Zhou dynasty

Name and Etymology

The designation of Zhou may have been conferred by King Wu Yi of the Shang dynasty.^[1] Because the ancestral Zhou people were skilled in agriculture, the character for Zhou in Shang oracle bone inscriptions was written as a field divided into quadrants (tian), resembling fertile agricultural land planted with crops.^[1][2] In bronze inscriptions, the character evolved to display the field sign above the element for mouth (kou).^[2] In this epigraphic form, the mouth component represented the pronouncement of government edicts and state orders across the territory.^[1] Zhou was originally an honorific geographical term designating a developed agricultural zone.^[1]

Ancestral Origins and Predynastic History

In Chinese mythology, the lineage of the Zhou kings originated with Jiang Yuan, the principal consort of the legendary Emperor Ku.^[3][4][5][6] Jiang Yuan is recorded as having miraculously conceived her son, Qi, after stepping into the divine footprint of the celestial god Shangdi.^[3][6][7] Because of inauspicious portents, the child was abandoned three times: first in a narrow lane where cattle and horses avoided trampling him, then in a forest where woodcutters rescued him, and finally upon frozen ice where birds protected him with their wings.^[3][6] Having survived these three abandonments, he received the personal name Qi, meaning 'the Abandoned One'.^[3] Qi grew to become a cultural hero credited with introducing advanced agricultural practices and teaching the cultivation of cereals, grains, and millet during the legendary Xia dynasty period.^[3][5][6] In recognition of these achievements, Emperor Shun granted Qi the lordship of the territory of Tai, conferred upon his lineage the clan surname Ji, and bestowed the administrative title of Houji, meaning 'Lord of Millet'.^[8][9] Qi later received veneration as an agrarian deity and harvest god, and the designation Houji remained an inherited title for the lineage leadership.^[4][6][8][9]

Buzhu, who was the son of Qi or his direct successor as Houji, is recorded as having abandoned his position as Agrarian Master (Nongshi) in his old age as Xia authority decayed.^[10][11][12] Buzhu or his son Ju is said to have abandoned agriculture and taken up a nomadic way of life in the manner of the Xirong and Rongdi.^[10][12] Ju's son, Gong Liu, reversed this trend by reviving agriculture, establishing permanent settlements, and leading his people to settle at a locality named Bin.^{[13][14][15][16][17]} The lineage prospered in Bin and was ruled by Gong Liu's descendants over multiple generations, constructing urban settlements and reorganizing their agrarian economy.^[14][15][17] Archaeological studies associate this transitional phase of the proto-Zhou population with sites in the highlands of eastern Gansu, northern Shaanxi, and the upper Fen and Jing river valleys.^[18][19]

Under the leadership of Gong Danfu, posthumously honored as King Tai, persistent attacks and harassment from the nomadic Quanrong forced the clan to abandon Bin.^[17][19][20] Around the reign of the Shang king Wu Yi, Danfu led the Zhou clan south across the mountains into the fertile Wei River valley, settling at the foot of Mount Qi in an area known as Zhouyuan, situated in modern Qishan County, Shaanxi.^[13][18][21] The agricultural conditions of Zhouyuan allowed the Ji lineage to establish a permanent fortified capital, develop comprehensive irrigation and field systems, construct palaces and ancestral temples, and expand diplomatic relationships with neighbouring peoples.^[21][22][23] Archaeological discoveries at the Zhouyuan site, including the palatial remains at Fengchu, confirm the emergence of sophisticated administrative structures, rammed-earth architecture, and the adoption of bronze casting during this phase.^[24]

Danfu passed over his elder sons Taibo and Zhongyong in favor of his youngest son, Jili, who had distinguished himself as a capable military leader.^[25] Taibo and Zhongyong left Zhou for the Lake Tai region, where they founded the state of Wu.^[26][27] Jili succeeded Danfu as leader in Zhouyuan and pursued territorial expansion into southern Shanxi and southern Shaanxi, forming an alliance with the neighboring state of Yu.^[25][28] He cemented marital alliances with regional Shang tributaries, including the Ren clan of Zhi, and repeatedly campaigned on behalf of the Shang royal court against encroaching Rong and Di tribes.^[28][29][30] In recognition of these victories, Shang King Wen Ding appointed Jili as Chief of Pastures (Mushi), functioning as a western regional warden.^[30][31] However, alarmed by Jili's growing military prowess, King Wen Ding betrayed and executed him around the eleventh year of his reign.^[31][32]

Jili's eldest son, Ji Chang, succeeded him and took active diplomatic steps to reduce direct confrontation with the Shang court.^[25][32][33] To appease Chang, Shang king Di Yi married his younger sister to him.^[33][34][35] During the early reign of Di Xin (King Zhou of Shang), Chang served as one of the Three Dukes of the Shang court alongside the Marquis of Jiu and the Marquis of Yu.^[26][36] Following a dispute involving the daughter of the Marquis of Jiu, Di Xin executed both Jiu and Yu, and imprisoned Chang at Youli.^[26][36][37] Chang's subordinates secured his release by presenting Di Xin with gifts of fine horses, beautiful women, and rare treasures.^[26] Upon his liberation, Di Xin granted Chang the authority to wage punitive campaigns in the west, appointing him Western Hegemon (Xibo).^[26][36] Chang subsequently recruited competent ministers, including Lü Shang (Jiang Ziya), and promulgated legal ordinances regulating social discipline and controlling runaway bondservants.^[26][36][38]

Operating as the Western Hegemon, Chang pursued a strategic policy of isolating the Shang court by subduing hostile peripheral polities and consolidating control over critical trade and military routes.^[39][40] He adjudicated boundary disputes between the southern Shanxi states of Yu and Rui, securing Zhou's access eastward toward the Central Plains.^[39][40] Chang launched successful campaigns against the Quanrong in the west and annexed the state of Mixu in modern Lingtai County, Gansu.^[39][40][41] Moving eastward, he conquered the Shang-allied states of Li in modern Licheng, Shanxi, and Yu in modern Qinyang, Henan.^[40][41][42] He finally conquered the major Shang bastion of Chong along the Wei River, after which he constructed a new forward capital named Fengyi (Feng) on the western bank of the Feng River, near modern Xi'an.^[40][43] According to traditional accounts, the Zhou polity at this point controlled two-thirds of the known world, and Chang claimed the royal title as King Wen of Zhou.^{[40][43][44][45]} Modern astronomical and textual calculations indicate that a rare conjunction of five visible planets occurred across the northwestern sky in the fifth lunar month of 1059 BC, which the Zhou interpreted as a cosmic confirmation of their receipt of the Mandate of Heaven.^[37][46]

Archaeological and Linguistic Debates

The ethnic and cultural background of the ancestral Zhou has generated substantial historiographical debate, focusing on whether they were indigenous Huaxia agriculturalists, assimilated western Rong and Di nomads, or a synthesized frontier culture.^[19][47] Proponents of the Huaxia hypothesis point out that early texts such as the Analects present Confucius revering the Duke of Zhou and early Zhou institutions as quintessential paragons of ritual propriety and culture, without treating them as alien. They also point to the Zhou use of a Chinese language and of the Chinese practice of names of two or three characters, and to archaeological evidence of extensive agriculture in the Wei River valley during the Zhou occupation, which is inconsistent with a nomadic way of life.^[48] Linguistic studies conducted by Nicholas Bodman and David McCraw, utilizing lexical statistical analysis, concluded that the ancestral Old Chinese language of the Zhou shared nearly identical vocabulary, morphology, and syntax with that of the Shang.^[49][50][51]

Conversely, other scholars, such as Christopher Beckwith, have argued for steppe and nomadic linkages, noting parallels between the miraculous abandonment myth of Houji and Eurasian hero myths found across Central Asia.^[47][52] The Zhou kings claimed descent from Hou Ji, a legendary culture hero who may have been related to the Xirong through his mother Jiang Yuan.^[3][53][54] Mencius acknowledged this western background by noting that King Wen was born in the western frontier.^[55] However, modern archaeological and historical assessments by Li Feng emphasize that in contemporary Western Zhou epigraphy, the term Rong functioned primarily as a political and military classification for strategic adversaries rather than an ethnic or cultural category.^[56] Archaeological assemblages demonstrate that indigenous western pottery and weapon styles coexisted with elite Zhou bronzes, indicating intense cross-cultural interaction and mutual acculturation between the proto-Zhou, the Qiang, and the Siwa culture in the upper Wei valley prior to the conquest.^[19][57][58]

Excavations of early epigraphic materials indicate that the predynastic Zhou were deeply integrated into the political and religious sphere of the late Shang dynasty.^[59] Shang oracle bone inscriptions from Yinxu explicitly record the 'Zhoufang' (Zhou country) and refer to local rulers with the title 'Zhouhou' (Marquis of Zhou), confirming that the Zhou functioned as recognized vassals under King Wu Ding and subsequent Shang monarchs.^[59] Oracle texts also record a noblewoman designated 'Fu Zhou' as a consort of the Shang king, indicating that intermarriage between the Shang royal house and the Ji lineage occurred several generations before the conquest.^[59] Furthermore, inscribed bronze vessels confirm that predynastic Zhou rulers conducted ancestral sacrifices to the Shang founder, King Tang, inside the ancestral temple of King Di Yi, directly adopting Shang ritual standards and metallurgical casting methods.^[59] Recent archaeological findings at the Peng state cemetery in Shanxi revealed a predominant occurrence of Y-chromosome Haplogroup Q among elite individuals, showing genetic links between regional Western Zhou nobility and earlier northern populations.^[60][61]

History of the Western Zhou

The Western Zhou period extended from the overthrow of the Shang in the mid-11th century BC until the sack of the royal capital Haojing in 771 BC.^[62][63][64] During this era, twelve monarchs of the Ji family exercised direct military authority and ritual leadership across northern China, ruling from dual capitals located in the ancestral Wei valley heartland and managing strategic eastern domains through decentralized enfeoffments.^[63][65][66]

Conquest of Shang and Reign of King Wu

King Wen died shortly after establishing the capital at Feng, passing leadership to his second son, Ji Fa, who became King Wu of Zhou.^[26][67] Assisted by his chief military strategist Lü Shang (Taigong Wang) and his brothers the Duke of Zhou (Ji Dan) and the Duke of Shao (Ji Shi), King Wu prepared to execute his father's designs.^[26][38] The Shang dynasty was experiencing severe internal division, as King Di Xin executed loyal ministers such as Bigan, imprisoned Jizi, and alienated royal relatives including Weizi Qi.^[68] Furthermore, the Shang army had been depleted by prolonged military campaigns against the Dongyi (Eastern Yi) tribes along the Huai River basin, leaving the royal core around the primary capital of Chaoge vulnerable to invasion.^[26][68]

In the eleventh year of his reign, King Wu mobilized the Six Armies of Zhou and marched eastward through the Tongguan Pass.^[26][69][70] At Mengjin on the Yellow River, he held a great assembly and concluded a formal pact with various western allied lords from modern Gansu, Sichuan, and Hubei, an event remembered in historiography as the Mengjin Alliance.^[26][70] Advancing toward the Shang capital with an allied force of 45,000 soldiers and 300 war chariots, King Wu confronted Di Xin's royal army at the Battle of Muye on the day of Jiazi.^[37][70][71] The Shang king had assembled a large force comprised largely of slaves and armed captives, but as the battle commenced, the front ranks refused to fight, turned their weapons, and aided the Zhou assault.^[26][72] Di Xin fled to his palace at the Deer Terrace (Lutai) in Chaoge, adorned himself with precious jewels, and committed suicide by setting the palace ablaze.^[26][72]

Following the victory, King Wu conducted solemn sacrificial ceremonies at Muye and Chaoge to placate the Shang populace and legitimate his authority by proclaiming the transfer of the Mandate of Heaven.^[72][73] To maintain order over the conquered Shang territories, he appointed Di Xin's son, Wu Geng, to govern the core Shang region around Chaoge as a vassal ruler.^{[74][75][76][77]} To monitor Wu Geng and prevent insurrection, King Wu divided the surrounding territory into three administrative surveillance zones known as the Three Guards (San Jian): Guan, supervised by his third brother Guan Shu Xian; Cai, supervised by his fifth brother Cai Shu Du; and Huo, supervised by his eighth brother Huo Shu Chu.^{[74][75][78][79]} King Wu also restored Weizi Qi to the fief of Wei, which later developed into the regional state of Song, preserving sacrifices to the Shang royal ancestors under the diplomatic policy of Two Kings and Three Reverences (Er Wang San Ke).^[74][75] King Wu established a new administrative capital named Haojing on the eastern bank of the Feng River, retaining the old capital Feng as a ritual centre, and initiated plans to build an eastern royal city at Luoyi (Chengzhou) to control the Central Plains.^[72][80][81] King Wu died approximately two or three years after the conquest, leaving the throne to his young son, Crown Prince Song.^[76][82][83]

Regency of the Duke of Zhou and the Eastern Expedition

Because King Cheng was too young to govern directly, his uncle Ji Dan, the Duke of Zhou, assumed the regency and managed the affairs of the royal court.^{[25][76][84][85]} This action aroused suspicion among his older brothers, Guan Shu and Cai Shu, who feared that the Duke intended to usurp the throne.^[74][76][85] Wu Geng exploited these dynastic divisions and formed a military alliance with the Three Guards, launching a major insurrection against the central court known as the Rebellion of the Three Guards.^{[74][75][76][85]} The rebellion was supported by independent-minded Shang royalists, indigenous Dongyi polities such as Yan (in modern Qufu, Shandong) and Pugu (in modern Boxing, Shandong), and several Huai River valley states, including Xu and the Xiong Ying tribes.^{[74][75][76][84][85]}

Confronting this challenge, the Duke of Zhou secured the diplomatic cooperation of the Duke of Shao and issued the 'Great Announcement' (Da Gao) to rally the Ji royal lineages and their western allies.^[85][86][87] The Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao initiated an eastern punitive campaign that lasted three years.^{[87][88][89][90]} In the first two years, royal forces defeated the Three Guards and killed Wu Geng and Guan Shu, while Cai Shu was sent into exile and Huo Shu was stripped of his titles and reduced to a commoner.^{[76][87][89][91]} In the third year, the Duke of Zhou led the royal armies deeper into the eastern coastal plain, subduing the state of Yan, annihilating Pugu and Fengbo, and forcing the state of Xu to migrate southward into modern Jiangsu.^{[89][91][92][93][94]} This eastern expedition extended the territorial control of the Zhou dynasty from the Central Plains directly to the Bohai Sea and the lower reaches of the Yellow and Huai river basins.^[66][89][91]

Following the pacification of the east, the Duke of Zhou supervised the construction of the secondary capital of Luoyi (also called Chengzhou) in modern Luoyang, Henan, fulfilling the strategic vision of King Wu.^{[66][72][84][91][95]} Prominent Shang aristocratic lineages and rebellious populations were forcibly transferred from Chaoge and settled in Chengzhou under direct royal surveillance.^[89][91] To protect this administrative capital and project royal force against the Dongyi, Huaiyi, and southern polities, the court established the permanent military garrison known as the Eight Armies of Chengzhou.^[89][91][96] Concurrently, the Western Six Armies were maintained at the western capital of Zongzhou (Haojing) to guard the Wei River heartland.^[89][91][96] To secure these newly annexed territories, the Duke of Zhou formalized the fengjian system, establishing fortified colonial city-states ruled by royal relatives and trusted allies.^{[66][84][89][97][98]}

Consolidation and the Cheng–Kang Era

Upon reaching adulthood, King Cheng assumed direct administration, while the Duke of Zhou stepped down from the regency and resumed his status as an advisor.^[99] The reigns of King Cheng (r. 1042–1021 BC) and his son King Kang (r. 1020–996 BC) represented the apex of Western Zhou royal authority, internal stability, and territorial expansion, a period celebrated in traditional historiography as the 'Rule of Cheng and Kang' (Cheng-Kang zhi zhi).^{[25][100][101]} Supported by elder statesmen such as the Duke of Shao and the Duke of Bi, the monarchy pursued pacification, promoted agricultural production, and maintained strict social order.^[101][102] Traditional accounts maintain that during this era peace was so thoroughly established that judicial punishments were suspended for over forty years.

