Xi Zhou Western Zhou

A chronological note worth making: Western Zhou as a dynastic period ended in 771 BC, making the assigned date range here almost certainly a reference to the later rump state — the Zhou royal domain reduced to a minor territorial holding centered near Luoyi, existing largely at the sufferance of the surrounding Warring States powers. By the fourth and third centuries BC, the Zhou kings retained ritual prestige but negligible political authority. Hartill 6.14 places this spade-form currency within the final phase of that diminished state, which was formally extinguished by Qin in 256 BC.