The Zhou Dynasty is the longest-running dynasty in Chinese history, with a total of 32 dynasties and 37 kings, enjoying 791 years of the country, but everyone still has a relatively small impression of this dynasty, which lasted for more than three hundred years after the founding of the Zhou Wu King Ji Fa in 1046 BC, and finally in 771 BC, because of the invasion of nomadic peoples, led to the fall of the capital Hojing. Since then, the Western Zhou Dynasty has fallen.
Later, King Ping of Zhou moved east to Chengzhou (Luoyang) with the help of the princes and established the Eastern Zhou, and from this time on, the Zhou Dynasty gradually lost control of the surrounding princes, and history also called this period the Spring and Autumn Warring States.
Why did the Western Zhou Dynasty perish? Presumably, everyone has heard the story of the Princes of Zhou Youwang's Beacon Theatre. The King of Zhou You, in order to win the laughter of the cold and beautiful people, lit the beacon tower that declared war in peacetime, teasing the princes, and the princes really laughed, but the princes who led the troops to rush to the city were very angry, and later the Inuyasha soldiers came to the city, and the King of Zhou You hurriedly lit the beacon again, and as a result, everyone did not come, so the capital was breached and the Western Zhou was destroyed. Is this true?
This story was recorded by Sima Qian in China's famous first general history of the Chronicle of The Chronicle of Zhou Benji, and everyone at the time thought it was very reasonable, but in fact this story had many doubts and lacked scientific basis. However, many historians have concluded after analysis that wild history is not credible.
Why? The earliest beacon tower recorded at present is located in the late Eastern Zhou Dynasty, when Qin Yan, Wei Zhao and other countries built the Great Wall on the border in order to resist the Xiongnu, and some places could only build small-scale observation decks for warning because of limited manpower and material resources, and when the princes or foreign tribes invaded, they burned flames to warn. This is the prototype of the beacon tower, and archaeologists have not found the remains of the beacon tower from the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The second point is the distance, according to the management mode of the Western Zhou, although the princes were set up, but the capital of the Zhou Dynasty within a thousand miles, in fact, is the actual control of the Zhou Tianzi, if you really want the princes to lead the troops to rescue, from the time of burning the beacon tower, and then to the princes to prepare people and horses, the time to prepare military food, and the cost of the journey to come, how to say that it will take a few days, when the city gates of the people are breached, are you still too late? Since the beacon tower is so easy to use, and the capital of the Tang Dynasty is also in Chang'an, why didn't you see him install a beacon near the capital?
As recorded in the "Records of History", as soon as the beacon is lit, "the princes know it", not to mention whether the princes are faster than rabbits, and the distance between the princes and the capital of the Zhou Dynasty must be far and near, how did they come together? According to the etiquette of the Zhou Dynasty, if the enemy princes were informed to march on the Qin king, the troops would have to stay here for at least two nights before leaving, and as a result, the princes would come and go, which was not logical at all.
In 2012, the evidence found favorablely refuted the authenticity of the story of the "Princes of Beacon Theatre", when the archaeological team of Tsinghua University in Beijing deciphered the bamboo jane text of the Warring States Bamboo Jane "Qinghua Jane" and obtained such a piece of information. Because there is no timely tribute. King You of Zhou took the initiative to attack the former prince Shen Hou's foreign home, Shen Guo.
So Shen Guo contacted the Rong clan, and finally defeated the main force of the King of Zhou, and conquered the Beijing Division, and the Western Zhou was destroyed from then on, from here, there is no mention of any information about the "Beacon Tower".
Therefore, Sima Qian's description should be wrong, mistakenly regarding a story as a correct history, and the descendants did not have enough evidence to verify right and wrong, and the story of the princes of the Zhou Youwang Beacon Drama was passed down.