When it comes to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, people often think of the famous Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons and the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period.
Have you ever wondered: The Zhou royal family existed for a full 500 years in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but why didn't a Ming monarch appear to complete the turnaround?
Although we all know that the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was divided into two periods, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the Qin State finally unified the world, many people may not be very clear about what happened to the Zhou royal family in these hundreds of years.
King Ping of Zhou moved the capital of the Zhou Dynasty from Xi'an to Luoyang, ushering in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but the Zhou royal family gradually lost its ruling power in the process and was eventually wiped out by the Qin state.
What has the Zhou royal family been busy with in the past five hundred years? The truth is that the failure of the Zhou royal family to revive was not because the later emperors did not work hard enough, but because the system and situation at that time did not allow it.
The harder Zhou Tianzi of each dynasty worked, the faster he lost. To understand this history, we have to start with the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the decline of the Zhou royal family led to the independence of various vassal states.
Those vassal states that were far away from the Zhou royal family began to expand, while the monarchs of the vassal states closer to the Zhou royal family went to the Zhou royal family to serve as officials and dig into the corners.
At the end of the Western Weekend, contradictions arose. The disputes between the vassal states and the Zhou royal family, the contradictions between the nobles and the commoners, and the deposed queen were like gunpowder magazines, just waiting to be ignited.
In the end, all these contradictions broke out in the abolition of the crown prince, and the last emperor of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Zhou You, deposed his queen and the crown prince, but the treatment of the queen was not as miserable as in later generations, and she returned directly to her parents' home.
The queen who was originally beautiful was deposed after marrying into the Zhou family, and his father Shen Guojun could no longer interfere with the power of the Zhou family, and in a fit of anger, he united with the dog Rong to break through Hojing, King Zhou You was brutally killed, and Hojing was destroyed.
Although the princes arrived belatedly and successfully drove away the dogs, the next question followed: who should be the new Zhou Tianzi?
The destruction of Hokyung was actually done by Ji Yijiu's grandfather and Inu Rong. In this way, is Ji Yijiu suspected of killing the monarch and killing his father? In short, these intricate events have led to the formation of two perspectives.
There are two choices, one is to support Ji Yijiu, get the support of Shen, Lu, Xu, Jin and other powerful countries, and become the king of Zhou Ping; On the other hand, Ji Yuchen supported him, although there were few supporters, and only the state of Yu publicly recognized it, but with the support of the state of Qiu, Ji Yuchen also ascended to the throne and became the king of Zhou.
This led to an unprecedented situation for the Zhou royal family, with two sons of heaven reigning at the same time, both claiming to be orthodox. So, who is the real co-owner of the world?
At the beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the coexistence of two rulers, King Ping of Zhou and King Xi of Zhou, was not because of the princes' understanding of loyalty, but because they hoped to obtain more benefits through their meritorious service.
The chaotic Zhou royal family was more beneficial to them, so no one wanted to insist too much on this issue. However, with the destruction of Hojing and the defeat of the Zhou royal family's army in the west by the Inu Rong, King Zhou Ping realized that there was a danger in staying in Hojing.
In the end, he made the decision to move the capital of the Zhou royal family from the Xi'an region to the Luoyang region. Since Luoyang is located to the east of Xi'an, the history of the Zhou Dynasty after King Ping of Zhou moved the capital is known as the Eastern Zhou.
In the process of migration, King Zhou Ping left behind a plan. At that time, one of the forces that came to Haojing's aid did not come from a certain vassal state, but the Mafu family directly under the Zhou royal family, who were responsible for raising horses in the Shaanxi and Gansu regions, and made an important contribution to the rescue of the driver this time.
As a result, King Zhou Ping officially canonized the Mafu family as princes and granted them the title of earl. At the same time, they were promised that if they could drive out the Inujon in the west, all the land they had acquired would be theirs.
In addition to buying people's hearts, King Zhou Ping's strategy may also be a little trying to tease his uncle. After all, he didn't want his uncle to be strong in the west, and it was good to leave this ploy to humiliate his uncle.
