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98-502: After the Zhou dynasty , ancient Chinese historians, folklorists, and religious practitioners had a variety of opinions on Hou Ji, including the opinion that he became deified as the god Shennong after his death. Hou Ji's original name was Qi ( 棄 ), meaning "abandoned". Two separate versions of his origin were common. In one version of Chinese mythology , he was said to have been supernaturally conceived when his mother Jiang Yuan ,

196-494: A 200,000 strong army to attack Chu. Wang Jian claimed that he was ill and retired to recuperate at home. The Qin armies scored initial victories as Li Xin's army conquered Pingyu ( 平輿 ; north of present-day Pingyu County , Henan) while Meng Tian's captured Qinqiu ( 寢丘 ; present-day Linquan County , Anhui). After conquering Yan ( 鄢 ; present-day Yanling County, Henan ), Li Xin headed west to rendezvous with Meng Tian at Chengfu ( 城父 ; east of present-day Baofeng County , Henan). On

294-516: A Zhao minister, to sow discord between King Qian of Zhao ( 趙王遷 ) and Li Mu. The king doubted Li Mu's loyalty and ordered Li Mu to hand over his command of the Zhao army to his deputies, Zhao Cong ( 趙蔥 ) and Yan Ju ( 顏聚 ). When Li Mu defied the order, the king became more suspicious of him and ordered his men to take Li Mu by surprise and arrest him. Li Mu was executed in prison later on King Qian's order. In 228 BC, after learning that Li Mu had been replaced,

392-532: A conclave of nobles met at Shen and declared the Marquis's grandson King Ping . The capital was moved eastward to Wangcheng , marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period. The Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC) was characterized by an accelerating collapse of royal authority, although the king's ritual importance enabled more than five additional centuries of rule. The Spring and Autumn Annals ,

490-667: A fight. The former Qi territories were reorganized to form the Qi and Langya commanderies. In 221 BC, after the conquest of Qi, Ying Zheng declared himself to be Qin Shi Huang —the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty . The Qin Empire was divided into 36 commanderies, with Xianyang (present-day Xi'an ) as the imperial capital. The emperor's expansionist ambitions did not end with

588-555: A language largely similar in vocabulary and syntax to that of the Shang; a recent study by David McCraw, using lexical statistics, reached the same conclusion. The Zhou emulated Shang cultural practices, possibly to legitimize their own rule, and became the successors to Shang culture. At the same time, the Zhou may also have been connected to the Xirong , a broadly defined cultural group to

686-484: A piece of land was divided into nine squares in the well-field system , with the grain from the middle square taken by the government and that of surrounding squares kept by individual farmers. This way, the government was able to store surplus food and distribute it in times of famine or bad harvest. Some important manufacturing sectors during this period included bronze smelting, which was integral to making weapons and farming tools. Again, these industries were dominated by

784-556: A previously barren wife of the Emperor Ku , stepped into a footprint left by Shangdi , the supreme sky god of the early Chinese pantheon . Another account simply make him one of Ku's four sons, each prophesied to father a family of emperors over China. This origin allowed his descendants to claim a lineage from the Yellow Emperor as well. He was held to have been repeatedly abandoned by his mother, but saved each time – in

882-497: A series of military campaigns launched in the late 3rd century BC by the state of Qin against the other six powers remaining in China ;– Han , Zhao , Yan , Wei , Chu and Qi . Between 247 and 221 BC, Qin had developed into one of the most powerful of China's Seven Warring States that coalesced in the wake of the Zhou dynasty 's decline, by now retaining a weak and merely ceremonial position among

980-400: A surprise attack. Lord Changping's forces followed suit from behind and joined Xiang Yan's army in attacking Li Xin. Most of Li Xin's forces were destroyed in the battle. Upon learning of Li Xin's defeat, Ying Zheng personally visited Wang Jian, who was in retirement, apologised for not heeding Wang Jian's advice earlier, and invited him back to serve in the army. He put Wang Jian in command of

1078-478: A system of mutual duty between superiors and inferiors. In contrast, the Legalists had no time for Confucian virtue and advocated a system of strict laws and harsh punishments. Agriculture in the Zhou dynasty was very intensive and, in many cases, directed by the government. All farming lands were owned by nobles, who then gave their land to their serfs , a situation similar to European feudalism . For example,

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1176-480: A turning point, as rulers did not even entertain the pretense of vassalage of the Zhou court, instead proclaiming themselves fully independent kingdoms. A series of states rose to prominence before each falling in turn, and in most of these conflicts Zhou was a minor player. The last Zhou king is traditionally taken to be Nan , who was killed when Qin captured Wangcheng in 256 BC. Duke Wen of Eastern Zhou declared himself to be "King Hui", but his splinter state

1274-435: A vigorous duke would take power from his nobles and centralize the state. Centralization became more necessary as the states began to war among themselves and decentralization encouraged more war. If a duke took power from his nobles, the state would have to be administered bureaucratically by appointed officials. Despite these similarities, there are a number of important differences from medieval Europe. One obvious difference

