Zhou Dynasty
1045-221 B.C.
Location of Zhou Dynasty
• file:///H:/file
Rule
• King
• Bureaucracy
ministries of law, education, rites, public
works;
• Territories governed by officials appointed by
king;
• Aristocracy (theoretically subordinate to king)
large landowners and government officials;
Mandate of Heaven
Rites of Zhou-oldest text on theory of
government:
• Heaven maintained order through Zhou king;
• King, in theory, talented and virtuous,
compassionate and efficient;
• Ruler must rule in harmony with the Dao, the
Way;
Heaven
• Impersonal law of nature rather than
anthropomorphic deity
• Essentially benevolent force ensuring
harmony and order in the universe;
Golden Age and Decline
• Golden age; essential characteristics of
Chinese civilization established during Zhou
dynasty
• Almost 900 years;
• Eventual decline leading to fragmentation
leading to smaller, competing states;
*Period of Warring States
Essential Characteristics
Economy: agricultural
• Well-field system- worked land of lord and their
own strips;
• Hard life for Chinese peasants;
• Large-scale water control- ex. Min river (Yanzi R.)
• Farm technology: iron plowshares, natural
fertilizer, collar harness, fallow strips of land
• * wet rice
Economy
Trade and Manufacturing:
• Merchants and artisans
• Walled towns
• Merchants were property of the lords;
• Small class of slaves
Silk
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Silkworm
Luxury good
Used in burials as well as dress
Important trading good
Silkworms
Jade
• Symbol of purity and virtue
First Forms of Money
• Round coin with hole
Why the hole?
• Mostly barter system;
• Taxes, rents, paid in grain