This is a period of great division in Chinese history. More than 100 vassal states fought endlessly in order to compete for the position of hegemony, and the authority of the emperor disappeared.
At the same time, it is also an era of heroes emerged and Hundred Schools of Thoughts contend with , laying the foundation for China's future national unity. From the time when King Ping of Zhou moved eastward to establish Eastern Zhou in 770 BC, to the time when King Nan of Zhou died of illness in 256 BC, the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed by Qin, a total of 25 kings were passed down in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the country was enjoyed for a total of 515 years. During this period, China's social system underwent a drastic change, iron tools were widely used, and strategic ideas and military tactics were leading other countries for hundreds of years during the same period.
The beginning of the story, we will start with the Battle of Haojing. After the Battle of Haojing, the vassal states such as Shen and Lu supported the Prince of Yuan who was abolished by King You of Zhou and established the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which was called King Ping of Zhou in history. But after the baptism of war, Haojing was already in ruins. In addition, Haojing has always been under the threat of Quanrong . King Ping of Zhou had to move the capital to Luoyi under the escort of Jin State and Zheng State . At the same time, more than a dozen princes including Jihan, the Northern Kingdom, also supported King You of Zhou in a place called Xie, based on King Chen Rui, which is known in history as King Xie of Zhou. Since then, the Zhou royal family has become a coherent situation.
It was not until 760 BC that in order to please King Ping of Zhou, Jin Wenhou sent troops to kill King Xie of Zhou, which ended the ten-year coherence of the Zhou royal family and stabilized the situation in the early Eastern Zhou Dynasty. It is known in history as Wenhou Qin Wang . But since then, the Zhou royal family has had the reputation of being the common ruler of the world. China has entered a period of great division in history. King Ping of Zhou died after 50 years of reign.
Because King Ping of Zhou was so capable, by the time he died of illness, the prince Ji Xie's father had already died, and the throne of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty had to be handed over to King Ping of Zhou's grandson, known in history as King Huan of Zhou. King Huan of Zhou was an ambitious and good young man. He was unwilling to be controlled by the Zheng family and planned to weaken the infringement, strengthen the royal power, and remove Duke Zhuang of Zheng from his post.
Since then, Zhou and Zheng have had evil deeds, and Duke Zhuang of Zheng no longer worships the emperor. King Huan of Zhou, who felt that he could not bear it, united the three kingdoms of Wei, Cai and Chen, who were incompatible with Zheng, to attack Zheng, and the battle between Xuge broke out. As a result, Duke Zhuang of Zheng defeated the General Army of the Emperor and King Huan of Zhou was injured in heavy swords. Since then, the emperor has lost all his majesty and has no power to stop the attacks between the vassal states.
King Huan of Zhou died after 23 years of reign, but King Huan of Zhou did not stop until his death. He entrusted his favorite second son Ji Ke to the minister Zhou Gong Heijian, hoping that after the death of the prince, the throne could be delivered to Ji Ke. After , Zhou Zhuangwang officially succeeded to the throne, Zhou Gong Heijian planned to kill Zhou Zhuangwang so that his younger brother Ji Ke could succeed to the throne and he could also be in power. But in the end, because of the plan to leak , Zhou Gong , the gangster was killed by King Zhuang of Zhou, so Ji Ke had to flee to the Southern Yan Kingdom, which is known in history as the Prince Ke Rebellion.
King Zhou Zhuang reigned for a total of 15 years. Before his death, he did a major thing, which was to negotiate a marriage with Qi State . When the fourth monarch of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, King Xi of Zhou succeeded to the throne, his brother-in-law, , Duke Huan of Qi, became the first overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period with his strategy of respecting the king and expelling the barbarians. The King of Zhou also became the first king to be respected by the princes of various countries since the Zhou Dynasty moved eastward. Unfortunately, this respect was marked with quotes . King Qi of Zhou lived a good life for five years. After his death, he passed the throne to his son, Jilang . It is known in history as King Hui of Zhou. King Hui of Zhou did not know how to judge the situation and thought that all the princes were really afraid of him. He just as soon as he ascended the throne, he forced Cai Yuan of Wei to raise wild animals for him, and forced the land and land of several doctors in the Zhou Dynasty. In the end, the rebellion of Wu Dafu broke out and the throne was lost. Thanks to Zheng Ligong's help, King Hui of Zhou was able to successfully restore Zheng State, and was therefore granted land east of Hulao, which led to further shrinking of the territory controlled by the Zhou royal family.During the 32 years of reign of King Xiang of Zhou, Ji Zheng, the 32 years of reign of the reign of the princes, the battle for hegemony of the princes became increasingly fierce. Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin, who were later called the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period, and their status was above the Zhou royal family and above the various vassal states.
