When "Da Qin Fu" was popular, in addition to watching the seven great powers of the Central Plains fighting each other, the Western Zhou Jun and others who appeared in the play also made many friends curious, in fact, there was also an Eastern Zhou Principality in addition to the Western Zhou Principality, they were different from Qin, Chu, Zhao and other great vassal states, their own area and overall strength were not strong, and the dozens of princely states surnamed Ji distributed throughout the country in the Spring and Autumn Period were almost the same.
Due to the special geographical location, and the name is easy to be misunderstood, so many friends are often confused, here we have to interpret from a key question: in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Tianzi's status is becoming more and more urgent, and he can only control the little land, why are there two principalities?
Image: Screenshot of the land area controlled by Zhou Tianzi
1. The origin of the two principalities in the east and west
1. The origin of the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty
When the Eastern Zhou Dynasty arrived at the "Three Families", the authority of the Son of Heaven had disappeared, and it was completely a symbolic role that was hollowed out, although the princes still called him the "co-master", but they didn't look down on it at all in their hearts.
King Zhou Zhending was the Son of Heaven in that era, and he watched the three families of Zhao, Wei and Han pacify other forces within the Jin Kingdom and carve up the territory of the main family, although he was angry in his heart, he didn't dare to speak at all, and the so-called "etiquette collapsed and happy" was the best synonym of that era.
This practice of the Son of Heaven allowed careerists across the country to see the truth and taste the sweetness, so they followed suit. King Zhou Zhending was followed by King Zhou Ai, who was killed by his uncle after 3 months on the throne, and his uncle sat on the throne himself, for King Zhou Si, and for 5 months, King Zhou Zhending's third son Ji Wei slaughtered his own uncle again, and took back the throne, which was for King Zhou Kao.
That is to say, in just 8 months, the Eastern Zhou Tianzi has changed 4, basically the family is killing each other, and how can the king of Zhou Kao, who won in the end, rest assured in this environment? Looking at his brother Ji Jie, he was worried.
In order to avoid the recurrence of fratricide, he gave a part of the small territory in his hands to Ji Jie, which was the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to historical records, the territory of the principality is west of the Qianshui River and south of the Luo River. The royal family of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was not wealthy, so such a move would be tantamount to adding insult to injury.
Picture: Stills of the winning Zhou Kao King
2. The origin of the Eastern Zhou Kingdom
The monarch of the Western Zhou Principality, Huan Gong, handed over the position to his son, that is, the historical Western Zhou Wei Gong, at this time the old problem of the family appeared again, and the brothers turned against each other, originally the Western Zhou Wei Gong was going to give up the position to the eldest son, that is, the Western Zhou Hui Gong.
But the youngest son was not convinced, and the Zhao State next to him did not have any kind eyes, so the youngest son Ji Gen became independent, divided the Western Zhou Principality into two, and established the Eastern Zhou Principality with the old land of Gong Boguo, which was adopted in historical books such as "Historical Records" and "Han Feizi".
There is also a saying that originates from the "Warring States Policy", saying that the Duke of Western Zhou Wei gave the throne to the Duke of Huigong of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but the new monarch sealed his younger brother in Gongdi and gave him the title of the Eastern Zhou Jun, which existed as a vassal state. In the second year of King Xian of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, under the planning of the Zhao and Han families, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty became independent and became a prince, so that the Eastern Zhou Principality and the Western Zhou Principality were on an equal footing.
Although the accounts are different, one thing remains the same, that is, among the three, the Eastern Zhou royal family in Gyeonggi is the weakest and has the smallest territory.
Image: Stills from the Eastern Zhou royal family
2. The fall of the embarrassing royal family and the principality
1, the sojourning Zhou Tianzi
If you ask when was the most embarrassing thing in the history of the Zhou Dynasty for thousands of years, Dahui felt that it must be the stage of the coexistence of the Western Zhou Principality and the Eastern Zhou Principality.
But the question is, is it really Zhou Tianzi who has the final say in this only land? You are simple, and there are still people who will make them feel unhappy.
In the history of Qin, there was a strong monarch, called Qin Wu Wang Yingdang, this person was more rude, and when he saw that the Zhou royal family had nothing to bear, he wanted to be humiliated, and he wanted to go to the feet of the Son of Heaven to lift the Jiuding left by Dayu.
You must know that it is a symbol of the authority of the Son of Heaven, which made the last monarch of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, King Zhou Yun, very angry, so he sent his right prime minister to reprimand this northwest maniac, but this guy beat him up and directly drove King Zhou Xun out of the palace.
In this way, Zhou Tianzi, who was already poor, encountered a catastrophe again, and he had no ability to resist, so what should he do? I had to pack up the covers and hide in the Duchy of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was closer to him, and it was also from this time that the so-called majesty that Zhou Tianzi had was also in the hands of the Duke of the Western Zhou.
Picture: Stills of King Qin Wu swinging to the feet of the Son of Heaven
2. The demise of the principality
In terms of the history of the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the former was destroyed first, and the latter was a little slower, and the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty experienced a total of 5 monarchs from the founding to the demise, and at the same time, it also came to the era of the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin.
As mentioned above, Zhou Tianzi went to the Western Zhou Principality, and the actual power fell, so under the manipulation of the Western Zhou Principality, the war against Qin broke out in 256 BC, which annoyed the ambitious Qin State, and they concentrated the elite and defeated the coalition army by dividing it by two.
Interestingly, in order to fight the Qin State, King Zhou did not hesitate to use the name of the Son of Heaven to raise money everywhere, and the failure of this attack on Qin made him owe a lot of money.
Image: Screenshot of the comic strip of the debt-ridden platform
King Qin Zhaoxiang was very angry about this, and began to retaliate, and it didn't take long to attack the Western Zhou Principality, at this time the Qin State resolutely rose, where was the opponent of the small country, and surrendered directly, King Zhou Yu died of depression, and the Western Zhou Principality was destroyed, which also marked the complete end of the Zhou Dynasty.
Although the Principality of the Western Zhou Dynasty is gone, the Principality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is still there, and when the King of Zhou Yu was alive, this small country did nothing, seeing that the Son of Heaven was in trouble, he brazenly announced that he would inherit the mantle of the Zhou royal family, and the princes of the whole world would worship themselves as co-masters, and the eldest brother would not look at the current situation, wouldn't this be death!
After the fall of the Western Zhou Principality, the Eastern Zhou Principality lasted for 7 years, and in 249 BC, the Eastern Zhou Wenjun began to operate, following the example of his predecessors to resist Qin, Qin Zhuang Xiang Wang is the father of Qin Shi Huang, without saying a word, let Lu Buwei lead the army to attack, and directly wiped out this buddy, since then all the royal family surnamed Ji has been destroyed, and the political situation in the world has changed drastically, laying the groundwork for the final great turmoil of the Warring States.
Picture: Lü Buwei led his army to attack the Eastern Zhou Kingdom
It must also be said here that no snowflake is innocent during the avalanche, and a large part of the reason why the Great Zhou Dynasty can fall to this point is the incessant infighting of future generations.