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
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...
. '' Records of the Grand Historian'', "Zhou Dynasty Annals".
History
He was the son of
King You of Zhou and
Queen Shen (申后).
King You had exiled Queen Shen and Ji Yijiu after the king became enamoured with his
concubine Bao Si and made her
queen and his son
Bofu his heir. As a result, Queen Shen’s father, the
Marquess of Shen, teamed with the
Quanrong nomads and local satellite
states to overthrow King You.
In the
Battle of Mount Li {{unreferenced, date=August 2016
The Battle of Mount Li ''( Li Shan)'' was a decisive clash that occurred in Ancient China in 771 BC near the twin cities of Haojing and Fengjing, often referred to together as Fenghao. The battle was fought between ...
King You and Bofu were killed, and Bao Si captured. Li Yijiu ascended the throne. At about the same time, Jī Hàn (姬翰), Duke of Guó (虢公), elevated Jī Yúchén (姬余臣) to the throne as
King Xie of Zhou (周携王), and the Zhou Dynasty saw a period of
two parallel kings until King Xie was killed by
Marquis Wen of Jin (晋文侯) in 750 BCE.
King Ping moved the
Western Zhou dynasty's capital east from
Haojing to
Luoyang, thus ending the
Western Zhou and beginning the Eastern Zhou dynasty and the
Spring and Autumn period
The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fr ...
. He is the first Zhou king to be mentioned in the chronological account of the
Zuo Zhuan.
Over 14 centuries after King Ping’s death,
Tang dynasty Empress regnant
Wu Zetian claimed ancestry from King Ping through his son Prince Wu, and changed the dynastic name to Zhou, which was reverted to Tang after her death.
[Paludan, 101]
Family
Sons:
* First son, Crown Prince Xiefu (), the father of
King Huan of Zhou
* Second son, Prince Hu ()
** Served as a hostage of
Duke Zhuang of Zheng
* Youngest son, Prince Wu ()
Ancestry
See also
*
Family tree of ancient Chinese emperors
This is a family tree of Chinese monarchs covering the period of the Five Emperors up through the end of the Spring and Autumn period.
Five Emperors
The legendary Five Emperors were traditionally regarded as the founders of the Chinese state. ...
References
720 BC deaths
Zhou dynasty kings
8th-century BC Chinese monarchs
Year of birth unknown
Founding monarchs
{{China-royal-stub