Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Chou dynasty

The Chou conquered the Shang Dynasty about 1100 BC (the traditional date is 1122). The Chou said that the reason they were able to conquer the Shang was that Heaven was on their side. The first period of Chou rule is called the Western Chou, because at this time the Chou only ruled the western part of modern China. China was divided up into about 200 little kingdoms, and then each of these kings was under the Chou emperor.
This is the same time when the Indo-Europeans were settling in India. Further away, the kingdoms of West Asia, Egypt, and Greece were collapsing at the end of the Bronze Age. In terms of the Bible, Moses would probably be leaving Egypt about this time. Zoroastrianism was just getting started.

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