The Western Zhou Dynasty was the first Chinese political system in the Central Plains. Exploring the formation of the Western Zhou Dynasty political system is exploring “the reason why China is China” and “how China has gradually formed into a large, integrated political system.” Based on classical literature, bronze inscriptions, and archeological evidence, correlated closely with unearthed documents and historical geography, this thesis reconstructs the development process of the Western Zhou regime from the “center” to the “four corners of the world”, and identifies the changes in that political system. During the two hundred years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the development of the financial system with public and private aspects, monarchy, bureaucratization, and centralization of kingship, have become the intellectual nutrients of later generations.
The “royal domain” was the core of the development of the Western Zhou Dynasty. This thesis replaces the previous “royal domain” theory with the “central area” and re-examines the establishment of the “central area” and the exercise of royal power. Then it discusses the expansion of the royal power from the “central area” to the “four corners of the world”. The geographical distribution of states established by the Zhou people is presented on a map, and the connotations are explored. In the “central area”, the King of Zhou established the political organizations and held the power of personnel appointments. The content of the appointment inscriptions, from early Western Zhou Dynasty to the later period has also undergone changes. The appointment inscriptions symbolized the process by which officials go from the “private” sphere of the family of Ji to the “public'' of the Zhou dynasty. The direct appointment by the king of Zhou, moving from “clan rights'' to the development of “political power”, was the key to the evolution of the Western Zhou political system. Ruling over vast lands and a large population, King Zhou concentrated political power and expanded the political area. At the same time, the state princes and the chiefs of “bang” also developed in their respective regions, gradually developing their own “states”.
After discussing the formation of the system, a question that needs to be answered is: what was the power behind it? Zhou people formed a socio-political unit in the Zhou plain, expanded through subjugation of Shang by king Wu and the expedition of ZhouGong, eventually extending their area of political influence from the “center” to the “four corners of the world”. The organizational structure of the Zhou Dynasty was also copied by the state princes and the chiefs of “bang”. “Political power” was the force that promoted the convergence of the “center” and the “four corners of the world”. The Zhou people's rituals and the appointment inscriptions represented the officials moving from the “private” sphere of the Zhou family to “public” of the Zhou dynasty. This process of moving from the “private” to the “public” occurred not only in the “central area'', but was also emulated by the state princes and the chiefs of “bang”, giving rise to the split in the political system of Zhou.