King Wu of Zhou died, King Cheng of Zhou took the throne, still young, it was difficult to undertake the great task of ruling the country, and the zhou dynasty was established for a short time, and the regime was not stable enough, so it was temporarily replaced by Zhou Gongdan to govern the state affairs, known in history as "regency of the Duke of Zhou". The Zhou Gong's assistance to becoming a king was praised by the people, but in view of some historical facts in the process of assisting the government, some people questioned whether the Duke of Zhou was called king?
Ruins of the Zhou King's City in Luoyang, Henan
King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang Dynasty and established the Zhou Dynasty. In order to consolidate his rule, King Wu of Zhou implemented a system of sub-feudalism, that is, he made his sons and relatives and meritorious ministers a prince to be in charge of various regions, and the feudal princes could support the army, but they must listen to the dispatch of the Tianzi at any time, and regularly pay tribute to the Tianzi and pay tribute. This system allowed the feudal princes to pass on from generation to generation, but the Son of Heaven had the right to reward and punish the feudal princes. After the implementation of the sub-feudal system, the princely states paid tribute and paid regular pilgrimages, the Western Zhou Dynasty flourished, and slavery was further developed. However, King Wu of Zhou fell ill due to overwork and did not have much time to fall ill. Before his death, he entrusted his young son Shu and the military affairs to the Duke of Zhou. The Duke of Zhou held a solemn funeral for King Wu, buried him, and then raised him to the Son of Heaven, that is, King Cheng of Zhou. Because King Cheng was young, all major military affairs were represented by the Duke of Zhou. Zhou Gongdan was the younger brother of King Wu and the uncle of King Cheng, who assisted King Wu of Zhou in accomplishing the great cause of destroying merchants and built a special honor. After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, King Wu of Zhou divided the area around Qufu (in present-day Shandong Province) to him and established the State of Lu here, so he was also known as the "Duke of Lu Zhou". Zhou Gong was talented and talented, and grew up in the royal family from an early age, and received a lot of teachings from the previous kings; in addition, King Wu had a deep affection for him before he died, so now that Zhou Gong governed the country, he was not only handy, but also very hardworking. In order to govern the country well, he tried everything he could to recruit talents and help him do things.
The power of the Duke of Zhou increased greatly, causing suspicion and dissatisfaction among Uncle Guan, Uncle Cai, and others. They spread rumors everywhere that the regent of the Duke of Zhou wanted to replace the king and become the son of heaven himself. These rumors deceived many people, and even the summons who had been doing public affairs with Zhou for a long time also became suspicious of Zhou Gong.
Under these circumstances, Zhou Gong believed that it was first necessary to obtain the support of the state's important ministers Zhao Gong and Tai Gong Wang Jiang Shang, and he confessed his heart to Zhao Gong and Jiang Shang, saying: "I am willing to risk the suspicion of usurping the country and take the place of the young King Cheng to carry out state affairs, that is, I am afraid that soon after the Zhou State will be in the country, the people of the world will be dissatisfied, and once a rebellion occurs, it may cause the Zhou State to lose its land or destroy the country, and we will have no face to face the previous king." The cause of our Zhou clan has only achieved initial success after several generations of hard work, and now that King Wu has died prematurely and becomes a king at a young age, I am acting on behalf of the state government, that is, to inherit the cause pioneered by our ancestors and make the Zhou Dynasty more prosperous. Jiang Taigong, Zhao Gong and others were touched by Zhou Gong's sincerity and no longer doubted him. Many people listened to Zhou Gong's explanation and saw that he was really doing his best for the country, so they did not believe the rumors of Guan Shuxian and Cai Shudu. Zhao Gong and Jiang Shang understood Zhou Gong's intentions and gave him full support for his regency affairs.
Zhou Gong Temple in Luoyang, Henan
The early death of King Wu and the change of King Cheng's early succession to the throne, the suspicion caused by the regency of the Duke of Zhou, and the confusion caused by the spread of rumors by Uncle Guan, Uncle Cai and others brought some difficulties to the young Zhou Dynasty, and also gave the Shang nobles who were not willing to perish to take advantage of it. Sure enough, Wu Geng, the son of king Of Shang, colluded with Uncle Guan, Uncle Cai, and Uncle Huo to lead Xu, Xiang, Xiong, Ying, Bogu, and other small eastern states that had previously belonged to the Yin Dynasty to launch a large-scale rebellion.
