Zhou Dynasty (Spring and Autumn Period) - Total War: Pharaoh (2024)

Spring and Autumn Period

Synopsis

King Wu of Zhou established the Western Zhou after he overthrew the last King of the Shang Dynasty. Although feudalism had existed since the Shang, it was during the Zhou era that the King enfeoffed a large number of his loyal followers and relatives. The capital would eventually be invaded by the Quanrong tribe which led to the establishment of the Eastern Zhou, this arguably was the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period as the Feudal Lords began to exercise more autonomy.

(Figure 1: Fiefdom granted by the King of Zhou)

​Points of interest

Mandate of heaven is a concept devised by the founder of the Zhou dynasty to legitimize the overthrow the King of Shang dynasty. It would be used in future rebellions as well including by the Qin who would eventually overthrow the Zhou and unite the realm. MoH is also a concept that conceived the term Son of Heaven (Tian Zi).

Hegemonial Lords - When the feudal lords became more powerful, it became extremely difficult for the imperial authority to issue edicts. Hence, the King of Zhou would appoint a “hegemon” among the lords to faciliate administration of the realm. If this sounds familiar. Then, you got it. It is very similar to the Shogun system in feudal Japan where the Emperor would appoint a Shogun based on the most powerful lord in Japan. Some of the hegemon eventually declared themselves as a vassal King while recognizing the King of Zhou as the sole and legitimate son of heaven.

The Zhou was also the longest reigning dynasty of all the dynasties in China.

(Credit to Dragon's Armory for the pictures)

Signs of influence of the period in the present & past - Box office movies such as "Creation of the Gods I" from China and Japanese anime/manga & box office "Kingdom". South Korea's flag is inspired by the I-Ching divination manual which was written in the Spring & Autumn period. This is not an obscure setting.

This period also gave rise to some legendary historical characters such as Sun Tzu, confucius, Laozi and many more. Popular philosophy such as legalism also came from this period (there are a dozen more philosophy which you can wiki it out). A lot of military strategies being used during the Han & 3K period also were from this era.

Future dynasties would name their dynasty or fiefdom based on this ancient fiefdom granted by the King of Zhou. For example, Cao Cao's King of Wei title was based on the location of his power base situated in ji*zhou (refer to Figure 1).

Conclusion

If any game developer is looking for a strategy game setting closely resembling 3K but perhaps prefer something fresh. This is the time period. Honestly, I felt compelled to write up this thread due to the recent Black Myth Wukong hype. Although not related to Total War, the vibe & hype I had with Wukong is almost identical when TW3K was first announced.

​There is controversy over which of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period were involved.

The ones mentioned in the picture are: Duke Huan of Qi（齐桓公）, Duke Wen of Jin（晋文公）, King Zhuang of Chu（楚庄王）, King Helu of Wu（吴王阖闾）, and King Goujian of Yue（越王勾践）.This quote is from the book "Xunzi Wangba"《荀子·王霸》.

However, there is another more mainstream saying: Duke Huan of Qi（齐桓公）, Duke Wen of Jin（晋文公）, Duke Mu of Qin（秦穆公）, Duke Xiang of Song（宋襄公）, and King Zhuang of Chu（楚庄王）.This quote is from the book "Shiji Suoyin"《史记索隐》.

In addition, there are some other hegemons such as Duke Zhuang of Zheng（郑庄公）, Duke Mourning of Jin（晋悼公）, and King Fu-chai of Wu（吴王夫差） who are not included, but they are actuallyrenowned and important as well.

Additional Notes:

The Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period generally refer to the five most representative people involved in the struggle for supremacy during the Spring and Autumn Period, and the views of various types of historians and scholars are not the same. In addition to the two versions mentioned above, there are other different sayings:

1.Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mu of Qin, King Zhuang of Chu, Duke Zhuang of Zheng-"Rhetoric of the Tong"

2.Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mu of Qin, King Zhuang of Chu, and King Goujian of Yue- The Four Sons of Virtue

3.Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mu of Qin, King Zhuang of Chu, King Helu of Wu - Bai Hu Tong - The Noble Trumpets

4.Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mu of Qin, Duke Xiang of Song, and King Fu-chia of Wu-"Notes on the Book of Han: List of the Kings of the Vassals

5.Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Xiang of Jin, Duke Jing of Jin, and Duke Mourning of Jin-Jyujiqiting ji xieji

6.Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, King Zhuang of Chu, King Helu of Wu, and King Goujian of Yue-"Mozi: The Dyeing" .

