The Zhou capital was sacked by the barbarians, and with this the Western Zhou period ended. Under the Zhou Dynasty, many art forms expanded and became more detailed, including bronze, bronze inscriptions, painting, and lacquerware.
Chinese script cast onto bronzeware, such as bells and cauldrons, carried over from the Shang Dynasty into the Zhou; it showed continued changes in style over time, and by region. Under the Zhou, expansion of this form of writing continued, with the inclusion of patrons and ancestors.
Example of Bronze Inscription: This example of bronze inscription was cast on the Song ding, ca. Other improvements to bronze objects under the Eastern Zhou included greater attention to detail and aesthetics.
The casting process itself was improved by a new technique, called the lost wax method of production. From the Western Zhou Dynasty, dated c. The written inscription of 11 ancient Chinese characters on the bronze vessel states its use and ownership by Zhou royalty. Ceramic and Jade art continued from the Shang Dynasty, and was improved and refined, especially during the Warring States Period. Very few paintings from the Zhou have survived, however written descriptions of the works have remained.
Representations of the real world, in the form of paintings of figures, portraits, and historical scenes, were common during the time. This was a new development. Painting was also done on pottery, tomb walls, and on silk. Example of Silk Painting: This example of silk painting shows a man riding a dragon, and has been dated to the 5th-3rd century BCE.
Lacquerware was a technique through which objects were decoratively covered by a wood finish and cured to a hard, durable finish. The lacquer itself might also be inlaid or carved. The Zhou continued and developed lacquer work done in the Shang Dynasty. During the Eastern Zhou period, a large quantity of lacquerware began to be produced.
In the Spring and Autumn period, power became decentralized as nobles vied for power. In the Warring States period, strong states fought each other in large-scale war. During the period, there were substantial intellectual and military developments. The first period of Zhou rule, which lasted from BCE and was referred to as the Western Zhou period, was characterized mostly by unified, peaceful rule.
The lords under feudalism gained increasing power, and ultimately the Zhou King You was assassinated, and the capital, Haojing, was sacked in BCE. The capital was quickly moved east to Chengzhou, near modern-day Luoyang, and the Zhou abandoned the western regions.
Thus, the assassination marked the end of the Western Zhou period and the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period. This period lasted from about BCE. During this time, power became increasingly decentralized as regional feudal lords began to absorb smaller powers and vie for hegemony. The monarchy continued to lose power, and the people were nearly always at war. The partition of the Jin state created seven major warring states. Qin has expanded southwest, Chu north and Zhao northwest. Developments During the Eastern Zhou While the chariot remained in use, there was a shift during the period to infantry, possibly because of the invention of the crossbow.
This meant that war became larger scale, as peasants were drafted to take the place of nobility as soldiers and needed complex logistical support. The Art of War , attributed to Sun Tzu, was written during this time; it remains a very influential book about strategy. A sophisticated form of commercial arithmetic was in place during the period, as shown by a bundle of bamboo slips showing two digit decimal multiplication.
Bamboo Slips Showing Arithmetic: These bamboo slips show a sophisticated two digit decimal multiplication table. Developments in iron work replaced bronze as the dominant metal used in warfare.
Trade became increasingly important among states within China. Large-scale works, including the Dujiangyan Irrigation System and the Zhengguo Canal, were completed and increased agricultural production. Iron Sword from the Warring States Period: This iron sword is an example of the metal work done during this period. Over the course of the Spring and Autumn period, regional feudal lords consolidated and absorbed smaller powers; by BCE, seven prominent states were left, all led by individual kings.
The sack of the king and the change of capital mark the end of the rule of the Ji clan over the whole region. After , the Zhou Dynasty became the nominal leading clan.
Another text that is called the Bamboo Annals , it is said that the text, written on flat pieces of bamboo, was buried with the King of Wei who died in BC and that it was rediscovered in AD during the Jin Dynasty era.
The written accounts may not be accurate. There is a lot of myth and legend concerning this early period of time. During this period, the Zhou Empire reached the Yangtze River , and it was basically centered on the eastern part of the Yellow River.
The first king to rule in the eastern capital, Luoyang , was said to be King Ping. The Zhou kings ruled as figure heads. Though the dynastic clan did have a small territory of their own at Luoyang, their territory was too small to raise an army. They depended on the surrounding regions for their defense. They performed religious ceremonies. The main contributions of the Zhou era to Chinese literature were the prose works of the Spring and Autumn Period, many of which developed in the Warring Sates Period: the Confucian Classics , the Daoist writings, Legalism texts, and preserved poems, histories, and songs.