1372-453: Is not the eldest and hence not heir to the lineage territory has the potential of becoming a progenitor and fostering a new trunk lineage (Ideally he would strike out to cultivate new lineage territory). [...] According to the Zou commentary, the son of heaven divided land among his feudal lords, his feudal lords divided the land among their dependent families and so forth down the pecking order to

1470-496: Is often considered to be the zenith for the craft of Chinese bronzeware . The latter Zhou period is also famous for the advent of three major Chinese philosophies: Confucianism , Taoism and Legalism . The Zhou dynasty also spans the period when the predominant form of written Chinese became seal script , which evolved from the earlier oracle bone and bronze scripts . By the dynasty's end, an immature form of clerical script had also emerged. According to Chinese mythology ,

1568-481: Is that the Zhou ruled from walled cities rather than castles. Another was China's distinct class system, which lacked an organized clergy but saw Shang-descent yeomen become masters of ritual and ceremony, as well as astronomy, state affairs and ancient canons, known as ru ( 儒 ). When a dukedom was centralized, these people would find employment as government officials or officers. These hereditary classes were similar to Western knights in status and breeding, but unlike

1666-606: The Liaodong Peninsula towards the west of Lop Nur to prevent the nomadic tribes from returning again. In the south, a Qin army comprising some 500,000 troops attacked Yue and subjugated the Baiyue peoples who inhabited the areas around present-day Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. During the battle, another project was announced with the construction of a massive canal from the Qin imperial capital, Xianyang, towards

1764-558: The Liaodong Peninsula . A Qin army led by Li Xin pursued the retreating Yan forces to the Yan River ( 衍水 ; present-day Hun River , Liaoning) and destroyed the bulk of the Yan army. Later, King Xi ordered Crown Prince Dan's execution and sent his son's head to Qin as an "apology" for the assassination attempt. Qin accepted the "apology" and did not attack Yan for the next three years. In 222 BC, Qin forces led by Wang Ben and Li Xin invaded

1862-575: The Rong and Di . Although historians such as Sima Qian took a more rationalist approach to his life, making him a natural son of Emperor Ku and a regular official of the Xia court, Houji was honored not just as a culture hero but also as a patron god of abundant harvests . Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( [ʈʂóʊ] ; Chinese : 周 ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from c.  1046 BC until 256 BC,

1960-530: The Shangdang region of Han state. The governor of Shangdang refused to surrender and presented it to the King of Zhao. The Qin and Zhao armies were locked in a 2-year siege at Changping , which culminated in a decisive defeat of Zhao by the Qin army. In 257, the Qin army was defeated by the allied force of Zhao, Wei and Chu after failing to capture the Zhao capital at Handan . At the time of King Nan of Zhou ,

2058-635: The Sheng Min ("Birth of Our People") is counted as one of the work's Great Hymns. The Zhou ministers of agriculture were also titled "Houji" in his honor. His son Buzhu inherited his position at the Xia court. However, in Buzhu's old age, the Xia dynasty , descending from Yu the Great (a colleague of Hou Ji under Shun), declined politically ; so Buzhu abandoned both his position and millet agriculture to live among

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2156-538: The Xiongnu in the north, in order to counter the Qin invasion. However, Crown Prince Dan felt that the alliance strategy was unlikely to succeed, so he sent an assassin, Jing Ke , to assassinate King Ying Zheng of Qin . Jing Ke pretended to be an envoy from Yan to Qin and brought along with him a map of Dukang and the head of Fan Wuji, a former Qin general who had since betrayed them. Jing Ke failed and died in his attempt to kill Ying Zheng. In 226 BC, Ying Zheng used

2254-459: The Xirong and Rongdi (see Hua–Yi distinction ). Ju's son Liu , however, led his people to prosperity by restoring agriculture and settling them at a place called Bin , which his descendants ruled for generations. Tai later led the clan from Bin to Zhou, an area in the Wei River valley (modern Qishan County ). The duke passed over his two elder sons Taibo and Zhongyong to favor

2352-590: The Yellow River and defeated King Zhou of Shang at the Battle of Muye , marking the beginning of the Zhou dynasty. The Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song , which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences  [ zh ] . According to Nicholas Bodman, the Zhou appear to have spoken

2450-428: The "second sage" of Confucianism; Shang Yang and Han Fei , responsible for the development of ancient Chinese Legalism ; and Xunzi , who was arguably the center of ancient Chinese intellectual life during his time. The state theology of the Zhou dynasty used concepts from the Shang dynasty and mostly referred to the Shang god, Di , as Tian , a more distant and unknowable concept, yet one that anyone could utilize,

