A brief comment on Zhou Gong’s historical contribution

The Duke of Zhou, whose surname was Ji Mingdan, was the son of King Wen of Zhou and the younger brother of King Wu of Zhou. Because his fiefdom was in Zhou, northeast of Qishan in today's Shaanxi Province, he was called Duke of Zhou. The Duke of Zhou lived during the historical period of dynasty revolution at the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. He is versatile and an outstanding politician in ancient my country. His main historical contributions are as follows: 1. Successfully solved the problems of the Yin and Shang Dynasty's remaining officials and stubborn people, and completely eliminated the hidden dangers of restoration. In the Battle of Makino, the "Xiao Bang Zhou" in the cramped west corner destroyed the "Dayi Shang", but the social potential power of the Yin Shang still existed. "Shangshu·Duoshi" records that the Duke of Zhou "told the kings of Shang" and said: "It is not my small country that dares to conquer the Yin Dynasty." The people of the subjugated country still called the kings of Shang, the leader of the new dynasty, but they called themselves our small country, which shows that Baizu The insects are dead but not stiff, and the Yin people are still quite powerful. Therefore, how to deal with the remaining officials and stubborn people of the Yin and Shang Dynasties was a serious problem faced by the early Zhou Dynasty. Jiang Shang advocated cutting off the roots and killing all the enemies to avoid future troubles; Zhao Gong believed that they should be treated differently, killing the guilty and pardoning the innocent; Zhou Gong proposed the method of dividing and disintegrating, giving both kindness and power, that is, using the Yin people to rule the Yin people, Use force to monitor. On the other hand, it exerts favors to win over, thereby transforming the enemy. King Wu finally decided to adopt Zhou Gong's method and confer Wu Geng, the son of Zhou, as the empress of Shang, stay in Chaoge and use him to rule the remnants of Shang; he also divided Shang Wangji into the districts of Han, Yong and Wei, and granted him three His younger brothers, Uncle Guan, Uncle Cai, and Uncle Huo, asked them to monitor Wu Geng, called the "Three Supervisors". Soon, King Wu died of illness, and King Zicheng was still in his infancy. Duke Zhou took over the throne and administered state affairs on his behalf. The royal ministers Zhao Gongsi and others were suspicious of Duke Zhou. Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai spread rumors, saying that Duke Zhou was plotting to kill King Cheng and usurp the throne. Seeing the conflicts within the Zhou royal family, Wu Geng incited Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai to collude with Pugu, Xu, Yan and other countries in the east to launch a rebellion and want to restore the Shang Dynasty. Duke Zhou was in a very difficult position of internal and external attacks. He first earnestly explained to Zhao Gong and other ministers to stabilize the internal affairs, and then personally led his troops to the east. It lasted three years, quelled the rebellion, killed Wu Geng and Guan Shu, exiled Cai Shu and Huo Shu, and attacked and destroyed seventeen people including Yan. country. The Shang nobles were taken captive and were called stubborn people by the Zhou people. The Duke of Zhou knew that the recalcitrant Shang people would not be reconciled to losing their former power and fortune, and would continue to rebel, allowing them all to remain in the Shang area, which was detrimental to Zhou's rule. So he built Luoyi, the eastern capital, on the north bank of Luoshui River as a political and military center for controlling the east. The Duke of Zhou adopted a divide-and-rule approach to the recalcitrant Shang people: he moved some of the recalcitrant Shang people to Luoyi and sent eight divisions (one division of 2,500 men) to monitor them; he also rewarded the "seven tribes" among the other recalcitrant Shang people. Weihou Kangshu, the "six tribes" rewarded Luhou Boqin, and they supervised and controlled it. Zhou Gong warned the recalcitrant merchants, saying: "I will carry out heaven's punishment and capture you as ministers. I will not kill you now. I will give you houses to live in and fields to plant. You must obey me. If you resist again, I will not only take back the houses and fields, but also give you houses and fields to cultivate." They will also be beheaded and punished." Then he persuaded the stubborn people of Shang, saying: "The good people in the Xia Dynasty have official positions in the Yin Dynasty, and they are very trusted. I will also follow the example of the Yin Dynasty. As long as there are good people among you, I will do the same. I will use you as an official." Zhou Gong specially set an example for Wei Ziqi, who was King Zhou's concubine and King Wu Ke Yin. He "showed his flesh and tied his face" and went to the military gate to plead guilty. Wu Geng rebelled, but he did not. After participating, the Duke of Zhou conferred the title of Wei Ziqi on the Song Dynasty and ordered him to replace Wu Geng as the Empress of the Shang Dynasty. Under Zhou Gong's policy of equalizing benevolence and power, the recalcitrant Shang people saw that there was no way out for resistance and that obedience might lead to promotion, so they gradually softened and surrendered. As the recalcitrant Shang people softened and surrendered, the Zhou rulers finally eliminated the hidden danger of the Yin and Shang restoration. 2. The implementation of the enfeoffment system consolidated the central power of the Western Zhou Dynasty and ended the situation of numerous small states in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. King Wu defeated Shang, and suddenly the "small state Zhou" replaced the "big city merchants" and occupied a large area of ????the east in one fell swoop. Why did King Zhou lose his country? How to rule Xintu? These issues required careful study by Zhou rulers. In view of the lesson that King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty was deposed and helpless from all directions; faced with the danger that the remaining forces of the Yin and Shang Dynasties were still strong and plotting for restoration at all times; and the reality that the Rong and Di tribes often harassed the border areas, the rulers of the early Zhou Dynasty decided to adopt a feudal system. The purpose of the enfeoffment system was to establish feudal vassals to protect the royal family; to stabilize the political situation and appease all ethnic groups; to resist foreign aggression and consolidate border defenses. The inscription on the early Zhou bronze vessel "Dafeng Gui" unearthed in Shaanxi during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty records that King Wu held a ceremony to enfeoff the princes at the Ancestral Temple. But that enfeoffment did not fundamentally solve the problem. Because the East had not yet been settled at that time, many of the feudal princes could not go to the country. After Zhou Gong's victory in the Eastern Campaign, he continued to implement the enfeoffment system. According to legend, King Wu, Duke Zhou, and King Cheng successively enfeoffed 71 vassal states, including Qi, Lu, Wei, Yan, and Song. Among them, there are fifty-five members of the royal family, and the rest are meritorious officials and ancestors of nobles.

