Eastern Zhou Dynasty Royal Family

The Zhou Dynasty, as the last dynasty with the system of enfeoffment, had created a delicate and excellent civilization of rites and music, which had become the cornerstone of Chinese ancient civilization. The rise, growth, and decline of the Zhou Dynasty were of typical significance in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, for they best presented the characteristics of the system of enfeoffment. The decline of the Zhou Dynasty was especially meaningful, for it showed the innate defects of the feudal system. The termination of the Zhou Dynasty gave rise to a historical ration in a higher level, where Chinese political system developed into a higher stage, i.e., the imperial state with a central authority.The termination of the Zhou Dynasty was different from that of the Xia and the Shang Dynasties. It's the lack of the rulers' virtues and the attack outside the royal family instead of the exhaustion of the royal family's vitality that cause the termination of the Xia and the Shang Dynasties, while the termination of the Zhou Dynasty was the outcome of the inherent contradiction of the feudal system. The disorder of the Zhou Dynasty provided a historical opportunity for the movement of the inherent contradiction in the feudal system, and accelerated the progress of the history.There were two reasons for the termination of the Zhou Dynasty . Firstly, the long time conquering war depleted the regime's strength; secondly, the inherent defects broke out earlier in the regime's center, where political development was earlier and more mature in the periphery. The violent ruling of the King You and Li pushed the crisis to a burning point. As a result, the control of the regime was badly weakened, and the Zhou Dynasty collapsed.The history of the Spring and Autumn Period after the King Ping presented the contradiction between the political matrix and its' components. The middle and late period of the Spring and Autumn Period also presented the inherent crisis in the political components. The overall crisis of the feudal system led to the centralizationof power in the princes' states in the Warring States, which gave birth to transformation in China's political and economic system, social constitution and culture. The transformation of the central power was not only influenced by the traditional heritage system, but also by the social changes. Roughly speaking, the struggle for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period was more influenced by the transformation of the central authority, while in the Warring States was more by social changes.The Eastern Zhou Dynasty moved its capital eastward, which temporarily alleviated the social conflicts. But the authority couldn't brace up, for it's conservative and willing to maintain the Status quo. Before long, kinds of crisis broke up in the dynasty, and the base for maintaining a central authority collapsed. After the failure of some efforts to recover the King's authority, an authority vacuum appeared in Central China. Many political units run for higher authority, causing nearly five centuries' turbulence in Central China.The vitality of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was of great tenacity for the reason of the enfeoffment system, so the dynasty didn't terminate overnight. The control and influence of the king's authority suffered a long time up and down. This paper makes great effort to present the changes of the king's authority, in order to explore the transformation of the central authority.This paper also discusses the kingdom's power and political foundation in the Spring and Autumn Period in a geographical way, the kingdom's principles in choosing officials by exploring the bureaucratic system.