King Wu of Zhou had granted 71 vassal states, 53 of which had the surname Ji. He had hoped that the vassal states would work together to protect the Zhou Dynasty. However, he had not expected that the vassal states would be like the current Federal Republic. They had a lot of autonomy and an army. They would seize the world whenever they had the opportunity to rule the world. The system of enfeoffment was a huge disaster and fertile land for war.
Before King Wu of Zhou passed away, he considered that the Crown Prince was young and wanted to pass the throne to Duke Dan of Zhou. Duke Dan of Zhou cried and refused to accept it. After the death of King Wu of Zhou, Duke Dan of Zhou, Jiang Ziya, and Duke Zhao assisted King Cheng of Zhou to rule the world. At this time, King Cheng of Zhou was still a child in his teens and did not have the ability to govern the country. Duke Dan of Zhou took over the power of the Crown Prince and managed the affairs of the country.
Guan Shuxian, Cai Shudu, and Huo Shuji felt unbalanced."We are all brothers. Why can you, Ji Dan, act as the emperor and we can't? If this goes on, you won't usurp the throne and become the emperor, right?”
Guan Shuxian, Cai Shudu, and Huo Shuji were sent by King Wu of Zhou to Guan, Cai, and Huo Kingdoms (now Huozhou in Shanxi Province) to monitor Wu Geng, a descendant of the Shang Dynasty. The three brothers actually discussed joining forces with Wu Geng to attack Haojing (now Xi'an in Shaanxi Province), kill Zhou Gongdan, and replace him.
Wu Geng had been thinking about overthrowing the Zhou Dynasty and restoring the rule of the Shang Dynasty. However, he was too weak to act rashly. Guan Shuxian, Cai Shudu, and Huo Shuchu joined forces with him to rebel. He was dozing off when Guan Shuxian, Cai Shudu, and Huo Shuchu sent him a pillow. They hit it off and joined forces with Xu (now Suqian in Jiangsu Province), Yan (now a small country east of Qufu in Shandong Province), and Bogu (now Bohai Sea, Jishui area) and other 17 other countries to raise the banner of rebellion.
Although the wise and mighty King Wu of Zhou had passed away, the Duke of Zhou Dan, Jiang Ziya, Duke Zhao Ji Shi, and other experts were still alive. Duke Dan of Zhou ordered Duke Zhao to stay in Haojing (present-day Xi'an). Duke Dan of Zhou and Jiang Ziya led the army to quell the rebellion, killed Wu Geng and Uncle Guan, exiled Uncle Cai, and deposed Uncle Huo as a commoner. After three years of war, all the rebellions were quelled.
After pacifying the rebellion of the three prisons, the Duke of Zhou granted the princes, his eldest son Bo Qin in Qufu (Lu State), his younger brother Kang Shu in Wei (Wei State), and his nephew Shu Yu in Tang (Jin State). The elder brother of King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty, Wei Zi, did not participate in the rebellion. According to the principle of "destroying the country without ceasing the sacrifice" at that time, Duke Dan of Zhou enfeoffed Wei Zi in the Song Dynasty (now Shangqiu, Henan Province), which was called the Song State in history and inherited the Yin sacrifice. The people of the Shang Dynasty under the jurisdiction of the three prisons were distributed to the vassals. Wei received seven tribes of the Yin people and Lu received six tribes of the Yin people.
Duke Dan of Zhou inherited the will of King Wu of Zhou and sent Duke Zhao to Luoyi to survey. He issued orders to the people of various vassal states and Yin people to start building Luoyi on a large scale. After eight or nine months, the eastern capital Luoyi (now Luoyang, Henan) was built. Zhou Gongdan said,"This is the center of the world. The tribute routes from all directions are the same."”He placed the nine cauldrons, the national treasure forged by Yu the Great, there.
In order to ensure the long-term stability of the Zhou Dynasty, the Duke of Zhou made rites and music and established the patriarch system.
The inheritance of the Son of Heaven was one of the most important rules in the clan system. Duke Dan of Zhou deeply felt the contradiction between the two inheritance systems of the Shang Dynasty, which could easily cause turmoil. He decided to pass the throne to the son, thus eliminating the possibility of the younger brothers fighting for the throne and the sons of the brothers fighting for the throne.
The patriarch system also dealt with the hierarchy between the central government and the local government, as well as within the central government. Duke Dan of Zhou regarded the emperor of Zhou as the main clan and the vassals with the same surname as the small clan. The emperor was the noble ruler, and he defined the political structure with blood as the link, effectively controlling the vassals with the same surname. For dukes of the opposite sex, they would integrate through marriage. To establish a stable social order, they had to follow the rules of etiquette.
The economic foundation of the clan system was the well-field system. The Duke of Zhou established the well-field system, which stipulated that the land was not allowed to be sold, the people were not allowed to move, and the land was state-owned. As the saying goes,"Under the heavens, there is no land that belongs to the king.”
Rites and music came from the Son of Heaven. The authority of the Son of Heaven was consolidated, and the central dynasty's rule over the local areas was strengthened. Duke Dan of Zhou's ritual system and music system was not only a summary of the lessons learned from the previous dynasty's rule, but also a summary of the experience gained from the specific practice of the Zhou people.
In the second year after Duke Dan of Zhou put down the rebellion of the three prisons, which was also the seventh year after Duke Dan of Zhou became king, King Cheng of Zhou had grown up and could rule in person. Duke Dan of Zhou handed over the throne and political power to King Cheng of Zhou, and he assisted King Cheng of Zhou as a subject.
Three years after Duke Dan of Zhou returned the regime to King Cheng of Zhou, he died of a serious illness. King Cheng of Zhou said,"I dare not take the Duke of Zhou as my subject."”He was buried in King Wen's tomb.
Although the ritual and music system formulated by Duke Dan of Zhou was already very advanced at that time, there was a fatal loophole, which was that it did not weaken the real power of the vassals. The vassals had too much autonomy and could have an army. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the harm of this loophole appeared. The vassals all over the world were powerful and the war was endless. The ritual and music system became a decoration, and the Zhou emperor existed in name only. Confucius believed that this was all because the ritual music culture and ritual music system established by Duke Dan of Zhou could not be implemented. He devoted his life to restoring the ritual music culture and ritual music system of Duke Dan of Zhou. Confucius worshiped Zhou Gongdan and often dreamed of him. In his later years, his health was not good. He lamented,"I've aged a lot! It's been a long time since I've seen the Duke of Zhou in my dreams!"
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