Duke Zhou returned power to Queen Zhou Cheng, and the rule of the Zhou Dynasty gradually stabilized. When King Cheng and King Kang of Zhou were in power, the country was strong and the world was stable. It was the most powerful period of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it was known in history as "the rule of Cheng Kang". "Historical Records·Zhou Benji": "The world is peaceful, and the wrong punishment for more than forty years is not needed."
In 996 BC, King Kang of Zhou died, and his son Ji Xia came to the throne as King Zhao of Zhou Zhao.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were many Fang Kingdoms and tribes in the Jianghan Plain area, and they were called "Chu Barbarians" by the Zhou people. The Chu barbarians here are not Chu State . Chu State is a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty. The king is Mi, Xiong. Chu people once followed King Wu of Zhou to conquer Zhou. When Zhou Cheng was king, he made Xiong Yi, the leader of the Chu people, a viscount and established the Chu State in Danyang (now the Danjiangkou Reservoir Area in Hubei Province). The Chu State was adjacent to the Chu Man. During the reign of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, the Chu barbarians were relatively powerful. They widely occupied the Han River basin, and united with the surrounding Hufang, Yangyue and Dongyifang states to cause rebellion and attack the copper mines of the vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty. King Zhao of Zhou first conquered Dongyi, and after the success, he began to concentrate his forces to conquer the Chu barbarians in the south.
Today's Danjiangkou Reservoir
In the early Zhou Dynasty, ritual and music conquests came from the emperor, and conquests were the emperor's privilege. According to records, King Zhao of Zhou conquered the Chu barbarians in the south three times. When King Zhao of Zhou conquered the Chu barbarians in the south, he was always accompanied by the troops of the princely states. In the first southern expedition, Wang Shi, together with Zeng, Deng, and Hubei armies, went deep into the Jianghan Plain, gained a lot of treasures, and returned with inscriptions on their achievements in casting vessels. The records of the second southern expedition are unknown, but it is generally believed that they also returned with a great victory. In 977 BC, King Zhao of Zhou made his third southern expedition, and twenty-six states from Dongyi and Nanyi came to court. The third party's southern expedition achieved another great victory and obtained a large amount of trophies bronze . Unfortunately, when King Zhou Zhao was on his way to his army, the weight of the bronze he carried caused the pontoon to overturn when crossing the Han River. King Zhou Zhao fell into the water and died. Zong Liu's division was basically wiped out, which was a major setback in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. "Historical Records·Zhou Benji": " King Zhao did not return from his hunting tour in the south and died on the river." Zhou Shimi did not mourn, and Prince Ji Man of Zhou Zhao succeeded to the throne as King Mu of Zhou .
King Zhao of Zhou's three southern expeditions greatly dealt a blow to the Chu barbarians and expanded the territory of the Zhou Dynasty to the Jianghan Plain area. Through the conquest of Dongyi and Chu Man, the southern territory of the Zhou Dynasty gradually stabilized. At the same time, the southern vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty, such as Zeng Guo, also became stronger and guarded the southern territory for the Zhou Dynasty.
Hubei Provincial Museum Zeng Houyi Chimes
At this time, the power of the Chu State was still small. However, the Zhou Dynasty's attack on other countries in the Jingchu region was conducive to the expansion of the Chu State's living space. Hundreds of years later, the Chu State emerged as a behemoth stretching from Bawu in the west to the sea in the east.
