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TheWestern Zhou (Chinese:西周;pinyin:Xīzhōu;c. 1046[1] – 771 BC) was a period ofChinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of theZhou dynasty. It began whenKing Wu of Zhou overthrew theShang dynasty at theBattle of Muye and ended in 771 BC whenQuanrong pastoralists sacked the Zhou capital atHaojing and killedKing You of Zhou. The "Western" label for the period refers to the location of the Zhou royal capitals, which were clustered in theWei River valley near present-dayXi'an.
The early Zhou state[a] was ascendant for about 75 years; thereafter, it gradually lost power. The former lands of the Shang were divided intohereditary fiefs that became increasingly independent of the Zhou king over time. The Zhou court was driven out of the Wei River valley in 771 BC: this marked the beginning of theEastern Zhou period, wherein political power was wielded in actuality by the king's nominal vassals.
The Western Zhou are known from archaeological finds, including substantial inscriptions, mostly on bronze ritual vessels.In contrast to earlier periods, this direct evidence can be usefully compared with texts transmitted through the manuscript tradition.These include someConfucian classics, the oldest parts of which are thought to date from this period.Texts from theWarring States period andHan dynasty provide fuller accounts, though further removed from the original events.[2]
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Zhou ritual bronzes have been collected since theSong dynasty and are now scattered in collections around the world.Scientific excavations began in the coreWei River valley and theLuoyang areas in the 1930s and expanded to a broader area from the 1980s.[3]Bronze vessels are a key marker of Western Zhou sites, including buildings, workshops, city walls and burials.[4]Elite burials usually contain sets of vessels, which can be dated using known variations in styles, as well as the paleography and content of inscriptions.[5]Hundreds of hoards of bronzes have been found inShaanxi, dating from the fall of the western capital in 771 BC.A hoard typically contains treasured vessels accumulated by a family over three centuries, carefully buried to hide them from the invaders.[6]
The Zhou produced thousands of inscriptions, mostly on bronze ritual vessels and often considerably longer than those of the Late Shang.[8]Early inscriptions are quite short. The length of texts gradually increased until the middle of the Western Zhou period and remained fairly consistent thereafter.[9]The character forms and language of these inscriptions are obscure, and their interpretation rests heavily on transmitted texts.[10][11]
A vessel was typically cast for some member of the Zhou elite, recording a relevant event or an honour bestowed on the owner by the king.In the latter case, the inscription might include a narrative of the ceremony and report the speech of participants.[12]These give a rich insight into Zhou governance and the upper levels of Zhou society.[13]
Many inscriptions contain details that may be compared with later histories.More than a hundred of them commemorate a royal appointment to some government position.[13]More than 50 of them describe military campaigns.[14]Naturally the picture is incomplete, as very few inscriptions touch on military defeats or failures of government.[15]As theBook of Rites says of these inscriptions, "The intention of the inscriber is to extol the beautiful and not to extol the ugly."[15]
Inscriptions usually contain some dating information, but usually not the name of the current king.Scholars have devised a range of criteria to narrow down the reign of an inscription, including the style of the vessel, the form of the characters and details within the text.[16][17]
The earliest received texts, including parts of theBook of Odes and theBook of Documents, are believed to date from the Western Zhou period.[13]
TheBook of Odes is a collection of songs, traditionally divided into 160 State Airs, 105 Court Songs (Major and Minor) and 40 Hymns (Zhou, Lu and Song), set to melodies that have since been lost.[18]Most specialists agree that the Zhou Hymns date to the Western Zhou, followed by the Court Songs and the Airs of the States.[19]The Airs are said to have been collected from throughout the Western Zhou domains, but have a consistency and elegance that suggests that they were polished by the literati of the Zhou court.[20]
