In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, from when King Ping of Zhou moved eastward to Luoyi in 770 BC until he was destroyed by Qin in 256 BC, there were 25 kings in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which lasted for 515 years.
The Eastern Zhou Dynasty is actually divided into two periods, from the first year of King Ping of Zhou (770 BC) to the forty-fourth year of King Jing of Zhou (476 BC) as the Spring and Autumn Period; It is named after the Spring and Autumn Period, which is characterized by the shift of the center of power in the world from the emperor to the princes; from the first year of King Yuan of Zhou to the fall of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (256 BC), the first year of Qin Shihuang (221 BC) 35 years later was the Warring States Period. It is named after the book "Warring States Policy" compiled by Liu Xiang of the Western Han Dynasty. It is characterized by the continued downward shift of the center of power, from princes to ministers to officials, and to the rise of the civilian class. The Spring and Autumn Period was a period of disintegration of Chinese slave society. The Warring States Period was the beginning of China's feudal society.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the king of Zhou maintained the authority of "the suzerain of the world" and could prohibit the vassal states from attacking or annexing each other. After King Ping moved eastward, the status of the Zhou royal family plummeted. The title of "Lord of the World" was no longer in vain, and it no longer had the power to control the princes. From this, history began a period of great turmoil and division among the nations. With the rapid development of social economy, some ethnic groups known as Barbarians and Rongdi quickly caught up based on the influence of Central Plains culture or ethnic integration. Due to different socio-economic conditions, some countries in the Central Plains have become stronger while others have declined. As a result, the vassal states merged with each other, and the situation of competition for hegemony among the great powers emerged. The situation of numerous princes has seriously restricted the development of economy and culture; the merger and hegemony of various countries have contributed to the unification of various regions. Therefore, the great social turmoil during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty prepared the conditions for national unification.
After King Ping moved eastward, the western land belonged to Qin. It annexed some surrounding Rong tribes or countries and became a powerful country in the west. The Jin State in present-day Shanxi, Qi and Lu in Shandong, the Chu State in Hubei, the Yan State in Beijing and northern Hebei, as well as the Wu, Yue and other countries that later emerged in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, all became powerful after annexing some surrounding small countries. rise up and become a great nation. As a result, fierce scenes of great power struggle for hegemony unfolded in history.
The first person to establish hegemony was Duke Huan of Qi. He appointed Guan Zhong, reformed the internal affairs, and made the country strong. He also used Guan Zhong's strategy and called for "respecting the king and rejecting the barbarians" to unite with the Yan State to defeat the Beirong; united with other countries to stop the Di people's intrusion and "cun Xing to save the defense"; in 656 BC, Qi State, Lu and Song Dynasty The allied forces of , Zheng, Chen, Wei, Xu, and Cao invaded Cai and attacked Chu. They watched the troops and called the mausoleum, asking why Chu did not pay tribute to the king of Zhou. Chu's national power was also very strong, and it attacked Zheng year after year. But seeing that Qi Huangong was coming with a fierce force, in order to preserve his strength, he agreed to make peace and gave up. After that, Duke Huan of Qi held many meetings with the princes, and the King of Zhou also sent people to participate in the alliance and reward them. Duke Huan of Qi became the overlord of the Central Plains.
When Qi dominated the Central Plains, Chu expanded its power eastward. After the death of Duke Huan of Qi, there was an internal struggle for power within the Qi State, and the country's national strength declined slightly. Chu developed further north. Duke Xianggang of Song Dynasty wanted to inherit Duke Huan of Qi's hegemony and competed with Chu, but ended up losing his life. Lu, Song, Zheng, Chen, Cai, Xu, Cao, Wei and other countries that were allies when Qi was hegemonic now all became allies of Chu.
Just when Chu wanted to dominate the Central Plains, Jin was rising. After Jin Wengong returned to the country, he rectified the internal affairs, strengthened the army, and also wanted to become the overlord. At this time, King Zhou Xiang was driven away by the princes and colluded with the Di people, and he was living outside. Duke Wen of Jin thought it was a good opportunity to "assert authority and establish hegemony", so he made a date with the princes, defeated the princes, sent Duke Xiang back to the capital, and captured the banner of "Honor the King". In 632 BC, the Jin and Chu armies fought in Chengpu, and the Jin army defeated the Chu army. After the war, Duke Wen of Jin met with the princes in Jiantu. King Zhou also came to participate and appointed Duke Wen of Jin as "Hou Bo" (overlord).