However, he never imagined that this strategy he left behind at random would eventually have such a profound impact on history.
A once thriving family of horse breeders established their own state, the State of Qin, in the west. King Ping of Zhou found temporary peace in Luoyi, where a part of the direct army of the Zhou royal family still remained.
The feudal states of the two descendants of the Ji family, Jin and Zheng, also gave him support, so that he temporarily sat on the throne. However, when he calculated carefully, he found that the huge family business was now only 600 miles of land centered on Luoyi.
Even this part of the land, if only the direct forces are considered, is not as good as the strongest vassal states. What's worse is that King Zhou Ping himself can't fully control these family businesses, and King Zhou is there.
King Zhou Ping was in a predicament, and he couldn't sweep the world like Han Xin and Huo Quai. He is just an ordinary son of Zhou, so he must adopt the most prudent strategy, first deal with the king of Zhou, unify the interior of the Zhou royal family, and then slowly deal with the disobedient princes.
Zhou Pingwang's thinking is correct, no matter which angle you look at, this is the best choice. Even if the founding monarch of the later generations of Tianzhong Wizards was in the position of King Zhou Ping, he would have made the same decision.
Even if he was given the buff of a famous general, King Ping of Zhou still had to face strong resistance, that is, the vassal states did not want the Zhou royal family to be revived again.
If not handled properly, the Zhou royal family could lead to wars on all sides, and eventually be isolated by all the vassal states and quickly perish. Therefore, for the next twenty years, King Zhou Ping remained patient and constantly sought various ways to gain the support of other vassal states.
Unfortunately, those vassal states were too busy with their own expansion at this time to take care of the survival of the Zhou royal family. At the same time, King Zhou is not good at stubble, and has been competing with King Zhou Ping for 20 years, and King Zhou Ping cannot be **.
It wasn't until twenty years later that the Jin Kingdom intervened. During these two decades, the Jin Kingdom expanded rapidly in the Shanxi region, annexing many small states and becoming a giant in the Shanxi region.
It was at this time that Marquis Wen of Jin decided to intervene in the chaotic situation of the Zhou royal family.
The Marquis of Jin did not act to help the Zhou royal family revivenation, but through a deal with King Zhou Ping, he obtained the power to conquer other vassal states in Shanxi, the so-called "legal expansion right".
This power played an important role in the development of the Jin state, which allowed the Qin state to develop from a family of horsemen to one of the four great powers in the middle of the Spring and Autumn period. Although the Zhou royal family has declined, its status remains.
Any vassal state that attempts to expand illegally will face hostility from all other vassal states. However, with the legal right to expand, it is possible to expand without offending other vassal states, so as to obtain greater development opportunities.
With the help of the Jin Kingdom, King Zhou Ping successfully defeated his uncle and mastered the entire royal family. However, he found that states like Qin, Jin, Qi, and Chu had become so powerful that they were no longer controllable by the royal family.
Even the neighboring countries around the royal family could not be governed. In desperation, King Zhou Ping decided to develop in a low-key manner. He reigned for fifty years, the first twenty years focused on eliminating his uncle's threat, and the last thirty years on low-key development.
Of course, this low-key development can only ensure that the royal family does not decay. Because the surrounding vassal states are like a pack of hungry wolves, all wanting a piece of the pie from the royal family. Under these circumstances, it was very difficult for the royal family to revive.
Zheng Guo was the most disappointing because he was a feudal state of the descendants of the Ji family, so his monarch could be an official in the Zhou royal family. But Zheng Guo's behavior always makes people shake their heads, they are either fighting internally or digging into the corners of the Zhou royal family, in short, they are not active in doing things.
Although King Zhou Ping was dissatisfied with Zheng Guo's behavior, he could only swallow his anger because he needed to use Zheng Guo's power to maintain the prestige of the Zhou royal family. In order to make Zheng Guo fully support the Zhou royal family, King Zhou Ping even sent his own son to Zheng Guo as a hostage, and asked Zheng Guo's crown prince to come to the Zhou royal family as a hostage, an event known in history as "Zhou-Zheng mutual hostage".
