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Why did the Spring and Autumn Period strive for hegemony, why did the Warring States States merge? Why did the three families divide the Jin Dynasty, and why did the Qin State want to be unified? This article will take you to understand the history of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in simple terms.
After King Ping of Zhou moved eastward, the land controlled by the Zhou royal family plummeted, and he lost his status as the co-lord of the world, so the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was basically a group of vassal states playing from the beginning. These princes competed with each other for hegemony in the early stage, and later transformed into mergers, and these two stages were called the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period respectively.
In the early stage, we also updated a lot of articles on the history of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and interested friends can take a look. This article will summarize and analyze the development law of the entire history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty from a macro perspective for the benefit of readers.
This map is relatively in line with the situation at that time, the Guanzhong region was still controlled by the dog Rong after King Ping moved eastward, and later became the capital of the rise of the Qin people
After King Ping moved eastward, Zhou Tianzi lost most of the land in Guanzhong, so he urgently needed to find a reliable thigh to take care of himself. Looking at the whole country, only Zheng Guo was the closest, and the then monarch Zheng Wugong and King Zhou Ping were cousins of a grandfather. Therefore, Zheng Guojun entered the dynasty and served as the official secretary of the Zhou Dynasty, which was equivalent to the prime minister.
In addition, Zheng Guo is located in the Central Plains agricultural developed area and has a large population, so it quickly changed from the latest feudal state to the small overlord of the Central Plains at that time.
Due to the rise of Zheng Guo, Wei Guo, the neighbor to the north, and Song Guo, the neighbor to the east, began to fidget, because the Central Plains was so big, and Zheng Guo could only ask for the surrounding neighbors if he wanted to live in space. Therefore, Wei Guo and Song Guo are basically Zheng Guo's mortal enemies.
These two countries co-opted Zheng Guo's southern neighbors Cai Guo and Chen Guo to form a four-nation alliance, and they would fight with Zheng Guo if they had nothing to do.
Zheng Guo's fists were difficult to defeat and tear his legs, so he co-opted the Qi and Lu states in the east of the Song State and threatened the rear of the Song State.
At the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, the main historical line of the Central Plains region was basically the hegemonic expansion of the Four-Nation Alliance against Zheng State.
The geopolitical situation of the Central Plains in the early Spring and Autumn period
Zhou Tianzi saw that Zheng Guo was getting stronger and stronger, and he didn't respect himself very much, so King Ping at that time wanted to resign from the position of Zheng Zhuanggong and divide power to another monarch of the State of Yu. Zheng Zhuanggong was very dissatisfied, and ran to question King Zhou Ping, who was aggrieved and did not dare to admit it, in order to appease Zhuang Gong, the two exchanged the prince as a hostage, to show that they had no two hearts for each other.
This is the allusion of Zhou Zheng mutual quality. This is a farce, the dignified Son of Heaven and a prince exchange hostages with each other, where is the face of the Son of Heaven?
So since then, Zong Zhou and Zheng Guo have fallen out, and the relationship between the two countries has irretrievably deteriorated. Therefore, Zhou Tianzi later joined the anti-Zheng alliance. In 707 B.C., Zhou Tianzi called several younger brothers (Chen, Cai, and Wei) to beat Zheng Guo, and the two sides broke out in the Battle of Xiangge, in which the allied forces were defeated King Huan of Zhou was shot in the shoulder by Zhu Dan, the general of Zheng Zhuanggong, and almost died.
Without Zheng Guo's thighs, Zong Zhou basically has no sense of existence. Later, it was only when the great powers were competing for hegemony that they would be shouted out and stamped and formalized.
The question is, when Zheng Guo was crisscrossing the Central Plains, why didn't the surrounding countries move?
The Qin State was named a prince because of his meritorious service when King Ping moved east, and the place was not good, and he had been looking for territory in the west during this time. In the Jin Kingdom, there was the Quwodaiyi Incident that lasted for 67 years, and there was also no time to take care of foreign countries. The state of Chu in the south was also busy expanding its territory and integrating surrounding forces.
So the stage was left to the Central Plains.
