king nan of zhou was the last ruler of the zhou dynasty.
king nan of zhou was the last ruler of the zhou dynasty.
who was the last ruler of the zhou dynasty?
king nan of zhou
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 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:
king nan of zhou
wu zetian proclaimed herself as the ruler of the "zhou dynasty", named after the historical zhou dynasty (1046–256 bc); and, thus, from 690 to 705 the chinese empire was known as the zhou dynasty. the traditional historical view, however, is to discount wu's "zhou dynasty": dynasties by definition involve the succession of rulers from one family: wu's "zhou dynasty" was founded by her, and ended within her lifetime, with her abdication (705). this does not meet the traditional concept of a dynasty. the alternative, is to view wu's "zhou dynasty" as the revival of the generally historically-accepted historical zhou dynasty, which had been ruled (at least nominally) by the ji family, almost a thousand years before. either way, wu's zhou dynasty is best viewed as a brief interruption of the li family's tang dynasty, rather than as a fully realized dynasty. her claim of founding a new dynasty, however, was little opposed at the time (690). the fifteen-year period which wu zetian designated as her "zhou dynasty" considered in the context of nearly a half century of "de facto" rule (c. 654–705) reveals a remarkable and still debated period of history. in this context, designating a new dynasty, with her as its emperor can be seen as part of her power politics, and as the culmination of her period of ruling. though the fifteen years of wu zetian's zhou dynasty had its own notable characteristics, these are difficult to separate from wu's reign of power, which lasted for about half of a century.
wu zetian