TheBook of Documents is a collection of formal speeches presented as spanning two millennia from the legendaryThree Sovereigns and Five Emperors to theSpring and Autumn period.[21]Most scholars agree that the "Old Script" chapters are post-Han forgeries, and that many of the remaining "Modern Script" chapters were written long after the periods they purport to represent.[22]The five "announcement" (or "proclamation") chapters use the most archaic language, similar to that of bronze inscriptions, and are thought to have been recorded close to the events of the early Western Zhou reigns they describe.[23]However, they feature significant differences in vocabulary, grammar and outlook from bronze inscriptions dated to that period, and may date from the middle or late Western Zhou.[24][25]Four more chapters, "Catalpa Timbers", "Many Officers", "Take No Ease" and "Many Regions", are set in the same period, but their language suggests that they were written late in the Western Zhou period.[26]The prefaces written for each chapter, tying theDocuments together as a continuous account, are thought to have been written in the Western Han period.[27]
Texts transmitted from theWarring States period relate traditions from the Western Zhou period.[28]The "Discourses of Zhou" chapter of theGuoyu includes speeches claimed to be from the time of King Mu onward.TheZuo Zhuan is primarily concerned with theSpring and Autumn period, but contains many references to events in the preceding Western Zhou period.[13]
TheBamboo Annals provides a wealth of attractive detail, often varying from other sources, but its transmission history presents many problems.[28]The original text was a chronicle of thestate of Wei buried in a royal tomb in the early 3rd century BC and recovered in the late 3rd century AD, but lost before theSong dynasty.Two versions exist today: an "ancient text" assembled from quotations in other works and a fuller "current text" thatQian Daxin pronounced a forgery but some scholars believe contains authentic material.[29]
The standard account is found in the "Basic Annals of Zhou", chapter 4 of theHistorical Records compiled by theHan dynasty historianSima Qian.[28]This account is a synthesis of earlier sources, relying most heavily on theBook of Documents for the early kings and theGuoyu for early ancestors and the middle and late Western Zhou period.[30]Sima Qian's depiction of the entire Zhou dynasty as eight centuries of decline from its idealized founders has shaped views of the dynasty from his time until the present day.[31]
The valley of theWei River was the homeland of the Zhou before their conquest of the Shang, and remained the political centre and directly-ruled royal domain throughout the Western Zhou period.It also contains the vast majority of archaeological finds from the period.[32]
The valley is agraben formed in theCenozoic era as part of theFen–Wei Rift System.It is bounded on the south by theQinling Mountains and on the west by theLiupan Mountains.To the north lies theLoess Plateau, into which the northern tributaries of the Wei have carved deep valleys.[33]The valley is broad, with fertile soil, abundant rainfall and ground water from the Loess Plateau and Qinling Mountains.The areas to the west and north are much drier and less suited to agriculture.[34]
The valley was known historically as theGuanzhong, or 'land within the passes'.[36]To the east, the route through theHangu Pass in the narrow valley of the Yellow River leads to theNorth China Plain.[37]The route to the interior follows theJing River to Xiao Pass on an eastern spur of the Liupan range and thence down the valley of the Qingshui River to the upper reaches of the Yellow River.This route would later be part of theSilk Road, and was used by armies throughout history.[38]
The origins of the Zhou are obscure.The archaeology of pre-conquest Wei valley is varied and complex, but no material culture comparable to the dynastic Zhou has been found.[39]Archaeologists searching for the predynastic Zhou have focused on theQishan area, which is mentioned in early texts and was a key ritual centre of the Western Zhou.Two different pottery types are found in this area, and archaeologists differ on whether the people who produced one or the other, or both, were the ancestors of the Zhou.[40]It is likely that several groups from across Shaanxi banded together to conquer the Shang.[41]
