[23] The Three Guards allied with many separatist eastern nobles, Shang loyalists under Prince Wu Geng,[11][18] and several Dongyi and Huaiyi (淮夷) states[2] in rebellion.

[21][24] Edward L. Shaughnessy called the rebellion "a succession crisis that has come to be seen as defining moment not only for the Western Zhou dynasty but for the entire history of Chinese statecraft".

[25] In 1059 BC, an extremely rare planetary conjunction occurred as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were visible in the northwestern sky over northern China, grouped closely together.

[d] Declaring himself king, Wen of Zhou broke away from his previous overlords, the Shang dynasty, and launched a war for dominance over China.

Following his death, his son King Wu of Zhou defeated the Shang dynasty and conquered the latter's capital of Yin in 1046 BC.

Many Dongyi tribes and states of Shandong were "Shang strongholds"[31] with strong cultural and political ties to the fallen regime, as they had served as the late dynasty's allies and vassals for over two centuries.

"[1] In 1042 BC, the second year of the Duke of Zhou's regency, Guanshu and Caishu finally instigated Wu Geng and his followers to rise in rebellion.

[2][17][7] Large swaths of the Zhou dynasty's eastern realm rose against the official government at Fenghao,[18] including some states that controlled crucial passes and routes.

[41][42] Some vassal states in the east remained loyal, however, such as Song under Weizi Qi,[4] and Northern Yan[5] under the Marquis Ke, son of the Duke of Shao.

[7] The Records of the Grand Historian reported the existence of two more loyalist states in Shandong at the time, Qi and Lu, but this is not supported by other textual or archaeological sources.

[44] At first, the remaining loyalist states in the East had to bear the bulk of the fighting, as the government needed not only much time to mobilize its forces, but also at least two months to move them out of the Wei River valley and deploy them on the eastern plain.

The Three Guards' main force was also defeated, and Guanshu Xian and Huoshu Chu were captured, while Caishu Du fled into exile or was banished.

The fiefs that were given to members of the royal family were generally placed at strategic points all along the two main geographic axes of north China, the Yellow River and the Taihang Mountains.

[48][49] Meanwhile, Weizi Qi, who was Wu Geng's uncle but had remained loyal throughout the revolt, was enfeoffed with the state of Song,[2][23] an ancient cultural center of the Shang people.

[50][51] In line with the creation of several new states, a program of rapid colonization was initiated by settling Zhou people and building new cities in the East in order to subjugate the hostile Dongyi and Huaiyi.

[54][55] Greatly empowered, the Zhou dynasty entered an era of prosperity and expansion that lasted until it was severely weakened by the war with Chu 961–957 BC.

Around 979 BC, sixty years after the rebellion, war broke out between the Zhou kingdom under King Kang, Chang's successor, and the Guifang of Shanxi and northern Shaanxi.

Ji Kang, a famous author of the Three Kingdoms period, wrote an essay about Guanshu and Caishu, in which he argued that the rebellious brothers had "sincere reasons to doubt the wisdom" of Duke Dan's regency.