This is arguably one of the most wonderful eras in Chinese history, and masters such as Confucius, Mozi, Laozi, Han Feizi, and Guiguzi all came from this era.
In the same era, thousands of wars, influential figures emerged one after another, many princes rushed to be called the real leaders, and military ideas and strategies and tactics also led the world during this period.
Since the king of Zhou You was killed and the Western Zhou Dynasty perished, Yijiu was proclaimed as the king of Zhou Ping, and moved east to Luoyi.
Zhou Tianzi's power gradually declined, and there was the sentence summarized by the teacher after going to school, "The Spring and Autumn Five Tyrants are the leaders, and the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period are the first."
In the Spring and Autumn Five Tyrants, there are also different versions of the records in the historical books, one theory is that the Spring and Autumn Five Tyrants are the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Wen of Jin, the Duke of Qin Mu, the Duke of Song Xiang and the King of Chuzhuang, which are recorded in the "Historical Records Suoyin".
Another theory is recorded in "Xunzi", which believes that the five tyrants of the Spring and Autumn Period should be the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Wen of Jin, the King of Chuzhuang, the King of Wu and the King of Yue, Goujian.
But no matter which of these two statements is made, the Duke of Qi Huan and the Duke of Wen of Jin were recognized as the two overlords of the Spring and Autumn Period, so they are also called "Qi Huan Jin Wen", and there is no dispute.
King Chuzhuang and Qin Mugong have also been recognized by most people, but the most controversial is the King of Wu Lu and King Goujian of Yue, many opinions believe that after King Goujian of Yue destroyed Wu, it is no longer considered the Spring and Autumn Period, and it also annexed the Warring States Period, so it cannot be called one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period.
During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, due to the huge power of the princes, Zhou Tianzi almost lost his real power, and the vassal states crossed Zhou Tianzi one after another and launched a series of wars, thus opening the Spring and Autumn Period of the Great Chaos in the world and the Warring States Period.
In the early period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, that is, in the Spring and Autumn Period, among the many vassal states, the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Wen of Jin, the Duke of Xiang of Song, the Duke of Qin Mu and the King of Chuzhuang successively became hegemonic, and the Zhou royal family, which was no longer authoritative, was not as influential as many vassal states.
When Yijiu succeeded to the throne, he was escorted by the Marquis of Wen of Jin and Duke Wu of Zheng, so at the beginning of the establishment of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Jin State and the Zheng State were valued by the Zhou royal family.
But later, Zheng Zhuanggong of Zheng State did not take the Zhou royal family in his eyes, forgetting the truth that the emaciated camel was bigger than the horse, and finally suffered a miserable defeat to the Zhou royal family.
In order to prevent other vassal states from taking this opportunity to annex Zheng, Zheng Zhuanggong had to temporarily avoid the edge and chose to admit his mistake, but because of this war, the Zhou royal family completely lost its majesty.
Qi Huan Gong of Qi State, as the head of the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons at that time, was the fifteenth monarch of Qi State, and there was a civil strife in Qi State that year, and the two sons were forced to flee.
When the time was ripe, they rushed back to China and grasped the real power, and Duke Huan of Qi escaped Guan Zhong's shooting at that time, although he was shot and wounded, he also took the lead in returning to Qi to inherit the throne.
But Duke Qi Huan not only did not shoot himself for obstructing his return to China to inherit the throne, but instead appointed him as the prime minister, and later adopted Guan Zhong's opinion and kicked out the "respect for the king".
Subsequently, under the recognition of the Zhou royal family, Duke Qi Huan became the first overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period, but because Duke Qi Huan was mediocre in his later years, Guan Zhong was appointed as villains after his death, and finally ended up starving to death in civil strife.
When the Duke of Qi Huan died, the son of Qi in order to compete for the royal power, naturally set off a civil strife, Song Xianggong because of the insistence on benevolence and righteousness, once promised the Duke of Qi Huan, so after the death of the Duke of Qi Huan, led the army to the State of Qi, and supported the Duke of Qi Xiaogong to the throne.
Although Song Xianggong's reputation and status have improved a lot because of this, in order to become the overlord of the Central Plains, Song Xianggong began to attack Zheng State, and Zheng Guo was naturally invincible and could only ask for help from Chu.
Song Xianggong paid attention to benevolence and righteousness, so in the Battle of Hongshui, he did not choose to attack when the Chu soldiers crossed the water, but waited until the Chu soldiers crossed the river, and even lined up to make all preparations before attacking, and the result was a fiasco, and he was seriously injured and died in the second year.
Then there was Jin Wengong of Jin, whose father was Jin Xiangong, because of the Liji Rebellion in Jin that year, Jin Wengong was forced to wander outside for 19 years, and then with the help of Qin Mugong, he killed Jin Huaigong and claimed to be king.
After Duke Wen of Jin succeeded to the throne, he implemented policies such as trade and agriculture relaxation, which greatly increased the national strength of the Jin State, and pacified the rebellion of the Zhou Chamber, which was rewarded by Zhou Tianzi.
Later, Chu, Zheng, Chen and other states attacked the Song state, and the Jin state received a request for help from the Song state, and finally the state of Qi, Qin and Jin decided to enter the war, and after the relationship between the Jin state and Cao and Wei improved, the state of Chu was equivalent to being isolated.
Seeing this situation, in order to compete for the hegemony of the Central Plains, the state of Chu and the state of Jin will have a battle sooner or later, taking this opportunity the state of Chu decided to send troops to the state of Jin, when the Duke of Wen of Jin fled, he was helped by the king of Chu.
Jin Wengong promised that if the Jin and Chu countries were at war on the day, the Jin army would retreat and withdraw 90 miles, and Jin Wengong kept his promise and took the initiative to withdraw 90 miles, but in the subsequent decisive battle, the Chu army was defeated and the whole army was annihilated, which was the battle of Chengpu that year.
There has always been a cooperative relationship between the Qin State and the Jin State, and when Qin Mugong succeeded to the throne, the Jin Hui Gong who helped the Jin State was crowned king, and at that time the Jin Hui Gong promised that if he succeeded in ascending the throne, he would definitely give the Qin State five cities.
But as a result, Jin Huigong not only did not send it, but also did not give a single grain to Qin when Qin suffered a natural disaster, and finally provoked Qin Mugong to send troops to attack Jin and capture five cities.
In the subsequent years of war, Qin Mugong also destroyed many countries of the Western Rong people, and was reused by King Xiang of Zhou to dominate the Xirong region, which also laid the groundwork for Qin's unification of the whole country.
The state of Chu has been trying in vain to dominate the Central Plains, but it has been blocked everywhere and has not been able to do so, until the king of Chu Zhuang succeeded to the throne, and the state of Chu finally ushered in another legendary figure.
First, it competed with Qi for the position of the overlord of the Central Plains, and after being hindered, Chu had no choice but to temporarily annex the rest of the small countries to gradually strengthen its own power.
Subsequently, the state of Chu and the state of Jin competed for supremacy, and finally became the overlord of the Central Plains, and even wanted to win the Central Plains and challenge the authority of Zhou Tianzi.