Fall of the Western Zhou and King Ping's Move East

Under King Xuan of Zhou there was a period of “revival,” but under his son King You the court was corrupt and social conflicts sharpened, with repeated earthquakes and droughts leaving the people destitute. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, “Annals of Zhou,” King You doted on Bao Si, deposed Queen Shen and Crown Prince Yijiu, and made Bao Si's son Bofu crown prince. Tradition says that to win a smile from Bao Si the king once lit the beacon fires to fool the lords, the tale of “toying with the lords with the beacon fires,” though many scholars consider this episode unreliable. The Marquis of Shen, father of Queen Shen, was furious; in 771 BC he joined the state of Zeng and the Quanrong of the northwest in attacking Haojing. The lords did not come to the rescue, King You was killed at the foot of Mount Li, Haojing was sacked and the Western Zhou ended. The Marquis of Shen and other lords then installed the former crown prince Yijiu as King Ping of Zhou. Because Haojing was ruined and close to the Rong, in 770 BC King Ping, escorted by Jin, Zheng, Qin and other lords, moved the capital east to Luoyi (present-day Luoyang, Henan), known as the Eastern Zhou. Duke Xiang of Qin was made a lord for his service in the escort, and Qin began to rise. King Ping's move east was the turning point from the Zhou's prime to decline: the area directly controlled by the royal house shrank to the Luoyi region, its economic and military strength was greatly weakened, and though still nominally the common overlord it could no longer control the lords. The Eastern Zhou is divided into the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and Chinese history entered an age of great change.