An outline, era by era

Zhou dynasty; Spring and Autumn period; Confucius, Laozi

Iron Age · ~1200 – ~500 BCE

The Zhou dynasty ruled much of the Yellow River valley of northern China from about 1046 BCE until 256 BCE, making it the longest dynasty in Chinese history. The Zhou overthrew the Shang and claimed to rule by the Mandate of Heaven. They shared power with lords who governed regional states. In 771 BCE invaders and rebels sacked the western capital, and the court moved east to Luoyang. This began the Eastern Zhou, in which royal power was largely nominal.

The first part of the Eastern Zhou is called the Spring and Autumn period (770 to about 476 BCE), after a chronicle of the state of Lu. Powerful states fought over leadership, and iron tools spread. It was also the age of the thinkers Confucius (traditionally 551 to 479 BCE), who taught ethical conduct and good government, and Laozi, a shadowy figure linked to the Daoist text Daodejing. Their ideas shaped Chinese thought and government for more than two thousand years.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. King Wu and the Mandate of Heaven

    Origin story

    The legend

    The last Shang king is cruel and depraved, and Heaven withdraws its favour from him. King Wu of Zhou leads the lords against him and defeats him at Muye. The Shang king burns himself in his palace, and the virtuous Zhou receive the Mandate of Heaven to rule.

    The rest is history

    The Zhou did conquer the Shang, traditionally in 1046 BCE, though the date is debated. The idea of the Mandate was a political argument, developed in early Zhou bronze inscriptions and in documents of the Book of Documents, to justify the conquest and to say that rulers keep power only through virtue. The negative picture of the last Shang king was written by his conquerors. A bronze vessel, the Li gui, records Wu's victory over the Shang. Its inscription is among the oldest Zhou texts.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryShangshu (Book of Documents), chapters on Muye and the Announcement of Shao. Chinese classic, Zhou texts in later recensions.Early statements of the Mandate of Heaven.
    2. BookShaughnessy, Edward L. Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
    3. BookHsu, Cho-yun, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Western Chou Civilization. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

  2. The beacon fires and the smile of Bao Si

    Folk tale

    The legend

    King You of Zhou loves his consort Bao Si, who never smiles. He lights the beacon fires that warn of invasion, and the lords rush to the capital in vain. Bao Si laughs at the sight. Later, when real invaders come, the lords ignore the beacons and the king is killed.

    The rest is history

    The story is told in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, written about 100 BCE, some seven centuries after the events. The fall of the Western Zhou in 771 BCE is real. King You was killed and the capital sacked, and the court moved east. Early sources mostly blame a dispute over the royal succession and an alliance of rebels and western peoples. The beacon tale is a moral story blaming a woman, and the Bamboo Annals, found in a tomb in 281 CE, do not mention the beacon fires. Some modern scholars doubt the tale because beacon systems of this kind are not otherwise attested for that early date.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySima Qian. Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), chapter 4, Basic Annals of Zhou. Chinese history, c. 100 BCE.Source of the beacon fire story.
    2. BookLoewe, Michael, and Edward L. Shaughnessy, eds. The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  3. Confucius, the uncrowned king and wandering sage

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    Confucius, born in Lu, rises to high office but is driven out when the ruler turns to pleasure. He wanders for years among the states with his disciples, seeking a ruler who will follow the Way. None does. He returns home to teach, and to edit the ancient classics.

    The rest is history

    Confucius was a real teacher, and his sayings were gathered by his followers in the Analects. His career as a minister in Lu and his long exile are told in the Analects and more fully in Sima Qian's biography, written centuries later and mixing fact with legend. The claim that he edited all the Six Classics is doubtful, but he is traditionally linked with the Spring and Autumn Annals. After his death his school grew, and in the Han dynasty his teachings became the basis of state education. The Analects took its present form over a long period, perhaps into the 3rd century BCE.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLunyu (Analects of Confucius). Chinese text compiled by his followers, 5th to 3rd centuries BCE.Sayings of Confucius and his disciples.
    2. BookBrooks, E. Bruce, and A. Taeko Brooks. The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and His Successors. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
    3. BookCsikszentmihalyi, Mark. Readings in Han Chinese Thought. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006.

  4. Laozi leaves for the west and writes the Daodejing

    Origin story

    The legend

    Laozi, keeper of the archives of Zhou, sees the dynasty decline and rides west on a water buffalo. At the mountain pass the guardian Yin Xi begs him to write down his teaching. Laozi writes a book of some five thousand characters, then passes through the gate and is never seen again.

    The rest is history

    The story comes from Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, which itself admits that nobody knew who Laozi was. It offers several candidates, and says he was said to have met Confucius. Many modern scholars doubt that one man wrote the Daodejing, and think it grew over time from sayings, reaching its form around the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE. Early copies were found in 1973 at Mawangdui and in 1993 at Guodian, in tombs. The Guodian bamboo slips, from about 300 BCE, include parts of the text and show it was still taking shape.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySima Qian. Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), chapter 63, Biography of Laozi and Han Fei. Chinese history, c. 100 BCE.
    2. BookHenricks, Robert G. Lao-Tzu Te-Tao Ching: A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989.
    3. BookGraham, A. C. Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1989.

  5. Laozi meets Confucius

    Folk tale

    The legend

    The young Confucius travels to Zhou to ask the old archivist Laozi about ritual. Laozi tells him to shed his pride and his many desires. Confucius goes away and tells his disciples that he has met a dragon, which no one can understand.

    The rest is history

    The meeting appears in Sima Qian's biography of Laozi and in Daoist writings such as the Zhuangzi, where Confucius is often shown being taught by Daoist sages. Such scenes were likely invented by later writers to claim Confucius's prestige for their own school. Nothing in the Analects mentions a meeting. The two traditions were later seen as rivals, though in practice many people drew on both. The story is thus better evidence for how the schools of the Warring States argued than for any actual encounter.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySima Qian. Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), chapter 63. Chinese history, c. 100 BCE.
    2. PrimaryZhuangzi. Chinese Daoist text, 4th to 2nd centuries BCE, chapters on Tian Yun and Tian Zifang.
    3. BookGraham, A. C. Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1989.

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