Quwo Daiyi - the process of Quwo Xiaozong replacing Dazong as the monarch of the Jin State
Looking at it, only the Qi State at that time had more energy to participate in the international affairs of the Central Plains. The main diplomatic direction of Qi was to form an alliance with Zheng Guo and follow Zheng Guo to fight Song State. Later, because of the meat splitting incident, Zheng Lu turned against him, and Qi Guo followed Zheng Guo to fight Lu Guo.
After the death of Zheng Zhuang Gong (701 BC), Zheng Guo fell into a civil strife that lasted for more than 20 years due to the struggle of several sons for the right to inherit, and the national power gradually declined, and the history of the small overlord of the Central Plains came to an end.
Then began the era of hegemony in the real sense of the Spring and Autumn Period.
What exactly did the Spring and Autumn Struggle for hegemony fight for? In fact, it was very simple: Since Zhou Tianzi had lost his position as the co-lord of the world, everyone was fighting for hegemony over who would replace Zhou Tianzi as the co-lord of the world. Of course, becoming the co-lord of the world does not necessarily mean abolishing Zhou Tianzi, after all, although Zhou Tianzi has no real power, he still has some appeal to various countries, so the overlord will not be really stupid enough to be the son of heaven himself.
The overlord only needs to gain the recognition and obedience of the vassal states, and in fact becomes the co-lord of the world. So we saw that after Qi Huan Gong got up, he went on a foreign expedition everywhere, and whoever disobeyed was beaten, but the reason must be justified, because you have to win the hearts of the people. Therefore, it will happen that the king of Lu has been captured and put back, and he has to pay attention to the reputation of the teacher in a war, which seems hypocritical, right, in fact, it is to improve his prestige and win people's hearts.
Because the Zhou rites were not completely destroyed at that time, everyone still had such a set of value systems and codes of conduct in their hearts. Then I saw that Qi Huan Gong was a good person, he could fight and be reasonable, and he didn't bully people, so he expressed his surrender.
Then everyone opened a princes' alliance, elected Qi as the leader of the alliance, and Zhou Tianzi sent an envoy to come over, give him the meat, and recognize Qi Huan Gong as the chief of the princes, and this hegemony was completed.
The next few overlords all followed this process.
After the death of Duke Huan of Qi, the state of Qi also fell into the rebellion of the princes, and although it was later pacified by the Duke of Song Xianggong (542 BC), the hegemony of the state of Qi also basically collapsed.
There were a total of five overlords around the Spring and Autumn Period, known as the Spring and Autumn Five Tyrants, but who the five tyrants are is still controversial. One version is Qi Huan, Jin Wen, Chu Zhuang and Qin Mu Goujian, and there is also a version to include the husband.
In fact, this controversy is not interesting, for example, Gou Jian, did later participate in the princes' alliance, and was also given flesh by Zhou Tian, but soon after Gou Jian's death, the Yue State disintegrated, and the hegemony of the Yue State basically did not affect the Qin State and the Jin State, so this hegemony process is correct, but in fact the influence is very limited.
Then during the Qin Mugong period, although the national strength was not bad, it was generally blocked by the Jin State within the Hangu Pass and could not get out, and this hegemony was not counted.
Therefore, there is no need to be limited to the number of hegemons in the Spring and Autumn Period, from a practical point of view, the ones who can really become the national hegemon and really exert their influence are the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Wen of Jin, and the King of Chuzhuang.
Three protagonists, five tricks
The hegemony of Qi only experienced one generation of Qi Huan Gong, but the hegemony of Jin and Chu became the mainstream of the Spring and Autumn period after Qi Huan Gong.
In 642, the hegemony of the Qi state collapsed, in 636 the Duke of Wen of Jin returned to China, and in 632, the battle of Chengpu broke out in the Jin and Chu, and the Jin state won and established the hegemony. But the state of Chu was not willing to give up, and the struggle for hegemony between Jin and Chu began.
From the Battle of Chengpu in 632 BC to the Battle of the Soldiers under the auspices of the Song State in 546 BC, the struggle for hegemony between the two countries lasted for 86 years, of which the Chu State only won the Battle of Yi once in 597 BC, but soon surrendered its hegemony after the Battle of Yanling in 575 BC. There were 13 direct wars between Jin and Chu, and the Jin State won 11 and lost 2, so from this point of view, the Jin and Chu battles for the hegemony of the Chu State are more like a sparring partner.
