-King Cheng died (c. 1020 BC (or 1005 BC)), so his son, King Kang (haha) was enthroned.
-Continued the Zhou dynasty's policy of aggressive expansion, especially to the west and the north.
-There was also a rebellion to the east (or west?), but it was quickly squashed.
-c. 996 BC (or 978 BC), King Kang died :(
-Next up was King Zhao, eldest son of King Kang.
-Continued the wars of expansion.
-Also began to experience trouble with the state of Chu (or Cho), located to the southwest of the kingdom.
-The Zhou dynasty was obviously more powerful, but Chu was rapidly growing in power so this naturally led to a power struggle.
-King Zhao invaded with his armies, but this was disastrous, and he ended up dying while fleeing a battle by drowning in the Han River ("Hanshui").
-Because of his failure to pacify the region (which roughly comprised the area between the Han and Yangtze Rivers), the state of Chu and the barbarians to the south of the Zhou dynasty's kingdom found themselves outside of the Zhou dynasty's dominance.
-Next up was his son, King Mu (the year was either c. 976 BC or 956 BC).
-Was a huge fan of travel, having allegedly traveled 90,000 km in his lifetime!
-A fun story involving King Mu can be found in the Taoist text "Liezi" (AKA "Lieh-tzu"; compiled in either the 5th century BC or the 4th century AD) in which there's a story about when a genius engineer named Yan Shi brings an extremely lifelike automaton to the court of King Mu.
-Of course, the Zhou dynasty continued to expand its influence in all directions (except the south).
-King Mu also launchd a massive campaign against the Quanrong (translates to "Dog Barbarians" or "White Wolves" in English and who may have also been related to (or were the same as) the Xianyun barbarians of the north (who may in turn also be the same as or related to the Xiongnu (AKA Hsiung-nu)).
-Many of the Quanrong clans submitted to the Zhou dynasty forces, but many also decided to fight. Unfortunately for those deciding to fight, King Mu made sure that they were completely annihilated and/or captured/enslaved.
-However, while King Mu may have been victorious initially, these wars would come back to haunt the Zhou dynasty in 200 years...
-Meanwhile, the Zhou dynasty began having trouble with the "barbarian" states of Xu (to the east) and Wu (to the southeast).
-These states were actually a part of the Zhou kingdom, but had been deemed too "barbarous" and uncivilized to be considered worthy of being allowed to host fiefs.
-For whatever reason, this trouble came to a head c. 961 BC.
-The state of Xu began attacking the Zhou dynasty, and their forces actually got pretty close to Fenghao, but eventually they were driven off and the two armies reached a stalemate.
-As a result of this, the Zhou dynasty recognized the state of Xu as an independent kingdom, but Xu still had to swear fealty or something so I guess they did this just to keep the Zhou dynasty happy.
-Anyway, King Mu died c. 922 BC, replaced by his son, King Gong (AKA King Gong / King Kung).
-We don't know much about this dude except for the fact that he was a king haha.
-King Gong died c. 900 BC, replaced by his son, King Yi.
-It's unclear as to why King Yi's reign was so short, as he died c. 892 BC, but it's possible that he was killed because after him his uncle, King Xiao (AKA King Hsiao; son of King Mu and brother of King Gong) was the next king instead of his (King Yi's) son.
-We don't know much about King Xiao's reign except for the fact that he had a dude named Feizi (AKA Qin Ying) appointed as the official horse breeder for the kingdom's army.
-Feizi may or may not have been descended from noble stock, but either way he would end up founding the state of Qin (AKA Ch'in), which would originate from a small fief granted to him by King Xiao.
-This is important to keep in mind because Qin would eventually become a powerful dynasty of its own (and is quite possibly where the name "China" comes from in English).
-Anyway, King Xiao died c. 886 BC, replaced by his nephew King Yi (son of the possibly usurped/murdered King Yi).
-The sources say that King Yi had been "restored by the many lords", which is strong further evidence that his uncle had usurped his father.
-During his reign, he got involved in some inter-state drama among the nobility of the Zhou dynasty (specifically between the Marquis of the state of Ji and Duke Ai (AKA Lu Buchen) of the state of Qi).
-King Yi sided with Ji and had Duke Ai boiled alive!!
-Also during this time the Zhou dynasty had more trouble with the state of Chu and the eastern barbarians.
-Last, because the Fengjian system was now so old, the original idea of having all the Zhou dynasty states being bonded by blood had obviously become so watered down.
-This was one reason why overall morale was declining among the nobility.