King Cheng convened a grand assembly of regional lords and foreign polities at Mount Qi, known as the Gathering of Qiyang, demonstrating the suzerainty of the Son of Heaven over peripheral peoples.^[91] Military campaigns continued to suppress boundary disturbances; the Grand Protector led campaigns against the state of Lu, and King Kang directed Bo Maofu (Count Kang of Wei) to lead the Eight Armies of Yin to crush Dongyi rebellions.^{[103][104][105]} The royal minister Yu was dispatched with an expeditionary force to campaign against the hostile Guifang barbarians in the north and northwest, capturing over thirteen thousand prisoners, horses, and chariots, as recorded on the Da Yu ding bronze vessel.^{[106][107][108]} King Kang also conducted royal tours of inspection to the southeast, reaching the Jiujiang region, and established new peripheral fiefs such as the enfeoffment of the Marquis of Yu at Yi in modern Dantu, Jiangsu.^{[1][109][110]} King Kang held an imperial assembly at the Feng Palace in Fengjing, an event remembered as the 'Court of the Feng Palace'.^{[25][100][101]} During this period, the Zhou domain achieved its maximum geographical extent, stretching from the sea in the east to the upper Wei River in the west, reaching Chaoyang in modern Liaoning in the north, and extending to the Han and Huai rivers in the south.^{[74][111][112]}

Expansion and Crises under Kings Zhao and Mu

Under King Zhao (r. 995–977 BC), the Zhou state pursued an aggressive southern expansion focused on the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han river basins.^{[100][113][114][115]} King Zhao launched military campaigns against the southern polities of Kuai and Hufang, continuing the Zhou expansion to the south and southeast.^{[116][117][118]} In the sixteenth year of his reign, King Zhao led a southern expedition across the Han River, subjugating regional states and capturing metal resources.^[118][119] In the nineteenth year of his reign, however, King Zhao led a second campaign across the Han River that ended in a major military disaster.^[114][120] The entire force of the Western Six Armies was wiped out, and King Zhao drowned in the river alongside his chief ministers.^{[100][113][114][120]} Later accounts preserve two explanations for his death: either a temporary pontoon bridge collapsed during a retreat, or the royal party was provided with boats joined by water-soluble glue that dissolved midstream.^{[121][122][123]} The disaster shattered the Zhou court's military superiority, and the loss of the royal armies permanently halted Zhou expansion southward, prompting later monarchs to rely on regional diplomatic buffers.^{[100][114][124]}

King Zhao's son, King Mu (r. 976–922 BC), had the longest reign of any Western Zhou monarch and engaged in active military and administrative restructuring to restore royal prestige.^[113][124] He campaigned extensively against external tribes, ordering his general Mao Gong Ban to manage the Huai River basin and wage a three-year campaign against the Juanrong.^[125] When the Huaiyi invaded Zhou territory, royal commanders deployed the Eight Armies of Chengzhou to repel them, while King Mu led an expedition south toward the Jiujiang region.^[125][126] King Mu conducted two campaigns against the Quanrong in the northwest, relocating segments of their population to Taiyuan.^[127][128] According to traditional accounts and the Bamboo Annals, King Mu had originally appointed the ruler of the eastern state of Xu as an eastern hegemon, but when Xu Yanwang mobilized eastern tribes and attacked toward Luoyi, King Mu returned from the west and allied with the state of Chu to crush the Xu uprising.^{[127][129][130][131]} These campaigns became the basis for later legends such as the Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven (Mu Tianzi Zhuan), describing his travels to the western Kunlun Mountains and his meeting with the Queen Mother of the West.^[131][132]

Decline, Court Strife, and King Li

From the reign of King Gong (r. 922–900 BC) onward, the power of the central Zhou state declined, exacerbated by economic strains, land alienation, and increasing pressure from peripheral tribes.^{[63][115][133][134]} Under King Yih (r. 899–892 BC), the royal court was harassed by persistent nomadic intrusions from the Quanrong, forcing a temporary relocation of the royal residence from Haojing to Huaili.^[135] Following King Yih's death, his uncle Prince Pifang seized the throne from the rightful heir, Crown Prince Xie, ruling as King Xiao (r. 891–886 BC).^[136] King Xiao favored a skilled horse breeder named Feizi, granting him an official fief at Qin邑 (in modern Qingshui County, Gansu), an event marking the founding of the state of Qin.^[136] When King Xiao died, regional feudal lords intervened in the royal succession and restored Prince Xie to the throne as King Yi (r. 885–878 BC).^[137] Upon his accession, King Yi found royal prestige diminished.^[138] Relying on confidential allegations by the Marquis of Ji, King Yi executed Duke Ai of Qi by boiling him alive in a cauldron, after which Duke Ai's successor moved the Qi capital to Pugu to avoid the Marquis of Ji.^{[138][139][140][141]}

By the reign of King Li (r. 877–841 BC), the Western Zhou state faced recurring warfare with the Xianyun in the northwest and the Huaiyi in the east.^{[134][142][143]} Internally, the royal treasury had been exhausted by ongoing defense expenditures and extensive gifts to allied nobles.^{[134][144][145]} To centralize resources, King Li employed Duke Rong of Yi and instituted an economic policy of 'monopolies' (zhuanli), asserting royal control over communal forests, mountains, rivers, and lakes, and barring commoners and local nobility from harvesting natural resources.^[144][145] To silence public outrage, King Li enforced an aggressive surveillance policy (mibang), deploying shamans and diviners from the state of Wei to spy on residents; those caught criticizing the king were summarily executed.^[144][146] Historical chronicles record that this repression created an environment where travelers and citizens dared not converse and communicated only through glances.^[146] In 841 BC, the inhabitants of the capital, known as the Guoren, revolted alongside disgruntled aristocrats in the Guoren Rebellion (or Zhi Rebellion).^{[147][148][149]} The rebels stormed the palace, forcing King Li to flee for his life to the town of Zhi (in modern Huozhou, Shanxi), where he remained in exile until his death.^{[147][148][149]}

Gonghe Regency and King Xuan's Restoration

Following King Li's flight in 841 BC, Crown Prince Jing was hidden and protected by the Duke of Shao, while state administration was reorganized under a collective interim authority known as the Gonghe Regency (841–828 BC).^{[147][148][150]} In traditional historiography based on the Records of the Grand Historian, 'Gonghe' was interpreted as a joint collegiate government headed by the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao.^[147] However, the Bamboo Annals record that Gong Bohe (Ji He) held the royal position during this period.^[150][151] The first year of the Gonghe Regency, 841 BC, represents the earliest point in Chinese history with continuous chronology recorded in primary chronicles.^[147][152] When King Li died in exile at Zhi in 828 BC, the regency ended, and Crown Prince Jing was enthroned as King Xuan of Zhou.^[147]

King Xuan (r. 827–782 BC) sought to rebuild royal power, initiating a revival referred to as the 'Xuan Restoration' (Xuanwang Zhongxing).^[147][149] Politically, he appointed capable ministers such as Zhong Shanfu and Yin Jifu, restored administrative discipline, and repaired royal palaces.^[153][154] In the ninth year of his reign, he convened an assembly of regional lords at Chengzhou (Luoyi).^[155][156] Militarily, King Xuan appointed Duke Mu of Shao to lead regional forces against the Huaiyi, securing their compliance and sending Yin Jifu to regulate their tax quotas.^[157][158] Royal commander Fang Shu led campaigns against Jingchu, while Nan Zhong led the Six Armies against the state of Xu.^[158][159] The most important campaigns were against the Xianyun; in the fifth year of his reign, King Xuan personally led Yin Jifu against the Xianyun at Pengya, and ordered Nan Zhong to build fortifications at Shuofang.^{[157][160][161]} In the twelfth year of his reign, King Xuan sent Duke Xuan of Guo to attack the Xianyun at the Luo River.^[162][163]

Despite these successes, King Xuan's later reign suffered severe military defeats and institutional disruptions.^[164][165] Royal campaigns against the Rong of Taiyuan, Tiaorong, and Benrong suffered losses, and in 789 BC, royal armies were routed by the Jiangrong at Qianmu.^{[165][166][167]} To address manpower shortages, King Xuan bypassed the advice of his ministers and conducted an unprecedented census at Taiyuan to conscript soldiers.^[168] In economic policy, King Xuan dismantled the traditional ceremonial well-field plowing ritual ('bu jie qianmu'), acknowledging the private ownership of reclaimed land and substituting the che tax system based on individual acreage, an action that drew a protest from Duke Wen of Guo.^[169][170] King Xuan also interfered in regional succession practices, overriding the rule of patrilineal primogeniture by deposing the designated heir of Lu and installing a younger favorite, Prince Xi, which triggered a civil war in Lu that required royal military intervention.^[164] King Xuan died in 782 BC and was succeeded by his son, King You.^[147][164]

King You and the Fall of Haojing (771 BC)

The Western Zhou collapsed during the reign of King You (r. 781–771 BC) through economic distress, natural disasters, and court fractionalization.^{[171][172][173]} Early in King You's reign, the Wei, Jing, and Luo river basins experienced severe drought, earthquakes, and landslides, prompting the court scribe Boyangfu to predict the fall of the dynasty.^[171] King You entrusted the government to Guo Shifu (Duke Huan of Western Guo), who engaged in extortionate financial policies and accumulated private wealth, generating public resentment.^[174][175] Duke Huan of Zheng relocated his lineage from the capital zone eastward, acquiring territory between the Eastern Guo and Kuai states in modern Henan to establish New Zheng.^[176][177] Western Rong tribes repeatedly assaulted the western frontier; the Zhou commander Bo Shi was killed in battle, and the elder brother of Duke Xiang of Qin was captured by nomadic forces at Quanquan.^[172][178]

The final dynastic crisis arose from a succession dispute inside the royal harem.^[179][180] King You became infatuated with a concubine named Bao Si, who bore him a son named Bofu.^{[179][180][181]} King You deposed his legitimate queen, the daughter of the Marquis of Shen, and disinherited the rightful crown prince, Ji Yijiu, declaring Bao Si as queen and Bofu as the crown prince.^{[179][180][182]} Prince Yijiu fled to the western frontier state of Shen.^[180][182] When King You mobilized royal forces to attack Shen in 771 BC, the Marquis of Shen formed a military alliance with the regional state of Zeng and the nomadic Quanrong tribes.^{[173][179][183][184]} The allied forces launched a surprise assault on the capital Haojing, capturing and sacking the city.^{[173][179][185]} King You, Prince Bofu, and Duke Huan of Zheng were killed near Mount Li.^{[179][185][186]} The Quanrong captured Bao Si, seized royal bronzes and treasures, and devastated the Wei River heartland, bringing the Western Zhou period to an end.^{[173][179][185][187]}

History of the Eastern Zhou

The Eastern Zhou period spanned from 770 BC to the final annexation of the royal domain by the state of Qin in 256 BC.^[62][63][64] Following the sack of Haojing, the Zhou monarchs abandoned the western heartland, establishing their seat of administration at the eastern capital of Luoyi (later renamed Wangcheng and Chengzhou).^{[62][63][173]} Although the Zhou kings retained their sacred status as Sons of Heaven and performed ritual ceremonies, their direct territorial domain contracted, leaving them politically and militarily dependent on powerful regional states.^{[188][189][190]}

Eastward Relocation and Diminished Authority

Following the death of King You in 771 BC, a faction of regional lords led by the Marquis of Shen, the Marquis of Zeng, Duke Wen of Xu, and Duke Wu of Zheng enthroned Crown Prince Yijiu at Shen as King Ping of Zhou.^{[173][191][192]} Concurrently, a rival faction led by Guo Gong Han rejected King Ping's legitimacy and enthroned Prince Yuchen at Xie (in modern Xi'an), declaring him King Xie of Zhou.^{[173][192][193]} This dual kingship persisted for two decades until 750 BC, when Marquis Wen of Jin attacked Xie, killed King Xie, and unified the royal succession under King Ping.^{[192][193][194]}

After the fall of Haojing, King Ping relocated the royal court eastward to Luoyi in 770 BC, escorted by the forces of Marquis Wen of Jin, Duke Wu of Zheng, and Duke Xiang of Qin.^{[62][173][195]} In return for their military protection, King Ping granted Duke Xiang of Qin full feudal status as a regional lord and assigned him nominal rights over the abandoned western ancestral territories in Qizhou, conditional on recovering them from the Quanrong.^[196] Qin troops drove the Quanrong westward, took control of the Wei River valley, and established Qin as a frontier power.^[196][197] Marquis Wen of Jin received royal land along the Fen River.^[196] Through this transfer, the Zhou royal house permanently lost its western base, leaving the court with a small royal domain around Luoyi.^[189][190] The Zhou court became economically dependent on grain supplies and military protection provided by neighboring vassal states, particularly Zheng, Jin, and Wei.^[189][190]

The erosion of royal authority was underscored by the growing independence of the state of Zheng, whose rulers, Duke Wu and Duke Zhuang, held the hereditary office of royal chancellor (Qingshi).^[190][198] Under Duke Zhuang, Zheng focused on its own territorial aggrandizement.^[198] Seeking to limit Zheng's influence, King Ping attempted to divide the chancellorship by appointing Duke Jifu of Western Guo.^[198] To settle resulting tensions, the Zhou court and Zheng exchanged royal hostages in 720 BC: Prince Hu of Zhou was sent to Zheng, and Prince Hu of Zheng was sent to the Zhou capital, an episode known as the Zhou-Zheng Exchange of Hostages.^[198][199] Traditional chronicles regarded this exchange as a major breakdown of ritual propriety (li beng yue huai), as the Son of Heaven had demeaned his status to that of an equal with a regional vassal.^[198][199]

When King Huan dismissed Duke Zhuang of Zheng as chancellor in 706 BC, Duke Zhuang stopped attending the royal court.^{[198][199][200]} King Huan assembled an allied punitive army comprising royal troops and contingents from Cai, Wei, and Chen to attack Zheng in 707 BC.^[198][200] At the Battle of Xuge, the disciplined army of Zheng defeated the royal coalition, and the Zheng archer Zhu Dan shot and wounded King Huan in the shoulder.^{[198][200][201]} Although Duke Zhuang sent an envoy that evening to express formal apologies, the defeat showed the military impotence of the Son of Heaven, ending royal military deterrence over the regional states.^{[198][200][201][202]}

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Hegemons

The Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC), named after the Spring and Autumn Annals kept by the state of Lu, was characterized by the political fragmentation of the former Zhou realm into scores of independent polities.^{[63][64][188][203]} Over 140 regional states engaged in warfare, diplomacy, and inter-state treaties.^[204] Because the royal house was unable to enforce internal order or protect the Central Plains against peripheral peoples (such as the Rong, Di, and the expanding southern power of Chu), powerful regional rulers stepped forward to act as hegemons (ba), exercising political and military leadership under the slogan 'Revere the King and Repel the Barbarians' (zunwang rangyi).^{[188][200][203][205]}

The first recognized hegemon was Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 BC), who, guided by his chancellor Guan Zhong, instituted domestic economic reforms, created state monopolies over salt and iron, and established an efficient administrative system.^{[200][203][205]} Duke Huan used his power to intervene in regional disputes, secure dynastic successions, and defend allied states, such as Yan, Xing, and Wei, against northern Di incursions.^[203] Duke Huan united the lords of nine states to resist the northern campaign of King Cheng of Chu.^{[200][203][206]} In 651 BC, Duke Huan convened the multi-state conference at Kuiqiu, where the Zhou royal court conferred upon him the title of Hegemon (Ba), formalizing the system under which the King of Zhou remained the ritual suzerain while the Hegemon directed political affairs.^{[203][205][206]}

Subsequent rulers stepped forward to claim the hegemony, forming the traditional Five Hegemons (Chunqiu Wu Ba).^{[200][206][207]} Following the death of Duke Huan of Qi and the failure of Duke Xiang of Song, Duke Wen of Jin (r. 636–628 BC) emerged as the dominant leader.^[200][206] Duke Wen intervened in the Zhou capital in 635 BC to crush the rebellion of Prince Dai, who had usurped the throne with Di nomadic support, and escorted King Xiang back to Luoyi.^[200][208] Following the battle, Duke Wen summoned King Xiang to attend the interstate covenant at Jiantu, an unprecedented inversion of ritual hierarchy where the feudal vassal summoned the Son of Heaven.^[209] To check Jin, King Xiang named Duke Mu of Qin leader (bo) of the western lords.^{[200][209][210]}

As northern states struggled to contain Chu, southern rulers also asserted their power.^{[211][212][213]} In 704 BC, the southern ruler Xiong Tong declared himself King Wu of Chu, being the first vassal ruler to claim the royal title of King (wang), challenging the unique prerogative of the Zhou monarch.^[212][214] In 606 BC, King Zhuang of Chu defeated the Luhun Rong and marched his army directly to the southern suburbs of the Zhou capital at Luoyi.^[211] King Zhuang questioned the Zhou royal emissary Wangsun Man regarding the weight and size of the Nine Tripod Cauldrons, the sacred symbols of the Mandate of Heaven, indicating his desire to usurp the throne.^[211] Wangsun Man rebuffed the challenge by stating that sovereignty depended upon moral virtue rather than the weight of bronze cauldrons, prompting the Chu king to withdraw after receiving recognition.^[211]

The late Spring and Autumn period witnessed interstate conflict extending into the southeastern coastal regions, leading to the rise of Wu and Yue.^{[212][215][216]} Jin allied with Wu to distract Chu from the east, transforming Wu into a major power under King Helü and Sun Tzu.^[212][215] In 506 BC, Wu forces invaded Chu, capturing its capital Ying and driving the state to the brink of collapse.^[212] After Wu repeatedly threatened Chu, Chu drew the state of Yue to its side to hold Wu in check.^{[215][216][217]} Following decades of war, King Fuchai of Wu marched northward and convened an interstate conference at Huangchi in 482 BC, where he obtained recognition as hegemon from the Zhou royal court.^[212][216] In 473 BC, however, King Goujian of Yue invaded and conquered Wu.^{[212][216][218]} Goujian moved his troops northward to Xuzhou, meeting the lords of Qi and Jin, and received recognition as the final hegemon from King Yuan of Zhou.^{[212][216][217]}

Internal Court Struggles and Domain Fragmentation

During the late Spring and Autumn period, internal political authority inside the reduced Zhou royal domain was controlled by hereditary ministerial families, primarily the Liu and Shan clans.^{[200][219][220]} The Liu family descended from Prince Jizi (Duke Kang of Liu), a son of King Qing, representing close royal agnates, whereas the Shan family claimed descent from Duke Shan, an early Western Zhou founder, representing distant relatives.^[219][220] Following the death of King Jing in 520 BC, a succession war known as the Prince Chao Rebellion erupted.^[221][222] Although King Jing favored his elder son Prince Chao, the ministers Duke Xian of Liu and Duke Mu of Shan installed Prince Meng as King Dao.^[221] Supported by peripheral allies and palace officials, Prince Chao revolted, drove King Dao from the capital, and proclaimed himself king, seizing the western palace and royal archives.^[221][222]

King Dao died shortly after his expulsion, and the ministers enthroned his younger brother Prince Gai as King Jing (r. 519–476 BC).^[221][223] The royal domain was divided between the 'Eastern King' (King Jing at Chengzhou) and the 'Western King' (Prince Chao at Wangcheng).^[223] The schism was resolved in 516 BC when the state of Jin intervened, dispatching troops to drive Prince Chao into exile in Chu.^[222][223] Prince Chao fled south accompanied by Zhou aristocrats, carrying away the ancestral royal archives.^[222] Following this intervention, Jin exercised oversight over the Zhou court.^[223] Because the Liu family was close to the Fan family of Jin, Zhao Yang of Jin, after defeating the Fan, forced the Zhou king to kill the Liu family advisor Chang Hong, and the Liu clan declined and died out during the reign of King Zhending.^[223][224] This left the Shan lineage as the sole ministerial house controlling royal affairs.^[200][224]

In the fifth century BC, territorial divisions fragmented the royal domain.^[200][225] In 440 BC, King Kao enfeoffed his younger brother Prince Jie as Duke Huan of Western Zhou, establishing the State of Western Zhou with its capital at Wangcheng.^[200][225] In 367 BC, following the death of Duke Wei of Western Zhou, a succession dispute led his younger son Prince Gen to rebel with military backing from the states of Han and Zhao.^[225] Prince Gen established the independent State of Eastern Zhou at Gong (in modern Gongyi, Henan).^[225] As a result, the remaining royal domain was partitioned into two miniature ducal states: the Western Zhou Duke and the Eastern Zhou Duke.^{[200][225][226]} The Son of Heaven possessed no personal territory, residing at the mercy of the Eastern Zhou Duke in Gong before relocating back to Wangcheng to depend on the Western Zhou Duke.^[200][225]

