As we all know, since King Wu of Zhou was destroyed in the Battle of Muye King Zhou of Shang and established Zhou Dynasty , he has ruled the world for eight hundred years.
It was also during this period that the political system of the Zhou Dynasty gradually improved, and class divisions were basically established. The court formed a local administrative system with enfeoffment as the main body.
In layman's terms, the world has formed a pattern of princes from all sides, guarding the emperor like the stars over the moon. Once the emperor is in trouble, the princes will come from all directions to King Qin.
Moreover, the various princes and kings had to go to Haojing regularly to pay homage to the Emperor of Zhou. From this, it can be seen that the Emperor of Zhou had absolute say over the princes and kings.
However, the general trend of the world is that if it is divided for a long time, it will unite, and if it unites for a long time, it will divide. In the late period of the Western Zhou Dynasty, several fatuous kings appeared, which caused the Zhou Dynasty to be divided into two and the Western Zhou Dynasty was destroyed.
Among them, most people only know that King Ping of Zhou established the Eastern Zhou Dynasty with the help of the princes, but they do not know that there was another "Emperor of Zhou" who was established as the Emperor of Zhou alongside King Ping of Zhou.
Not only was he the first emperor to be killed by the princes in the eight hundred years of the Zhou Dynasty, he had never appeared in the writings of Taishi Company Sima Qian, which is thought-provoking.
The Destruction of the Western Zhou Dynasty
"Historical Records" has been praised as "the swansong of historians and the unrhymed lissa". It can be seen that the history recorded in this book is relatively recognized by people, and there is also the widely circulated story of " Beacon Fire Plays with Princes".
According to "Historical Records", King You of Zhou got a beauty named Baosi . Although she looked stunning, she just didn't like to laugh. Therefore, King You of Zhou lit up beacons many times to make her laugh in order to make Concubine Bo Ai smile.
Later, the princes and kings who came to King Qin learned that they were being tricked and left angrily. Later, when Quanrong really came to invade, they lit the beacon tower but no princes and kings came. The Western Zhou Dynasty was destroyed in this way. From a logical point of view, there is indeed nothing wrong with the story
, but after careful consideration, you can find that there are many unreasonable things in it.
First of all, in the historical documents before the Qin and Han Dynasties, there is no record of the construction of the Great Wall and beacon towers in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Since there was no beacon tower, it was naturally impossible for King You of Zhou to light it.
Secondly, the Jin Kingdom , the closest vassal state to the capital , has a distance of more than 300 kilometers to Haojing, and it would take a week at the fastest to get there. How could King You of Zhou and Bao Si wait for them for so long.
Third, according to historical records, the Western Zhou Dynasty's war against the Quanrong was initiated by King You of Zhou. How could it be possible that the beacon tower was lit only after the Quanrong rushed to the capital to surround Haojing?
Modern historians have indeed confirmed that "Beacon fire plays on the princes" is actually a false story fabricated by Sima Qian, and is not the real reason for the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
In fact, King Zhou You favored Bao Si and deposed the prince who was originally born to Empress Shen, making Bao Si's son his heir. Empress Shen's son Ji Yijiu fled to the State of Shen.
In order to prevent Ji Yijiu and Bao Si's son from competing for the throne in the future, King You of Zhou sent troops to attack the State of Shen. Unexpectedly, the State of Shen united with people from Zeng State and Xirong to send troops to defeat King You of Zhou.
Since then, the Western Zhou Dynasty has perished like this, and the world has been shocked. Endless calculations have begun among various vassal states. The pattern of "two kings standing side by side" appeared in this context.
"Two kings stood side by side", and the king was killed.
You must know that the throne of King Zhou Ping was ultimately obtained by Shenhou who joined forces with the Quanrong to destroy Queen Zhou You. Moreover, the position of the crown prince had long been abolished. For the Zhou Dynasty where rituals and music had not yet collapsed, the name was unjust and unjust.
This gave the princes of the world an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos to expand their strength, because at this time the princes of the world did not yet have the intention to unify the world, but were just thinking about how to expand their territory and reap benefits.
In order to win over these princes and consolidate his throne, King Ping of Zhou gave a lot of benefits to Qin, Jin, Zheng, and other vassal states, so he moved the capital to Luoyang.
But those princes who did not benefit from this war also wanted to take the opportunity to establish a more stable monarch to prepare for their own families.
Ji Han, Duke of Northern Guo, and more than a dozen princes, large and small, jointly supported King Zhou Xuan's younger brother Ji Yuchen as the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, and designated Huiyi as the capital.
The Zhou Dynasty thus entered a situation where two monarchs coexisted.
" Series of Years " in Tsinghua Bamboo Slips has records, "In the ninth year of the death of the king of Zhou, the kings and princes began to stop courting the Zhou Dynasty" . What this passage says is that after King You of Zhou fell, the princes and countries began to stop paying tribute to the Emperor of Zhou.
This is because there are two emperors of Zhou in the world, and the princes and countries do not know who to pay tribute to, so they simply stopped paying tribute to the emperor of Zhou every year.
This move just proves that the strength of the Zhou royal family at this time is not the same as in the past. King Zhou Xie was supported by Guo Gonghan and other princes, and he lived in harmony with his allies.
In the early days of the coexistence of the two kings, Jin did not express who it supported, but remained neutral. King Zhou Xie governed the country well in his territory, and he never launched a war, and developed peacefully with other countries.
During the reign of King Zhou Xie, the politics were enlightened. As the power of King Zhou Tie increased day by day, Marquis Wen of Jin, who was about to expand his territory to the northeast, felt the threat from King Zhou Tie.
Compared with King Zhou Xie, the young King Zhou Ping not only had little real power, but also could bring more benefits to Jin in order to keep the throne, and he did not have to worry about any threats from King Zhou Ping to him.
King Zhou Xie was not only in his prime, but also managed the country well. From any aspect, King Zhou Xie would be a major obstacle on the road to the power of Jin.
In this way, the State of Jin took advantage of King Zhou Xie's inspection of the north and sent troops to attack King Zhou Xie's territory on the grounds that King Zhou Xie had no right to inherit King You's rule.
In this way, King Zhou Xie's capital was destroyed in the war. King Zhou Xie was later killed by Jin Wenhou, and King Zhou Xie's regime disappeared in the long river of history.
After King Zhou Xie was killed by Jin Wenhou, King Zhou Ping was established as the common ruler of the world. King Ping of Zhou also wrote "The Order of Marquis Wen" to commend Marquis Wen of Jin for his achievements.
Historical Records No King Xie
Later, when Sima Qian compiled historical records, when he wrote about this period of history, he did not mention King Xie of Zhou at all. He only covered up this period of history with a false story of "playing beacon fire on the princes".
Investigating the reason, we cannot blame Sima Qian for not recording King Zhou Xie. Because after King Zhou Xie was destroyed, King Zhou Ping naturally had the title of inheriting the unification.
Naturally, things that are not conducive to his succession to the throne cannot be leaked out and criticized by others. In order to cover up the illegality of his regime, King Zhou Ping could only erase all things about King Zhou Xie.
Moreover, Taishi Gong was more than four hundred years old from that period. It is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of many things. They can only be recorded based on the history that has been widely spread among the people.
Conclusion
Although King Zhou Xie managed the country well in his own territory and made friends with his neighbors, in an era where long-term alliances inevitably lead to divisions, but divisions are not divided, only by strengthening one's own military power can one stand in troubled times.
History is written by the victors. King Zhou Xie, who died tragically in troubled times, tragically became the first emperor of the Zhou Dynasty to be killed by princes. Many of his deeds were also obliterated and could not be passed down to future generations.