After King Xiang of Zhou died, Zhou asked the King of Zhou and King Kuang of Zhou to succeed to the throne one after another, but the Zhou royal family was already poor at this time, and there was no money to hold a funeral for King Xiang of Zhou. In the end, it was only after Lu State that he was buried in the second year after King Xiang of Zhou's death.
The two of them resigned for a total of 12 years and then stepped down from office. When the ninth emperor, the king of Zhou Ding , a major event happened in Luoyi. The rising king of Chu Zhuang sent the treasure of the Zhou Dynasty, symbolizing the wine table in the world. He asked the envoy of King Ding of Zhou about the weight of the nine tripods. Fortunately, the king of Zhou was neither humble nor arrogant, and calmly responded, so that the dignity of the Zhou Wang family was preserved. After being the emperor for 21 years, King Ding of Zhou passed the throne to his son King Jie of Zhou.
At this time, Wu Kingdom emerged and defeated the crown prince in Wu Chu Battle . In the more than 100 years after King Jie of Zhou, the Zhou Dynasty had a total of five emperors, namely King Ling of Zhou, King Jing of Zhou, King Yuan of Zhou. The finances of the Zhou royal family became increasingly difficult, and even the vessels had to beg for them. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, King Goujian of Yue slept with firewood and tasted gall, and finally destroyed the Wu Kingdom, becoming the last overlord recognized by the Zhou royal family.
entered . During the Warring States Period, . When the 16th monarch of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Zhending, was in power, something happened that had a profound impact on Chinese history. After the three doctors of Jin State Zhao Xiangzi , Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi successively annexed other nobles, they destroyed the last nobles to govern the country, and they formed three countries within the territory of Jin State. Even Jin Yougong had to pay tribute to them. Zhou Zhending Wang died of illness after 28 years of reign. After the death of King Zhending of Zhou, the direction of the Eastern Zhou royal family became a bit dramatic.
King Zhou Zhending had four sons, first the eldest son continued to succeed the throne, known in history as King Zhou's decline. After only three months of reign, King Shuo of Zhou was killed by his second brother, King Jishu of Zhou and seized the throne. After the reign of the throne of the Thurth King, he was killed by his third brother, , Zhoukaowang . Zhoukaowang was worried that he would repeat the mistakes of his brothers, and assigned the land of Henan to his four emperors and established the , Zhouguo , which was known in history as , Western Zhou , which laid hidden dangers for the later Eastern Zhou Dynasty to be divided into two.
Zhou Kao Wang Ping reigned peacefully for 15 years. When his son Zhou Weilie and Ji Wu reigned, another historical event occurred. The three families of Han, Zhao and Wei abolished Jin and entered the palace, and all the remaining land was divided into. It is said in history that the three families of divided Jin and . There is also a saying in history that the three schools divide Jin as the dividing line between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and . During the , Zhou An Wang and , Zhou Liewang after the King of Zhou Wei, the meaning of the existence of the Zhou royal family was only to correct the name of Zhou Hou. First, Zhou An Wang recognized the Qi State doctor Tian and as Qi Hou , which was known in history as Tian family replaced Qi . Then, Qi Wei Dynasty met King of Zhou Lie, which made him famous. During the Zhou Xianwang period, the hidden dangers laid by King Kao of Zhou who we mentioned earlier for his brother, Duke Huan of the Western Zhou Dynasty, broke out completely. The Marquis of Zhao Cheng and Marquis of Han Yi, and the Marquis of Qin and Zhou, and the King of Zhou Ji of Zhou were divided into two small countries, Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou.
At this point, the territory of the Zhou royal family was only a palace, a few families, and an army of thousands of people. During the reign of King Shenjing of Zhou and King Nan of Zhou, in order to strengthen itself, the seven heroes of the Warring States Period began to find their own allies, and carried out a coalition led by Su Qin and a coalition led by Zhang Yi .
Chu State In order to suppress the expansion of Qin State , King Nan of Zhou hopes that in the name of the emperor, all countries will work together to attack Qin. In order to maintain his last dignity, King Nan of Zhou fought and borrowed from all over the world and armed an army of five or six thousand people.Unexpectedly, except for Chu and Yan, who sent a small number of soldiers to respond, the other four countries were useless. King Nan of Zhou had no choice but to go back to the court, and those who lent King Nan of Zhou's military pay came to collect debts. King Nan of Zhou had to hide on a high platform behind the palace to avoid debts, and the idiom of building high platforms came from this. In 256 BC, King Nan of Zhou ended in anger, and King Zhaoxiang of Qin fought against Wang Ji. The 800-year-old Zhou Dynasty came to an end.
