The history of China began with the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, and then the Xia Shang and the Western Zhou Dynasty, but the King of Zhou You was obsessed with beauty, and the princes of the Beacon Fire Show, buried his dynasty with his own hands, making the Western Zhou Dynasty the dust of history, and in the ruined land, a new dynasty rose from the ground, it was the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
From 770 BC to 256 BC, since the crown prince Yijiu was established as the queen, countless princes and generals, heroes and thieves appeared on the stage in this era.
It is worth noting that in ancient Chinese history, the Western Zhou Dynasty was a complete dynasty, but the corresponding Eastern Zhou Dynasty was divided into two dynasties, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, so the act of dividing a dynasty into two is extremely rare in history.
Spring and Autumn period
The Spring and Autumn Period is the head of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, in history, there are no clear regulations on the specific division of the Spring and Autumn Period, some people believe that it is from 770 BC to 476 BC, and some people think that it should be counted from the annihilation of the Jin Kingdom by the three families, which should be from 770 BC to 453 BC, and there is also a theory that it should be divided into 403 BC, and the three families should be divided into Jin.
Although there are different opinions about the division of the Spring and Autumn Deadline period, it is undeniable that this half of the period is the first half of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and it is also the most chaotic time of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period naturally could not be divided by the Eastern Zhou Dynasty themselves, the division and naming of these two periods were completed by later generations, and the name of the Spring and Autumn Period was taken from a historical book written by Confucius that recorded the history of the Lu State, "Spring and Autumn", and the Spring and Autumn Period also responded to its name, which was an eventful autumn.
The princes have been suffering for a long time, and finally, the deposed Empress Shen couldn't bear this lustful faint monarch, and united with the mother country to launch a mutiny, pushing the faint monarch from the position of ruler.
Under the recommendation of everyone, the original crown prince inherited the throne, but the Zhou Dynasty at this time was no longer the previous dynasty that ordered the princes of the world. Originally, it was Shenhou who led the dog Rong to attack Jingshi and overthrew King Zhou You, and now King Zhou Ping was picked up by him, which made King Zhou Ping suspected of killing his father on his head, and his prestige in the world was greatly reduced.
On the other side, the strength of the various princes has gradually increased, and it has jumped out of the scope that the Zhou Dynasty government can control. In this way, the Zhou dynasty lost its prestige in reputation and control in force, and its princes began to crusade against each other without listening to the arrangement, and finally, King Ping of Zhou had to move east in the chaos of the war and give up his original piece of land.
At this time, the Zhou Dynasty seemed to exist, but in fact it had completely lost its ability to control the various vassal states. The weakness of the Zhou Dynasty made the princes leaderless, and also gave ambitious people an opportunity to take advantage of.
In 685 BC, Duke Huan of Qi first appeared on the stage of history, he co-opted the alliance of eight princes, forced the state of Chu to submit to himself, and became the head of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period for a while.
It's just that feng shui takes turns, and after the death of Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Xiang of Song, who aimed at the opportunity, took advantage of the opportunity to dominate the throne, but unfortunately the prestige of the Song State was not high, and the fruits of victory were finally snatched away by the later Chu State.
In the north, the same clan of the Zhou Dynasty, also Jin Wengong, also relied on his ability to establish prestige among the princes and became a generation of overlords. Qin Mugong also fought out from the princes and became the overlord, so far, the overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period has basically appeared, but in the long Spring and Autumn years, their struggle has been going on for many years.
The Spring and Autumn period was a chaotic period, due to the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, the princes under his command were ready to move, and they raised troops to fight everywhere in exchange for more living space.
Warring States period
Compared with the chaos of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States were relatively stable, and after years of melee, the positions of the several forces were stable. The name of the Warring States Period is taken from Liu Xiang's "Warring States Policy", and the beginning of this era coincided with the division of the Jin Kingdom by the Three Kingdoms.
After the melee, the troops and materials began to concentrate in the hands of a few people, and several opposing forces gradually surfaced, and in the middle of the Warring States Period, the situation of Qi, Chu, Han, Yan, Zhao, Wei, and Qin was formed, and the original melee of the princes also became a game between the seven countries.
At the beginning, the most powerful was the Wei State, but its strength attracted the joint attack of the Qin State and the Qi State, and finally gradually declined.
On the other side, Chu State dominated the Jiangnan area through law changes, while Zhao State and South Korea began to act on the small countries around them, and took advantage of the internal strife in Zhou to split it into two small countries, and Korea and Zhao State began to encroach on the land of Zhou State little by little, and among all the current overlords, only Yan State is still a small country with little strength.
The victory of the reform made the Qin and Qi states become two great powers, separated from the east and west. Although the countries have already had a prototype at this time, but because of reputation, everyone did not claim the king, the ancients valued the most reputation, and the unjustified overlord had no prestige in history.
