July 15, 2025 • 37 mins
Dive into the fascinating economic foundations of ancient Chinese civilization through a journey spanning millions of years of human development. From the mythological giant Pangu separating yin and yang to create the world, to the sophisticated bureaucracies of the Zhou Dynasty, this episode unravels how geography, agriculture, and metallurgy shaped one of history's most influential civilizations.
We explore how China's natural barriers created an environment where unique economic systems could develop independently from other ancient civilizations. While Mesopotamia and Egypt were constructing great monuments, China was quietly revolutionizing agriculture and developing bronze-working capabilities that would eventually surpass any other ancient society. Archaeological evidence reveals bronze artifacts weighing tons, demonstrating advanced metallurgical knowledge that created a proto-industrial foundation for ancient Chinese society.
The most captivating aspects of China's economic evolution appear in their early value systems. Cowrie shells functioned similarly to how silver worked in Mesopotamia—not necessarily as direct currency but as a measurement standard. These naturally occurring shells provided a universally recognized unit of account with inherent qualities of scarcity and durability that made them ideal for valuing everything from agricultural produce to land itself.
When the Zhou Dynasty introduced their proto-feudal system in 1046 BCE, they transformed how resources were allocated throughout China. Land once distributed in large territories became commodified in smaller parcels, with government surveyors marking boundaries and official notaries recording transfers. This created one of history's earliest documented property rights systems, complete with evidence of fields being traded for horses, jade ornaments, and silk.
The dramatic collapse of Western Zhou in 771 BCE serves as a powerful illustration of how political fragmentation can spark economic innovation. As hundreds of independent city-states emerged from the fallen dynasty, competition for resources drove technological and organizational advancements that would ultimately contribute to China's imperial unification centuries later.
Join us for this illuminating exploration of how ancient China's economic foundations were established long before its imperial glory days, revealing patterns of development that would influence Eastern civilization for millennia to come.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
During China's Three Kingdom Period, which was from
approximately 220 to 280 CE, awriter in China wrote how Earth
was formed.
According to the author, ahairy giant with horns on his
head named Pangu began creatingthe world in two.
He separated yin from yang witheach strike of his giant axe,
(00:23):
creating the earth, or the yin,that was black, and the sky, the
white Yang.
To keep them separated, pangustood between them and pushed
them up to the sky.
With each day, the sky grew 10feet or 3 meters high, the earth
got 10 feet thicker and Pangu10 feet taller.
(00:47):
This task took another 18,000years of loneliness.
When he died, his body began todecay and transform into
mountains, rivers, forests andother environmental and plant
life features.
In one version of the story, hecreated humans from clay before
(01:08):
he died because he felt theuniverse was too empty, while in
another version they came fromthe fleas that lived on Pangu's
fur, which were spread acrossthe earth by the wind when he
died.
I am Mike D.
This is the History of Money,banking and Trade podcast.
(01:28):
My goal is to expand yourknowledge of the history and
evolution of trade, along withmoney, banking and credit, from
ancient civilizations topresent-day market innovations.
I truly hope you find theseepisodes to be informative and
entertaining.
I have an MBA and around 20years working in various
financial roles, but I'm not ahistorian.
However, I find that if I studythe history of financial
(01:52):
changes in trade, complex moderninternational economies are
much easier to understand.
The oldest fossil remains ofarchaic humans were found in
China, which dated to around 2million years ago.
These remains are from the Homoerectus, a common ancestor of
(02:12):
the Homo sapiens or modern man.
This means that China wassettled from the early stone age
, scientifically known as thePaleolithic era.
In addition, skeletal remainsof Neanderthals were also
discovered in China.
Around 300,000 years ago,pre-humans started to evolve
into Homo sapiens both in Eastand South Africa.
(02:34):
There is indirect evidence forHomo sapiens' presence in West
Asia around 270,000 years ago.
It's quite possible that therewas a series of African mega
droughts, beginning 130,000years ago, which forced early
human migration throughoutAfrica and then ultimately out
(02:56):
of Africa.
Beginning around 70,000 to50,000 years ago, the earliest
humans may have gone throughArabia and then stayed near the
coast originally, beforespreading into South Asia, then
Oceania, between 65 and 50,000years ago.
Since we know, the Neanderthalswere present in Asia and Europe
(03:21):
for that matter, before modernhumans.
It's generally believed thatthe average human outside of
Africa has between 1 and 4%Neanderthal genetic makeup, so
this would also include peopleof European and Asian descent,
but also Papua New Guinea,australian Aboriginals and even
(03:42):
Native Americans.
China, like every other placethat has had any sort of
population, was initiallyinhabited by nomadic
hunter-gatherers.
However, around 8,000 to 10,000years ago, agriculture
developed in China created theirown version of a cradle of
civilization, as it's quitepossible that farming had
(04:05):
developed independently of thefarming that was developed in
West Asia.
In other words, it appears thatit wasn't some people from the
Levant or Anatolia making theirway there and teaching them how
to farm.
It appears that they just kindof developed it on their own.
The main crops of thesesettlements were rice and millet
(04:28):
.
One of the interesting factsregarding the inhabitants of
East Asian peoples is the factthat scientists have extracted
DNA from ancient East Asianbones and compared it to the DNA
of the people that are theretoday.
It turns out that modern peoplein East Asia, unlike the
(04:50):
Europeans, are very similargenetically to their ancestors.
It tells us that Europeans werevery much nomadic in nature,
whereas the East Asianpopulation generally stayed put,
and this probably has to dowith their origins of farming.
(05:13):
The main area of the earlysettlements of the Chinese was
around the Yellow River and itslargest tributary, the Wei River
, which is in the vicinity ofmodern-day Beijing.
Later on, people spread furthersouth to the Yangtze River,
which is also the longest riverin Asia.
(05:35):
The reason why the area isimportant is because in the
middle of the Yellow and YangtzeRivers draws the line where
rice cultivation stops due tothe change.
In the middle of the Yellow andYangtze Rivers draws the line
where rice cultivation stops dueto the change in the climates.
Whereas in the more southernregions the climate is warmer
and rainier, which allows forrice to be grown, the more
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northern regions are cooler and,as a result, rice can't be
cultivated, so instead theregion relied on millet as their
main crop.
Also, the land between theYellow and Yangtze River is
generally quite fertile andtherefore attracted people for
settlements.
Even to this day, the region isthe most densely populated area
(06:20):
of China.
Like most regions of the world,the lands of the early Chinese
were surrounded by naturalbarriers between settlements and
cultures.
For example, far to the southwere thick jungles, to the west,
high mountains cut offpopulations.
In the north, deserts dominatedthe landscape and, of course,
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china is bordered by the PacificOcean to the east.
