report, published in 2000, has been criticized by various scholars. When encountering the western term 'republic', the modern Chinese (as well as the Japanese), borrowed the word gonghe to have this meaning. Historically, however, the Gonghe period during the Zhou dynasty does not confer any republican connotations: the people of the time having had no opposition to monarchy as such, but only to one specific king. Notes References Zhou dynasty kings Regents of China 9th-century BC Chinese monarchs Regency (government) Interregnums 9th century BC in China