Duke Zhou, Duke Zhao, and Taigong Wang, on the orders of King Cheng, led a crusade to the east, defeated the rebels in one fell swoop, killed Wu Geng and Guan Shuxian, and exiled Cai Shudu and others to distant places. Subsequently, Zhou Gong and Zhao Gong jointly led their divisions to the east, conquering the eastern countries that followed Wu Geng's rebellion, and destroying Xu, Yan, Xiong, Ying, and Bogu. This crusade took three years, and the hardship and intensity of the war were unimaginable.
After the Battle of Makino, although the Shang Dynasty collapsed, the power of the Shang remnants was still very large, becoming a hidden danger to the safety of the Zhou Dynasty. Moreover, the anti-Zhou forces in some of the former Shang Dynasty vassal states in the east were also very strong, and the Zhou Dynasty was still unable to control these areas. The Zhou Gong's Eastern Expedition not only quelled the rebellion launched by Wu Geng and others, but also crushed the anti-Zhou forces in the East, expanding the zhou Dynasty's rule to the east and controlling Xu, Yan, Bogu and other places. To this end, King Cheng of Zhou rewarded the Duke of Zhou with meritorious service, rewarded and comforted the Duke of Zhou who had captured the monarchs of Xu, Xiang, Xiong, Ying, and Bogu, and granted Jiang Shang, who had made many military achievements, the privilege of obtaining special conquests in a vast area of the east. The Zhou Gongdong Expedition also created conditions for the complete solution of the problem of the remnants of the Shang people. After the suppression of the rebellion, the Duke of Zhou, on the one hand, continued to implement a policy of gentleness toward the remnants of the Shang people, preserving the remnants near the old capital of the Shang Dynasty, and dividing them into the original Shang Dynasty's sage Wei Ziqi, establishing the Song State, so that the incense of the Shang clan could continue. On the other hand, many shang remnants were rewarded to the princes of Wei, Tang, Kang and other states as slaves of the Zhou people. In this way, the Shang remnants were divided into several parts and placed under the control of the Zhou people, completely eliminating the hidden dangers.
Zhou Gongdan
The Duke of Zhou did not shy away from suspicion and assisted King Cheng in the form of a regent, avoiding the political gap in the process of succession, and completely smashing the rebellion launched by Wu Geng and Guan Shu, Uncle Cai, and Uncle Huo, consolidating the young Zhou Dynasty and laying the foundation for the "rule of Cheng Kang (King Cheng of Zhou, King Kang of Zhou)" in the early years of Western Zhou. The Duke of Zhou also put forward the proposal of "feudal princes, with the fanping Zhou", widely divided brothers and relatives throughout the country, and established more than seventy princely states, which became an important stronghold for the Zhou Dynasty to implement its rule and a barrier to defend the Zhou royal family. This measure changed the chaotic situation of "the world not gathering" for a period of time after king Wu destroyed the Shang Dynasty, making the Zhou Dynasty a consolidated slave power with a territory that surpassed that of the Shang Dynasty.
After the victory of the Eastern Crusade, Zhou Believe believed that the main reason for the rebellion was that the capital of the Zhou Dynasty was too far to the west. It was too far from the land from Shang Yin, so it was decided to build a new capital in the east. After divination, Zhou Gong considered Luoyi (羅邑; present-day Luoyang, Henan) to be a good place, and decided to establish the Eastern Capital here.