These natural barriers meantthat early Chinese societies
grew independently from eachother and cultures around them,
which meant unique and specificdevelopments of Chinese
civilizations.
By the early third millenniumBCE, various local cultures that
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developed between the Yellowand the Yangtze Rivers started
to slowly unify into a uniqueculture through trade, warfare
and other contexts.
This would have been a logicalconclusion to trade, as trade
not only delivers goods betweensettlements, but also
(07:25):
information and ideas are passedon to each other.
Unfortunately for historians,the third millennium BCE is
cloaked in mystery because anabundant number of stories,
myths and legends were writtendown hundreds and even thousands
of years later after the fact.
Like a lot of stories that wereeither told orally or written
(07:50):
well after the fact, there arefew archaeological findings to
verify any of the informationfrom this time period.
One of the stories during thisearly time period were that of
the five emperors, starting withthe Yellow Emperor.
Traditionally, the YellowEmperor's rule was dated to
(08:10):
somewhere between 27 and 2600BCE, and he was often seen as
the father of the Chinese people.
They make for great stories,but the fact is they are most
likely purely mythological, sothey don't really add much value
in discussing historical events.
(08:31):
It's kind of not unlike thelegend of King Arthur.
Generations is that there havebeen no records, or tombs have
not been excavated, or even somemonuments of some sort dating
(08:51):
from the era that they were toldabout that has been uncovered.
Now it's possible thisinformation may have been lost
to time, or maybe it hasn't yetbeen discovered.
Unlike in Mesopotamia and Egypt,formal writing hadn't developed
in China during the fiveemperors' time period.
However, we do know that thethird millennium did see quite a
(09:16):
transformation in China.
Many cultures started itssocial stratification, whereas a
ruling class emerged.
Shamans and other locals'religions formed, and they show
early signs of writing, thoughthey had not yet fully developed
a writing system.
Villages built irrigationsystems and developed farming
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techniques which allowed forbetter crop yields, which could
tolerate a larger population,which then led to a surge in the
population growth.
These farming techniques led toefficiencies, which also meant
less farmers would be needed.
Therefore, it is in the thirdmillennium BC that we start to
see a natural division of labor,which meant people that would
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have normally been destined forthe farm could now be artisans
focused solely on their crafts.
Yet despite all thesedevelopments, the Chinese
population still relied heavilyon the clan system.
It appears that this allstarted to change around 2770
BCE, when Emperor Yu left histhrone to his son, qi.
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This leads historians toconclude that around the era,
there was a clear separationbetween the tribal elites,
whereas now hereditary rulesstart to become the norm.
Once again, emperor Yu is mostlikely a myth.
Once again, emperor Yu is mostlikely a myth, but the point is
not so much that he probablydidn't exist, but instead it
(10:50):
marks a time when the idea ofhereditary transition of power
becomes much more acceptable forthe culture Also.
Just like every other ancientsociety at the time, they also
had their own mythological GreatFlood story that would have
taken place around the time ofYu China.
(11:25):
As they become extremelywealthy and powerful enough to
command the commoners to buildpalaces, temples and other types
of public works projects.
Let us not forget that in 2000BCE, china was firmly in the
Bronze Age, which meant thatthere was a great leap in crafts
technology, which meant thatthere was a great leap in
craft's technology.
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In addition, bronze weaponsdiscovered throughout China
indicate that warfare had becomemore common among the ancient
Chinese.
Warfare would mean that socialstructures and norms would be
standardized when conquerorsimplemented their culture on the
conquered.
This would also includeintroducing their standards of
weights and measures, whichwould make trade within the
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newly formed region of rule muchmore efficient.
And, of course, war meantplunder, especially for the
ruling class, further enhancingthe wealth gap between the
ruling class and the farmers andthe craftsmen.
For years, up to this point, itwas believed that much of China
(12:31):
was ruled by the Xia dynasty.
However, their rule endedaround 1600 BCE when one of the
Xia vassals rebelled andoverthrew the last Shia ruler,
who was often depicted as crueland a poor ruler.
That rebellious subject wasTang, the founder of the second
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Chinese dynasty, called theShang.
It is important to note thatthe Xia Dynasty was a
controversial topic in Chinesehistory, as some historians
still believe it is pure myth.
Some historians believe thatthe Xia did exist, but they
didn't actually rule over theentirety of China.
(13:17):
However, the Shang and the ZhouDynasties that came after the
Shia did in fact exist.
Therefore, the Shang dynasty isthe first historically
confirmed dynasty thathistorians can clearly identify.
This dynasty sprang up aroundthe Yellow River.
By then, the writing system hadbecome fully functional and an
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organized system.
The early rulers, especiallyits founder, tang, funded the
government through a tax of 10%of the yield of the land.
Apparently, it sounds like this10% tax may have been part of a
tax reduction plan, and therulers reduced conscription
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requirements for the royal army,making Tang popular among the
people.
From there, tang was able towiden the Shang state by
absorbing local tribes in andaround the middle and lower
river basin and lower riverbasin.
(14:29):
From 1250 to 1192 BCE, wudangruled.
Many believe that this rule wasthe height of the Shang dynasty
.
Wudang pacified certain tribesand conquered others through war
.
Through this expansion, theShang flourished economically as
it expanded its trade, in partdue to the rise in quantity and
quality of its goods that wereproduced locally.
The one thing archaeologistspoint to is the fact that large
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quantities of bronze were foundin tombs from this time period.
When I say large, I'm sayingthat some were measuring in the
tons, which shows you howdeveloped Chinese metallurgy had
become.
In fact, no other ancientcivilization has produced as
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much bronze as Shang China did.
In essence, they had createdalmost a proto-industry.
Agriculture was expanding aswell, as they had drained
lowland, swampy fields andcleared wild vegetation from
fertile lands.
Economic life centered on thepatrimonial ruling lineages who
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commanded the labor of farmersand artisans.
However, china still hadn'tdeveloped any working markets
per se.
Instead, various members of theruling class would have set up
complex exchanges that wouldhave consisted of goods and even
people.
Around the 13th century BCE,horses and chariots were
(16:02):
introduced into the region.
I don't think anyone reallyknows for certain how this
happened, but it was most likelythrough nomadic tribes that
lived in the Central Asiansteppes around 2200 BCE.
From there, the use of horsesspread across Eurasia for
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transportation, trade,communication, agricultural work
and warfare.
It's also probably not asurprise as to why many people
around the world speak alanguage that would have been
derived from this particularregion.
So when the horses had becomethe dominant means of
(16:48):
transportation and warfare,people from the Indo-European
region would have brought theirlanguages with them, and hence
the reason why many people inEurope, including English
speakers, have a language thatwas derived from the people of
the region that had developedthe use of horses and
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domesticated horses.
