FRONT PAGE NEWS STORY

New Dynasty, Shang Out.

1122 BC, HAOJING- Tons and tons of Chinese were filled with hope and elation yesterday, as they welcomed in the Zhou dynasty and wholeheartedly made the Shang dynasty history.
         
In the recent battle at Muye, the Zhou tribe fought against the Shang and won. The Zhou tribe was avenging for the death of their King Wen whom the Shang heartlessly killed and took captive for a crime he clearly did not do.“Not only do Shang emperors kill for no reason; they are also harsh and cruel,” says a servant at the Chinese palace. “Emperor Di Xin (last emperor of Shang dynasty) cut off my leg and forced me to work for his wife when I witnessed him boil a baby,” the servant adds.
According to a maid in the palace, Emperor Di Xin was most interested in putting up acts to please his evil but beautiful wife; he was entangled to her that he never cared about the empire.
The Zhou is a quite tribe, that lived on the shores of the Wei River and now rules the Chinese empire. The tribe always paid an annual tribute to the Shang. The Shang always took them for granted and once claimed that they did not respect them fully. The Zhou rose to power when the Shang killed their King Wen.
In his speech, the now new Emperor Wu (son of King Wen) said the Shang did not have the mandate of heaven on their side while they (Zhou) clearly have the Mandate of heaven on their side and are going to rule China in a proper way. He promised to rule with fairness, defeat the tribesmen at the China border, reunite China under one government and widen the empire.
Most Chinese now feel that they will find happiness. “It was high time for the Shang to be over thrown,” says a hopeful Chinese man, “the Zhou defeated the Shang, there is no more proof needed now for us to know that we are going to defeat the tribesmen set upon us by the Shang at the border.” With this new dynasty in, China cannot wait to prosper.

OPINION/EDITORIAL

  WHY THE ZHOU SHOULD NOT MOVE THE EMPIRE’S CAPITAL!

The capital of our Chinese empire is Haojing, but the Zhou (our leaders) want it to be moved to Luoyang. Ever since those greedy, good for nothing Lords started disobeying the emperor’s orders, chaos and confusion has been circulating the air. Now, in our own empire, we do not know what is happening. And yet, just about two weeks ago, an announcement was given that China’s capital is being moved farther east to Luoyang. Everybody has started packing to move to Luoyang and be counted as part of the empire. But I urge that we should not moving be moving yet because, we cannot just do what the Zhou want and not know what is happening to our empire.

First, here in Haojing, we live on the banks of a river, which means we have fertile soil for our crops and favorable weather to live in. We are better off in this region, and it would be useless leaving behind our entire homeland for a new land that we do not know about. It is most likely that the East is a desert since the West has favorable weather and fertile soils.

Secondly, in the previous dynasty of the Shang, there were severe and terrible attacks from fierce tribesmen. We have been able to minimize this problem with the help of the river on whose banks we live on. It has always been hard for the tribesmen to get past the river and come to attack us; the river has always been hard for them to cross. In this place we are moving to, we do not know what physical features exist there. If there are no physical features for protection, we are going to start living in fear or worry of the attacking tribesmen.

    Lastly, we do not know the amount of land in this place. The lords have been currently and constantly fighting over land here and never get satisfied. Now that we are going to a new place, they are going to fight over land even before we get hold of it. Now without land, how will we survive, what will we eat, where will we sleep, where will our generations live.

I am scared for us all, we do not know what is happening in China and yet we just do what we are told. We should all stand up and demand from the Zhou what is happening in China.

MAP

This is a map of the Zhou Dynasty. (1122-256 BC). The area in orange is the Zhou dynasty. The area in white outside of the Zhou dynasty is present day China. The Zhou dynasty was divided into two main periods Eastern and Western Zhou. Land in the Western period (first period) was too much for the Zhou leaders to govern so they used feudal system. In this system, lords helped watch over small land territories and gave back produce to the emperor. As time went on, lords fought over land and became more rebellious to the emperor. Hard times ruled over China but the Zhou still felt they held the mandate of heaven, so they resolved to form another capital farther East creating the Eastern Zhou period. Now land in this dynasty was larger since the Zhou still owned some land from the previous period and now had gained more land to where they had relocated. The Zhou as compared to the previous dynasties gained a huge amount of land for China.

