Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 1, 2026

The Inner and Outer Domain System in the Middle and Late Western Zhou and the Formation of the Huaxia Community

(Abstract)

Wang Hui

During the Western Zhou period, the central Huaxia region and surrounding ethnic groups developed several distinct modes of governance and interaction. In the early Western Zhou, administration was organized through a two-domain system (Inner and Outer Domains). The Inner Domain (Neifu) referred to the central Huaxia region directly governed by the Zhou royal court through its bureaucratic apparatus. In the Shijing (The Book of Songs), this area was associated with the “Greater Ya” (Daya) and “Lesser Ya” (Xiaoya), while Warring States texts refer to it as “Greater Xia” (Daxia) and “Lesser Xia” (Xiaoxia). These terms designated not only musical categories but also the Huaxia core territories under the Zhou king’s direct jurisdiction. The Outer Domain (Waifu) consisted of feudal lords (Hou, Dian, Nan, Wei, etc.) who were enfeoffed in the early Zhou to safeguard the royal house and render services. These polities were distributed in a dispersed, nodal pattern to the east, south, and north of the royal domain (Wangji). By the middle Western Zhou, the two-domain system evolved into the five-domain system, under which the various regional states effectively formed three distinct types of subordinate relationships. The expansion of the Outer Domain system in the mid-Western Zhou, together with the differentiated ways in which relations among these domains were managed, provided an important institutional model for successive dynasties in handling relations between the political center and surrounding ethnic groups.