This increased efficiency incommunications through the horse
may have also affected the waythe new kings of the Shang
Dynasty had ruled.
They eventually became lessinvolved with the everyday
management of the Shang dynastyhad ruled.
They eventually became lessinvolved with the everyday
management of the kingdom, asthey often delegated more and
more to their officers.
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They were no longer generalsleading their troops and they no
longer worried about thegeneral well-being of their
subjects, leaving theirrepresentatives in the region to
deal with droughts and famine.
With that being said, one couldsay that maybe the kings of the
Shang were no longer strongrulers and were possibly even
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weak.
As such, a rogue vassal from afamily known as the Zhou family,
which ruled in the westernborders of the Shang state,
became stronger and morepowerful.
They were nearly an independentstate.
This apparently freaked out theShang king, and he decided to
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imprison a man by the name ofWen who was the head of the
family, because he feared Wen'sstrength and influence.
Keep in mind it wasn't like theZhou surpassed the Shang in any
technological sense either.
However, the Western Zhouruling class derived its wealth
(18:38):
from the various contributionsof gifts, land revenue, craft
making and the exchange withother aristocratic houses.
Unfortunately, we lack anydependable substantiation to
estimate the relative value ofthese forms of income in the
household economy as a whole.
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The foundations of the Zhoustate rested on redistributing
gifts from the king to itssubordinates.
Each of these subordinateswould have established their own
independent economic base andin this part of China, cowlery
shells played a crucial part inthe measure of value in the
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exchange of goods.
In Western Zhou.
Calorie shells were nothing newor unusual, as they had been
used as a form of money inseveral pre-modern Asian and
African societies.
Calorie shells shared many ofthe qualities of metallic
currency they had scarcity,durability, uniformity in size
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and shape and they hadcountability.
Most importantly, they werenearly impossible to duplicate,
so there wouldn't be anyforgeries.
This may be confusing, but theyweren't used as a medium of
exchange per se.
The cowrie shell's valuederived from their ritual uses
(20:08):
and sacrifice and mortuary goodsrather than a notion of
monetary value as such.
The importance of cowries ingift-giving declined quite a bit
over the course of the WesternJoe, so, in other words, it had
a kind of similar feel to thatof ancient Mesopotamia when
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ancient Mesopotamia turned tosilver as the preferred medium
of exchange.
Now silver was passed morelikely in Mesopotamia than, say,
cowrie shells were in China,but they both served a crucial
function in that when you'regoing to have some sort of trade
, you need to measure the valueof the goods that you're trading
(20:52):
.
So calorie shells may not havebeen used in the trade per se,
but we could say that the amountof wheat that you have that
you're willing to sell me isworth a certain amount of
calorie shells.
And then you exchange thatwheat with me and maybe we have
a credit system where I pay youback in the near future with
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another good, whether it'sanother commodity, or maybe even
silk.
It could be anything, but thefact of the matter is the
underlying value of the tradedgoods would have been measured
in cowrie shells.
In 1046 BCE, wu became the newking of the Zhou dynasty.
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We have quite a bit ofinformation starting in this
period, as he employed a largestaff of scribes and secretaries
that acted as his spokespersonsof the king, issuing royal
orders and composing the king'sspeeches.
However, the real power oftenrested in the hands of
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high-ranking royal princes Fromthere.
The Zhou ruling class thus wassplit into two groups the archer
lords and the royal officers.
They would have a significantinfluence over the micro and
macro management of the economy,including agriculture and trade
.
Wheat was an import from WestAsia, while rice was still rare
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in the north of China at thistime and their consumption, most
likely, was confined to theruling classes.
So the average person wouldhave consumed millet in this
region.
So the North China regionIrrigation in western Zhou was
achieved primarily by divertingstreams into adjoining farmlands
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, as large-scale irrigationworks did not appear until much
later.
While this region was firmly inthe Bronze Age, the adoption of
bronze farming tools was slow todevelop, because bronze was
often viewed as too precious tobe widely used for practical
purposes, such as agriculturaltools.
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So instead, joe farmerscontinued to rely on tools made
from stone, bone and shells thatconsisted primarily of digging
implements, one and two-prongeddigging sticks and spades and
harvesting sickles.
But it is ironic because Chinahad a wide-scale bronze
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production mechanism.
To give you an idea of theirbronze manufacturing
capabilities, a large bronzefoundry excavated near Chengzhou
, dating from the early Zhouperiod, was certainly a royal
workshop.
A few smaller bronze workshopsalso have been found near the
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Fenghou capitals, including onethat specialized in the
manufacture of chariot fixtures.
This time and region alsoreflected a large wealth gap
between the farmers and thelandowners.
This wealth inequality isparticularly noticeable in
clothing and foods consumed, asthe large landowner elites wore
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fine silks and had access tofoods outside of the millet that
was consumed by the farmer.
The biggest reason why the ZhouDynasty was in control was due
to their mandate of heaven.
This was a doctrine that wasused to legitimize the
overthrowing of the ShangDynasty and the formation of the
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new Zhou Dynasty.
It was the document thatbasically said that every
dynasty and its current rulerhad been given a mandate by
heaven to rule the natural order.
In reality, this isn't muchdifferent than the divine right
of kings that we see throughouthistory.
The reason this happened wasthe Shang situation had
deteriorated so much that theZhou felt that they had no
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choice but to rebel, as themandate from heaven had shifted
and was on their side, whichconfirmed their victory.
The Zhou rulers realized thatrelying on religion could only
carry them so far, so instead,what they needed was a system
that could institute power andprotection.
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They confiscated and dividedmuch of the lands among their
family members, includingbrothers and sons of King Wu and
Chang, as well as Guangdan.
This essentially fragmented thekingdom and therefore created
dozens of smaller city-states,which were closely united to the
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central dynasty by blood.
The best way to look at this isthis created a system that
resembles the feudalism inmedieval Europe, whereas you
have a system of decentralizedrule where local lords govern
over their own estates withpartial subordination to the
central government.
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Unlike medieval Europe, thissystem was based more on
familial ties than feudal code.
As such, it has been describedas a proto-feudalism system.
This ultimately becomes along-term problem, the reason
being as generations pass, thisblood relation between the king
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and his vassals will thin down.
In other words, they no longerwere connected as uncles and
brothers.
Eventually, they become distantcousins, twice or even three
times removed.
This meant that it would bejust a matter of time before the
Zhou proto-feudalism systemwould start to crack.
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King Mu came to the throne afterhis father, king Zhou's death
during the Zhou-Chu War.
King Mu reigned for nearly 55years, from around 976 BCE to
about 922 BCE.