Battle of Chengpu
This period of time was the most wonderful moment in the history of the Spring and Autumn Period. For the purpose of fighting for hegemony, Qin and Chu united, Qi and Chu united, trying to disintegrate the hegemony of the Jin State, but basically ended in failure. Then the Song, Zheng, Chen, Wei, Cai and other small countries in the Central Plains have completely become grass on the wall here, and whoever wins will be their little brother. Because the country's strength does not allow, Zheng Guo, the former little overlord, has now entered the Qimu era, and Lu Guo has also been repeatedly troubled by Sanhuan. It is basically difficult to do anything diplomatically.
The Battle of Yanling was the last large-scale war before the Jin and Chu, and after that, two things troubled both sides. The first is that the struggle for power of the six secretaries of the Jin State has entered a white-hot stage, and the monarch has basically been hollowed out, and the second is that the Wu State behind the Chu State has begun to rise, threatening the southeast of the Chu State. So both countries are a little overwhelmed. In the Song Dynasty, the consul Xiang Xu keenly added this information, and began to work on both sides to reconcile, and finally in 546 BC he led to an alliance of soldiers.
The famous International Peace Conference
The core idea of this alliance is that Jin and Chu divide the hegemony equally, and the total hegemony is the hegemon, and except for the Qin and Qi states, the other small states must pay tribute to the two countries separately to show their sincerity.
Although this alliance increased the financial burden on the small vassal states, peace finally came, and the potential threat of war was reduced, so everyone rejoiced.
After that, the state of Chu concentrated on dealing with the state of Wu, and the state of Jin secretly befriended the state of Wu and supported the state of Wu to contain the state of Chu.
The battle for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period has also come to an end. Later, Wu and Yue became regional hegemons, but they were short-lived, and were finally annexed by Chu.
Late Spring and Autumn vassal states
In fact, there is another influence that is rarely mentioned.
It was after this alliance that, except for the state of Chu, everyone's threat of war was basically over, the external threat decreased, and the scholars began to fight for power and profit internally, and gradually hollowed out the power of the monarch. The most typical ones are the Tian clan of the Qi State and the Sanqing of the Jin State.
Eleven of the six secretaries of the Jin State, and now only the last six are left, after the alliance of soldiers, the erosion of the six secretaries of the Jin monarch has entered the final stage, and after hollowing out the power of the monarch, they have started a war with each other. First of all, the four families of Han, Zhao and Wei Zhi destroyed Zhongxing and Fan, and then the three families of Han, Zhao and Wei destroyed Zhi, after the Zhi family was destroyed, the three families basically divided the entire territory of the Jin State, and the Jin State existed in name only.
Three families are divided
The three families divided into Jin and Tian clans, and the dynasty of Qi is known as the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. In 403 B.C., King Weilie of Zhou made the three families of Han, Zhao and Wei princes, and this year became the dividing line between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States. The Spring and Autumn Period was named after Confucius's "Spring and Autumn", and the Warring States Period was named after the "Warring States Policy" compiled by Liu Xiang of the Western Han Dynasty. (In fact, the beginning of the "Warring States Policy" is from 476 BC, so some people set the dividing line between the Warring States and the Spring and Autumn Period in 476 BC.) ）
The deep meaning of this dividing line is that the foundation of the Zhou Dynasty has completely collapsed. In the past, the princes had to be canonized by Zhou Tianzi, but now they can grab it themselves. The bottom line of the Zhou Dynasty is gone, and this era is over.
And then began the era of great change.
The great changes in the Warring States were not sudden, because the struggle for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn period destroyed the political and economic system established by the Zhou dynasty. In order to compete for hegemony, the princes broke the convention of the feudal system and chose a large number of talented nobles to govern the country, such as Qi Huan Gong Guan Zhong, Jin Wen Gong Zhao Shi, and Qin State Bai Li Xi. Whoever breaks more conventions will be able to dominate. On the contrary, it was the Lu State that inherited the most perfect Zhou Li, and finally fell more and more.
The most characteristic here is the Jin State, the Jin Wen Gong is the establishment of the three armies and six secretaries in the future, the six secretaries have the nobility hereditary, the wartime equivalent to the General Staff, peacetime equivalent to the cabinet, this collective leadership system to the Jin State to fight for hegemony to provide excellent war talents and governing talents, but also make the Jin State the most powerful overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, there is a saying that "one history of the Jin Kingdom, half of the history of the Spring and Autumn Period".
