Zhou Dynasty (1045 BC-256 BC) - Research Paper Example

and Number of the Teacher’s ZHOU DYNASTY (1045 BC - 256 BC) Introduction “The Zhou were the first of a series of ruling dynasties of nomadic origins that came from China’s borderlands” (Adler & Pouwels 70) to the west of the country. The Zhou kings established their rule after conquering the Shang. The great victory took place in 1122 B.C., with only 50,000 Zhou troops defeating an army of Shang troops over ten times that size (LaFleur 28), because the Shang ruler was corrupt and depraved. The Zhou Dynasty ruled for around eight hundred years, and extended China’s borders significantly. The Zhou worshipped sun gods, especially Tian. The first Zhou kings were powerful monarchs who relied on their swords. However, with the passage of centuries, power slipped from the ruler’s hands, and increasing military and administrative duties were delegated to local aristocrats who acquired new territory. Consequently, China expanded, but at the same time the control of the government weakened. The long period of the Zhou Dynasty in Chinese history is usually divided into the Western Zhou 1045-771 B.C., with its capital in the Wei River Valley, and the Eastern Zhou 771-256 B.C. which shifted eastwards, after defeat in battle (Hansen & Curtis 95). Thesis Statement: The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C. – 256 B.C.) of ancient China and examine their development of writing, besides warfare, economy and trade, religion and theocracy. Development of Writing The earliest forms of writing in China dates back to the Shang dynasty, as insciptions on shells or animal bones. Original Chinese writing of four thousand years ago consisted of pictographs and ideographs. “Chinese writing has evolved into an elaborate set of symbols that combine meaning and pronunciation in a single character” (Duiker et al 55). The values related to politics, society, classical Chinese civilization and other concepts upheld by the Zhou dynasty spread widely through the written language of different dialects to different peoples (Embree & Gluck 919). The Chinese understand the nature of civilization (wen), through associating wen with literacy due to an inherent respect for the written language. The writing of history is central to Chinese culture. Civilization is considered as a continuing process, which should be recorded. The past is used for ordering the present; it is considered to be the “mirror” of humankind, “in which people could see the fortunes and misfortunes of the past and relate them to their own present” (Embree & Gluck 925). The writing of the historian is believed to be guided by humanism, which is evident in the biographical works of Sima Qian. The main consequence of the invention of writing was increased communication, the significant learnings from other parts of Eurasia during this period, the locally generated advances in various areas, as well as the recording of ancient history by the Zhou Dynasty. The writing system used symbols ro represent syllables, not ideas; the same system can be used by people of different languages Moreover, a huge number of characters make it more difficult to learn (Marion 9). According to Ebrey et al (p.8) besides archaeological evidence, transmitted texts provide Zhou version of their “righteous victory over the decadent Shang”. The Zhou rulers sent out messengers to distant regions, establishing a feudal-like system. The 130-chapter Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian presents several perspectives on the past. This has profoundl impacted Chinese conceptions of history and personal achievement. Besides large parts of the writing being devoted to biographies of individuals and the separate histories of the states of the main ruling houses of the Zhou peirod, a political narrative of the different dynasties is recorded. This includes the Zhou dynasty, and is supplemented by chronological charts with genealogical data and information on the organization of governments. Key institutions are described individually in relation to “state ritual, court music, calendar, waterworks and other matters of concern to the government” (Ebrey et al 47). In the following centuries, the Records of the Grand Historian continued to be read for the pleasure provided by the narrative as well as for historical data. Historical works sponsored by the government referred to its composite style with political narratives supplemented by treatises and biographies. However, subsequent histories covered only a single dynasty. Warfare of the Zhou Dynasty “In 1066 BC, Zhou’s 48,000 elite troops, led by 300 chariots, defeated a much larger Shang army of 170,000 fighting men” (Deng 136). The Zhou Dynasty established after the defeat of the Shang gradually extended across North China. It brought with it a reduction of warfare, growth in population, and extensive developments in urban and rural areas (Embree & Gluck 247). The peaceful, stable Zhou empire ruled from around 1027 to 256 B.C. In 771 B.C., nomads