2548-641: The 600,000 troops he had requested earlier, and assigned Meng Wu to serve as Wang Jian's deputy. Wang Jian knew that Ying Zheng did not fully trust him because he could easily turn against Qin with such a massive army under his command. Thus, in order to reduce the king's suspicions, he frequently sent messengers to maintain contact with the king, and request that the king reward his family after he had conquered Chu for Qin. In 224 BC, Wang Jian's army passed through Chen ( 陳 ; present-day Huaiyang County , Henan) and made camp at Pingyu ( 平輿 ; north of present-day Pingyu County , Henan). The Chu army led by Xiang Yan assaulted

2646-602: The Chu side, the Chu general Xiang Yan ( 項燕 ) had been avoiding using the bulk of the Chu army to resist the Qin invaders while waiting for an opportunity to launch a counterattack. During this time, a Qin noble with ties to the related to the Chu royal family named Lord Changping incited a rebellion in a city previously conquered by Li Xin. Changping also had begun preparing a surprise attack on Li Xin that would follow. The Chu army led by Xiang Yan secretly followed Li Xin's army at high speed for three days and three nights before launching

2744-564: The Confucian chronicle of the early years of this process, gave the period its name as the Spring and Autumn period . The partition of Jin during the mid-5th century BC is a commonly cited as initiating the subsequent Warring States period . In 403 BC, the Zhou court recognized Han , Zhao , and Wei as fully independent states. In 344, Duke Hui of Wei was the first to claim the title of "king" for himself. Others followed, marking

2842-462: The European equivalent, they were expected to be something of a scholar instead of a warrior. Being appointed, they could move from one state to another. Some would travel from state to state peddling schemes of administrative or military reform. Those who could not find employment would often end up teaching young men who aspired to official status. The most famous of these was Confucius , who taught

2940-497: The King of Dai. In 222 BC, Dai was conquered by the Qin army led by Wang Jian's son, Wang Ben . Prince Jia was taken captive. Han was the weakest of the seven states and had previously been attacked several times by Qin. In 230 BC, the Qin army led by Neishi Teng ( 內史騰 ) moved south, crossed the Yellow River , and conquered Zheng ( 鄭 ; present-day Xinzheng , Henan), the capital of Han, within one year. King An of Han surrendered and Han came under Qin control. The territory of Han

3038-602: The Liaodong Peninsula and destroyed the remnants of Yan forces, and captured King Xi. Former Yan territories were partitioned and reorganized to form the Yuyang , Beiping , Liaoxi and Liaodong commanderies of the Qin Empire. In 225 BC, a 600,000-strong Qin army led by Wang Ben conquered more than ten cities on the northern border of Chu as a precautionary move to guard the flank from Chu attacks while Qin

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3136-543: The Qi chancellor , to dissuade the Qi state from helping the other states while they were being attacked by Qin. By 221 BC, Qi was the only state yet to be conquered by Qin. Even though its troops were not well-equipped and morale was low, Qi hurriedly mobilized them to the western border to guard against a Qin invasion. In the same year, Ying Zheng used Qi's rejection of a meeting with a Qin envoy as pretense for an attack. The Qin army led by Li Xin avoided direct confrontation with

3234-417: The Qi forces stationed on their western border, and advanced into the Qi heartland via a southern detour from the former Yan state. The Qin forces encountered little resistance as they passed through Qi territories and eventually showed up at the gates of Linzi (north of present-day Zibo , Shandong), the Qi capital. Caught off guard, Tian Jian heeded Hou Sheng's advice and surrendered to Qin without putting up

3332-572: The Qin army to attack the Wuyue region (covering present-day Zhejiang and Jiangsu ), which was inhabited by the Baiyue , and captured the descendants of the royal family of the ancient state of Yue . The conquered Wuyue territories became the Qin Empire's Kuaiji Commandery . In 264 BC, Tian Jian became King of Qi . However, as he was too young to rule, his mother, the Queen Dowager, became his regent. The Qin state bribed Hou Sheng ( 後勝 ),

3430-453: The Qin camp but failed to push back the Qin forces. When the Chu army tried to lure the Qin forces to attack them, Wang Jian ordered his troops to hold their positions and forbid them from attacking the enemy. After some time, Xiang Yan gave up and ordered the Chu army to retreat. Wang Jian then seized the opportunity to order his troops to launch an all-out offensive while the Chu army was retreating, taking them completely by surprise and routing

3528-540: The Qin forces attacked, defeated the Zhao army and conquered Dongyang ( 東陽 ; located east of the Taihang Mountains ). Zhao Cong was killed in action while Yan Ju escaped after his defeat. Seven months later, Qin forces occupied Handan and captured King Qian, bringing an end to Zhao's existence. Prince Jia , King Qian's brother, escaped from Handan and retreated to Dai (around present-day Yu County, Hebei ). With help from some Zhao remnants, he declared himself

3626-401: The Qin forces besieged and captured Langmeng ( 狼孟 ; present-day Yangqu County , Shanxi), and soon afterwards proceeded to attack Fanwu ( 番吾 ; present-day Lingshou County , Hebei), but were once again defeated by the Zhao army led by Li Mu. However, sources claims that after this battle, the Zhao forces also sustained heavy losses and could only retreat to defend Handan and its nearby areas. In

