Front Page News Article

Hello, Zhou!

            CHINA: King Wu and his tribes invaded the Shang Dynasty in 1050 B.C. The Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty have been fighting for power for many years. The Shang Dynasty was located in Western China and the capital was Yin. When it was overthrown, the capital moved to Haojing.

            King Wu and his tribes were planning to take over the Shang Dynasty. Once they gained more power, Wu decided to go to Yin and fight the Shang. Once the Shang was defeated, the Zhou ran the land that was owned by the Shang. The Shang Dynasty was under the control of King Wu until he died in 1046 B.C. Once his brother, the Duke of Zhou, took over, the Shang Dynasty was turned into the Zhou Dynasty.

            The Battle of Muye took place during the Shang Dynasty, which made it lose power. The Zhou brought around 50,000 soldiers to the battle while the Shang Dynasty had 70,000 soldiers that fought. Although there were more of the Shang soldiers, the Zhou soldiers were much better trained than the Shang. During the battle, some of the Shang soldiers switched sides and joined the Zhou soldiers. Most of the people in these battles were slaves and footmen, only a few were elites.

            After the Battle of Muye, the Zhou Dynasty had the victory. At this point, the Shang was defeated, which meant the Zhou had taken control of them. From then on, the Zhou was under control and the Shang was no longer the ruling dynasty. 

Opinion/ Editorial

             In 1050 B.C, the Shang Dynasty was conquered by King Wu and his tribes. The Shang Dynasty was under King Wu’s power for a number of years. After King Wu died, the Duke of Zhou took over the dynasty and named it the Zhou Dynasty. King Wu was very clever for wanting to take over the Shang Dynasty and successful with creating the Zhou Dynasty.

            When the Zhou Dynasty took control, it benefited China by introducing new tools made of iron to help with agriculture. Without these, the people living in the Zhou Dynasty and people now would not have been introduced to tools. Also, when the Zhou Dynasty was China’s main dynasty, they introduced an aristocratic structure, which is a legal structure for China. This strengthened the society with a new structure for China. In addition, the Zhou Dynasty brought in new court rituals which added dignity and improvement to the government. Knowing that the Zhou Dynasty helped China in all these ways, it was a good idea for King Wu to conquer the Shang Dynasty.

            People may think that the start of the Zhou Dynasty was a bad thing and that the Shang Dynasty should have stayed in control of China. People would disagree with this because when the Zhou Dynasty had the battle of Muye, many people died and were injured which was not a good thing for China. If the Zhou and Shang Dynasties did not have this battle, China would not have been introduced to all of the new inventions and innovations during the Zhou Dynasty.

            The Zhou Dynasty conquering the Shang Dynasty was a very good idea and has improved China greatly.

           

Map Of The Zhou Dynasty

            This is a map of the Zhou Dynasty. (1050-221 B.C) The area that is yellow is the part of China that was the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The area that is blue is the part of China that was the Western Zhou Dynasty. The white border around Asia shows the current border of China. During the Zhou Dynasty, land expansion was important. When the land was expanded, the towns expanded to cities. Since the land was so large, the Zhou leaders divided the area and gave each part to a different territory. Almost every territory gained more control and branched away from the Zhou Dynasty, which made it lose land. Also on the map, the black dot in the yellow area shows the capital city of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Luoyang. The black dot in the blue area is Xian, the capital city of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The last black dot in the northern part of China is the current capital of China, Beijing. Even though China is very big now, the Zhou Dynasty controlled most of the land during the period it ruled.

Interview With the Duke of Zhou

            On Monday, January 23^rd 2012, an interview was scheduled with the Duke of Zhou, the ruler of the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty lasted from 1050 B.C to 221 B.C.
Interviewer: What year was the Zhou Dynasty established? What dynasty was before the Zhou Dynasty?
Duke of Zhou: King Wu and his tribes defeated the Shang Dynasty around 1050 B.C, which is the time that the Zhou Dynasty was created and began.