So the Spring and Autumn Period was a time of bad manners, but it wasn't a derogatory term. It is the collapse of etiquette that promotes social change. For example, if everyone follows the etiquette of the nobles fighting in the Zhou rites, then how can there be the appearance of Sun Tzu's Art of War. If everyone adheres to the hierarchical system of the Zhou Dynasty, then how can there be a hundred schools of thought and the art of diplomacy in the future?
The wisdom left to us by the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is unique in the history of other countries. It seems to be a complicated history of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but in fact, it grasps a main line, It is easy to see it very clearly, The editor also recommends a book "The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is Really Interesting", which is very suitable for reading.
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So why did the Spring and Autumn War for hegemony stop after it was fought, because everyone found that no one could win the hegemony forever, and that they could not become the co-masters of the world through the mode of fighting for hegemony. Therefore, it is better to expand our territory and enrich our strength. Therefore, the Spring and Autumn War for Hegemony later became a war of annexation, in which a large number of small countries were eaten by large countries, and by the time of the Warring States Period, the war of annexation became the main purpose of the war between countries.
So we will find that in the Warring States, after the end of the war, the land and population were often ceded. The purpose of this kind of war is much more cruel than the struggle for hegemony. If you fail to fight for hegemony, you will at most withdraw from the position of hegemon, but if you fail in the annexation war, you will be in danger of losing the country.
This desire to survive prompted monarchs to begin to think about change.
The first is the reform of Li Kui of Wei. Why did the Wei Congress become the first country to change the law?
The land of Wei, which is intertwined with canine teeth
The territory of Wei was very fragmented in the early Warring States period, and it was very unlucky, Qin in the west, Qi in the east, and Chu in the south, all of which were big countries, and they were divided into two halves by the territory of Zhao and Korea, and they were located in the Central Plains, surrounded by big powers, and their geographical position was very tense. Economically, it is not as rich as South Korea, and militarily it is not as good as Zhao Guoneng to fight. Therefore, the survival pressure of Wei is the greatest.
Therefore, Wei's change has an obvious flavor of salvation and survival.
The core idea of the reform is to employ people, that is, to employ people only based on ability and not on background, to break the monopoly of the aristocracy on privileges, and if you are a literati and capable of fighting, you will become an official, and if a martial artist can fight, you will become a soldier, and you will be promoted by virtue of military merit. In this way, everyone's enthusiasm has increased, and after Li Kui changed the law, the national strength of Wei immediately became stronger, and he defeated Qi and Chu in succession, and connected the divided territories of Korea. And through the eleventh year of the Battle of Hexi, he recovered from the Qin State the land of Hexi that the Jin State had lost in 550 BC. Qin was suppressed by Wei for more than eighty years, and it was not until 330 BC that it reoccupied the land west of the river.
The effect of this change in Wei was so remarkable that other countries immediately followed suit and began to change the law. Famous ones include the Wu Qi Reform of the Chu State, the Zou Ji Reform of the Qi State, the Shang Ying Reform of the Qin State, and the Shen Bu Harm Reform of the Korean State. No matter which country's reform of the law, everyone takes Li Kui's reform as a model, and the core idea is to expand the scale of employment.
Therefore, we see that the way of employing people in the Zhou Dynasty, from the original use of clan relatives, to the use of nobles, to the current use of scholars, is to expand the scale of employment and liberate people's enthusiasm. In the past, people could only be fixed in one place, and they did the same thing for generations, but now they have the opportunity to change their destiny.
In order to break the hereditary privilege of the nobility for the promotion of scholars, then the land could no longer be hereditary by the nobility, and the monarch alone could not manage it, so he had to divide it into pieces and send officials to manage them, and the officials only had the right to manage but not the ownership. Eventually, all the lands came under the direct jurisdiction of the king.
This is the county system. The feudal system is indirect management, and the county system is direct management. I liken it to the transformation of a family business into a professional manager.
The reform of the county system, in turn, led to mergers between states. Why, because the land is under the direct control of the king, and there are professional managers who manage it, the more land you have to conquer, the more land you have to rule, the more places you rule, the more troops you can mobilize, the stronger you are, and the more you can manage. Therefore, the county system fueled the king's expansionist ambitions.
