King Ping of Zhou

He was the son of King You of Zhou and Queen Shen (申后).

King You had exiled Queen Shen and Ji Yijiu after the king became enamoured with his concubine Bao Si and made her queen and his son Bofu his heir.^[5] As a result, Queen Shen’s father, the Marquess of Shen, teamed with the Quanrong nomads and local satellite states to overthrow King You.^[4][6] In the Battle of Mount Li King You and Bofu were killed, and Bao Si was captured. Ji Yijiu ascended the throne. At about the same time, Jī Hàn (姬翰), Duke of Guó (虢公), elevated Jī Yúchén (姬余臣) to the throne as King Xie of Zhou (周携王), and the Zhou Dynasty saw a period of two parallel kings until King Xie was killed by Marquis Wen of Jin (晋文侯) in 750 BCE.

The Xinian manuscript, however, has challenged this traditional narrative. It seems to indicate that King Xie (also known as King Hui, or the King at Xie) was originally accepted by many of the regional lords over King Ping. After Marquis Wen of Jin killed Xie, there was not an officially accepted King of Zhou for 9 years, until, in 741 BCE, Marquis Wen recognized Ping. Three years later, in 738 BCE, Wen helped Ping move to Chengzhou.^[7]

King Ping moved the Western Zhou dynasty's capital east from Haojing to Luoyang,^[8] thus ending the Western Zhou^{[citation needed]} and the beginning of the Eastern Zhou dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period. He is the first Zhou king to be mentioned in the chronological account of the Zuo Zhuan.

Over 14 centuries after King Ping’s death, Tang dynasty Empress regnant Wu Zetian claimed ancestry from King Ping through his son Prince Wu, and changed the dynastic name to Zhou, which was reverted to Tang after her death.^[9]

• Family tree of ancient Chinese emperors