A New Dynasty Begins
The Zhou (zhoe) Dynasty was the longest of all the Chinese Dynasties. It lasted for over eight hundred years. Some of the ideas that were developed by the Zhou influenced later dynasties and continue to influence other cultures even today.
The Zhou people were originally a part of the Shang Dynasty. The Zhou family, however, conquered the Shang and took control of all the Shang lands. But the new leader, King Wu, didn’t stop there. He conquered lands to the east and south and extended Zhou lands to make a larger kingdom.
Political System
A King and His Lords
King Wu and his people both had responsibilities to each other in the political system that was set up. To rule the vast territory, King Wu recognized that he would need assistance. He created a nobility or ruling class when he gave family members, friends, and even some of the previous Shang rulers’ sections of his kingdom to control. He gradually divided his kingdom into 70 separate states, each one led by one of the appointed rulers called lords. Though all of the land really still belonged to the king, each ruler benefited from the “mini-kingdom.” He controlled what went on in each state. Each lord collected taxes, created laws, and required the common people who lived in the state to obey his commands. In addition to giving the king part of the taxes they collected, lords also had to provide soldiers to the king whenever they were needed to defend attacks by enemies from outside the Zhou lands.
The king had an important duty to his states that went beyond providing land and power to selected people. The Zhou believed that the king was chosen by Heaven and was the only person who was qualified to perform the important religious rituals to Heaven for them all. It was a system with duties that connected all participants in some way.
Depending on Each Other
The way people got power during the Zhou Dynasty had both positives and negatives, depending on who you were in the system. At first, there was trust between the king and the lords, especially since many of the lords were family members or friends of the king. The king and state rulers could depend on each other to have some of their needs filled. The rulers of the states depended on the king for their positions of power. The king depended on the lords for money and soldiers. The farmers got land to grow crops and raise animals but had to pay a tax for this privilege. The tax was paid by giving some of their crop or what they produced to the lord. The lord then split the tax with the king. Farmers got help from the king and nobles when outsiders attacked or invaded. Unfortunately, in this system also meant that some people could never inherit or share power. Only people with the right connections or family ties could be rulers.
Competing for Power: The Warring States Period
As the years passed, the original Zhou political system underwent changes. The nobles had originally been grateful and loyal but, as the next 400 years passed and other generations took over, the family ties and feelings of gratitude were not as strong. The position of the Zhou king was kept because people still believed that he was needed to perform the religious duties that connected them to Heaven, but they began to disobey his orders. As the individual lords had become economically stronger they no longer felt they needed each other. Each state began to look out for its own interests as they competed for better farmland, access to waterways, and resources such as iron ore deposits. Each state wanted to be the richest and best which led to stronger and stronger competition. The last 242 years of the dynasty is known as the Warring States Period since so many large and small battles occurred. The defeats, conquests, and alliances of war gradually combined the original 70 small states into 7 large areas.
Economic System
Agriculture
When the Zhou Dynasty began, it established more than just a new political system in China. The economic system that they introduced changed the way land was divided and used for agriculture. Since “money” at this time was measured in terms of food and goods produced, each Zhou state wanted to grow the most food, raise the most cattle, and make the most finished goods to sell. Zhou rulers tried to increase the amount of food grown on their lands by introducing a farming system known as the “well-field” system. In this system, farms were organized into groups of nine, like squares in a tic-tac-toe board. All the farmers worked the land in the middle of the “board”. The food raised on this space was given to the lord. The squares around the center space were used by the farmers to grow food for themselves and their families. Farmers were motivated to improve their farming methods since it meant they would grow more food on the squares they worked for themselves. In spite of the economic growth that was occurring, most common people benefited very little. Most still lived in poverty but, under the well field system, China’s agricultural economy improved as more food was grown.
An Expanding Economy
One of the benefits when one part of an economy improves is that it usually benefits other parts of the economy as well. This was true during the Zhou Dynasty. When farmers prospered, they were able to buy more goods such as cows and wagons. When farming expanded, craftsmen who specialized in making iron farming tools had more work and sold more tools. They prospered along with the farmers. For every small economic change, there are lots of hidden ones. For example, just adding a cow to a farm adds the need to buy or produce ropes to tie the cow, skilled people to make and repair a plow for it to pull, and much more. A person might improve their crop so much by adding the help of a cow that the grain they once carried by hand might require a wagon. This would add jobs for wheel makers, a wagon maker, someone to chop the lumber for the wagon wood, and on and on. The economy of the Zhou states increased the number of goods and services it produced as a result of improved farming.
|
|
Cities and Taxes
Cities became more important during the Zhou dynasty. Most of the Zhou states contained at least one main city with a wall built around it and some had several cities. Outside of the walled city were the farms of the peasants, or poor farmers. Zhou cities were centers of trade, protection, and tax collection. Everyone had to travel to the city to pay taxes to the lord of their state. Traveling to the city also provided farmers and craftsmen a chance to trade surplus goods for other products.