The capital was sacked, and he was killed. Zhou kings remained there for the next five hundred years, during the period called the Eastern Zhou. When King Ping was relocated to Luoyang, he ruled from a much smaller royal domain surrounded by approximately feudal states and their lords. No longer able to impose their will on unruly noble lineages, Zhou kings failed to maintain a semblance of peace and order throughout the realm. Instead, this warrior nobility engaged in an escalating contest for power and prestige.
But they fought even more fiercely. Over the next years, during what is referred to as the Warring States Period — BCE , these states averaged one major battle per year until, at the very end, only one remained standing. That was the state of Qin [cheen]. As the frequency and scale of warfare escalated, and states gradually gobbled each other up, the way feudal lords governed their states and conducted military campaigns changed. Prior to the Warring States Period, Zhou kings were still accorded a level of respect, at least as symbols of unity and nominal heads of the Zhou feudal order.
At this point, the many lords had no intention of toppling the king; rather, seeing his military weakness, the most powerful ones stepped in to enforce order. The first was Duke Huan of Qi [who-an of chee]. Now, many generations later, his state was a formidable power on the east coast. In BCE, he convened an interstate meeting with other lords to discuss matters of order and security.
Upon being elected as their leader, the Zhou king conferred the title of hegemon. In this capacity, Duke Huan had the authority to resolve disputes between nobles on behalf of the king. Over the next two centuries, this title changed hands several times, going to the lord of the most powerful state.
These hegemons periodically convened interstate meetings to manage such matters as misbehaving states or foreign invasions. Attending lords cemented their agreements by swearing oaths and drinking the blood of sacrificed animals.
Yet, although hegemons maintained a semblance of order, warfare remained constant because it was a way of life for the illustrious lineages of the Zhou realm. Noble lords loved to demonstrate their prowess and raise their prestige through success in hunting and battling.
A noble looked for a pretext to engage in a vendetta with another lord, at which point a battle was arranged and then carried out according to the protocols of chivalry. After announcing the impending campaign at the ancestral temple, a lord and his kinsmen, accompanied by farmer foot soldiers, would proceed in their chariots to a prearranged location and engage in a skirmish.
In victory, a noble redressed matters of honor and brought glory to his ancestors, something symbolized by the mound of dead enemies placed by his ancestral temple. However, with the onset of the Warring States Period in the fifth century BCE, the level of violence was no longer contained by the hegemon system and codes of chivalry.
Both the purpose and conduct of warfare changed. Lords of the seven most powerful states lost respect for the Zhou kings and even assumed the same title, thus claiming the right to unify all of China under their rule. As opposed to serving a lesson to and resolving some dispute with another lord, these selfdeclared kings waged war to destroy them and take their land.
Hence, battles became increasingly bloody and bitter, and victory went to those kings who could field the most effective killing machines.
Chariot-riding kinsmen and a few thousand foot soldiers no longer met that requirement. During the Warring States, rulers introduced large armies composed of mass infantry and cavalry. Soldiers were equipped with armor, crossbows, halberds, dagger-axes, and swords manufactured from bronze, iron, leather, and wood in royal workshops located at capital cities.
From the ample discovery of musical instruments in Zhou tombs, it is evident that music played an extremely important role in the Zhou dynasty, whether for religious or recreational purposes. New decorative techniques were invented. Pictorial depictions of ancient Chinese life, such as hunting scenes F New casting techniques, such as the lost-wax method method of metal casting in which a molten metal is poured into a mold that has been created by means of a wax model.
Once the mold is made, the wax model is melted and drained away. The jade objects of the Zhou were larger in number compared to those of the Shang and made in a wider variety of styles. Like bronzes of the period, jades were used less often as ritual objects and more as ornaments and symbols shapes or designs that are recognizable and have a meaning associated with them of status and wealth. The arts and humanities also flourished during the Eastern Zhou dynasty.
New ideas of all kinds emerged, including the schools of Confucianism a system of ethical and philosophical teaching associated with the Chinese philosopher Confucius — BCE.
He developed a system of thought that stressed the importance of good government, social order, and harmonious and moral living.
They addressed the most important question of the time: how to create a stable and harmonious society.
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