Zhou Zhaowang

Ji Xia

King Zhao of Zhou? ~977 BC), surnamed Ji, named Xia, was born in Qizhou (now Qishan County, Shaanxi Province). The fourth monarch of Zhou Dynasty was the son of Ji Zhao, King Kang of Zhou Dynasty.

After succeeding to the throne, King Zhao of Zhou inherited the cause of "the rule of Chengkang" and continued to expand his territory. In order to consolidate the strategic resources (copper) in the South and central China, he took Zeng, Deng and E as the pioneers to conquer the rebellion in Hufang, Jingchu, Yangyue and other areas, and deeply pacify the vast area south of Jianghan.

In the 19th year of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, when he personally went to the South and triumphantly returned to his army to cross the Han River, he died in the Han River on his way back because he carried a large number of captured spoils of war bronze (i.e. "Fu Jin" in archaeological inscriptions), and his posthumous title was Zhao.

Life of the characters

Wang Daowei

Ji Xia, the eldest son of Ji Zhao, king of Zhou Kang. In the 25th year of King Kang (996 BC), King Kang of Zhou died. Ji Xia ascended the throne as king Zhao of Zhou.

After the reign of Chengkang, the first one in history, the Western Zhou Dynasty should usher in a prosperous age, but at this time, the leader of the Western Zhou Dynasty was "slightly lacking in Wang Dao". In the fourteenth year of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty (982 BC), on the eighth day of April in the summer, an abnormal natural phenomenon suddenly appeared in Ho Jing. The water in the river, well, spring and pool rose at the same time. The water in the well overflowed out of the well, and then the palace and residential buildings were shaking. At night, there are five colors of light into the purple emblem constellation, all over the four directions, all for cyan red, the sky can't see twenty-eight constellations. The ancients believed that the heaven and the earth were the exterior and the interior, and the lack of kingly way led to the overlapping of visions.

If the so-called celestial phenomena were just superstition and ignorance of the ancients, then the attitude of King Zhou Zhao in dealing with state affairs is undoubtedly "a slight lack of Wang Dao". In the autumn and July of the fourteenth year of King Zhao of Zhou, a coup took place in the state of Lu. Ji Fei, the younger brother of marquis Lu, killed his elder brother, Duke Lu you. Ji Zai seized the throne and called himself Duke Wei. The king of Zhou Zhao did not send troops to punish him, nor did he ask for punishment. As a result, the phenomenon of bullying and bullying happened frequently in the world, and the imperial platform deviated.

The battle of Dongyi

In the 16th year of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty (980 BC), King Zhao led the army to carry out military deterrence against Dongyi countries (today's Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui).

Dongyi is the general name of the Oriental nationalities in ancient times. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, these tribes rebelled against the king of Zhou Dynasty. After the eastern expedition of Duke Zhou and King Cheng of Zhou, Zhou's power reached the present Shandong situation, but Huaiyi and Xuyi were still stubborn. In that year, the tribes of Fang state headed by Chu invaded the territory of Zhou Dynasty, and King Zhao of Zhou assembled a large army to March south to Chu Jing. In order to stabilize the rear, we first advanced to Dongyi. The barbarians, seeing that there was a great disparity among them, surrendered one after another. When King Zhao of Zhou conquered Chu, twenty-six states of Dongyi and Nanyi came to submit to the court.

The battle of Dongyi strengthened the control of Zhou Dynasty over Dongyi countries and isolated Jingchu.

Zhaowang's southern expedition

Hufang, Jingchu and Yangyue, which were conquered by King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, generally refer to many Fang States and tribes between Jianghan and Jianghan in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Among them, the Aborigines were called "Jing" or "Chujing", "Jingchu", "jingman" and "Chuman" by the people of Zhou Dynasty. In addition, some of them were adherents of Shang Dynasty. According to historical records, King Zhao of Zhou carried out three expeditions against Hufang, Jingchu and Yangyue.