INTERVIEW WITH A "FAMOUS" PERSON

                          Interview with the Duke of Zhou

So Duke, they call you Duke instead of emperor. Why do you let people call you such a cheap name and yet you are the current emperor of China?                                               
        Ha ha! Well very nice of you to ask. Okay, so as you may know I am ruling as regent in place of young Cheng son of our previous great emperor my brother Wu. The mandate of heaven choose their family and blood line to rule China, so it would be wrong for me to take a title that the mandate of heaven does not want me to have.

The mandate of heaven is something I have heard being mumbled several times, what is it about?  
        The mandate of heaven is something we the Zhou discovered ourselves. Hard times hailed China during the Shang dynasty rule. We the Zhou were the only people who saw that the mandate of heaven was not in favor of the Shang rule. So we the Zhou stepped in since we were in favor with the mandate of heaven to save and rule China. The mandate of heaven, which is and was in favor of us, let us save and rule China. The mandate of heaven let us overthrow the Shang dynasty since it was not favored anymore by the mandate of heaven anymore.

Is it true that you were next in place when your brother King Wu died?

Yes, yes I was! See my brother was extremely dear to me; he was strong, trustworthy and loving. When he died, I felt like I had lost everything. I was in no state to rule an empire with my own hands so I decided to rule as regent for my loving nephew young Cheng. I gave-up my position to that young fellow because he reminds me of my brother and I strongly believe he will make a strong emperor just like his father was.

Why are you always creating musical pieces?

I love our dynasty; I do not want it to be broken up or separated. Lately, I have been writing and creating musical pieces in order to form literacy. Our dynasty is huge and obviously there are many people living in it. Some people have different skills and others do not have any skills at all. I am writing and creating musical pieces to educate the general public on what they can do to survive if they have no skills at all.

What are you most afraid of?

I am most afraid of rebellions. In rebellions you can either win or lose. I am most sincerely afraid of the rebellion whereby my own three brothers thought I wanted to take the thrown while ruling as regent. Those hypocrites wanted me off my seat and get a hold of some power in China. But thankfully they lost nobody believed the crazy accusations they were putting against me. I am most grateful to my brother Duke of Shao who after two long years stood up and defended me in any possible way against those accusations and hypocrites.

INVENTIONS

    MANDATE OF HEAVEN

The mandate of heaven was an idea made by the Zhou to form a wise, pure, honest and hardworking king for China. The mandate of heaven stated that a king was given power to rule by the heavens. The king was expected to be loyal, devoted, committed and hardworking towards China, for he was chosen by the heavens. If natural disasters and bad things stated happening to China, this meant that the king was not working in extremity for China and that the heavens were not in favor with him anymore. The mandate of heaven pushed Zhou kings to work extremely hard for China and last very long.

RELIGION/CULTURE

FEUDALISM.

Feudalism was a system used by the Zhou kings to be on top and in control of everything in China. In the feudalism system, Zhou kings appointed trusted noblemen called lords to rule over large kingdom territories and give back produce to the king. The noblemen or lords were given peasants and armies to work in the territories. If the king, needed any help he would ask for the lords and they would give workers to go and work for him. In return, the noblemen were protected from invaders and given a little land. With the help of the feudalism system, Zhou kings were able to control whatever happened in China for a short while. But soon later, lords started fighting over land and disobeying the king's orders. The lords wanted to feel just like the emperor who owned and ruled over. In the end, the Feudal system was not beneficiary to the emperor but it was to the lords.

ADDITIONAL OPTION

               SOCIAL CLASS.

        In the Zhou dynasty,China was under social classes which would soon affect it. On top of the social class pyramid was the king whom everyone through the feudal system worked to please. Second were the noblemen or lords whom the king entrusted with land that would provide produce for him. Still on the second line were knights or king’s army who occasionally fought against attacks from invading tribesmen. Then on the bottom were peasants who were always ordered around by lords to work and please the king. For a short while, the emperors ruled China with the social classes only under their control. The lords who were second after the king usually felt that they were close and very entrusting towards the king. So in order to be on the same level like the emperor, lords started ruling and fighting over land. Constantly the lords would not do what the emperor asked them to do and in the long run, the Eastern Zhou dynasty was overthrown by lords who did not do what the emperor wanted for they felt that they were on the same level like him.