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Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military control over territories centered on the Wei River valley and North China Plain. Even as Zhou suzerainty became increasingly ceremonial over the following Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC), the political system created by the Zhou royal house survived in some form for several additional centuries. A date of 1046 BC for the Zhou's establishment is supported by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and David Pankenier, but David Nivison and Edward L. Shaughnessy date the establishment to 1045 BC. The latter Eastern Zhou period is itself roughly subdivided into two parts. During the Spring and Autumn period (), power became increasingly decentralized as the authority of the royal house diminished. The Warring States ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Zhou
The Eastern Zhou (256 BCE) is a period in Chinese history comprising the latter two-thirds of the Zhou dynasty. The period follows the Western Zhou era and is named due to the Zhou royal court relocating the capital eastward from Fenghao (in present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi province) to Chengzhou (near present-day Luoyang, Henan province) after the fall and sacking of the old capital in the hand of Quanrong barbarians. The Eastern Zhou era was characterised by the progressively weakened authority of the Zhou royal house, and correspondingly increasing autonomy and military ambitions of various feudal states. It is subdivided into two periods: the Spring and Autumn period (), during which the ancient aristocracy still held nominal influence in a large number of separate polities; and the Warring States period (221 BCE), which saw the complete decentralization, escalation of interstate warfare and regional administrative sophistication. History According to traditional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King You Of Zhou
King You of Zhou (795–771 BC), personal name Ji Gongsheng, was a king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty and the last from the Western Zhou dynasty. He reigned from 781 to 771 BC. History In 780 BC, a major earthquake struck Guanzhong. A soothsayer named Bo Yangfu () considered this an omen foretelling the destruction of the Zhou Dynasty. In 779 BC, a concubine named Bao Si entered the palace and came into the King You's favour. They had a son named Bofu. King You deposed and Crown Prince Yijiu. He made Bao Si the new queen and Bofu the new crown prince. Queen Shen's father, the Marquess of Shen, was furious at the deposition of his daughter and grandson Crown Prince Yijiu and mounted an attack on King You's palace with the Quanrong. King You called for his nobles using the previously abused beacons but none came. In the end, King You and Bofu were killed and Bao Si was captured. After King You died, nobles including the Marquess of Shen, the Marquess of Zeng () and supporte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North China Plain
The North China Plain () is a large-scale downfaulted rift basin formed in the late Paleogene and Neogene and then modified by the deposits of the Yellow River. It is the largest alluvial plain of China. The plain is bordered to the north by the Yanshan Mountains, to the west by the Taihang Mountains, to the south by the Dabie Mountains, and to the east by the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. The Yellow River flows through the plain, before its waters empty into the Bohai Sea. The part of the North China Plain around the banks of the middle and lower Yellow River is commonly referred to as the Central Plain (). This portion of the North China Plain formed the cradle of Chinese civilization, and is the region from which the Han Chinese people emerged. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wei River
The Wei River () is a major river in west-central China's Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. It is the largest tributary of the Yellow River and very important in the early development of Chinese civilization. In ancient times, such as in the Records of the Grand Historian, the river was called Wei Shui (). The total length of the Wei River is , covering a drainage area of . Some of the major tributaries include the Luo River, Jing River, Niutou RiverFeng Riverand the Chishui River. In a direct line, it travels due east for before draining into the Yellow River at Tongguan County near the tri-provincial boundary between Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces, with a series of major cities along its course including Tianshui, Baoji, Xianyang, Xi'an and Weinan. Course The source of the Wei River starts in the mountainous region in southern Weiyuan County (literally meaning "Wei's source"), Gansu province, with the westernmost headwater of its mainstem Qingyuan River (清源 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ji (Zhou Dynasty Ancestral Surname)
''Jī'' () was the ancestral name of the Zhou dynasty which ruled China between the 11th and 3rd centuries BC. Thirty-nine members of the family ruled China during this period while many others ruled as local lords, lords who eventually gained great autonomy during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Ji is a relatively uncommon surname in modern China, largely because its bearers often adopted the names of their states and fiefs as new surnames. The character is composed of the radicals (Old Chinese: ''nra'', "woman") and (OC: ''ɢ(r)ə'', "chin").Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. '' '', pp. 61, 106, & 175. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011. It is most likely a phono-semantic compound, with ''nra'' common in the earliest Zhou-era family names and ''ɢ(r)ə'' marking a rhyme of (OC: ''K(r)ə''). The legendary and historical record shows the Zhou Ji clan closely entwined with the Jiang (), who seem to have provided many of the Ji lords' high-ranking spo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Zhou