In the 16th and 19th years of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty (after the Chinese uprising in 841 BC, Chinese history began to have a clear chronology, so the period of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty could not strictly correspond to the year of AD), the two southern expeditions were in Chengzhou, and the princes were ordered to lead their own troops to march from Wang. Before the royal family and the armies of the vassal states set out to fight in the form of hunting in Nanshan, and then the army from shanghou crossed Rushui and Sishui and reached Hanshui through Fangcheng and ESHI. The forerunners of the Zhou army first inspected the road of Jingxing, established the king of Zhou's palace, and then issued imperial edicts to Zeng, Deng, e and other feudal states in the south to issue the Zhao King's intention of conquering Jingchu. At the same time, they accumulated military materials in Zhongzhou of the Han River, which made preparations for the army to successfully cross the Han River and conquer Jingchu.

The first South expedition was well planned. It was followed by Tang (northwest of Suizhou, Hubei), Li (north of Suizhou, Hubei), Zeng (Suizhou, Hubei), Kui (east of Zigui, Hubei), the troops directly under the royal family and the northern vassal states, as well as Zeng, Deng, Hubei and other vassal states in the south. All the way to Jianghan area, he won a lot of treasure, for this purpose, he made a special inscription.

Soon, King Zhao of Zhou organized the second Southern expedition, which was more powerful and powerful. In his second Southern expedition, the king of Zhao won the battle again. He got a large amount of bronze and his class went back.

According to Bamboo Annals, King Zhao attacked Chu three times

For the first time, in the 16th year of King Zhao of Zhou (985 BC), King Zhao of Zhou "conquered Chu, related to Han Dynasty, and met Da Yu". It is generally believed that this war is the same as the records in the wall plate. King Zhao of Zhou led the army across the Han River and went deep into the area of Jingchu. When he crossed the Han River, he met the rhinoceros.

The second time, in 982 B.C., King Zhao of Zhou sent Jigong and Xinbo to attack Chu, saying that "the heaven is big, the pheasant and the rabbit are all shocked, and six divisions are lost in Han Dynasty". When Zhou Jun crossed the Hanshui River, the overcast wind rose suddenly, the weather was bad, the soldiers were frightened, and the army suffered serious losses.

For the third time, "in the last year of the reign of King Zhao, the night was clear, and the five colors of light were shining through Ziwei, and his king did not return to the south.". According to the calculation of Lu chronology, this is the 24th year of King Zhao of Zhou (977 BC). The "wall plate" inscriptions unearthed in Fufeng, Shaanxi Province recorded that "Honglu called King Zhao, who beat Jingchu extensively, but only hunted southward." But in the end, the whole army disappeared, and Zhou people refused to talk about it, saying vaguely that "they will not return to the South". (see data for details)

Textual research on the southern expedition

The southern expedition of King Zhao has a very important relationship with the study of early Chu history and Chu culture. However, such an important event in the history of Western Zhou Dynasty and Chu history was covered with a lot of fog because of the concealment of the Zhou people, and even the object of the expedition of King Zhao of Zhou was disputed.

According to the research of modern scholars, the "Chu" conquered by King Zhao of Zhou was not the "Chu state (Chu Zi)", but the Chu man who stood in the Chu area with Chu state (Chu Zi) in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

"Two meanings" refers to the Chu surname

The state of Chu

Second, it refers to the south

Chuman

.

In the 19th year of King Cheng of Zhou Dynasty, Xiong Yi, the ancestor of the state of Chu, was granted the title of chuzi, and the land was in the land of Chuman. Therefore, the state of Chu and Chuman intersected. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the state of Chu rose and annexed Chuman, and the two became one. In the period of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, the title of Chu was only a Viscount, with only 50 li of fiefdom. In this case, King Zhao of Zhou could not set up six divisions to attack the little Chu son, let alone reap a lot. All the nobles, big and small, happily performed the inscription of utensils. Moreover, if King Zhao of Zhou was really killed because of the southern expedition to Chu, then Zhou and Chu would be inextricable enemies. King Mu of Zhou, the son of King Zhao of Zhou, could not not have avenged him, and the state of Chu could not have participated in the battle of Xu as a feudal state of Zhou Dynasty in the 14th year of King Mu of Zhou.