However, recent evidence seemsto indicate that it had been 40,
not 55 years on the throne, asarchaeologists may have
(27:18):
interpreted the evidenceincorrectly, because they
originally thought that he livedto be 105 years old, but it may
have been the case that he cameon the throne 105 years after
the founding of the Westerndynasty.
King Mu may have seen thepotential problems with this
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proto-feudal system, so hedecided to implement various
reforms to the state.
One of the first things he didwas he created a more
professional standing army, andhe also reformed his courts.
He implemented a meritocracy byappointing capable people
around him to act as ministersand advisors.
(28:02):
He then implemented a moreefficient bureaucratic apparatus
that started to separate theking from his people and even
the nobles.
The great thing for us peoplewho enjoy reading about history
was King Mu started the practiceof writing down every court
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decision.
He also wrote down rulings,maps, investments maps,
investments laws and other royalactions.
By doing that, he created thefirst true legal code in China.
As such, his early reign wascharacterized by implementing
reforms, not so much militaryconquest.
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However, king Mu may havegotten concerned about his
legacy and decided that hewanted to expand the kingdom to
the north.
His advisor warned him thatprevious kings only used war as
a last resort, but Mu didn'twant to hear any of that, even
though the people of the northhad always provided assistance
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and defended the realm againstthe Western Zhou.
So he reverted back to theprevious Chinese king's
operations, whereas he spentmost of his rule in campaigns
with his army, especially whenhis vassals were late with their
tributes.
As such, he managed to conquernumerous tribes.
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Despite his military success andimportant reforms, he was not
seen as a great ruler by hispeople.
Why?
Because he was criticized forbeing away from the capital too
often.
Many thought his reforms wereneeded because he wasn't a
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capable ruler and therefore heneeded these reforms because he
didn't have the capabilities tohandle these issues himself.
Eventually, the Zhou dynastywould weaken.
Surrounding tribes were alsousing the weakened state as a
reason to attack it.
By 957 BCE, the Zhou suffered adisastrous military defeat
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inflicted by the rival state ofthe Chu in the south.
The result was the Zhou wereessentially split, as now the
king only had control over theroyal dominion in the west and
the region around Zhengzhou, thewest and the region around
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Zhengzhou.
This meant that the easterndomains became more independent.
The issue for the Zhou kingswas they were seeing their
revenues diminish quite a bitover the years because they had
allocated so much land andresources to the relatives and
royal officers that may not havehad a close connection to them
by the 900s BCE.
The fact is, the lack ofrevenues possibly made their
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hold on the throne less secure.
So to remedy this, the JoeKings no longer gave away entire
territories to other royals,but instead parceled them out as
small farms to laborers whoworked them as such by 900 BCE.
High-born land holdings thatwere given to them by the king
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were diminished considerably asthey were no longer entire
territories but rather fields orindividual tracts of land.
A field was defined as theamount of land that a single
farmer could cultivate, and thiswas said to be about 100 mu or
about 4.5 acres.
(31:44):
These smaller tracts of landalso became bodies of exchanges
among aristocratic households.
So, for example, we haveevidence of the legal testimony
of an exchange of four finehorses for 30 fields.
In another case, lands wereexchanged for an assortment of
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goods, including jade ornaments,ritual vessels, carriages and
silks.
The government surveyed andmarked down the lands with
official notaries to record allthe transfers of the property.
As part of this, they ensuredthat they were accurately
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surveying boundaries of the landholdings, as they were crucial
procedures for establishing landclaims.
But this was still monarchy, sosuch transactions did not
confirm absolute rights over theland.
The king still retained rightsto appropriate and reassign land
holdings within his royaldomain and reassign land
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holdings within his royal domain.
The Zhou not only had issues inthe east now they had even more
concerns with the southernhighway as they launched several
offensives against the Zhou inthe late 10th century BCE.
The King Li reign, who ruledfrom 877 to 841 BCE, and he was
locked in a prolonged war withthe Shia, which severely
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weakened the kingdom.
By all accounts, king Li was aterrible king whose poor
management probably did as muchas any enemy could do.
He was known to be very cruel,severely punishing anyone who
dared to speak out against him.
Eventually, things came to ahead and the nobles started to
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perform an open insurrectionagainst the Zhou king, forcing
King Li into exile in 841 BCE.
In 781 BCE, a major earthquakecaused massive damage throughout
the kingdom.
Then, on top of that, the kingangered his court as he chased
off his queen and heir, who camefrom an important noble family,
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in favor of a concubine and ason that he had with her.
The king must have had somesort of maturity issues or
mental incapacities because hewanted to impress his concubine
queen by messing with the royalsby lighting alarm beacons.
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It became a boy who cried wolf,type of thing, because soon no
one answered the call of thealarm.
So in 771 BCE, the formerqueen's family colluded with the
western barbarian tribes, whichwere a constant threat for
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decades, and then they attackedthe royals, tired of the king's
nonsense, abandoned him, as noone came to help out the king.
As a result, he was murderedand the capital was ransacked
and devastated.
With the death of the king, themain branch of the Zhou dynasty
was now extinguished and Ping,the son of the banished queen,
(35:02):
became the new king.
Eventually, they would have hada catastrophic defeat in 771
BCE at the hands of the Xi'an.
The Xi'an sacked the capitalsof Fang and Hao and killed the
Zhou king.
Surviving members of the royalclan fled to Chengzhou in the
east, where a new king wasinstalled.
(35:24):
With the Zhou in deep trouble,the capital was moved to the
east, which essentially meantthe official fall of the Western
Zhou and the start of theEastern Zhou dynasty had begun.
A new royal line and a newcapital was established.
This void left by the WesternZhou meant that new people would
(35:44):
move into the former Zhouhomeland and settled in the
central plain as well.
Eventually, this would becomeknown as the Spring and Autumn
Period, spanning from 720 to 481BCE.
This was a period of intenseconflicts, which led to a period
of chronic warfare between theZhou peoples and their neighbors
(36:05):
.
We also see the emergence ofpastoral nomads in the steppe
grasslands along the northernfrontiers, but they weren't the
only threats to the Zhou.
China was fragmented as severalhundred newly independent
agrarian city-states emerged,but also larger cultures emerged
as well.
The Jin in the north, the Qi inthe east, the Qin to the west
(36:31):
and the Chu were stretchingacross the southern perimeter of
the Zhou.
Therefore, this leads us intothe spring and autumn period.
As such, this period was knownto have intense conflicts, which
led to a period of chronicwarfare between the Zhou peoples
and their neighbors.
China will become fragmented asseveral hundred newly
(36:58):
independent agrarian city-statesemerge.
All this fragmentation, alongwith population increases, will
result in cultures struggling toacquire and defend resources
for their survival, and this isjust the start.
