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Gong was a title of ancient and imperial Chinese nobility roughly equivalent to and usually translated as duke. It was also historically used within Chinese fiefs as a respectful term of address to any living liege (similar to the English "lord") and is still used in modern Chinese as a respectful term of address for any man of high status (similar to "sir"),particularly for the honored deceased as with formal reference to Chiang Kai-shek as Jiǎng Gōng ( 蔣 公 ) on Taiwan.
Within Chinese,the same character 公 (gōng) is used as a noun in the terms for respected male relatives (e.g. 老公 ,lǎogōng,"husband",and 外公 ,wàigōng,"maternal grandfather") and as an adjective in the terms for various male animals (e.g. 公牛 ,gōngniú,"bull",and 公羊 ,gōngyáng,"ram" or "billy goat"). Paul R. Goldin has argued for its etymological relationship with 翁 (wēng),with their shared original term having meant "respected elder". [1]
The typical English translation within aristocratic ancient and imperial Chinese contexts is "duke",although Creel has proposed translating it under the Western Zhou as "lord"[ why? ] and as "duke" only beginning with the Eastern Zhou. [2]
By the time of the Zhou dynasty,the title gong was used alongside other familial titles for important members of the royal Ji family outside the immediate line of succession. The regents of the Cheng King —his uncles Dan and Shi and the important vassal LüShang—were known to history as Zhou Gong,Shao Gong,and Jiang Ziya. His uncles Xian,Du,and Chu who acted as the "Three Guards" of the eastern territories before their rebellion against the regency were likewise known by the somewhat lower rank of shū ( 叔 ),now used for younger paternal uncles or male friends of the family.
Subsequently,the Three Excellencies,the highest Zhou government ministers,bore the title gong, [3] as did the highest ranking rulers of the kingdom's fiefs even when—like the Shang rulers of Song —they came from outside the royal family. [4] The Xiang Duke of Song (r. 650–637 BC) even became one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period,before such lords began to use the title of king. During the rites of ancestral veneration,any ancestor of great antiquity could be accorded the title gong regardless of their proper title in life; [4] [3] [5] this was sometimes a formal upgrade,as when Jiang Ziya's fief of Qi became a duchy and he was posthumously promoted to the title of gong himself. The name was also used by courtiers and others to address ruling nobles of any formal rank within their own states. [4]
Under the Han and subsequent dynasties,wang —previously the royal title of the Xia,Shang,and Zhou sovereigns —came to be used for senior princes and vassal rulers who controlled the more important primary divisions of the empire. At this time,gong came into use for nominal or actual lords of its more important secondary divisions.
With the rise of notional titles,some of the dukedoms acquired literary rather than territorial designations. The primary example is how,under the Northern Song,the emperor Renzong made the title Duke Yansheng —"Overflowing with Wisdom"— hereditary within the line of direct descent from Confucius. This was converted to a cabinet-level political office of the Republic of China in 1935 and an uncompensated honorary title on Taiwan in 2008.
The Zhou dynasty was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from c. 1046 BC until 256 BC,the longest such reign in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period,the royal house,surnamed Ji,had military control over ancient China. Even as Zhou suzerainty became increasingly ceremonial over the following Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC),the political system created by the Zhou royal house survived in some form for several additional centuries. A date of 1046 BC for the Zhou's establishment is supported by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and David Pankenier,but David Nivison and Edward L. Shaughnessy date the establishment to 1045 BC.
Fajia,or the fa school,often translated as Legalism,is a school of mainly Warring States period classical Chinese philosophy,whose ideas contributed greatly to the formation of the bureaucratic Chinese empire,and Daoism,as prominent in the early Han. The later Han takes Guan Zhong as a forefather of the Fajia. Its more Legalistic figures include ministers Li Kui and Shang Yang,and more Daoistic figures Shen Buhai and philosopher Shen Dao,with the late Han Fei drawing on both. It is often characterized in the west along realist lines. The Qin to Tang were more characterized by its tradition.
The Western Zhou was a period of Chinese history,corresponding to approximately the first half of the Zhou dynasty,preceding the Eastern Zhou. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended when Quanrong pastoralists sacked its capital Haojing and killed King You of Zhou in 771 BC.
The nobility of China represented the upper strata of aristocracy in premodern China,acting as the ruling class until c. 1000 CE,and remaining a significant feature of the traditional social structure until the end of the imperial period.
Qi,or Ch'i in Wade–Giles romanization,was a regional state of the Zhou dynasty in ancient China,whose rulers held titles of Hou (侯),then Gong,before declaring themselves independent Kings. Its capital was Linzi,located in present-day Shandong. Qi was founded shortly after the Zhou conquest of Shang,c. 1046 BCE. Its first monarch was Jiang Ziya,minister of King Wen and a legendary figure in Chinese culture. His family ruled Qi for several centuries before it was replaced by the Tian family in 386 BCE. Qi was the final surviving state to be annexed by Qin during its unification of China.
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Jiang Ziya,also known by several other names,was a Chinese military general,monarch,strategist,and writer who helped kings Wen and Wu of Zhou overthrow the Shang in ancient China. Following their victory at Muye,he continued to serve as a Zhou minister. He remained loyal to the regent Duke of Zhou during the Rebellion of the Three Guards;following the Duke's punitive raids against the restive Eastern Barbarians or Dongyi,Jiang was enfeoffed with their territory as the marchland of Qi. He established his seat at Yingqiu. He is one of the main heroes of the Fengshen Bang.
The Battle of Muye,Mu,or Muh took place in ancient China between the rebel Zhou state and the reigning Shang dynasty. The Zhou army,led by Wu of Zhou,defeated the defending army of king Di Xin of Shang at Muye and captured the Shang capital Yin,ending the Shang dynasty. The Zhou victory led to the establishment of the Zhou dynasty,and is used in Chinese historiography as a justified example of the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven.
Jī 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 and fiefs as new surnames.
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Bo Yikao was the eldest son of King Wen of Zhou and the elder brother of King Wu who was the founder of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China.
Fēngjiàn was a governance system in Ancient China and Imperial China,whose social structure formed a decentralized system of confederation-like government. The ruling class consisted of the Son of Heaven and aristocracy,and the lower class consisted of commoners categorized into four occupations. Elite bonds through affinal relations and submission to the overlordship of the king date back to the Shang dynasty,but it was the Western Zhou dynasty when the Zhou kings enfeoffed their clan relatives and fellow warriors as vassals. Through the fengjian system,the king would allocate an area of land to a noble,establishing him as the ruler of that region and allowing his title and fief to be legitimately inherited by his descendants. This created large numbers of local autonomous dynastic domains.
Ancient Chinese states were dynastic polities of China within and without the Zhou cultural sphere prior to Qin's wars of unification. They ranged in size from large estates,to city-states to much vaster territories with multiple population centers. Many of these submitted to royal authority,but many did not—even those that shared the same culture and ancestral temple surname as the ruling house. Prior to the Zhou conquest of Shang,the first of these ancient states were already extant as units of the preceding Shang dynasty,Predynastic Zhou,or polities of other cultural groups. Once the Zhou had established themselves,they made grants of land and relative local autonomy to kinfolk in return for military support and tributes,under a system known as fengjian.
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