May 11, 2016 · During Zhou rule, the kings set up a social structure with three classes—the king and his family, noble families, and peasant families. Families of each class were expected to show their …

China once more. With the Zhou gone, Ying Zheng claimed the Mandate of Heaven and created a new dynasty, the Qin Dynasty. Instead of taking on the title of king, however, he bestowed upon himself a …

The Zhou dynasty had ruled over a large territory which expanded greatly in the centuries after its defeat of the Shang. In order to maintain effective control over their lands they established a system of fiefdom.

Below are two primary sources that illustrate the imperial strategies of pre-Han Chinese rulers. The first represents the Western Zhou, who expanded from about 1046 BCE and conquered much of the …

In Zhou Enlai: A Life, Cornell University historian Chen Jian traces Zhou’s life from humble beginnings in Jiangsu Province to a top CCP leader and China’s point figure in international relations.

Throughout the article we use traditional reign dates for all the kings and regional lords based on the chronology adopted in Records of the Historian. This is done as a heuristic convention only: as we …

One of the questions we will ask later in this course, when we examine inscriptional records of the early Zhou that have been recovered by archaeologists in recent years, is how the Duke of Zhou’s role in …