China will go through manyperiods of reshuffling, certain
groups vying for control, andeventually China will become
(37:20):
unified, but that's not forhundreds of years.
I want to thank you for takingyour time to listen or watch
this episode.
This is the first episode thatI'm recording on a camera.
The next episode we will getinto the spring and autumn
period, as this will further laythe groundwork for the
development of ancient Chinatrade, if you like what you hear
(37:47):
and want to donate to the show,you can visit us at patreoncom
slash history of money bankingtrade or you can visit our
website at moneybankingtradecom.
Thank you very much.
Talk to you soon.
During China's Three Kingdom Period, which was from
approximately 220 to 280 CE, awriter in China wrote how Earth
was formed.
According to the author, ahairy giant with horns on his
head named Pangu began creatingthe world in two.
He separated yin from yang witheach strike of his giant axe,
(00:23):
creating the earth, or the yin,that was black, and the sky, the
white Yang.
To keep them separated, pangustood between them and pushed
them up to the sky.
With each day, the sky grew 10feet or 3 meters high, the earth
got 10 feet thicker and Pangu10 feet taller.
(00:47):
This task took another 18,000years of loneliness.
When he died, his body began todecay and transform into
mountains, rivers, forests andother environmental and plant
life features.
In one version of the story, hecreated humans from clay before
(01:08):
he died because he felt theuniverse was too empty, while in
another version they came fromthe fleas that lived on Pangu's
fur, which were spread acrossthe earth by the wind when he
died.
I am Mike D.
This is the History of Money,banking and Trade podcast.
(01:28):
My goal is to expand yourknowledge of the history and
evolution of trade, along withmoney, banking and credit, from
ancient civilizations topresent-day market innovations.
I truly hope you find theseepisodes to be informative and
entertaining.
I have an MBA and around 20years working in various
financial roles, but I'm not ahistorian.
However, I find that if I studythe history of financial
(01:52):
changes in trade, complex moderninternational economies are
much easier to understand.
The oldest fossil remains ofarchaic humans were found in
China, which dated to around 2million years ago.
These remains are from the Homoerectus, a common ancestor of
(02:12):
the Homo sapiens or modern man.
This means that China wassettled from the early stone age
, scientifically known as thePaleolithic era.
In addition, skeletal remainsof Neanderthals were also
discovered in China.
Around 300,000 years ago,pre-humans started to evolve
into Homo sapiens both in Eastand South Africa.
(02:34):
There is indirect evidence forHomo sapiens' presence in West
Asia around 270,000 years ago.
It's quite possible that therewas a series of African mega
droughts, beginning 130,000years ago, which forced early
human migration throughoutAfrica and then ultimately out
(02:56):
of Africa.
Beginning around 70,000 to50,000 years ago, the earliest
humans may have gone throughArabia and then stayed near the
coast originally, beforespreading into South Asia, then
Oceania, between 65 and 50,000years ago.
Since we know, the Neanderthalswere present in Asia and Europe
(03:21):
for that matter, before modernhumans.
It's generally believed thatthe average human outside of
Africa has between 1 and 4%Neanderthal genetic makeup, so
this would also include peopleof European and Asian descent,
but also Papua New Guinea,australian Aboriginals and even
(03:42):
Native Americans.
China, like every other placethat has had any sort of
population, was initiallyinhabited by nomadic
hunter-gatherers.
However, around 8,000 to 10,000years ago, agriculture
developed in China created theirown version of a cradle of
civilization, as it's quitepossible that farming had
(04:05):
developed independently of thefarming that was developed in
West Asia.
In other words, it appears thatit wasn't some people from the
Levant or Anatolia making theirway there and teaching them how
to farm.
It appears that they just kindof developed it on their own.
The main crops of thesesettlements were rice and millet
(04:28):
.
One of the interesting factsregarding the inhabitants of
East Asian peoples is the factthat scientists have extracted
DNA from ancient East Asianbones and compared it to the DNA
of the people that are theretoday.
It turns out that modern peoplein East Asia, unlike the
(04:50):
Europeans, are very similargenetically to their ancestors.
It tells us that Europeans werevery much nomadic in nature,
whereas the East Asianpopulation generally stayed put,
and this probably has to dowith their origins of farming.
(05:13):
The main area of the earlysettlements of the Chinese was
around the Yellow River and itslargest tributary, the Wei River
, which is in the vicinity ofmodern-day Beijing.
Later on, people spread furthersouth to the Yangtze River,
which is also the longest riverin Asia.
(05:35):
The reason why the area isimportant is because in the
middle of the Yellow and YangtzeRivers draws the line where
rice cultivation stops due tothe change.
In the middle of the Yellow andYangtze Rivers draws the line
where rice cultivation stops dueto the change in the climates.
Whereas in the more southernregions the climate is warmer
and rainier, which allows forrice to be grown, the more
(05:58):
northern regions are cooler and,as a result, rice can't be
cultivated, so instead theregion relied on millet as their
main crop.
Also, the land between theYellow and Yangtze River is
generally quite fertile andtherefore attracted people for
settlements.
Even to this day, the region isthe most densely populated area
(06:20):
of China.
Like most regions of the world,the lands of the early Chinese
were surrounded by naturalbarriers between settlements and
cultures.
For example, far to the southwere thick jungles, to the west,
high mountains cut offpopulations.
In the north, deserts dominatedthe landscape and, of course,
(06:41):
china is bordered by the PacificOcean to the east.
These natural barriers meantthat early Chinese societies
grew independently from eachother and cultures around them,
which meant unique and specificdevelopments of Chinese
civilizations.
By the early third millenniumBCE, various local cultures that
(07:05):
developed between the Yellowand the Yangtze Rivers started
to slowly unify into a uniqueculture through trade, warfare
and other contexts.
This would have been a logicalconclusion to trade, as trade
not only delivers goods betweensettlements, but also
(07:25):
information and ideas are passedon to each other.
Unfortunately for historians,the third millennium BCE is
cloaked in mystery because anabundant number of stories,
myths and legends were writtendown hundreds and even thousands
of years later after the fact.
Like a lot of stories that wereeither told orally or written
(07:50):
well after the fact, there arefew archaeological findings to
verify any of the informationfrom this time period.
One of the stories during thisearly time period were that of
the five emperors, starting withthe Yellow Emperor.
Traditionally, the YellowEmperor's rule was dated to
(08:10):
somewhere between 27 and 2600BCE, and he was often seen as
the father of the Chinese people.
They make for great stories,but the fact is they are most
likely purely mythological, sothey don't really add much value
in discussing historical events.
(08:31):
It's kind of not unlike thelegend of King Arthur.