attacked the Zhou capital and murdered the monarch. Luoyang became the new capital, but internal wars destroyed the way of life and other traditions of the dynasty (Marion 10). The last years of the Zhou dynasty, from 481 B.C. to 221 B.C. are known as the period of the warring states. In response to the threat of mounted nomads from the west, the rulers of the warring states began constructing defensive walls, which later joined together to become the Great Wall of China. The earlier subordinate states first refused to defend the Jhou territory, and attacked each other, for the purpose of establishing themselves as a new political order (Guisepi, 1998). China was not a completely integrated state during the Zhou Dynasty. The eastern half of the territory, much smaller than it is today, constituted the area surrounding the Yellow River. This was held by royal family members who paid allegiance to the Zhou rulers. “The western areas which soon became small states, were never completely integrated into the system” (LaFleur 29). In the first five hundred years of the Zhou dynasty, the position of the Zhou king was acknowledged to some extent; but as the system weakened after 500 B.C.E., the earlier acknowledgement quickly disappeared. Although the term feudal system given to the Zhou dynasty is an inaccurate one when referring to East Asian history, there was a connection between territorial lords and the retainers who served them. The territorial lords had to accept the Zhou king and revere the ancestral spirits of the Zhou rulers (LaFleur 30). The Zhou Dynasty had a hierarchical political and social system headed by the Zhou royal house, with power given to aristocratic families as lords of their domains or principalities. The system was cohesive because of a hierarchical order of ancestral cults. Eventually, however, the system declined into a competition for power “between rival semi-autonomous states in what became known as the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 B.C.) and the Warring States period (403-221 B.C.) Confucius lived during these tumultous times (Embree & Gluck 896). Confucius and other philosophers revered the Duke of Zhou as the ruler who epitomized the ideals of regency, and worked towards a better political situation for future generations. The uncertain ties between Zhou rule and the small territorial lords loosened further during the seven to eight centuries of the dynasty’s presence. Warfare over the centuries reduced more than one hundred small states to a handful of larger states by the third century B.C.E. Although the Zhou kings continued to rule, each territorial lord was the master of his own state. Diplomacy was practised as an art throughout Chinese history. Historical works from the era have recorded “increasingly bloody conflicts between the so-called Warring States during the third and second centuries B.C.E.” (LaFleur 30). Mainly, territorial conflicts fuelled warfare, along with the pursuit of the common good. The Zhou dynasty had a strong army to counter the military pressure from the Barbarians of the North and of the West. The combination of prosperous agricultural sector and strong army helped the Zhou to become a supertribe, whose power was demonstrated by Zhou’s consecutive victories over various barbarian tribes. The Zhou Dynasty’s Economy and Trade The mixed economy of the Shang gave way to the emergence of the agrarian economy of the Zhou dynasty. The Zhou were permanently based in Shaanxi, the western part of the Loess Plateau, an area favorable for farming. Besides the deep and tillable soil, the soil has a frost-free period of eight months every year. Further, the region is well-irrigated by an extensive network involving two of China’s main rivers. Before AD 1000, the local climate was warmer and more moist than today, which helped agriculture development. The Loess Plateau became the very heartland of agriculture in north China, where farming settlement can be traced back for 7,000 to 8,000 years by carbon dating, beginning from the Palaeolithic Period. Surrounded by a desert on one side and mountains on the other side, “these economic and military advantages have made Shaanxi a region of strategic importance in Chinese political history” (Deng 135). Ranging from Zhou to Mao’s Communist era, it was believed that those who controlled that region would control North China and subsequently the entire Chinese Empire. Before the development of the animal draught plough, the spade plough was used for household farming done by family members working in teams of two. Thus, it is clear that there was an autonomous peasant economy at the micro level, which is in accordance with the Zhou family structure. Evidence from research indicates that during the Zhou dynasty, families were mostly paternalistic, either nuclear or extended. The household composed of two to seven members was the basic economic unit, the lower classes usually had smaller families, and the household was the basic registration unit for the government