In fact, the rudiments of the county system appeared very early, but the names were different, and Qin Shi Huang only perfected and popularized it on this basis. The earliest county in China appeared in the Chu State, called Xi County, and now it is still called Xi County, and it has not changed its name for 3,000 years. The division of Shen Xi became a strong force in the Spring and Autumn period of the Chu State.
Location of the two counties
But this reform of the law, since it wants to break the monopoly of power on the aristocracy, will definitely offend these nobles. What do you think, the hereditary privileges and fiefs that have been passed down for generations are gone, isn't it fatal, so Wu Qi was killed by the nobles in half of the reform of the law in the Chu State, and the reform measures were also abolished, and half of the Shang Ying's reform in the Qin State was also broken. However, the new monarch, King Qin Huiwen, also knew the importance of the reform to the Qin state, so the reform of the Qin state was not only thorough but also continued to be promoted.
The protagonist of the Warring States period was the Wei State at the beginning, but after the Wei State became strong, it adopted an aggressive expansion policy, so it was hostile to other countries. In 353, Zhao attacked Wei's vassal Wei, but his strength was not good, and he was surrounded by Wei's capital Handan, which led to Qi besieging Wei to save Zhao, which was the Battle of Guiling. In fact, the war did not do much harm to the Wei state, and the Qi army captured Pang Juan, but did not defeat the main Wei army. The main force of Wei continued to encircle Handan, and defeated the Qi-Song coalition in the following year, but later asked Chu to mediate, and Qi withdrew from the war with dignity.
So the Wei State was really strong at that time.
The state of Wei at its peak
Qin also knew that he was not an opponent of Wei, so he played the art of diplomacy, and Shang Ying, who was changing the law, went to Wei to put a high hat on King Wei Hui and persuaded him to be king. King Wei Hui has always had a dream of hegemony in his heart, so he imitated Duke Qi Huan to convene the princes' alliance, which was the meeting of Fengze, and he wanted to establish hegemony over all countries at the meeting.
Therefore, the meeting of Feng Ze was the last meeting of hegemony, and of course the state of Qi did not recognize the hegemony of the Wei state, so after the meeting, the battle of Maling broke out between the two sides. In this battle, Pang Juan was killed, the main force of the Wei army was defeated, and the invincible elite of Wei Wushu was also lost, and the vitality of the Wei state was greatly damaged. Qin took advantage of the situation and occupied the land west of the river of Wei.
The two defeats ended the hegemony of the Wei state, and also ended the rise of the Wei state. Qi became an eastern power by virtue of two wars, and Qin also started its rise by retaking the land west of the river.
After the decline of Wei, forced by the threat of Qin and Qi in the east and west, they began to seek to form an alliance. This was the beginning of the era of vertical and horizontal integration.
The Art of Warring States Diplomacy
Hezong means that the middle states except Qi and Qin unite to resist the annexation of Qin or Qi, and Lianheng means that Qi or Qin pull the middle country to merge with other weak countries. Some small countries have no way, sometimes they unite with Qin, sometimes they unite with Chu, so there is the idiom "towards Qin and Chu".
Later, the Qin family became dominant, and the joint column became a joint defense against the Qin state, and the continuous horizontal became the strategy of the Qin state to dismantle the alliance and break it.
Therefore, the combination of vertical and horizontal is the main line of the history of the Warring States Period.
There is another detail here, that is, after Wei was defeated by Qi, he declared himself a vassal to Qi, and united a group of small countries to Xuzhou to honor King Qi Wei as king, and King Qi Wei was embarrassed to call him king alone, so he recognized King Wei Hui as king. This is the allusion of King Xuzhou. Since then, all countries have usurped the throne, and Zhou Tianzi is on the same level.
King Wei Hui and King Qi Wei and King Qin Huiwen were all nicknames, and they were given after death. Therefore, after the death of the princes before this, they were all so-and-so marquis, so-and-so dukes, and in the future, they all became so-and-so kings.
In the end, why did Qin unify the six kingdoms?