Generations is that there havebeen no records, or tombs have
not been excavated, or even somemonuments of some sort dating
(08:51):
from the era that they were toldabout that has been uncovered.
Now it's possible thisinformation may have been lost
to time, or maybe it hasn't yetbeen discovered.
Unlike in Mesopotamia and Egypt,formal writing hadn't developed
in China during the fiveemperors' time period.
However, we do know that thethird millennium did see quite a
(09:16):
transformation in China.
Many cultures started itssocial stratification, whereas a
ruling class emerged.
Shamans and other locals'religions formed, and they show
early signs of writing, thoughthey had not yet fully developed
a writing system.
Villages built irrigationsystems and developed farming
(09:39):
techniques which allowed forbetter crop yields, which could
tolerate a larger population,which then led to a surge in the
population growth.
These farming techniques led toefficiencies, which also meant
less farmers would be needed.
Therefore, it is in the thirdmillennium BC that we start to
see a natural division of labor,which meant people that would
(10:05):
have normally been destined forthe farm could now be artisans
focused solely on their crafts.
Yet despite all thesedevelopments, the Chinese
population still relied heavilyon the clan system.
It appears that this allstarted to change around 2770
BCE, when Emperor Yu left histhrone to his son, qi.
(10:27):
This leads historians toconclude that around the era,
there was a clear separationbetween the tribal elites,
whereas now hereditary rulesstart to become the norm.
Once again, emperor Yu is mostlikely a myth.
Once again, emperor Yu is mostlikely a myth, but the point is
not so much that he probablydidn't exist, but instead it
(10:50):
marks a time when the idea ofhereditary transition of power
becomes much more acceptable forthe culture Also.
Just like every other ancientsociety at the time, they also
had their own mythological GreatFlood story that would have
taken place around the time ofYu China.
(11:25):
As they become extremelywealthy and powerful enough to
command the commoners to buildpalaces, temples and other types
of public works projects.
Let us not forget that in 2000BCE, china was firmly in the
Bronze Age, which meant thatthere was a great leap in crafts
technology, which meant thatthere was a great leap in
craft's technology.
(11:45):
In addition, bronze weaponsdiscovered throughout China
indicate that warfare had becomemore common among the ancient
Chinese.
Warfare would mean that socialstructures and norms would be
standardized when conquerorsimplemented their culture on the
conquered.
This would also includeintroducing their standards of
weights and measures, whichwould make trade within the
(12:09):
newly formed region of rule muchmore efficient.
And, of course, war meantplunder, especially for the
ruling class, further enhancingthe wealth gap between the
ruling class and the farmers andthe craftsmen.
For years, up to this point, itwas believed that much of China
(12:31):
was ruled by the Xia dynasty.
However, their rule endedaround 1600 BCE when one of the
Xia vassals rebelled andoverthrew the last Shia ruler,
who was often depicted as crueland a poor ruler.
That rebellious subject wasTang, the founder of the second
(12:55):
Chinese dynasty, called theShang.
It is important to note thatthe Xia Dynasty was a
controversial topic in Chinesehistory, as some historians
still believe it is pure myth.
Some historians believe thatthe Xia did exist, but they
didn't actually rule over theentirety of China.
(13:17):
However, the Shang and the ZhouDynasties that came after the
Shia did in fact exist.
Therefore, the Shang dynasty isthe first historically
confirmed dynasty thathistorians can clearly identify.
This dynasty sprang up aroundthe Yellow River.
By then, the writing system hadbecome fully functional and an
(13:43):
organized system.
The early rulers, especiallyits founder, tang, funded the
government through a tax of 10%of the yield of the land.
Apparently, it sounds like this10% tax may have been part of a
tax reduction plan, and therulers reduced conscription
(14:06):
requirements for the royal army,making Tang popular among the
people.
From there, tang was able towiden the Shang state by
absorbing local tribes in andaround the middle and lower
river basin and lower riverbasin.
(14:29):
From 1250 to 1192 BCE, wudangruled.
Many believe that this rule wasthe height of the Shang dynasty
.
Wudang pacified certain tribesand conquered others through war
.
Through this expansion, theShang flourished economically as
it expanded its trade, in partdue to the rise in quantity and
quality of its goods that wereproduced locally.
The one thing archaeologistspoint to is the fact that large
(14:54):
quantities of bronze were foundin tombs from this time period.
When I say large, I'm sayingthat some were measuring in the
tons, which shows you howdeveloped Chinese metallurgy had
become.
In fact, no other ancientcivilization has produced as
(15:14):
much bronze as Shang China did.
In essence, they had createdalmost a proto-industry.
Agriculture was expanding aswell, as they had drained
lowland, swampy fields andcleared wild vegetation from
fertile lands.
Economic life centered on thepatrimonial ruling lineages who
(15:37):
commanded the labor of farmersand artisans.
However, china still hadn'tdeveloped any working markets
per se.
Instead, various members of theruling class would have set up
complex exchanges that wouldhave consisted of goods and even
people.
Around the 13th century BCE,horses and chariots were
(16:02):
introduced into the region.
I don't think anyone reallyknows for certain how this
happened, but it was most likelythrough nomadic tribes that
lived in the Central Asiansteppes around 2200 BCE.
From there, the use of horsesspread across Eurasia for
(16:23):
transportation, trade,communication, agricultural work
and warfare.
It's also probably not asurprise as to why many people
around the world speak alanguage that would have been
derived from this particularregion.
So when the horses had becomethe dominant means of
(16:48):
transportation and warfare,people from the Indo-European
region would have brought theirlanguages with them, and hence
the reason why many people inEurope, including English
speakers, have a language thatwas derived from the people of
the region that had developedthe use of horses and
(17:10):
domesticated horses.
This increased efficiency incommunications through the horse
may have also affected the waythe new kings of the Shang
Dynasty had ruled.
They eventually became lessinvolved with the everyday
management of the Shang dynastyhad ruled.
They eventually became lessinvolved with the everyday
management of the kingdom, asthey often delegated more and
more to their officers.
(17:30):
They were no longer generalsleading their troops and they no
longer worried about thegeneral well-being of their
subjects, leaving theirrepresentatives in the region to
deal with droughts and famine.
With that being said, one couldsay that maybe the kings of the
Shang were no longer strongrulers and were possibly even
(17:53):
weak.
As such, a rogue vassal from afamily known as the Zhou family,
which ruled in the westernborders of the Shang state,
became stronger and morepowerful.
They were nearly an independentstate.
This apparently freaked out theShang king, and he decided to
(18:15):
imprison a man by the name ofWen who was the head of the
family, because he feared Wen'sstrength and influence.
Keep in mind it wasn't like theZhou surpassed the Shang in any
technological sense either.
