King Nan of Zhou
King Nan of Zhou (Ji Yan; ?–256 BC), less commonly known as King Yin of Zhou, was the 37th and last king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty, the son of King Shenjing of Zhou and grandson of King Xian of Zhou. He was king from 314 BC until his death in 256 BC, a reign of fifty-nine years, the longest in the Zhou Dynasty and all of pre-imperial China. By the time of King Nan's reign, the kings of Zhou had lost almost all political and military power, as even their remaining crown land was split into two states or factions, led by rival feudal lords: West Zhou, where the capital Wangcheng was located, and East Zhou, centred at Chengzhou and Kung. Therefore, Nan lacked any personal territory and was effectively under the control of the local feudal lords, essentially relying on their charity.
| King Nan of Zhou 周赧王 | |
|---|---|
| King of China | |
| Reign | 314–256 BC |
| Predecessor | King Shenjing of Zhou |
| Successor | Title officially extinct, though claimed by King Hui of Zhou |
| Died | 256 BC |
| Issue | Jī Wen Jī Zhao |
| House | Zhou dynasty |
| Father | King Shenjing of Zhou |
| King Nan of Zhou | |||||||||
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| Posthumous name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 周赧王 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | The Blushing King of Zhou The Ruddy King of Zhou | ||||||||
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| Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||||
| Literal meaning | The Beclouded King of Zhou | ||||||||
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| Personal name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 姬延 | ||||||||
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However, Nan's symbolic and ritual power remains disputed. On one side, the Chinese states largely ignored the king's activities and adopted royal titles and rituals for themselves, while the dynasty's fall generally received meagre contemporary coverage and attention. This led to the assumption that Nan no longer had any symbolic power or semblance of royal authority left. On the other side, recent epigraphic discoveries and some accounts in the Records of the Grand Historian and Zhan Guo Ce suggest that until his death, Nan was still respected as the Son of Heaven. Either way, the last king of Zhou managed to preserve his weakened dynasty through diplomacy and conspiracies for fifty-nine years until his deposition by Qin and death in 256 BC.