Eastern Guo

Last updated
東虢/东虢
?–767 BCE
States of Zhou Dynasty.png
Eastern Guo and Western Guo are shown as Guo
GovernmentMonarchy
History 
 Established
?
 Disestablished
767 BCE

Eastern Guo (simplified Chinese : ; traditional Chinese : ; pinyin :Dōng Guó) was a Chinese vassal state of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-770 BCE).

Simplified Chinese characters standardized Chinese characters developed in mainland China

Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one of the two standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the People's Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s to encourage literacy. They are officially used in the People's Republic of China and Singapore.

Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters

Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong and Macau, and in the Kangxi Dictionary. The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, and have been more or less stable since the 5th century.

Hanyu Pinyin, often abbreviated to pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, which is normally written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters.

According to transmitted ancient texts, after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty in 1046 BCE, his two uncles received grants of land. One, known as the Western Guo was at Yongdi and the other, Eastern Guo, at Zhidi (modern day Xingyang, Henan). However, this account has been questioned by modern scholars such as Li Feng, who believe that Eastern Guo was founded later by a subbranch of Western Guo. [1]

King Wu of Zhou was the first king of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. The chronology of his reign is disputed but is generally thought to have begun around 1046 BC and ended three years later in 1043 BC.

Western Guo former country

Western Guo was a vassal state in China during the Zhou Dynasty. "Guo" was a kinship group that held at least five pieces of territory within the Zhou realm at various times.

Xingyang County-level city in Henan, Peoples Republic of China

Xingyang, is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, China. It is situated 15 kilometers to the west of Zhengzhou city proper. The population of Xingyang is around 590,000 and the area of Xingyang is about 908 km2 (351 sq mi).

Eastern Guo barely survived into the Spring and Autumn period (770-475 BCE). It was conquered by the State of Zheng in 767 BCE. [2]

Spring and Autumn period period of ancient Chinese history

The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 771 to 476 BC which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou Period. The period's name derives from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 and 479 BC, which tradition associates with Confucius.

Zheng (state) ancient state in China

Zheng was a vassal state in China during the Zhou Dynasty located in the centre of ancient China in modern-day Henan Province on the North China Plain about 75 miles (121 km) east of the royal capital at Luoyang. It was the most powerful of the vassal states at the beginning of the Eastern Zhou, and was the first state to clearly establish a code of law in its late period of 543 BCE. Its ruling house had the surname Ji (姬), making them a branch of the Zhou royal house, who were given the rank of Bo (伯), corresponding roughly to being a Count.

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Zhou dynasty Chinese dynasty

The Zhou dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history. The military control of China by the royal house, surnamed Ji, lasted initially from 1046 until 771 BC for a period known as the Western Zhou and the political sphere of influence it created continued well into Eastern Zhou for another 500 years.

Western Zhou dynasty of ancient China

The Western Zhou was the first half of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended when the Quanrong nomads sacked its capital Haojing and killed King You of Zhou in 771 BC.

King Ping of Zhou, formerly romanized as King P’ing of Chou, was the thirteenth king of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty and the first of Eastern Zhou Dynasty. He was the son of King You of Zhou and Queen Shen, and was known as Crown Prince Yijiu before ascending the throne.

Guo Surname list

"Guo", written in Chinese: 郭, is one of the most common Chinese surnames and means "the wall that surrounds a city" in Chinese; it can also be transliterated into English as Cok, Gou, Quo, Quek, Keh, Kuo, Kuoch, Kok, Koc, Kwek, Kwik, Kwok., Kuok, Kuek, Gock, Koay or Ker. The Korean equivalent is spelled Kwak; the Vietnamese equivalent Quoc, Quach, Quock or Que. The different ways of spelling this surname indicate the origin of the family. For example, "Kwok" is Cantonese originated in Hong Kong and surrounding area. It is the 18th most common family name in China. The name Guo was noted as far back as the Xia Dynasty. There are eight legendary origins for the Guo surname. Among them, three are foreign. They are Persian (Hui), Korean, and Mongolian, as a result of sinicization. These are only minority. The majority of people bearing this surname are descended from Han Chinese.

Ji Clan surname (姬)

(姬) was the ancestral name of the Zhou dynasty which ruled China between the 11th and 3rd centuries BC. Thirty-nine members of the family ruled China during this period while many others ruled as local lords, lords who eventually gained great autonomy during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Ji is a relatively uncommon surname in modern China, largely because its bearers often adopted the names of their states as new surnames.