The Warring States Period and the Seven Powers

The transition from the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period (c. 475–221 BC) was marked by the overthrow of ancient aristocratic houses by rising ministerial lineages within regional states.^[227][228] In the state of Jin, three aristocratic families, Han, Zhao, and Wei, crushed their competitors, and in 453 BC they divided the territory of Jin among themselves.^{[229][230][231]} In 403 BC, King Weilie of Zhou granted royal recognition to the rulers of Han, Zhao, and Wei, elevating them to the rank of regional marquises and formally establishing the Three Jin (San Jin).^{[188][229][230]} In 386 BC, King An of Zhou recognized Tian He, a minister who had usurped the throne of Qi, as the legitimate Marquis of Qi, ending the ancient Jiang lineage established by Lü Shang.^[230][232] By this point, political consolidation reduced the independent states to seven major powers, known as the Seven Warring States: Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei.^[200][204]

During the fourth century BC, regional rulers cast aside symbolic subservience to the Zhou throne by assuming the title of King (wang).^{[188][233][234]} In 344 BC, Duke Hui of Wei convened an interstate conference and took the royal title, becoming the first ruler of the Central Plains to claim the title of King.^{[188][233][234][235]} Within decades, the monarchs of Qi, Qin, Yan, Han, and Zhao followed suit, while the rulers of minor polities such as Zhongshan and Song also declared themselves kings.^{[200][234][235]} The Zhou court had to send formal congratulations to these rulers upon their assumption of royal titles.^[200][236] In 288 BC, King Zhao of Qin and King Min of Qi went further, temporarily styling themselves 'Emperor of the West' (Xi Di) and 'Emperor of the East' (Dong Di), respectively.^{[200][237][238]}

The geopolitics of the late Warring States period was defined by shifting diplomatic alignments: the Vertical Alliance (hezong), aimed at uniting eastern states from north to south to contain the expansion of Qin, and the Horizontal Alliance (lianheng), directed by Qin to divide the eastern states and conquer them individually.^{[200][239][240]} In Qin, the implementation of Legalist administrative reforms by Shang Yang under Duke Xiao centralized taxation, replaced noble privileges with twenty military ranks, organized households into mutual-responsibility groups, and expanded the military into an infantry-based force.^{[241][242][243][244]} Qin expanded its borders, annexing the southern Sichuan states of Shu and Ba in 316 BC and inflicting defeats on Chu, Han, and Wei.^{[200][242][245]} In 260 BC, the Qin army under General Bai Qi encircled and defeated the army of Zhao at the Battle of Changping, executing over 400,000 surrendered Zhao troops, breaking the last military force capable of opposing Qin's dominance.^[239][246]

Extinction of the Zhou Dynasty

The final monarch of the Zhou dynasty was King Nan (r. 314–256 BC), whose 59-year reign was spent residing in Wangcheng under the financial and military protection of the Duke of Western Zhou.^{[62][200][226]} In 307 BC, Qin forces under King Wu of Qin marched through the royal domain to attack Han; King Wu entered Luoyi and attempted to lift the massive 'Dragon Cauldron' of the Nine Cauldrons, dying after the bronze vessel crushed his leg.^[247] King Kaolie of Chu organized an alliance of states against Qin and urged King Nan to act as its convener.^{[200][247][248]} King Nan sought help from the ruler of Western Zhou, and an army was raised with the full resources of the Western Zhou state.^[247] The campaign failed when the allied troops of the other states failed to assemble at Yique.^[200]

In retaliation, King Zhaoxiang of Qin ordered General Jiu to invade the State of Western Zhou in 256 BC.^[248][249] The Duke of Western Zhou surrendered, traveling to Qin to prostrate himself and cede his remaining thirty-six cities and thirty thousand inhabitants.^[248][249] King Nan died shortly after the capitulation.^{[62][248][249]} Qin forces occupied Wangcheng, annexed the Western Zhou state, and dismantled the dynastic apparatus, transporting the Nine Tripod Cauldrons and the royal treasures to Xianyang.^{[248][249][250]} The royal succession ended, marking the formal extinction of the Zhou dynasty.^{[62][248][249][250]}

Following King Nan's death, remnant Zhou aristocrats proclaimed Duke Wen of Eastern Zhou as King Hui of Zhou, attempting to maintain resistance from Gong with the support of neighboring states.^[62][251] In 249 BC, Qin Chancellor Lü Buwei mobilized a force of 100,000 troops, invaded Eastern Zhou, annexed its territory, and deposed Duke Wen, extinguishing the last remnant of the Zhou house.^[251][252] The last Zhou forces resisted for seven more years and then took refuge in the state of Wei, which lasted until 209 BC.^[253] Qin King Zheng ascended the throne in 246 BC and pursued the conquest of the remaining regional states: annexing Han in 230 BC, Zhao in 228 BC, Yan in 226 BC, Wei in 225 BC, Chu in 223 BC, and Qi in 221 BC.^[254][255] With the unification of China in 221 BC, King Zheng established the Qin dynasty, assuming the title of First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang).^{[62][254][255][256]}

Political and Administrative System

The political structure of the Zhou state rested upon the integration of the fengjian system of decentralized territorial enfeoffments, the patriarchal zongfa kinship system, and the li-yue ritual system.^[98][257] At the summit of this hierarchy stood the king, titled the Son of Heaven (Tianzi), who exercised theoretical suzerainty over all lands and peoples under heaven while exercising direct administrative governance over the royal domain (Wangji).^{[66][258][259]} During the Western Zhou, the royal domain formed a corridor of roughly one thousand li stretching between Haojing in the Wei valley and Luoyi on the Central Plains.^[258]

The Fengjian System and Feudal Hierarchy

Under the fengjian system, territory outside the direct royal domain was divided into hereditary fiefs granted to members of the royal Ji clan, allied clans, meritorious generals, and descendants of prior dynasties.^{[98][110][260][261]} In formal enfeoffment ceremonies (ceming), the king granted the vassal authority over land ('shou tu') and populations ('shou min'), awarding insignia, ritual bronze vessels, chariots, and ceremonial robes.^[262][263] In exchange, the vassal undertook obligations to submit annual tribute, provide military contingents during royal campaigns, acknowledge the royal calendar, and attend audiences at court.^[262][263]

Traditional Confucian ritual texts compiled in the Han dynasty described a formal five-tier hierarchy of peerage below the king: Duke (gong), Marquis (hou), Count (bo), Viscount (zi), and Baron (nan).^[264][265] Modern epigraphic studies indicate that this standardized five-tier system was a later conceptual idealization rather than a functional Western Zhou administrative reality.^[266][267] In contemporary Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, 'Gong' functioned as an honorific for senior royal councilors (such as the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao), while 'Bo' designated senior clan heads and high-ranking court officers like the Sima.^[268] 'Hou' and 'Nan' were geographic designations for frontier military wardens tasked with establishing fortified garrisons on the periphery.^[268] The title zi was also used as a derogatory name for the leaders of foreign peoples outside the Zhou court system, while leaders of stronger polities whose friendship was needed were styled bo.^[268] The rulers of Chu held the rank of zi (viscount) after King Cheng of Zhou enfeoffed Xiong Yi at Danyang.^[269]

Within their respective domains, regional lords replicated the organizational structure of the royal court.^[270][271] They granted landed estates (caiyi) to senior officers (dafu), who in turn supported cohorts of lower-ranking aristocratic gentlemen (shi).^{[257][270][272]} This chain of subinfeudation established a nested hierarchy where the king ruled over the lords, the lords ruled over the grand masters, the grand masters ruled over the gentlemen, and the gentlemen ruled over the commoners.^{[260][272][273]} During the Western Zhou, this system was supervised by royal overseers (jian or guoshou) dispatched by the king to monitor regional courts, such as the Guo and Gao lineages that oversaw the affairs of Qi.^{[274][275][276]} Over generations, however, as genealogical ties between regional rulers and the Zhou court loosened, this supervision broke down, and regional states evolved into autonomous political units.^{[188][257][275][277]}

Central Government and Bureaucracy

The central administrative apparatus of the Western Zhou royal court was organized around two foundational bureaus: the Bureau of Ministers (Qingshiliao, also written Qingshiliao), which managed civil and military administration, and the Bureau of the Grand Scribe (Taishiliao), which managed divination, sacrifices, astrological observations, historical annals, and royal decrees.^[278][279] The Bureau of Ministers was presided over by the Grand Protector (Taibao) or Grand Preceptor (Taishi).^[270] Subordinate to the Bureau of Ministers were the Three Functional Offices (San You Si): the Minister of Land (Situ), who supervised agriculture, livestock, forests, labor mobilization, and royal fields; the Minister of War (Sima), who directed military forces, chariot production, and military campaigns; and the Minister of Works (Sikong), who managed city walls, palaces, infrastructure, and artisan production.^{[270][280][281]} Judicial administration was directed by the Minister of Crime (Sikou), who oversaw penal law, and the Sishi, who supervised military justice.^[270]

The Bureau of the Grand Scribe was headed by the Grand Scribe (Taishi), who supervised the drafting of royal appointments, historical annals, astronomy, and ceremonial protocols.^[270][281] Subordinate to the Taishi were the Six Cultic Functionaries (Liu Dian), comprising the Grand Chancellor (Taizai), who managed the king's household affairs and court treasuries; the Grand Ancestral Priest (Taizong or Zongbo), who administered ancestral temples and lineage rites; the Grand Invocator (Taizhu), who offered sacrificial prayers; the Grand Diviner (Taibu), who interpreted turtle plastron and yarrow stalk divinations; and the Taishi, who directed spirit ceremonies.^[281][282] As the bureaucracy evolved during the mid-Western Zhou, the religious offices of the Taishiliao saw their influence recede relative to the administrative ministers of the Qingshiliao.^[257] Internal palace operations were overseen by specialized officers, such as the Shanfu, who directed royal banquets, food preparations, and the transmission of verbal royal commands, and the Quma, who supervised the royal stables and horse breeding programs.^[257][270]

Hereditary Office and Lineage Administration

Throughout the Western Zhou period, high government positions were held through a system of hereditary office and emoluments (shiguan shilu), also known as the hereditary ministerial system (shiqing).^[283][284] Under this practice, ministerial appointments and their associated land revenues were passed patrilineally from father to son.^[284][285] Each succession required formal ratification by the Son of Heaven through a re-enfeoffment ceremony, in which the king issued an official investiture decree recorded on bronze vessels.^{[283][285][286]} Prominent examples of hereditary lineages included the Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao lineages, whose descendants continued to serve as royal ministers into the Eastern Zhou, the Guo Ji lineage, who served as supreme military commanders across several centuries, and the Wei lineage of Zongzhou, whose members hereditarily occupied the post of Grand Scribe.^[287][288] This hereditary ministerial structure preserved social cohesion within the ruling aristocracy, but in the late Spring and Autumn period, ministerial lineages inside regional states (such as the Three Huan families in Lu, the Seven Mu lineages in Zheng, and the Tian clan in Qi) accumulated enough power to eclipse and overthrow their sovereign lords.^{[228][284][289][290]}

Urban–Rural Division and Settlement Systems

The territorial administration of the Zhou dynasty was based upon the Guoye system, which maintained a sharp spatial and socio-political distinction between the walled city (guo) and the surrounding rural territory (ye, also called bi).^{[291][292][293]} The guo comprised the capital city and secondary administrative walled settlements, populated by the ruling Zhou aristocracy, allied Shang lineages, and commoner artisans and soldiers collectively known as the Guoren ('people of the state').^[292][293] The ye comprised the surrounding agricultural hinterland, inhabited by indigenous agriculturalists and subject populations known as the Yeren ('people of the field') or Shuren.^[292][293] The guo functioned as a political, military, and ritual node rather than an autonomous production center, relying on food deliveries from the surrounding ye.^[292]

Settlements were organized under the xiang-sui system.^{[292][294][295]} Land within a radius of one hundred li around the capital was designated as suburbs (jiao), within which administrative districts were organized as xiang, while the rural territory beyond the suburbs was divided into districts known as sui.^{[292][294][295]} The royal domain maintained six xiang and six sui, while major vassal states maintained three xiang and three sui.^[292][294] In the rural districts, local populations were grouped into village associations (shushe), neighborhoods (li), and communal kinship clans (dang).^[292][296] Members of a dang shared common lineage ties and collective legal responsibility, meaning that offenses committed by one individual frequently led to consequences for their entire local association.^{[296][297][298]} During the late Western Zhou and throughout the Spring and Autumn period, the distinction between Guoren and Yeren gradually eroded as regional states drafted rural farmers into their infantry forces, extending civic and military obligations to the rural populace.^[292][299]

The Zongfa Lineage and Zhaomu System

Social and political hierarchy among the Zhou aristocracy was governed by the zongfa system, a descent structure based on patrilineal primogeniture.^{[257][260][300][301]} Under zongfa rules, the eldest son of the primary wife (dizi) inherited the political status, ancestral temple leadership, and territorial lordship of the father, forming the primary lineage trunk, known as the Da Zong (Great Lineage).^{[260][272][302]} Younger sons (shuzi) received subordinate political offices, smaller landed estates, and split off to establish collateral branches, known as Xiao Zong (Lesser Lineages).^[260][272] The Son of Heaven represented the universal Da Zong for the whole realm, while the regional lords formed Xiao Zong in relation to the king but served as the Da Zong for their own principalities.^{[260][272][290]} Within five generations, collateral branches of a Xiao Zong split again to form independent sub-lineages, whereas the royal and ducal Da Zong continued across generations without interruption.^[272]

Generational precedence within ancestral temples and elite cemetery cemeteries was regulated by the zhaomu system.^[303][304] In the zhaomu sequence, the founding ancestor occupied the central position; second-generation descendants and alternating even-numbered generations were positioned on the left as zhao, while third-generation descendants and alternating odd-numbered generations were placed on the right as mu.^[303][304] This alternating generational arrangement dictated the placement of ancestral tablets in royal temples, determined seating arrangements during state banquets, and governed the layout of elite burial plots, where fathers and sons were placed in opposing categories while grandfathers and grandsons shared the same alignment.^{[303][304][305]} The zhaomu system also defined the legal number of ancestral temples permitted to each aristocratic rank: the Son of Heaven was permitted seven temples, regional lords five, grand masters three, gentlemen one, while commoners were forbidden from maintaining an ancestral temple and sacrificed to ancestors within their household.^[306]

Regional States and External Relations

The Zhou state viewed its domain as the central civilizational realm ('Zhongguo') and conceived foreign polities as peripheral entities categorized by cardinal direction: the Dongyi in the east, Xirong in the west, Beidi in the north, and Nanman in the south.^[307][308] The royal court maintained that the Son of Heaven held moral and political supremacy over all lands ('Tianxia'), treating foreign rulers as subject vassals rather than diplomatic equals.^{[309][310][311]} Regions under direct royal control formed the crown lands, while outer territories were organized into buffer states established to monitor non-Zhou populations.^[311][312]

The strategic backbone of the Western Zhou state consisted of five regional frontier principalities.^[74][313] Lu was established at Qufu in modern Shandong under Bo Qin, the eldest son of the Duke of Zhou, who was granted six aristocratic Shang clans along with ceremonial heirlooms to pacify the rebellious Shang-Yan populations.^{[313][314][315]} Qi was established at Yingqiu in northern Shandong under Lü Shang, who was granted five Shang clans and royal authorization to conduct punitive expeditions against insubordinate eastern polities.^{[313][316][317]} Yan was founded at Ji (near modern Beijing) under Ke, the eldest son of the Duke of Shao, who led six northern lineages to guard the northeastern frontier against northern steppe tribes.^{[313][318][319]} Jin was established at Tang in southern Shanxi under Shu Yu, the younger brother of King Cheng, who governed the surviving Xia and Di populations by adapting local administrative customs ('Xiazheng') and frontier policies ('Rongsuo').^{[313][320][321]} Wei was established at Chaoge, the former Shang capital, under Kang Shu, a younger brother of King Wu, who was granted seven Shang lineages and appointed as royal Minister of Crime.^{[313][322][323]}

To guard the southern frontier against the non-Huaxia tribes of Jingchu along the Yangtze and Han river valleys, the Western Zhou court established a network of defensive marcher fiefs known collectively as the 'Han River Ji Polities' (Hanyang Zhu Ji).^[313][324] On the eastern bank of the Han River, the court placed the states of Deng and Ruo, while the states of Gu and Lu held positions on the western bank.^[324] Further north, the state of Sui (also known as Zeng), Tang, and the northern states of Shen and Lü in Nanyang guarded the mountain passes leading north to the Central Plains.^{[313][324][325]} These southern states served as a strategic cordon against the expansion of Chu, whose rulers gradually assimilated local Man tribes and established an independent cultural sphere in the middle Yangtze region.^{[324][326][327]}

Military Organization and Warfare

The military power of the Zhou dynasty was based upon a core of standing royal armies supplemented by conscripted peasant foot soldiers and the military contingents of regional lords.^{[96][328][329]} During the Western Zhou, warfare was an aristocratic pursuit centered on chariot operations, regulated by formal codes of conduct, and conducted primarily during the agricultural off-season.^{[329][330][331]} Over the course of the Eastern Zhou, warfare transitioned into large-scale conflict characterized by professional armies, bureaucratic command structures, infantry masses, and specialized siege technology.^[299][332]

Structure of the Royal Armies

The standing army of the Western Zhou monarchy consisted of two main corps: the Six Armies of the West (Xi Liu Shi), stationed in the Wei River valley to defend the primary capital of Haojing and secure the western frontiers, and the Eight Armies of Chengzhou (Chengzhou Ba Shi), garrisoned at Luoyi to monitor the eastern Central Plains and campaign against the Dongyi and Huaiyi.^[96][329] The royal house also maintained an elite bodyguard known as the Tiger Guards (Shishi Huchen or Huben), selected from the sons of the capital nobility, who were stationed inside the royal palace to protect the sovereign and serve as vanguard troops.^[329][333] Subordinate regional states were legally permitted smaller military establishments: large states were entitled to maintain three armies, medium states two armies, and small states a single army.^[329][334]

The operational organization of the Zhou military followed a decimal framework.^[334][335] The smallest unit was the squad of five men (wu), led by a squad leader; five squads formed a platoon of twenty-five men (liang); four platoons constituted a company of one hundred men (zi or zu); five companies formed a battalion of five hundred men (lu); five battalions composed a regiment of 2,500 men (shi); and five regiments constituted an army of 12,500 men (jun).^[335] During royal campaigns, supreme command was held by the king, assisted by the Grand Preceptor or Grand Protector, while field operations were directed by the Sima, with subordinate officers including the Yalu and Huchen.^{[257][270][336][337]} Troops were drawn from the urban Guoren class, who underwent regular tactical training during seasonal royal hunts held four times a year: Sou in spring, Miao in summer, Xian in autumn, and Shou in winter.^[329][330]

