This dynasty was founded around the 11th century B.C. by King Wu, who overthrew the last king of the Shang dynasty, Zhou.
King Wu stood up against the tyranny of King Zhou, and with the help of his military strategist Taigong Wang and the capable chancellor Dan, Duke of Zhou, he defeated the Shang forces at Muye and established a new dynasty, the Zhou dynasty.
The Zhou Dynasty, with its capital at Haojing, near present-day Xi'an, abandoned the system of government that had previously been determined by divination and ruled the country under a new system of feudalism in which subjects were given fiefdoms in exchange for military service and tribute payments. After the death of King Wu, the second emperor, King Cheng, was supported by the Duke of Zhou, Dan, who emphasized the importance of etiquette as the foundation of social order.
Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, who was born during the later Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, is said to have regarded the Western Zhou Dynasty's Duke of Zhou, Dan, as the ideal man, and to have adopted "courtesy" as well as "benevolence" as the basic principles of Confucianism.
During the reign of King You, the twelfth emperor of the Zhou dynasty, the Zhou were attacked by the Quanrong, a horse-riding tribe from the west, and was forced to relocate its capital to Luoyi, east of Haojing.
As a result, the dynasty in the period up to 770 B.C. is called Western Zhou, and in the period after that is called Eastern Zhou. At this point, however, the Eastern Zhou had already lost its momentum as a dynasty, and China then entered the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, a time of great conflict among the various nations.
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