3724-432: The Qin to an end. Some of the victorious rebels claimed to be restoring the former states that had been conquered by Qin, and numerous pretenders to the vacant thrones began to emerge. That same year, while still under occupation by Liu Bang, the city of Xiangyang was attacked and overrun by the forces of Xiang Yu , who was a descendant of the Chu general Xiang Yan. Xiang and Liu proceeded to struggle for control over China in

3822-591: The Shang kings. Nobles of the Ji family proclaimed Duke Hui of Eastern Zhou as King Nan's successor after their capital, Chengzhou, fell to Qin forces in 256 BC. Ji Zhao, a son of King Nan, led a resistance against Qin for five years. The dukedom fell in 249 BC. The remaining Ji family ruled Yan and Wei until 209 BC. During Confucius's lifetime in the Spring and Autumn period, Zhou kings had little power, and much administrative responsibility and de-facto political strength

3920-400: The Shang's large scale production of ceremonial bronzes, they developed an extensive system of bronze metalworking that required a large force of tribute labor. Many of its members were Shang, who were sometimes forcibly transported to new Zhou to produce the bronze ritual objects which were then sold and distributed across the lands, symbolizing Zhou legitimacy. Western writers often describe

4018-465: The Shang. Zhou rulers introduced the Mandate of Heaven , which would prove to be among East Asia's most enduring political doctrines. According to the theory, Heaven imposed a mandate to replace the Shang on the Zhou, whose moral superiority justified seizing Shang wealth and territory in order to return good governance to the people. The Mandate of Heaven was presented as a religious compact between

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4116-551: The Western Zhou. During the Western Zhou (1045–771 BC), King Wu maintained the old capital for ceremonial purposes but constructed a new one for his palace and administration nearby at Haojing . Although Wu's early death left a young and inexperienced heir, the Duke of Zhou assisted his nephew King Cheng in consolidating royal power. Wary of the Duke of Zhou's increasing power, the "Three Guards", Zhou princes stationed on

4214-463: The Xirong state of Yiqu . After the last horizontal alliance to punish Qi ended in 284, Qin fought multiple wars against the northern state of Zhao in 283, 269, and 265 BC. In 269 BC, Fan Sui became chief advisor to Qin. He advocated authoritarian reforms, irrevocable expansion and an alliance with distant states to attack nearby states. In 265, King Zhaoxiang of Qin made the first move by attacking

4312-490: The Yue state. It was a major key to victory for the Qin conquest of the southern kingdom, and the Yue state became a vassal of the Qin Empire for over a decade. After these two victorious battles, Qin Shi Huang was able to create a centralized empire that would become the bedrock of future Chinese dynasties. Although the Qin dynasty lasted only 15 years, its influence on Chinese history lasted for centuries to come. In 209 BC, during

4410-526: The Zhou dynasty to an end more than eight centuries after their overthrow of the Shang . In 238 BC, King Ying Zheng of Qin took the reins of power after eliminating his political rivals in Lü Buwei and Lao Ai . With help from Li Si , Wei Liao , and others, Ying Zheng formulated a plan for conquering the other six major states and unifying China. The plan, which focused on annexing each state individually,

4508-588: The Zhou expanded to the north and the northwest at the expense of the Siwa culture . When King You demoted and exiled his Jiang queen in favor of the commoner Bao Si , the disgraced queen's father the Marquis of Shen joined with Zeng and the Quanrong. The Quanrong put an end to the Western Zhou in 771 BC, sacking the Zhou capital at Haojing and killing the last Western Zhou king You . With King You dead,

4606-469: The Zhou lineage began when Jiang Yuan , a consort of the legendary Emperor Ku , miraculously conceived a child, Qi "the Abandoned One", after stepping into the divine footprint of Shangdi . Qi was a culture hero credited with surviving abandonment by his mother three times, and with greatly improving agriculture, to the point where he was granted lordship over Tai , the surname Ji , and

4704-428: The Zhou people and their supreme god in heaven. The Zhou agreed that since worldly affairs were supposed to align with those of the heavens, the heavens conferred legitimate power on only one person, the Zhou ruler. In return, the ruler was duty-bound to uphold heaven's principles of harmony and honor. Any ruler who failed in this duty, who let instability creep into earthly affairs, or who let his people suffer, would lose

4802-648: The Zhou period as feudal because the Zhou's fengjian system invites comparison with European political systems during the Middle Ages . There were many similarities between the decentralized systems. When the dynasty was established, the conquered land was divided into hereditary fiefs ( 諸侯 , zhūhóu ) that eventually became powerful in their own right. In matters of inheritance, the Zhou dynasty recognized only patrilineal primogeniture as legal. According to Hsi-Sheng Tao, "the Tsung-fa or descent line system has

