After an attack by Quanrong nomads allied with several vassal states including Shen and Zheng, the Zhou ruler King You was killed in his palace at Haojing.
Queen Shen’s father was upset by the deposition of his daughter and grandson Yijiu and mounted an attack on King You’s palace in conjunction with Quanrong nomads.
The Quanrong （犬戎）, literally "Dog nomad-tribe", were enemies of the settled civilizations from the time of the Zhou Dynasty onwards.
In 771 BC, the 45th of his reign, the Quanrong attacked the Zhou capital Haojing and killed both King Xuan of Zhou and Duke Huan of Zheng.
Both were abandoned in 771 BC during the Quanrong invasion that drove the Zhou out of the Wei River valley and brought an end to its Western dynasty.
Additional "dog" radical examples of exonyms include the ancient Quanrong 犬戎 "dog barbarians" or "dog belligerents" and Xianyun 獫狁 (written with xian 獫 or 玁 "long-snouted dog; black dog with a yellow face").
In King You of Zhou's reign (r. 781-771 BCE), the Marquess of Shen with support from Quanrong nomads from the west overran Hàojīng heralding the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Following the destruction of Western Zhou in 770 BCE, Duke Wu of Zheng (郑武公) in alliance with the armies of the states of Qin (state), Jin and Wei beat back an attack by the nomadic Quanrong and as a reward received the office of qīngshì (卿士), becoming responsible for high level matters of state in Luoyang.
In the height of his passion for conquests, he led an immense army against the Quanrong, who inhabited the western part of China.
After trying many methods and failing, King You tried to amuse his favourite queen by lighting warning beacons and fooling his nobles into thinking that the Quanrong nomads were about to attack.
In 771 BC, the tenth year of his reign, King You of Zhou was killed by Quanrong nomads and two Zhou family members were subsequently and separately declared king: King Ping of Zhou and King Xie of Zhou.
In his 15th chapter, "Yearly Chronicle of the Six States," he writes, “I have read the Annals of Qin (qin ji 秦記), and they say that the Quanrong a barbarian tribe defeated King You of Zhou ca 771 BC.
When You replaced his wife with a concubine, the former queen's powerful father, the Marquess of Shen, joined forces with Quanrong barbarians to sack the western capital of Haojing and kill King You in 770 BCE.
964 BCE: King Mu of Zhou defeated the Quanrong and the following year attacked the Western Rong and Xurong.
Quanrong |
As the national capital Haojing had suffered severe damage, and was located near the potentially dangerous Quanrong, in 771 BC, King Ping of Zhou moved the capital eastward to Luoyang, thus beginning the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and ushering in the Spring and Autumn period which would last for more than 300 years.