Although this behavior of King Zhou Ping was aimed at improving relations with Zheng Guo, in the eyes of others, it was a sign of weakness of King Zhou Ping. As a result, another thirty years passed, and King Zhou Ping died.
Because when he died, his son also died, so after the death of King Zhou Ping, he could only be succeeded by his grandson, which was King Zhou Huan.
After King Huan of Zhou ascended the throne, he changed his grandfather's ruling style. He was young and vigorous, and believed that he had the potential to become a famous general, and could directly pacify the other vassal states by force.
So, he used his remaining prestige to gather a few allies and form a coalition army, intending to attack Zheng Guo first. However, the result of the war was the defeat of the Zhou royal family to Zheng Guo, and King Huan of Zhou himself was shot in the shoulder during the battle, which is known in history as the 'Battle of Xiangge'.
After this battle, the other vassal states saw that the Zhou royal family could not even defeat the Zheng state, so they no longer paid attention to them. You must know that although Zheng Guo is strong, it is still not as big as a big country like Jin and Qi.
Since the Zhou royal family can't even beat Zheng Guo, why should we listen to them?
King Huan of Zhou's painstaking efforts not only failed to revive the Zhou royal family, but accelerated its decline. After this battle, the Zhou royal family no longer had a loyal brother, and its own military strength was also greatly hit.
He has been in power for more than 20 years, although he was defeated by Zheng Guo, but he also did other things. He took advantage of the civil strife in Jin to meddle in the political situation of Jin and help the Jin monarch drive out the traitors, but due to the continuous civil war in Jin, his intervention did not receive practical benefits.
After the death of King Huan of Zhou, his son King Zhuang of Zhou ascended the throne. During his reign, he did not achieve much externally, and within the royal family, his younger brother tried to usurp the throne, triggering a new round of civil war.
Although he put down the rebellion, it also led to another decline of the royal family.
King Zhuang of Zhou died, and his son King Zhou Jiao ascended the throne, and Duke Huan of Qi had become the overlord at this time. During the reign of King Zhou Yi, in addition to acknowledging the supremacy of Duke Huan of Qi and accepting worship, he also had to deal with the civil war within the Jin Kingdom.
The rebels were victorious and sent gifts to King Zhou and asked for canonization. Faced with the financial difficulties of the royal family, King Zhou had to officially canonize the head of the rebel family as the monarch of the Jin State, that is, the grandfather of the Duke of Wen of Jin.
In fact, the Zhou royal family had been downgraded to a medium-sized vassal state in the era of King Zhou Jiao, and if there was no false title of "co-lord of the world", there might have been no one to care about.
After the death of King Zhou Li, his son King Hui of Zhou ascended the throne. Soon after, King Hui of Zhou was ousted from the throne during the usurpation incident, but regained the throne with the help of Zheng Guo. In order to repay Zheng Guo, King Hui of Zhou ceded the land east of Xingyang to Zheng Guo, and also gave Yu Guo some land.
During the reign of King Hui of Zhou, the territory of the Zhou royal family shrank further. Next, King Zhou Hui's son, King Xiang of Zhou, ascended the throne. After the death of Duke Huan of Qi, several major powers began to fight for hegemony, and finally formed a situation of Jin and Chu competing for hegemony, and this historical main line lasted for nearly a hundred years.
During this period, King Xiang of Zhou, with the support of Duke Wen of Jin, quelled the civil strife within the Zhou royal family, and in return, King Xiang of Zhou conferred the title of Overlord of Duke Wen of Jin. Since then, King Xiang of Zhou has no longer cared about state affairs, and the royal territory has been shrinking day by day.
How to avoid lying flat? Zhou Tianzi used to be ambitious, but the results often backfired. On the contrary, if they choose to lie flat, due to the status of "the co-lord of the world", other vassal states will not take action against the royal family easily.
After King Xiang of Zhou, the Zhou royal family began to close their doors and lived a quiet life, completely lying down. King Zhou Qing even asked Lu for money in order to hold a funeral for King Zhou Xiang.
