To govern is to rectify. The principal purpose of these Daoists was to attend to a persons physical and psychological well-being. What little we know about his life comes primarily from the Analects, a record of conversations Confucius held with his students compiled after he died. The noble man does not abandon humaneness for so much as the space of a meal. (4.5) For Confucius, the highest virtue is humanity, and many of his conversations center upon defining what it is that makes a person humane. King You was killed by the Quanrong when Haojing was sacked. The beginning date of the Zhou has long been debated. Second, Zhou kings were unable to impose their will on feuding feudal lords and were even defeated by them in several military campaigns. Stratagem is critical. Here are a few of the important statements Confucius made, and what they meant: 1. After announcing the impending campaign at the ancestral temple, a lord and his kinsmen, accompanied by farmer foot soldiers, would proceed in their chariots to a prearranged location and engage in a skirmish. The Mandate determines whether an emperor of China is sufficiently virtuous to rule. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly already fled to the Yangtze delta, where they established the state of Wu among the tribes there. In the early 1600s, dynastic struggle quickly tore Russia apart, soon joined by famine and invasion, earning the name the Time of Troubles. The noble person is concerned with rightness, the small person is concerned with profit. (4.16) Confucius redefined the meaning of nobility. Daoists even entertained the idea that one could become immortal. This was King Wen (Cultured King), a ruler revered as the founder of the Zhou dynasty. These nobles were allowed to rule their own lands hereditarily, so long as they observed certain obligations to their king. Others followed, marking a turning point, as rulers did not even entertain the pretence of being vassals of the Zhou court, instead proclaiming themselves fully independent kingdoms. According to one passage, a lord once asked one of Confuciuss students about his master, but the student fell silent. The book of odes written during the Zhou period clearly intoned this caution.[38]. The Zhou dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved from the oracle script and bronze script into the seal script, and then finally into an almost-modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. [31][32][33] To maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system. Duke Hui of Wei, in 344 BC, was the first to claim the royal title of king (Chinese: ) for himself. 3. By so doing, ones health would be preserved and life prolonged. Therefore, they devised better ways to control land in their realms. The system was canonized in the Book of Rites, Zhouli, and Yili compendiums of the Han dynasty (206 BC220 AD), thus becoming the heart of the Chinese imperial ideology. In later generations, lords simply became more interested in and identified with their own territories, and they had little sense of solidarity with what were at best distant cousins ruling neighboring feudal states. secondlyexegesis in the Han dynasty was denied at lastthey denied deifying Confucius.These sequential denials were completed at last in the May Fourth cultural movementwhich was seen as the turning point of the modern period.AsOn New Democracy[by Mao Zedong]puts itthe May Fourth Movement was the source of the revolutionary energy . The Warring States Period started from 475 BC and ended in 221 BC. His father died about the time Confucius was born, and he was raised by his mother, who also passed away when Confucius was young. According to the Duke of Zhou, Heaven had decreed that Shang kings must fall and Zhou rulers should replace them. Soldiers were equipped with armor, crossbows, halberds, dagger-axes, and swords manufactured from bronze, iron, leather, and wood in royal workshops located at capital cities. But they fought even more fiercely. In the eleventh century BCE, the Zhou state was a minor power on the western periphery of the Shang realm, located along the Wei [way] River. Updates? Over time, this decentralized system became strained as the familial relationships between the Zhou kings and the regional dynasties thinned over the generations. This political theory, which is known as the. In the eleventh century BCE, the Zhou state was a minor power on the western periphery of the Shang realm, located along the Wei [way] River. The first was Duke Huan of Qi [who-an of chee]. The king and his regent did so by implementing three policies. Eventually, the noble lords of the most powerful states declared themselves as kings, and fought to gain control over all of China. In later centuries, the Daoism of these early philosophers was taken in new