However, the Western Zhouruling class derived its wealth
(18:38):
from the various contributionsof gifts, land revenue, craft
making and the exchange withother aristocratic houses.
Unfortunately, we lack anydependable substantiation to
estimate the relative value ofthese forms of income in the
household economy as a whole.
(18:58):
The foundations of the Zhoustate rested on redistributing
gifts from the king to itssubordinates.
Each of these subordinateswould have established their own
independent economic base andin this part of China, cowlery
shells played a crucial part inthe measure of value in the
(19:21):
exchange of goods.
In Western Zhou.
Calorie shells were nothing newor unusual, as they had been
used as a form of money inseveral pre-modern Asian and
African societies.
Calorie shells shared many ofthe qualities of metallic
currency they had scarcity,durability, uniformity in size
(19:45):
and shape and they hadcountability.
Most importantly, they werenearly impossible to duplicate,
so there wouldn't be anyforgeries.
This may be confusing, but theyweren't used as a medium of
exchange per se.
The cowrie shell's valuederived from their ritual uses
(20:08):
and sacrifice and mortuary goodsrather than a notion of
monetary value as such.
The importance of cowries ingift-giving declined quite a bit
over the course of the WesternJoe, so, in other words, it had
a kind of similar feel to thatof ancient Mesopotamia when
(20:29):
ancient Mesopotamia turned tosilver as the preferred medium
of exchange.
Now silver was passed morelikely in Mesopotamia than, say,
cowrie shells were in China,but they both served a crucial
function in that when you'regoing to have some sort of trade
, you need to measure the valueof the goods that you're trading
(20:52):
.
So calorie shells may not havebeen used in the trade per se,
but we could say that the amountof wheat that you have that
you're willing to sell me isworth a certain amount of
calorie shells.
And then you exchange thatwheat with me and maybe we have
a credit system where I pay youback in the near future with
(21:15):
another good, whether it'sanother commodity, or maybe even
silk.
It could be anything, but thefact of the matter is the
underlying value of the tradedgoods would have been measured
in cowrie shells.
In 1046 BCE, wu became the newking of the Zhou dynasty.
(21:38):
We have quite a bit ofinformation starting in this
period, as he employed a largestaff of scribes and secretaries
that acted as his spokespersonsof the king, issuing royal
orders and composing the king'sspeeches.
However, the real power oftenrested in the hands of
(22:07):
high-ranking royal princes Fromthere.
The Zhou ruling class thus wassplit into two groups the archer
lords and the royal officers.
They would have a significantinfluence over the micro and
macro management of the economy,including agriculture and trade
.
Wheat was an import from WestAsia, while rice was still rare
(22:29):
in the north of China at thistime and their consumption, most
likely, was confined to theruling classes.
So the average person wouldhave consumed millet in this
region.
So the North China regionIrrigation in western Zhou was
achieved primarily by divertingstreams into adjoining farmlands
(22:51):
, as large-scale irrigationworks did not appear until much
later.
While this region was firmly inthe Bronze Age, the adoption of
bronze farming tools was slow todevelop, because bronze was
often viewed as too precious tobe widely used for practical
purposes, such as agriculturaltools.
(23:12):
So instead, joe farmerscontinued to rely on tools made
from stone, bone and shells thatconsisted primarily of digging
implements, one and two-prongeddigging sticks and spades and
harvesting sickles.
But it is ironic because Chinahad a wide-scale bronze
(23:37):
production mechanism.
To give you an idea of theirbronze manufacturing
capabilities, a large bronzefoundry excavated near Chengzhou
, dating from the early Zhouperiod, was certainly a royal
workshop.
A few smaller bronze workshopsalso have been found near the
(23:58):
Fenghou capitals, including onethat specialized in the
manufacture of chariot fixtures.
This time and region alsoreflected a large wealth gap
between the farmers and thelandowners.
This wealth inequality isparticularly noticeable in
clothing and foods consumed, asthe large landowner elites wore
(24:21):
fine silks and had access tofoods outside of the millet that
was consumed by the farmer.
The biggest reason why the ZhouDynasty was in control was due
to their mandate of heaven.
This was a doctrine that wasused to legitimize the
overthrowing of the ShangDynasty and the formation of the
(24:42):
new Zhou Dynasty.
It was the document thatbasically said that every
dynasty and its current rulerhad been given a mandate by
heaven to rule the natural order.
In reality, this isn't muchdifferent than the divine right
of kings that we see throughouthistory.
The reason this happened wasthe Shang situation had
deteriorated so much that theZhou felt that they had no
(25:06):
choice but to rebel, as themandate from heaven had shifted
and was on their side, whichconfirmed their victory.
The Zhou rulers realized thatrelying on religion could only
carry them so far, so instead,what they needed was a system
that could institute power andprotection.
(25:28):
They confiscated and dividedmuch of the lands among their
family members, includingbrothers and sons of King Wu and
Chang, as well as Guangdan.
This essentially fragmented thekingdom and therefore created
dozens of smaller city-states,which were closely united to the
(25:50):
central dynasty by blood.
The best way to look at this isthis created a system that
resembles the feudalism inmedieval Europe, whereas you
have a system of decentralizedrule where local lords govern
over their own estates withpartial subordination to the
central government.
(26:10):
Unlike medieval Europe, thissystem was based more on
familial ties than feudal code.
As such, it has been describedas a proto-feudalism system.
This ultimately becomes along-term problem, the reason
being as generations pass, thisblood relation between the king
(26:33):
and his vassals will thin down.
In other words, they no longerwere connected as uncles and
brothers.
Eventually, they become distantcousins, twice or even three
times removed.
This meant that it would bejust a matter of time before the
Zhou proto-feudalism systemwould start to crack.
(26:54):
King Mu came to the throne afterhis father, king Zhou's death
during the Zhou-Chu War.
King Mu reigned for nearly 55years, from around 976 BCE to
about 922 BCE.
However, recent evidence seemsto indicate that it had been 40,
not 55 years on the throne, asarchaeologists may have
(27:18):
interpreted the evidenceincorrectly, because they
originally thought that he livedto be 105 years old, but it may
have been the case that he cameon the throne 105 years after
the founding of the Westerndynasty.
King Mu may have seen thepotential problems with this
(27:40):
proto-feudal system, so hedecided to implement various
reforms to the state.
One of the first things he didwas he created a more
professional standing army, andhe also reformed his courts.
He implemented a meritocracy byappointing capable people
around him to act as ministersand advisors.
(28:02):
He then implemented a moreefficient bureaucratic apparatus
that started to separate theking from his people and even
the nobles.
The great thing for us peoplewho enjoy reading about history
was King Mu started the practiceof writing down every court
(28:22):
decision.