-Anyway, King Yi died c. 878 BC (or 858 BC), replaced by his son, King Li.
-Allegedly, King Li was a shitty king, super decadent and corrupt.
-Passed a bunch of laws allowing for the execution of anyone who said anything bad about him. Also raised taxes and did other dumb shit.
-Not surprisingly, the people finally rose up against him (after 35 (or 15?) years!). and he was imprisoned and then exiled (to near modern-day Linfen, Shaanxi Province). Luckily for his son, he was safely protected and hidden by one of the king's ministers.
-Surprisingly, King Li was replaced not by another king, but by a regent of government ministers to ensure the stability of the kingdom: the "Gonghe regency".
-However, it is unclear as to what exactly went on during this time.
-The Records of the Grand Historian state that there were two dukes (the contemporary Dukes of Zhou and Shao, respectively), but the Bamboo Annals state that it was just one (the Count of Gong (personal name: He)).
-Also, according to Sima Qian (the Grand Historian), it was the Gonghe regency that he said was the earliest that we could actually date the chronology with some confidence.
-Additionally, the word "gonghe" was taken by modern Chinese to mean "republic", which is why it appears in the official name of the People's Republic of China ("Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo").
-Anyway, when King Li's son finally came of age, the regents surprisingly stepped aside and King Xuan was enthroned c. 827 BC.
-Of course, at this point no one was taking the throne seriously anymore because King Li had fucked everything up so bad, and the states had probably gotten used to just governing themselves.
-However, King Xuan tried to change this by boosting his power and the crown's authority by raising a royal army (with the excuse of fighting the western barbarians).
-He did indeed seem to fight off an invading horde, but after this he also used the army to intervene in drama with the states of Lu, Wei (Wey), and Qi.
-Of course, the vassal lords didn't want the throne fucking around in their affairs, so they began to rebel.
-King Xuan died c. 782 BC (allegedly killed by a ghost (!?) of a duke he had executed who had supposedly been innocent), replaced by his son, King You.
-King You was only 14 years old or so at the time of his enthronement.
-His reign started off with what was believed by the seers to be an ill omen...an earthquake in the Guanzhong Plain, the ancestral region of the Zhou dynasty.
-King You soon married the daughter of the Marquis of the state of Shen.
-They had a son named Ji Yijiu.
-All was going well I guess until the king got a beautiful new concubine (uh-oh...) named Bao Si.
-According to legend, Bao Si was born from a virgin girl and a black lizard that had spawned from a 1000 year-old black dragon's saliva (which had been kept in a box dating back to the Xia dynasty)!!
-Bao Si eventually gave birth to a son, Bofu (AKA Bopan).
-It's unclear what went down, but apparently King You decided it would be a good idea to replace his queen with Bao Si and have the crown prince replaced with Bofu as heir to the throne!
-There's also some story about the king abusing the lighting beacon system to try and prank the vassal states into thinking there was an invasion or something in order to amuse Bao Si (who was really emo I guess). Of course, when the vassal states' armies showed up in response to the warning beacons, they weren't very happy when they found out it was just a prank (bro!).
-King You even repeated this "prank" a second time, which I'm sure just pissed off everyone else even more.
-Eventually, everyone started to get really fed up.
-The Marquis of Shen decided to raise an army with some other vassal states (namely the state of Zeng) and even some barbarian hordes!
-As the rebel army rushed towards Fenghao, King You tried to use the beacon system to summon the vassal states to his aid, but obviously no one responded because they thought it was just another prank (and even if it wasn't, King You was a shitty anyway). So basically, this is the Chinese version of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".
-Thus, Fenghao was occupied and King You and Bao Si were imprisoned. King You was then executed and Bao Si was given some money and then kicked out of the capital (she later committed suicide to avoid being taken prisoner by some barbarian raiders).
-It's unclear as to what happened with Bofu, as some sources say he was executed along with King You, while other sources say he would pop up again later to challenge the legitimacy of the future King Ping (his half-brother, the original crown prince Ji Yijiu).
-Thus, King You was dead, so who would be king next?
-The Marquesses of both Shen and Zeng, respectively, as well as Duke Wen of Xu decided to restore Ji Yijiu as the rightful heir to the throne.
-So, c. 771 BC Prince Ji Yijiu was crowned King Ping of Zhou, and the capital was moved from Fenghao to Luoyang (AKA Loyang) (modern-day Henan Province).
-Because King Ping had been enthroned via the good graces of the vassal lords, it was obvious that the real power no longer lie in the hands of the king.
-Thus, the era known as the Spring and Autumn Period had begun!
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