directions. [d] The Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song, which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. In 771 BCE, in what became a telling sign of weakness, the Zhou king was murdered and his young successor was compelled to relocate farther east, to a capital closer to the heart of the North China Plain. Noble lords loved to demonstrate their prowess and raise their prestige through success in hunting and battling. Stated more simply, Warring States Period rulers created administrative units and a civil service. Master Sun was a military commander and strategist who served the lords of the state of Wu just prior to the onset of the Warring States period (c. fifth century BCE). There were many similarities between the decentralized systems. 4. Why did Qin build the Great Wall of China? However, with the onset of the Warring States Period in the fifth century BCE, the level of violence was no longer contained by the hegemon system and codes of chivalry. They did so . The early Western Zhou supported a strong army, split into two major units: "the Six Armies of the west" and "the Eight Armies of Chengzhou". ), Shaughnessy, E. L. "Historical Perspectives on the Introduction of the Chariot in China" in, The ramage system in China and Polynesia Li Hwei, Tao, Hsi-Sheng. To achieve these goals, techniques were developed, including special dietary regimens, yoga, Chinese boxing, meditation, and alchemy. This separation became tied into Confucian moral values. The arts of the early Xi Zhou were essentially a continuation of those of the Shang dynasty. )%2F04%253A_China_and_East_Asia_to_the_Ming_Dynasty%2F4.07%253A_The_Long_Zhou_Dynasty_(1046-_256_BCE), \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}}}\) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\), 4.6: China from Neolithic Village Settlements to the Shang Kingdom, 4.8: The Qin Dynasty and the Transition from Ancient to Imperial China, University System of Georgia via GALILEO Open Learning Materials, 4.7.1: The Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 771 BCE), 4.7.2: The Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 256 BCE) and the Warring States Period (c. 475 221 BCE), 4.7.3: Philosophy in a Time of Turmoil: Confucianism and Daoism, 4.7.3.2: Philosophical and Institutional Daoism, http://brandonqindynasty.weebly.com/9/8580061.jpeg, status page at https://status.libretexts.org. In addition, he insisted that such virtues as humanity are most fully demonstrated when individuals observe good etiquette. [46] At times, a vigorous duke would take power from his nobles and centralize the state. Western Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang Dynasty in China. A "King Hui" was declared, but his splinter state was fully removed by 249 BC. 1 These selections from the Analects are translated in De Bary and Bloom, ed., Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. Western writers often describe the Zhou period as "feudal" because the Zhou's fngjin () system invites comparison with medieval rule in Europe. In 1046 BCE, the Shang Dynasty was overthrown at the Battle of Muye, and the Zhou Dynasty was established. King Xuan fought the Quanrong nomads in vain. Chinas three major pre-modern philosophical and religious traditions are Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. It succeeded the Qin dynasty (221-207 bce). From there, these illustrious lineages governed a predominantly rural population of farmers living in villages where life was not easy. The third policy was to dispatch royal kinsmen to strategically critical locations for the purpose of establishing colonies. Thus, by the end of this period, largely owing to the demands of warfare, the Zhou feudal order had been supplanted by a small number of powerful territorial states with centralized monarchies. Those who belonged to it are Confuciansindividuals distinguished by their commitment to the ideas articulated by Confucius, classical learning, and the value they place on character and conduct as the key to a good society and political order. This page titled 3.8: The Long Zhou Dynasty (1046- 256 BCE) is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by George Israel (University System of Georgia via GALILEO Open Learning Materials) . Peripheral territories developed local power and prestige on par with that of the Zhou. To his mind, he was living at a time when civilization was collapsing and society was decaying. This Heaven is less a deity than a higher moral order, a kind of beneficent presence. Traditionally, it has been given as 1122 bce, and that date has been successively revised as scholars have uncovered more archaeological evidence. They know the golden rule: what you would not want for yourself, he taught, do not do to others. (15.23) Confucius emphasized that a society cannot function if people are incapable of taking others perspectives and doing