The Zhou

RISE OF THE ZHOU

• Their most powerful vassals were relatives or loyal allies who controlled other relatives under them in the hierarchy.

• Formal oaths of allegiance and regularized fief-granting procedures transformed the Shang vassal system into a more genuinely feudal order.

VASSALS

• Zhou vassals lived away from the capitals in walled garrison towns laid out on a grid pattern.

• Zhou rulers granted fiefs in return for loyalty and military service.

• The system worked under strong rulers, but weakness at the royal center facilitated rebellion.

THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN

• The continuance of the feudal system was undermined by two developments.

• The first was the elaboration of the concept of the Mandate of Heaven.

• King Wu, when the Shang were conquered, claimed that Shang had lost the Mandate of Heaven.

LOSS OF THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN

• This appeal to a supernatural source of authority enhanced the capacity of rulers to become absolutist, authoritarian, kings.

• If rulers failed to govern effectively, they might lose the mandate, making it legitimate for subjects to rebel and replace the dynasty.

RISE OF THE SHI

• The second development weakening feudalism was the emergence of a professional bureaucracy that provided an alternative to the use of military vassals.

• They were educated men, known as Shi, who kept records, ran departments, and organized rituals.

• They were supported by land grants or regular salaries.

• By the middle of the 8th century B.C.E., some of the Shi gained considerable influence with rulers and powerful vassals.

CHINESE LIFESTYLE UNDER ZHOU DYNASTY

• During the early dynasty the Zhou conquerors lived separately from the subjugated indigenous people in the twin capitals of Xian and Loyang.

• Servants, artisans, and slaves lived in or near the garrisons.

• The great majority of the population, peasants, producing millet, wheat, and rice, lived and worked in villages.

THE END OF THE EARLY OR WESTERN ZHOU

• The Zhou were in decline by the 8th century B.C.E.

• Vassals defeated and killed the ruler in 771 B.C.E.

• The state broke apart, and Xian was abandoned.

• For the next five centuries, a less powerful Zhou dynasty ruled from Loyang over a continually shrinking domain.

PERIOD OF CHAOS

• Several competing kingdoms emerged during the long period of chaos and societal suffering.

• The chaos and suffering prompted a reaction among the Shi that altered the course of Chinese civilization.

OPPRESSION OF THE SHI AND PEASANTS

• The continuing disorder marking the decline of the Zhou dynasty prompted debate over appropriate remedies.

• Widespread warfare awarded societal value to military skills and depressed the worth of the Shi.

• Aristocratic power grew while the Shi fell to minor occupations.

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ILLS

• Rituals and court etiquette were replaced by rough nomadic manners.

• Warfare consumed state resources and public works, including dikes and canals, were ruined.

• Peasants were taxed heavily and conscripted into the military.

THE MERCHANT CLASS

• The need for military materials stimulated commerce, helping the growth of a prosperous merchant class with an important role in society.

• By the end of the Zhou period, China supported larger urban centers than any other contemporary civilization.

RESTORATION OF THE SHI

• By the 5th century B.C.E., thinkers, including Confucius, sought ways to create a stable society and political structure.

• Confucius, a member of a poor Shi family, became a traveling teacher whose political and philosophical ideas attracted followers.

CONFUCIUS

• He was a social philosopher concerned with the need to reestablish order and harmony in China; – he thought that achieving order

depended upon rulers accepting the advice of superior men—women were excluded—who were awarded power because of their moral excellence.

• Such men, recruited from the Shi, would gain wisdom through education and, in principle, could be from any social class.

THE CONFUCIAN GENTLEMAN

• Confucius thought that the superior man defended his decisions against all opposition.

• Rulers should receive deference, but the Shi should criticize them for neglecting their subjects’ welfare.

• The Shi gentleman was a generalist equally accomplished in public and private aspects of life.

• With such men, said Confucius, China would be peaceful, its social struggles over.

HEIRS OF CONFUCIUS

• The most important division among Confucius’s disciples was between Mencius and Sunzi.

• Mencius believed that humans were good by nature and that government should develop that goodness.

• He stressed that the consent of the common people was the basis of political power, and that they had the right to overthrow oppressive rulers

SEEDS OF LEGALISM

• Sunzi thought that humans by nature were lazy and evil, thus requiring a strong and authoritarian government.

• Education could improve people, he thought, but he rejected the idea that government was based on their consent.

• The later Legalist school of thought embraced his views.

DAOIST ALTERNATIVES

• The philosopher Laozi offered an alternative to Confucianism.

• Although he urged rulers to cultivate patience, selflessness, and concern for the welfare of all creatures, Laozi thought that a strong state and absolute ethical prescriptions were not significant in solving human suffering.

DAOIST RETREAT

• Laozi instead advocated a retreat from society into nature where individuals could attune with the Dao, or cosmic force.

• Some of his followers, particularly among the Shi, followed Laozi’s stress on meditation.

• Others mixed his ideas with magic and eroticism and sought immortality.