King Nan of Zhou (?–256 BC), personal name
Ji Yan, also less commonly known as
King Yin of Zhou, was the last king of the
Zhou dynasty of China. He was the son of
King Shenjing and grandson of
King Xian. He was king from 314 BC until his death in 256 BC, a reign of fifty-nine years, the longest in the Zhou dynasty and all of pre-imperial China.
By the time of King Nan's reign, the king of Zhou had lost almost all political and military power, as even their remaining crown land was split into two states, led by rival feudal lords: Western Zhou state, where the capital Wangcheng was located, and Eastern Zhou state, centred at Chengzhou. Therefore, King Nan lacked any personal territory and was effectively under the control of the local feudal lords, essentially relying on their charity.
However, Nan's symbolic and ritual power remains disputed. On one side, the feudal states largely ignored the king's activities and adopted royal titles and rituals for themselves, while the Zhou dynasty's fall generally received meagre contemporary coverage and attention. This led to the assumption that King Nan no longer had any symbolic power or semblance of royal authority left. On the other side, recent epigraphic discoveries and some accounts in the Records of the Grand Historian and Strategies of the Warring States suggest that until his death, King Nan was still respected as the Son of Heaven. Either way, the last king of Zhou managed to preserve his weakened dynasty through diplomacy and conspiracies for fifty-nine years until his deposition by the Qin state and death in 256 BC.
Read more...: Life Reign Fall Ancestry
Life
Reign
At the beginning of his reign in 314 BC, King Nan moved the capital from Chengzhou to Wangcheng. From then on, the Zhou crown lands were invaded several times by foreign powers, beginning with Qin's attack on Yiyang in West Zhou in 307 BC. Only constant political manoeuvring and ever-changing alliances of the king and the feudal lords ensured the survival of West and East Zhou, even though the two Zhou states often weakened themselves by conspiring against each other. Once, Qin planned to march its troops through East and West Zhou to attack Han, so that the lords of Zhou feared to be caught in war between the two states. The Scribe Yan advised King Nan that it would be of advantage if Han would cede some territory to Zhou and Zhou send some hostages to Chu. Qin would then suspect the state of Chu was planning an attack on Qin during its campaign against Han. At the same time the king of Zhou should, as Yan suggested, explain to the king of Qin that Han suspected Zhou of conspiring with Qin because of the present of land made to Zhou. With this method the king of Zhou would increase his territory and avoid Qin troops marching through his land. On another occasion, King Nan was summoned to Qin's royal court to debate the question of attacking the Han city of Nanyang. Instead of following the request, Nan conspired with Han to block the way between Zhou and Qin in order to prevent the debate and avoid a war.
King Nan's rule was not only threatened by outside powers, but also by the constant conflict between the lords of West and East Zhou. When they went to war, the state of Han initially supported West Zhou's nobles, but went on to betray its allies. Instead of fighting East Zhou, the Han forces looted Wangcheng and Nan's royal palace, while avoiding war with the Son of Heaven, King Nan, as they were still officially "allies". As Zhou grew increasingly weak, the king's rule was more frequently challenged by expansionist Qin. In 273 BC Ma Fan developed a plan to protect the Nine Tripod Cauldrons of Yu the Great representing royal authority by enlisting the help of King Anxi of Wei, who constructed a fortification wall for Zhou. Nevertheless, the Zhou dynasty remained unable to stop Qin's expansion, and Nan's kingdom was only spared because the rulers of Qin believed that the annihilation of the land of the Son of Heaven would damage their names. In order to survive, Nan and his officials even used to function as a spy for Qin in explaining the military changes in the state of Han, Wei and Zhao.
