Chinese folk religion, Ancestor veneration, Heaven worship[2]
Government
Monarchy
King
• c. 1046–1043 BC
King Wu
• 781–771 BC
King You
• 770–720 BC
King Ping
• 314–256 BC
King Nan
Chancellor
History
• Battle of Muye
c. 1046 BC
• Gonghe Regency
841–828 BC
• Relocation to Wangcheng
771 BC
• Deposition of King Nan by Qin
256 BC
• Fall of the last Zhou holdouts[3]
249 BC
Population
• 273 BC
30,000,000
• 230 BC
38,000,000
Currency
Spade money
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Shang dynasty
Predynastic Zhou
Qin
Today part of
China
Zhou
"Zhou" in ancient bronze script (top), seal script (middle), and regular script (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese
周
Hanyu Pinyin
Zhōu
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
Zhōu
Bopomofo
ㄓㄡ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Jou
Wade–Giles
Chou1
Tongyong Pinyin
Jhou
Yale Romanization
Jōu
IPA
[ʈʂóʊ]
Wu
Romanization
Tseu
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization
Jāu
Jyutping
Zau1
IPA
[tsɐu˥]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ
Chiu
Tâi-lô
Tsiu
Old Chinese
Baxter (1992)
*tjiw
Baxter–Sagart (2014)
*tiw
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The Zhou dynasty ([ʈʂóʊ]; Chinese: 周)[c] was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from c. 1046 BC until 256 BC, the longest such reign 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 the Zhou's establishment is supported by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and David Pankenier,[5] but David Nivison and Edward L. Shaughnessy date the establishment to 1045 BC.[6][7]
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 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 is often considered to be the zenith for the craft of Chinese bronzeware.[8] 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.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Xu, Zhaofeng. "Considering Chengzhou ('Completion of Zhou') and Wangcheng ('City of the King')" (PDF). Chinese Archaeology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
^"Tian". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
^Schinz (1996), p. 80.
^Baxter, William H.; Sagart, Laurent (2014). Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction(PDF). Oxford University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-199-94537-5.
^Pankenier, David W. (2015). "The cosmo-political mandate". Astrology and Cosmology in Early China: Conforming Earth to Heaven. Cambridge University Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-107-53901-3.
^Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1992). "The Date of the Zhou Conquest of Shang". Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels. University of California Press. pp. 217–236. ISBN 978-0-520-07028-8.
^Nivison, David S. (1983). "The Dates of Western Chou". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Vol. 43. Harvard-Yenching Institute. pp. 481–580. JSTOR 2719108.
^Von Glahn, Richard (2016). The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-139-34384-8.
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Western Zhou (Chinese: 西周; pinyin: Xīzhōu; c. 1046 BC – 771 BC) was a period of Chinese history, approximately first half of the Zhoudynasty, before...
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Zhou (/dʒoʊ/), known in historiography as the Northern Zhou (Chinese: 北周; pinyin: Běi Zhōu), was a Xianbei-led dynasty of China that lasted from 557 to...
history. She subsequently founded and ruled as female emperor of the Wu Zhoudynasty of China from 690 to 705. She was the only female sovereign in the history...
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Western Zhou and the Eastern Zhou in Chinese historiography. The largest orthodox Chinese dynasty in terms of territorial size was either the Yuan dynasty or...
centuries, the dynasty increased its cultural influence and experienced cultural exchanges by means of war. After 1046 BC, the Zhoudynasty, which replaced...
the last king of the Shang dynasty of ancient China. He is also called Zhou Xin (紂辛; Zhòu Xīn). In Chinese, his name Zhòu (紂) also refers to a horse crupper...
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The nobility of the Zhoudynasty refers to the power dynamics of the aristocracy in Zhoudynasty China. The nobility interacted with the royal apparatus...
King Wu of Zhou (Chinese: 周武王; pinyin: Zhōu Wǔ Wáng; died c. 1043 BCE) was the founder and first king of the Zhoudynasty. The chronology of his reign...
during the Shang dynasty of ancient China, before its conquest of the Shang in 1046/1045 BC which led to the establishment of the Zhoudynasty. It was ruled...
patriarch of the Zhou state during the final years of Shang dynasty in ancient China. Ji Chang himself died before the end of the Zhou-Shang War, and his...
after his father's rebellion. Shortly afterwards, Wu founded his own Zhoudynasty. By April 1674, Wu Sangui's army had quickly occupied Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan...
zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons from the Shang dynasty (2nd millennium BC) to the Zhoudynasty (11th–3rd century BC) and even later. Early bronze...
culture remembered by the earliest extant literature is that of the Zhoudynasty (c. 1046 – 256 BCE), China's Axial Age, during which the Mandate of Heaven...
of Zhou name two other such systems, the Lianshan [zh] and the Guicang. The name Zhou yi literally means the "changes" (易; Yì) of the Zhoudynasty. The...
but the systems of enfeoffment and establishment only developed in the Zhoudynasty, by the end of which a clear delineation of ranks had emerged. This process...
legitimacy to the Zhou's own rebellion. No Western Zhou bronze inscriptions mention the Xia, or any other dynasty preceding the Shang. The Zhou believed that...
philosophy was promoted by the Confucian school in the Eastern Zhou period. The succession of dynasties was incorporated into the Bamboo Annals and the Records...
Ping of Zhou (Chinese: 周平王; pinyin: Zhōu Píng Wáng; died 16 April 720 BC), personal name Ji Yijiu, was the thirteenth king of the Zhoudynasty and the...
男耕女織), partitioned male and female histories as early as the Zhoudynasty, with the Rites of Zhou (written at the end of the Warring States Period), even stipulating...
Near the start of the dynasty, Chen's northern neighbors the Eastern and Western Wei were later replaced by the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi, with the...