The Duke of Zhou strictly abided by the testament of King Wen and King Wu, handled things frugally, did not engage in extravagance and waste, and did not have luxurious buildings such as Shanglutai in the east, but the regulations were grand, and the single buildings were very magnificent. Its inner city is 9 miles square, the outer city is 27 miles, and the inner city alone has an area of 81 square miles, which took more than nine years to build. Since then, the Zhou Dynasty has had two capitals, the eastern and western capitals, and the original capital city of Hojing is called Zongzhou, indicating that it was the place where the ancestors of the Zhou Dynasty built it. The newly built Eastern Capital, named Chengzhou, means that it was built after the completion of the Zhou Dynasty. King Cheng still lived in Hojing, and the eastern capital was seated by the Duke of Zhou. Since then, the Zhou Dynasty has begun a long-term stable situation. Seven years later, King Cheng grew to adulthood, and the Duke of Zhou automatically returned the state administration to King Zhou Cheng, and continued to assist King Zhou Cheng as a courtier. Such a practice has been widely praised by posterity.
The Duke of Zhou spent his life in the cause of the Zhou Dynasty. He wrote his own experience into an article and left it to future generations. After the death of the Duke of Zhou, King Cheng of Zhou buried him near the tombs of King Wen and King Wu with the most solemn etiquette of heavenly sons, indicating that the Duke of Zhou had completed the cause that King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou could not accomplish.
Qufu, Shandong was a fief of the Duke of Zhou, and his son Bo Yan was enfeoffed to establish the State of Lu on behalf of his father, so Qufu also had a Temple of the Duke of Zhou
The fact that the Duke of Zhou assisted in becoming a king was praised by people, but in view of some historical facts in the process of assisting the government, some people questioned whether the Duke of Zhou was called a king.
Some scholars believe that the Duke of Zhou was king in the process of assisting the government, which was a very natural thing under the historical conditions at that time. Judging from the examples of the Jin Wen and the literature calling Gong gong also known as wang, Zhou Gong was indeed called both wang and gong. Judging from the original records of the Zhou Gong as king in the "Cai Zun" and other artifacts, due to the inheritance method of the Shang Dynasty that the Zhou Dynasty had just replaced, the commonly used system of brother-to-brother succession, combined with the system of father and son, it was legitimate for the younger brother to inherit the throne. If the newly established dynasty had followed the rules of the previous dynasty, the Duke of Zhou could have succeeded King Wu as king, and his title as king was very natural, and it was an objective fact.
However, the tit-for-tat opinion held that the Duke of Zhou did not claim the throne at all. Judging from the ancient documents "Book of Poetry", "Book of Shang", "History", "Book of Han", etc., there is no matter of the Duke of Zhou taking the throne and becoming king. The theory that the Duke of Zhou took the throne because of the young age of King Cheng was unreliable, and judging from the historical facts of the bronze inscriptions of the Cheng Kang era in which King Cheng quelled the rebellion of Wu Geng and the second keshang, king Cheng was able to lead the Eastern Expedition, which shows that there is no doubt that he was an adult at that time. In the inscriptions of some artifacts, "Wang" and "Zhou Gong" see each other, indicating that the two are by no means one person, "Wang" refers to becoming a king, and Zhou Gong said that Wang said that he would not attack himself.
Secondly, the old notes of the Han and Tang Dynasties all thought that the records of the "Shang Shu LuoHuan" were the events of the Zhou Gongzhi becoming kings, and carefully studied the meaning of the text, in fact, this article mainly records that Luoyi was completed, and the king of Cheng held a ceremony to change the yuan in Xinyi, there was neither a regency matter nor a text to the government, and Han Ru misunderstood the first and last two sentences of the text, thus believing that the Duke of Zhou was called king.
It is known from ancient texts that during the Zhou Dynasty's mourning of the Son of Heaven, Tsukasa Zai took charge of the state and took charge of state affairs. After the collapse of King Wu, the world was not at peace, and King Cheng was during the period of mourning, and Li Dang Tsukasa was the regent. The Duke of Zhou is the Grand Master, the chief regent, and is a common affair. In some history books, the so-called "Zhou Gong Jian Jian Jie Wang" is actually the regent of Tsukasa Zai.
The auxiliary government of the Duke of Zhou became an example for future generations of Zai courtiers to learn from, but if he had ever been crowned king, then the success of this example would have some discounts. But in any case, respecting facts is a prerequisite for studying history, and whether to be king or not still needs to be given a clear answer by historians.