How long did zhou dynasty rule

Sharing the language and culture of the Shang, the early Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, gradually sinicized, that is, extended Shang culture through much of China Proper north of the Yangtze River. In western histories, the Zhou period is often described as feudalism because the Zhou's early decentralized rule invites comparison with medieval rule in Europe.

However, historians debate the meaning of the term feudal, the more appropriate term for the Zhou Dynasty's political arrangement would be from the Chinese language itself: the Fengjian system. The Zhou amalgam of city-states became progressively centralized and established increasingly impersonal political and economic institutions.

These developments, which probably occurred in the later Zhou period, were manifested in greater central control over local governments and a more routinized agrarian taxation. In Chinese histories, the Zhou Dynasty marks the beginning of the feudal phase of Chinese history, a period which is said to extend to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished, the fragmentation of the kingdom accelerated. From Ping Wang onwards, the Zhou kings ruled in name only, with true power lying in the hands of powerful nobles.

There was warfare between the states , and by the middle of the s BC, three big states emerged: Qin, Jin and Qi. To the south, the state of Chu became powerful also. Finally, at the end of this period, the state of Jin was divided by civil war into three states, and there were about 14 states in the whole region. In the Warring States Period , after the relatively peaceful and over philosophical Spring and Autumn Period, various kingdoms fought and conquered for over years before the Qin State conquered them all.

In the Warring States Period, technology advanced so that iron tools and weapons became common. Instead of companies of chariots, armies of organized mounted soldiers with masses of infantry became common. In the end, the Qin could muster armies of hundreds of thousands. The First Emperor made Xi'an his new capital. He was famous for huge building projects, such as a mausoleum for himself with Terracotta Warriors , and the first complete Great Wall.

Our Xi'an tours , almost without exception, include a visit to the museum. Contact us with your tour requirements for a tailor-made tour if China, your way.

China Highlights uses cookies to give you the best possible service. In addition, a nomadic invasion forced Zhou rulers to flee to the east and build a new capital at modern-day Luoyang loo-o-uh-yahng.

The Eastern Zhou was an era of intense political turmoil. States were at constant war with one another for land and political control. In fact, the latter half of the period is known as the Warring States Period — BCE , when the small states eventually consolidated into seven strong kingdoms. These seven states fought with each other for mastery until one of them, Qin chin , succeeded and established the Qin dynasty — BCE. The weakening of central Zhou authority is reflected in the visual arts.

Bronze objects were no longer used solely for state and religious rituals. Local rulers could commission and purchase bronzes to display their status and wealth. This was evident in bronze inscriptions.

Zhou bronze inscriptions F A new addition to Zhou bronzes are musical instruments, including bells F The measures taken by the great minister Shang Yang to strengthen the state of Qin are a good illustration of these developments. As we have noted, continuities between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods mean that, in many respects, they should be treated as a single phase of the history of China: the later, or Eastern , Zhou period, as it is traditionally called.

As this period wore on, the princes and their ministers realized that military and political power rested upon a sound economic base. They therefore took steps to develop trade and industry within their states.

Metal coins were first introduced in ancient China at this time at about the same time as they were in the Middle East. This was done to facilitate the collection of taxes; however, it would also have helped stimulate trade. The first large-scale irrigation projects were begun, to bring more land under cultivation and improve agricultural production. These often required the digging of canals, which would have greatly benefited trade as carrying goods by water was always much cheaper than by land until the coming of railways.

Iron tools gradually became more common in agriculture, and enabled it to become increasingly productive. Chinese iron-workers began using casting technologies from c. The casting of molten iron into moulds, requiring the control of very high temperatures, was not matched in the West for centuries to come.

Foundries were large-scale industrial units, as were salt and coal mines. The introduction of cast-iron agricultural tools greatly increased the productivity of the land, and acted as a further stimulus to population growth.

Towns and cities increased in both size and number, though since buildings were made largely of wood very little has survived from this period. The density of populations within the walls of these towns was much higher than in Shang times.

All these developments stimulated social mobility. In earlier Zhou times, peasants were serfs, tied to the land and subject to the authority of their local lord. During the Warring States period, more and more peasants were able to buy and sell their land , with the result that farms became more productive. New towns sprung up around markets. The merchant class was growing as the economy expanded. Some merchants amassed large fortunes and were able to invest their wealth in land, so joining the landowning class.

