Rise
Great Leader
Achievements
Fall
Before the Zhou was the
Shang

 1750-1045 BCE
 Aristocracy
 warlords
 Anyang
 Oracle bones
 Human sacrifice
 Ancestor worship
 bronze
“The Enduring Zhou”

 Early Zhou (Western Zhou) Period 1122 - 771 BCE
 Spring and Autumn period (Eastern Zhou)) 771 - 481
BCE
 Warring States era (during the Late Zhou), 481 - 221
BCE
I. Rise of the Zhou

Pattern: The Rise

1. Great Leader leads a rebellion or a conquest of
smaller, independent, neighboring political units.
2. Empires grow around trade centers or trade
networks.
3. The shape of empire is determined by geography.
Rise of the Zhou

 1050 BCE King Wen of the
Zhou plans rebellion against
Shang Dynasty
 1045 BCE King Wu (son of
King Wen) leads military
coalition
 Actually Uncle Duke of
Zhou is in charge… Wen
just a boy
 “blood thick enough in the
capital to float blocks of
wood”
 King Wu of Zhou = first
King of Zhou, “Ji” family
Rise of the Zhou

 Trade networks -Made roads and canals
for trade reasons
Geography and the
Zhou

II. Great Leader of the
Zhou

Pattern: Great Leader

1. Great Leader who founds an empire borrows from
the past and uses religion to support his legitimacy
2. Great Leader skillfully exercises potestas and
autoritas (potestas = brute force power; autoritas =
authority from respect)
3. Succession is within Great Leader’s family, though
not all offspring are great.
4. Great Leader assembles a written law code
Mandate of Heaven
The take over of the
Zhou from the Shang
 was credited with
the doctrine forming
a Mandate of
Heaven, which
provided that the
emperor or king
ruled by divine right.
 If the rulers were
overthrown, the
Mandate of Heaven
was transferred to
the victors.
Pattern 4. Law Code

 oldest document on law
= “Kang Gao”
 instructions issued by
King Wu of Zhou to a
younger prince
 How to govern a fief
III. Apex of the Zhou

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Pattern: Achievements

There is a period of peace and prosperity at the height of an
empire (“Pax”).
Empires connect their districts with protected
road/communication networks.
Empires develop bureaucracy to manage the empire and divide it
into administrative districts such as provinces or satrapies.
Cultural diffusion occurs through trade.
Empires enjoy accomplishments in the arts, literature, sciences,
philosophy, and architecture during their height.
The language of the dominant culture or trading people becomes a
“lingua franca” for the region.
There is a social hierarchy with limited social mobility
Pattern 1. “Pax” of the
Zhou
 Permanent capital

(instead of moving) –
Xian on Wei river
 Lasts until 8th century
BCE when
fragmentation begins
Pattern 2. protected
Road/Communication
Networks

Extremely limited – lack of good infrastructure helped weaken king’s power…
Pattern
3.
Bureaucracy
 Corvee labor
 Mandatory work for the
state for certain period
 Bureaucracy – strong
centralized state, esp.
eastern Zhou period
 Beginnings of
government jobs due to
talent instead of “who
you knew” (meritocracy)
 Rise of the Shi
The Shi [“shr”]

Pattern 4. Cultural
Diffusion

 Limited contact with other cultures
 However…
 Zhou people lived originally on western edge of
Shang realm
 Adopted agriculture from the Shang
 Other cultural features?
 In this case, the cultural diffusion is within Chinese
culture zone
Pattern 5.
 use of iron
Accomplishments
 perfection of the calendar 
 regular astronomical observation & recording of astronomical





events
1st geographical maps
division of China into the Nine Provinces
discovery of magnetism
acupuncture
Masters of bronze, horse drawn chariots, crossbow
Source: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Zhou/zhou-tech.html
Confucianism

 Starts during Zhou dynasty
 To be explained in the Han Dynasty in Topic 4 of this
course…
Square-Field or Well
 井 (jǐng), = “well”
Field
System
 Square of land divided = nine
identically-sized sections 
 8 outer sections -- serfs
 Produce all theirs
 center – communally
cultivated for landowner
(aristocrat)
 By the 8 families
 All produce to owner
 Owner send portion to King
 all fields were aristocratowned
Big-time Agriculture
 Fertilization

 Animal-drawn plows
and farm tools
 huge agricultural
expansion
 Hunting becomes just a
sport
 Huge populations in
some cities
Source:
Agriculture
 directed by the government
 government - store surplus
food & distribute it in times
of famine or bad harvest
 Rice introduced this era
 Irrigation
 Reservoirs
 Dams & sluices
 large irrigation canal
system
Pattern 6. Lingua Franca

 written script evolved
into its modern form
Chinese character for “listening”
Pattern 7. Social
Hierarchy
 Leaders appoint people to
 oversee each of the
territories
 started off as walled off
cities.
 leader of each of territories
= lords
 receiving the title through
inheritance.
 fighting men
 peasants
 slaves.
The Enduring Zhou

 System: nobles own
land, peasants work it
 “Son of Heaven”
 Feudalism
IV. Fall of the Zhou

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Patterns: The Fall

Leadership crisis: Government becomes corrupt. Leader may
be distant, incompetent, insulated by attendants or
uninterested.
There are foreign threats. This may take the form of mass
immigration or military threat.
Economic collapse – inflation, depression, money
devaluation, disruption of vital trade routes.
Through time, wealth becomes consolidated. The gap
between rich and poor widens. The tax burden is shifted to
the lower classes. Tension between classes increases.
Empire breaks up into smaller political units
Pattern 1. Leadership
Crisis

 royal line broken 8th cen.
BCE
 power of the Zhou court
gradually diminished
 King Zhou Pingwang’s
(770 BCE) reign onwards,
the Zhou kings ruled in
name only
 true power lying in the
hands of regional nobles
 declaring themselves to
be independent kings
Pattern 2. Foreign
Threats

 Qin people
 Migrate into region
from where Zhou
originate
 Warfare within China
becomes “endemic” as
warlords fight to
consolidate power
Pattern 3. Economic
Collapse

 Local aristocrats cease
making tax payments
up the chain to the king
 King no longer
powerful enough to
enforce
Pattern 4. Gap between
Rich and Poor

 Large populations
result from improved
farming
 Land = wealth
 In hands of aristocracy
Pattern 5. Breakup

 fragmentation of the kingdom
 Esp. Spring and Autumn period
 Brief reunification 5th century BCE
 dynasty ended in 256 BCE when the last king of
Zhou died
 King Nan of Zhou
 none of his sons bothered to claim title of King of
China
Qin Dynasty

 nobles did not even
bother to symbolically
acknowledge loyalty to
the Ji family
 Qin Shi Huang's
unification of China
concluded in 221 BC
with the establishment
of the.
Qin

 Cycle starts again…
 Qin Shihuangdi
 Great Wall
 Legalism
 Only 14 years…