[1] Famous for his disastrous war against the Chu confederation, his death in battle ended the Western Zhou's early expansion and marked the beginning of his dynasty's decline.

[8][11][12] Zhao's death and defeat greatly damaged the Zhou dynasty's reputation and ended its early expansion, resulting in several foreign invasions of the kingdom.

[13] Despite his “humiliating end”, however, King Zhao was still commemorated for his southern campaigns during the Western Zhou dynasty, as he had at least established political dominance over the region to the north of the Yangtze and east of the Han River.

[16] Later moralistic renditions of King Zhao's life were much more unfavorable, as they portrayed him as a ruler who loved pleasure and disregarded politics, dying on a hunting trip to the south.

The northern lords gave the feeble pretext that “King Zhao had failed to return from his southward expedition (which took place some three centuries earlier) and they had 'come to investigate'.