The Zhou Period 1045- 221
B.C.E
The Zhou period begins when
it overthrows the Shang Dynasty. King Wu establishes
a feudal system distributing diverse lands to his allies and family.
This feudal system fails and
the Zhou dynasty fell apart.
The Zhou Dynasty is attacked
and then moves eastward establishing the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The new Western Zhou dynasty monitors the
population, land and agriculture creating a labor force and a large military
along with new materials such as iron. Then there arose an educated class who
began to travel from kingdom to kingdom preaching their ideal government.
Their Ideal government was
class order(hierarchy) beginning with the king then
the nobility and scholars down to the common people. In the Eastern Zhou period a labor force is
created and the monitoring of lands, money, trade and new materials emerge.
Religion also influenced the government structure
with the philosophy of Confucianism, meaning peace and order within the kingdom
and its people as well as the Mandate of
Heaven philosophy that if a kingdom is doing badly and starving then it is
because the king is not doing heaven's will or he is not fit to be the leader. They looked at an idealized past to make
present decisions and involve everyones’ opinion. Then later in 481 B.c
on the western side the Qin rulers (founders of
Legalist philosophy) disagree with the ideal government of the Eastern Zhou(influenced by confucianism)because
they think the ruler should make his own decisions and ignore his subjects.