From the relationship between Jin Chu, Jin Qin, and Wu Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period, it can be seen that the concept of "credit" gradually weakened in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and it is no longer an important basis for mutual exchanges.
It can be seen from this that the atmosphere of not paying attention to credit in the Warring States period seems to have traces to follow.
In the early warring states period, the State of Wei still adhered to the tradition of "stressing credit" in the Spring and Autumn Period
At the time of the Warring States, the State of Wei could be regarded as the most powerful state in the early Warring States period, inheriting the foundation of the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period. After the three families were divided into Jin, the State of Wei obtained the southwestern part of Shanxi and sat on the geographical advantages of this place - this place is the so-called "Table Li Mountain and River".
During the reign of Wei Wenhou, on the one hand, he took the lead in carrying out a series of reforms to change the law, establishing a relatively centralized political system, making the country rapidly stronger; on the other hand, he united the Three Jins and made Han and Zhao accept Wei's leadership. As the Warring States Policy says: "Han and Zhao are in difficulty, and Han Suobing is in Wei... It is already known that Marquis Wen has spoken to himself, and all are facing Wei. ”
Stills of Wei Wenhou in "The Warring States of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty"
There is another record about Wei Wenhou, reflecting that the Wei state still had a moral atmosphere of attaching importance to credit at that time, which is the famous "Wenhou and Yuren Period Hunting".
Marquis Wenhou of Wei still had the tradition of stressing faith and righteousness in the Spring and Autumn Period, so he was able to lead Han and Zhao and constantly expand their power; the State of Wei had a position similar to that of the Spring and Autumn Hegemon in the early Warring States period, and still adhered to the moral traditions of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Under the command of the State of Wei, the Three Jins temporarily coexisted peacefully, and each of them annexed and developed outward. The Three Jins and Chu often clashed with the land around Yuguan in western Liang, because Yuguan was a fortress for north-south communication, so the Three Jins and Chu fought many wars over this.
However, in the process of repeated logging of Chu, Zhao Guo received almost no land, so he took his land as compensation.
Wei Guo asked wei for help, and Wei Wuhou led his army to the rescue and defeated Zhao at Tutai, but the State of Chu sent troops to rescue Zhao Anduawei, and Zhao and Chu jointly defeated the State of Wei.
"Susumu Sanke" Image
Under the leadership of Wei, Han and Zhao Yuan formed a cooperative alliance to jointly deal with the State of Chu, but in order to expand their territory, the State of Zhao was stopped by the state of Wei, a powerful state at the time, and the state of Chu helped the state of Zhao deal with the state of Wei.
The state of Chu, which had fought many wars with the Three Jins, actually united with the state of Zhao, which should be a feud, and Zhao, who was originally close to Wei, actually joined forces with Chu to fight Wei, which shows that the foundation of mutual trust during the Warring States period was weak.
It is not difficult to find that the exchanges between countries in the Warring States period no longer emphasize credit, but are all fighting for the interests of the country. Based on the consideration of interests, the enemy countries can unite, while the originally close countries become enemies.
In the Warring States period, the seven heroes competed for strength, and "credit" was no longer binding
Other countries such as Zhao, Han, Qi, and Qin were very dissatisfied with the dominance of the State of Wei. Therefore, after the "Battle of Maling", Qi, Zhao, and Qin took the opportunity to attack the State of Wei. The war between the Duke of Wei and the Shangmartin of the State of Qin had a considerable impact, and as a result, the Duke of Wei was captured for believing Shangmartin's words.
Although the capture of Gongzi Wei was a disgrace to the State of Wei, and the state of Wei declined after the war, more importantly, the alliance between Shang Martin and Gongzi Zi broke the covenant.
Stills of the martingale
Shang Martin's behavior was a serious lack of credibility, and it was also one of the important indicators of the corruption of the atmosphere in the Warring States period.
The Warring States is an era of "confrontation", and the princes still need diplomatic and alliance space for the benefit of each other, so the alliance occasionally appears in the Warring States period.
However, the purpose of the countries was not to form alliances to repair and maintain peace, but to win over the country and expand their own power, because Qin, Chu, Yan, Qi, Han, Zhao, and Wei successively carried out reforms and gradually became countries with power under the central government, and they did not want to do everything they could to expand their power in order to obtain land, population, and taxes.
Under such a premise, even if the major powers meet with each other, they cannot prevent the fierce annexation war triggered by them for national interests.
"Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn" Zheng Zhuanggong stills
In order to consolidate the relationship of mutual trust between countries, it is not uncommon for "cross-poverty" to be carried out. In fact, as early as the early Spring and Autumn Period, there was already a situation of cross-hostage, the most famous of which was the "cross-confrontation" between Zhou Tianzi and Zheng Zhuanggong.
There were six cases of cross-fertility in the Spring and Autumn Period, and twenty-four cases in the Warring States Period. During the Warring States period, there were occasional cases where the alliance was invalid and hostages had to be used as collateral, especially in this period, protons, mostly princely, showed that the mutual trust relationship between them was quite fragile.
During the Warring States period, the most famous case of non-credit may be "Chu Absolute Qi".
After the failure of the Five Kingdoms Alliance, the strategy of the State of Qin was to break up the alliance between Qi and Chu, because the State of Qi was strong at this time, so the State of Qin intended to attack and weaken the State of Chu. Qin pretended to return the occupied shangyu land to Chu for six hundred miles, on the condition that Chu must be closed to the limit.
King Huai of Chu was very happy to hear that he could regain the land of commerce without spending soldiers, and immediately sent someone to Qi to announce the renunciation of diplomatic relations. As a result, he was not only deceived, but also rushed to raise troops out of anger and suffered one fiasco after another.
Stills of King Huai of Chu
For the sake of their own interests, countries do not hesitate to cheat, and "credit" can no longer function as it did in the Spring and Autumn Period, so people's hearts have changed.
The constant wars between countries in the Warring States period have shown that trustworthiness is a difficult matter. In the Spring and Autumn Period, mutual trust could be expressed through alliances because "small countries have something to rely on, and the people have to have interests"; but in the Warring States period, countries were faced with the desire to be interested in the face of interests- the ideal of peace that allowed small countries to survive and the people to live was far behind interests.
Nations, even if they have been allies in the past, will become enemies in the next war. Betrayal is no longer a disgrace, but has sometimes been the key to victory. Therefore, "credit" is no longer binding, and the fate of decline is also announced, which also announces the advent of the cruel era of "Warring States".