Historical books attributed the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty to King Zhou You's incompetence. The war with the princes led to the bankruptcy of King You's credit, the invasion of foreign tribes, no one to rescue, and the destruction of the country and people. Historical records and Guoyu hold this view, and the quality of the king of Zhou affects the fate of the country. According to the chronology of bamboo scripts unearthed later and the records of Tsinghua bamboo slips, the fall of the princes in the Fenghuo Opera is purely fictitious, and the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty was actually due to other reasons.
According to the Tsinghua bamboo slips, King You of Zhou deposed Shenhou and Prince Yijiu. Yijiu defected to Shenhou and was elected as the new king. King You of Zhou led his army to attack the State of Shen. Shen and Quan Rong defeated King You. King Zhou and the new prince Bofu were killed, and the Western Zhou Dynasty was destroyed. Consistently, the main reason for the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty was the power struggle of the aristocracy, and its root cause was the backlash of the feudal system that led to the decline of royal power.
1. The feudal system and patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty
The Xia and Shang dynasties cannot be called countries in the strict sense, they can only be regarded as confederations. Xia and Shang became the leaders of each tribe by virtue of their strong comprehensive strength, occupying a core position in the tribal alliance. Although each tribe obeyed the orders of Xia and Shang, they ruled hereditary and were in a semi-independent state. After hundreds of years of accumulation of strength, the strength of each tribe increased and decreased. As vassals, Shang and Zhou overthrew the leader of the alliance and achieved the status of emperor.
King Wu defeated Zhou, and Duke Zhou marched eastward, establishing the Zhou Dynasty with a wider ruling area. Faced with the rapid expansion of territory, the Zhou royal family did not have enough strength to directly govern various places and implemented a feudal system to manage the expanded territory. In the territory of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the royal territory ruled by the Zhou royal family was about a thousand miles away and was located in the west of the territory, while the conquered territories in the east, north, and south were divided into densely populated vassal states. This system was actually a colonial expansion movement. It was a stronghold under the Zhou Dynasty, extending outward to protect the royal family. Most of these vassal states are royal nobles, but there are also founding heroes and former nobles. Xunzi's Ruxiao chapter says: Seventy-one kingdoms were established, and there were fifty-three people named Ji living alone. In the 28th year of Zuo Zhuan, Duke Zhao also said: There are fifteen people in the country of his brothers, and forty people in the country named Ji. *** sealed fifty or sixty new countries. In the vassal country, the princes and kings allocate land to the ministers and ministers, and the ministers and ministers allocate land to the scholars, forming a hierarchical system of the emperor, princes, ministers, ministers, and scholars, with the lower level assuming obligations to the higher level.
The feudal system is closely related to the patriarchal system. The core of the patriarchal system is the inheritance system of the eldest son. The eldest son is the heir. The branch going down is Xiaozong. The major sect and the minor sect are relative, but the major sect passed down from the ancestor is absolute, and the branch of Emperor Zhou is the absolute major sect.
Therefore, in politics, the Zhou dynasty used blood relations as the link and established a strict hierarchy through the patriarchal system and feudal system. It was a step further than the confederal system of Xia and Shang. Most of the princes of the states were clansmen. , the hero, who has a clan, monarch-subordinate relationship with the Emperor of Zhou. The Emperor of Zhou is both the head of the clan and the monarch, integrating monarch, ministers and clan power. The King of Zhou has an unprecedented improvement in his ability to control various places.