Chariot and Infantry Tactics

Warfare during the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods was centered upon the war chariot, introduced to China during the late Shang period from Central Asia.^{[329][338][339]} Zhou chariots were constructed from lacquered wood with bronze fittings, possessing a single draught pole, a crossbar with yokes for two or four draft horses, and two large spoked wheels ranging from 130 to 140 centimeters in diameter.^[340][341] The standard tactical crew consisted of three armored aristocrats: the charioteer (yushou) positioned in the center, the archer (sheshou) on the left armed with a composite recurve bow, and the shock lancer or halberdier (rongyou) on the right armed with a long bronze dagger-axe or spear.^[335] Each chariot was supported by a squad of foot soldiers (ranging from ten to seventy-two infantrymen, depending on the period and state) who protected the chariot's flanks and engaged broken enemy lines.^[335][342]

Archaeological excavations of horse burials from Shang and Western Zhou elite sites demonstrate clear technological and stylistic affinities with contemporary Eurasian steppe pastoralists, such as the Saka and Wusun, including antler and bone cheekpieces, rod-shaped bronze bits, head-and-hoof burial arrangements, and animal-style harness plaques.^{[343][344][345][346][347]} As infantry became the primary arm of military force during the Warring States period, tacticians developed sophisticated troop formations recorded in contemporary military treatises.^[348][349] Formations included square formations (fang) for level ground, circular formations (yuan) for defensive encirclement, wedge or pointed formations (zhuihang) for piercing enemy lines, dispersed formations (shu) for appearing formidable with reduced forces, dense formations (shu) for shock resistance, and goose-wing formations (yanhang) for delivering synchronized archery barrages.^{[348][349][350]}

Weaponry, Armor, and Equipment

The offensive weaponry of the early Zhou military relied primarily on cast bronze polearms, including the dagger-axe (ge), spear (mao), and composite halberd (ji), mounted on long wooden or bamboo shafts measuring between two and three meters in length.^[351][352] Short-range defensive weapons included single-edged bronze curved knives and straight-bladed bronze short swords (jian), measuring between 28 and 46 centimeters in length, designed for close-quarters fighting if a chariot became disabled.^[352][353] Missile weapons consisted of the composite recurve horn bow (gong) and, beginning in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, the mechanical crossbow (nu), featuring cast bronze trigger mechanisms capable of discharging arrows with high penetrative velocity over distances exceeding two hundred paces.^[354]

Defensive armor in the Western Zhou period consisted of lacquered rawhide coats fashioned from water buffalo or rhinoceros leather (ge jia), which were light, impervious to dampness, and resilient against slashing attacks.^[355] During the Eastern Zhou period, armor evolved into lamellar cuirasses composed of overlapping rows of boiled leather plates laced with silk cords (wei jia).^[355] Helmets were largely similar to those of the Shang but less decorated.^[355]

Fortifications and Siege Warfare

Zhou administrative centers and regional cities were fortified with massive earth walls constructed using the rammed-earth (hangtu) technique, where alternating layers of loose clay and loess soil were compacted within wooden shuttering to produce durable walls resistant to erosion and assault.^[356] During the Eastern Zhou, cities developed double defensive circuits, consisting of an inner citadel (cheng) housing the palaces, ancestral temples, and armories, and an outer circuit (guo) protecting markets, residential quarters, and artisan workshops. The prevalence of fortified urban nodes made siege warfare a prominent feature of Warring States conflict, documented in texts like the Mozi.^[356][357]

Warring States armies deployed advanced mechanical siege artillery and assault equipment.^{[358][359][360]} Assault ladders included the hinged 'cloud ladder' (yunti), mounted on wheeled carts and elevated against enemy battlements with counterweights.^[358] Mobile siege towers, termed 'assault carriages' (linchong or Lu Gong che), were constructed five stories high on four to eight wheels, armored with leather to shield troops from flaming projectiles, and utilized to position archers directly above city parapets.^{[351][358][360][361]} Trench crossings were facilitated by mobile bridging carriages known as 'flying bridges' (feigang) and 'flying rivers'.^{[358][359][362]} For mechanical bombardment, besiegers and defenders utilized the traction trebuchet (pao), an artillery piece operating on a lever pivoted on a wooden frame, where teams of up to several dozen men pulled hawsers to fling stones and hollow logs filled with burning charcoal into hostile lines.^{[358][363][364][365]} Military engineers also operated multiple-bolt bed ballistas (douzinu), mounted on heavy timber frames, to discharge iron-tipped projectiles along fixed trajectories.^[358][366] In sub-surface warfare, besiegers employed mining tunnels, which defenders counteracted by digging intercepting trenches and using bellows to pump suffocating smoke produced from burning mustard seeds, toxic plants, and arsenic into the tunnels.^[367][368]

Military Thought and Treatises

The intellectual transition from early aristocratic chivalry to total warfare is reflected in Chinese military literature, of which five of the Seven Military Classics were produced during the Zhou era.^[369] The earliest of these, Jiang Ziya's Six Secret Teachings (Liu Tao), preserves Western Zhou traditions concerning political preparation, civilian mobilization, logistics, and chariot tactics.^[369] From the late Spring and Autumn period, Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Sunzi Bingfa) articulated a rationalized approach to strategy, emphasizing deception, intelligence networks, psychological warfare, speed, and the preservation of resources by defeating enemy plans without prolonged engagements.^[369] The Warring States period produced The Methods of the Sima (Sima Fa), the Wuzi attributed to general Wu Qi, and the Wei Liaozi, all emphasizing institutional centralization, rigorous military discipline, regular drilling, and the subordination of individual valor to tactical coordination.^[369]

Society, Kinship, and Law

Zhou society was organized in an aristocratic hierarchy defined by kinship structures, hereditary occupations, and territorial divisions.^[257][272] Legal codes and ritual norms distinguished between the nobility, commoners, and disenfranchised populations, maintaining strict boundaries across social strata.^[272][370]

Social Classes and the Guoren

The traditional framework categorized free society into the Four Occupations (Shi, Nong, Gong, Shang): scholar-gentlemen, agricultural farmers, artisans, and merchant traders.^[272][371] The highest stratum below the regional lords was the Shi, who evolved from chariot warriors and junior aristocrats during the Western Zhou into an educated class of literate administrators, scribes, and wandering philosophical counselors during the Eastern Zhou.^{[371][372][373]} Among the Shi was the Ru class, composed of descendants of Shang yeomen and ritual specialists who served as masters of ceremonies, astronomy, divination, and ancient texts.^[372] Commoners (shumin or shuren) constituted the core agricultural and laboring workforce, residing in village units and cultivating the land.^[272][374]

The Guoren ('people of the state') occupied an influential position within early Zhou society, functioning as a civic body within walled capitals.^[293][374] Composed of lower-ranking Ji lineages, allied clan members, and merchant-artisan guilds, the Guoren held the right to bear arms, perform military service, and express opinions on major state policies.^[293][374] In instances of government crisis, the Guoren participated in debates regarding royal succession, interstate peace agreements, and the relocation of state capitals.^[374][375] In several regional polities, the Guoren intervened directly in dynastic politics: in the state of Wei, the populace refused to mobilize until their ruler altered his succession plans, while in Zheng, the Guoren assassinated unpopular usurpers and compelled local lords to reverse foreign alliances.^{[293][375][376][377]} The political power of the Guoren was demonstrated in 841 BC when their armed uprising drove King Li from the capital and instituted the Gonghe Regency.^{[147][148][374]}

Enslaved and Dependent Populations

Enslaved and unfree populations in the Zhou dynasty were acquired through two primary avenues: the capture of enemy combatants during interstate wars and border campaigns against foreign tribes (such as the Guifang, Rong, and Dongyi), and the judicial reduction of convicted criminals and their families into penal servitude.^[293] When elite families in regional states fell victim to ministerial coups or dynastic purges, their entire lineages were stripped of aristocratic rank and registered as bonded laborers.^[293] Wealthy grand masters in large regional states maintained thousands of enslaved persons, who functioned as domestic attendants (xiaochen), concubines, gatekeepers, and stable hands, or performed manual agricultural tasks and silk processing.^[293] Slaves could be mortgaged, exchanged for horses or silk, and were occasionally interred alongside deceased masters in elite tombs.^[293] Unlike ancient Mediterranean slave societies, however, enslaved labor in the Zhou state remained a secondary labor form, as the main volume of agricultural and craft production was performed by free peasant households and client rural communities.^[293][378]

Marriage, Kinship, and Gender Relations

Kinship systems among the Zhou aristocracy were organized by the distinction between clan names (xing) and lineage names (shi).^[379][380] The xing designated a broad ancestral grouping tracing descent back to a shared maternal ancestor, while the shi represented localized patrilineal subdivisions of that clan.^[379][380] Aristocratic men were addressed by their lineage name (shi) and official title, while aristocratic women retained their clan name (xing) to ensure adherence to clan exogamy.^[379][380] Zhou law enforced the principle of exogamy, which strictly prohibited marriage between men and women carrying the same clan name (xing), based on the belief that endogamous unions weakened ancestral lineages and compromised biological vigor.^{[302][379][381]} To secure political stability, the royal Ji house maintained matrimonial alliances across generations with non-Ji clans, intermarrying with the Jiang clan of Qi and the Shen lineage.^[379]

Elite matrimonial alliances followed a standardized sequence known as the Six Rites (Liu Li), which formed the basis for later Chinese marriage customs.^[382][383] These rites included: nacai, the formal proposal accompanied by the presentation of a wild goose as a gift of betrothal; wenming, the inquiry into the bride's name and ancestral birth date to determine astrological compatibility; naji, the transmission of favorable divination results to the bride's family; nazheng, the delivery of marriage gifts (ranging from bolts of silk for commoners to jade insignia and chariots for feudal lords); qingqi, the consultation to arrange an auspicious wedding date; and qinyin, the personal fetching of the bride by the groom.^[383] Three months after the wedding ceremony, the bride was presented at the ancestral temple of her husband's lineage in a ceremony termed miaojian, establishing her ritual inclusion into her husband's family.^[383]

Dissolution of marriage was governed by the 'Seven Grounds for Expulsion' (Qichu), which permitted a husband to repudiate a wife for: failure to bear a son, adultery, disrespect toward the husband's parents, garrulousness, theft, jealousy, or suffering from a virulent disease.^[384] These grounds were constrained by the 'Three Exceptions to Expulsion' (San Buqu), which legally prohibited a husband from repudiating his wife if: she had observed the three-year mourning period for either of his parents, his family had advanced from poverty to wealth during the marriage, or her ancestral family had died out, leaving her without a paternal home to return to.^[384] Beyond heterosexual marriage networks, classical poetic anthologies such as the Classic of Poetry preserve evidence of gender ambiguity and romantic same-sex affection, which in aristocratic contexts often involved relationships carrying socio-political and economic advantages.^{[385][386][387][388]}

Legal Codes, Penal Practices, and Moral Norms

The Western Zhou legal framework was characterized by the principle that ritual codes guided the nobility while penal statutes governed the common populace ('Li bu xia shuren, xing bu shang dafu').^[370] Aristocrats who violated social conventions were judged according to lineage ritual standards and expected to perform self-reprimand or suicide, whereas commoners were subjected to statutory criminal trials and physical punishments.^[370] Early penal law incorporated the Five Punishments (Wu Xing): tattooing the forehead or face (mo), cutting off the nose (yi), amputating feet or kneecaps (fei or yue), castration (gong), and capital execution (da pi) through decapitation or dismemberment. Under King Mu, judicial administration was reformed to introduce redemption fines, permitting offenders to commute corporal punishments into cash payments of copper to the royal treasury.

Early Zhou legal philosophy emphasized the doctrine of 'Illustrating Virtue and Exercising Prudence in Punishments' (mingde shenfa), asserting that statutory punishment should serve as an auxiliary instrument to moral instruction rather than a primary tool of governance.^{[370][389][390]} In the early Western Zhou, written legal statutes were preserved within royal palace archives and inscribed onto bronze vessels for restricted official circulation rather than general public promulgation.

Economy and Material Culture

The economy of the Zhou dynasty was based upon sedentary agriculture supported by state-directed craft production and market commerce.^{[332][391][392]} Technological developments during this period included the transition from bronze to iron metallurgy, large-scale hydraulic engineering, glazed proto-porcelain manufacture, and the emergence of metallic coinage.^[332][391]

Agriculture and the Well-Field System

During the Western Zhou period, the climate of the Yellow River basin was warmer and moister than in modern times, supporting regional populations of water buffalo, wild elephants, rhinoceroses, and bamboo rats.^[391] The primary agricultural tools were the wooden digging stick and the foot plow (lei-si), featuring bent wooden handles and ground cutting blades fashioned from bone, shell, stone, or occasionally bronze.^{[391][392][393][394]} Farmers cultivated cereal crops, including foxtail millet (ji), broomcorn millet (shu), wheat (mai), barley, rice (dao), and soybeans (shu), while specialized orchard managers cultivated mulberry trees for sericulture, lacquer trees, and hemp.^[391][395] To maintain land fertility, traditional slash-and-burn practices were replaced by systematic fallowing systems and crop rotation, supported by ditch drainage networks (gou-xu).^[391][395]

Classical texts such as the Mencius describe an idealized land allocation scheme known as the Well-Field system (Jingtian zhi).^[396][397] Under this theoretical model, a square parcel of land measuring nine hundred mu was subdivided into nine equal squares forming the shape of the character for a water well (jing).^[396] The eight outer parcels were assigned to individual peasant households for their private subsistence (sitian), while the central parcel functioned as a public communal field (gongtian), which the eight families were obligated to cultivate jointly to produce tax grain for the local lord or central court.^[396][398] Modern historians conclude that while the rigid nine-square layout was a conceptual model formalized in the Warring States period, Western Zhou agriculture did maintain a functional division between private usufruct holdings and communal estate lands cultivated for the nobility.^{[399][400][401]}

Land was originally considered inalienable property belonging to the royal house and ancestral lineages.^{[147][170][402]} By the late Western Zhou, however, bronze inscriptions on vessels such as the Wei he, Wuli Wei ding, and San Shi pan record instances where regional nobles traded, exchanged, and transferred land plots to settle legal disputes, pay court fines, or acquire luxury goods, signaling the breakdown of the inalienable land tenure system.^{[147][170][402][403]} Because of state monopolies and heavy burdens, commoners neglected communal public plots, prompting King Xuan to abandon the ceremonial plowing of the royal field ('bu jie qianmu') and levy grain taxes directly on measured acreage (the che system).^[169][170] During the Warring States period, private land ownership was legalized across the regional states, culminating in Shang Yang's reforms in Qin, which abolished the well-field boundaries, recognized private land sales, and based taxation on agricultural production.^[242]

Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management

The Zhou dynasty saw the development of large-scale water management projects designed to expand agricultural irrigation and prevent flooding.^[404] During the Spring and Autumn period, Sunshu Ao, who served as chancellor under King Zhuang of Chu, supervised the construction of the Quepi Reservoir in northern Anhui, damming regional rivers to create an irrigation basin covering a circumference of over one hundred li, an achievement for which he is remembered as China's first hydraulic engineer.^[404] In the fifth century BC, the Wei minister Ximen Bao, serving Marquis Wen of Wei, designed an irrigation canal network along the Zhang River, diverting water across the Yellow River floodplain to flush alkaline soils and secure harvests.^[404][405] During the late Warring States period, the Qin state constructed the Dujiangyan irrigation system on the Min River in Sichuan, planned by engineer Li Bing, which eliminated annual flooding and transformed the Chengdu plain into a productive agricultural region.^[152]

Bronze Metallurgy and the Advent of Iron

The Zhou period represented the peak of Chinese bronze craftsmanship.^[391][406] Early Western Zhou bronze production continued the traditions of the late Shang, utilizing the piece-mold casting technique to manufacture heavy ritual vessels, including the ding (food cauldron), gui (grain bowl), li (tripod cooker), zun (wine vessel), and you (handled wine jar).^{[391][407][408]} Over the course of the mid-Western Zhou, a 'ritual revolution' occurred in bronze design: wine vessels associated with Shang drinking ceremonies fell out of use, while sets of grain and meat cooking vessels (ding and gui) proliferated, accompanied by sets of matched chime bells (bianzhong).^{[391][409][410]} Surface decoration moved away from the zoomorphic taotie masks toward geometric ribbing, wave bands, and confronted long-tailed bird motifs.^[411][412] Late Western Zhou bronze casting produced major inscribed historical vessels, including the Mao Gong ding, whose 499-character inscription is the longest from the Bronze Age, the Da Yu ding, the Da Ke ding, the Shi Qiang pan, and the Guo Ji Zi Bai pan.^{[107][163][391][413][414]}

Iron metallurgy emerged in China during the late Western Zhou and the early Spring and Autumn period.^[332][415] Early iron artifacts dating to the eighth century BC were wrought iron weapons and tools, occasionally decorated with gold or turquoise inlays.^[415] By the sixth century BC, Chinese metalworkers had developed the blast furnace and cupola furnace, allowing them to melt iron ore and produce cast iron (zhu tie), an industrial technology not achieved in Europe until the medieval period.^[416][417] Evidence of ironworking dates to 513 BC.^{[332][404][417]} The availability of cast iron facilitated the mass production of agricultural tools, including iron plowshares (tie li), hoes, sickles, and axes, which replaced stone and wooden tools and expanded cultivated acreage across China.^[332][418]

Crafts, Textiles, and Architecture

Artisanal industries during the Zhou period were coordinated through state workshops known as the Bai Gong ('Hundred Crafts'), which regulated materials, maintained standards, and organized specialized trades.^[391] Lacquerware developed into an elite industry; wooden vessels were sealed with refined sap from the lacquer tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum), dyed in contrasting red and black tones, and inlaid with shaped mother-of-pearl, shell discs, and bronze plates.^[391] Ceramic technology advanced through the application of the fast potter's wheel, producing standardized vessels, while kiln technology allowed firing temperatures to exceed 1,200 °C, yielding glazed proto-porcelain (yuanshi ci) featuring green and yellowish-brown feldspathic glazes.^[391][419] Sericulture was practiced in rural households and managed in state workshops, producing textiles such as plain-weave silks, twill damasks, patterned jacquards, and embroidered silk gauzes decorated with dragon, phoenix, and geometric patterns, as recovered from the Mashan tomb in Hubei.^[420]