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The sequence of Western Zhou kings given by the Han historianSima Qian is matched (except for a few minor character variants) by the list inscribed on the excavated Laipan.Inscriptions and received texts hint at some irregularities in the succession, but these had apparently been smoothed out in the official narrative by the time of the Laipan.[44]Most scholars divide the Western Zhou into early, middle and late periods, which also correspond roughly to stylistic changes in bronze vessels.[45][46]
Sima Qian felt unable to extend his chronological table beyond 841 BC, the first year of theGonghe Regency, and there is still no accepted chronology of Chinese history before that point.[47][48]TheCambridge History of Ancient China used dates determined byEdward L. Shaughnessy from the "current text"Bamboo Annals and bronze inscriptions.[49][50]In 2000, theXia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project produced a schedule of dates based on received texts, bronze inscriptions, radiocarbon dating and astronomical events.[51]However, several bronze inscriptions discovered since then are inconsistent with the project's dates.[52]
| Period | Ruler name | Reign (all dates BC) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posthumous | Personal | Shaughnessy[53] | XSZ Project[54][55] | |
| Pre-conquest | King Wen | Chang (昌) | 1056–1050[b] | |
| King Wu | Fa (發) | 1049–1043[b] | 1046–1043 | |
| Early | ||||
| King Cheng | Song (誦) | 1042–1006 | 1042–1021 | |
| King Kang | Zhao (釗) | 1005–978 | 1020–996 | |
| King Zhao † | Xia (瑕) | 977–957 | 995–977 | |
| Middle | King Mu | Man (滿) | 956–918 | 976–922 |
| King Gong | Yihu (繄扈) | 917–900 | 922–900 | |
| King Yih | Jian (囏) | 899–873 | 899–892 | |
| King Xiao | Pifang (辟方) | 872?–866 | 891–886 | |
| King Yi | Xie (燮) | 865–858 | 885–878 | |
| Late | King Li | Hu (胡) | 857–842 | 877–841 |
| Gonghe Regency | 841–828 | 841–828 | ||
| King Xuan | Jing (靜) | 827–782 | 827–782 | |
| King You † | Gongnie (宮涅) | 782–771 | 781–771 | |
The conquest is reflected in the material record by the sudden appearance throughout the Wei River basin of burials in the Shang style and sophisticated bronze vessels of all the types produced by the Shang, from whom the Zhou had evidently acquired skilled craftsmen, scribes and abundant resources.[57][58]They also expanded the Late Shang practice of inscribing bronze vessels to create lengthy texts recording the accomplishments of their owners and honours bestowed on them by the king. The inscriptions also show that the Zhou had adopted Shang ancestor rituals. This adoption of Shang practices suggests an effort to legitimate Zhou rule.[58][59]However, the Zhou did not adopt human sacrifice, which was so extensive in the Late Shang, or even mention it in any of their texts.[60]
TheShi Qiangpan, part of a family cache found in western Shaanxi, was cast in the reign of King Gong by the latest in a family of scribes descended from a scribe brought to Shaanxi after the conquest.[61]The lengthy inscription, summarizing the history of the Zhou and that of the Wei (微) family, begins:[62]
Accordant with antiquity was King Wen! (He) first brought harmony to government. The Lord on High sent down fine virtue and great security. Extending to the high and low, he joined the ten thousand states.
Capturing and controlling was King Wu! (He) proceeded and campaigned through the four quarters, piercing Yin [= Shang] and governing its people. Eternally unfearful of the Di (Distant Ones), oh, he attacked the Yi minions.
Longer accounts are found in later sources.Both theHistorical Records and theBamboo Annals describe campaigns byKing Wen in southern Shanxi.[64]They state that King Wen moved the Zhou capital from Qiyi toFeng, and his son,King Wu, made a further move to Hao across the Feng River.[65]King Wu is said to have expanded his father's campaigns to the Shang, defeating them in the decisiveBattle of Muye, which is also described in the "Great brightness" song of theClassic of Poetry.[66]
The 33-character inscription on theLigui gives a brief contemporaneous account of the conquest, confirming thesexagenary date given by received sources:[67][68]
When King Wu rectified [= conquered] Shang, it wasjiazi (day 1) morning. ...[c] Onxinwei (day 8), the king was at Jian encampment and gave officer Li metal, used to cast for my honoured ancestor Zhan this precious ritual vessel.