2. The decline of royal power in the Zhou Dynasty
Any system has its limitations. The drawbacks of the feudal system were fully exposed in the late Zhou Dynasty, and social conflicts became increasingly intensified. The relationship between the Emperor of Zhou and the slave-owning nobles and vassal states became increasingly tense, and the royal power declined. First, the centripetal force of the vassal states was weakened. After several generations of the Zhou Dynasty, the blood relationship between the emperor and the clans and princes became alienated, and they still had patriarchal relationships in name, but in name only. Some vassal states no longer went to the court regularly to report their duties, the authority of Emperor Zhou was reduced, and his control over various countries was seriously weakened. Second, the feudal system weakened the Zhou royal family's ability to govern. The feudal system was to exchange favors for loyalty, and to exchange support from all classes through constant rewards. Therefore, the royal family could only maintain the feudal system by constantly opening up territory and expanding territory. When the country's territorial expansion capabilities and military capabilities reached the upper limit, the drawbacks of the feudal system were undoubtedly evident. The ruling class continues to enfeoff land to reward meritorious officials. There is no royal land in the world. After the land is granted to the people, the subjects of the land are still part of the royal land and the royal subjects in name. In fact, the recipients of the land and the subjects have the right to cede or exchange , equal to private. Therefore, with each enfeoffment, the actual control of the Zhou royal family would be weakened. The enfeoffed land, population, and property would all belong to the subordinates. The royal family's financial capacity was shrinking, and it was unable to support the army and the royal family's daily expenses, and the rule was in crisis. In the year of the Western Zhou Dynasty, both King Zhou Li and King You of Zhou realized the evil consequences of the enfeoffment system and intentionally stopped the enfeoffment or withdrew the rewards for their ministers. The conflict between the emperor of Zhou and the nobles intensified day by day. In the contest with the aristocratic group, the emperor repeatedly failed, the royal power declined, and the collapse of the Zhou Dynasty seemed to be only a matter of time.
During the period of King Zhou Li, a riot broke out among the Chinese people. The slave-owning nobles expelled him from the capital and died in a foreign land. King Zhou Li was expelled by his countrymen for his tyranny and stayed abroad for 14 years. It is recorded in the Mandarin Zhou language that he once considered Honor Yi Gong as a minister, and Honor Yi Gong was fond of patents, but he did not know the catastrophe. The so-called patent means that the benefits of mountains, forests, rivers and swamps belong to the royal family and are not allowed to be used by Chinese people. Due to the financial austerity of the royal family, King Zhou Li took the public property back to the royal family, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the people of the country. The so-called people of the country were by no means ordinary people, but aristocrats who were estranged by blood under the patriarchal system. In the end, the people of the country rioted and surrounded the palace. King Li fled to Zhi, and the government was put in charge of the Qing Dynasty. The riots dealt a heavy blow to the ruling system of the Zhou Dynasty. The royal family continued to decline, and it was even difficult to maintain the throne. There are two versions of "***" and "governing". One is the historical records of Zhou Benji, which states: Zhao Gong and Zhou Gong were the two prime ministers in administration, and they were named ***he. The other is the ancient bamboo book chronicling the year: ***Bohe Qian Wangzheng. During the fourteen years after King Zhou Li was expelled, the Qing officials assumed the royal power, and the royal family and the aristocratic group failed completely in their struggle for profit.
3. Analysis of the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty
During the reign of King You of Zhou Dynasty, the internal conflicts of the Zhou Dynasty became more acute. The theories about the demise of the Zhou Dynasty are generally similar, mostly attributed to the mediocre rule of King You of Zhou, who violated the order of rule by abolishing the elders and establishing the younger ones.