Fall
Only when Qin occupied the town of Fushu, belonging to Han, but in the vicinity of the ancient royal capital, Nan and the lords of West Zhou became so frightened of an impending invasion that they joined an alliance against Qin. West Zhou attacked Qin, but was quickly driven back. Wangcheng was finally conquered in 256 BC, and King Nan travelled to Xianyang to submit to King Zhaoxiang of Qin. West Zhou was then annexed by Qin, whereupon Nan was demoted to Duke of West Zhou. Imprisoned in Wangcheng, he died shortly afterwards, "and the rituals of the Zhou dynasty ceased forever". Qin seized the Nine Tripod Cauldrons and exiled Nan's heir, Ji Wen, to Danhu. Both the royal Ji family and many citizens of West Zhou then fled to East Zhou, where they and the local lords proclaimed Duke Wen of Eastern Zhou the new king. Duke Wen was never recognized king outside of East Zhou, however, so that Nan is generally considered the last rightful King of Zhou. Together with Nan's son Ji Zhao, Wen led the resistance against Qin, but they were defeated in 251 and 249 BC, respectively. East Zhou was annexed by Qin, and none of Nan's sons subsequently laid claim to the Zhou dynastic imperial title. The remaining royal Ji family fled to the State of Wey. Thus ended the Zhou dynasty, whose fall was hardly noted by the people and states of China. However, soon after Nan's death a king of Qin lamented the dynasty's fall as disruptive for the order of Heaven and Earth. Likewise, the scholars of Qin wrote in the Lüshi Chunqiu:
"Nowadays, the house of Zhou has been destroyed, line of the Sons of Heaven has been severed. There is no greater turmoil than the absence of the Son of Heaven; without the Son of Heaven, the strong overcome the weak, the many lord it over the few, they use arms to harm each other having no rest."
The title of "Son of Heaven" was eventually adopted by Qin Shi Huang, when he proclaimed himself the First Emperor.
Ancestry
The text above has been excerpted automatically from Wikipedia - please correct any errors in the
original article.
周赧王（？ - 前256年），姓
姬，名
延，或名
赧，
皇甫謐說名
誕。《
竹書紀年》作
周隱王，為
周慎靚王之子。史文常作
王赧，《
史記》誤為諡號。他即位于前314年。赧王在位59年，是
周朝在位最長的君主，也是周朝的最後一位君主。
他在位時期，周王室的影響力僅限于王畿（現在的洛陽附近，當時是東周的首都）。早在他的祖父周顯王在位期間，秦國的勢力迅速膨脹。赧王五十九年，駕崩。是年，秦昭襄王遷九鼎，占王畿，滅周朝。
Read more...: 生平 滅亡 在位年與西曆對照表 影視作品 相關成語 注釋
生平
其父周慎靚王在位時住在東周國，受東周公保護供養，慎靚王在位六年後去世，東周公表示不願繼續供養周天子，于是赧王只得求助西周公接納，遷至西周國居住。
滅亡
周赧王五十六年（前259年），發生邯鄲之戰，秦軍圍攻邯鄲，魏國和楚國都起兵相救，大破秦軍。周赧王五十九年（前256年），秦國攻佔韓國的陽城負黍聚，西周文公害怕。而楚考烈王又決定組織各國合縱抗秦，同時派人到周赧王處請求周赧王以天下共主名義下達組建聯軍的命令，赧王為此求助于西周文公，西周文公傾其國力組建起一支五六千人的小軍隊，與諸侯商定在伊闕會師。但最後只有楚國和燕國軍隊到達，這麼一點軍隊根本無法與秦國抗衡，周赧王無奈遣散了軍隊，楚國和燕國的軍隊也各歸各國。當時周赧王為了聯軍的開銷，向當地富商巨賈借高利貸，並答應滅秦班師之日以戰利品歸還。事後當地富人向周赧王討債，周赧王無力償還，只好躲到宮內一座高台，此台後被稱為「避債台」，成語「債台高築」因此而來。
秦昭襄王得知周赧王合縱攻秦的事情，勃然大怒，令將軍摎進攻西周國，西周文公奔往秦國謝罪投降，並獻出全部土地和人口，秦昭襄王放西周文公和周赧王歸國，周赧王與西周文公因為合縱失敗，欠債無法歸還，再加上被秦國滅國，一連串的打擊使得二人抑鬱成疾，在當年就雙雙病逝，西周百姓東逃，秦國取九鼎。七年後，秦國滅東周國。
在位年與西曆對照表
影視作品
• 《大秦賦》由尹鑄勝飾演。
相關成語
• 債台高築
注釋
The text above has been excerpted automatically from Wikipedia - please correct any errors in the
original article.