4900-550: The Zhou period clearly intoned this caution. The Zhou kings contended that heaven favored their triumph because the last Shang kings had been evil men whose policies brought pain to the people through waste and corruption. After the Zhou came to power, the mandate became a political tool. One of the duties and privileges of the king was to create a royal calendar. This official document defined times for undertaking agricultural activities and celebrating rituals. But unexpected events such as solar eclipses or natural calamities threw

4998-490: The Zhou's establishment is supported by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and David Pankenier, but David Nivison and Edward L. Shaughnessy date the establishment to 1045 BC. The latter Eastern Zhou period is itself roughly subdivided into two parts. During the Spring and Autumn period ( c.  771  – c.  481 BC ), power became increasingly decentralized as the authority of

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5096-481: The assassination attempt as a casus belli to order Wang Jian and Meng Wu to lead the Qin army to attack Yan. The Qin forces defeated the Yan army and Yan's reinforcements from Dai in battle on the eastern bank of the Yi River ( 易水 ; in present-day Yi County, Hebei ) and pressed on to conquer Ji ( 薊 ; present-day Beijing ), the Yan capital. King Xi of Yan, Crown Prince Dan and the surviving Yan forces retreated to

5194-436: The attack on Handan, meanwhile Qin general Li Xin led two forces from Taiyuan and Yunzhong to attack Dai County in the north. On the Zhao side, Li Mu and Sima Shang ( 司馬尚 ) were put in command of the Zhao army. Li Mu ordered his troops to build defensive structures and avoid direct confrontation with the enemy. The Qin forces were unable to advance further and both sides reached a stalemate. The Qin state bribed Guo Kai ( 郭開 ),

5292-517: The baron of Li Rong ( 驪戎男 ), after being defeated by Jin , married his daughter Li Ji off. According to historian Li Feng , the term "Rong" during the Western Zhou period was likely used to designate political and military adversaries rather than cultural and ethnic "others". Cultural artifacts of the Western Rong coexisted with Western Zhou bronzes, indicating close bonds between the Rong and

5390-573: The city walls. The Wei troops used the opportunity to strengthen their fortifications and defenses. Wang Ben came up with the idea of directing the waters from the Yellow River and the Hong Canal to flood Daliang. His troops labored for three months to redirect the water flow while maintaining the siege on Daliang, and succeeded in their plan. Daliang was heavily flooded and over 100,000 people died, including civilians. King Jia of Wei ( 魏王假 ) surrendered and Wei came under Qin control. Qin established

5488-486: The commanderies of Dang and Sishui in the former Wei territories. In 226 BC, Qin forces led by Wang Ben attacked Chu and conquered 10 Chu cities. Two years later, King Ying Zheng of Qin , called for a meeting with his subjects to discuss the Qin invasion of Chu. Wang Jian felt that they needed at least 600,000 troops for the campaign, while Li Xin claimed that 200,000 men would suffice. Ying Zheng dismissed Wang Jian's idea and ordered Li Xin and Meng Tian to lead

5586-530: The common enemies of Qin against one another. In 316 BC, Qin expanded south towards the Sichuan Basin by conquering the states of Ba and Shu . In 278, the Qin under general Bai Qi attacked Chu from land they had recently conquered land in what is now Sichuan. The Chu capitals of Ying and Chen ( 陳 ) were captured, and all of Chu's possessions west of the Han River were lost. In 272, Qin conquered

5684-411: The doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven while accommodating important Shang rituals at Wangcheng and Chengzhou . Over time, this decentralized system became strained as the familial relationships between the Zhou kings and the regional dynasties thinned over the generations. Peripheral territories developed local power and prestige on par with that of the Zhou. The conflicts with nomadic tribes from

5782-521: The eastern plain, rose in rebellion against his regency. Even though they garnered the support of independent-minded nobles, Shang partisans, and several Dongyi tribes, the Duke of Zhou quelled the rebellion, and further expanded the Zhou Kingdom into the east. To maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system. Furthermore, he countered Zhou's crisis of legitimacy by expounding

5880-422: The enemy. The Qin forces pursued the retreating Chu forces to Qinan ( 蕲南 ; northwest of present-day Qichun County , Hubei) and defeated them. Xiang Yan was killed in action. In 223 BC, Qin forces conquered Shouchun ( 壽春 ; present-day Shou County , Anhui), the Chu capital. Lord Changping , the King of Chu, was killed by Meng Wu and Chu was completely subjugated by Qin. The following year, Wang Jian and Meng Wu led

5978-795: The first sovereign over a unified China under the imperial Qin dynasty . Over the course of the Warring States period , and especially following Shang Yang 's administrative reforms during the mid-4th century BC, the state of Qin had grown to become the most powerful of the Seven Warring States that remained in China. The others repeatedly adopted a policy of "vertical alliance" ( 合縱 ; hézòng ) where they all joined in as allies against Qin. However, Qin sometimes maneuvered itself into alliances of its own among these states, forging "horizontal alliances" ( 連橫 ; liánhéng ) that pitted