Architectural design made advances in the layout of palatial and ancestral complexes.^[421] The palace at the Fengchu site, in the early political and religious centre of Qizhou, dates to the early Western Zhou (about 1027 to 966 BC).^[24] Most Western Zhou oracle bone inscriptions come from Zhouyuan.^[422] The Zhou period marked the initial widespread adoption of fired ceramic roof tiles (wa), including semi-circular eave tiles (banwa) and cylindrical barrel tiles (tongwa) stamped with cord patterns, which replaced thatch roofs on elite administrative buildings.^[421]

Trade, Markets, and Currency

While agriculture formed the economic base of the state, domestic commerce expanded across regional borders.^[391][423] In urban centers and along transportation routes, municipal markets were established and supervised by royal officers headed by the Market Director (Sishi).^[424][425] The Sishi was supported by subordinate inspectors: the Zhiren, who regulated contracts and measured weights; the Chanren, who managed market booths and collected shop levies; the Xushi, who maintained public order; and the Quanfu, who administered credit, advanced loans, purchased unsold goods, and stabilized market prices.^[425]

The monetary system transitioned from natural currency to cast bronze coinage. During the early Western Zhou, the primary medium of exchange consisted of natural cowrie shells (beibi), imported from southern coastal waters and strung in clusters known as peng, with one peng generally containing between five and ten shells.^[426]

Religion, Philosophy, and Thought

The intellectual history of the Zhou dynasty was characterized by the articulation of political theology during the Western Zhou and the emergence of diverse philosophical traditions during the Eastern Zhou.^{[257][332][427]} The period witnessed the formation of the Mandate of Heaven doctrine, the development of the Hundred Schools of Thought, the codification of ritual systems, and early advances in astronomy, medicine, and mathematics.^{[389][428][429][430]}

The Mandate of Heaven

The primary contribution of early Zhou political thought was the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), introduced by the Duke of Zhou and King Wu to justify the overthrow of the Shang dynasty.^{[37][259][390][428]} According to this doctrine, Tian (Heaven) was not a partisan tribal deity, but a moral cosmic force that conferred the authority to govern ('the Mandate') upon the most virtuous ruler in the realm, styled the Son of Heaven (Tianzi).^{[259][390][431][432]} If a monarch succumbed to corruption, cruelty, and misgovernment, as the last Shang ruler Di Xin was alleged to have done, Heaven withdrew its mandate and transferred it to an upright house tasked with restoring moral order.^{[259][390][428][432][433]} This doctrine justified dynastic revolution, but it also placed moral obligations upon the Zhou kings, who acknowledged that persistent moral decay would cause them to lose the mandate in turn.^{[390][431][432]}

The Mandate of Heaven tied the monarch's legitimacy directly to cosmic harmony and the welfare of the agrarian population ('jingde baomin').^[389][390] Celestial phenomena, such as solar and lunar eclipses, planetary conjunctions, comets, droughts, famines, and earthquakes, were interpreted as warnings sent by Heaven to admonish an erring sovereign.^[431][434] Consequently, establishing an accurate astronomical calendar was a royal prerogative, as the calendar synchronized agricultural operations with celestial cycles.^[430][431] In late Western Zhou poetry preserved in the Classic of Poetry, social disorder and foreign incursions prompted poems that questioned Heaven's benevolence, expressing early skepticism toward divine justice.^[435][436]

Cosmology, Divination, and Pantheon

Zhou state religion incorporated elements from earlier Shang practices, shifting the central cosmological focus from the anthropomorphic Shangdi toward Tian (Heaven), conceived as an impartial celestial power governing universal order.^{[437][438][439][440]} Beneath Heaven, the Zhou pantheon worshipped three classes of spiritual entities: heavenly spirits (tianshen), including the sun, moon, and asterisms; earthly deities (dizhi), including the spirits of sacred mountains, rivers, and the altars of the soil and grain (sheji); and human ancestral ghosts (rengui).^{[437][439][441]} Sacrifices to Heaven, known as the Suburban Sacrifice (Jiaosi), were performed exclusively by the King of Zhou at open-air altars situated south of the capital during the winter solstice.^[439] The altars of the soil and grain (sheji) were established in every city, serving as territorial symbols of the state.^[439][442]

Divination served as an instrument of statecraft and military planning.^[443][444] While the Zhou continued to utilize pyromantic bone divination (bushi), applying heated bronze points to turtle plastrons to read stress cracks, they developed divination using dried yarrow or milfoil stalks (shi).^[443][444] Yarrow-stalk divination was codified in the Classic of Changes (Yijing or Zhouyi), composed during the early Western Zhou.^[445][446] The text arranged sixty-four hexagrams, formed by combining eight basic trigrams, accompanied by cryptic poetic judgments (guaci) and line texts (yaoci) that deduced moral advice and cosmic trends from political situations.^[445][447] The Zhou did not adopt the human sacrifice that was common in the late Shang and did not mention it in any of their texts.^[448][449] The extra human sacrifices seen in Shang burials are absent from Western Zhou burials, although burying servants with their master continued on a smaller scale.^[450] Another account holds that the Zhou offered human victims to nature spirits and to ancestors in numbers and on a scale similar to the late Shang, though not as large as under the Shang king Wu Ding.^[443][451]

The Hundred Schools of Thought

The political instability of the Eastern Zhou period stimulated the rise of the Hundred Schools of Thought (Baijia Chuzi), an era of philosophical debate spanning from the sixth to the third century BC.^{[257][332][427][452]} Rulers of regional states, seeking administrative and military advantages over their rivals, competed to attract wandering scholars (shi), establishing academies such as the Jixia Academy founded by Duke Huan of Tian Qi.^{[332][427][452]} Nine schools of thought came to dominate the others, among them Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism, and Mohism.^{[332][427][453][454]}

Confucianism (Rujia) was founded by Confucius (Kong Fuzi, 551–479 BC), a native of the state of Lu who sought to restore social harmony by reviving the idealized ritual and political institutions of the early Western Zhou, especially those associated with the Duke of Zhou.^{[429][454][455][456]} Confucius taught that orderly government depended on the cultivation of personal moral virtue, centered on humaneness (ren), righteousness (yi), filial piety (xiao), and strict adherence to ritual propriety (li).^{[389][454][456][457]} His teachings, compiled by disciples in the Analects (Lunyu), transformed the concept of the gentleman (junzi) from an inherited aristocratic status into an ethical ideal attainable by any individual through education.^[454][456] Mencius was known as the 'second sage' of Confucianism.^[429][454] Later, Xunzi (c. 310–220 BC) introduced a realistic Confucian framework, arguing that human nature was innately selfish and unruly, and that moral goodness could only be achieved through external discipline, formal education, and ritual constraints.^[454]

Daoism (Daojia) emerged as an alternative to Confucian moralism, traditionally attributed to the legendary sage Laozi, the reputed author of the Daodejing, and developed by Zhuangzi (369–286 BC).^{[429][454][458]} Daoist thinkers rejected artificial social hierarchies, scholarly debate, and moral regulations, identifying the ultimate source of existence as the Dao (the 'Way'), an ineffable, spontaneous cosmic principle.^{[454][458][459]} Daoism advocated the practice of wu-wei (non-action or effortless action), encouraging individuals and rulers to harmonize with natural processes, avoid aggressive interference in societal affairs, and cultivate simplicity.^[454][458]

Mohism (Mojia) was founded by Mozi (c. 470–391 BC), who condemned the lavish expenditures associated with Confucian funerary rituals and state musical performances.^[429][454] Mozi advocated universal love (jian'ai), holding that all people are equal before Heaven and should imitate Heaven by practising love for all.^[460] He advanced a utilitarian philosophy emphasizing meritocracy in administrative appointments, frugality in public spending, defensive siege warfare, and obedience to the moral will of Heaven.^[427][461]

Legalism (Fajia) prioritized the consolidation of sovereign state power, administrative centralization, and military mobilization.^[461] Pioneered by statesmen such as Shang Yang (d. 338 BC), Shen Buhai (d. 337 BC), and Shen Dao, and synthesized by Han Fei (d. 233 BC) and Li Si (d. 208 BC), Legalism rejected appeals to ancestral virtue or moral models.^[242][461] Legalists argued that human beings were driven by self-interest and could only be governed effectively through an objective institutional framework comprising: explicit, publicly promulgated written laws carrying severe rewards and punishments (fa); administrative techniques to monitor bureaucratic appointments and prevent subversion (shu); and the autocratic power and strategic position of the monarch (shi).^[461] Legalist administrative methods provided the operational foundation for the state of Qin, enabling its unification of China.^[241][461]

Other influential intellectual traditions of the period included the School of Names (Mingjia), led by thinkers such as Hui Shi and Gongsun Long, who explored logic, paradoxes, and the relationship between names (ming) and realities (shi); the School of Diplomacy (Zonghengjia), represented by strategists like Su Qin and Zhang Yi, who directed interstate alliances; the School of the Military (Bingjia), led by military theorists such as Sun Tzu and Sun Bin; the Agriculturalists (Nongjia), who advocated an agrarian egalitarianism where rulers labored alongside commoners; and the School of Naturalists (Yinyangjia), led by Zou Yan, who synthesized the theories of Yin and Yang with the Five Elements (Wuxing: metal, wood, water, fire, earth) to explain historical succession and natural processes.^{[332][427][462][463][464]}

The Ritual and Music System

The institutional fabric of early Zhou society was maintained by the li-yue (ritual and music) system, traditionally attributed to the legislative work of the Duke of Zhou.^{[257][372][465]} The concept of Li ('ritual propriety') expanded from sacrificial ceremonies into a comprehensive code of social conduct, ethical norms, and administrative protocol that demarcated social classes and governed relations between superiors and inferiors.^{[465][466][467]} The system was categorized into the Five Rites (Wu Li): Auspicious Rites (Ji Li), governing sacrifices to Heaven, earth deities, and ancestral spirits; Inauspicious Rites (Xiong Li), governing funeral protocols, state mourning, and disaster assistance; Military Rites (Jun Li), governing conscription, reviews, hunts, and victory ceremonies; Guest Rites (Bin Li), governing interstate diplomatic visits and royal audiences; and Festive Rites (Jia Li), governing weddings, capping ceremonies for young men (guanli), hair-pinning ceremonies for young women (jili), and state banquets.^{[468][469][470][471]}

Music (yue) was paired with ritual, as ritual established social distinctions while music promoted communal harmony across social ranks.^[465][472] The state music of the Zhou court, termed Yayue ('elegant music'), was performed during sacrifices, diplomatic assemblies, and banquets, under the direction of the Grand Master of Music (Da Siyue).^[472][473] Instrumental orchestras were organized into strict hierarchical configurations based upon noble rank: the King of Zhou was permitted an orchestra suspended on all four sides of a courtyard (gongxuan); regional lords were permitted arrangements on three sides (xuanxuan); ministers and grand masters were permitted two sides (panxuan); and gentlemen were restricted to a single row (texuan).^[472] The size of ceremonial dance troupes (yi) was regulated along the same lines: the king was entitled to eight rows of eight dancers (sixty-four dancers); regional lords to six rows (forty-eight dancers); grand masters to four rows (thirty-two dancers); and gentlemen to two rows (sixteen dancers).^[474] During the late Spring and Autumn period, this system was disrupted by ministerial usurpations, exemplified by Confucius's indignation when the Jisun family of Lu staged eight-row dances in their private ancestral courtyard and performed the royal hymn 'Yong'.^[474][475]

Science, Astronomy, and Medicine

Astronomy and calendar construction made strides during the Zhou period, driven by the royal need to maintain celestial legitimacy.^[430][431] Scribes maintained systematic records of solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, planetary movements, and comets, with early observations preserved in the Spring and Autumn Annals.^[152][430] The official calendar adopted a lunisolar system dividing the solar year into 365.25 days, coordinating twelve lunar months with intercalary thirteenth months to align seasons.^[152][430] The lunar month was subdivided into phases: Jishengba (waxing crescent), Jiwang (full moon), and Jibaishi (waning moon), while diurnal time was measured using the Twelve Earthly Branches (shier chen).^[476][477] In traditional Chinese astrology, the celestial sphere mapped terrestrial political geography; the Zhou dynasty was represented by the stars Eta Capricorni and 21 Capricorni in the Twelve States asterism, as well as Beta Serpentis in the Right Wall of the Heavenly Market Enclosure.^[478][479]

Early Chinese mathematics developed calculation systems using counting rods, operating on a decimal base and applying operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.^[480] Mathematics was incorporated as one of the Six Arts (Liu Yi) required of educated gentlemen.^[481] Cosmological schemes linked numerical concepts to the Luoshu magic square and Hetu diagrams mentioned in the Yijing.^[482] In medicine, the Zhou period witnessed the separation of clinical practice from shamanistic healing (wu).^[483] The Rites of Zhou classified physicians under the Ministry of Heaven (Tianguan), distinguishing them from religious diviners under the Ministry of Spring (Chunguan).^[483] Medical theory began categorizing pathological conditions by linking seasonal variations, climatic influences, and dietary habits to imbalances within the human body, establishing the early foundations of traditional diagnostic medicine.^[483][484]

Culture, Literature, and Language

The Zhou dynasty presided over the development of classical Chinese written literature, the evolution of Chinese writing scripts, and the establishment of formal education systems.^[481][485] The linguistic corpus preserved from this era formed the foundation of the Confucian Classics, which remained the central core of traditional Chinese education and state examinations through the imperial period.^[485]

Script Development and Bronze Epigraphy

The Chinese script evolved during the eight centuries of Zhou rule.^[486] The early Western Zhou script derived directly from Shang oracle bone and bronze scripts, preserving pictographic structures but becoming more linear and regular.^[422][486] This script is represented in bronze inscriptions (Jinwen), which were cast into the interior walls, bases, and lids of ceremonial vessels to commemorate royal investitures, military victories, land settlements, and ancestral dedications.^[391][486] Notable inscriptions include the He zun, cast in the fifth year of King Cheng, which contains the earliest known written occurrence of the term 'Zhongguo' ('Middle Kingdom'), describing the founding of the capital at Luoyi.^{[72][487][488]}

During the late Western Zhou and early Eastern Zhou, the script stabilized into the Large Seal Script (Dazhuan), also known as the Zhou script (Zhoushu), characterized by rounded strokes and balanced proportions, exemplified in the stone drum inscriptions of Qin and the text of the Mao Gong ding.^[413][414] In the Warring States period, political fragmentation led to the emergence of divergent regional script variants: the southern state of Chu developed cursive variants alongside decorative styles such as the Bird-Worm script (Niaochongshu), while northern states streamlined character forms for brush writing on silk and bamboo slips. By the late Warring States period, the rapid drafting needs of state scribes gave rise to an early form of Clerical Script (Lishu), characterized by straight brushstrokes and simplified radicals, which formed the ancestor of modern regular Chinese characters.

Literary Classics and Archives

The Zhou period produced the foundational texts of the Chinese literary canon, collectively preserved as the Five Classics.^[485][489] The Classic of Poetry (Shijing) is the earliest anthology of Chinese poetry, containing more than three hundred poems.^[490] The collection is divided into four sections: Guofeng ('Airs of the States'), comprising folk songs from fifteen regional states that reflect the daily lives, labor, romance, and protests of the common people; Xiaoya ('Lesser Odes') and Daya ('Greater Odes'), comprising ceremonial songs and historical poems performed at royal feasts and court assemblies; and Zhousong ('Hymns of Zhou'), containing liturgical hymns performed during ancestral temple sacrifices.^[490][491] The poems display a regular four-character meter (siyan shi), employing structural devices of direct narration (fu), metaphor (bi), and evocative associations (xing).^[485][490]

The Classic of Documents (Shangshu or Shujing) compiles speeches, proclamations, vows, and dialogues attributed to the sage rulers of antiquity and the founders of the Zhou dynasty, particularly King Wen, King Wu, and the Duke of Zhou.^[485][489] Chapters such as the 'Great Announcement' (Da Gao), 'Announcement on Alcohol' (Jiu Gao), and 'Establishing Government' (Li Zheng) provide primary documentation for early Zhou political ideology, administrative structure, and the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven.^[86][492] Other early works include the Lost Book of Zhou (Yizhoushu), which records historical traditions from King Wen to King Jing, and the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu), the chronological court record of the state of Lu covering the years 722 to 481 BC, preserved alongside detailed historical commentaries such as the Zuo Zhuan, the Gongyang Zhuan, and the Guliang Zhuan.^{[64][485][489]}

Monarchs of the Zhou Dynasty

The rulers of the Zhou dynasty carried the royal title of Wang (King).^{[493][494][495]} In addition to reigning monarchs, King Wu's immediate ancestors, Gong Danfu (King Tai), Jili (King Ji), and Ji Chang (King Wen), were posthumously elevated to the status of Kings of Zhou.^[493][495] Historical dates prior to the commencement of the Gonghe Regency in 841 BC are not fixed in primary records and remain subject to scholarly debate; the dates presented below for the early kings represent the chronology established by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project alongside the alternate dates proposed by Edward L. Shaughnessy in the Cambridge History of Ancient China.^[494]

Western Zhou Kings: King Wu (Ji Fa), r. 1046–1043 BC (or 1045–1043 BC); King Cheng (Ji Song), r. 1042–1021 BC (or 1042/1035–1006 BC); King Kang (Ji Zhao), r. 1020–996 BC (or 1005/1003–978 BC); King Zhao (Ji Xia), r. 995–977 BC (or 977/975–957 BC); King Mu (Ji Man), r. 976–922 BC (or 956–918 BC); King Gong (Ji Yihu), r. 922–900 BC (or 917/915–900 BC); King Yih (Ji Jian), r. 899–892 BC (or 899/897–873 BC); King Xiao (Ji Pifang), r. 891–886 BC (or 872–866 BC); King Yi (Ji Xie), r. 885–878 BC (or 865–858 BC); King Li (Ji Hu), r. 877–841 BC (or 857/853–842/828 BC); Gonghe Regency, 841–828 BC; King Xuan (Ji Jing), r. 827–782 BC; King You (Ji Gongsheng), r. 781–771 BC.^[62][494]