Feng Dao, courtesy name Kedao (可道), formally Prince Wenyi of Ying (瀛文懿王), was an important Chinese governmental official during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, who served as a chancellor during the three of the latter four dynasties and was also an honored official during Later Han. For his contribution to block-printing process for printing Chinese written works, scholars have compared him to Johannes Gutenberg. Traditional histories praised him for his various virtues but also vilified him for not being faithful to a single dynasty but being willing to serve a number of successive dynasties.

King Xie of Zhou claimed sovereignty during the final stages of the Chinese Western Zhou Dynasty. After King You of Zhou replaced the then Queen Shen with his concubine Bao Si, whilst at the same time substituting Yijiu as crown prince with Bao Si's son Bofu, Queen Shen's father, the Marquess of Shen became irate. Along with the State of Zeng and a band of Quanrong nomads he attacked the Zhou capital at Haojing. You was killed in the assault whereupon the Marquesses of Shēn and Zēng, together with Duke Wen of Xu (许文公) enthroned Yijiu as King Ping of Zhou in the State of Shēn. At the same time, Jī Hàn (姬翰), Duke of Guó (虢), conspired with the Quanrong to elevate Yúchén to the throne as King Xie of Zhou. Thus began a period when there existed two parallel Zhou kings, a stalemate brought to an end in 750 BCE when Marquis Wen of Jin killed King Xie of Zhou.

Xirong Ancient grouping of people or peoples in China

Xirong or Rong were various people who lived primarily in and around the extremities of ancient China known as early as the Shang dynasty. They were typically to the west of the later Zhou state from the Zhou Dynasty onwards. They were mentioned in some ancient Chinese texts as perhaps related to the people of the Chinese civilization.

Hao or Haojing, also called Zongzhou (宗周), was one of the two settlements comprising the capital of the Western Zhou dynasty, the other being Fēng or Fēngjīng (灃京). Together they were known as Fenghao and stood on opposite banks of the Feng River (沣河) with Haojing on the east bank. Archaeological discoveries indicate that the ruins of Haojing lie next to the Feng River around the north end of Doumen Subdistrict (斗门街道) in present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. It was the center of government for King Wu of Zhou.

Fenghao human settlement

Fenghao is the modern name of the twin city formed by the Western Zhou capitals of Feng and Hao on opposite banks of the Feng River near its confluence with the Wei River in Shaanxi, China.

The State of Xíng (Xingguo) was a vassal state of ancient China during the Zhou Dynasty and Spring and Autumn period, ruled by descendants of the Jí family (姬). Its original location was on the plain east of the Shanxi plateau and north of most of the other states.

The State of Ruò was a small vassal state during the Chinese Zhou Dynasty whose rulers used the title (子), roughly equivalent to a Viscount. Located between the States of Qin and Chu, Ruo was eventually annexed by the State of Chu.

Rui was a Chinese vassal state during the Zhou dynasty.

Pi was a Zhou dynasty vassal state in ancient China. Also known as Xue, Pi was ruled by members of the Ren (任) family.

Ancient Chinese states historical state within China prior to Chinas unification in 221 BCE

Ancient Chinese States were typified by variously sized city states and territories that existed in China prior to its unification by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BCE. In many cases these were vassal states characterized by tribute paid to the ruling Zhou dynasty. Such states and fiefdoms would again emerge during later dynasties as a political expedient when required.

The history of Zhengzhou, a city that is today the provincial capital of Henan Province, China. spans over 10,000 years from its beginnings as a Neolithic settlement to its emergence as a trading port during the final years of the Qing Dynasty.

Li Feng, or Feng Li, is a professor of Early Chinese History and Archaeology at Columbia University, where he is director of graduate studies for the Department of East Asian Languages and Culture. He received his MA in 1986 from the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and his Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of Chicago. He also did Ph.D. work in the University of Tokyo (1991). He is both a field archaeologist and an historian of Early China with primary interest in bronze inscriptions of the Shang-Zhou period. Li founded the Columbia Early China Seminar in 2002, and directed Columbia’s first archaeological field project in China, in the Shandong Peninsula, in 2006-2011.

Eastern Zhou geographic region

The Eastern Zhou was the second half of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. It is divided into two periods: the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States.

Guoji Zibai <i>pan</i>

The Guoji Zibai pan is an ancient Chinese bronze rectangular pan vessel from the Western Zhou dynasty. Excavated in Chencang District of Baoji, Shaanxi during the Daoguang era (1821–1851) of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), it is on display in the National Museum of China in Beijing.

References

  1. Li Feng (2006). Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045-771 BC. Cambridge University Press. pp. 251–262. ISBN   978-1-139-45688-3.
  2. Bamboo Annals