Chinese society was becoming much more complex and more fluid. Different social classes were growing up between the peasants, on the one hand, and the aristocracy, on the other. And as we have seen above the increasing centralization of state power in the hands of princes and their officials opened the way to high office and, with it, great wealth for men of more humble backgrounds, and the growth of bureaucracy began the rise of a key new class in ancient Chinese society, the gentry.

This period witnessed a general advance in education, stimulated by the greatly increased demand for highly literate officials. The tomb of Xi, a civil servant of the state of Qin , has revealed a mass of written documents, showing the extent to which law, diplomacy and administration now depended upon a literate class of bureaucrats. Not unconnected to this, during the Eastern Zhou period Chinese philosophy developed, its initial stages beginning in the 6th century BCE.

The Eastern Zhou period was a time of change and uncertainty. The old order was vanishing — what would replace it? It was as a time of frequent warfare and violence, but also of economic expansion, increased trade, towns and cities growing, and the rise of new social classes such as merchants and government officials. Confidence in traditional beliefs and practices was being undermined. It is no surprise that these times of change should bring forward teachers who sought to give guidance as to how people should behave and how society should operate.

These teachers usually belonged to the well-educated gentry class, which was producing the growing number of government officials and which was therefore now gaining increasing prominence. Members of this class often moved around from state to state, offering their services to different princes. Likewise, a number of teachers arose and also travelled from court to court, offering advice to rulers and ministers, but also teaching and gathering disciples.

The greatest Chinese philosophers were Confucius BCE , founder of Confucianism, and Laozi slightly earlier in the 6th century , the founder of Daoism.

Other philosophers, theorists, and schools of thought in this era were founded by Mozi BCE, the founder of Mohism and Shang Yang BCE and Han Fei BCE , responsible for the development of Legalism , a school of thought in ancient China which would later be immensely influential. Other famous philosophers were the Confucian thinkers Mencius and Xunzi A portrait of Confucius, by the Tang dynasty artist Wu Daozi — This flowering of thought in Ancient China in mid- to late-Zhou times had a profound effect on all later Chinese history.

One of the symbolic changes which took place during the Warring States period was that the rulers of the surviving states did not even bother to acknowledge the Zhou king as their superior.

They declaring themselves to be independent kings, ruling in their own right. The Zhou dynasty itself came to an end in BCE, when one of these kingdoms, the aggressive kingdom of Qin , invaded Zhou territory, occupied the Zhou capital and deposed the Zhou king who died shortly afterwards.

Qin then annexed the rump of territory still under Zhou control. The late Zhou world was divided between a core area and a surrounding and expanding peripheral area. States outside the core area were viewed as, at best semi-barbarous. Inside the core area, states were subject to factionalism and splintering, and new states arose on the ruins of old.

It was the states in the frontier zones outside the core area which were able to expand their territories, however. Barbarous though they may have appeared to the civilized inhabitants of the core states, it was they which had become dominant by the Warring States period. Southern states , beyond the pale of the early Zhou sphere, were gradually drawn into the Zhou state system in later Zhou times, as the older Zhou states of northern China reached out for allies in their constant struggles with one another.

Some of the southern states, especially the huge kingdom of Chu , in the middle Yangtze basin, Wu and Yue in lower Yangtze, and Shu of Sichuan, became amongst the most powerful of the states. It was none of these, however, which eventually triumphed over all the others. This state was the kingdom of Qin. His reign marked the transition to a new phase in Chinese history.

The evolution of state institutions in Ancient China. The economy of Ancient China. Society in Ancient China. Thought and culture in Ancient China. Subscribe for more great content — and remove ads. Upgrade to Premium to Remove Ads. The Western Zhou dynasty We have seen that the old Shang state system formed a kind of confederation of states in which many semi-independent rulers acknowledged the overlordship of the Shang king.

A portrait of the Duke of Zhou from Sancai Tuhui When many of the former Shang-dominated states to the east tried to shake off Zhou rule, the duke of Zhou led an expedition which brought them firmly under control.