In the period of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, Chuman occupied a large area, which was located in the Danjiang area in the upper reaches of the Han River and the Handong area in the lower reaches of the Han River. In the pre Qin period, copper was an extremely important strategic resource, which was widely needed in politics, economy, war and other aspects. Although Chu man is numerous and widely distributed, it has never formed a strong and unified political body like the former Sanmiao and the later Chu state. It is just some scattered tribes. In this case, Chu man is suitable for the southern expedition of King Zhao of Zhou.

The saying that "Chu" was the state of Chu in the southern expedition of King Zhao first appeared in the literary works of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the songs of Chu · Tian Wen annotated by Wang Yi. Later scholars believed in this theory and passed it on from generation to generation.

South tour never return

According to the annals of ancient bamboo books, "in the last year of the reign of King Zhao, the night was clear, and the five colors of light passed through the purple, and his king never returned to the south.".

The third expedition to the South dealt a great blow to the military power of the Western Zhou Dynasty. King Zhao of Zhou Hongyu was in the Han River, and the whole army was annihilated. The official history, which has been retouched in spring and autumn, is very secretive about this matter, so it is impossible to know the details. During the Northern Song Dynasty, six bronzes of the Western Zhou Dynasty, called "six bronzes of Anzhou", were unearthed in Anlu, Hubei Province, which revealed the relevant information of Zhou Zhaowang's southern tour.

In the 16th year of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, King Zhao went to the south to fight against Chu Jing. In order to ensure the smooth March, he appointed Nangong, the king of Zeng state, as commander in chief, and a man named (middle) as the pioneer. (middle) he led the army to contact the princes surnamed Ji in Hanyang to make way for the army. Zeng, Deng and e prepared the palace for King Zhao of Zhou. Along the way, he got the support of the princes of Ji surname in the north of the Han Dynasty, and the army grew stronger, and soon went deep into the hinterland of Jianghan. The big clans and small Fangguo who had been subject to Chu Jing were obedient one after another.

The first troops of the Chinese army in the southern expedition arrived at the Yangtze River, and then arrived. Wang's division captured the camp in Hubei. The army went down along the East Bank of the Han River. After arriving at the Yangtze River, King Zhao left a team to guard the ferry in the north of the River, and personally led the army to cross the river. The main force of Hubei Province in Yangyue retreated to the mountains in the south, and King Zhao occupied the Tonglu mountain. Then king Zhao crossed the river and went north. In the state of Tang (now in the northwest of Suizhou, Hubei Province), he held a meeting with the Hanyang princes and rewarded them for their merits. He gave a lot of horses and bronze to the pioneers, and the marshal Nangong also received a lot of rewards. Later, a number of bronze sacrificial vessels were made from the copper materials awarded by the king of Zhao, on which words were engraved to record the war and the rewards he received. The king of Zhao distributed some copper materials to the nobles, and then transported a large number of copper materials back. Most of these bronzes were used to cast bronzes, including the six bronzes in Anzhou.

After King Zhou Zhao occupied Tonglu mountain, he left a small number of Wang divisions to guard Tonglu mountain and lead a large army back. However, as soon as the tribes of the state of Hubei heard that the main force of Zhou army had withdrawn and captured Tonglu mountain, King Zhao of Zhou decided to fight again.

In the 19th year of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, the king of Zhao led his ministers, such as Ji Gong, to attack Chu Jing again with the West Sixth Division, which was guarding the capital of ho. Initial shape

Chinese PinYin : Zhou Zhao Wang