the zhou period
according to standard chinese accounts， the last shang ruler， a despot was overthrown by a chieftain of a frontier tribe called zhou， which had settled in the wei valley in modern shaanxi province. the zhou dynasty had its capital at hao， near the city of xi'an， or chang'an， as it was known in its heyday in the imperial period.
in 771 b.c， the capital was moved eastward to luoyang in present-day henan province. because of this shift， historians divide the zhou era into western zhou （1027-771 b.c.） and eastern zhou （770-221 b.c.）。and eastern zhou divides into two subperiods. the first， from 770 to 476 b.c.， is called the spring and autumn period ； the second is known as the warring states period （475-221 b.c. ）。
sharing the language and culture of the shang， the early zhou rulers， through conquest and colonization， gradually sinicized， that is， extended shang culture through much of china proper north of the chang jiang （or yangtze river）。 the zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other， from 1027 to 221 b.c.initially from shang ，there waw the notion that the ruler （the "son of heaven" ）governed by divine right but that his dethronement would prove that he had lost the mandate.
周朝
据中国正史记载，商朝的末代统治者 -一位暴君最终被边疆部落的首领 "周"推翻了，"周"部落位于现陕西省的渭河流域。周的首都在镐，位于西安附近，在王朝的鼎盛时期称为长安。
公元前771年，周的首都东迁到了现河南省的洛阳。正因为这次迁都，史学家将周朝划分为东周（1027-771 b.c.） 和西周 （770-221 b.c.）两个时代。而东周又分为两个阶段：第一个阶段被称为"春秋"（770-476.bc），第二个阶段"战国"（ 475-221 b.c.）。
周早期的统制者延用了商朝的语言和文化，他利用战争和侵略， 逐步建立了中国文化，也就是将商朝文化扩展到长江（扬子江）以北的中国大部分地区 .周朝比此前其他朝代的存续时间长，从公元前1027年一直到公元前221年。从商朝开始，人们形成了一种观点即：统治者（"天子"）的统治是天经地义的，但是一旦他被废黜即意味着他失去了上天的意志。