Map of China in 650 BC - courtesy Thomas
Lessman, worldhistorymaps.info

Another invasion from the West in 771 BC brought an end to the “Western Zhou” Dynasty, but it continued in the East of China, remaining a feudal system but with little power retained for the Zhou Kings, whose Capital now was Luoyang. The King remained ritual leader and he was the only person who could offer sacrifices to heaven. The looser political federation was based on the need for defence against hostile neighbours. Society had a very rigid hierarchy, based on hereditary rights, with States governed by Princes. Over time, land passed to private ownership and in 594 BC feudal dues were replaced by taxes. During the first part of the “Eastern Zhou” period, called the Chunqiu (or Spring and Autumn) period (770 to 476 BC), some Feudal States were temporarily independent, with their own Kings. Some extensive defensive walls were built, such as the one the Qi built to defend their southern border. Perhaps surprisingly this troubled period saw the emergence of several great Chinese philosophers such as Laotzu, (605-520 BC) the founder of Taoism. These philosophers moved relatively freely between the mutually hostile Kingdoms that then ruled China. Kingdoms started to use bureaucrats (diplomats) rather than hereditary nobility for administration, and Confucius, the Great Chinese Philosopher, was one of these. The life of Confucius (537-479 BC) falls in the period when the old social order was disintegrating along with the transition of religious concepts from magic to rationality. Because of the high cost of bronze ritual vessels, very realistic pottery substitutes were made from the 6^th century BC. Also high-fired stoneware was produced.

Eastern Zhou bronze form Hu vases
- courtesy R&G McPherson Antiques

Eastern Zhou wheel made high fired stoneware
with honey coloured glaze - courtesy R&G
McPherson Antiques

Around 490 BC, the feudal league, which was a loose confederation by now, disintegrated in the struggle for supremacy of the various Princes. The turbulent time that followed was called the “Warring States Period” or Zhanguo Period (475 to 221 BC), when some states grew at the expense of smaller weaker ones that disappeared. During this period Confucianism and Taoism developed and spread.

During the Zhou period two customs changed regarding funerary rites. The number of human sacrifices decreased and pit burials, used during the Shang Dynasty, were replaced by burials in mounds. The graves of the elite still contained large quantities of the fine objects once used by the dead person in his everyday life. Graves became more like underground buildings where the dead could dwell in the afterlife. Bronzes made at the courts of the aristocracy were still the most usual grave goods. The largest complex of bronzes of the Zhou Period were found in Houma in Shaanxi Province, once the capital city of the Jin Feudal State (584 BC) and then of the Wei (from 450 BC). Smelting furnaces and crucibles were found, together with 30,000 ceramic moulds for bronze casting. The first Chinese coins came into use around 500 BC. They were usually cast bronze in the form of tools.