Eastern Zhou Kings: King Ping (Ji Yijiu), r. 770–720 BC; King Xie (Ji Yuchen), rival claimant r. 771–750 BC; King Huan (Ji Lin), r. 719–697 BC; King Zhuang (Ji Tuo), r. 696–682 BC; King Xi (Ji Huqi), r. 681–677 BC; King Hui (Ji Lang), r. 676–652 BC; Prince Tui, rival claimant r. 675–673 BC; King Xiang (Ji Zheng), r. 651–619 BC; Prince Dai, rival claimant r. 636–635 BC; King Qing (Ji Renchen), r. 618–613 BC; King Kuang (Ji Ban), r. 612–607 BC; King Ding (Ji Yu), r. 606–586 BC; King Jian (Ji Yi), r. 585–572 BC; King Ling (Ji Xiexin), r. 571–545 BC; King Jing (Ji Gui), r. 544–521 BC; King Dao (Ji Meng), r. 520 BC; Prince Chao, rival claimant r. 520–516 BC; King Jing (Ji Gai), r. 519–476 BC; King Yuan (Ji Ren), r. 475–469 BC; King Zhending (Ji Jie), r. 468–442 BC; King Ai (Ji Quji), r. 441 BC; King Si (Ji Shu), r. 441 BC; King Kao (Ji Wei), r. 440–426 BC; King Weilie (Ji Wu), r. 425–402 BC; King An (Ji Jiao), r. 401–376 BC; King Lie (Ji Xi), r. 375–369 BC; King Xian (Ji Bian), r. 368–321 BC; King Shenjing (Ji Ding), r. 320–315 BC; King Nan (Ji Yan), r. 314–256 BC; Duke Wen of Eastern Zhou (King Hui of Eastern Zhou), claimant r. 255–249 BC.^[62]

Descendants and Historical Legacy

The political and cultural heritage of the Zhou dynasty exercised an enduring influence on subsequent imperial Chinese dynasties.^[455][496] Under the Han dynasty, the policy of Two Kings and Three Reverences was applied to the surviving descendants of the Zhou royal house; Emperor Wu of Han located Ji Jia, a descendant of the Zhou kings, and conferred upon him the hereditary title of Zhou Zinan Jun (Lord of Zhou of Zinan), elevating his descendants to the ranks of Marquis of Zhouchenghiu under Emperor Yuan, Duke of Zheng under Emperor Ping, and Duke of Wei under Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han.^[497][498] During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Later Jin dynasty granted hereditary duchies to descendants of the royal families of the Zhou, Sui, and Tang dynasties.^[499]

Multiple later ruling houses claimed patrilineal descent from the Zhou royal line to enhance their dynastic legitimacy.^{[500][501][502]} According to the New Book of Tang, the emperors of the Sui dynasty were patrilineal descendants of the Zhou kings through Ji Boqiao, a son of Duke Wu of Jin.^[501] The Sui also claimed the Yang clan of Hongnong among their ancestors, which linked them to both the Zhou and the Han.^{[501][502][503][504]} The imperial Li family of the Tang dynasty similarly claimed descent from the Zhou house via the Li clan of Longxi, while the imperial Zhao house of the Song dynasty claimed genealogical connections to the Zhou through the Yang of Hongnong, the Jia of Hedong, and the Wang of Taiyuan.^{[505][506][507][508]} The philosopher Mencius was traced back to the Duke of Zhou through Bo Qin and Duke Huan of Lu, leading the Han court to grant his family the hereditary post of Wujing Boshi (Doctor of the Five Classics).^{[509][510][511]}

