The Zhou heartland was the
Wei River valley; this remained their primary base of power after conquering the Shang.
Mandate of Heaven 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 with 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Feudalism Western writers often describe the Zhou period as feudal because the Zhou's
fengjian system invites comparison with European political systems during the
Middle Ages. '', painting on silk, dated to 5th–3rd century BC, from Zidanku Tomb no. 1 in
Changsha, Hunan painting from the Jingmen Tomb of the
state of Chu (704–223 BC), depicting men wearing precursors to
hanfu dress and riding in a two-horsed chariot There were many similarities between the decentralized systems. When the dynasty was established, the conquered land was divided into hereditary fiefs (,
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 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, 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 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 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 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.
Fengjian system and bureaucracy 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, 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 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 (). 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 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 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, Industry (), inscribed with the accomplishments of the earliest Zhou kings Across the Zhou period, agricultural land was generally tied to aristocratic lineages rather than held as private noble property; for the Western Zhou in particular, this authority was rooted in lineage‑based political geography rather than in the later conceptualized
fengjian system. Farming was carried out mainly by ordinary rural households, who formed the core of agricultural production. These households owed labor service, taxes, and military obligations to their lords or to the state, depending on the period. Various dependent laborers and slaves also existed, but they constituted a minority of the rural population. Modern scholarship emphasizes that Zhou rural society did not resemble European manorial serfdom, since most farmers were not legally bound to noble estates and retained household autonomy. Modern historians generally view this as a later conceptual model rather than a documented administrative system of the Zhou period. 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), 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.
Military , a
Qin terracotta figurine from a tomb near modern
Xianyang in
Shaanxi, 4th–3rd century BC 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 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 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 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. King Xiang of Zhou also married a Di princess after receiving Di military support. File:Gold sword hilt Eastern Zhou BM.jpg|Gold sword hilt, Eastern Zhou, 6–5th century BC
British Museum File:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - bronze sword.jpg|Eastern Zhou bronze sword excavated from Changsa, Hunan Eastern Zhou Bronze Ji (Halberd) (10338222034).jpg|Eastern Zhou
jǐ bronze halberd
Philosophy , Eastern Zhou or Han dynasty, 4th–3rd century BC. , Warring States period
Hangzhou Museum , a set of bronze
bianzhong percussion instruments from
his tomb in
Hubei, dated 433 BC 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, 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, 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.
Li Having emerged during the Western Zhou, the
li ritual system encoded an understanding of manners as an expression of 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 BC220 AD), thus becoming the heart of the Chinese imperial ideology. While the system 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 five orders of
Chinese nobility • Ancestral temples (size, legitimate number of pavilions) • Ceremonial regulations (number of
ritual vessels, musical instruments, people in the dancing troupe)
Sexuality Aside from
Shi Jing, the earliest Chinese poem anthology, where gender-ambiguity and same-sex affection both made an appearance, the Zhou dynasty involved many recorded forms of homosexuality, including farmers and soldiers. Bisexuality and/or homosexual practices often involved heterosexual marriage, foundational to kinship and social networks in the Zhou Dynasty and beyond in Imperial China, whereas male homosexuality was often "class-based," meaning these relationships involved economic and social benefits. ==Kings==