During the struggle between Jin and Chu, Qi and Qin dominated the east and west. After the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, Chu united with Qin and Jin united with Qi, and they were still equally matched. However, the war for hegemony intensified the internal contradictions among countries, so "troops" appeared to end the struggle for hegemony. In 579 BC, the Song State made an alliance with Jin and Chu: not to send troops to each other, but to send messengers to each other, to rescue each other, and to jointly attack third countries that did not obey orders. In 575 BC, Jin and Chu fought at Yanling, and Chu was defeated; in 557 BC, Jin and Chu fought at Zhanban, and Chu was defeated again. During this period, there was also a war between Jin, Qin, and Jin and Qi, and Jin won. In 546 BC, the Song State once again made an appointment with Jin and Chu to "annihilate troops", and more than ten other countries participated. It was agreed at the meeting that small and medium-sized countries should pay tribute to Jin and Chu in the future. The hegemony was equally divided between Jin and Chu.
While Jin and Chu were gradually declining, Wu and Yue in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River rose up and competed for hegemony. When King Helu of Wu was in power, he reused the famous military strategist Sun Wu and the original Chu minister Wu Zixu to raise troops to attack Chu. After five battles and five victories, he went straight to Ying, the capital of Chu state, in 506 BC. Later, his son Fucha successively defeated Yue, Chen, Lu, Song, and Qi, and became the leader of the alliance among the princes. After King Gou Jian of Yue was defeated by Fu Chai in 494 BC, he accumulated strength while sleeping on the firewood and tasting courage; at the same time, he offered beauties Xi Shi and Zheng Dan to Wu. After more than ten years of preparation, the Wu army was finally defeated, forcing Fu Chai to commit suicide, and the state of Wu was destroyed. At this time, the Spring and Autumn Period was coming to an end, and the hegemony was coming to an end. However, Gou Jian still led his troops across the Huaihe River and met with the princes in Xuzhou, becoming the last overlord in the late Spring and Autumn Period.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, ironware was already used in agriculture and handicraft production. Iron hoes, iron axes, etc. are used in agricultural production. Iron tools are harder and sharper than wood, stone and bronze tools.
The use of iron tools marked a significant increase in social productivity. At that time, oxen were also used to plow the land. Farming technology improved and agricultural production further developed. Due to the continuous improvement of iron smelting technology, steelmaking also appeared at the turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and was first used in weapons manufacturing such as sword casting. Wu, Yue, Chu and other countries were all places where famous swords were cast at that time. Famous swords such as Zhanlu, Yuchang, Juque, Ganjiang and Moxie appeared.
During this period, some nobles turned public land into private land and gradually adopted new methods of exploitation, asking the laborers who farmed to hand over most of their products and keep some of them. In this way, the slave-owning aristocracy transformed into feudal landlords. It turned out that
Overview 2
Overview 2
The mergers and struggles of various countries during the Spring and Autumn Period promoted the development of various countries and regions. Social and economic development has also accelerated the contact and integration between different ethnic groups. After this period of great turmoil and reorganization, hundreds of small countries gradually merged into seven large countries and a dozen small countries around them.
At the beginning of the Warring States Period, there were only seven major vassal states left: Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qin, which were historically known as the "Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period". Chu is in the south, Zhao is in the north, Yan is in the northeast, Qi is in the east, Qin is in the west, and Han and Wei are in the middle. Among these seven great powers, the three great powers from west to east along the Yellow River Basin - Qin, Wei, and Qi - had the power to influence the situation in the early stage.
From the beginning of Wei Wenhou to the middle of the fourth century BC, it was the period when Wei dominated the Central Plains. Wei's strength aroused suspicion among Han, Zhao, and Qin, and frictions between them continued. In 354 BC, Zhao State attacked Wei, and Wei regarded Wei as his vassal state, so he sent troops to attack Handan, the capital of Zhao. Zhao asked Qi for help, and Qi sent Tian Ji to rescue Zhao and used Sun Bin's plan to attack Liang, the capital of Wei. Although the Wei army had captured Handan at that time, they had to withdraw their troops to save their own country, and were defeated by the Qi army in Guiling. The following year, Wei and Han united and defeated the Qi army again. In 342 BC, when Wei attacked Han, Han asked Qi for help. Qi still sent Tian Ji as general and Sun Bin as military adviser. They designed to lure the Wei army into an ambush in Maling. The Qi army fired thousands of arrows. Wei general Pang Juan committed suicide and Wei Prince Shen was captured. . This is the famous Battle of Maling. This resulted in the balance of power between Qi and Wei in the east.
