In the middle of the 11th century BC, the Shiju Clan of the Ji surnamed Zhou in Shaanxi under the leadership of King Wu of Zhou began the Eastern Crusade, their goal was the Shang Dynasty in Henan, and finally after the Great War of Muye, the last Shang Ruler Di Xin, set himself on fire, the Shang Dynasty became history, and a new dynasty was born.
Makino Battle
At this time, the Shang Dynasty had been in power for 600 years, and the Zhou Dynasty was a new dynasty, how to consolidate its own world? This needed a lot of work to go, but the heavens could not give King Wu of Zhou much time, and a few years later, King Wu of Zhou died, the young King Cheng of Zhou was young, and the authority of the state was controlled by King Wu of Zhou's younger brother, Ji Dan of Zhou.
After the end of the world, the world needed the assistance of generations of emperors and famous courtiers, and the system they created affected China for thousands of years.
Before the Zhou Dynasty, the title of the supreme ruler of the country was called "Emperor", according to the records in the "Records of History", from the beginning of the Yan Emperor and the Yellow Emperor to the Zhou Dynasty, the highest rulers were called "Emperor", such as Emperor Zhao, Emperor Qi, Emperor Yan (Xia Jie), Andi Xin (纣王).
The theory of divine right of kings matured during the Zhou Dynasty
After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, the King of Zhou Wu, Ji Fa Fa, believed that the emperor should be called the ruler of heaven, so the ruler of the Zhou Dynasty was only called "King", but it was determined that the King of Zhou was the "Son of Heaven", which was to govern the country in place of heaven, so as to determine the justice of the rule of the Zhou Dynasty, which is the Chinese version of "Divine Right of Kings".
After qin unified the world, the qin king changed his name to "emperor", but still called himself "the son of heaven", and continued to destroy the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
After King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang, he actually faced a grim situation, that is, although the Shang Dynasty perished, after the territory of the Zhou Dynasty suddenly expanded several times, the vast territory was difficult to manage.
The reason why Western Zhou is called Shi Western Zhou is because his initial territory was limited to Guanzhong in Shaanxi, and even after he conquered the Shang Dynasty to the east, he did not directly move the capital, but only built the capital in Luoyang, but his ruling center was still in Shaanxi.
In order to administer a large territory, the discontent of the remnants of the Shang Dynasty has been suppressed. King Wu of Zhou implemented the famous system of sub-feudalism. He divided his younger brother Ji Yi (shi Sisheng) into Ji Ji, which is now Beijing, and established the State of Yan; the famous "Jiang Ziya" Lü Shang was divided into the State of Qi, the son of King Wu Geng of The King of Sui was divided into the State of Song, and the Duke of Zhou Ji Dan was divided into the State of Lu...
Sub-sealing system
Through the division, the Western Zhou Dynasty established a series of princely states under the Zhou Dynasty, the vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty, in the daily governance, the princes enjoyed a large degree of autonomy, he could manage his own country, and his own country was divided, but involving foreign wars and the abolition of new princes must be approved by the King of Zhou, and the princes must also regularly make pilgrimages to the King of Zhou, and pay tribute and pay taxes, when Zhou Tianzi goes to war with the outside world, they must go to war with Zhou Tianzi.
The rule of the King of Zhou over the princely states was based on two aspects, one was the legal dominance of the Zhou Tianzi under the heavens, the so-called "the whole world can not be the king's land", the King of Zhou is the boss in the sense of legal system. The second time was based on strength, the King of Zhou was not only nominally the co-lord of the world, but also because he directly managed the Western Zhou state in Shaanxi, his strength was initially superior to that of the princes.
During the reign of King Mu of Zhou, the king of the state of Xu in the east, without authorization, called himself king (Xu Yan Wang), violating the etiquette system of the princely states, so King Zhou Mu set out from Haojing (Xi'an) in Shaanxi and traveled thousands of miles to Jiangsu to destroy the State of Xu. During the reign of King Yi of Zhou, the Prince of Qi of the Eastern Qi Dynasty, who was also a descendant of Jiang Ziya, was directly cooked by King Yi of Zhou due to his lack of respect for Zhou Tianzi....
However, after the Zhou Youwang played the princes, the Western Zhou dynasty fell, and after his son King Ping of Zhou opened the Eastern Zhou Era, the formerly powerful Western Zhou Kingdom ceased to exist, and Zhou Tianzi's only had the nominal co-lord of the world, so no one listened to the words, not even the normal princes' pilgrimage, so Chinese history entered the Spring and Autumn Warring States Era.
