In 711 B.C., there was an event that was widely celebrated, that is, the "Princes of the Beacon Theater".
Historically, in order to win a smile, King Zhou You tried his best, and even did not hesitate to light the beacon, an important tool in ancient times, to create a false invasion of foreign enemies, so as to arouse Bao Xi's interest.
Although this ploy eventually succeeded in making Bao Xi smile, it had serious consequences. In actual history, the moment the beacon tower was lit, it meant a real invasion by foreign enemies, but the princes were deceived by the false beacon fire of King Zhou You and did not respond in time, causing the country to fall into crisis.
This story teaches us that we should keep a clear head and avoid making bad decisions, whether in life or at work.
King Zhou You smiled for the Pomeranians, and actually used the beacon tower that was related to the life and death of the country. He lit the beacon many times and teased the princes, just to laugh at him. However, such behavior made the princes feel that they were being teased and no longer trusted King Zhou You.
In the end, King Zhou You lost the trust of the princes, and the country fell into crisis as a result.
During the Xirong invasion a few years later, King Zhou You once again lit the beacon, but this time the princes did not come to the rescue, because they mistakenly thought that King Zhou You was messing around again.
As a result, Dog Rong broke through the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Haojing, King Youyou of Zhou was killed, Bao Xi was robbed, and Haojing was also burned. It wasn't until Hokyo was breached that the princes realized the seriousness of the invasion and hurried to the rescue.
After everyone's joint efforts, they finally drove away the dogs. However, at this time, Haojing had been completely destroyed, and King Zhou You had also died.
Therefore, in order to avoid chaos in the situation, everyone unanimously elected the son of King Zhou You as the new son of Zhou Tianzi. However, since Hojing had already been destroyed in the war, they could only escort the new emperor eastward to Luoyi, which is now Luoyang.
The Zhou Dynasty after the capital was moved was called the Eastern Zhou, while the previous Zhou Dynasty was revered as the Western Zhou. This is the famous "Beacon Opera Princes" incident in history. When it comes to this incident, the first thing that comes to many people's minds is the mediocrity of King Zhou You.
As the Son of Heaven, he even lit the beacon tower that symbolized the country's important weapons at will, and for such a ruler, the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty seemed to be reasonable.
Although this story is recorded in the "Historical Records", whether there really existed in history the incident of the princes of the Beacon Opera has caused controversy among many historians. Since the beacon tower appeared after the Han Dynasty, this event could not have occurred during the Western Weekend.
However, historians generally believe that the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty was indeed related to King Youwang of Zhou, and the story of the princes of the Beacon Opera is also based on the evolution of real historical events.
So, without the incident of the princes of the Beacon Theater, how did the dog Rong break through the Hojing and kill the king of Zhou You? The real reason for the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty was because King You of Zhou wanted to please the beauty, or was there another reason?
After the research of historians, the truth of the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty is as follows: as a mature dynasty in Chinese history that implemented the feudal system, the Zhou Dynasty implemented the ruling strategy of the feudal system since its establishment.
Originally, the Zhou State, which was only one of the many vassal states of the Shang Dynasty, rose to prominence as the Shang Dynasty gradually became stronger in the middle and late periods. In the last years of the Shang Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty's ruling class was full of internal contradictions, which led to a declining ruling power.
In order to pacify the east, the king of Shang sent a large number of main forces to the east. The Zhou State took this opportunity to take advantage of the fact that the main force of the Shang Dynasty was far away in the east, and broke through the capital of the Shang Dynasty in one fell swoop, and finally destroyed the Shang Dynasty.
This is the martial king in history.
King Wu of Zhou died shortly after defeating the Shang Dynasty, leaving the young King Cheng of Zhou as a ** person. At this time, the remnants of the Shang Dynasty were still strong. Therefore, King Wu of Zhou's younger brother Ji Dan, later the Duke of Zhou, began to preside over political affairs.
Under his arrangement, many descendants of the Ji family and meritorious heroes who contributed to the founding of the Zhou Dynasty were made princes and established their respective territories. At the same time, during his reign, the Duke of Zhou continued to weaken the remnants of the Shang Dynasty, and finally succeeded in quelling their rebellion and completely solving this hidden danger.
In the era of King Wu of Zhou, the founding father of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty was established. However, during this period of the auxiliary government of the Duke of Zhou, the Western Zhou Dynasty really formed a complete ruling system.
