Establishment of the Eastern Zhou of the Spring and Autumn period of the Eastern Zhou According to traditional historical texts such as the
Records of the Grand Historian, the Zhou capital was moved from
Haojing (
Chang'an District in
Xi'an) to
Chengzhou (
Luoyang) in 770 BC. With the death of
King You, the last king of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Crown Prince
Yijiu was proclaimed the new king by
the nobles from the states of
Zheng,
Lü,
Qin and the Marquess of
Shen. He became
King Ping. In the second year of his reign, he moved the capital east to Luoyi as
Quanrong people invaded Haojing, spelling the end of the Western Zhou dynasty. The recently discovered has challenged this view. Of the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period, it says: Instead of King Ping being immediately accepted by the regional lords after his father's death, the Xinian claims that his uncle
Yuchen was crowned as King Hui at Xie (somewhere in the state of Guo). After he was killed in 750 BC, there was no officially recognized king of Zhou for 9 more years, until
marquis Wen of Jin brought Ping from Shao'e to the Royal Capital (almost certainly referring to Haojing) and enthroned him. Only three years after that in 738 BC did he move to Chengzhou. The Xinian manuscript is controversial. Marquis Wen of Jin was thought to have reigned from 781 to 746 BC, and so he could not have proclaimed Ping as king in 741 BC nor move him to Chengzhou in 738 BC. However, the strongest argument in favor of the Xinian's telling of events about King Ping comes from a passage in the
Zuo Zhuan, which reads in its entry for the 22nd year of Duke Xi (638 BC): The 'prophecies' in the Zuo Zhuan do not appear to have been made randomly and are usually precisely correct except in cases where state calendars differed slightly or when the prophecy was set to happen
after the Zuo Zhuan was compiled. This prophecy is completely incorrect according to the traditional telling of King Ping's move east, but lines up perfectly with the Xinian's date.
Spring and Autumn period The first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty, from approximately 771 to 476 BC, was called the
Spring and Autumn period, during which more and more dukes and marquesses obtained regional autonomy, defying the king's court in Luoyi, and waging wars amongst themselves. During these conferences one vassal ruler was sometimes declared
hegemon. Chancellor
Guan Zhong of Qi initiated the policy of "Revering the King and Expelling the Barbarians" (), much later adapted by the imperial Japanese as "
sonnō jōi". Adopting and adhering to it,
Duke Huan of Qi assembled the vassals to strike down the threat of barbarians from the country. The outfit is of Central Asian style, probably Scythian, and the rider with his large nose appears to be a foreigner. Dating the end of the Spring and Autumn period and the beginning of the
Warring States period that followed is a matter of continuing disagreement in Chinese scholarship. Western scholars often use the end of the
Spring and Autumn Annals themselves as the dividing line, placing it around 481 BC. The usual Chinese convention since
Sima Qian has, however, been to place the division at the gradual
partition of Jin, one of the most powerful states, around 476 BC. (The years dividing the last and initial years are usually identical in the
Julian calendar because the events themselves were originally dated using
China's traditional lunisolar system. See the notes at "
Spring and Autumn period" for further dates, details, and sourcing.) During the Warring States period, many of the leading vassals' clamoring for kingship further limited the Zhou royal family's influence. By the time of
King Nan, the kings of Zhou had lost almost all political and military power, as even their remaining crown land was split into two states or factions, led by rival feudal lords: West Zhou, where the capital Wangcheng was located, and East Zhou, centered at Chengzhou and Kung. King Nan managed to preserve his weakened dynasty through diplomacy and conspiracies for 59 years until his deposition and execution by Qin in 256 BC. Seven years later, West Zhou was conquered by Qin. The Warring States period extended beyond this event, however, concluding with end of the
Qin wars of conquest. Those wars resulted in the annexation of all other contender states and were completed in 221 BC.
Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor, avoided the
clan-based organization of the Zhou and established a centralized bureaucratic state subsequently known as the
Qin dynasty. == Kings ==