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6076-476: The following characteristics: patrilineal descent, patrilineal succession, patriarchate, sib-exogamy, and primogeniture" The system, also called "extensive stratified patrilineage", was defined by the anthropologist Kwang-chih Chang as "characterized by the fact that the eldest son of each generation formed the main of line descent and political authority, whereas the younger brothers were moved out to establish new lineages of lesser authority. The farther removed,

6174-480: The following two years, Zhao was struck by two natural disasters — an earthquake and a severe famine. In 229 BC, Qin took advantage of the situation to launch a pincer attack from the north and south on Handan, the Zhao capital. Three Qin armies embarked from Shangdi ( 上地 ; present-day Shaanxi), Jingxing ( 井陉 ; present-day Jingxing County , Hebei) and Henei (present-day Xinxiang , Henan), respectively led by Wang Jian, Qiang Lei/Hui ( 羌瘣 ) and Yang Duan He, to coordinate

6272-576: The importance of the Di troops. King Xiang of Zhou also married a Di princess after receiving Di military support. During the Zhou dynasty, the origins of native Chinese philosophy developed, its initial stages of development beginning in the 6th century BC. The greatest Chinese philosophers, those who made the greatest impact on later generations of Chinese, were Confucius , founder of Confucianism , and Laozi , founder of Taoism . Other philosophers of this era were Mozi , founder of Mohism ; Mencius ,

6370-520: The kings of Zhou dynasty had lost almost all political and military power, their remaining crown land was split into two states: West Zhou, centered in Wangcheng , and East Zhou, centered at Chengzhou . Qin forces conquered West Zhou in 256 BC, claiming the Nine Cauldrons and thereby symbolically becoming The Son of Heaven. In 249, the new Qin king Zhuangxiang conquered East Zhou, bringing

6468-501: The lesser the political authority". Ebrey defines the descent-line system as follows: "A great line (ta-tsung) is the line of eldest sons continuing indefinitely from a founding ancestor. A lesser line is the line of younger sons going back no more than five generations. Great lines and lesser lines continually spin off new lesser lines, founded by younger sons". K.E. Brashier writes in his book "Ancestral Memory in Early China" about

6566-575: The longest of all dynasties in Chinese history . During the Western Zhou period ( c.  1046  – 771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji , had military control over ancient China . Even as Zhou suzerainty became increasingly ceremonial over the following Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC), the political system created by the Zhou royal house survived in some form for several additional centuries. A date of 1046 BC for

6664-436: The mandate. Under this system, it was the prerogative of spiritual authority to withdraw support from any wayward ruler and to find another, more worthy one. In this way, the Zhou sky god legitimized regime change. In using this creed, the Zhou rulers had to acknowledge that any group of rulers, even they themselves, could be ousted if they lost the mandate of heaven because of improper practices. The book of odes written during

6762-588: The nobility who directed the production of such materials. China's first projects of hydraulic engineering were initiated during the Zhou dynasty, ultimately as a means to aid agricultural irrigation. Sunshu Ao , the Chancellor of Wei who served King Zhuang of Chu , dammed a river to create an enormous irrigation reservoir in modern-day northern Anhui province. For this, Sunshu is credited as China's first hydraulic engineer. The later Wei statesman Ximen Bao , who served Marquis Wen of Wei (445–396 BC),

6860-509: The north and the northwest, variously known as the Xianyun , Guifang , or various "Rong" tribes, such as the Xirong , Shanrong or Quanrong , intensified towards the end of the Western Zhou period. These tribes are recorded as harassing Zhou territory, but at the time the Zhou were expanding northwards, encroaching on their traditional lands—especially the Wei River valley. Archaeologically,

6958-540: The northern Loess Plateau , modern Ningxia and the Yellow River floodplain. The military prowess of Zhou peaked during the 19th year of King Zhao 's reign, when the six armies were wiped out along with King Zhao on a campaign around the Han River . Early Zhou kings were true commanders-in-chief King Zhao was famous for repeated campaigns in the Yangtze region, and died on campaign. Later kings' campaigns were less effective. King Li led 14 armies against barbarians in

7056-597: The officers who had their dependent kin and the commoners who "each had his apportioned relations and all had their graded precedence"" This type of unilineal descent-group later became the model of the Korean family through the influence of Neo-Confucianism , as Zhu Xi and others advocated its re-establishment in China. There were five peerage ranks below the royal ranks, in descending order with common English translations: gōng 公 "duke", hóu 侯 "marquis", bó 伯 "count", zǐ 子 "viscount", and nán 男 "baron". At times,

7154-458: The opposite view of the Shang's spirituality. The Zhou wanted to increase the number of enlightenment seekers, mystics, and those who would be interested in learning about such things as a way to further distance their people from the Shang-era paradigm and local traditions. Having emerged during the Western Zhou, the li ritual system encoded an understanding of manners as an expression of