Zhou Gong summarized his thoughts as "Zhou Li" and promoted it to the whole country, which is also the fundamental reason why Zhou Gong was so respected by later generations. In the later years of the Duke of Zhou, he returned the rule of the Zhou dynasty to King Cheng of Zhou.
King Cheng of Zhou and his son, King Kang of Zhou, were excellent rulers who focused on recuperation and recuperation while strengthening their local rule through the major vassal states. If we compare the period of their reign with that of later generations, then the rule of Chengkang under King Cheng of Zhou and King Kang of Zhou is equivalent to the rule of Wenjing in the Han Dynasty.
During the reign of Chengkang, the number of vassal states surnamed Ji began to surge, and the Zhou royal family's control over the local area was further strengthened. With the end of Chengkang's rule, the Western Zhou's national power reached its peak, and its control over the local area was strengthened.
Thus, during the reigns of King Zhao of Zhou and King Mu of Zhou, the Western Zhou began to expand externally, which was similar to the later reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. During this period, the Western Zhou Dynasty expanded on a large scale, greatly expanding the scope of rule of the Central Plains Dynasty.
The vigorous expansion of the Zhou dynasty forced the surrounding foreign tribes to submit.
In these decades of foreign expansion, the Western Zhou Dynasty paid a huge price for its national strength. History tells us that no dynasty is immune to the law of prosperity and decline. As a result, the Western Zhou entered a period of decline after expansion.
Although the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty at that time were not aware of the cyclical law of history, they realized that there was a problem and tried to find a solution. Several Zhou emperors after King Mu of Zhou, such as King Gong of Zhou, King Yi of Zhou, and King Xiao of Zhou, were all trying to solve the internal problems of the Western Zhou.
However, the general trend of history could not be resisted, and during the reign of King Xiao of Zhou, Siyi, who had been defeated by the Western Zhou Dynasty, rose again and gradually invaded the ruling area of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The direct threat from Xijon posed the greatest challenge to the Zhou royal family, as the Zhou's capital, Xi'an, and the ruling core of Guanzhong were within the range of Xirong's direct attack.
This led to the decline of Zhou's capital, Hojing, under the infestation of Xirong. The three generations of Zhou Tianzi, King Gong of Zhou, King Yi of Zhou, and King Xiao of Zhou were unable to stop the decline of the Zhou dynasty, which made the local princes begin to have an independent tendency.
During the reign of King Yi of Zhou, he not only had to deal with the invasion of foreign enemies, but also had to face the problem of the independence of the princes.
King Yi of Zhou and King Li of Zhou both wanted to strengthen the control of the vassal states, believing that this would solve the problem of the gradual independence of the princes. King Yi of Zhou even directly killed the monarch of Qi, but the result was called the faint monarch by the history books of later generations.
King Li of Zhou continued to strengthen this idea of rule, but the resistance below also became more and more intense, which eventually led to a coup d'état by the nobles of Haojing, the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, who expelled King Li of Zhou, which is known as the "Guoren Rebellion" in history.
The Chinese riot incident disgraced Zhou Tianzi, and the ruling prestige of the Zhou royal family was further weakened. After King Li of Zhou was exiled, for more than ten years, the Zhou royal family lacked a son of heaven, and the government affairs were governed by two Zhou dukes**, and this period of time was called "republican governance".
After more than ten years, the "republican rule" further reduced the ruling power of the Zhou royal family, and people found that without Zhou Tianzi, life and society could operate normally. Why, then, do we need a Son of Heaven?
In the social system at that time, there may have been many people who had similar questions, but no one really dared to raise them publicly. Because Zhou Tianzi is the key to the Zhou Li ruling system, if Zhou Tianzi is missing, then the legitimacy of the local governance of the princes and nobles will lose its basis, so psychologically, people still need to have a Zhou Tianzi.
As a result, more than ten years later, when the exiled King Zhou Li died, everyone still decided to welcome back the son of King Zhou Li and continue to serve as the next Zhou Tianzi, this is King Zhou Xuan, who is the penultimate monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the father of the later King Zhou You.
After the death of King Zhou Li, King Zhou Yi, who was the son of King Zhou Li, was made the new Son of Heaven, but he lost the authority of Zhou Tianzi. In order to regain his authority, King Xuan of Zhou had to transfer those princes surnamed Ji back to ** and let them hold official positions within the Zhou royal family.
