example, the Lords of the eventually huge states of Qin and Chu were known as "Earls" and "Viscounts", while the Lord of Song was given the title of "Duke" on the merits of his descent from the previous Shang royal lineage, rather than his level of power. Ancient Chinese texts can sometimes cause confusion as it was also considered to be polite to address rulers as gōng regardless of their actual rank. As the Zhou dynasty's control weakened, the regional magnates caused further title inflation by referring to themselves as Kings; the inflation was such that under the Han dynasty, many local lords were established with the title of "king"; in imperial China, the character is thus more normally rendered as "prince". The Zhou Dynasty can be seen as a true feudal system as it is in many respects very similar to the system used in Medieval Europe. Each lord was given land, and his power was legitimised by nominal allegiance to the central Zhou king; politics thus revolved around these noble households. In fact, the notion of "prime minister" 太宰 in ancient Chinese came from the feudal time meaning the "chief housekeeper" or "butler" of the noble household, in a similar way to the development of such European titles as "constable". Each feudal state was governed independently with taxes, currency and laws set by each individual household, but the nobles were required to pay regular homage to the Zhou Kings as an act of fealty. In time of war the nobles were required to provide armed service to the King. Approaching the end of the Zhou dynasty, the power of the King dwindled while the power of the nobles had risen. This resulted in what is known as the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States periods when the nobles fought each other constantly for supremacy. This resulted in the collapse of the noble ranking system, with the feudally organised society of the Springs and Autumns largely replaced by more bureaucratised states with standing armies, who no longer paid any attention to the Zhou. After King Ying Zheng of Qin, known to posterity as the First Emperor of Qin, defeated his rival states, deposing the Zhou and founding the first empire, he formally abolished the largely defunct feudal system, replacing it with a bureaucratised system of literate civil servants. Despite the rapid collapse of the Qin and an abortive