Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2014

 

From Zongzhou to Chengzhou: Confucius and Sima Qian's View of Zhou Dynasty History

(Abstract)

 

Li Jixiang

 

Sima Qian sees Zhou history as "a history of changes," a view inherited from Confucius. This view shows no trace of the later periodization of Zhou history; the "Eastern Zhou" and "Western Zhou" in the Imperial Annals of the Zhou Dynasty refer to something else. Sima Qian did not use King Ping's moving the capital eastward as a concept or term for the periodization of Zhou history. We can see from the Genealogical Table of the Three Ages and the Chronology of the Twelve Vassals in the Records of the Grand Historian that in Sima Qian's eyes, "King Li of Zhou" and the "the first year of the Gonghe" were the key to the periodization of Zhou history.