The trade activity that developed at Zhou cities got the attention of Zhou rulers. The king and lord wanted to benefit from this trade. In order to control the trade, the walls around cities were designed to limit how people could enter into the city. Gates were put into the walls that everyone was required to pass through when entering or leaving the city. In this way, trade goods could be counted and taxed when they entered or left the city. No one could sneak out and avoid paying their taxes! The lord of each state was required to give part of what was collected to the king of the Zhou Dynasty.
Accomplishments
Reading and Writing
Many positive accomplishments came from the time known as the Zhou Dynasty. For example, improvements in farming led to other improvements. Because taxes on crops created the need to keep a record of the money they made and what the peasants owed, a greater interest in reading, writing, and math developed. Some educated people traveled from state to state to do the record keeping and even began to teach a few farmers those skills. Because of increased interest in reading and writing during this time, many books were written. In fact, the oldest books yet found in China are from the Zhou dynasty. Something even came out of the Warring States period since Sun zi bing fa (The Art of War), a well known book of military strategy in China, was written during this time. It was such a valuable book that it is still used in many military training schools today!
Another positive accomplishment was the beginning of a writing system that could connect the many people and huge areas of China. During Zhou, most of the states spoke their own form or dialect of the Chinese language. This limited the amount of communication they could have with each other. Because of the need to share trade and other records between states, they began to improve their writing system so that no matter what dialect of Chinese people spoke in daily life, they would have the same symbols to represent words and ideas. The 7 states all had their own “style” of the symbols, much as we have different fonts that all stand for the same letters, but it was an important start toward communication between the different areas.
Schools of Thought
Even the period of conflict and war that occurred at the end of the Zhou Dynasty eventually had a lasting positive result in the way it inspired more thinking about how people should live. During the time of wars between the many Zhou states there was little stability or order in society. People could not always rely on their leaders or military to protect them or to guarantee a peaceful life. It was during this time that different ideas about what is important in life and how people should live became very popular. People turned to these ideas for stability and order. These new ways of thinking were called “Schools of Thought.” Because the Zhou period produced so many thinkers and different schools of thought, it is sometimes known as the “Period of a Hundred Flowers” or “Hundred Schools.” The greatest Chinese thinker, Confucius, was born during this time. He grew up and traveled from state to state, teaching ideas that were based on treating others fairly and as you wanted to be treated. This period was the first time in Chinese history that some of the common people were able to contribute and discuss ideas directly with the upper class. This helped lead to a new “thinking” class of educated people as people began to value such skills more and more.
Some ideas from the ancient Chinese schools of thought have lived on into modern times. Things that have stood the test of time are called classics. The Zhou dynasty is considered the “classical age” in China because the thinking that developed during this long dynasty has lasted many years and continues to influence thinking even today. Some of the classic ideas in Chinese tradition and culture are:
- Confucianism - People should live in harmony with each other. “Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you.”
- Daoism - People must be in touch with their own thoughts and nature.
- Legalism - Strict laws and punishments are needed to keep people from evil.
- Yin-Yang Dualism - Balance in all things is important. Combining opposites is good because they balance each other.
The Dynasty Comes to An End
The Zhou dynasty eventually ended when one of the states, called Qin, used the wars and conflicts between the States to take control. It took their king, King Zheng, seventeen years to defeat one after another of the states until he finally united China under his rule in 221 BCE. Because he had lived with and experienced all the conflicts that the lack of a common written language had caused, King Zheng would continue the important effort begun by the Zhou to bring a common written language to China.
* About These Documents
This collection of documents was developed in collaboration with MCPS and ___. They provide additional information and explanation of the political, economic, and social systems of each dynasty. Students and teachers may find them helpful when completing the Dynasty Project in the sixth grade Unit 3 guide The Impact of Economics in Ancient and Modern China. The additional readings are provided to also supplement student understand of the achievements of ancient China and their influence on other civilizations.
|