their best for them. They were in constant wars with barbarians on behalf of the fiefs called guo, which at that time meant "statelet" or "principality". The Wuwang emperor continued his father's work and formed a coalition with eight other border states, which defeated the evil last ruler of the Shang. Living in hovels and with little opportunity to leave their lords manors, these farmers were required to work his lands and also to submit a portion of the harvest from their own small farms. As the main focus of his grandiose project, his canal work eventually diverted the waters of the entire Zhang River to a spot further up the Yellow River. Instead, he gained an avid following of 70 students, whom he accepted regardless of their social status. As opposed to serving a lesson to and resolving some dispute with another lord, these selfdeclared kings waged war to destroy them and take their land. The Zhou coexisted with the Shang dynasty (c. 16001046 bce) for many years, living just west of the Shang territory in what is now Shaanxi province. During the Qing Dynasty, the Qing army calmed down the Western Regions again, but set the capital of Xinjiang to Yili. (View the image of a Warring States Period soldier at the following link: http://brandonqindynasty.weebly.com/9/8580061.jpeg. Large bronzes were cast to commemorate these occasions (see Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. The ancient god or divine force known as Heaven or Sky had selected this particular individual to rule on its behalf on earth. Eventually, a Daoist church developed, with its own ordained priesthood, temples, and monasteries. Instead, this warrior nobility engaged in an escalating contest for power and prestige. [35] When King You demoted and exiled his Jiang queen in favor of the beautiful commoner Bao Si, the disgraced queen's father the Marquis of Shen joined with Zeng and the Quanrong barbarians to sack Hao in 771 BC. [52] King Xiang of Zhou also married a Di princess after receiving Di military support. Over the next 250 years, during what is referred to as the Warring States Period (475 221 BCE), these states averaged one major battle per year until, at the very end, only the state of Qin [cheen] remained. Master Zhuang, however, lived during the fourth century BCE. In 1059, upon witnessing five planets align, the Zhou ruler declared himself king and proceeded to engage in military conquests that made his kingdom a regional power to be reckoned with. Over time, Zhou kings ability to control the noble lords diminished over time, and their prestige suffered accordingly. Zhou Dynasty Timeline. Fngjin ( Chinese: ; lit. The Mandate of Heaven was presented as a religious compact between the Zhou people and their supreme god in heaven. The noble man does not abandon humaneness for so much as the space of a meal. (4.5) For Confucius, the highest virtue is humanity, and many of his conversations center upon defining what it is that makes a person humane. For a king, however, these men might become an obstacle or pose a threat because they held this land hereditarily. Young men should be filial at home and respectful to their elders when away from home. (1.6) Filial piety is central to Confuciuss thought. Instead, he gained an avid following of 70 students, whom he accepted regardless of their social status. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Zhou Dynasty is divided into two periods: the Western Zhou (11th century BC to 771 BC) and the Eastern Zhou (770 BC - 221 BC). Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.. Lords of the seven most powerful states lost respect for the Zhou kings and even assumed the same title, thus claiming the right to unify all of China under their rule. In later generations, lords simply became more interested in and identified with their own territories, and they had little sense of solidarity with distant cousins ruling neighboring feudal states. 2. While the system was initially a respected body of concrete regulations, the fragmentation of the Western Zhou period led the ritual to drift towards moralization and formalization in regard to: The rulers of the Zhou dynasty were titled Wng (), which is normally translated into English as "king" and was also the Shang term for their rulers. These jobs came to symbolize proper order in society. Master Zhuang, however, lived during the fourth century BCE. He saw the practice of morality in the family as the root. No longer able to impose their will on unruly noble lineages, Zhou kings failed to maintain a semblance of peace and order throughout the realm. Second, they issued proclamations explaining to conquered peoples why they should accept Zhou rule. His father died about the time Confucius was born, and he was raised by his mother, who also passed away when Confucius was young. The greatest Chinese philosophers, those who made