King Zhou Yi

Ji Yi

King Yi of Zhou (937-892 BC), surnamed Ji (Ji ā n), was the son of King Ji (Y ī h ù), the seventh monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

King Yi of Zhou was cowardly in nature. After his accession to the throne, his politics became increasingly corrupt and his national power continued to decline. Due to the repeated attacks of Xirong, he was forced to move his capital to gouqiu (now Southeast of Xingping, Shaanxi).

Taiping Yulan quoted historical records: "King Yi reigned for 25 years.". According to Bai Chuanjing's classification of inscriptions in the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Yi of Zhou reigned for more than 15 years. According to the project of Xia Shang Zhou dynastic division, King Zhouyi reigned for eight years.

Life of the characters

succeed to the crown

The king of Zhou Yi, Ji Gu, was born in 937 B.C. in the 40th year of King Mu of Zhou. During the reign of the Communist king of Zhou, Ji Yi was made the crown prince. In the 23rd year of the reign of Zhou Gongwang (900 BC), Gongwang Hong, Prince Ji Yi, succeeded to the throne as king Yi of Zhou.

Zhu Rong invaded Zhou Dynasty

After King Yi of Zhou succeeded to the throne, his politics became increasingly corrupt and his country declined.

In the first year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty, Yan Yun invaded the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Chinese suffered a lot and wrote poems to satirize the incompetence of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty.

In the seventh year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty, Xirong invaded the territory of Zhou Dynasty and once came to Zongzhou city.

In the 13th year of King Zhouyi, Zhai people from the North invaded Qizhou.

During the reign of emperor Zhaomu of Chengkang, the border soldiers were suppressed all the time. After King Yi of Zhou ascended the throne, they invaded the Western Zhou Dynasty and even arrived at the capital several times, which proved that the national strength of the Western Zhou Dynasty was declining severely.

The weakness of national power is caused by various reasons, and the ruler's own problems are one of the important reasons. In February of the seventh year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty, the imperial court appointed Yi Gong Mu to govern Pepsi officials. In his appointment speech, he said: the bureaucrats were arrogant and extravagant, and they acted violently and cruelly in spite of the laws and orders made by the former king, and they harmed the small people. As a result, the small people revolted and endangered themselves. In order to be strict, yigongmu should act in accordance with the order of the former king, make clear and accurate judgments, and mete out punishment according to the law. This not only proved that King Yi of Zhou had the intention of rectifying the platform, but also proved the political chaos at that time. However, from the perspective of the development after Zhou Yiwang's engagement, he failed to reverse the decline. In the 21st year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty, the Duke of Guo led the division of Zhou Dynasty in the northern expedition to Canrong under the command of King Yi, but he was defeated.

The monarchy is in decline

The order system is a system of appointing and rewarding officials in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is an important part of the rites of the Zhou Dynasty, and it is also a very important ceremony to show the royal power.

The inscriptions on Yi utensils such as Zou Gu, Wei Gu, Mian Zun, Shi Mao Fu Gu, Shi Kui Fu Ding, Dou Bi Gu, Fu Shi Gu Gu, Yang Gu and Mian Gu show that the main symbol of the order system in the period of King Zhao and King Mu of Zhou was the emergence of the patron who guided the receiver and the historian who read out the order in the process of appointment and reward.

In the process of appointment and reward, there is the etiquette of pilgrimage to the king of Zhou: "establish the central court, and face the north". In particular, it should be pointed out that "Li Zhong Ting, Bei Xiang" is not simply standing in the center of the courtyard and facing the north. It is actually the name of two rituals of pilgrimage to the king of Zhou before accepting the order, which is equivalent to the title of the article. "Lizhongting" may be the etiquette for the receiver to arrive at the place where he received the mandate under the guidance of the protector, while "BEIXIANG" may be the etiquette for the receiver to pay a visit to the king of Zhou after he arrived at the place where he received the mandate. These can be seen from the inscriptions on Yi utensils such as Wangzhen, fufangyi, jiugugai, Liding and shihuzhen.

However, the inscriptions of shiding and Honggui in the period of King Yi of Zhou only recorded the content of the chronicle, but did not describe the whole chronicle process as before. The historian who read out the chronicle in the period of Zhaomu disappeared in the process of chronicle. In particular, it is specifically mentioned that the princes enter the palace to accept orders: "the king is in Sheri palace, Dan, Wangge, Yigong enters Youhong." The process didn't say a word. This shows that the etiquette of pilgrimage to the king of Zhou obviously caused the dissatisfaction of the eldest ministers of the Yuan Dynasty, and aggravated the contradiction between the royal family of Zhou and the ministers. It was under such circumstances that some old rituals and systems were broken, and historians were no longer called to read out their names.

Moreover, it can be seen from the direct use of the word "Ming" in the inscriptions such as juegai and Tongzhen that the person who read out the name of the book in the course of the book was king Yi of Zhou. It can be seen that the supreme aura of the king of Zhou had begun to fade.

Zhou Benji, a Book of historical records, states that the royal family declined at the time of King Yi. However, it is not clear to what extent the royal family declined. These Yi inscriptions can just supplement the lack of historical data and prove from the side that the monarchy of Zhou Yi was not strong.

Although the governing ability of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty was not good, he controlled the power of Zhou Dynasty effectively to a certain extent. In September of the ninth year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty, King Yi ordered Yigong to march to meiguo. After Yigong won, he returned to Beijing to report his victory to Yiwang, and reported that Ao, the chief of meiguo, was coming to pay homage to the king of Zhou. In the same year, King Yi of Zhou ordered LV Fuyu to take over the Sixth Division from Bei Zhong, and gave the sixth division general service. He also ordered LV Fuyu to take over the position of his ancestor Da Zhu, who was in charge of Feng Ren and Jiu Xi Zhu. Zhou Shi's smooth capital relocation also proves this point.