According to theYi Zhou Shu, the Zhou army spent two months in the area mopping up resistance before returning to the Wei valley.The received texts relate that King Wen left two or three of his brothers (depending on the source) to oversee the former Shang domains, nominally ruled byWu Geng, the son of the last Shang king.[70]
King Wu died two or three years after the conquest, triggering a crisis of the young state.According to the traditional histories, one of King Wu's brothers, theDuke of Zhou declared himself regent for King Wu's son, the futureKing Cheng.[73][d]Later Confucian scholars, who glorified the Duke of Zhou, described the young king as a babe in his mother's arms, but other evidence indicates that he was a young man at the time.[76][77]Some authors suggest that the Duke appointed himself king, and in the "Announcement to Kang" chapter of theBook of Documents he seems to speak as a king.[78][79]
Wu Geng and the brothers of King Wu tasked with supervising him rebelled against the new regime.The Duke of Zhou and his half-brother, theDuke of Shao, organized another eastern campaign.After three years they had regained the lost areas and expanded their domain over an area stretching into Shandong.[73]
The victorious triumvirate of the Duke of Zhou, Duke of Shao and King Cheng then consolidated their control over this expanded territory.They built an eastern capital at Chengzhou (modern dayLuoyang) and began founding colonies or states at strategic points in their domain.[80]The most important were placed under members of the rulingJī (姬) family.These colonies are listed in theZuozhuan, and some have been confirmed by archaeological finds.[81]The inscription on the Maizun narrates the ceremony in which King Cheng appointed a son of the Duke of Zhou to ruleXing.[82]
Kings Cheng andKang mounted numerous military campaigns to expand their domains.The Xiao Yuding relates a victory over the Guifang, presumably in the Ordos region, late in the reign of King Kang.[82]This phase of expansion came to an end in a disastrous southern campaign in theHan River region, in whichKing Zhao lost his armies and his own life.[83]
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During the reign ofKing Mu, the Zhou state shifted to the defensive, particularly in the east.TheBamboo Annals records a campaign against theXu Rong, who had to be driven back from the eastern capital.The inscription on the Donggui celebrates a defeat inflicted by the Zhou on theDongyi near Ying, a colony set up by one of King Cheng's brothers to guard the southern approaches to the capital.[84][85]
With the passing of generations, the family relationships between the king and the rulers of the colonies had also become more distant.[86]Instead, the Zhou state developed a bureaucracy and formalized relations between the elites.[87]There were reforms of the military, official titles and the distribution of land.[88]A drastic shift in the style and types of bronze ritual vessels, formerly based on Late Shang models, also suggests a change in ritual practice at this time.[87][89]
Very little historical information is available for the reigns of the next four kings, Gong, Yih, Xiao and Yi.[90]Western Zhou kings were customarily succeeded by their oldest sons.However, Sima Qian states, without explanation, that King Yih was succeeded by his uncle, who became King Xiao, and that on Xiao's death "the many lords restored" King Yih's son, King Yi.Bronze inscriptions of the time use two different royal calendars, and theBamboo Annals mentions King Yih moving out of the capital.[91][92]Some authors suggest that King Yih was forced out by his uncle, and the two were rivals for a time, but whatever happened is now obscure.The succession was already presented as a linear sequence of kings in the Laipan, cast in the reign of King Yi's grandson.[93][e]
Both Sima Qian and theBamboo Annals state that King Yi boiled the Duke ofQi (in eastern Shandong) in a cauldron.A bronze inscription confirms a Zhou attack on Qi at this time.This incident, in a state originally founded by one of King Wu's generals, indicates the waning authority of the Zhou king.[94][95]Soon afterwards, the Zhou were attacked byChu, who reached as far as theLuo River before being driven off in a counterattack described in the Yuding and Yugui.[96]
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King Li embarked on defensive campaigns in the east and northwest.The received texts all present him in a negative light, and record that he was driven out of the capital into exile in theFen River valley.Sources disagree on whether this was a revolt of the peasantry or the nobility, but agree that the king's infant son was barely saved from a mob.[98]TheBamboo Annals, confirmed by bronze inscriptions, relate that control of the state passed to Lord He, instituting theGonghe Regency.Sima Qian's belief that it was a co-regency was based on a misinterpretation of the name.[99]