Since the reign of King Qing of Zhou, King Kuang of Zhou, King Ding of Zhou, and King Jian of Zhou have not recorded any of their deeds in history, because they did almost nothing during their reign.
However, the background of the Spring and Autumn period was turbulent. After a hundred years of fighting between Jin and Chu, each began to have internal problems and ceased war. After the armistice, Wu and Vietnam, which were supported by them, began to continue to fight, which became the main theme of history in the late Spring and Autumn period.
During the reigns of King Ling of Zhou, King Jing of Zhou, King Mourning of Zhou, and King Jing of Zhou, their contributions were not outstanding, and the overall situation was stable. However, at the same time as their rule, Wu and Yue began a fierce battle for supremacy, and in the end the Yue Kingdom was victorious.
At the same time, Lao Tzu founded Taoism, Confucius began to travel around the world, and the idea of a hundred schools of thought began to rise. In terms of the Zhou royal family, after King Jing of Zhou, during the reign of King Yuan of Zhou, the historical record is unremarkable.
During the reign of King Zhending of Zhou, Goujian, the king of Yue, died, and the "Battle of Jinyang" broke out in the Jin Kingdom. After the death of King Zhending of Zhou, history entered a period of alternation between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
At this time, a major event occurred within the Zhou royal family. Specifically, after the death of King Zhending of Zhou, his eldest son succeeded to the throne first, but the second son killed the eldest soon after and usurped the throne himself.
A few months after the usurpation of the second son, the third son killed the second son and usurped the throne again.
During the reign of King Zhou Kao, in order to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy of fratricide, he made a bold decision: to split the family. Although the third child was afraid that his younger brother would kill him again, he could not kill his younger brother directly for various reasons, so he decided to divide the remaining small piece of land into two.
The younger brother of the third child established a new state called the "Western Zhou Kingdom". Although the territory of the Zhou royal family shrank as a result, at least it avoided the feud between the brothers. King Zhou Kao successfully reigned for 15 years.
The death of King Zhou Kao made history enter the Warring States Period. Under the reign of King Weilie of Zhou, the Zhou royal family once again faced challenges. The Han, Zhao, and Wei families divided the Jin Kingdom, but they were still only courtiers of the Jin Kingdom, not princes.
In order to change this situation, in 403 BC, Han, Zhao and Wei led a large army to the Zhou royal family to demonstrate, and they did not resort to violence, but only ate on the territory of the Zhou royal family, which was tantamount to hooliganism.
King Zhou Weilie was able to resist at first, but in the face of the pressure of the Han, Zhao, and Wei families, he finally couldn't hold on any longer. If he does not compromise, the Han, Zhao and Wei families will devour the only remaining property of the Zhou royal family.
As a result, King Weilie of Zhou was forced to officially canonize the three families of Han, Zhao, and Wei as princes.
The three families were divided, Han, Zhao, and Wei officially stepped onto the stage of history, and the Warring States Period officially began. When Sima Guang wrote the "Zizhi Tongjian", he also took the reign of King Weilie of Zhou as the beginning.
However, King Zhou Weilie may not have expected that his helpless compromise this time would make the Zhou royal family lose its last hole card - the status of the co-lord of the world. You must know that in the Spring and Autumn Period, although the major powers competed with each other for hegemony, no one dared to directly declare that they were not courtiers of the Zhou royal family.
Even if it is a counterattack by a minister, you can't become a prince just by strength, and the only way to become a prince is to get the canonization of the Zhou royal family.
After the uproar of the Han, Zhao, and Wei families, people began to realize that the Zhou royal family had become weak, as fragile and powerless as mud bodhisattvas. As long as his own strength is strong, he can force the Zhou royal family to submit and canonize himself as a prince.
The meaning of the existence of the Zhou royal family is no longer important. Soon after canonizing the three families, King Weilie of Zhou died because he felt too depressed, and his son King An of Zhou ascended the throne. Under the leadership of King An of Zhou, Wei began to actively implement the reform of the law, becoming the number one power among the nations.
