At the beginning of the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, there were 765,438+0 vassal states, including 53 with Zhou Tian's surname, such as Yan State and Jin State, 65,438+08 with different surnames, such as Qi State in Jiang Ziya, and other vassal states that surrendered to the Zhou Dynasty in Shang Dynasty, totaling 800.
Among all the vassal States, the most powerful is the Zhou Emperor, whose population, land area and cities are under the direct control of the Zhou Emperor, occupying an absolute advantage. It is precisely because of the powerful strength of the Zhou royal family that it can maintain its deterrence against the vassal States. After the rule, the Zhou royal family used to be very strong, but due to the constant war with the peace, the power of the Zhou royal family was weakened When it arrived, there was a riot among China people, and even Zhou was driven away.
Since then, the Zhou royal family has been weakening. In the period, the strength of the Zhou royal family was only equivalent to a medium-sized vassal state. As a result, Shen Hou, the father-in-law of the abandoned prince, was defeated and killed, and even Zhou was killed. You can imagine how weak the Zhou royal family was. After Zhou Youwang, his abandoned prince Ji Yijiu succeeded to the throne and moved to Luoyi, and Ji Yijiu became Zhou Pingwang, so the Eastern Zhou Dynasty began.
Then the question is, why has the Zhou royal family been weakening, while some major vassal States have been strengthening?
The fundamental reason lies in the enfeoffment system. The Zhou royal family is the co-owner of the world, but there are always some disobedient countries in more than 800 vassal States. So Zhou came forward to lead an army to crusade, either to destroy the disobedient vassal States and packet them to the heroes in the crusade, or to beat the vassal States into submission and divide the spoils. Although the Zhou royal family was very strong at first, it fought everywhere during the reign of King Zhao of Zhou, and fought abroad all the year round.
For example, King Zhao of Zhou conquered Jingchu in the south, and Hanshui lost six emperors. Later he died in Jingchu. Zhou Muwang's western expedition to the Queen Mother's country thousands of miles away surpassed China's traditional sphere of influence. He kept fighting for the Zhou royal family and did not enjoy the benefits and benefits of the war. The land he seized was basically fenced again. Instead, the strength of the Zhou royal family has been weakening, which is a good fight, while some larger vassal States rarely fight.
In this way, the Zhou royal family became weaker and weaker, while the vassal States became stronger and stronger. When Zhou's power could not control the big vassal States, the merger war between the vassal States began. Just like the big fish eat small fish, the big vassal states constantly annexed the small vassal states, and their strength expanded rapidly. The situation that the vassal state was strong and the Zhou royal family was weak developed to the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which led to the murder and the division of the Western Zhou Dynasty after the murder.
In this way, there were two emperors in the early years of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which existed for 10 years. Finally, King Xie of Zhou was destroyed by the State of Jin, which completely ended the embarrassment of the two Zhou emperors. But at this time, the strength of the royal family in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was almost the same as that of a small vassal state, and it was completely reduced to a supporting role. At this time, history also entered the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. By the early Spring and Autumn Period, there were only 65,438 vassal states out of more than 800.
Although the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was weak and disunited internally, by the time of Zhou Zhending, Han, Zhao and Wei Jin joined forces to destroy Zhi Bo, which laid the foundation for the later division of Jin State. After the death of King Jing of Zhou, the royal family in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was in chaos and split, and his eldest son Ji Quji succeeded him as King Ai of Zhou. Three months later, his younger brother Ji Shu killed King Ai of Zhou and became King Si of Zhou. After the king died, his brother Vicky killed Zeus.
Zhou was worried that he would be killed, so he appointed his brother Ji Jie as a vassal. At that time, Zhou Wangkao had only one new city and one old city, which was directly under the Zhou royal family, so he gave the old city to Ji Jie, the duke of the Western Zhou Dynasty. His vassal state was called the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty, like Qin and Chu, is a vassal state, but its territory is only one city, and Zhou represents the royal family of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and its territory is only one city, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty has reached this point.
Later, after the death of Gong Wei, the second monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty split again and became weaker. The royal family of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty continued to develop and spread to Zhou Nanwang, the last king of the Zhou Dynasty. Zhou Nanwang was the longest reigning son of heaven in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, lasting 59 years. At this time, the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty and the two vassal states directly under it (the Principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty) were very weak countries, and this time was the end of the Warring States Period.
In the middle and late Warring States period, Qin became powerful after Shang Yang's political reform. During the period, the Sect captured Yiyang in South Korea, and then Qin opened the road to the Zhou royal family. When he came to the Zhou royal family to hold a tripod race, he accidentally killed himself. This is the first time that Qin entered the Zhou royal family. Later, because of his death, Qin withdrew from the territory of the Zhou royal family. This year is 307 BC.
Judging from Qin Wuwang's attitude towards Zhou Wang, he didn't even take Zhou Wang seriously. It is the treasure of the town house, how can people follow it? At the same time, Qin Jun's general Qi Liji also forcibly moved Zhou Nanwang from the Eastern Zhou Palace to the Western Zhou Palace. Later, Zhou Nanwang also launched a campaign to unite six countries to attack Qin. Zhou Nanwang scraped together an army of five or six thousand men, and borrowed a lot of money from wealthy businessmen in the Zhou Dynasty for military expenses. As a result, only Chu and Yan sent troops to participate, and the other four countries didn't come. Zhou Jun didn't even dare to attack Qin, so he went back.
This time, the trade union has no role. On the contrary, Zhou Nanwang was in debt, so he hid in the palace. This idiom was used to describe Zhou Nanwang at that time. Judging from the situation at that time, Qin did not have the strategy of destroying the Zhou royal family, because although the Zhou royal family was weak, it was the patriarch of the vassal state and had a name. Qin wanted to unify the world, although it eventually destroyed the Zhou royal family, but it was almost no threat to Qin.
In 59 years, that is, in 256 BC, the state of Qin captured the Yangcheng and the South Korea. These two places are in today's Dengfeng City, Henan Province, and the Bing Feng cooperates with the Western Zhou Principality and the Zhou Royal Family. At this time, the principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty joined forces with Korea, Wei and Zhao to attack Qin, but was defeated by Qin. In order to save his life, the Duke of Zhou in the Western Zhou Dynasty came to the State of Qin to plead guilty.
At this time, the principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty was actually extinct, with no city or population. Even the monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty was demoted to civilians. In the same year, Zhou Nanwang, the royal family of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, also died. Qin sent troops to occupy the land and cities of the royal family and the Western Zhou Dynasty Principality, and transported them back to Qin. In this year, the principalities of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty actually perished, that is, in 256 BC.
Seven years later, in 249 BC, King Xiang of Qin Zhuang sent troops to destroy the Principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. As soon as the principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty perished, the sacrifices of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty ceased to exist, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty completely perished. In fact, the principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty were just vassal states, which were at the same level as the Qin Dynasty, and Zhou Nanwang represented the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty. We should take the death of Zhou Nanwang and the demise of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty as the time of the demise of the Zhou Dynasty, that is, 256 BC, from 65438 BC.