7252-433: The others and Chinese society in sometimes unusual ways. The Mohists for instance found little interest in their praise of meritocracy but much acceptance for their mastery of defensive siege warfare; much later, however, their arguments against nepotism were used in favor of establishing the imperial examination system. The Zhou heartland was the Wei River valley; this remained their primary base of power after conquering

7350-510: The others were Confucianism as interpreted by Mencius and others, Legalism , Taoism , Mohism , the utopian communalist Agriculturalism , two strains of the School of Diplomacy , the School of Names , Sun Tzu 's School of the Military , and the School of Naturalists . While only the first three of these would receive imperial patronage in later dynasties, doctrines from each influenced

7448-500: The reign of Qin Er Shi , Chen Sheng and Wu Guang staged an uprising to overthrow the Qin dynasty due to the Qin government's brutal and oppressive policies. Although the revolt was crushed by Qin imperial forces, several other rebellions erupted throughout the Qin Empire over the next three years. Ziying of Qin would be the third and final Qin emperor; he surrendered to a rebel force led into Xianyang by Liu Bang in 206, bringing

7546-410: The royal house diminished. The Warring States period ( c.  481  – 221 BC) that followed saw large-scale warfare and consolidation among what had formerly been Zhou client states, until the Zhou were formally extinguished by the state of Qin in 256 BC. The Qin ultimately founded the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC after conquering all of China . The Zhou period

7644-413: The ruling house's mandate into question. Since rulers claimed that their authority came from heaven, the Zhou made great efforts to gain accurate knowledge of the stars and to perfect the astronomical system on which they based their calendar. Zhou legitimacy also arose indirectly from Shang material culture through the use of bronze ritual vessels, statues , ornaments, and weapons. As the Zhou emulated

7742-559: The social hierarchy, ethics, and regulation concerning material life; the corresponding social practices became idealized within Confucian ideology. The system was canonized in the Book of Rites , Rites of Zhou , and Etiquette and Ceremonial compiled during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), thus becoming the heart of the Chinese imperial ideology. While the system

7840-485: The south, but failed to achieve any victory. King Xuan fought the Quanrong nomads in vain. King You was killed by the Quanrong when Haojing was sacked. Although chariots had been introduced to China during the Shang dynasty from Central Asia, the Zhou period saw the first major use of chariots in battle. Recent archaeological finds demonstrate similarities between horse burials of the Shang and Zhou dynasties with

7938-566: The steppe populations in the west, such as the Saka and Wusun . Other possible cultural influences resulting from contact with these Iranic people of Central Asia in this period may include fighting styles, head-and-hooves burials, art motifs and myths. The Zhou army also included "barbarian" troops such as the Di people . King Hui of Zhou married a princess of the Red Di as a sign of appreciation for

8036-441: The street, by draft animals; in the forest, by woodcutters; on the ice, by a great bird. He later became famous for his luxuriant crops of beans, rice, hemp, gourds, and several kinds of millet and was credited with the introduction of the spring ritual sacrifice of fermented millet beer, roasted sheep, and the herb southernwood . Houji was also claimed as an ancestor of the Zhou royal family and honored in their Book of Songs :

8134-511: The title Houji "Lord of Millet ", by the Emperor Shun . He even received sacrifice as a harvest god . The term Houji was probably a hereditary title attached to a lineage. Buzhu —Qi's son, or rather that of the Houji —is said to have abandoned his position as Agrarian Master ( 農師 ; Nóngshī ) in old age and either he or his son Ju abandoned their tradition, living in the manner of

8232-404: The tsung-fa system of patrilineal primogeniture: "The greater lineage, if it has survived, is the direct succession from father to eldest son and is not defined via the collateral shifts of the lesser lineages. In discussions that demarcate between trunk and collateral lines, the former is called a zong and the latter a zu, whereas the whole lineage is dubbed the shi. [...] On one hand, every son who

8330-515: The unification of China. In 215, he ordered Meng Tian to lead more than 300,000 troops to march towards the steppe to drive away the Xiongnu, who had been encroaching territory throughout the Warring States period . Following a major victory against the Xiongnu under Touman , Qin forces reinforced and built a fortification, which became the Great Wall of China , stretching across the east from

8428-481: The warring states. In 230 BC, King Ying Zheng of Qin began the sequence of campaigns that would bring the Warring States period to a close, setting out to conquer each remaining sovereign one by one. This was completed in 221 BC with the fall of Qi, leaving the former Zhou sphere unified under a more centralized Qin control. Ying Zheng declared himself the First Emperor , or Qin Shi Huang —becoming

8526-435: The west of the Shang, which the Shang regarded as tributaries. For example, the philosopher Mencius (372–289 BC) acknowledged that King Wen of Zhou had ancestry from among the Xirong, as King Wen's descendants, the Zhou kings, claimed descent from Hou Ji , a legendary culture hero possibly related to the Xirong through his mother Jiang Yuan . Additionally, the late 4th-century BC Zuo Zhuan comments that