Sima Qian recorded the following in historical records: King You took Guo Shifu as his minister, and the people of the country complained about his actions. Father Shi was a sycophantic, skillful, flattering and profit-seeking person, and the king used him to his advantage. After abolishing the application, he went to the crown prince. The Marquis of Shen was angry, and together with Zan and Xiyi Quanrong, they attacked King You. King You raised a beacon fire to recruit troops, but no soldiers came. Then he killed King You at the foot of Li Mountain, captured Si Si, and took all the bribes from Zhou Dynasty away. King Zhou You reused the profit-loving Guo Shifu, and like his grandfather King Zhou Li, exploited nobles to increase royal income, which aroused dissatisfaction among the nobles. Chapter Daya Zhan of the Book of Songs holds that if a person has land and fields, you will have them; if a person has people and people, you will seize them. The emperor should not infringe upon the property rights of the lords without reason. After that, the King of Zhou deposed the eldest son and the queen, which made Shenhou dissatisfied. He united with Zhen and Quanrong to attack King You of Zhou. King You was killed and the Western Zhou Dynasty was destroyed. There is a similar record in the Mandarin Jin language. King You of Zhou Dynasty praised Si's daughter Yan when he attacked her. She was favored by her and gave birth to an uncle. Therefore, she competed with Guo Shifu and expelled the crown prince Yijiu to establish her uncle's clothes. The prince went out to Shen, and the people of Shen and Zhou summoned the Xirong to attack Zhou. The Zhou Dynasty died. Many historians have expressed doubts about such records. Lu Simian directly claimed that King You was destroyed. What is recorded in the historical records is weird and ordinary, and is by no means the truth. In the Zhou Dynasty, which paid attention to hierarchical order, it was against logic to commit the following crimes. Therefore, the records in historical records and Mandarin are questionable and cannot reflect the facts.
Based on the records of the Bamboo Annals and Tsinghua Slips, it is more logical to reinterpret the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to the chronology recorded in the Bamboo Book, first, Shen Hou, Xu Hou and Xu Wenggong Ping Wang Yu Shen, who was the eldest son, so he was called the king of heaven. During the reign of King You of Zhou, the deposed prince was supported as the new king by the princes in the Kingdom of Shen. Therefore, King You of Zhou attacked the Kingdom of Shen. The Qinghua bamboo slips also clearly stated that he surrounded King Ping in Xishen. According to historical records and Mandarin records, King You of Zhou was killed when he was besieged by Shen, Zhen, and Quanrong and had no one to help him. Tsinghua bamboo slips record different facts. King You raised his troops and surrounded King Ping in Xishen. The Shen people were not allowed to surrender, and the Zhuan people descended to Xirong to attack King You. King You and Bopan were destroyed, and the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed. The logic is that the deposed prince was proclaimed king in the Kingdom of Shen, King You attacked Shen, Shen's ally Zhuan joined forces with Xirong to help, Xirong directly attacked Haojing, King You withdrew his troops to rescue, and was killed in the encounter. Therefore, the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty was not caused by foreign invasion, but by fierce internal conflicts within the ruling class. Foreign tribes took advantage of the situation and destroyed the Zhou Dynasty.
To sum up, the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty was actually caused by the infighting among the nobles leading to the invasion of foreign races. The demise was an accidental event, but it was inevitable. King You of Zhou deposed the prince and queen, which led to the division of the ruling class. Marquis Shen and several princes simply supported the prince as king, which led to King You of Zhou personally leading an army to attack the country of Shen. Therefore, King Zhou You's expedition was legitimate. In order to maintain the legitimacy of the legal system and Taoism, there are no two days in the sky and no two kings in the country. When King You of Zhou was about to succeed in his attack on the State of Shen, Shen's ally Zhen united with Quan Rong to rescue him. The purpose of Quan Rong was to plunder property and attack Hao Jing. King You of Zhou met Quan Rong on the way to withdraw his troops. He was defeated and killed, and the Western Zhou Dynasty fell.
In the final analysis, the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty was due to the backlash of the feudal system. With the alienation of blood, the centripetal force between the vassal states and the emperor of Zhou was greatly weakened, the relationship between relatives was diluted, and the actual control of the suzerain state over the vassal states was gradually weakened. At the same time, due to the continuous enfeoffment, the land controlled by the royal family was decreasing day by day, finance and military resources were insufficient, and the royal family's control was unprecedentedly weakened.
The power of the royal family and the ministers, the suzerain state and the vassal states were in a state of ebb and flow. When the balance between each other was broken, the emperor's supreme status was challenged. King Zhou Li was expelled and King Zhou You was killed. It was a historical inevitability. During the Spring and Autumn Period The division of the three families into the Jin Dynasty and the succession of the Tian family to the Qi Dynasty were the continuation of the feudal system and the seizure of power. The seizure of power by the Qing officials became the norm in the late Spring and Autumn Period.