all of the Shang & Rise of the Zhou

The Shang made the most of the fertile soil on the banks of the Yellow River to produce
abundant harvests, providing more food than required, the surplus of which then went
toward trade. The resulting prosperity allowed for the development of cities, , arts, and
culture.

Ma Lin

The Shang were expert masons, jewelers, and metallurgists, creating masterpieces in
bronze and jade, as well as producing high-quality bolts of silk. The gods' approval of a
king was evident in the prosperity of the land and the general well-being of the people. He
was challenged by King Wen of Zhou and was overthrown by Wen's second son, King
Wu, who reigned 1046-1043 BCE as the first king of the Zhou Dynasty.

Philg88

The policy of fengjian was instituted which decentralized the government and allotted land
to nobles who acknowledged the supremacy of the Zhou king.

The king made sacrifices at the capital on behalf of the people and the people honored
him with their loyalty and service. The fengjian policy was so successful, producing such
abundance of crops, that the resultant prosperity validated the Zhou as possessing the
Mandate of Heaven. The wealth that was generated encouraged the so-called well-field
system which divided lands between those cultivated for nobility and the king, and those
worked by and for the peasantry. The Zhou culture, naturally, flourished with this kind of
cooperation.

Works in bronze became more sophisticated and the metallurgy of the Shang, overall, was
improved upon. The decentralized rule of the Western Zhou had from the beginning
carried within it the danger that the regional lords would become so powerful that they
would no longer respond to the commands of the king. In 771 BCE, the Zhou king was
killed by an alliance . Western Zhou fell when invasions, most likely by the peoples known
as the Xirong , further destabilized the region.

The nobility moved the capital to Luoyang in the east which gives the next period of Zhou
history its name of Eastern Zhou.

Eastern Zhou

By all accounts, the era of Eastern Zhou was chaotic and violent but managed to produce
literary, artistic, and philosophical works of startling originality and substance. The Spring
and Autumn Period which begins the era of Eastern Zhou still retained some of the
courtesy and decorum of the days of Western Zhou but that would not last for long. The
separate states – Chu, Han, Qi, Qin, Wei, Yan, and Zhao - all had more power than the
Zhou at Luoyang at this time. Even so, it was still thought that the Zhou held the Mandate
of Heaven and so each state tried to prove themselves the Zhou successor.
Coelacan

A Qin statesman named Shang Yang , following Sun-Tzu's lead, advocated for total
war, without regard to the old laws of chivalry, and stressed the goal of victory by any
means at one's disposal. Shang Yang's philosophy was adopted by King Ying Zheng of
Qin who embarked on a brutal campaign of carnage, defeated the other states, and
established himself as Shi Huangdi, the first Chinese emperor. The Zhou Dynasty had
fallen, and the Qin Dynasty now began its reign over China.

Erwyn van der Meer

All of the states drew on the Zhou knowledge of horsemanship and Ying Zheng, in
fact, made full use of the chariot and cavalry units developed by the Zhou in subduing the
other states. The Zhou separation of an army into units, deployed in different directions in
battle, was also maintained by the Qin as was Zhou metallurgy. Shi Huangdi made the
most of Zhou techniques in metalworking by forcing the subdued states to turn over their
weapons which were melted down and turned into statues celebrating his reign. The Zhou
contributions which were discarded by the Qin were all in the areas of art and culture.

Rob Web

Among the best-known later philosophers was the famous Mencius who would codify the
works of Confucius, and Xun Kuang whose work, Xunzi, reimagined Confucian ideals with
a more pessimistic, pragmatic vision. Central to the values of the Zhou Dynasty were the
concepts of Li and Yue , commonly given as Li-Yue. The Book of Rites referenced by Liu
is one of the classic Chinese texts which was produced during the Zhou Dynasty during
the period of the Hundred Schools of thought. The Four Books and Five Classics – which
managed to survive the book burning of the Qin – became the standard texts for Chinese
education.