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30. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第一編：第三章〈周的開拓和克商〉，第一節〈季歷對山西地區的開拓〉，第59頁-第35頁。
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77. Сыма Цянь Ши цзи Глава 3 Инь бэнь цзи Основные записи о деяниях дома Инь
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82. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第四章〈西周王朝的建立、興盛〉，第一節〈武王克商〉，第54頁-第57頁。
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84. Chinn (2007), p. 43. (Chinn, Ann-ping (2007), The Authentic Confucius, Scribner, ISBN 978-0-743-24618-7)
85. Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1999). "Western Zhou History". In Michael Loewe; Edward L. Shaughnessy (eds.). The Cambridge History of ancient China - From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 311
86. 《逸周書·作雒解》：「周公、召公，內弭父兄，外撫諸侯。元年夏六月，葬武王于畢。」
87. 《大保簋》：「王伐錄子𦔻，𠭯厥反，王降征命于大保。大保克𬜠（敬），亡□（譴）。」彔子𦔻即清華簡《繫年》中的彔子耿，指武庚。李學勤，〈紂子武庚祿父與大保簋〉，《甲骨文與殷商史》新 2 輯（上海：上海古籍出版 社，2011），頁 1-4。
88. 《明公簋》：「唯王令明公，遣三族伐東或（國），才□魯侯又（侑）囚（猷）工（功）」
89. Dương Khoan 1999, tr. 137–150. (Dương Khoan (1999). 西周史 [Tây Chu sử]. Đài Bắc: 臺灣商務印書館 [Đài Loan thương vụ ấn thư quán]. ISBN 978-957-05-1527-5.)
90. Shaughnessy, Edward L. «Western Zhou History». A: Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L.. The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 311. ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
91. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第一編：第四章〈周朝的創建和東征的勝利〉，第四節〈周公東征的勝利〉，第137頁-150頁。
92. 《禽簋》：「王伐□（蓋，即奄）侯，周公某（謀），禽（伯禽）祝。」
93. 《璺鼎》：「隹（唯）周公于征伐東尸（夷）、豐白（伯）、尃古咸□（戡）。」陳夢家認為尃古即薄姑。
94. Chin, Annping. The Authentic Confucius (en anglès). Scribner, 2007. ISBN 0743246187.
95. Dương Khoan 1999, tr. 109. (Dương Khoan (1999). 西周史 [Tây Chu sử]. Đài Bắc: 臺灣商務印書館 [Đài Loan thương vụ ấn thư quán]. ISBN 978-957-05-1527-5.)
96. Li Feng (2006). Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045–771 BC. Cambridge University Press. p. 94. ISBN 1139456881
97. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第四章〈西周王朝的建立、興盛〉，第三節〈營建洛邑〉，第60頁-第63頁。
98. Chinn, Ann-ping (2007), The Authentic Confucius, Scribner, p. 43
99. 《尚書大傳》：「周公攝政，一年救亂，二年克殷，三年踐奄，四年建侯衛，五年營成周，六年作禮樂，七年致政成王」
100. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第四章〈西周王朝的建立、興盛〉，第四節〈成康昭穆時代的文治武功及華夏國家的初步奠立〉，第63頁-第66頁。
101. Dương Khoan 1999, tr. 83–86. (Dương Khoan (1999). 西周史 [Tây Chu sử]. Đài Bắc: 臺灣商務印書館 [Đài Loan thương vụ ấn thư quán]. ISBN 978-957-05-1527-5.)
102. 《左傳·昭公二十六年》：「成王靖四方，康王息民」
103. 《大保簋》：「王伐錄子，聖摣厥，反。王降征令于大保。大保克敬亡遣。王迎大保，賜休余土，用茲彜對令。」
104. 《小臣𧫻簋》：「东夷大反，伯懋父以殷八师征东夷。」
105. 《逸周書·作雒解》：「俾康叔宇於殷，俾中旄父宇於東」
106. 《小盂鼎》：「王令盂，□（以）□□伐忒（鬼）方，□□□□（聝）□。執□（酋）三人。隻（獲）馘四千八百又二馘。孚（俘）人萬三千八十一人。」
107. 任會斌（2012年）:《80件最有意思的中國青銅器》〈治國經驗談-大盂鼎〉，第46頁
108. 葉正渤（2010年）:《金文標準器銘文綜合研究》下篇〈金文標準器銘文疏證與歷史斷代〉，一〈西周早期〉三〈康王時期〉，第99頁
109. 《今本竹書紀年·康王》：「十六年，王南巡狩，至九江廬山。」。
110. Dương Khoan 1999, tr. 37. (Dương Khoan (1999). 西周史 [Tây Chu sử]. Đài Bắc: 臺灣商務印書館 [Đài Loan thương vụ ấn thư quán]. ISBN 978-957-05-1527-5.)
111. 許倬雲（1984年）:《西周史》第五章〈封建制度〉第一節〈分封的本質〉，第140頁。
112. 《左傳·昭公九年》：『我自夏以后稷，魏、骀、芮、岐、毕，吾西土也。及武王克商，蒲姑、商奄，吾东土也；巴、濮、楚、邓，吾南土也；肃慎、燕、亳，吾北土也。』
113. Li Feng. Landscape and Power in Early China. Cambridge University Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 0511348487.
114. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 92–93. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
115. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 72-79. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
116. 《員卣》：「員從史□伐會，員先內（入）邑，員孚（俘）金，用作旅彝」
117. 《中方鼎》：「隹（唯）王令南宮伐反虎方之年，王令中先省南或（國）貫行，□王□（居）在夔□貞山。中乎歸（饋）生鳳于王，□于寶彜。」
118. 《過伯簋》：「過伯從王伐反荊，孚金，用作宗室寶尊彜。」
119. 《古本竹書紀年·昭王》：「六年，伐楚荊，渉漢，遇大兕。」。
120. 《古本竹書紀年．昭王》：「十九年，天大曀，雉兔皆震，喪六師于漢。」「昭王末年，夜淸，五色光貫紫微。其年王南巡不反。」
121. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第四編：第四章〈西周王朝力待對四方的征伐和防禦〉，第528頁-第530頁。
122. 《呂氏春秋·音初》：「周昭王親將征荊，辛餘靡長且多力，為王右。還反涉漢，梁敗，王及蔡（祭）公抎於漢中。辛餘靡振王北濟，又反振蔡（祭）公。」
123. 《史記正義》引《帝王世紀》：「昭王德衰，南征，濟于漢，船人惡之，以膠船進王，王御船至中流，膠液船解，王及祭公俱沒于水中而崩。其右辛游靡長臂且多力，游振得王，周人諱之。」
124. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第四編：第四章〈西周王朝力待對四方的征伐和防禦〉，第521頁-第526頁。
125. 《班簋》：「隹（唯）八月初吉，才（在）宗周。甲戌，王令毛白（伯）更（賡）虢城公服，□（屏）王立（位），乍四方亟（極），秉□（繁）、蜀、巢令，易鈴。咸，王令毛公以邦冢君、土（徒）馭（御）、□（呈戈）人伐東或（國）□（狷）戎。......三年靜（靖）東或（國），亡（無）不成。□天畏（威）。」
126. 《古本竹書紀年 周紀》：「周穆王伐大越，起九師，東至九江 ，駕黿鼉以為梁也。」。
127. 《今本竹書紀年 周穆王十二年》：「毛公班、共公利、逄公固帥師從王伐犬戎。冬十月，王北巡狩，遂征犬戎。」
128. 《今本竹書紀年 周穆王十七年》：「王西征昆侖丘，見西王母。其年，西王母來朝，賓於昭宮。秋八月，遷戎於太原。王北征，行流沙千里，積羽千里。征犬戎、取其五王以東。西征，至於青鳥所解。西征還履天下，億有九萬里。」
129. 《今本竹書紀年 周穆王十三年》：「秋七月，西戎來賓。徐戎侵洛。冬十月，造父禦王，入於宗周。」
130. 《今本竹書紀年 周穆王十四年》：「王帥楚子伐徐戎，克之。夏四月，王畋於軍丘。」
131. 白川静（1992年）:《西周史略》第三章〈鎬京辟雍〉，第二節〈汲冢紀年〉，第59頁-第67頁。
132. 《左傳·昭公十二年》：「昔穆王欲肆其心，周行天下，將必皆有車轍馬跡焉，祭公謀父作《祈招》之詩，以止王心。」
133. 《史密簋》：「隹（唯）十又一月，王令（命）师俗、史密曰：「東征」。敆南尸（夷）盧、虎會杞尸（夷）、舟尸（夷）雚（觀）不隊（墜），廣伐東或（國）。齐□（師）、族土（徒）、遂人乃执啚（鄙）寡亞（惡）。師俗□（率）齊□（師）、遂人左□伐長必。史密右□（率）族人、釐（萊）白（伯）、僰、□（夷）周伐長必，隻（獲）百人。對揚天子休，用作朕文考乙伯尊簋，子子孫孫其永寶用。」。
134. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 93. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
135. 《漢書·匈奴傳》：「至穆王之孫懿王時，王室遂衰，戎狄交侵，暴虐中國」
136. 《史記·秦本紀》：「非子居犬丘，好馬及畜，善養息之。犬丘人言之周孝王，孝王召使主馬於汧渭之閒，馬大蕃息......孝王曰：「昔伯翳為舜主畜，畜多息，故有土，賜姓嬴。今其後世亦為朕息馬，朕其分土為附庸。」邑之秦，使復續嬴氏祀，號曰秦嬴。」
137. 《左傳·昭公二十六年》：「至于夷王，王愆于厥身，諸侯莫不並走其望，以祈王身」
138. 《左傳·昭公二十六年》：「夷王三年，王致诸侯，烹齐哀公于鼎。」
139. 《史记·齐世家》：「癸公卒，子哀公不辰立”。不辰，《索隐》《系本》作“不臣”，谯周亦作“不辰”，宋忠曰：“哀公荒淫田游，国史作《还诗》以刺之也。”《毛詩·齊風·還序》：“齐哀公好游猎，从禽兽而无厌，国人化之，遂成风俗。”
140. 《史記·齊世家》：「哀公時，紀侯譖之周，周烹哀公而立其弟靜，是為胡公。胡公徙都薄姑，而當周夷王之時。」
141. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 108. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
142. 《後漢書·西羌傳》：「厲王無道，戎狄寇掠，乃入犬丘，殺秦仲之族，王命伐戎，不克。 （註：「並見《竹書紀年》。」）」，此為《古本竹書紀年》。
143. 《後漢書·東夷傳》：「厲王無道，淮夷入寇，王命虢仲征之，不克，宣王復命召公伐而平之。 （註：「並見《竹書紀年》。」）」，此為《古本竹書紀年》。
144. 《國語·周語》：「厲王說榮夷公，芮良夫曰：『王室其將卑乎！夫榮公好專利而不知大難。…… 榮公若用，周必敗。』既，榮公為卿士，諸侯不享，王流于彘。」
145. 許倬雲（2020年）:《西周史》：第九章〈西周的衰亡與東遷〉，第四節〈西周的末世諸王〉，第447頁—第448頁。
146. 《國語·周語》：「厲王虐，國人謗王。……王怒，得衛巫，使監謗者，以告，則殺之。國人莫敢言，道路以目。
147. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第七編：第一章〈西周後期王室逐步衰落〉，第805頁-第809頁。
148. 《史記·周本紀》：「厲王太子靜匿召公之家，國人聞之，乃圍之......乃以其子代王太子，太子竟得脫。」
149. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 95, 103. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
150. 王が不在
151. 《古本竹書紀年》
152. 张, 英聘 (2003). ”4. The Zhou (From 1046 B.C. to 771 B.C.” (på engelska). THE HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION OF CHINA. 中央文献出版社. sid. 26–29. ISBN 7-5073-1360-3. https://archive.org/details/historycivilizat0000zhan
153. 《詩經·小雅·斯干》：「《斯干》，宣王考室也。」
154. 《詩經·大雅·烝民》：「王命仲山甫，式是百辟。纘戎祖考，王躬是保。」
155. 《詩經·小雅·車攻》：「駕彼四牡，四牡奕奕。赤芾金舄，會同有繹。」
156. 《今本竹書紀年》：「九年，王會諸侯于東都，遂守于甫。」
157. 《兮甲盤》：「隹五年三月既死霸庚寅，王初格伐玁狁于□（上罒次口中十下回）□（上虎下魚），兮甲從王，折首執訊，休亡敃(愍)，王賜兮甲馬四匹、軥車，王令甲政（征）司（治）成周四方責（積），至於南淮夷，淮夷舊我帛畮（賄）人，毋敢不出其帛、其責（積）、其進人，其賈，毋敢不即次即市，敢不用命，則即刑撲伐」
158. 《詩經·大雅·常武》：「王命卿士，南仲大祖，大師皇父......不測不克，濯征徐國。」
159. 《詩經·小雅·采芑》：「方叔蒞止，其車三千......蠢爾蠻荆，大邦爲讎。方叔元老，克壯其猶。」
160. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第四編：第四章〈宣王伐玁狁（即犬戎）〉，第539頁-第541頁。
161. 《詩經·小雅·采薇》：「靡室靡家，玁狁之故；不遑啟居，玁狁之故。」《詩經·小雅·六月》：「玁狁孔熾、我是用急......王于出征、以佐天子......文武吉甫、萬邦為憲」《詩經·小雅·出車》：「王命南仲，往城于方......赫赫南仲，玁狁於襄」
162. 《虢季子白盤》：「虢季子白作寶盤。丕顯子白，壯武於戎工，經維四方。搏伐獫狁，於洛之陽。」
163. 任會斌（2012年）:《80件最有意思的中國青銅器》〈勝利的紀念-虢季子白盤〉，第112頁
164. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第五章〈西周的衰亡〉，第三節〈宣王中興〉，第72頁-第77頁。
165. 《後漢書·西羌傳》：「後二十七年，王遣兵伐太原戎，不克。後五年，王伐條戎、奔戎，王師敗績。後二年，晉人敗北戎於汾隰，戎人滅姜侯之邑。明年，王征申戎，破之。」
166. 《國語·周語上》：「三十九年，戰于千畝，王師敗績于姜氏之戎。」
167. 《今本竹書紀年》：「三十九年，王師伐姜戎，戰于千畝，王師敗逋。」
168. 《國語·周語上》：「宣王既喪南國之師，乃料民于太原。仲山父諫曰：「民不可料也！......」王卒料之，及幽王乃廢滅。」
169. 《國語·周語上》：「宣王即位，不籍千畝。虢文公諫曰：「不可。夫民之大事在農......。」王不聽。三十九年，戰于千畝，王師敗績于姜氏之戎。
170. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第七章〈井田制與西周社會性質〉，第四節〈西周中後期井田制漸露衰敗端倪〉，第113頁-第118頁。
171. 《國語·周語上》：「幽王二年，西周三川皆震。伯陽父曰：「周將亡矣！......。夫天之所棄，不過其紀。」是歲也，三川竭，岐山崩。」
172. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第五章〈西周的衰亡〉，第四節〈幽王之死與平王東遷–西周滅亡〉，第68頁-第72頁。
173. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 103. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
174. 《史記·周本紀》: 「幽王以虢石父為卿，用事，國人皆怨。石父為人佞巧善諛好利，王用之。」
175. 《詩經·小雅·十月之交》：「燁燁震電，不寧不令。百川沸騰，山塚崒崩。......抑此皇父、豈曰不時。胡為我作、不即我謀。徹我牆屋、田卒汙萊。曰予不戕、禮則然矣。......皇父孔聖，作都於向。擇三有事，亶侯多藏。」
176. 《今本竹書紀年·幽王》：「七年，虢人灭焦。」
177. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十八章〈西周的主要封國〉，第六節〈鄭、宋〉，第235頁-第236頁。
178. 《後漢書·西羌傳》：「後十年，幽王命伯士伐六濟之戎，軍敗，伯士死焉。其年，戎圍犬丘，虜秦襄公之兄伯父。」
179. Tse, Wicky W. K. (2018). The Collapse of China's Later Han Dynasty, 25–220 CE: The Northwest Borderlands and the Edge of Empire. Routledge. p. 45–46, 63, n.40. ISBN 978-1-315-53231-8 – via Google Books.
180. 《古本竹書紀年·周紀》：《汲冢紀年》云：「平王奔西申，而立伯盤以為太子。」《左傳正義·昭公二十六年》
181. 《國語·晉語上》：「獻公卜伐驪戎......史蘇曰：「......周幽王伐有褒，褒人以褒姒女焉，褒姒有寵，生伯服，于是乎與虢石甫比，逐太子宜臼而立伯服。」
182. 《今本竹書紀年·幽王》：「三年，王嬖褒姒。」「五年，王世子宜臼出奔申。」「八年，王錫司徒鄭伯多父命。王立褒姒之子曰伯服，為太子。」
183. 《今本竹書紀年·幽王》：「九年，申侯聘西戎及鄫。」 「十年春，王及諸侯盟于太室。秋九月，桃杏實。王師伐申。」
184. 《繫年》：「褒姒嬖於王，王與伯盤逐平王，平王走西申。幽王起師，回（圍）平王於西申，申人弗畀，曾人乃降西戎，以攻幽王，幽王及伯盤乃滅，周乃亡。」
185. 《古本竹書紀年·周紀》：《汲冢竹书纪年》：「（伯盘）与幽王俱死于 戏。先是，申侯、鲁侯及许文公立平王于申，以本大子 ，故称天王。」
186. 徐元诰说:“戏即骊山之北,水名,见《路史·国名记》。在今陕西临潼县东三十里,尚有古戏亭。”徐元诰:《国语集解》,第173页。
187. 《史記·周本紀》: 「又廢申后，去太子也。申侯怒，與繒、西夷犬戎攻幽王。幽王舉烽火徵兵，兵莫至。遂殺幽王驪山下，虜褒姒，盡取周賂而去。」
188. Hucker (1978), p. 37. (Hucker, Charles O. (1978), China to 1850: A Short History, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-804-70958-0)
189. 《史記·周本紀》:「平王之時，周室衰微，諸侯彊并弱，齊、楚、秦、晉始大，政由方伯。」
190. Künstler 1994 ↓, s. 62. (Mieczysław Jerzy Künstler: Dzieje Kultury Chińskiej. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich – Wydawnictwo, 1994. ISBN 83-04-03773-4.)
191. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第四編：第四章〈西周王朝力待對四方的征伐和防禦〉，第545頁-第546頁。
192. 《左傳正義·昭公二十六年》引《竹書紀年》：「二十一年，攜王為晉文公所殺。以本非適，故稱「攜王」。」
193. 《繫年》：「立廿又一年，晉文侯仇乃殺惠王於虢。」
194. Li 2006 ↓, s. 245. (Feng Li: Landscape and Power in Early China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-511-34848-8.)
195. 《今本竹書紀年·平王》：「元年辛未，王東徙洛邑。錫文侯命。晉侯會衛侯、鄭伯、秦伯，以師從王入于成周。」
196. 《今本竹書紀年·平王》：「二年，秦作西畤。魯孝公薨。賜秦、晉以邠、岐之田。」
197. 《今本竹書紀年·平王》：「十年，秦還于汧、渭。」「十八年，秦文公大敗戎師于岐，來歸岐東之田。」
198. 《左傳·隱公三年》：「鄭武公、莊公為平王卿士。王貳於虢，鄭伯怨王，王曰「無之」。故周、鄭交質。王子狐為質於鄭，鄭公子忽為質於周。王崩，周人將畀虢公政。四月，鄭祭足帥師取溫之麥。秋，又取成周之禾。周、鄭交惡。」
199. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第二章〈平王東遷後的政治形勢〉，第一節〈周王室喪失控制權〉，第55頁-第58頁。
200. 蕭璠（1990年）:《中國通史·先秦史》第四章〈春秋戰國時代中國的大蛻變〉，第一節〈周人滅商與周初封建〉，第99頁—第108頁。
201. Loewe i Shaughnessy 1999 ↓, s. 552. (Martin Loewe, Edward Shaughnessy: Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.)
202. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 166-169. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
203. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第二章〈平王東遷後的政治形勢〉，第二節〈春秋初年各諸侯國的內亂和紛爭〉，第58頁-第64頁。
204. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 108, 118–119, 139–142. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
205. Künstler 1994 ↓, s. 62–63. (Mieczysław Jerzy Künstler: Dzieje Kultury Chińskiej. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich – Wydawnictwo, 1994. ISBN 83-04-03773-4.)
206. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第三章〈霸主政治的興衰〉，第一節〈齊桓公首霸中原〉，第65頁-第68頁。
207. Ulrich Theobald: wu ba 五霸, the Five Hegemonial Lords. CHINAKNOWLEDGE – a universal guide for China studies. [dostęp 2020-11-02]. (ang.).
208. 《左傳·僖公十一年》：「夏，揚拒泉皋伊雒之戎，同伐京師，入王城，焚東門，王子帶召之也，秦晉伐戎以救周，秋，晉侯平戎于王。」
209. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第三章〈霸主政治的興衰〉，第三節〈晉文公稱霸〉，第69頁-第72頁。
210. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第三章〈霸主政治的興衰〉，第四節〈秦穆公獨霸西戎〉，第72頁-第73頁。
211. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第三章〈霸主政治的興衰〉，第五節〈楚莊王問鼎中原〉，第73頁-第74頁。
212. Loewe i Shaughnessy 1999 ↓, s. 556, 560–565, 569. (Martin Loewe, Edward Shaughnessy: Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.)
213. Maspero 1985, p. 281-283
214. 劉玉堂:《楚國歷史地理研究》第二章〈楚國政治地理〉，第二節〈楚國的都城〉，第83頁。
215. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第三章〈霸主政治的興衰〉，第六節〈弭兵運動〉，第74頁-第76頁。
216. 《史记·越王勾践世家》：「句践已平吴，乃以兵北渡淮，与齐、晋诸侯会於徐州，致贡於周。周元王使人赐句践胙，命为伯。」
217. （2007年）:《春秋史與春秋文明》第三章〈霸主政治的興衰〉，第七節〈吳越爭霸〉，第76頁-第77頁。
218. Maspero 1985 ; Hsu 1999, p. 291-295.
219. 驹尊铭文“王弗忘氒旧宗小子”、“王朋下不其，则万年保我万宗”证明单氏确为姬姓周王旧宗。参 《宝鸡眉县杨家村窖藏单氏家族青铜器群座谈纪要》王辉 刘军社 刘怀君 考古与文物 2003年 第03期。
220. 童书业 《春秋左传研究》上海人民出版社 1980年 263页
221. 《左传·昭公二十二年》：「丁巳，葬景王。王子朝因旧官、百工之丧职秩者，与灵、景之族以作乱。」
222. Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk, 2004:9-10.
223. 《左传·哀公三年》：「刘氏、范氏世为婚姻，苌弘事刘文公，故周与范氏。赵鞅以为讨。六月癸卯，周人杀苌弘。」
224. 《国语·周语下》：「及范、中行之难，苌弘与之，晋人以为讨，二十八年，杀苌弘。及定王，刘氏亡。」
225. 楊寬（1997年）:《戰國史》第七章〈七強並立的形勢和戰爭規模的擴大〉，第二節〈七強並立形勢的形成〉，第297頁。
226. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 208-209. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
227. 謝維揚（2001年）:《中國早期國家》第八章〈中國早期國家的轉型期：春秋和戰國〉，第一節〈周朝國家的結束和秦王朝的建立〉，第548頁。
228. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 281. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
229. 楊寬（1997年）:《戰國史》第七章〈七強並立的形勢和戰爭規模的擴大〉，第二節〈七強並立形勢的形成〉，第287頁。
230. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 113–114. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
231. Lewis, 1999, p. 617-6182.
232. 楊寬（1997年）:《戰國史》第七章〈七強並立的形勢和戰爭規模的擴大〉，第二節〈七強並立形勢的形成〉，第291頁。
233. 謝維揚（2001年）:《中國早期國家》第八章〈中國早期國家的轉型期：春秋和戰國〉，第一節〈周朝國家的結束和秦王朝的建立〉，第550頁。
234. Loewe i Shaughnessy 1999 ↓, s. 597, 602–603, 617–619. (Martin Loewe, Edward Shaughnessy: Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.)
235. Lewis 1999, p. 619
236. 楊寬（1997年）:《戰國史》第七章〈七強並立的形勢和戰爭規模的擴大〉，第二節〈七強並立形勢的形成〉，第298頁。
237. 楊寬（1997年）:《戰國史》第八章〈合縱連橫和兼併戰爭的變化〉，第四節〈秦齊趙三強鼎立而鬥爭和蘇秦為燕間諜而計謀破齊〉，第377頁。
238. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 206-208. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
239. Loewe i Shaughnessy 1999 ↓, s. 632–640. (Martin Loewe, Edward Shaughnessy: Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.)
240. Lewis 1999, p. 632-633 ; Li 2013, p. 189
241. （2007年）:《戰國史與戰國文明》〈引言〉，第1頁。
242. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 147–148. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
243. Sima Qian (trad. Pimpaneau) 2002, p. 64-78
244. Lewis 2007, p. 31-35
245. Maspero 1985, p. 330-331
246. Sun Tzu (trad. Lévi) 2000, p. 22
247. 《史记·卷四·周本纪第四》：「秦借道两周之间，将以伐韩，周恐借之畏於韩，不借畏於秦。」
248. 《史记·卷四·周本纪第四》：「秦昭王怒，使将军摎攻西周。西周君饹秦，顿首受罪，尽献其邑三十六，口三万。秦受其献，归其君於周。周隐王卒，周民遂东亡。」
249. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 209-210. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
250. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 114–115. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
251. 《史记·卷四·周本纪第四》：「後七岁，秦庄襄王灭东周國。」
252. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 210-211. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
253. Dynastic China: An Elementary History
254. 楊寬（1997年）:《戰國史》第九章〈秦的統一〉，第一節〈秦兼併六國和完成統一〉，第434頁。
255. Bodde 1986, p. 40-45 ; Maspero 1985, p. 350-351
256. Duiker, William J.; Spielvogel, Jackson J. World History: Volume I: To 1800 (en anglès). Edition: 5, illustrated. Thomson Higher Education publishing, 2006, p. 78. ISBN 0-495-05053-9.
257. 蕭璠（1990年）:《中國通史·先秦史》第三章〈封建體制的鼎盛時代〉，第二節〈封建體制下的政治、社會與經濟〉，第87頁—第93頁。
258. 《詩經·小雅·北山》：「普天之下，莫非王土；率土之濱，莫非王臣」
259. Shaughnessy (1999), "Western Zhou History", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge University Press, pp. 310–311
260. Brashier, K. E. (2011-01-01). Ancestral Memory in Early China. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05607-7.
261. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第八章〈周初大分封〉，第四節〈分封制的實質及其所反映的國家結構型態〉，第134頁-第72頁。
262. 《左傳·昭公十三年》：「昔天子班貢，輕重以列，列尊貢重，周之制也。」