A series of questions were asked involving the dynasty and the Duke of Zhou himself.
Interviewer: Why did the Zhou Dynasty split into the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty?
Duke of Zhou: The Zhou Dynasty moved its capital from Haojing to Luoyang, which made our dynasty move from west to east. Since the dynasty lasted for so long, when we moved the capital, we split the time into the Western Zhou Dynasty, lasting from 1050 B.C to 770 B.C, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, lasting from 770 B.C to 221 B.C.

After this, another question followed.
Interviewer: How did King Wu’s death change the Zhou Dynasty?
Duke of Zhou: Once my brother died, the Zhou changed in many different ways. The leader changed, of course. The ‘thrown’ was handed off to me and I took control. After Wu died, we had fewer wars too. Also, the Zhou Dynasty split into the Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasties. The government got stronger, but around 221 B.C, the government got weaker thus creating it to come to an end.

Then the next question was asked involving how long the Zhou Dynasty ruled.
Interviewer: How did you get your dynasty to be China’s longest ruling dynasty?
Duke of Zhou: The reason that the Zhou Dynasty was the longest ruing dynasty is because we didn’t fight as many wars. Fighting the wars would make us either win or lose. If we lost, our dynasty would suffer and get weaker with every loss we had. Of course we fought wars but they didn’t massively affect our dynasty.

After that question, the topic of Confucianism and other philosophies came up.
Interviewer: Which philosophy do you and the Zhou Dynasty follow and why.
Duke of Zhou: Confucianism was the philosophy that we followed. I decided to use this philosophy because it meant we would all be equal and it would give us a trust worthy group of people. It also strengthened our society because we treated everyone equally and we had peace. We were honest with each other and we had trust in each other.

Then came the last question we asked the Duke of Zhou.
Interviewer: How do you think your dynasty improved China and why.
Duke of Zhou: The Zhou Dynasty helped China in many different ways. Agriculture was improved by us because we transformed it using iron plows and tools to make the farming faster and more accurate. We also established an aristocratic structure for China.
The Duke of Zhou was a very powerful man and he was a great leader for the Zhou Dynasty, making it a very successful and long ruling dynasty.

Inventions

           Iron tools were invented in China during the Zhou Dynasty. This was an important invention of the time period because they helped with agricultural needs and farming. Normally, it would take many hours of the day to farm but with these tools, it only took a few hours. Therefore, the iron tools made farming more efficient.

            Iron tools were created by the Chinese government and were first used to plow, grow agriculture, and farm. Prior to the invention, people had to use their hands and other materials to dig, plow and plant different thinks to grow such as food, plants and other crops.

            Iron tools have really changed people’s lives in many ways. For example, they help people grow crops and plants. Instead of using your hands, you can now use shovels, gardening forks, gardening hoes, gardening plows, etc.    

Religion And Culture

            Confucianism, the religion of the Zhou Dynasty, made a big impact on daily life during 1050 B.C and 221 B.C.
            Confucianism is a philosophy that encourages rituals and the importance of humanity.
            One way that Confucianism helped the Zhou Dynasty was that it made new rituals, ceremonies, jobs and traditions. You must show courtesy to China and everyone in it. This was a result of Confucianism's impact on the Zhou Dynasty.
            A new tradition that was introduced to the Zhou Dynasty with the influence of Confucianism is that Chinese people would put one hand in another and put it to their chest. This was to salute to emperors, kings and anyone who deserves massive amounts of respect.
            Confucianism has been a huge part of daily life during the Zhou Dynasty.

Geographical Features

   The geographical features made a huge impact on the daily life of the people living in the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty was a perfect square, measuring three miles on each side. There were lengthwise roads and nine other roads crossing those. The Zhou Dynasty split its time into the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties. The Western Zhou Dynasty had its capital as Haojing, in the western part of China. The Eastern Zhou Dynasty had its capital as Luoyang , in eastern China. When the Zhou Dynasty was a perfect square, it helped to make it easier for one person to rule-to-rule. If it were bigger than three miles on each side, it would be harder for one emperor or king to rule. The geographical features of the Zhou Dynasty were very important in living during the Zhou Dynasty.