The Western Zhou ( zh, c=西周, p=Xīzhōu; 771 BC) was a period of Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended in 771 BC when Quanrong pastoralists sacked the Zhou capital at Haojing and killed King You of Zhou. The "Western" label for the period refers to the location of the Zhou royal capitals, which were clustered in the Wei River valley near present-day Xi'an. The early Zhou state was ascendant for about 75 years; thereafter, it gradually lost power. The former lands of the Shang were divided into Ancient Chinese states, hereditary fiefs that became increasingly independent of the Zhou king over time. The Zhou court was driven out of the Wei River valley in 771 BC: this marked the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period, wherein political power was wielded in actuality by the king's nominal vassals. Sources The Western Zhou are known from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese History
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Yellow River valley, which along with the Yangtze basin constitutes the geographic core of the Chinese cultural sphere. China maintains a rich diversity of ethnic and linguistic people groups. The traditional lens for viewing Chinese history is the dynastic cycle: imperial dynasties rise and fall, and are ascribed certain achievements. This lens also tends to assume Chinese civilization can be traced as an unbroken thread many thousands of years into the past, making it one of the cradles of civilization. At various times, states representative of a dominant Chinese culture have directly controlled areas stretching as far west as the Tian Shan, the Tarim Basin, and the Himalayas, as far north as the Sayan Mountains, and as far south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dynasties Of China
For most of its history, China was organized into various dynastic states under the rule of hereditary monarchs. Beginning with the establishment of dynastic rule by Yu the Great , and ending with the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor in AD 1912, Chinese historiography came to organize itself around the succession of monarchical dynasties. Besides those established by the dominant Han ethnic group or its spiritual Huaxia predecessors, dynasties throughout Chinese history were also founded by non-Han peoples. Dividing Chinese history into dynastic epochs is a convenient and conventional method of periodization. Accordingly, a dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, as well as to describe events, trends, personalities, artistic compositions, and artifacts of that period. For example, porcelain made during the Ming dynasty may be referred to as "Ming porcelain". The longest-reigning orthodox dynasty of China was the Zhou dynasty, ruling for a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Script
The regular script is the newest of the major Chinese script styles, emerging during the Three Kingdoms period , and stylistically mature by the 7th century. It is the most common style used in modern text. In its traditional form it is the third-most common in publishing after the Ming typefaces, Ming and East Asian Gothic typeface, Gothic types used exclusively in print. History The ''Xuanhe Calligraphy Manual'' () credits with creating the regular script, based on the clerical script of the early Han dynasty (202 BCE220 CE). It became popular during the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms periods, with Zhong Yao (230 BC), a calligrapher in the state of Cao Wei (220–266), being credited as its first master, known as the father of regular script. His famous works include the , , and . Palaeographer Qiu Xigui describes the script in ''Xuanshi biao'' as: However, very few wrote in this script at the time other than a few literati; most continued writing in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seal Script
Seal script or sigillary script () is a Chinese script styles, style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of bronze script during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). The variant of seal script used in the state of Qin eventually became comparatively standardized, and was adopted as the formal script across all of China during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). It was still widely used for decorative engraving and seal (East Asia), seals during the Han dynasty (202 BC220 AD). The literal translation given above was coined during the Han dynasty, and reflects the role of the script being reduced to ceremonial inscriptions. Types The term ''seal script'' may refer to several distinct varieties, including the large seal script and the small seal script. Without qualification, ''seal script'' usually refers to the small seal script—that is, the lineage which evolved with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Script
Chinese bronze inscriptions, also referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, comprise Chinese writing made in several styles on ritual bronzes mainly during the Late Shang dynasty () and Western Zhou dynasty (771 BC). Types of bronzes include ''zhong'' bells and '' ding'' tripodal cauldrons. Early inscriptions were almost always made with a stylus into a clay mold, from which the bronze itself was then cast. Additional inscriptions were often later engraved onto bronzes after casting. The bronze inscriptions are one of the earliest scripts in the Chinese family of scripts, preceded by the oracle bone script. Terminology For the early Western Zhou to early Warring States period, the bulk of writing which has been unearthed has been in the form of bronze inscriptions. As a result, it is common to refer to the variety of scripts of this period as "bronze script", even though there is no single such script. The term usually includes bronze inscriptions of the preced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
