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Notes on video lecture:
The Golden Age of the Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE)
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on December 22, 2014 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
intellectuals, arms, continuity, needed, young, battle, written, place, capital, Wei, lovers, Autumn, Shang, prerogatives, racy, lives, Documents, speak, bronze, symbol, hero, sky, Golden, evil, Qin, Qin, consolidating, anthropomorphic, feudal, Duke, paragon, Western, effect, Muye, hymns, cities, colonies, philosophically, Lu, control, dissolution, west, donations, rituals, wang, three, swallows, postumously, crushed, harmony, Cheng, state, tighter, datable, Odes, v
•
Zhou dynasty [joh]
•
followed the            dynasty
•
preceded the        dynasty
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1046–256 BCE
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"The Western Zhou": 1046-771 BCE
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looked backed to as a              Age
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China was settled
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the world was the way it              to be
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Confucius (551–479 BC) used the                Zhou as a blueprint of what China should be
•
we know a lot more about the Zhou than we do about the Shang
•
thousands of              inscriptions
•
as with the Shang but much longer
•
precisely               
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know when they were buried
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essentially texts that were cast in bronze
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zun vessel inscription
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records the words of King            upon establishing his capital
•
so we can corroborate what we get from                sources with these artifacts we are digging out of the ground which have historical text on them
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transmitted texts
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texts that have been passed down historically
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less reliable because we don't know exactly when they are from
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but more detailed and extensive
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1. Book of                    (Book of History)
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collection of speeches
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historical records
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about Western Zhou
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some are clearly later forgeries from the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and later
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2. Book of          (Book of Songs)
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folk songs
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         folk poetry that the Confucians are going to have to deal with later on
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poetesses wanting to meet their              out in the bushes
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solemn            hymns
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accounts of               
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most of quite old based on linguistic evidence
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choice of words
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grammar
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the beauty of these texts is we have many of them
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more information
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but less reliable
•
copied throughout the ages
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major figures
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King Wen (1152–1056 BC)
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the cultured king
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honored as the founder of the Zhou dynasty
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in trying to reform the          King Zhou of the Shang dynasty, he became a perfect paragon of virtue and cultured correctness
•
he didn't take up arms against the king, it was his son Wu who conquered the Shang following the Battle of Muye
•
large number of the            of the Classic of Poetry are praises to the legacy of King Wen
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the first epic hero of Chinese history
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King Wu
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the martial king
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saw his father try to reform the evil King Zhow
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it didn't work so he took up         
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seen as the actual founder of the Zhou dynasty since he was the one who defeated the Shang
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then his father was                        declared the first king of the Zhou dynasty
•
         of Zhou
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a member of the Zhou Dynasty who played a major role in                            the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu
•
when King Wu died, King Cheng was too            to take over the kingship, so the Duke of Zhou acted as capable and loyal regent for his young nephew King Cheng by e.g. successfully suppressing a number of rebellions and placating the Shang nobility with titles and positions
•
a Chinese culture          credited with writing the I Ching and the Book of Poetry, establishing the Rites of Zhou, and creating the yayue of Chinese classical music
•
a                of loyalty and wisdom
•
as soon as King Cheng was old enough to take over, he graciously gave the throne to the son of his brother
•
in Chinese culture he is seen as the              of what a wise ruler and minister should be
•
Zhou military expansion
•
homeland was where the        River continues on from the Yellow River
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fought their way to the east and took over the Shang
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their goal was the Anyang, the capital of the Chang
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1045 BCE decisive battle happened at         
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take over the Yellow River valley
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this story gets corroborated by the archeological record
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Li gui [lee GWAY] vessel
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bronze
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made by Li, a follower of King Wu [oo]
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records how King Wu performed a divination, then                King Zhow of the Shang
•
religious continuity
•
although the Zhou conquered the Shang, they were very    to identify with them politically and religiously
•
left their structures in tact and just took over their             
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took over religious systems
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Zhou retained Shang Di
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tian [twen]
•
is a supreme god and        deity in China's traditional religions
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standard translation is "Heaven", the "Universe", the "Great All".
•
tien is often drawn as a large person
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an anthropomorphic being
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it's often translated as the sky, but it's not a           
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it's not a place you go to after you die like the Christian heaven
•
it's heaven as a being, an                                being who is up there somewhere striding around in a very vague way
•
we never directly see heaven, it doesn't            or communicate
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but heaven's up there having some kind of              on the world
•
when the Zhou conquered the Shang, they were very keen on claiming a                      with the Shang religious system
•
so in the same way Shangdi was, Tien becomes the supreme being in charge of everything that humans can't               
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politics
•
the Zhou took over the Yellow River Valley
•
but maintained their key cities of power in the         
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but controlled the whole central plain area
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established their kins people and important generals as rules in these various areas,                  and states which made up the former realm of the Shang
•
these states will become independent states in the Eastern Zhou Period
•
feudalism
•
power devolved to              lords who
•
paid them tribute
•
paid                    to the king
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could be called up into             
•
was a bit different
•
was more of a centralized state because of signs of a                control than feudalism in Western Europe
•
king had representatives in the courts of these state rulers
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beginnings of centralized bureaucracy
•
we don't get a fully centralized state until the        dynasty (211-206 BCE)
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771 BCE: end of Western Zhou dynasty
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King You [yoh] (781-771 BCE)
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killed by vassals allied with non-Zhou tribes
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son King Ping (770-720 BCE)
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force to flee east to Chengzhou, present-day Luoyang
•
moved the               
•
marks the beginning of the Eastern Zhou
•
Confucius and others look back to the Western Zhou as a golden age of               , peace and wise rulership
•
once the capital was sacked and king was forced to move east and set up a new capital, things go downhill fairly rapidly
•
the regional lords are now becoming more and more de facto, independent rulers
•
the colonies and domains become independent states
•
these lesser rulers began to take on                          that only the Zhou kings were allowed to have
•
in the later part of the Eastern Zhou period, they even begin to adopt the name "        " or "king" for themselves
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something that horrified Confucius
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Eastern Zhou (771-221 BCE)
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Spring and              (770-481 BCE)
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covered by the court history of the state of     
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the beginning of the                        of China
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the rise of the independent states
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Confucius (551-479 BCE)
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Warring States (481-221 BCE)
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begins when the Zhou kings officially recognize the partitions of the state of Jin
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Jin was being carved up by rival ministers
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they conceded that they had            independent states and thus were in the "warring states period"
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this is where "all the action is happening                               "
•
eventually a state in the West comes and                  up all the other states and unifies China
•
independent states that are fighting for their           
•
changes sociologically
•
a whole new class of freelance                           