the greatest impact on later generations of Chinese, were Confucius, founder of Confucianism, and Laozi, founder of Taoism. Lords of the seven most powerful states lost respect for the Zhou kings and even assumed the same title, thus claiming the right to unify all of China under their rule. In victory, a noble redressed matters of honor and brought glory to his ancestors, something symbolized by the mound of dead enemies placed by his ancestral temple. Finally, one of those small kingdoms, Qin (from which derives modern Chinas name), succeeded in conquering the rest of the states and establishing the Qin dynasty (221207 bce). In victory, a noble redressed matters of honor and brought glory to his ancestors, something symbolized by the mound of dead enemies placed by his ancestral temple. At that point, when the individual is in accord with the ineffable Way, life becomes spontaneous, natural, and effortless. ), the ruling house of Zhou exercised a certain degree of "imperial" power over most of central China. In using this creed, the Zhou rulers had to acknowledge that any group of rulers, even they themselves, could be ousted if they lost the mandate of heaven because of improper practices. This page titled 4.7: The Long Zhou Dynasty (1046- 256 BCE) is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by George Israel (University System of Georgia via GALILEO Open Learning Materials) . Attending lords cemented their agreements by swearing oaths and drinking the blood of sacrificed animals. With the decline of the feudal kings power, de facto power fluctuated among various of the feudal chiefs as they were able to make themselves overlords. They presented a universe with multiple heavenly and hellish realms populated with divinities and demons. Ebrey defines the descent-line system as follows: "A great line (ta-tsung) is the line of eldest sons continuing indefinitely from a founding ancestor. By 475 BCE, in the wake of 540 wars fought over the course of two centuries, only fifteen states remained (see Map \(\PageIndex{2}\)). ), { "4.01:_Chronology_of_China_and_East_Asia_to_the_Ming_Dynasty" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.02:_Introduction_to_China_and_East_Asia_to_the_Ming_Dynasty" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.03:_Questions_to_Guide_Your_Reading" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.04:_Key_Terms" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.05:_Geography_of_East_Asia" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.06:_China_from_Neolithic_Village_Settlements_to_the_Shang_Kingdom" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.07:_The_Long_Zhou_Dynasty_(1046-_256_BCE)" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.08:_The_Qin_Dynasty_and_the_Transition_from_Ancient_to_Imperial_China" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.09:_The_Han_Dynasty_202_BCE-220_CE" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.10:_The_Period_of_Division_220-589CE" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.11:_The_Tang_Dynasty_and_the_Emergence_of_East_Asia" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.12:_The_Song_Dynasty" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.13:_The_Yuan_Dynasty" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.14:_Conclusion" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.15:_Works_Consulted_and_Further_Reading" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "4.16:_Links_to_Primary_Sources" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()" }, { "00:_Front_Matter" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "01:_Prehistory" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "02:_Early_Middle_Eastern_and_Northeast_African_Civilizations" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "03:_Ancient_and_Medieval_India" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "04:_China_and_East_Asia_to_the_Ming_Dynasty" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "05:_The_Greek_World_from_Bronze_Age_to_Roman_Conquest" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "06:_The_Roman_World_from_753_BCE_to_500_BCE" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "07:_Western_Europe_and_Byzantium_circa_500-1000_CE" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "08:_Islam_to_the_Mamluks" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "09:_African_History_to_1500" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "10:_The_Americas" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "11:_Central_Asia" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "12:_Western_Europe_and_Byzantium_circa_1000-1500_CE" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "zz:_Back_Matter" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()" }, 4.7: The Long Zhou Dynasty (1046- 256 BCE), [ "article:topic", "license:ccbysa", "showtoc:no", "Zhou