8624-614: The younger Jili , a warrior in his own right. As a vassal of the Shang kings Wu Yi and Wen Ding , Jili went to conquer several Xirong tribes before being treacherously killed by Shang forces. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly already fled to the Yangtze delta, where they established the state of Wu among the tribes there. Jili's son Wen bribed his way out of imprisonment and moved the Zhou capital to Feng (present-day Xi'an ). Around 1046 BC, Wen's son Wu and his ally Jiang Ziya led an army of 45,000 men and 300 chariots across

8722-426: Was attacking Yan, Qin used the opportunity to send two separate forces to invade Zhao. The Qin army led by Wang Jian conquered the Zhao territories of Eyu ( 閼與 ; present-day Heshun County , Shanxi) and Liaoyang ( 撩陽 ; present-day Zuoquan County , Shanxi), while the other Qin army under the command of Huan Yi , Qiang Lei and Yang Duanhe ( 楊端和 ) captured Ye and Anyang . Zhao lost nine cities and its military prowess

8820-494: Was based on " allying with distant states and attacking nearby ones ", one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems . Its key steps were to ally with Yan and Qi , deter Wei and Chu , and conquer Han and Zhao . From 283 to 257 BC, Qin and Zhao had engaged in bloody warfare against one another, and Zhao's defeat in the Battle of Changping in 260 BC had severely weakened their ability to fight. In 236 BC, while Zhao

8918-464: Was fully disassembled by 249. Qin's wars of unification concluded in 221 BC with Qin Shi Huang 's annexation of Qi . The Eastern Zhou is also remembered as the golden age of Chinese philosophy: the Hundred Schools of Thought which flourished as rival lords patronized itinerant scholars is led by the example of Qi's Jixia Academy . The Nine Schools of Thought which came to dominate

9016-499: Was initially a respected body of concrete regulations, the fragmentation of the Western Zhou period led the ritual to drift towards moralization and formalization in regard to: The rulers of the Zhou dynasty were titled wang ( 王 ), which was also the term used by the Shang rulers, normally translated into English as 'king'. In addition to these rulers, King Wu's immediate ancestors— Danfu , Jili , and Wen —are also referred to as "Kings of Zhou", despite having been nominal vassals of

9114-547: Was invading Wei . Wang Ben then led his forces north to attack and besiege Daliang ( 大梁 ; northwest of present-day Kaifeng ), the Wei capital. As Daliang was situated at the concourse of the Sui and Ying rivers and the Hong Canal ( 鴻溝 ), its geographical location gave it a natural defensive advantage. Besides, the moat around Daliang was vast and all the city's five gates had drawbridges, making it even more difficult for Qin forces to breach

9212-402: Was killed in action. In 233 BC, Huan Yi's army crossed Mount Taihang and conquered the Zhao territories of Chili ( 赤麗 ) and Yi'an ( 宜安 ), both located southeast of present-day Shijiazhuang , Hebei. Then, the Qin army under Huan Yi engaged the Zhao army commanded by General Li Mu at the Battle of Fei in which the Qin sustained a massive defeat and nearly lost all their forces. In 232 BC,

9310-429: Was reorganized to form the Qin Empire's Yingchuan Commandery , with the commandery capital at Yangdi ( 陽翟 ; present-day Yuzhou, Henan ). In 228 BC, after the fall of Zhao, Wang Jian led the Qin army stationed at Zhongshan ( 中山 ; around present-day central Hebei ) to prepare for an offensive on Yan . Ju Wu ( 鞠武 ), a Yan minister, proposed to King Xi of Yan to form alliances with Dai, Qi and Chu, and make peace with

9408-539: Was the first hydraulic engineer of China to have created a large irrigation canal system. As the main focus of his grandiose project, his canal work eventually diverted the waters of the entire Zhang River to a spot further up the Yellow River . The early Western Zhou supported a strong army, split into two major units: "the Six Armies of the west" and "the Eight Armies of Chengzhou". The armies campaigned in

9506-426: Was weakened. Two years later, Qin planned to attack Han but feared that Zhao might support Han, so the Qin general Huan Yi was ordered to lead an army to attack the Zhao territories of Pingyang ( 平陽 ; southeast of present-day Ci County , Hebei) and Wucheng ( 武城 ; southwest of present-day Ci County, Hebei). More than 100,000 soldiers were killed in the battle. The Zhao army was defeated and its commander, Hu Zhe ( 扈輒 ),

9604-493: Was wielded by rulers of smaller domains and local community leaders. In traditional Chinese astrology, Zhou is represented by two stars, Eta Capricorni ( 週一 ; Zhōu yī ; 'first star of Zhou') and 21 Capricorni ( 週二 ; Zhōu'èr ; 'second star of Zhou'), in "Twelve States" asterism. Zhou is also represented by the star Beta Serpentis in asterism "Right Wall", Heavenly Market enclosure . Qin%27s wars of unification Qin's wars of unification were

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