King Zhao of Zhou
King Zhao of Zhou 周昭王 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
King of the Zhou dynasty | |||||
Reign | 977/75–957 BC[1] | ||||
Predecessor | King Kang of Zhou[1] | ||||
Successor | King Mu of Zhou[2] | ||||
Born | Ji Xia (姬瑕) 1027 BC | ||||
Died | 957 BC | ||||
Spouse | Queen Fang | ||||
Issue | King Mu of Zhou | ||||
| |||||
House | Zhou | ||||
Father | King Kang of Zhou | ||||
Mother | Wang Jiang |
King Zhao of Zhou (Chinese: 周昭王; pinyin: Zhōu Zhāo Wáng; 1027–957 BC) was the fourth king of the Zhou dynasty. He ruled from 977/75 BC until his death twenty years later.[1] Famous for his disastrous war against the Chu confederation, his death in battle ended the Western Zhou's early expansion and marked the beginning of his dynasty's decline.[3]
Biography
By the time of King Zhao's coronation, his father
With the north and east pacified and a large military force under his control, King Zhao turned his attention to the
In 957 BC, Zhao launched another major military campaign into the middle Yangtze region. Employing half of the royal forces, organized into the "Six Armies of the West", he probably aimed to permanently bring the Yangtze basin under his control. This campaign, however, ended in disaster as the Zhou forces were defeated and almost entirely wiped out. King Zhao and his remaining troops allegedly drowned while retreating across the Han River.[8][11][12]
Legacy
Zhao's death and defeat greatly damaged the Zhou dynasty's reputation and ended its early expansion, resulting in several foreign invasions of the kingdom. His successor and son King Mu of Zhou was able to restabilise the kingdom, but the Yangtze basin became the permanent southern limit of Western Zhou's direct control.[13] Despite his “humiliating end”, however, King Zhao was still commemorated for his southern campaigns during the Western Zhou dynasty, as he had at least established political dominance over the region to the north of the Yangtze and east of the Han River.[14] After his death, he was also given a sacrificial site at the “Kang gong” temple he had himself built. As the first Zhou ruler to be enshrined this way, he eventually became a key figure for ancestor veneration of the middle Zhou dynasty.[15] One major reason for the initially positive appraisal of his reign was possibly that later Zhou rulers did not want their ancestor being remembered for a defeat that cast shame upon the dynasty.[16]
Later moralistic renditions of King Zhao's life were much more unfavorable, as they portrayed him as a ruler who loved pleasure and disregarded politics, dying on a hunting trip to the south.[17] Later Chu poets also wrote about King Zhao in the Classical Chinese poetry collection "Heavenly Questions", mocking him for his perceived arrogance.[18] An especially bizarre incident relating to King Zhao happened in the seventh century BC: When a coalition of Zhou states attacked the state of Chu, the latter sent a delegation to ask what reasons they could have for invading. The northern lords gave the feeble pretext that “King Zhao had failed to return from his southward expedition (which took place some three centuries earlier) and they had 'come to investigate'."[19]
Family
Queens:
- Queen Fang, of the Qi clan (房後 祁姓), the mother of Crown Prince Man
Sons:
- Crown Prince Man (太子滿; 992–922 BC), ruled as King Mu of Zhou from 976 to 922 BC
Ancestry
Wang Jiang | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
See also
- Family tree of ancient Chinese emperors
References
- ^ a b c Shaughnessy (1999a), p. 29.
- ^ a b c Blakeley (1999), p. 10.
- ^ Li (2006), pp. 93–95.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1999b), pp. 311, 312, 320–322.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1999b), pp. 320–322.
- ^ Kern (2009), pp. 159–161.
- ^ Higham (2004), p. 376.
- ^ a b c Li (2013), p. 138.
- ^ a b Whiting (2002), p. 17.
- ^ Li (2006), p. 93.
- ^ Li (2006), p. 94.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1999b), pp. 322, 323.
- ^ Li (2006), pp. 93, 94.
- ^ Li (2006), p. 329.
- ^ Kern (2009), pp. 161–164.
- ^ Kern (2009), p. 153.
- ^ "Chinese History - Political History of the Zhou Dynasty 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE)". Ulrich Theobald. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ^ Hawkes (1985), p. II.135.
- ^ Hawkes (1985), pp. II.135–136.
Bibliography
- Blakeley, Barry B. (1999). "The Geography of Chu". In Constance A. Cook; John S. Major (eds.). Defining Chu: Image And Reality In Ancient China. ISBN 0824829050.
- ISBN 978-0-14-044375-2.
- Higham, Charles (2004). Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. ISBN 0-8160-4640-9.
- Kern, Martin (2009). "Bronze Inscriptions, the Shijing and the Shangshu: the evolution of the ancestral sacrifice during the Western Zhou". In John Lagerwey; Marc Kalinowski (eds.). Early Chinese Religion: Part One: Shang Through Han (1250 BC-220 AD). ISBN 978-90-04-168350.
- ISBN 0-521-85272-2.
- ISBN 978-0-521-71981-0.
- Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1999a). "Calendar and Chronology". In Michael Loewe; Edward L. Shaughnessy (eds.). The Cambridge History of ancient China - From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C. ISBN 9780521470308.
- ISBN 0-521-47030-7.
- Whiting, Marvin C. (2002). Imperial Chinese Military History: 8000 BC-1912 AD. ISBN 0-595-22134-3.