1.齐桓公、晋文公、秦穆公、楚庄王、郑庄公—《辞通》

2.齐桓公、晋文公、秦穆公、楚庄王、越王勾践—《四子讲德论》

3.齐桓公、晋文公、秦穆公、楚庄王、吴王阖闾—《白虎通·号篇》

4.齐桓公、晋文公、秦穆公、宋襄公、吴王夫差—《汉书注·诸侯王表》

5.齐桓公、晋文公、晋襄公、晋景公、晋悼公—《鲒崎亭集外编》

6.齐桓公、晋文公、楚庄王、吴王阖闾、越王勾践—《墨子·所染》

And, if we are discussing the Spring and Autumn period, we generally cannot get around the Warring States period. Historically, there is no clear time boundary between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was a period(770 BC-221 BC) of great statedivision in Chinese history, and the Eastern ZhouDynastywas overthrown by the Qin State/Qin Dynasty in the late Warring States Period (256 BC), so the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are not all temporally included in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

Map changes during the Warring States period:

403BC:

(The Qin state(秦) is the westernmost state on the map)

301BC:

280BC:

260BC:

The Qin state eventually annexed six other states and re-established a great unified dynasty: the Qin dynasty (221BC-207BC).

The Qin dynasty unified the country's writing and weights and measures, abolished the Enfeoffment system and establishedPrefectures and countiessystem, and created the emperor system (and its accompanying system of rulers, ministers, and clerical staff), which had a major impact on later generations of China. BTW, the word "china/sino" inEnglish,German and Spanish, and the word "chine" in French, is also derived from the pronunciation of the word "Qin".

(But the Qin Dynasty was soon overthrown by the Han Dynasty(202BC-220AD), and the period we know as the Three Kingdoms was the period of division at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25AD-220AD). )

​However, there is one topic that can't be gotten around if you make a total war game from this period, and that is cavalry.

In both the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, military battles were still fought with infantry and chariots. The earliest recorded cavalry in Chinese history came from the Zhao state during the Spring and Autumn period (probably because they had to fight against the invasion of nomads from the north), but both during the Spring and Autumn period and during the Warring States period, the cavalry on the battlefield was very small or even non-existent.

Because, at that time, the harness was very backward, only the saddle, and the stirrups had not yet been invented.Currently, the earliest excavated artifacts of stirrups are from the Western Han Dynasty. The invention of stirrups had a qualitative improvement on the combat power of cavalry, and greatly reduced the selection requirements of cavalry. Most of the well-known large-scale cavalry battles took place in the wars between the Western Han and the Huns.（The Huns were a nomadic empire in the north , at the time, they occupied much of the map of present-day Mongolia and Russia）

A total war game without cavalry is soulless, but sadly there was almost no cavalry in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.(I think that's also why Pharaoh's battles are boring)

Nah, if TW revisits China, I'd rather have a game taking place during the Song dynasty. Starting with the Song-Jin wars and ending with the Mongol invasions. That would also allow the opportunity to include characters from Water Margin.

As interesting as the Spring&Autumn period or the Warring States would be, it would again be mostly Chinese fighting other Chinese and so have the downside of a certain saminess between all the factions involved.

​

TainBoCuailinge#8335 wrote:

Nah, if TW revisits China, I'd rather have a game taking place during the Song dynasty. Starting with the Song-Jin wars and ending with the Mongol invasions. That would also allow the opportunity to include characters from Water Margin.

As interesting as the Spring&Autumn period or the Warring States would be, it would again be mostly Chinese fighting other Chinese and so have the downside of a certain saminess between all the factions involved.

​Yes, I agree, because it wasn't just cavalry and a wide variety of cold weapons that were greatly developed during this period. More heavily, the most primitive versions of muskets and artillery were already on the battlefield during this period. The battlefield would have a much richer choice of units and tactics.

However, I would like to correct one point, that is, the expression "Chinese fighting Chinese" is inaccurate, and perhaps it should be changed to "civil war of the Middle Kingdom" or "Civil war between the Midlanders" (they shouldn't even be called the Han ethnic group, since the Han Dynasty was not established until hundreds of years later).

As for the period of the Song-Jin War, it was actually first the Song-Liao War. TheSong Dynasty, they were engaged in a north-south war with the Liao Dynasty. The main population of Liao was the Khitan people（or Khitay ）, and the word "Khitan" is the name given to China in Russian and in some Central Asian countries today, and is also the origin of the word "Cathay". But with the fall of the Liao Dynasty, the Khitans gradually integrated into various other ethnic groups.

In later years, the Jurchen defeated the Khitans, overthrew the Liao Dynasty and established the Jin Dynasty, which continued to confront the Song Dynasty. After this, they were defeated by the Mongols. The Mongols defeated the Jin Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, and many countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, suggesting a huge empire, the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty was then overthrown by the Ming Dynasty. A few hundred years later, the Jurchen overthrew the Ming Dynasty and established the Qing Dynasty, and calling themselves the "Manchus". The Manchus are now the fourth largest ethnic group in China. They are not "Han Chinese", but they are Chinese.

Thanks to Yangbo for the additional input. Point noted on Tainbo's argument.

Either way, the Zhou nonetheless is the foundation of the Sinosphere's culture. It is also the most intriguing and mysterious period. Artifacts such as the nine tripod cauldrons and Gou Jian's sword have always peak my interest in oriental history. In addition, heshibi which would later be carved into the heirloom seal of the realm.