When King Li died in exile, his son becameKing Xuan.Both received texts and bronze inscriptions suggest that King Xuan acted quickly to secure the state.In his 5th year, he ordered a campaign against theXianyun in the west, and then appointed the successful general to command the eastern territories.[100]According to theBamboo Annals, in the following year he ordered a campaign against the Huaiyi in the southeast.Bronze inscriptions record victories in this campaign and others against the Xianyun.[101]He reinforced the south by relocating settlements from the Wei valley to the Nanyang basin and sought to improve relations with distant Zhou states in the northeast and east.[102]At the same time, the king also had to contend with succession struggles in some of the old Zhou states.[101]
According to received texts,King You's reign began with ominous portents.[103]The texts, as well as some of the Minor Court Songs, hint at factional struggles within the Zhou court.[104]In his 11th year, theQuanrong attacked from the west, killing the king and causing the Zhou elite to flee from the Wei valley to the eastern capital, bringing the Western Zhou era to a close.Although Zhou royal power had been declining for over a century, this dramatic event presents a convenient milestone for historians.The Zhou would continue to occupy the eastern capital for another five centuries, but their sway over the states they had established became increasingly nominal.[105]
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Western Zhou arts initially followed Late Shang models, but later incorporated external forms, especially from the south, and developed new styles.Several concurrent changes at the beginning of the late Western Zhou have been interpreted as reflecting a revolution in ritual practice.[106]
The most common vessels throughout the period were theguǐ basin anddǐng cauldron.They were also the vessels most likely to carry long inscriptions.[107]
Vessels of the early Western Zhou were elaborations of Late Shang designs, featuring high-relief decor, often with pronounced flanges, and made extensive use of thetaotie motif.[108][106]Wine vessels such as goblets and pouring vessels continued to be produced, but would largely disappear in later periods.Yǒu andzūn were usually cast in matching sets.[109]The earliestguǐ were elevated on a base.[110]Over time, vessels became less flamboyant.[106]
By the mid-10th century BC (middle Western Zhou), thetaotie had been replaced by pairs of long-tailed birds facing each other.Vessels shrank, and their profile became simpler.[108][106]New types were thehú vase andxǔ vessel.[109]Guǐ vessels of this period tend to have covers.[111]
New types of vessel began to be introduced during the early 9th century BC, initially in western Shaanxi, then quickly spreading throughout the Wei valley.[106]These new types, which were grouped in large sets, possibly reflect a change in Zhou ritual practice.[106][96]Animal decorations were replaced by geometric forms such as ribbing and bands of lozenge shapes.Conversely, legs and handles became larger and more elaborate, and were often topped with animal heads.[112]
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Bronze bells were developed in southern China from Guangxi to Jiangxi, with the greatest concentration in Hunan. The decoration changed from a pair of knobs derived from the eyes of the taotie motif to three rows of knobs on each side. Bells became longer and were given loops on their shanks, from they could be suspended.[116]Bells of this type were imported to Shaanxi during the middle period.[117]At first they were copied using moulds made from imported objects.Later local designs appeared as Zhou craftsmen mastered the techniques needed to produce tuned sets of instruments.[118]Sets of three matching bells feature prominently in elite tombs, reflecting the role they had taken on in Zhou ceremonies honouring their ancestors.[119]
Jade items were much rarer in early Western Zhou tombs than those of the Late Shang, and the fish- or bird-shaped amulets found may have been taken from the Shang.[120]During the middle period, sophisticated jade working techniques were imported from the south, and combined with bead necklaces from the west.Popular motifs included birds and composite figures of human heads and dragons.[121]The practice of covering the faces of the dead with appropriately shaped jade pieces appeared in the late period.[122]
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