The two big changes brought about by the Zhou was the mandate for ruling comes from heaven and royalty needs to be paid by the nobles to the king or the ruler. The people were made to believe that the king or the ruler was selected by a mandate from the heaven and so all had to accept the rulings made by the king. The ruling of the Zhou dynasty lasted for about 800 years, until the Chinese Bronze age neared its end. History has it that this was the longest ruling dynasty of China. It did slowly lose its power to the extent of becoming ceremonial figures.