King Ping of Zhou


King Ping of Zhou, personal name Ji Yijiu, was the thirteenth king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty and the first of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. He was the son of King You of Zhou and Queen Shen.
King You had exiled Queen Shen and Li Yijiu after the king became enamoured with his concubine Bao Si and made her queen. As a result, Queen Shen’s father, the Marquess of Shen, teamed with the Quanrong nomads and local satellite states to overthrow King You. You was killed, and Bao Si captured. Li Yijiu ascended the throne. At about the same time, Jī Hàn, Duke of Guó, elevated Jī Yúchén to the throne as King Xie of Zhou, and the Zhou Dynasty saw a period of two parallel kings until King Xie was killed by Marquis Wen of Jin in 750 BCE.
King Ping moved the Zhou dynasty east from Haojing to Luoyang, thus ending the Western Zhou and beginning 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.

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