King Xuan of Zhou's approach was to restore the authority of the Zhou royal family through the power of the vassal states surnamed Ji. History has proven that his decision was correct. After these princes surnamed Ji entered the Zhou royal family, they represented not only the Zhou royal family, but also a large number of vassal states with the surname Ji, which made the authority of the Zhou royal family improved again.
However, such an option has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that the Zhou royal family was able to re-establish a certain authority with the support of these vassal states. But the disadvantage is that after these princes become the center, it will further weaken the position of Zhou Tianzi.
Originally, although Zhou Tianzi's rule had declined, within the Zhou royal family, his words still carried a lot of weight. But now, with the addition of these princes, Zhou Tianzi's voice within the Zhou royal family may also be affected.
King Xuan of Zhou chose a clever strategy to let the princes enter the Zhou royal family as officials and restore his authority. However, this is only a superficial solution to the problem of power, and it is not possible to directly reduce the decline of power.
In the official history, King Xuan of Zhou was wise and martial in the early stage, reused virtuous ministers, and successfully defeated Xirong, Huaiyi and Chu. However, this seemingly clever strategy does not solve the problem at its root.
King Xuan of Zhou indiscriminately killed ministers in his later years, causing everyone to be unwilling to serve his life. In the "Battle of a Thousand Mu", King Xuan of Zhou crusaded against Jiang Rong and was defeated. This was due to the ruling strategy of King Xuan of Zhou, who let the princes share the power of the Emperor of Zhou in the early stage, and the princes were willing to contribute.
But in his later years, King Xuan of Zhou continued to take power, and the ministers resisted, leading to defeat.
The centralization of power in the last years of King Xuan of Zhou restored some vitality to the Zhou royal family, but at the same time, it also caused contradictions with many vassal states. The independent tendencies of the local vassal states became more and more pronounced.
After the death of King Xuan of Zhou, King You of Zhou took over the throne. Due to the long history and loss of information, we have limited knowledge of this famous King of Zhou You. He was born in the thirty-second year of the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, which seems to be contrary to common sense.
Although the struggle for the crown prince in the time of King Xuan of Zhou is not recorded in the history books, we have reason to believe that there must have been something that was not recorded at that time. King Xuan of Zhou ascended the throne before he was ten years old, so his eldest son should have been born more than ten years after his accession to the throne, not more than thirty years after his accession to the throne.
During this period, the country may have experienced some turmoil and challenges. King Zhou You successfully ascended the throne, but he inherited a complicated national situation. On the one hand, the local princes were separated from morality, and the feudal system of rule was facing collapse.
On the other hand, despite the vigorous seizure of power in the late Zhou Xuan period, the interference of princes in the affairs of the royal family was still widespread.
When King You of Zhou ascended the throne, he faced the dual challenge of restoring the support of the vassal states and weakening their power, especially to prevent them from interfering in the internal affairs of the royal family. However, there are very few historical records of the years following his accession to the throne.
During this period, King You of Zhou appointed his uncle Situ, who was also the first monarch of the Zheng State, to manage the land and household registration of the Western Zhou Dynasty. King Zhou You also reused Father Yushi, who was the traitor who made suggestions in the story of "The Princes of the Beacon Opera".
In the official history, Yu Shifu is not only a minister, he is also the monarch of the kingdom of Qiu.
In the story of the princes of the Beacon Fire Opera, the traitor who suggested King Zhou You was not just a villain, but could be a prince of a big country. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the status of the princes varied according to their titles, and the five titles of duke, marquis, earl, son, and male represented different ranks.
The state of Chu is only a viscount, while the state of Qi, whose monarch title is only a marquis. However, the Kingdom of Yu was a duke in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, in the eyes of King Zhou You, Father Yu Shi may not be a faint monarch as everyone thinks, but a loyal minister who protects the Zhou royal family.
He may be greedy for money, or he may be good at courtesy, but for the Zhou royal family, his advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
It is now impossible to determine what kind of person the real Father Yu Shi was in history. However, we are sure of two things about him: first, the princes of the Beacon Opera did not come from Yu Shifu, because there was no such thing as a beacon tower at that time.
Second, if Father Yu Shi is really a traitor, then he must also be trusted by King Zhou You. At least in the eyes of King Zhou You, he is more reliable than those so-called loyal ministers.
At the beginning of the reign of King You of Zhou, he was helpless in the face of increasingly independent vassal states. Whether King Zhou You was a faint monarch was controversial in later generations, but it is clear that he did not possess outstanding leadership skills.