263. 蕭璠（1990年）:《中國通史·先秦史》第三章〈封建體制的鼎盛時代〉，第二節〈封建體制下的政治、社會與經濟〉，第87頁。
264. ChinaKnowledge.de encyclopedia, Alternatively, the sequence was translated as prince, lord, elder, master, chieftain: Brooks 1997:3 n.9.
265. 《國語·周語中》：「昔我先王之有天下也，規方千里以為甸服，以供上帝山川百神之祀，以備百姓兆民之用，以待不庭不虞之患。其餘以均分公侯伯子男，使各有寧宇。」
266. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第八章〈周初大分封〉，第三節〈與分封制有關的幾個問題〉，第126頁-第72頁
267. 李峰. 論「五等爵」稱的起源. 《古文字與古代史》. ：2012年3月, (第三輯)
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269. 《史記·楚世家》：「熊繹當周成王之時，舉文、武勤勞之後嗣，而封熊繹於楚蠻，封以子男之田，姓琇氏，居丹陽。」
270. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第三編：第一章〈西周中央政權機構剖析〉，第297頁-第316頁。
271. 《禮記·王制》：「諸侯之下士視上農夫，祿足以代其耕也。中上倍下士，上士倍中士，下大夫倍上士；卿，四大夫祿；君，十卿祿。次國之卿，三大夫祿；君，十卿祿。小國之卿，倍大夫祿，君十卿祿......次國之上卿，位當大國之中，中當其下，下當其上大夫。小國之上卿，位當大國之下卿，中當其上大夫，下當其下大夫，其有中士、下士者，數各居其上之三分。......大國：三卿；皆命於天子；下大夫五人，上士二十七人。次國：三卿；二卿命於天子，一卿命於其君；下大夫五人，上士二十七人。小國：二卿；皆命於其君；下大夫五人，上士二十七人。」
272. Brashier, K. E. (2011). Ancestral Memory in Early China. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05607-7
273. 《左傳·昭公七年》：「故王臣公，公臣大夫，大夫臣士。」
274. 《應監甗》：「應監作寶尊彝」
275. 《仲几父簋》：「仲几父使幾使於諸侯諸監」
276. 《禮記·王制》：「天子使其大夫為三監，監於方伯之國，國三人。」
277. Yuri Pines (2009). Envisioning Eternal Empire Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era. University of Hawaiʻi Press. pp. 17–20. ISBN 9780824832759
278. 《番生簋》：「王令□（兼）斯公族、卿事、太史寮」
279. 《毛公鼎》：王曰：「父歆！巳曰及茲卿事寮、大史寮，於父即尹，命汝司公族□參有司、小子、師氏、虎臣、□朕執事。」
280. 《盠方尊》：「王册令尹......用司六师，王行，参有司：司土、司马、司工」
281. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十四章〈西周官制〉，第一節〈王朝中央官制〉，第188頁-第195頁。
282. 《禮記·曲禮下》：「天子建天官，先六大：曰大宰、大宗、大史、大祝、大士、大卜，典司六典。」
283. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第三編：第三章〈維護貴族權勢的重要官爵世襲制〉，第一節〈重要官爵世襲必須重加冊封〉，第343頁-第345頁。
284. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十四章〈西周官制〉，第二節〈關於世官世祿〉，第195頁-第199頁。
285. 《師虎簋》：「隹（唯）元年六月既朢甲戌......王乎（呼）內史吳曰：冊令（命）虎，王若曰：虎，（載）先王既令（命）乃且（祖）考事，啻（嫡）官（司左）右戲緐（荊），今余隹（唯）帥井（型）先王令（命），令女（命汝更）乃（祖）考，啻（嫡）官□랡（司左）右戲緐荊，苟륒（敬夙）夜勿灋밿令（廢朕命）。」
286. 《伯晨鼎》：「唯王八月，辰在丙午，王命. 侯伯晨曰：“嗣乃祖. 考侯于□」
287. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第三編：第三章〈維護貴族權勢的重要官爵世襲制〉，第二節〈虢季氏世代為師〉，第345頁-第346頁。
288. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第三編：第三章〈維護貴族權勢的重要官爵世襲制〉，第三節〈微氏世代為史〉，第347頁-第349頁。
289. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第三編：第三章〈維護貴族權勢的重要官爵世襲制〉，第343頁-第349頁。
290. （2007年）:《周代城邦》第四章〈貴族世官與采邑世祿〉，第93頁-第98頁。
291. 《中國古代社會史》，第151頁，新知書店，1948年
292. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十三章〈西周的國與野〉，第一節〈國與野的界劃〉，第179頁-第184頁。
293. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十三章〈西周的國與野〉，第二節〈國人與野人〉，第184頁-第57頁
294. 《周禮·地官司徒》：「令五家為比，使之相保；五比為閭，使之相受；四閭為族，使之相葬；五族為黨，使之相救；五黨為州，使之相赒；五州為鄉，使之相賓。」
295. 《周禮·地官司徒》：「遂人：掌邦之野。以土地之圖經田野，造縣鄙形體之法。五家為鄰，五鄰為里，四里為酂，五酂為鄙，五鄙為縣，五縣為遂，皆有地域，溝樹之。」
296. 《禮記·喪服》：「黨，謂族類無服者也。逸《奔喪禮》曰：『哭父族與母黨於廟，妻之黨於寢，朋友於寢門外，壹哭而已，不踴。』」
297. 《左傳》襄公二十三年云：「盡殺奕氏之族黨」。
298. 昭公二十七年又云：「盡滅郤氏之族黨」
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304. 《周禮·春官·冢人》：「先王之葬居中，以昭穆為左右。」
305. 《禮記·祭統》：「夫祭有昭穆。昭穆者，所以別父子、遠近、長幼、親疏之序而無亂也。」
306. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十一章〈關于昭穆制度〉。
307. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十九章〈周與周邊諸族〉，第一節〈西部與北部諸族〉，第237頁-第241頁。
308. 《禮制·王制》：「中國戎夷，五方之民，皆有其性也，不可推移。東方曰夷，被髮文身，有不火食者矣。南方曰蠻，雕題交趾，有不火食者矣。西方曰戎，被髮衣皮，有不粒食者矣。北方曰狄，衣羽毛穴居，有不粒食者矣。中國、夷、蠻、戎、狄，皆有安居、和味、宜服、利用、備器，五方之民，言語不通，嗜欲不同。」
309. 《尚書·周書·洛誥》：「曰其自時中乂，萬邦咸休，惟王有成績。」
310. 《尚書·周書·酒誥》：「厥誥毖庶邦庶士，越少正，御事，朝夕曰：『祀茲酒』。」
311. 謝維揚（2001年）:《中國早期國家》第七章〈中國早期國家的典型期：商朝和周朝〉，第二節〈中央王朝與地方的關係〉，第490頁。
312. 劉寶才（2002年）:《先秦史》第四章〈商周王權的發展與政治制度〉，第二節〈分封制度〉，第84頁-第87頁。
313. 劉寶才（2002年）:《先秦史》第四章〈商周王權的發展與政治制度〉，第二節〈分封制度〉，第88頁-第90頁。
314. 《左傳·定公四年》：「分魯公以大路大旂，夏后氏之璜，封父之繁弱，殷民六族，條氏，徐氏，蕭氏，索氏，長勺氏，尾勺氏，使帥其宗氏，輯其分族，將其類醜」
315. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十八章〈西周的主要封國〉，第一節〈魯國〉，第227頁-第229頁。
316. 《左傳·僖公四年》：「管仲對曰，昔召康公命我先君大公曰，五侯九伯，女實征之，以夾輔周室，賜我先君履。東至于海，西至于河，南至于穆陵，北至于無棣。」
317. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十八章〈西周的主要封國〉，第二節〈齊國〉，第229頁-第230頁。
318. 《克罍》、《克盉》：「王曰：大（太）保，隹（唯）乃明乃心，享于乃辟，余大封（對）。乃□（享）,令克侯于匽（燕），使羌、□、𠭯、雩、馭、微。克□（垂）匽（燕）入土眔又（有）司，用作寶尊彝。」
319. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十八章〈西周的主要封國〉，第三節〈燕國〉，第230頁-第232頁。
320. 《左傳·定公四年》：「分唐叔以大路密須之鼓，闕鞏沽洗，懷姓九宗，職官五正，命以唐誥，而封於夏虛，啟以夏政，疆以戎索」
321. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第十八章〈西周的主要封國〉，第四節〈晉國〉，第232頁-第233頁。
322. 《左傳·定公四年》：「分康叔以大路，少帛，綪茷，旃旌，大呂，殷民七族，陶氏，施氏，繁氏，錡氏，樊氏，饑氏，終葵氏」
323. 《尚書·周書·康誥》：「王曰：「嗚呼！小子封。恫瘝乃身，敬哉！......已，汝惟小子，乃服惟弘王，應保殷民；亦惟助王宅天命，作新民。」
324. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第五編：第一章〈西周時代的楚國〉，第593頁-第609頁
325. 《詩經·大雅·崧高》:「亹亹申伯，王纘之事，于邑于謝，南國是式。」
326. 《史記·楚世家》：「楚子熊繹與魯公伯禽、衛康叔子牟、晉侯燮、齊太公子呂伋俱事成王。」
327. 《史記·楚世家》：「熊渠甚得江漢閒民和，乃興兵伐庸、楊蠆，至于鄂。熊渠曰：「我蠻夷也，不與中國之號謚。」乃立其長子康為句亶王，中子紅為鄂王，少子執疵為越章王，皆在江上楚蠻之地。」
328. 《國語·魯語下》：「先王制土.....于是乎有鰥寡孤疾，有軍旅之出則征之，無則已。」
329. 劉寶才（2002年）:《先秦史》第四章〈商周王權的發展與政治制度〉，第四節〈軍制和刑罰〉，第102頁-第103頁。
330. 《周禮·地官·司徒》：「乃會萬民之卒伍而用之：五人為伍，五伍為兩，四兩為卒，五卒為旅，五旅為師，五師為軍，以起軍旅，以作田役，以比追胥，以令貢賦。」
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414. 任會斌（2012年）:《80件最有意思的中國青銅器》〈膳夫委任証-大克鼎〉，第52頁
415. Danielle Elisseeff 2008, p. 177
416. (EN) Donald B. Wagner, The State and the Iron Industry in Han China, Copenhagen, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Publishing, 2001, pp. 7, 36-37, 64-68, 75-76, ISBN 978-87-87062-83-1.
417. (EN) Vincent C. Pigott, The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1999, pp. 183-184, ISBN 978-0-924171-34-5.
418. Hägerdal, Hans (2012). ”Den dynamiska epoken Östra Zhou”. Kinas historia. Historiska media. sid. 47–50. ISBN 978-91-87031-24-3
419. 參見中國科學院考古研究所：《淬西發掘報告》附錄二《張家坡西周居住遺址陶瓷碎片的研究》，文物出版社，1963年
420. 參見李也貞等〈有關西周絲綢和刺繡的重要發現〉，《文物》，1976年第4期。
421. 地球社編輯部:《中國文明史 第一卷·先秦時期 中冊》第七章〈中華古建築格局的形成〉，第444頁-第464頁。
422. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第一章〈西周史料的整理、研究與新的發現〉，第二節〈西周甲骨〉，第13頁-第16頁。
423. 《逸周書·大匡》：「於是告四方游旅，旁生忻通，津濟道宿，所至如歸。幣租輕，乃作母以行其子，易資貴賤，以均游旅，使無滯。無粥熟，無室市，權內外以立均，無蚤莫」
424. 《考工記·匠人》：「匠人营国......左祖右社，面朝后市」
425. 《周禮·地官司徒》：「質人：中士二人......廛人：中士二人......胥師，二十肆則一人，皆二史。賈師，二十肆則一人，皆二史。司虣十肆則一人。司稽，五肆則一人。胥，二肆則一人。肆長，每肆則一人。泉府：上士四人」
426. 《遽伯瞏簋》：「遽伯瞏乍寶尊彝，用貝十朋又四朋。」
427. Carr, Brian; Mahalingam, Indira, eds. (1997). "Axial Thinkers and the Formation of Philosophical Schools". Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy. Routledge. p. 466. ISBN 978-0-415-03535-4 – via Google Books.
428. Tignor et al. (2013). (Tignor, Robert; et al. (2013), Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, vol. 1 (4th ed.), W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-92208-0)
429. Schirokauer & Brown (2006), pp. 25–47. (Schirokauer, Conrad; Brown, Miranda (2006), A Brief History of Chinese Civilization (Second ed.), Wadsworth: Thomson, pp. 25–47)
430. 《詩經·邶風·柏舟》：「日居月諸，胡疊而微？心之憂矣，如匪浣衣。靜言思之，不能奮飛。」
431. Tignor et al. (2013), p. 153. (Tignor, Robert; et al. (2013), Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, vol. 1 (4th ed.), W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-92208-0)
432. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 266. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
433. Ivanhoe, Philip J.; Van Norden, Bryan W. (2005). Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2nd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. pp. XIV. ISBN 0-872-20781-1.
434. 《國語·周語上》：「陽伏而不能出，陰迫而不能烝，于是有地震。今三川實震，是陽失其所而鎮陰也。陽失而在陰，川源必塞；源塞，國必亡。」
435. 《詩經·小雅·雨無正》：「浩浩昊天，不駿其德。降喪饑饉，斬伐四國。」《詩經·大雅·雲漢》：「天降喪亂，饑饉薦臻。」
436. 劉寶才（2002年）:《先秦史》第七章〈商周的宗教思想〉，第三節〈西周末年宗教思想的動搖〉，第173頁-第175頁。
437. Ivanhoe, Philip J.; Van Norden, Bryan W. (2005). Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2nd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. pp. XII–XIV. ISBN 0-872-20781-1.
438. 《詩經·生民》：「以赫厥靈、上帝不寧、不康禋祀、居然生子。」
439. 許倬雲（1984年）:《西周史》第三章〈克商與天命〉第四節〈周人的天命〉，第95頁—第105頁。
440. Ivanhoe e Van Norden 2005, pp. XII-XIV. ((EN) Philip J. Ivanhoe e Bryan W. Van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, 2. ed., Indianapolis, IN, Hackett, 2005, pp. XII-XIV, ISBN 0-872-20781-1.)
441. 《周禮·春官·大宗伯》：「以禋祀祀昊天上帝；以實柴祀日月星辰；以槱燎祀司中、司命、飌師、雨師；以血祭祭社稷、五祀、五嶽；以貍沈祭山林川澤；以疈辜祭四方百物；以肆獻裸享先王；以饋食享先王；以祠春享先王；以禴夏享先王；以嘗秋享先王；以烝冬享先王。」
442. Чунь цю Цзо чжуань. Комментарий Цзо к «Вёснам и осеням» / Исследование, пер. с кит., гл. 1−5, коммент. и указат. М.Ю. Ульянова. М., 2011, c. 127
443. 劉寶才（2002年）:《先秦史》第七章〈商周的宗教思想〉，第一節〈商周宗教思想的發展〉，第159頁-第166頁。
444. Зинин С.В. «Мантические ритуалы бу и ши в эпоху Чунь цю (VIII−V вв. до н.э.)» // Этика и ритуал в традиционном Китае. Сб. ст. М., 1988
445. 《周易·師》：「初六，師出以律，否臧凶。」
446. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第六編：第三章〈周易的筮占及其哲學思想〉，第一節〈周易是周人筮占的經典〉，第651頁。
447. 《周易·泰》：「九二，包荒，用馮河，不遐遺，朋亡，得尚于中行。」
448. Bagley (2018), pp. 75–76
449. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 73–75. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
450. Thote (2009), p. 120
451. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第三編：第一章〈西周中央政權機構剖析〉，第二節〈卿事寮和太史寮的職掌〉，第301頁-第305頁。
452. (EN) Brian Carr e Indira Mahalingam (a cura di), Axial Thinkers and the Formation of Philosophical Schools, in Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy, Routledge, 1997, p. 466, ISBN 978-0-415-03535-4.
453. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Philosophical Foundations: The Eastern Zhou Period. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China 3rd. Cambridge University Press. 2022: 40. ISBN 978-1-009-15144-3. doi:10.1017/9781009151436.
454. Schirokauer e Brown 2006, pp. 25-47. ((EN) Conrad Schirokauer e Miranda Brown, A Brief History of Chinese Civilization, Second, Wadsworth, Thomson, 2006, pp. 25-47.)
455. Li, Feng. Introduction. Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045–771 BC. Cambridge University Press. 2006: 1. ISBN 978-0-521-85272-2. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511489655.005.
456. Künstler 1994 ↓, s. 64, 73–74. (Mieczysław Jerzy Künstler: Dzieje Kultury Chińskiej. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich – Wydawnictwo, 1994. ISBN 83-04-03773-4.)
457. 《燹公盨》：「生我王作臣，厥沫（貴）唯德，民好明德， 寡（顧）在天下。用厥邵（紹）好，益干（？） 懿德，康亡不懋。孝友，訏明 經齊，好祀無[貝鬼]（廢）。心好德，婚媾亦唯協。」
458. Loewe i Shaughnessy 1999 ↓, s. 804. (Martin Loewe, Edward Shaughnessy: Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.)
459. Künstler 1994 ↓, s. 66. (Mieczysław Jerzy Künstler: Dzieje Kultury Chińskiej. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich – Wydawnictwo, 1994. ISBN 83-04-03773-4.)
460. (EN) A.C. Graham, Mo tzu 墨子, in Michael Loewe (a cura di), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, Berkeley, CA, Society for the Study of Early China; Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley, 1993, pp. 336-341, ISBN 978-1-55729-043-4.
461. Goldin 2020 ↓, s. 114, 147–148, 282, 289, 295. (Paul R. Goldin: Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History. New York: Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-58066-7.)
462. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第六編：第四章〈陰陽五行家的起源〉，第一節〈伯陽父的陰陽學說〉，第657頁。
463. 《國語·鄭語》：「夫和實生物，同則不繼。以他平他謂之和，故能豐長而物歸之；若以同裨同，盡乃棄矣。故先王以土與金木水火雜，以成百物。」
464. 《尚書·洪範》：「一、五行：一曰水，二曰火，三曰木，四曰金，五曰土。水曰潤下，火曰炎上，木曰曲直，金曰從革，土爰稼穡。」
465. 《禮記·曲禮上》：「夫禮者所以定親疏，決嫌疑，別同異，明是非也。」
466. 《禮記·坊 記》：「禮者，因人之情而為之節文，以為民坊者也......夫禮，坊民所淫，章民之別，使民無嫌，以為民紀者也。」
467. 〈略論周公對歷史的貢獻〉，《松遼學刊》，1994年第2期。
468. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第六篇：第九章〈贄見禮新探〉，第757頁。
469. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第六篇：第八章〈冊命禮概說〉，第787頁。
470. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第六篇：第八章〈冠禮新探〉，第737頁。
471. 楊寬（1999年）:《西周史》第六篇：第七章〈鄉飲酒禮與饗禮新探〉，第737頁。
472. 《周禮·春官宗伯》：「正樂縣之位，王宮縣，諸侯軒縣，卿大夫判縣，士特縣，辨其聲。」
473. 《周禮·春官宗伯》：「大司樂：掌成均之法，以治建國之學政，而合國之子弟焉。......以六律、六同、五聲、八音、六舞大合樂。」
474. 《穀梁傳·隱公五年》：「即謂天子八佾，諸公六佾，諸侯四佾之等也。」
475. 《論語·八佾》：三家者以雍徹。子曰：「『相維辟公，天子穆穆』，奚取於三家之堂？」
476. 關於西周曆日，有王國維的四分說，董作賓的定點說等等，詳見王勝利：〈西周曆法的月首、年首和記日詞語新探〉，《自然科學史研究》第九卷第一期。
477. 《詩經·小雅·大東》：「維天有漢，監亦有光。跂彼織女，終日七襄。雖則七襄，不成報章。睆彼牽牛，不以服箱。」
478. "Astronomy Education Network" (in Chinese). 4 July 2006. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
479. "Astronomy Education Network" (in Chinese). 24 June 2006. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
480. 《曶鼎》：「 東宮乃曰，偿曶禾十秭，遗十秭，为廿秭。来岁弗赏，则付卌秭。」
481. 《大戴禮記·保傅》：「古者年八歲而出就外舍，學小藝焉，履小節焉。束髮而就大學。學大藝焉，履大節焉。」
482. 地球社編輯部:《中國文明史 第一卷·先秦時期 中冊》第六章〈自然科學的主要門類及其成就〉，第二節〈數學的萌芽〉，第358頁-第360頁。
483. 《周禮·天官》：「四時皆有癘疾，春時有痟首疾，夏時有癢疥疾，秋時有瘧寒疾，冬時有嗽、上氣疾。」
484. 《周禮·天官》：「以五味、五穀、五藥養其病。以五氣、五聲、五色視其死生。兩之以九竅之變，參之以九藏之動。凡民之有疾病者，分而治之；死終，則各書其所以而入于醫師。」
485. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第一章〈西周史料的整理、研究與新的發現〉，第一節〈西周史料的整理、研究與新的發現〉，第4頁-第12頁。
486. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第一章〈西周史料的整理、研究與新的發現〉，第三節〈西周金文〉，第17頁-第21頁。
487. 任會斌（2012年）:《80件最有意思的中國青銅器》〈首倡中國-何尊〉，第44頁
488. 葉正渤（2010年）:《金文標準器銘文綜合研究》下篇〈金文標準器銘文疏證與歷史斷代〉，一〈西周早期〉二〈成王時期〉，第81頁
489. Hägerdal, Hans (2012). ”Filosofins guldålder”. Kinas historia. Historiska media. sid. 51–56. ISBN 978-91-87031-24-3
490. 饒宗頤：《新出土文獻論証》（上海：上海古籍出版社，2005），頁230。
491. Васильев К.В. Ранняя история древнекитайских письменных памятников // Рукописная книга в культуре народов Востока. Кн. 2. М.,1988, c. 88, 91
492. 《尚書·周書·立政》：「立政：任人、準夫、牧、作三事。」
493. Thorp, Robert L. (2005). China in the Early Bronze Age. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-8122-3910-2.
494. （2007年）:《西周史與西周文明》第三章〈武王克商之年與西周諸王年表〉，第二節〈關於西周諸王年世〉，第44頁-第53頁。
495. Thorp, Robert L. (2005). China in the Early Bronze Age. University of Pennsylvania Press. str. 176. ISBN 978-0-8122-3910-2.
496. 钱穆. 国史大纲 修订本. 北京: 商务印书馆. 1996: 41. ISBN 978-7-100-01766-4.
497. 《漢書‧楊胡朱梅雲傳》：初，武帝時，始封周後姬嘉為周子南君，至元帝時，尊周子南君為周承休侯，位次諸侯王。使諸大夫博士求殷後，分散為十餘姓，郡國往往得其大家，推求子孫，絕不能紀。時，匡衡議，以為「王者存二王后，所以尊其先王而通三統也。其犯誅絕之罪者絕，而更封他親為始封君，上承其王者之始祖。《春秋》之義，諸侯不能守其社稷者絕。今宋國已不守其統而失國矣，則宜更立殷後為始封君，而上承湯統，非當繼宋之絕侯也，宜明得殷後而已。今之故宋，推求其嫡，久遠不可得；雖得其嫡，嫡之先已絕，不當得立。《禮記》孔子曰：『丘，殷人也。』先師所共傳，宜以孔子世為湯後。」上以其語不經，遂見寢。
498. 佐藤信弥 2016, p. 212-213. (佐藤信弥『周-理想化された古代王朝』中央公論新社、2016年。ISBN 978-4-12-102396-4。全国書誌番号:22799711。https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/027586785。)
499. Xiu Ouyang (Richard L. Davis, translator), Historical Records of the Five Dynasties, Columbia University Press, 5 avril 2004, 76– (ISBN 978-0-231-50228-3, lire en ligne)
500. 《氏族志》
501. Nouveau livre des Tang, zh:s:新唐書
502. নিউ বুক অব তাং, zh:s:新唐書
503. Howard L. Goodman, Xun Xu and the Politics of Precision in Third-Century Ad China, BRILL, 2010, 81– (ISBN 978-90-04-18337-7 et 90-04-18337-X, lire en ligne)
504. Peter Bol, "This Culture of Ours" : Intellectual Transitions in T?ang and Sung China, Stanford University Press, 1er août 1994, 505– (ISBN 978-0-8047-6575-6, lire en ligne)
505. R. W. L. Guisso, Wu Tse-T'len and the politics of legitimation in T'ang China, Western Washington, décembre 1978, 335 p. (ISBN 978-0-914584-90-2, lire en ligne), p. 242
506. Peter Bol, "This Culture of Ours" : Intellectual Transitions in T?ang and Sung China, Stanford University Press, 1er août 1994, 66– (ISBN 978-0-8047-6575-6, lire en ligne)
507. R. W. L. Guisso (ডিসেম্বর ১৯৭৮)। Wu Tse-T'len and the politics of legitimation in T'ang China। Western Washington। পৃ. ২৪২। আইএসবিএন ৯৭৮-০-৯১৪৫৮৪-৯০-২।
508. পিটার বোল (১ আগস্ট ১৯৯৪)। "This Culture of Ours": Intellectual Transitions in T?ang and Sung China। Stanford University Press। পৃ. ৬৬। আইএসবিএন ৯৭৮-০-৮০৪৭-৬৫৭৫-৬।
509. 《三遷志》，（清）孟衍泰續修
510. 《孟子世家譜》，（清）孟廣均主編，1824年
511. H.S. Brunnert et V.V. Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization of China, Routledge, 15 avril 2013, 493–494 p. (ISBN 978-1-135-79795-9, lire en ligne)