During the Warring States Period, farmers used more iron farm tools, including iron hoes and axes, as well as shovels and plows. Ox farming was promoted during this period. The widespread use of iron tools promoted the development of agricultural production and the construction of farmland water conservancy. The more famous ones are the "Zhanghe Canal" and "Dujiangyan". The Zhanghe Canal was built in the Wei State and was supervised by Ximen Bao, the magistrate of Ye (now southwest of Linzhang County, Hebei Province). Dujiangyan was built by Li Bing, the prefect of Shu County during the reign of King Zhao of Qin. It is located in Guan County (near today's Chengdu) in the middle reaches of the Min River in Sichuan. It is a water conservancy project with comprehensive utilization of flood control, irrigation and shipping. It allows water from the Minjiang River to flow continuously into thousands of large and small channels densely distributed on the western Sichuan plain, making the Chengdu Plain a "land of abundance" with thousands of miles of fertile fields and guaranteed harvests despite droughts and floods. For more than two thousand years, Dujiangyan has undergone repairs and expansions and has continued to exert significant benefits.
With the development of agriculture and handicraft industry, commerce also flourished. The prosperity of commerce also promoted the development of currency. The currencies of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period included three types of items, gold and copper coins. Object currencies include jade, silk, etc.; gold currency is such as the gold of Yingdu, Chu State. But the most popular currency at that time was copper-cast currency, and its forms varied from country to country, including shell coins, cloth coins, knife coins, and round coins, etc. Because Wan Qian is more convenient to use, money gradually takes the form of money, and "money" gradually becomes a general term for general currency.
With the destruction of the well-field system, the state ownership of land in slave society was gradually replaced by feudal private ownership of land. Nobles owned large amounts of private land. Soldiers who had made meritorious deeds on the battlefield and large businessmen with abundant assets also owned large amounts of land. They became emerging landowners. The emerging landed class, with growing economic power, demanded the abolition of the privileges of the slave-owning aristocracy, the development of the feudal economy, and the establishment of a dictatorship of the landlord class. Driven by the emerging landed class, various vassal states launched "reform" movements during the Warring States Period. After more than 100 years, the new feudal system was finally established in each vassal state.
Qin State’s Shang Yang’s Reform was a relatively thorough political reform of the landlord class. In 356 BC, Duke Xiao of Qin appointed Shang Yang to initiate political reforms. Its main contents are: 1. Abandoned mine fields and open roads. The well-field system was abolished, the state recognized private ownership of land, and allowed free buying and selling of land. 2. Abolish privileges and reward farming. Abolish the privileges enjoyed by slave-owning aristocrats. It is stipulated that knights and houses should be awarded according to the size of military achievements. It was also stipulated that those who produced a lot of cloth would be exempted from corvee labor. Restrict the activities of industrial and commercial persons, and prohibit abandoning agriculture and doing business. 3. Establish a county system. There are 31 counties in the country, which are governed by officials directly sent by the monarch and under the unified control of the state. After Shang Yang's reform, Qin became the most powerful country among the seven kingdoms, so it expanded its power eastward. First, he defeated the three Jin Dynasties and captured all Wei's land in Hexi. Later, it expanded its territory to the west, south and north. By the end of the fourth century BC, its territory was close to that of Chu.
The Chu State's reforms were not thorough and its national strength was not strong, but it had a vast territory and a large population. Chu united with Qi to fight against Qin, which greatly affected the development of Qin. So Qin sent Zhang Yi to Chu to persuade Chu to sever Qi and join Qin in exchange for six hundred miles of Shang territory. King Huai of Chu was greedy for gain, so he broke with Qi. When the state of Chu sent people to ask for the land, the state of Qin refused to deliver it. King Huai of Chu raised an army to attack Qin, but returned with a great defeat. Chu was alone and weak, so Qin moved eastward into the Central Plains of Tu. First he fought with Han and Wei, and then with Qi.
In 286 AD, Qi destroyed Song, which made other countries feel uneasy. Qin then invited Han, Zhao, Wei, and Yan to attack Qi and defeated the Qi army. With Le Yi as general, Yan State took advantage of the situation to capture Linzi, the capital of Qi, and captured more than 70 cities. The king of Qi fled abroad and was killed by Chu. Qi's status as a powerful nation was gone forever. From this, the Qin State began to develop eastward.
In 246 BC, Qin Wangzheng (later Qin Shihuang) ascended the throne. He appointed Wei Liao, Li Si and others to step up the pace of unification, used money to bribe the powerful officials of the six countries, disrupted the deployment of the six countries, and sent troops to the east in successive years. After years of fighting, from Qin's destruction of Han in 230 BC to its destruction of Qi in 221 BC, the six eastern kingdoms were unified by Qin.
Since then, China has established a unified, multi-ethnic, authoritarian centralized state, opening a new page in Chinese history