According to the clues in the official history, in the face of the complex situation, King Zhou You may have chosen to stand by and only care about his own pleasure, which undoubtedly accelerated the decline of the Zhou royal family.
Within a year, King Zhou You's life changed dramatically. This sudden incident made King Zhou You's life no longer peaceful, and also caused all the contradictions to be detonated.
In this year, King You of Zhou deposed his own queen, which led to a dispute between him and Shen Guo. Shen is a special country, although the king of Shen is not surnamed Ji, but Shen has been married to the Zhou royal family for generations.
King Zhou You's grandfather, King Zhou Li, married a woman from Shen Guo as queen. In the past history, the Zhou royal family has always trusted the Shen State, and even sealed the Shen State next to the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty as a barrier for the Zhou royal family to defend against foreign enemies.
This relationship is probably like the Zhou royal family chose the Son of Heaven to guard the country, put the capital in the area of today's Beijing, and built a vassal state in the Shanhaiguan area, so that this vassal state could help defend against the barbarians in the north.
This is no longer just a simple trust, but almost the future of the entire Zhou Dynasty is completely handed over to this vassal state. And in the past years, Shen Guo has indeed never lived up to the trust of the Zhou Dynasty, and has always faithfully fulfilled his responsibilities to resist the threat of Western dogs.
However, during the reign of King You of Zhou, he resolutely deposed the queen who was born in the Shen Kingdom. This decision undoubtedly deeply hurt Shen Guo. As for the reason why King Zhou You abolished the queen, later historians debated endlessly.
In the story of the princes of the Beacon Opera, King Zhou You chose to abolish the original queen in order to please the beauty, which seems to be a bit forgetful.
In the official history, the existence of Bao Xi is even controversial. Even if Bao Xi did exist, historians do not believe that King Zhou You abolished his queen simply because he favored Bao Xi.
Instead, they researched and came up with an alternative version, this one more convincing. According to the research of historians, after King Zhou You ascended the throne, he did marry the daughter of the king of Shen as the queen.
However, this monarch of Shen later used his status as an old man to interfere in the internal affairs of the Zhou royal family, which was obviously unacceptable to King Zhou You.
Therefore, King You of Zhou chose to depose the queen in order to drive the king of Shen from the Zhou royal family in order to weaken his influence. However, this decision also directly touched the interests of the monarch of the Shen state, causing him to join forces with the dog Rong to attack the Zhou royal family.
King You of Zhou was caught off guard by this, and the military power of the Zhou royal family had declined and could not withstand the combined attack of the Dog Rong and the Shen State. The only hope is to wait for the rescue of the vassal states, but the local princes are thinking about how to become independent, so they will not come to the rescue immediately.
At the beginning, the reason why the princes of the Western Zhou Dynasty did not rescue King You of Zhou was not that he had played them on the beacon tower, but that they were well aware of the independent tendencies of the Zhou royal family and expected the royal family to weaken or even perish.
There may also be a few princes who are willing to rescue, but due to geographical restrictions, it is difficult to quench the thirst of distant water. By the time they learned of the invasion of the Dog Rong, the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Haojing, had already been captured by the Dog Rong.
In the end, under the joint attack of Shen and Inurong, the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Hojing, quickly fell. King You of Zhou was killed in the chaotic battle, and the beauty was captured by the dog Rong according to folklore, and her whereabouts are unknown.
And the military forces directly under the Zhou royal family deployed in Shaanxi also suffered heavy losses in this battle.
Therefore, after the other princes rushed to support, they could only choose to support the son of King You of Zhou as the new monarch, and this chosen prince was the son born to King Shen, who was the orthodox eldest son of Zhou Tianzi.
However, the war was also caused by his grandfather. The direct military forces of the Zhou royal family in the Shaanxi region have been completely destroyed, and Hojing has also suffered a devastating blow.
As a result, the Zhou royal family was forced to move eastward, setting their capital in the Luoyang region, where their remaining army remained.
The fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty did not originate from the princes of the Beacon Opera, but actually from the decline of the Zhou Dynasty and the contradictions caused by the post-abolition events. The other vassal states stood idly by for independence, resulting in the overthrow of King You of Zhou.
Later history books, however, leaned more towards the idea of moral governance, blaming the moral corruption of the monarch for all problems. As a result, Bao Xi became the scapegoat for the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the King of Zhou You was portrayed as a faint monarch who sacrificed his country to win the smile of the beauties.