Dynasty", "Confucianism", "Daoism", "Taoism", "Mandate of Heaven", "Confucius", "beeline:print", "program:galileo", "authorname:gisrael" ], https://human.libretexts.org/@app/auth/3/login?returnto=https%3A%2F%2Fhuman.libretexts.org%2FBookshelves%2FHistory%2FWorld_History%2FBook%253A_World_History_-_Cultures_States_and_Societies_to_1500_(Berger_et_al. The final battles were said to have been extremely bloody, and Shang survivors may well have served as Chinese culture bearers to places as far removed as Korea. Paradoxically, although the Dao is indescribable and cant be seen or heard, the goal of the Daoist is to accord with and follow it. Because of this, the Zhou moved their capital city east to the North China Plain. The Shang Dynasty is the earliest ruling dynasty of China to be established in recorded history, though other dynasties predated it. The Warring States period ended in 221 BCE when the Qin ruler defeated the remaining states and unified the former Zhou realm, initiating a new period in Chinas history. Over a half millennium, Zhou nobility engaged in escalating warfare with each other over matters small and large. But it was his son King Wu (Martial King) who brought down the Shang Dynasty. This move marked the beginning of the Eastern Zhou (770 256 BCE). Therefore, they devised better ways to control land in their realms. However, with the onset of the Warring States Period in the fifth century BCE, the level of violence was no longer contained by the hegemon system and codes of chivalry. These hegemons periodically convened interstate meetings to manage such matters as misbehaving states or foreign invasions. Although chariots had been introduced to China during the Shang dynasty from Central Asia, the Zhou period saw the first major use of chariots in battle. Like other young men of similar background, he had access to an education and could aspire to serve in some capacity in a feudal state, perhaps at the lords court, or as an official or soldier. This period, in the second half of the Eastern Zhou, lasted from about 475-221 BCE, when China was united under the Qin Dynasty. The noble person, filial piety, humaneness, etiquette, Heaven, and government by men of virtue are just some of the ideas Confucius discussed as he traveled the feudal states seeking to advise their lords. The Shang ruled from 1600 to 1046 B.C. These four emperors have made contributions in the long history of China. We also acknowledge previous National Science Foundation support under grant numbers 1246120, 1525057, and 1413739. It was technically the longest dynasty, though the Zhouhad effectively lost power by 770 BC. We also acknowledge previous National Science Foundation support under grant numbers 1246120, 1525057, and 1413739. End of the Zhou Dynasty. Yet, it would be wrong to conclude that he wasnt religious in any sense, because he frequently spoke of Heaven. The Zhou heartland was the Wei River valley; this remained their primary base of power after conquering the Shang. A person of humanity is, for instance, one who is capable of empathy and unselfish concern for the welfare of others. The Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) was among the most culturally significant of the early Chinese dynasties and the longest lasting of any in China's history. Literature flourished with Confucius and other great Chinese philosophers. Prior to the Warring States Period, Zhou kings were still accorded a level of respect, at least as symbols of unity and nominal heads of the Zhou feudal order. In 1046 BCE, a Zhou king overthrew the last Shang ruler and established control over much of north China. Whoosh! His and his successors power was, however, much reduced. Lacquerware including gold and silver inlay became finely developed, and bronzework carried on from the great legacy of the Shang. Historians believe the Old Master was a fictional sage invented by Warring States Period philosophers who compiled the book attributed to him. Now, the Zhou royal court was faced with the task of governing newly conquered territory, including the former lands of the Shang Dynasty. Daoists even entertained the idea that one could become immortal. He held this title (duke) and fief (Qi) because his distant ancestor had served as a commander under King Wu during the Zhou founding. It followed the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE), whose cultural contributions it developed, and . To his mind, he was living at a time when civilization was collapsing and society was decaying. [39] In this way, the Zhou sky god legitimized regime change. At their royal palaces, Zhou kings conducted ceremonies of investiture during which they sacrificed to Heaven and the spirits of deceased ancestors, held banquets, and then bestowed noble titles and grants of land upon members of the royal family and relatives by marriage.