Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- Acknowledgments
- Scholarly conventions
- Topographical map of China
- Chronology of Western Zhou kings
- The sixty-day circle
- Introduction
- 1 Foundation of the Western Zhou state: constructing the political space
- 2 Disorder and decline: the political crisis of the Western Zhou state
- 3 Enemies at the gate: the war against the Xianyun and the northwestern frontier
- 4 The fall of the Western Zhou: partisan struggle and spatial collapse
- 5 The eastward migration: reconfiguring the Western Zhou state
- 6 The legacy of the Western Zhou
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 The periphery: the Western Zhou state at its maximum geographical extent
- Appendix 2 The relationship between the Quanrong and the Xianyun
- Appendix 3 The Bamboo Annals and issues of the chronology of King You's reign
- Bibliography
- Index to inscribed bronzes
- General index
4 - The fall of the Western Zhou: partisan struggle and spatial collapse
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- Acknowledgments
- Scholarly conventions
- Topographical map of China
- Chronology of Western Zhou kings
- The sixty-day circle
- Introduction
- 1 Foundation of the Western Zhou state: constructing the political space
- 2 Disorder and decline: the political crisis of the Western Zhou state
- 3 Enemies at the gate: the war against the Xianyun and the northwestern frontier
- 4 The fall of the Western Zhou: partisan struggle and spatial collapse
- 5 The eastward migration: reconfiguring the Western Zhou state
- 6 The legacy of the Western Zhou
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 The periphery: the Western Zhou state at its maximum geographical extent
- Appendix 2 The relationship between the Quanrong and the Xianyun
- Appendix 3 The Bamboo Annals and issues of the chronology of King You's reign
- Bibliography
- Index to inscribed bronzes
- General index
Summary
In the spring of 771 bc, the Western Rong poured into the middle Wei River valley, plundering the Zhou capitals Feng and Hao and killing the last Zhou king, You (r. 781–771 bc). The Western Zhou dynasty came to an end. In many regards, the eventual downfall of the Western Zhou state was the last phase of the prolonged warfare between the Zhou and the Xianyun. When the new king, Ping (r. 770–720 bc), was established after the death of his father, it was clearly impossible for him to maintain the Zhou court in the Wei River valley, in the immediate reach of the Xianyun who could renew their attacks at any time, much less to rule from it. Thus, King Ping decided to move the royal court to the eastern capital Luoyi, and thereby opened another era in Chinese history.
However, the “fall of the Western Zhou” meant much more than just the change in the geographical location of the Zhou capital. It put an end to the long-standing domination of Zhou royal power over the middle and lower Yellow River regions; the Western Zhou state as a complex political organism was extinguished. More significantly, the year 771 bc also marked the end of the long history of the early Chinese states that had sustained the largest society in East Asia since at least the founding of the Shang dynasty in the sixteenth century bc.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Landscape and Power in Early ChinaThe Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045–771 BC, pp. 193 - 232Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006