The Marquess of Shen (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: , p ''Shēnhóu''; d. 771 BCE) was a Qiang ruler of Shen during

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

’s

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

. A

vassal state A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to ...

of the Zhou, Shen state covered the area of modern-day

Nanyang Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to: Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean) * Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea ;China * Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

. One of the Marquess of Shen’s daughters married the Zhou King You. As Queen Shen, she gave birth to

Crown Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...

Yijiu King Ping of Zhou (; died 720 BC), personal name Ji Yijiu, was the thirteenth king of the Zhou dynasty and the first of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. Sima Qian. ''Records of the Grand Historian'', "Zhou Dynasty Annals". History He was the son of Ki ...

, but another consort named Bao Si persuaded the king to banish the queen and favor her son Bofu over Yijiu. Furious, the Marquess of Shen allied with the

Zeng Zeng (, ) is a Chinese family name. In Cantonese, it is Tsang; In Wade-Giles, such as those in Taiwan, Tseng or Tzeng; in Malaysia and Singapore, Chen or Cheng; in the Philippines, Chan; in Indonesia, Tjan; in Vietnam, Tăng. The surname Zeng is ...

and

Quanrong The Quanrong () or Dog Rong were an ethnic group, classified by the ancient Chinese as " Qiang", active in the northwestern part of China during and after the Zhou dynasty (1046–221 BCE). Their language or languages are considered to have been mem ...

barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be less c ...

attack Attack may refer to: Warfare and combat * Offensive (military) * Charge (warfare) * Attack (fencing) * Strike (attack) * Attack (computing) * Attack aircraft Books and publishing * ''The Attack'' (novel), a book * '' Attack No. 1'', comic an ...

the Zhou capital

Haojing Hao or Haojing (), also called Zongzhou (), was one of the two settlements comprising the capital of the Western Zhou dynasty (1066–770 BCE), the other being Fēng or Fēngjīng (). Together they were known as Fenghao and stood on opposite banks ...

. King You lit beacons to summon his nobles, but none came and he was killed at the foot of

Mount Li Mount Li () is a mountain located in the northeast of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, China. The mountain is part of the Qinling mountain range and rises to a height of 1302 metres above sea level. It is one of the eight scenic spots of the Guanzhong ...

near modern-day

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...

. Thereafter, the Marquesses of Shen, Zeng, and Xu enthroned Yijiu as King Ping of Zhou in Shen. This marked the end of the Western Zhou and the beginning of the Eastern.Chinese Text Project
Rulers of the Zhou states – with links to their occurrences in pre-Qin and Han texts. The Marquess died in 771 BCE.

References

Zhou dynasty people 771 BC deaths Year of birth unknown 8th-century BC Chinese monarchs {{China-royal-stub