King Nan of Zhou

King Nan of Zhou
周赧王
King of China
Reign314–256 BC[1][2]
PredecessorKing Shenjing of Zhou[2]
SuccessorTitle officially extinct,[3] though claimed by King Hui of Zhou[4]
Died256 BC[5]
IssueJī Wen[3]
Jī Zhao[6]
HouseZhou dynasty
FatherKing Shenjing of Zhou[7]
King Nan of Zhou
Posthumous name
Chinese
Literal meaningThe Blushing King of Zhou
The Ruddy King of Zhou
Second alternative Chinese name
Literal meaningThe Beclouded King of Zhou
Personal name
Chinese

King Nan of Zhou (Ji Yan;[1] ?–256 BC), less commonly known as King Yin of Zhou,[8] was the 37th and last king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty, the son of King Shenjing of Zhou and grandson of King Xian of Zhou.[8] He was king from 314 BC until his death in 256 BC, a reign of fifty-nine years,[3] the longest in the Zhou Dynasty and all of pre-imperial China.[9] By the time of King Nan's reign, the kings of Zhou had lost almost all political and military power,[10] as even their remaining crown land was split into two states or factions, led by rival feudal lords: West Zhou, where the capital Wangcheng was located, and East Zhou, centred at Chengzhou and Kung.[11][5][a] Therefore, Nan lacked any personal territory and was effectively under the control of the local feudal lords, essentially relying on their charity.[10]

However, Nan's symbolic and ritual power remains disputed. On one side, the Chinese states largely ignored the king's activities and adopted royal titles and rituals for themselves, while the dynasty's fall generally received meagre contemporary coverage and attention. This led to the assumption that Nan no longer had any symbolic power or semblance of royal authority left.[10][12] On the other side, recent epigraphic discoveries and some accounts in the Records of the Grand Historian and Zhan Guo Ce suggest that until his death, Nan was still respected as the Son of Heaven.[12] Either way, the last king of Zhou managed to preserve his weakened dynasty through diplomacy and conspiracies for fifty-nine years until his deposition by Qin and death in 256 BC.[13]

  1. ^ a b Tan (2014), p. 54.
  2. ^ a b Shaughnessy (1999), p. 29.
  3. ^ a b c Sima (1995), p. 83.
  4. ^ Tan (2014), p. 37, 56.
  5. ^ a b Schinz (1996), p. 80.
  6. ^ Tan (2014), p. 56.
  7. ^ Cambridge History of ancient China
  8. ^ a b "Chinese History - Political History of the Zhou Dynasty 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE)". Theobald, Ulrich. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  9. ^ Pines (2009), p. 238, 239.
  10. ^ a b c d "Considering Chengzhou ("Completion of Zhou") and Wangcheng ("City of the King")" (PDF). Xu Zhaofeng. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  11. ^ Sima (1995), p. 78.
  12. ^ a b Pines (2009), p. 17,18.
  13. ^ Sima (1995), p. 79-83.


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