King Zhao of Zhou

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File:Ritual wine container (fangyi) with masks (taotie), serpents, and birds.jpg

Fangyi with cast inscription of 187 characters (one of the longest texts from the early Zhou period) which commemorates three days of administrative meetings and ritual ceremonies held in Chengzhou during the reign of King Zhao. Freer Gallery of Art

King Zhao of Zhou (Template:Zh; 1027–957 BC), personal name Ji Xia, was the fourth king of the Zhou dynasty of China. He ruled from 977/75 BC until his death twenty years later.Template:Sfnp Famous for his disastrous war against the Chu confederation, his death in battle ended the Western Zhou's early expansion and marked the beginning of his dynasty's decline.Template:Sfnp

BiographyEdit

By the time of King Zhao's coronation, his father King Kang and grandfather King Cheng had conquered and colonized the Central Plains of China, forcing most of the northern and eastern tribal peoples into vassalage. Only the Dongyi of eastern Shandong continued their resistance, but they were no longer a threat to Zhou rule.Template:Sfnp As result, King Zhao inherited a prospering kingdom,Template:Sfnp and could afford to build a new ancestral temple for his father. This temple, known as “Kang gong”, was built in line with ritual reforms of the time and would grow into “one of the two central temples of dynastic worship”, the other being the much older “jinggong” temple.Template:Sfnp

With the north and east pacified and a large military force under his control, King Zhao turned his attention to the Yangtze basin. This region of great mineral wealthTemplate:Sfnp was under the control of the confederation of Chu, with whom the Zhou kingdom had been on good terms for almost two centuries.Template:Sfnp Under King Zhao, the relationship between Zhou and Chu deteriorated,Template:Sfnp however, as Chu continued its aggressive expansionTemplate:Sfnp and Zhou's demand for gold, copper and tin grew. As hostilities grew, border clashes ensued that eventually escalated into open war.Template:Sfnp No longer tolerating Chu's perceived defiance, Zhao invaded the Chu confederation in 961 BC. He initially conquered the region to the north of the Yangtze, and then defeated and subdued the 26 states of the Han River valley, including Chu. Most likely unable to permanently occupy the latter region, Zhao eventually retreated with much loot.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

In 957 BC, Zhao launched another major military campaign into the middle Yangtze region. Employing half of the royal forces, organized into the "Six Armies of the West", he probably aimed to permanently bring the Yangtze basin under his control. This campaign, however, ended in disaster as the Zhou forces were defeated and almost entirely wiped out. King Zhao and his remaining troops allegedly drowned while retreating across the Han River.Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp

LegacyEdit

Zhao's death and defeat greatly damaged the Zhou dynasty's reputation and ended its early expansion, resulting in several foreign invasions of the kingdom. His successor and son King Mu of Zhou was able to restabilise the kingdom, but the Yangtze basin became the permanent southern limit of Western Zhou's direct control.Template:Sfnp Despite his “humiliating end”, however, King Zhao was still commemorated for his southern campaigns during the Western Zhou dynasty, as he had at least established political dominance over the region to the north of the Yangtze and east of the Han River.Template:Sfnp After his death, he was also given a sacrificial site at the “Kang gong” temple he had himself built. As the first Zhou ruler to be enshrined this way, he eventually became a key figure for ancestor veneration of the middle Zhou dynasty.Template:Sfnp One major reason for the initially positive appraisal of his reign was possibly that later Zhou rulers did not want their ancestor being remembered for a defeat that cast shame upon the dynasty.Template:Sfnp

Later moralistic renditions of King Zhao's life were much more unfavorable, as they portrayed him as a ruler who loved pleasure and disregarded politics, dying on a hunting trip to the south.<ref name="Zhou Dynasty history">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Later Chu poets also wrote about King Zhao in the Classical Chinese poetry collection "Heavenly Questions", mocking him for his perceived arrogance.Template:Sfnp An especially bizarre incident relating to King Zhao happened in the seventh century BC: When a coalition of Zhou states attacked the state of Chu, the latter sent a delegation to ask what reasons they could have for invading. The northern lords gave the feeble pretext that “King Zhao had failed to return from his southward expedition (which took place some three centuries earlier) and they had 'come to investigate'."Template:Sfnp