The relationship between the King of Zhou and the Hou Kingdom is different from the relationship between the King of Shang and the Kingdom of Fang. The King of Shang and Fang State were only in a loose alliance. If their relationship was good, they would unite, and if their relationship was bad, they would separate. This created a situation where many small states were established in Shang's sphere of influence. The king of Zhou and the vassal states maintained a strict monarch-minister relationship, and important officials in the hou state must be appointed by the king of Zhou. "Book of Rites·Kingdom" records. "The three ministers of a great country are all ordered by the emperor." "The three ministers of a minor country are ordered by the emperor." In addition, Zhou Zheng had a supervisory system for the princes, and Zhongji's father's gui had the inscription "princes and supervisors". The princes should make appointments to the emperor on a regular basis, and the emperor could deprive those who disrespected them of their land until they were executed. The king of Zhou Yi once "cooked" Duke Ai of Qi. The vassal states were actually political and military strongholds established by Zhou kings in various places, through which they effectively ruled the country. The implementation of the enfeoffment system by the rulers of the early Zhou Dynasty was in line with the situation at that time and in line with the historical trend. Due to the continuous enfeoffment, the central power of the Western Zhou Dynasty was consolidated, ending the situation of numerous small states in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, and establishing a large-scale slave country. Undoubtedly, this is a historical progress. 3. Promoting "respect for virtue" and formulating rituals and music strengthened the rule of the Western Zhou Dynasty from a political and ideological perspective. Businessmen believe in destiny. However, King Wu raised his troops on the anniversary of his death, and Muye led the troops to defeat Shang in one fell swoop, which made the Zhou people doubt the destiny of heaven. "Edict") and other thoughts. On the one hand, Zhou people were suspicious of Heaven, but on the other hand, they followed Shang's example and respected Heaven. On the surface, they seemed very contradictory, but in fact they were not. Judging from the materials of the early Zhou Dynasty, any words that respected Heaven were spoken to merchants and their country of origin, while any words that doubted Heaven were spoken to the Zhou people themselves. The Zhou people themselves did not believe in heaven, but they knew that merchants believed in heaven, and using heaven to rule merchants was the best tool. The Zhou people regarded heaven as a ruling tool, but they knew it well and did not dare to rely entirely on this tool, so the Zhou people further proposed the word "virtue". The word "virtue" comes from "zhi" and "xin", which means to keep your mind straight and don't think randomly. The Zhou people said to the merchants: The reason why Heaven abandoned Shang and favored the Zhou Dynasty was because the merchants were immoral and the Zhou people were virtuous. Mingde is the reason why Zhou people received their destiny. The people of the Zhou Dynasty advocated "respect for virtue" for themselves, and those who respected them were also called police. This meant that the people of the Zhou Dynasty were required to be vigilant about themselves at all times, not to be negligent or slack at all, to control the political power with all their strength, and not to give opportunities for chaos and chaos. In this way, there will be no chaos in the world, and the destiny of heaven will naturally be preserved. The word "virtue" does not appear in the oracle bone inscriptions and the Yi inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, but in Zhou Gaozhong it is like a chorus of the same motif, repeated again and again. This is indeed the unique thought of Zhou people. In terms of their thoughts about heaven, Zhou people focused on cultivating virtue and emphasizing human power. This was indeed a great progress. The essence of "respecting virtue" is to strengthen the internal unity of Zhou's ruling group. The standard of "respect for virtue" is to abide by the ritual and music system. According to legend, Duke Zhou made rituals and music. The ritual and music system is the hierarchy of slavery. It reflects the class status and hierarchical privileges of the slave-owning aristocracy, and stipulates the superior-inferior relationship between monarchs and ministers, fathers and sons, brothers, husbands and wives, and friends. Therefore, as long as the words and deeds of the slave-owning nobles at all levels conformed to the etiquette and music system, they showed the spirit of respect for virtue, and the Zhou Dynasty's regime could remain consolidated. The thought of respecting virtue and the system of rituals and music are based on doubting the destiny of heaven and paying attention to human power; taking the way of heaven as the policy of obscuring the people, and using moral government as the mechanism to manage this policy, we will never relax the power of rule ideologically, and use the system of rituals and music in practice as a yardstick. This ideological system and ritual and music system played an important role in consolidating the Zhou Dynasty's regime, and also had a great influence on later generations. The person who advocated this ideological system and completed this ritual and music system was none other than Zhou Gong.