End in fear

In the winter of the seventh year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty (893 BC), the Western Zhou Dynasty was hit by a huge natural disaster. Heavy rain and hail hit Huaili, the capital of Wang. Many livestock and poultry were killed by hail. Then the cold current increased sharply, and the weather was extremely cold. Even the Jialing River and the Han River were frozen. Some people were frozen to death before they could prevent the cold.

King Yi of Zhou was very superstitious. He moved the capital of the state from Ho Jing to gouqiu, the new capital, because of the ominous feeling of "tianzaidan". Unexpectedly, everything was still not going well in the new capital. He sent troops to the expedition, and the dog army was beaten back in a mess, which made people resent. Then came a rare natural disaster, a mess around the king. He felt very scared and thought that God was punishing him. All day long, he worried that the gods would come to take his life. He was suspicious and gave up sleeping and eating.

In the spring of the 8th year of King Zhou Yi (892 BC), King Zhou Yi died at the age of 46. He was named king Yi and buried in Biyuan. It is said in historical books that "gentleness, virtue and kindness are called Yi", so he was posthumously named king Yi of Zhou.

After the death of King Yi of Zhou, his uncle Ji PI Fang succeeded to the throne as king Xiao of Zhou.

Political initiatives

Defeat Yan Yu

In the second year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty (898 BC), Yan Yu, a di man from the north, invaded Zongzhou, the birthplace of the Western Zhou Dynasty (now the northeast of Qishan County, Shaanxi Province). He robbed the property of the Zhou people and killed many people of the Western Zhou Dynasty. On the contrary, the frontier guards were defeated by Yan Yu's army. The enemy took advantage of the victory to pursue Zhou's army and attacked Qishan. Qishan is less than 200 kilometers away from the capital of Wangdu, which directly affects the safety of Qishan. On the one hand, the Qishan garrison held fast to the pass, and on the other hand, they complained to the imperial court one after another. Ji Yi, king of Zhou Yi, hastened to select the elite soldiers of the state. At the same time, he enlisted the armies of various vassal states to join forces in the northern expedition of Yan Yu to defend Qishan.

King Yi of Zhou ordered the Sixth Division under the command of Guo Gong to attack Yan Yu. The army went to Fengxiang (now Fengxiang County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province) and met Yan Yu's army. The two sides fought fiercely. After several days of fighting, Yan's army was defeated and fled to his own country. Zhou's army chased after Yan and forced Yan to flee to Taihang Mountain.

Move the capital to Huaili

According to historical records, the astronomical phenomenon of "tianzaidan" appeared in the third year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty (897 BC), that is, there were two successive daybreaks in one day. In fact, "tianzaidan" was the total solar eclipse after sunrise.

The ancients believed in celestial phenomena. There was a shadow in King Yi's heart that could not be removed. He always felt that the capital of the state, Ho Jing, was not good for him. After much deliberation, he decided to move the capital to another place. King Yi of Zhou himself chose the new capital as the dog Hill (also known as abandoned hill, now Southeast of Xingping, Shaanxi Province) in the northwest of Haojing. He thought that this place was the best place to build the capital between Zhou and Zongzhou. He ordered to recruit craftsmen, purchase building materials and start building the new capital on the right day.

In the autumn of the fourth year of King Zhou Yi (896 BC), before the palace of dog hill was completely built, King Zhou Yi couldn't wait to move the capital. The shadow of "tianzaidan" always shrouded in his mind. He felt that one more day was more dangerous. At his urging, the ministers had to move to Xindu with him. After moving the capital, King Yi of Zhou named the new capital Huaili.

The Northern Expedition

In the sixth year of King Zhou Yi's reign (894 BC), due to the invasion of foreign enemies, King Zhou Yi felt the importance of military construction. Without a strong army, he could neither restrain the domestic princes nor resist the powerful foreign invasion. So he ordered to increase investment in national defense construction and recruit young and middle-aged people to join the army. He appointed Guo Gong as the highest leader in charge of the army, expanded the military establishment and strengthened military training.

Dog Rong, located in the west of the Zhou Dynasty, had long been at odds with the Zhou Dynasty. When King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty was in power, he had twice attacked the Zhou Dynasty. With the decline of the Zhou Dynasty's national strength, the threat from the northwest became serious again. After the Zhou army became powerful, King Yi of Zhou personally reviewed this powerful army and had the ambition of conquering the world.

In the autumn of the sixth year of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty (894 BC), King Yi ordered Guo Gong to lead his division in the northern expedition to Canrong (now Guyuan north of Ningxia), which resulted in a great defeat. The failure of the conquest awakened King Zhou Yi's dream of external expansion, and also eliminated his ambition of dominating the world.

Historical evaluation

During the reign of King Yi of Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty began to decline, and the capital was invaded several times by Rong Di, so that the records of the historian recorded: "when King Yi was in power, the royal family declined and the poets stabbed."

However, King Yi of Zhou Dynasty did not want to make progress, but took a passive attitude of retreat, simply moved the capital as a means to save the national movement, which further hit the ruling class of Zhou Dynasty, seriously damaged its related interests and dignity, and aggravated the contradictions within the ruling group. "In the reign of King Yi, there was no chastity in living, and orders were given from time to time. The chuhu family could not share their duties, so the princes carried virtue.". This also prepared the conditions for King Xiao of Zhou to seize the throne after his death.

Historical records

Bamboo Annals

Chinese PinYin : Zhou Yi Wang