One is the radical change, and the other is the geopolitical influence. Let's start with the changes, we have memorized a lot of changes in the textbook, and we can summarize them in one meaning. Through the change of law, the Qin people were firmly controlled, and only two ways out were given, either to farm desperately, or to go out to fight. There is no way out for farming for a lifetime, and if you fight a war, you will have the opportunity to be promoted by virtue of military merits. So the Qin state became a war machine, and the more wars, the more opportunities for promotion, and the more fanatical the army became, so the Qin army was invincible.
When the Qin State ruled the world, the war was gone, the promotion channel was sealed, and there was no way to live in farming, so the involution began, and the contradictions began to erupt. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were both born in the military, and they were originally exempted officers.
Geopolitically, we know that like Korea and Wei in the middle, in fact, there is no way out, surrounded by big powers on all sides, it is difficult to be strong, you either take advantage of the rise of other countries to annex other countries, otherwise sooner or later you will be dismembered, Zheng State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and now Korea and Wei are the same.
There are no big countries in the Central Plains.
On the eve of the collapse of the Warring States order
Therefore, from a geographical point of view, the most likely to unify other countries is the Zhao State and the Yan State in the north, the Qi State in the east, the Chu State in the south, and the Qin State in the west.
However, Yan is too far away from the Central Plains, and its economic heritage is not enough, so it has never had any strong capital.
Because of the annexation of the Song State, the Qi State was almost destroyed by the Five Nations Alliance, and since then it has withdrawn from the ranks of the powerful countries.
Chu is actually the most chanceful, the land is vast and there are many people, but as we said earlier, Chu was the first to be the king among the princes, but it still used the set of Zhou Tianzi to divide the princes, so the clan politics of Chu was later than that of other clans of the Zhou Dynasty, so during the Spring and Autumn Period, Chu was able to compete with the Jin State for hegemony for more than a hundred years.
But in the Warring States Period, the disadvantages of clan politics came out, and these relatives of the royal family monopolized the government and extinguished the Wu Qi Reform, and their respective fiefs divided the Chu State into many parts. Therefore, when it came to the war, don't look at the large number of people in Chu, the scale of the army that could be mobilized was far inferior to that of Zhao.
It is also difficult to form a joint force diplomatically, so it always suffers a loss in diplomacy with Qin.
So the rest is only Zhao State, Zhao State is the country with the most Jin State legacy, especially after King Zhao Wuling carried out the Hufu cavalry reform, Zhao Guoxue Xi Hu people to establish a cavalry-based army, Li Mu once led this army to fight the Xiongnu with the strength of Zhao State for more than ten years did not dare to go south.
Unfortunately, Zhao ran into Qin, which was more thoroughly reformed.
The Qin State is located in the eastern part of the country, and it was blocked by the Jin State in the past, and it has not been fought much throughout the Spring and Autumn Period, but now the Jin State is divided into three, and the disadvantage becomes an advantage, even if the countries are united, one fight against six, it is also a one-sided battle, and there is also a Hangu checkpoint on the terrain with the eastern army. Moreover, the reform is the most thorough, and it also has the rich land of Hanzhong, and the national and military strength are the strongest.
After the Warring States annexation war, several other countries were almost encroached, and only Zhao was left to support it. However, in the Battle of Changping, Zhao lost more than 400,000 troops, and the Qin army besieged Handan, and Zhao almost perished. The unification of the Qin state was almost achieved thirty years ahead of schedule.
At this time, it relied on the four princes of the Warring States to support it, Pingyuan Jun defended Handan, Wei Guoxin Lingjun stole talismans to save Zhao, and Chu Guochun Shenjun led the army to rescue. Everyone reluctantly repelled the Qin army and extended the life of the Zhao State for thirty years, that is, for the Warring States for another thirty years.
The four princes of the Warring States period were the last people to understand these vassal states, and the monarch was so decadent that he could not do it and gave up resistance. Therefore, after the end of the era of the four princes, the history of the Warring States period is basically over.
Nine months before the Battle of Handan, the future King Yingzheng of Qin was born in Handan. This is the one who completes the finishing work of destroying the Six Kingdoms.
In 230 BC, Qin destroyed Han. 228, Qin destroys Zhao, 225, Qin destroys Wei, 223, Qin destroys Chu, 222, Qin destroys Yan, 221, Qin destroys Qi.
At this point, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period ended.