census. The Zhou Dynasty showed the benefits of the economic and military power of an agriculture-based economy over that of a mixed economy, “agriculture was promoted with an unprecedented effort, land property rights were protected, and a more sophisticated social structure emerged” (Deng 137-138). The Zhou Dynasty built roads, canals to improve transportation, used coins to make trade easier, created cast iron tools and weapons, and increased food production (Marion 10). “Trade and manufacturing were carried out by merchants and artisans, who lived in walled towns under the direct control of the local lord” (Duiker & Spielvogel 57). Merchants could not undertake business on their own, they were considered to be the property of the local lord, and could even be bought and sold like goods. There were slaves to perform menial tasks, though their numbers did not form a large portion of the population. The later Zhou period from the 6th to the 3rd century B.C. was “an era of significant economic development and technological innovation” (Duiker & Spielvogel 57) particularly in agriculture. During this time, large-scale infrastructural, irrigational and water supply projects were undertaken. Advances in farm technology led to increased food production. The advances in agriculture which led to greater numbers in the population, resulted in the growth of commerce and manufacturing. Religion of the Zhou Dynasty Perhaps the most unconventional shrine complex in China is the Jinci or the Memorial Shrine of Jin, which occupies a verdant site near the remains of the ancient capital city of Jinyang, of Jinstate of the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1100-221 B.C.E.). History and Geographic texts dating back more than a millennium reveal that the shrine was dedicated to the historical Shu Yu of Tang, the founder of the Jin State. Jinci is unique because the temple buildings are distributed in a seemingly random manner, unlike shrines and temples in China which are usually arranged as rectilinear courtyard compounds with a strong central axis leading to a main offering hall. However, all the temple buidlings are focused on the fountainhead of the Jin River, a canal “flowing through the site filled by originally three springs, the centermost of which lies before the eleventh century Sage Mother Hall” (Miller 6). The layout of Jinci surprised Chinese architectural historians because Jinci is a single memorial shrine unlike the sacred mountains. The Sage Mother was transformed from a local water sprite to the true queen of the Zhou dynasty, Yi Jiang. However, this tradition is not taken into consideration by the literate elite who believed Zhou dynasty ancestor spirits to be more significant than local deities (Miller 7). The reasons and methods for the emergence and spreading of religious systems is as follows: During the chaos of the warring states period, there was a more determined quest for reordering the cosmos. This created vigorous contention and mutual interaction among various schools of thought, called the “Hundred Schools”, which included “Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, Mohism, and yin-yang cosmology” (Embree & Gluck 922). In China, there has been no anthropomorphically conceived deity; instead there has been the concept of a beneficent Heaven or Nature; with the Chinese concept of Heaven having religious, cosmological, and naturalistic implications. Further, there is no clear demarcation between secular and sacred notions. For example, the concept of tian is used for Heaven or Nature, and as a source of order in the universe. Similarly, ritual transcends the spheres of “secular” and “sacred”. The religious beliefs are as follows: spirit of dead ancestors have the power to impact family fortunes, priests scratch questions on animal bones and tortoise shells, Oracle bones are used for consulting gods; and the supreme god is Shang Di (Marion 9). Theocracy Related to the Zhou Dynasty Buddhist, Daoist and Confucianist deities were revered in Chinese society; further there existed a wide-ranging and complex system of local and folk gods. The worship of these gods can be found in some of the earliest religious beliefs in China, such as in the pre-Qin era, the worship of heaven and ancestors brought about a combination of theocracy and imperial power. “The emperors controlled the interactions between the world of human beings and the world of gods, and the gods themselves had different ranks according to the hierarchical system of human society” (Howard 403). For example, in the Zhou Dynasty, the sovereigns and emperors who were considered as the sons of Heaven, presided over the sacrifices offered to “heaven, earth, the gods of the four directions, the gods of mountains, and the gods of the family, the hearth, the door” (Howard 403), and others. Since the time of Emperor Wu of Western Han, traditional religion was integrated with the teachings of Confucianism. This resulted in an extensive, well-organized official system of deities; those