He also wrote down rulings,maps, investments maps,
investments laws and other royalactions.
By doing that, he created thefirst true legal code in China.
As such, his early reign wascharacterized by implementing
reforms, not so much militaryconquest.
(28:43):
However, king Mu may havegotten concerned about his
legacy and decided that hewanted to expand the kingdom to
the north.
His advisor warned him thatprevious kings only used war as
a last resort, but Mu didn'twant to hear any of that, even
though the people of the northhad always provided assistance
(29:07):
and defended the realm againstthe Western Zhou.
So he reverted back to theprevious Chinese king's
operations, whereas he spentmost of his rule in campaigns
with his army, especially whenhis vassals were late with their
tributes.
As such, he managed to conquernumerous tribes.
(29:29):
Despite his military success andimportant reforms, he was not
seen as a great ruler by hispeople.
Why?
Because he was criticized forbeing away from the capital too
often.
Many thought his reforms wereneeded because he wasn't a
(29:51):
capable ruler and therefore heneeded these reforms because he
didn't have the capabilities tohandle these issues himself.
Eventually, the Zhou dynastywould weaken.
Surrounding tribes were alsousing the weakened state as a
reason to attack it.
By 957 BCE, the Zhou suffered adisastrous military defeat
(30:13):
inflicted by the rival state ofthe Chu in the south.
The result was the Zhou wereessentially split, as now the
king only had control over theroyal dominion in the west and
the region around Zhengzhou, thewest and the region around
(30:33):
Zhengzhou.
This meant that the easterndomains became more independent.
The issue for the Zhou kingswas they were seeing their
revenues diminish quite a bitover the years because they had
allocated so much land andresources to the relatives and
royal officers that may not havehad a close connection to them
by the 900s BCE.
The fact is, the lack ofrevenues possibly made their
(30:58):
hold on the throne less secure.
So to remedy this, the JoeKings no longer gave away entire
territories to other royals,but instead parceled them out as
small farms to laborers whoworked them as such by 900 BCE.
High-born land holdings thatwere given to them by the king
(31:22):
were diminished considerably asthey were no longer entire
territories but rather fields orindividual tracts of land.
A field was defined as theamount of land that a single
farmer could cultivate, and thiswas said to be about 100 mu or
about 4.5 acres.
(31:44):
These smaller tracts of landalso became bodies of exchanges
among aristocratic households.
So, for example, we haveevidence of the legal testimony
of an exchange of four finehorses for 30 fields.
In another case, lands wereexchanged for an assortment of
(32:06):
goods, including jade ornaments,ritual vessels, carriages and
silks.
The government surveyed andmarked down the lands with
official notaries to record allthe transfers of the property.
As part of this, they ensuredthat they were accurately
(32:27):
surveying boundaries of the landholdings, as they were crucial
procedures for establishing landclaims.
But this was still monarchy, sosuch transactions did not
confirm absolute rights over theland.
The king still retained rightsto appropriate and reassign land
holdings within his royaldomain and reassign land
(32:49):
holdings within his royal domain.
The Zhou not only had issues inthe east now they had even more
concerns with the southernhighway as they launched several
offensives against the Zhou inthe late 10th century BCE.
The King Li reign, who ruledfrom 877 to 841 BCE, and he was
locked in a prolonged war withthe Shia, which severely
(33:14):
weakened the kingdom.
By all accounts, king Li was aterrible king whose poor
management probably did as muchas any enemy could do.
He was known to be very cruel,severely punishing anyone who
dared to speak out against him.
Eventually, things came to ahead and the nobles started to
(33:37):
perform an open insurrectionagainst the Zhou king, forcing
King Li into exile in 841 BCE.
In 781 BCE, a major earthquakecaused massive damage throughout
the kingdom.
Then, on top of that, the kingangered his court as he chased
off his queen and heir, who camefrom an important noble family,
(33:58):
in favor of a concubine and ason that he had with her.
The king must have had somesort of maturity issues or
mental incapacities because hewanted to impress his concubine
queen by messing with the royalsby lighting alarm beacons.
(34:18):
It became a boy who cried wolf,type of thing, because soon no
one answered the call of thealarm.
So in 771 BCE, the formerqueen's family colluded with the
western barbarian tribes, whichwere a constant threat for
(34:38):
decades, and then they attackedthe royals, tired of the king's
nonsense, abandoned him, as noone came to help out the king.
As a result, he was murderedand the capital was ransacked
and devastated.
With the death of the king, themain branch of the Zhou dynasty
was now extinguished and Ping,the son of the banished queen,
(35:02):
became the new king.
Eventually, they would have hada catastrophic defeat in 771
BCE at the hands of the Xi'an.
The Xi'an sacked the capitalsof Fang and Hao and killed the
Zhou king.
Surviving members of the royalclan fled to Chengzhou in the
east, where a new king wasinstalled.
(35:24):
With the Zhou in deep trouble,the capital was moved to the
east, which essentially meantthe official fall of the Western
Zhou and the start of theEastern Zhou dynasty had begun.
A new royal line and a newcapital was established.
This void left by the WesternZhou meant that new people would
(35:44):
move into the former Zhouhomeland and settled in the
central plain as well.
Eventually, this would becomeknown as the Spring and Autumn
Period, spanning from 720 to 481BCE.
This was a period of intenseconflicts, which led to a period
of chronic warfare between theZhou peoples and their neighbors
(36:05):
.
We also see the emergence ofpastoral nomads in the steppe
grasslands along the northernfrontiers, but they weren't the
only threats to the Zhou.
China was fragmented as severalhundred newly independent
agrarian city-states emerged,but also larger cultures emerged
as well.
The Jin in the north, the Qi inthe east, the Qin to the west
(36:31):
and the Chu were stretchingacross the southern perimeter of
the Zhou.
Therefore, this leads us intothe spring and autumn period.
As such, this period was knownto have intense conflicts, which
led to a period of chronicwarfare between the Zhou peoples
and their neighbors.
China will become fragmented asseveral hundred newly
(36:58):
independent agrarian city-statesemerge.
All this fragmentation, alongwith population increases, will
result in cultures struggling toacquire and defend resources
for their survival, and this isjust the start.
China will go through manyperiods of reshuffling, certain
groups vying for control, andeventually China will become
(37:20):
unified, but that's not forhundreds of years.
I want to thank you for takingyour time to listen or watch
this episode.
This is the first episode thatI'm recording on a camera.
The next episode we will getinto the spring and autumn
period, as this will further laythe groundwork for the
development of ancient Chinatrade, if you like what you hear
(37:47):
and want to donate to the show,you can visit us at patreoncom
slash history of money bankingtrade or you can visit our
website at moneybankingtradecom.
Thank you very much.
Talk to you soon.
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