The formation of Chinese civilization: an archaeological perspective, Kwang-chih Chang, Pingfang Xu, Sarah Allan, Liancheng Lu, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-300-09382-7, ... The Zhou state that conquered the great Shang dynasty and founded the Western Zhou dynasty was small, and the question of how to rule over such a vast territory was a crucial problem ... The Zhou kings established secondary capitals as a means to rule over their royal domains and to create a stable base for controlling the local rulers ...