The history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (in simplified Chinese 東周) was quite special because in fact, the land actually belonged to the Zhou family had greatly decreased compared with the one in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Most of the land had been occupied by different nobles or lords and therefore, the area under the control of the Zhou family was not very much. People still call this period of time the Eastern Zhou Dynasty because in their sense, the other nobles were still regarding the Zhou family as their king and at least they did not try to kill the Zhou king during the period. However, actually during this period of time most of the people would cut them into two parts, which has other names.

Now, let’s talk about the Eastern Zhou Dynasty first. After King Yau of the Western Zhou Dynasty died, King Ping was chosen to be the new king and in the second year of his term, he found that the original capital was ruined by years of war and therefore, he decided to establish the capital in a new place called the Lob. After changing the capital, the area under Zhou’s rule decreased greatly and it was just like a very little country. Moreover, as the growth of other nobles’ land was rapid, King of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was getting less and less respect.

When there are challenges from foreign groups outside China, the Zhou army was always not able to defend themselves solely and help from some strong nobles were needed. As a result, some of the nobles were invisibly regarded as a representative of the other nobles and sometimes, they might not really respect the Zhou king because they might have wars against other foreign groups on their own without the permission of the Zhou king. Gradually, these nobles contributed to the first period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which was called the “Spring and Autumn Period” and it was quite well known in China because many philosophers existed in this period and they contributed a lot to the establishment of many of the later dynasties.