Zhou Dynasty Achievements

The Zhou dynasty was founded by King Wen of the Ji family in 1076 B.C, after the Shang dynasty ended. This dynasty had three specific achievements; it had a unique social hierarchy, a standardized spoken language, and an extensive time of reign. The Zhou dynasty’s standardized spoken language was considered a huge advancement in Chinese history and was later used throughout many Chinese dynasties. Language helps bond society together, which may be a contributing factor to the length of the Zhou Dynasty. This spoken language was one of the most well known accomplishments of the Zhou dynasty along with the Mandate of Heaven.
The Mandate of Heaven is the belief that Heaven gives the right to rule. It is the idea that Heaven and earth are interconnected

The Iron Age led to improvements in military strength and force. With advancements like leather armor to iron armor as well as iron weapons, the Zhou had a very large and very strong military. As stated in the first paragraph, the Zhou also had a unique social hierarchy. They ruled with what was called a Confucian social hierarchy. Confucianism became popular during the Zhou and the rulers expected their citizens to follow the rules and values accordingly. Confucianism was unusual because it was the belief that emperors were above all, scholars were second, then farmers, merchants, and lastly slaves and women. This is different from the typical social structure that started with emperors first as well, but followed with merchants then scholars and farmers and again, slaves last. This unique social hierarchy could have been another contributing factor to the length of the Zhou

With many rulers at one time, tension began to build and each ruler grew to feel more superior than the other. After all, they were all “Sons of God” so naturally each one wanted to be the top dog. They ruled as coordinators rather than as a central government and this type of challenging ruling started to split up the Zhou into regional states. The tension between the rulers eventually escalated into a war between all of the regions. This brutal war was known as the “Period of Warring States” which essentially led to the fall and conclusion of the Zhou dynasty. Of course the new iron technology gave regions confidence to go at each other as well. Many may argue that the Iron Age is what led to “The Period of Warring States” since it created such an economic