended to weaken the rule of the Zhou Dynasty, but by mistake let King Zhou Huan be shot with an arrow on the way to escape, although it did not endanger the life of King Zhou Huan, but it completely ripped off the last fig leaf of the Zhou Dynasty, aroused the resistance of the princes of the world, opened the curtain of the vigorous Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, promoted social progress and promoted the development of history. It is also one of his undeniable achievements.