A story in Zi Jian, in which Wu Gong persuaded Chu Yin not to plot the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, illustrates this problem from an important angle: Chu wanted to unite Qi and South Korea to attack Qin, and destroyed the Zhou Dynasty by the way. Zhou Wang sent the Duke of Wu of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to Zhao Zi, who was appointed as a hermit of Chu, and said, "The Zhou Dynasty can't count." Zhao Zi said, "It is impossible to calculate the Zhou Dynasty. Nevertheless, I want to ask you, why can't the Zhou Dynasty be destroyed? " Wu Gong said, "The territory of the Western Zhou Dynasty is only a hundred miles away from Fiona Fang. Capturing this place is not enough to make any country rich and strong, and the people there are not enough to strengthen the army. However, the Western Zhou Dynasty has the title of sovereign state, and whoever attacks is the crime of insurrection. Nevertheless, some people still want to capture it. What is the reason? Because all the heavy weapons used for sacrifice handed down from ancient times are there. Tiger's meat is foul-smelling. It has sharp teeth and claws, and some people still hunt it. The elk in the mountains have no advantage over the minions. If you put an attractive tiger skin on it again, people's desire to hunt it will definitely increase by 10 thousand times. This is the case in Chu State. Dividing the territory of Chu is enough to make you rich. Crushing the name of Chu is enough to honor the reputation of the Zhou royal family. If Chu destroyed the Zhou Dynasty, which was admired all over the world, and took possession of the ritual vessels handed down from Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, you only need to transport the ritual vessels back to the south, and the soldiers certified by various countries will arrive! " Yin felt that what he said was reasonable, so he gave up Chu's original plan.
This story explains the basis of the existence of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty from the perspective of strategic balance, but it does not fully explain the basis of the existence of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty. There were three basic state systems in the Zhou Dynasty: enfeoffment system, patriarchal clan system and ritual system. The political turmoil at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty consumed the ruling power of the Western Zhou Dynasty, including base areas, economic bases and ruling authority. The Western Zhou Dynasty should have perished directly. But at this time, China has not formed enough strength to unify all countries, so it needs a birthright to unify China countries, and the nominal world of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is embraced. The significance of the existence of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is to serve as a nominally unified spiritual totem of the loose vassal states of the Huaxia Alliance, thus better uniting all countries to resist foreign invasion. At the same time, it also served as a banner and puppet for powerful princes to promote hegemony and dominate the world.
And the puppet and strategic balance are doomed to be tragic! When a vassal state strong enough to break the strategic balance was born, the days of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, a senior fig leaf, came to an end. In the first 255 years, the State of Qin invaded Luoyi, and the last slave king in China was destroyed in Chaozhou!
This article comes from Zhihu website.
Author: Haoran
Link:/question/37208732/answer/114529954.