HY 113 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Book Of Documents, Duke Of Zhou, Classic Of Poetry
1 Sep 2016
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August 29th: Zhou Dynasty
•The Western Zhou was considered the cornerstone of Chinese History
•Zhou Dynasty was divided into two periods (Western and Eastern)
•Eastern was further divided into two periods (Spring & Autumn and Warring States)
•Last king of Shang dynasty was called Zhou
•Morally corrupt king, obsessed with beautiful women, drinking, and sex
•Mistress was named Daji (Nine-tailed fox spirit)
•Possessed by a fox spirit to punish the king for offending a female deity
•The Zhou Dynasty spread propaganda and stories about how corrupt and immoral the last Shang king
was
•Believed that king should be chosen based on morals, not as much as relationship to the ancestors and
divine birthright
•Established canons of governmental propriety, poetic expresion, and an understanding of the changes of
the world
•Symbolic value for traditional China
•Dynastic change and the Mandate of Heaven (Xia-Shang-Zhou)
•Zhou legitimacy
•Virtuous rulers and leaders: King Wen, King Wu, Zhou Gong (Duke of Zhou)
•Classics (used to unite and influence the states)
•Classic of Documents (Shang shu, or Shu jing)
•Zhou Changes (Zhou yi) includes Classic of Changes
•Classic of Poetry (Shi jing)
•Political structure
•King and vassals (kinship and loyalty)
•How to maintain the heirarchy (rituals, court visits)
•Hereditary nobles in office ran the states
•Zhou Feudal Structure
•Zhou King
•Vassal state ruler (king’s relative)
•Relatives/kinsmen came before those not related
•Ministers (qing)
•High officers (dafu)
•Shi (related by blood or marriage)
•Eastern Zhou (771-256 BCE)
•End of the Western Zhou: Zhou king killed by a joint
•Periodization and History: The Case of the Spring-Autumn and Warring States Divide
•481 BC: Confucius’s departure from the Lu state (and the end of the Spring-Autumn chronicle)
•479 BC: Confucius’s death
•475 BC: Beginning of the next Zhou region after Confucius
•463 BC: Year of the last Zuo Tradition chronicle entry
•453 BC: De facto tripartition of the Jin state
•403 BC: Supposed formal Zhou recognition of the tripartition
•Spring and Autumn (Chun qiu) annals: 722-481 BCE
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