Immediately afterwards, the spark of the change spread to the state of Chu, triggering the famous "Wu Qi Change". At the same time, the Tian family of the Qi State also followed the example of the Han, Zhao and Wei families, forced the Zhou royal family to submit, and officially usurped the Qi State, which is the historical "Tian Dynasty Qi".
After reigning for many years, King Zhou An was succeeded by his son King Lie of Zhou. Although King Zhou Lie reigned for only six years, there is one thing worth mentioning. In recent years, there is a famous cross talk actor who plays Zhou Tianzi in the movie "Warring States", who is King Zhou Lie.
In the movie, his character is full of joy, but in the official history, King Zhou Lie is a joke, because he has no son to inherit the throne after his reign, and can only be succeeded by his younger brother King Zhou Xian**.
During the reign of King Xian of Zhou, various countries began to change the law, and the Shang Dynasty changed the law at this time. In addition, through the Battle of Guiling and the Battle of Maling, the State of Qi defeated the State of Wei and ended the hegemony of the State of Wei.
The Zhou royal family also experienced many twists and turns during that period, and it is said that Han and Zhao also intervened and put pressure on King Zhou Xian. Although the details of the events are disputed in the history books, in the end King Xian of Zhou ceded the last piece of territory and formed a state called the "Eastern Zhou Kingdom".
After this separation, the only territory that the Zhou royal family could directly control was the location of the palace, and the rest of the territory was under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Zhou State. At this point, the Zhou royal family has almost divided all the family resources, and the Eastern Zhou State and the Western Zhou State have become independent vassal states like the Seven Heroes of the Warring States.
King Shenliang of Zhou died six years after his accession to the throne, and there is not much worth mentioning. The historical background at that time was that the major powers were converging vertically and horizontally, and the Qin State recovered the land of Bashu.
After the death of King Shenliang of Zhou, he was succeeded by his son King Zhou Xun.
King Zhou was the last emperor of Zhou, who reigned for fifty-nine years, but his strength was limited. He once swore to protect Jiuding to the death, but was eventually forced to move the palace by King Wu of Qin. Since then, King Zhou has been forced to be displaced, and even lost his Jiuding.
Despite this, King Wu of Qin died due to physical exhaustion when he was lifting the crown.
During the reign of this King of Zhou, he suffered from the pressure of two "Zhou Dukes", and he felt that this was one of the few happy things in his life. However, a few decades later, King Zhou saw an opportunity, and he joined forces with the Duke of Western Zhou to borrow a lot of money from wealthy people in the country, and then formed an army of five or six thousand men.
However, when this "great army" went to Qin with the armies of other countries, they only returned after three months of playing outside the Hangu Pass, and the Zhou royal family went bankrupt and was collected by the rich all day long.
In order to avoid creditors, King Zhou Yu hid on a high platform, but he still couldn't hear the sounds around him, and finally left the idiom "high debts".
Although King Zhou's troops were rewarding, it also aroused the hostility of the Qin state. Soon after, the state of Qin directly attacked the Western Zhou state and succeeded in causing it to surrender, causing the king of Zhou to die of depression.
After the death of King Zhou Yun, although there was still the Eastern Zhou Kingdom, there was no new son of heaven. Therefore, the Zhou royal family came to an end with the death of King Zhou Yun, and Jiuding was also moved by the Qin State.
Although the Eastern Zhou State held out for a few more years, it was finally destroyed by Qin Shi Huang and his father because of the alliance with the Chu State to attack Qin. This is the history of the royal family of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. From the entire history of the Eastern Zhou royal family, we can find that although King Ping of Zhou, King Huan of Zhou, and even the last King of Zhou Xun have tried, the result of their efforts is to make the loser faster and faster.
Of course, it was not accidental, but because the major vassal states at that time hoped that the revival of the Zhou royal family would not be realized. In this environment, the revival of the Zhou royal family naturally became out of reach.
Therefore, the decision of those Zhou Tianzi who chose to "lie flat" later became understandable. If they don't choose to "lie flat" and continue to "struggle", it may lead to the destruction of the Zhou royal family faster.