Duke Zhuang of Qin (, died 778 BC) was from 821 to 778 BC the fifth ruler of the

Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

state of Qin that eventually united China to become the

Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...

. His

ancestral name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name, ...

was Ying ().

Reign

Duke Zhuang became the Qin ruler after his father

Qin Zhong Qin Zhong or Zhong of Qin (, died 822 BC) was the fourth ruler of the state of Qin (r. 844 to 822 BC) during China's Zhou dynasty. Qin at the time was a small fief that had been granted to his great-grandfather Feizi for his work breeding horse ...

was killed in battle against the

Rong Rong or RONG may refer to: Places China * Rong County, Guangxi, Yulin, Guangxi, China * Rong County, Sichuan, Zigong, Sichuan, China Nepal * Rong, Ilam, a rural municipality in Ilam District, Nepal Norway * Rong, Norway, a village in Øygard ...

tribes in 822 BC.

King Xuan of Zhou __NOTOC__ King Xuan of Zhou, personal name Ji Jing, was the eleventh king of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. Estimated dates of his reign are 827/25–782 BC. He worked to restore royal authority after the Gong He interregnum. He fought the 'Western ...

gave Duke Zhuang and his four younger brothers seven thousand soldiers, and they defeated the Rong. King Xuan then awarded Qin the territory of Quanqiu (犬丘, also called Xichui, in present-day

Li County, Gansu Li County or Lixian is an administrative division of the prefecture-level city of Longnan in southeastern Gansu, a northwestern province of China. The 2010 Chinese census found a population of 458,237, a decline of around 25,000 from the year 200 ...

), formerly belonging to the senior branch of the House of Ying that was destroyed by the Rong, and Duke Zhuang moved the capital of the state from Qin (in present-day

Zhangjiachuan County The Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County (, Xiao'erjing: ) is a county in the east of Gansu Province of the People's Republic of China, bordering Shaanxi Province to the east. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Tianshui ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...

) to Quanqiu.

Family

Duke Zhuang had three sons. The eldest, Shifu (世父), refused the throne, preferring to campaign against the Rong tribes who killed his grandfather,

. Duke Zhuang died in 778 BC after a reign of 44 years and was succeeded by his second eldest son

Duke Xiang of Qin Duke Xiang of Qin (, died 766 BC) was from 777 to 766 BC the sixth ruler of the Zhou Dynasty vassal state of Qin, which eventually unified China to become the Qin Dynasty. His ancestral name was Ying () and Duke Xiang was his posthumous title. ...

. Duke Zhuang's daughter, Mu Ying (缪嬴), entered a political marriage with

leader King Feng (豐王) in 777 BC.

Posthumous title

Although the state of Qin grew much bigger and stronger after Duke Zhuang's victory against the Rong, Qin was still a minor state at the time and its rulers did not have any nobility rank. However, Duke Zhuang's son Duke Xiang would later be granted a formal nobility rank by

King Ping of Zhou King Ping of Zhou (; died 720 BC), personal name Ji Yijiu, was the thirteenth king of the Zhou dynasty and the first of the Eastern Zhou dynasty.Sima Qian. ''Records of the Grand Historian'', "Zhou Dynasty Annals". History He was the son of Kin ...

as a reward for protecting the king during the

Quanrong The Quanrong () or Dog Rong were an ethnic group, classified by the ancient Chinese as " Qiang", active in the northwestern part of China during and after the Zhou dynasty (1046–221 BCE). Their language or languages are considered to have been me ...

invasion, and Duke Zhuang would also be posthumously granted the honorific title of duke.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhuang of Qin, Duke Year of birth unknown Rulers of Qin 9th-century BC Chinese monarchs 8th-century BC Chinese monarchs 778 BC deaths