not included in the government pantheon were considered false, and offerings to them were not permitted. The theocratic role of the Zhou kings was increasingly political, although the king of Zhou continued to be the sacred king. Since the priest shamans were no longer a part of the court, the king himself was the high priest in all ceremonies and ritual obligations (Schinz 73). One of the main responsibilities of the emperor, considered as a sacred person, was to perform the state rituals to establish close ties between the spiritual forces and mankind, following the old traditions of the Zhou kings. “The emperor had to observe the functioning of the laws of nature and the supposed actions of the spirits and gods” (Schinz 140) and to invoke their blessings at the right time and place, observing correctness in various respects. With the passage of time, the distinction between government rituals and folk beliefs became less demarcated. Some new folk gods and deified historical figures that emerged were either included in the government approved pantheon or turned into Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian divinities. The others which consisted of the majority of the folk gods were left to disappear on their own. Most of the gods designated by the government are depicted wearing the ceremonial clothes of emperors or officials of various ranks; while some are shown accompanied by family members and attendants. On the other hand, folk gods are depicted more freely, some as ordinary people and others in peculiar combinations of human and animal forms (Howard 403). The gods designated by the imperial government for worship were subjected to continual changes by the rulers, with regard to their positions, titles and artistic representations. Eventually, certain folk gods were given the title of emperor, prince and duke. The Heavenly Emperor in folk legend emerged as the Emperor of Boundless Heaven (Haotian Shangdi), who was included as a part of Confucianism. The ceremony incorporating Daoist beliefs as well, and offering sacrifices to the emperor “became an important state ritual presided over by the emperor who worshipped his own ancestors at the same time” (Howard 403). Sacrificial rituals to the gods of land and grain were considered to be of secondary importance to those of heaven, earth and ancestors. The rituals were officiated by the emperor for the benefit of all the people. The early pre-Zhou dynasties were ruled by priest-kings. The Zhou Dynasty developed their political legitimacy on the foundations of the Mandate of Heaven, a principle of rightful government that associated politics with the cosmos, and continued to use it until the end of the last dynasty in 1911. “The Zhou dynasty established the common symbolic universe of politics, society, and ideas that constituted classical Chinese civilization” (Embree & Gluck 919). The meritocratic examination system to select and appoint bureaucrats based on their knowledge of the Confucian classics was not developed until the Tang Dynasty (Terrill 38). Conclusion This research paper on the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China has highlighted significant factors such as the development of writing during the era of the dynasty, warfare among the states, economy and trade carried out during the period, and the religion and theocracy of the time. The transition from Shang to Zhou reveals rationalist and universalist principles, leading to the later development of Confucianism, Taoism and Mohism (Embree & Gluck 873). The king as religious leader has played a major role. The idea of the Mandate of Heaven and moral accountability that rulers are sanctioned by Heaven as long as they rule virtuously for the benefit of the people, was used originally to justify Zhou conquest of the Shang. However, it increased in strength as a potent idea of moral thought, and continues to be used in the present time. To eliminate the continuance of warfare among the states at the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the idea of a unified China has been expressed in some of the earliest writings and historical records. Works Cited Adler, Philip J. & Pouwels, Randall L. World civilizations: To 1700. Edition 5. The United States of America: Cengage Learning. (2007). Schinz, Alfred. The magic square: Cities in ancient China. Stuttgart: Axel Menges. (1996). Deng, Gang. The premodern Chinese economy: Structural equilibrium and capitalist sterility. New York: Routledge. (1999). Duiker, William J. & Spielvogel, Jackson J. The essential world history. Edition 3. California: Cengage Learning. (2006). Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Pre-modern East Asia: to 1800: A cultural, social, and political history. Edition 2. The United States of America: Cengage Learning. (2008). Embree, Ainslee Thomas & Gluck, Carol. Asia in western and world history: A guide for teaching. New York: M.E. Sharpe Publications. (1997). Guisepi, Robert. 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