Vocabulary:

paragon, n. a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality ⇒ "He became a perfect paragon of virtue and cultured correctness."
remonstrate, v. make a forcefully reproachful protest ⇒ "He did not take up arms against the evil king, he tried to remonstrate with him."
yayue, n. a form of Chinese classical music that was performed at imperial courts ⇒ "The Duke of Zhou established the Rites of Zhou and created the yayue of Chinese classical music."
conflate, v. to bring together, to meld, to fuse ⇒ "The Zhou retain Shang Di, but conflate, and eventually replace it with what appears to be the tribal Zhou god tian."

People:

King Wen (1152-1056 BC)
Honored as the founder of the Zhou dynasty
  • in trying to reform the evil King Zhow of the Shang dynasty, he became a perfect paragon of virtue and cultured correctness
  • he didn't take up arms against the king, it was his son Wu who conquered the Shang following the Battle of Muye
  • large number of the hymns of the Classic of Poetry are praises to the legacy of King Wen
  • the first epic hero of Chinese history
Duke of Zhou (1152-1056 BC)
A member of the Zhou Dynasty who played a major role in consolidating the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu
  • when King Wu died, King Cheng was too young to take over the kingship, so the Duke of Zhou acted as capable and loyal regent for his young nephew King Cheng by e.g. successfully suppressing a number of rebellions and placating the Shang nobility with titles and positions
  • a Chinese culture hero credited with writing the I Ching and the Book of Poetry, establishing the Rites of Zhou, and creating the yayue of Chinese classical music
  • a paragon of loyalty and wisdom
  • as soon as King Cheng was old enough to take over, he graciously gave the throne to the son of his brother
  • by Confucius and in Chinese culture, he is seen as the symbol of what a wise ruler and minister should be

Spelling Corrections:

anthropormorphic ⇒ anthropomorphic
perogatives ⇒ prerogatives
disolution ⇒ dissolution

Ideas and Concepts:

On the ontology of Tiān, via tonight's Ancient Chinese Thought class:

"Tiān is one of the oldest Chinese terms for the cosmos and its source, a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion.

Tiān is the supreme god and a sky deity whose standard translation is "Heaven", "Universe", or "Great All". Tiān is often drawn as a large person, an anthropomorphic being, and is often translated as "sky", yet it's not a place in the sense of a place you go to after you die like the Christian heaven.

Tiān is heaven as a being, an anthropomorphic being who is up there somewhere striding around in a very vague way. We never directly see Tiān, it doesn't speak or communicate in any way, but it is up there having some kind of effect on the world.

When the Zhou conquered the Shang, they were very keen on claiming a continuity with the Shang religious system, and so in the same way as Shangdi, Tiān became the supreme being in charge of everything that humans can't control.

Heaven worship, or the worship of Tiān, was an orthodox state religion of China of the Qing dynasty up until the 20th century."
The Definition of Religion
Mind/Body Dualism and Cognitive Control
Deontology, Utilitarianism, and Virtue Ethics
Wu-Wei, Dao, Tien and De
The Shang Dynasty (1554-1045 BC)
The Beginnings of Written Chinese History
Eastern Holistic Thinking and the Paradox of Virtue
The Golden Age of the Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE)
Philosophical and Conceptual Innovations in Zhou Thought
Confucius and the Analects
Confucius: I Transmit, I Do Not Innovate
Confucius' Use of Ritual as a Tool
Confucius' View on Learning vs. The Enlightenment
Confucius and Holistic Education
Confucius and the Art of Self-Cultivation
At Home in Virtue
Non-Coercive Comportment, Virtue, and Charisma of the Zhou
The Transition to Becoming Sincere
The Primitivists in the Analects
Laozi and the Daodejing
Laozi: Stop the Journey and Return Home
Laozi and The Desires of the Eye
Laozi: He Who Speaks Does Not Know
The Concept of Reversion
Laozi on Shutting Down the Prefrontal Cortex
The Guodian Laozi
Mozi and Materialist State Consequentialism
Mozi's Idea of Ideological Unity
Mozi's Doctrine of Impartial Caring
Mozi's Anti-Confucian Chapters
Mozi's Religious Fundamentalism and Organized Activism