A Study On The Financial Operation Of Western Zhou Dynasty

This article mainly relies on the Chinese classical writings,bronze inscriptions and other unearthed materials to analyze the interaction between the financial operation and other factors of the Western Zhou Dynasty in different periods,such as politics,military and culture.During the Western Zhou Dynasty,there was no distinction between royal and government finances,which is the consensus of financial historians and we will not discuss this conception separately.This thesis was divided into four chapters.The first chapter discusses the establishment of the financial system of the Western Zhou Dynasty and its disadvantages.The financial system was based on the system of enfeoffment,which shows a relative relationship of income and expenditure between the king and the state vassals.That’s means,for the king of Zhou,the enfeoffment was a huge financial expenditure.For the enfeoffees,it is a huge financial income which enable to establish a new state.The large-scale enfeoffment at the beginning of Zhou Dynasty is just an embodiment of king who has a strong economic strength.The political rights of king and the state vassals based on the system of enfeoffment are separated so that their financial rights above it are also decentralized.This decentralized financial system is an important reason for the continuous decrease of the royal revenue after the middle period of the Western Zhou Dynasty.The second chapter discusses the financial operation of the early Western Zhou Dynasty.The Zhou learned the lesson of destroying the Shang Dynasty and took the ruling ideology of being serious in punishment(明德慎罚)and respecting the heaven and protecting the people(敬天保民).Under the guidance of this ideology,they took a series of measures to benefit the people,which brought up a prosperous period of the reign during the King Cheng and the King Kang(成康之治).The Zhou Dynasty made its capital at Haojing(Xi’an of Shaanxi Province)and the natural environment here is very complex.In order to facilitate the vassals to present goods to the king,the Zhou built Luoyi(Luoyang of Henan Province)as the eastern capital,and perfected the infrastructure construction with this as the center.After the completion of Cheng Zhou,it soon became the economic center in the east.The third chapter discusses the financial operation in the middle of Western Zhou Dynasty.During the reign of King Mu,in order to revive the royal family,he launched a war against Chourong(犬戎)in the northwest under the pretext of paying tribute,which led to the deterioration of the relationship between Zhou and Rong.During the reign of King Gong,King Yi(懿王),King Xiao and King Yi(夷王),the land of King was decreasing continuously.However,the kings significantly increased the reward to military generals,which was determined by the frequent wars in the middle of Western Zhou.The fourth chapter discusses the financial operation of the late Western Zhou Dynasty.In the late Western Zhou Dynasty,financial crisis became more and more obvious with social contradictions intertwining,natural disasters repeating and land of king reducing.The lack of economy made it difficult for the kings to undertake the due obligations normally,so they tried to take economic intervention measures.The King Li attempted to increase the financial income by monopolizing the mountains,forests,and rivers,but it failed because he violated the interests of the beneficiaries.The King Xuan,as the ruler who made the Zhou Dynasty strong again,did a lot of things.After the defeat in Qianmu,he tried to make population statistics to supplement his troops,but in the end,he also failed to keep the accomplishments of the Zhou Dynasty.