It was not until 344 BC that King Wei Hui became king, and the various overlords moved their minds to become kings. In 325 B.C., King Huiwen of Qin set off a craze for the title of king of various countries, and Yan, Zhao, Han, Song and Zhongshan also claimed to be kings.
In order to gain more power, powerful countries began to win over the surrounding small countries, and the antagonistic relationship between Qin and Qi and Chu became more and more obvious, and the combination of vertical and horizontal was pushed to a climax.
Although Qin confronted many countries, it was strong and basically maintained the upper hand, subduing Korea and Wei successively, breaking through Bashu and inflicting heavy losses on Chu, while Qi, which did not confront Qin head-on, still maintained its hegemony in the east.
In the late Warring States period, the melee between the countries became more intense, and the state of Chu reneged on the covenant to unite with the state of Qin, but unexpectedly, it was miserably calculated by the state of Qin, and was attacked by the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao, and Qin at the same time, and since then it has been in a state of collapse.
On the other hand, although the Qi State united Han and Wei to contend with the Qin State, they could not help them resist the surging attack of the Qin State. In the years that followed, the original struggle for hegemony of the Seven Kingdoms gradually turned into a coalition of several other countries to contend with the Qin State, and the power of the Qin State not only did not decay in these maneuvers and battles, but gradually grew.
In 251 BC, the Yan State wanted to take advantage of the defeat of the Zhao State to sneak attack, but was defeated by the Zhao State. However, the dispute between the six countries did not last long, and the threat of the Qin State brought them together again, however, at this time, the Qin State was no longer something that these six countries could shake.
In 247 BC, Xin Lingjun of Wei united the five kingdoms to attack Qin, but was defeated by Qin outside the river, and in 241 BC, Pang Nuan of Zhao once again united many countries to attack Qin, but was defeated by Qin again.
At this point, the alliance of the six nations was shattered, and this was a good time for the Qin State to break it one by one. From 230 BC to 221 BC, the Qin State defeated Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu, and Qi one by one, unifying the world, and the history of the Warring States Period also came to an end.
The division of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period
Historically, why did historians divide the Eastern Zhou Dynasty into the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but were unwilling to commensurate the entire era with the Eastern Zhou Dynasty? In fact, it was mainly because of the particularity of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
In history, it is very rare for a dynasty as long divided as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to be. The decline of the Zhou Dynasty put itself in a very embarrassing situation, the powerful princes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty could not be defeated, and the weak princes could not be protected, and in the end, he could only watch the small princes go to the big princes to seek refuge, and the Zhou Dynasty was completely majestic.
Counting the entire Eastern Zhou Dynasty, it was more than 500 years, and the Qin Dynasty after this did not even cross the 300-year hurdle. If we compare it in terms of time, it seems that the rule of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was more powerful than that of the Qin Dynasty.
But the fact is that the Eastern Zhou Dynasty did not play any role at all, and during this period it was either a melee of the princes or a dispute between the Seven Kingdoms, so historians are not very willing to refer to this period as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but divide it into the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States according to the characteristics of the period.
On the other hand, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period also reflect two different ideas of governance in ancient times. Although the Spring and Autumn Period was the period of "the collapse of etiquette and music" in the mouth of Confucius, it was also the period of the formation of Confucianism, and the Warring States Period was the period of the explosion of mainland thought.
Ideologically speaking, neither the Spring and Autumn Period of Confucianism nor the Warring States of Legalism have anything to do with the Zhou Dynasty, so the naming of "Eastern Zhou" inevitably seems to be partial and comprehensive.
It is worth noting that no matter how the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are divided, they basically revolve around the division of the Three Kingdoms. This is because the social forms before and after the Three Kingdoms were completely different.
Before the division of the Three Kingdoms, although the princes formed gangs, they basically abided by the sub-feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty, and after the Three Kingdoms were divided, the county system appeared on the stage of history, this measure strengthened the centralization of power, and the Wei State jumped to hegemony with this policy, and other countries followed suit, and the sub-feudal system was annihilated in the long river of history.
Brief summary:
The main reason why the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are not collectively referred to as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is because the Eastern Zhou Dynasty itself is weak and is not the protagonist of history in the entire history. Their own weakness and incompetence, coupled with policy problems, made the princes who were originally attached to them begin to be uncontrolled and dominated.
Such a long-term split is very rare in China's history, and such a split has also contributed to the situation of a hundred schools of thought contending culturally, leaving a strong mark on Chinese history and culture.
In order to be able to gain an advantage in the game, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various countries changed their laws one after another, seeking the best solution for rule, strategizing externally, and maneuvering with many parties, leaving a history worth recalling and speculating on for future generations.