Map of the situation in the late Warring States period
After that, after the Qin Empire unified the world, there was no sub-feudal system, but replaced by a complete county system, resulting in the death of the Qin Dynasty II, the Han Dynasty in summarizing the many reasons for the demise of the Qin Dynasty, did not carry out sub-sealing is also considered to be one of the important ones, so the Han Dynasty continued to divide the feudal, and continued until the Qing Dynasty, of course, after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the sub-feudal system is basically nominal, the princes have no actual rights, more like a symbol of honor.
Before the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, the Xia Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty implemented the system of father and son succession and brother-to-brother and brother, although in the Shang Dynasty, the status of concubines was also significantly higher than that of shuzi, but it was the Zhou Dynasty that made it clear that the succession of the supreme ruler was the succession of father and son. The most stark example of this is that after the death of King Wu of Zhou, the new Tianzi who succeeded him to the throne was not his many elder brothers, but his young son King Zhou Cheng.
With the "primogeniture inheritance system" as the core, later Zhou Gong Ji Dan improved a complete set of Zhou Dynasty patriarchal system, a set of strict systems for inheritance continuation. According to the patriarchal system, the Zhou Dynasty formed large sects, small sects, and countless new families.
Patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty
For example, during the Warring States period, the State of Wei and Korea were actually small sects developed by the Imperial Family of Ji, and eventually developed into new families.
Another example is the famous figure in the late Warring States period, who dominated the Qin state to change the law and become rich and strong Shang Martin, he is actually not surnamed Shang, because he was sealed in the Shang land under the Qin State, so he was called Shang Martingale, he came from Wei Guo, his original surname was Gongsun, so he was called Wei Martingale or Gongsun Martingale. However, the actual Shang martingale's family name was also derived from the Ji surname, but due to the continuous small sect origin, they were eventually no longer recognized by the Ji surname Emperor, and changed their surname to Gongsun.
This situation is somewhat similar to the Kong family in Qufu, even now in Qufu, the population of the Kong surname still occupies a high proportion, but they are not the authentic relatives, because the Kong family is an ancient family that strictly abides by the patriarchal system, and their concubines zhengzong left before the founding of New China and have not returned so far, so the Kong surnames in Qufu today are all small sects.
It is also because of the strict observance of the patriarchal system, while the emperor remains unchanged, many small sects have been derived, as well as the small sects in the small sects, the noble sects at the time of the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, and by the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, countless lowest-level small sects - scholars, although these people are born into the nobility, or have great roots with the nobility, they can receive a certain degree of education, and there is still the pride of the nobility, but they no longer have any noble privileges and treatment, so they burst out of the spark of thought in the Spring and Autumn Warring States era. In the end, the first great ideological emancipation in China's history was formed, "a hundred schools of thought contended and a hundred schools of thought were released together". Many theories such as "Tao, Confucianism, Ink, Law, Fame, Bing, and Zongheng" have stood out and have influenced Chinese for thousands of years.
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Moreover, the influence of the patriarchal system affects almost every Chinese of us, and we Chinese pay special attention to the maintenance of the family and the family, and the key to maintaining the family and the family is actually the silent role of the patriarchal system.
Of course, you may be very strange, if your fathers and uncles have a lot, when the grandfathers divide the property, sometimes the youngest uncle gets the most, didn't he say that the "primogeniture inheritance system"? Is this contradictory?
Of course, it is contradictory, but in fact, it is not surprising that our country's history is very long and diverse, and in addition to being influenced by the patriarchal system, we also have the "young son keeping the stove" system.
In the history of our country, there have been many cases of ethnic minorities entering the Central Plains, the historical "Wuhu Chaohua", the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, these ethnic groups from the grasslands, have the ancient tradition of "young sons guarding the stove", they stayed in the Central Plains, brought their traditions into the Central Plains, and also began to influence the Central Plains peoples.
Genghis Khan
A more famous example is Genghis Khan, who founded the Mongol Empire, who on his deathbed passed the position of Great Khan to his third son Wokoutai, but distributed the army and population of the most elite steppe headquarters under his direct command to his younger son Tuolei. In the Manchu Qing Dynasty, before the Xianfeng Emperor, there was no eldest son who could inherit the throne.
This situation of inheritance of property by young sons also gradually affected the people and continued to this day.
The divine right of the "Son of Heaven", the close integration of the feudal system and the patriarchal system, the management of the country and society, constituted the most fundamental ruling system of the Zhou Dynasty - Zhou Li, and adhering to the Zhou Li system was also the most important idea of Confucianism, the main school of thought in ancient China. Such a system is also considered to be the most stable system of rule in our country, and its influence has continued to this day.
Today, when you read this article, do you also feel that you are also affected by these systems more than 3,000 years ago?