Zheng (state)

Zheng was a vassal state in China during the Zhou dynasty, located on the North China Plain about 75 miles east of the royal capital at Luoyang, in the centre of ancient China in modern-day Henan. It was founded in 806 BC when King Xuan of Zhou granted his younger brother Prince You, posthumously Duke Huan of Zheng, lands at Zheng in modern Hua County, Shaanxi; when the Quanrong tribes sacked the Zhou capital Haojing in 771 BC, Duke Huan was killed, and his son Duke Wu re-established the state of Zheng in modern-day Xinzheng, Henan, annexing the state of Eastern Guo and defeating Kuai. The Zheng rulers served as high ministers to the Zhou kings for generations, and their state was the most powerful of the vassal states at the beginning of the Eastern Zhou (771–701 BC) — the period shown on the map. Zheng stood at the crossroads of the strongest powers of the Spring and Autumn period and bore the brunt of their wars, yet it remained a centre of learning and statecraft: it was the first state to clearly establish a code of law, in 543 BC. Its ruling house bore the ancestral name Ji as a branch of the Zhou royal house, holding the rank of Bo. Zheng survived as a state until its final annexation in 375 BC.