The Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were two important periods in Chinese history. The Zhou Dynasty, the third dynasty after the Xia and Shang dynasties, was also the longest-running dynasty, and had a profound impact on China's bureaucracy, legal system, and ritual system.
So, why was the Zhou Dynasty divided into Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou? Today, let's break down this historical mystery in detail.
Why was the Zhou Dynasty divided into Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou? This starts with King Zhou Ping's eastward migration. Originally, King Zhou You favored Bao Xi and deposed Empress Shen and Empress Shen's son, the crown prince Ji Yijiu, and established Bao Xi as the queen, and Ji Bofu, the son of Bao Xi, as the crown prince.
Shenhou's father, Shenhou, couldn't swallow this breath, and then colluded with Dog Rong to attack the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Haojing, and killed the king of Zhou You (770 BC), and abolished the prince Ji Yijiu, who was supported by Shenhou and the monarch of Lu and Xu Guoguo, and was established as the "king" for the king of Zhou Ping.
After Ji Yijiu succeeded to the throne, he could no longer live in the messy Hojing, so he moved the capital to Luoyi, which is known as "King Ping's eastward migration" in history.
Geographically speaking, Luoyi is in the east of Haojing, so it is called "Eastern Zhou"; During the period when the king was in Haojing, he was called the "Western Zhou" by later generations.
This is not a purely geographical factor, in fact, when King Ping of Zhou moved east, the sacrificial "ritual vessels" were lost, which means that from then on, the Zhou royal family lost its prestige, and the people felt that this was the Zhou royal family abandoned by "heaven" (why are the sacrificial ritual vessels so important?). And major events such as moving the capital are often closely related to the stabilization of the regime.
At that time, not everyone supported King Zhou Ping, and some nobles did not move with him, so the monarch of the Kingdom of Zhou, Yu Gonghan and others, supported the younger brother of King You of Zhou, Yu Chen, to be crowned as king, called "King Xi", to resist King Zhou Ping.
At this time, the Zhou Dynasty was actually a situation where two kings stood side by side, from this point of view, the regimes of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were essentially two different regimes, and the Zhou royal family after moving eastward, in terms of strength, had been reduced to the scale of a vassal state, or the weak kind, politically, it was no longer the world of the Zhou royal family.
Therefore, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was not a continuation of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but stepped into another era, and King Ping's eastward migration was the beginning of this era. So, why is the Eastern Zhou Dynasty divided into two periods: "Spring and Autumn" and "Warring States"?
This has to start with the two books "Spring and Autumn" and "Warring States Policy".
"Spring and Autumn" is a common noun, originally referring to the history books of various countries. In the pre-Qin period, there were two kinds of historians, one was Taishi, who was in charge of paperwork, and the other was Guan Xuan, who memorized oral biographical words.
The history recorded by Yu Ji was sorted out by later generations and called "language", such as the "Chinese language". Taishi records the events of the four seasons of the year, but cannot be named in spring, summer, autumn and winter, so the word "spring and autumn" was chosen, which actually includes the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the book is "Spring and Autumn".
Most of the historical books of various countries have been lost, but the "Spring and Autumn" of the Lu State has been preserved because it was included in the "Six Classics" of the professor's ** by Confucius. "Spring and Autumn" is the most characteristic history book of the times, its structure is simple, only with "what year, what month, what day, where, who, what happened" to remember, there is no specific description, the picture is all based on imagination.
However, in the author's use of words, such as the description of the war, he uses different words such as "cutting, invading, attacking, conquering, exterminating, taking, annihilating, and chasing", which conceals the author's views on right and wrong and ideological tendencies, and embodies the orthodox idea of "respecting the king."
Therefore, the word "Spring and Autumn" was later used as a synonym to represent an era.
The words "Warring States" and "Spring and Autumn" were originally used to refer to the powerful countries that participated in successive wars, and it was not until Liu Xiang compiled the "Warring States Policy" in the late Western Han Dynasty that "Warring States" took on the significance of the times.
The book mainly chronicles the strategic activities of lobbyists, the ideas of which were very radical at the time, and believed that if they succeeded, they were commendable regardless of the means and methods.
Unlike the "Spring and Autumn" period, which emphasized the ritual system, the "Warring States" era emphasized the use of strategy and strategy, reflecting the chaos and turmoil of the society at that time. So, what about the dividing line between the two eras of "Spring and Autumn" and "Warring States"?
In 770 BC, King Ping of Zhou moved eastward, marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Chinese history, that is, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. However, the beginning and end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are not clear, and there are two main theories.
One is in the first year of King Yuan of Zhou, 476 BC, divided by the changes of the Zhou royal family; The other was in the twenty-third year of King Weilie of Zhou, in 403 BC, King Zhou recognized the three nobles of the Jin State as princes, thus forming a new pattern of vassal states.
But in fact, the division of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is not so simple, because this is a process of historical development, objectively speaking, although the Zhou royal family is weakening day by day, it is still the "co-lord of the world", and the authority of Zhou Tianzi also played a role in the Warring States Period.
In addition, the development and system of each vassal state are also different, so it is not reasonable to divide them into a single year.
In general, during the Western Zhou Dynasty, the status of the Zhou royal family was higher than that of the vassal states, and the vassals were only subordinate to the local power of the Zhou Dynasty; During the Spring and Autumn Period, after King Ping of Zhou moved eastward, the strength and influence of the Zhou royal family gradually weakened, forming a situation in which the princes competed for hegemony, and the Zhou royal family was only the co-owner in name only; During the Warring States Period, the Jin State was divided into three, and the Jiang surname Qi was replaced by the Tian surname, and the countries began to seek a unified "annexation" process.
However, both the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty belonged to the Zhou Dynasty, which lasted more than 250 years, and the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period lasted about 550 years, which is the history of the Zhou Dynasty for nearly 800 years.