Spring and Autumn period

The Spring and Autumn Period (ch. 春秋時代 pinyin Chūnqiū Shídài) represented an era in Chinese history between 722 BC and 481 BC. The term comes from the Annals of Spring and Autumn, a historical record that chronicles this era. During the Spring and Autumn Period, power became decentralized. This period was filled with battles and annexation of smaller states. The slow crumbling of nobility resulted in widespread literacy; increasing literacy encouraged freedom of thought and technological advancement. This era is followed by the Warring States Period.

Diminishing power of Zhou

The fall of the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Hao, marks the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period. After the capital was sacked by western barbarian tribes, crown prince Ji Yijiu fled to the east. During the flight from the western capital to the east, the Zhou king relied on the nearby lords of Qin, Chang and Jin for protection from barbarians and rebellious lords. He moved the Zhou capital from Zongzhou (Hao) to Chengzhou (today Loyang) in the Yellow River valley.

The fleeing Zhou elite had no strong foothold in the eastern territories; even the crown prince's coronation had to be supported by those states to be successful. With his domain greatly reduced, limited to Loyang and nearby areas, the Zhou court could no longer support six groups of standing troops (liu4 jun1 六軍). Subsequent Zhou kings had to request help from neighboring or powerful states for protection from raids and for resolution of internal power struggles. The Zhou court would never regain its original authority, relegated to being merely a figurehead of the feudal states. Though Zhou nominally retained the Mandate of Heaven, the title held no power.

Rise of the hegemons

The first nobility to help the Zhou kings was the Duke Zhuang of Chang (r. 743 BC-701 BC). He was the first to establish the hegemonial system (ba4 霸), which was intended to retain the old proto-feudal system. Traditional historians justified the new system as a means of protecting weaker civilized states and the Zhou royalty from the intruding "barbarian" tribes. Located in the south, north, east and west, the barbarian tribes were, respectively, the Man, Yi, Rong and Di.

All so-called "civilized" states, however, were actually composed of a substantial mix of ethnicities; hence, there was no fine line between a "civilized" state and a "barbarian" one. Nevertheless, these ethnically and culturally different tribes had their own unique civilizations in some areas. Some ethnic groups were so substantially civilized and powerful by traditional Chinese standards that their political entities, including Wu and Yue, are even included in some versions of the five overlords (see below).

The newly powerful states were more eager to maintain aristocratic privileges over the traditional ideology of supporting the weak ruling entity during times of unrest (匡扶社稷 kuang1 fu2 she4 ji4), which had been widely propagated during imperial China to consolidate power into the ruling family.

Dukes Huan of Qi (r. 685 BC-643 BC) and Wen of Jin (r. 636 BC-628 BC) made further steps in installing the overlordship system, which brought relative stability, but in shorter time periods than before. Annexations increased, favoring the several most powerful states, including Qin, Jin, Qi and Chu. The overlord role gradually drifted from its stated intention of protecting weaker states; the overlordship eventually became a system of hegemony of major states over weaker satellites of Chinese and "barbarian" origin.

The great states used the pretext of aid and protection to intervene and gain advantages over the smaller states during their internal quarrels. Later overlords were mostly derived from these great states. They proclaimed themselves master of their territories, without even recognizing the petty figurehead of Zhou. Establishment of the local administration system (Jun and Xian), with its officials appointed by the government, gave states better control over the dominion. Taxation facilitated commerce and agriculture more than proto-feudalism.

The three states of Qin, Jin and Qi not only optimized their own strength, but also repelled the southern state of Chu, whose rulers had proclaimed themselves king. The Chu armies gradually intruded into the Yellow River Basin. Framing Chu as the "southern barbarian", Chu Man, was merely a pretext to warn Chu not to intervene into their respective spheres of influence. Chu intrusion was checked several times in three major battles with increasing violence - the Battle of Chengpu, the Battle of Bi and the Battle of Yanling; this resulted in the restorations of the states of Chen and Cai.

Changing tempo of war

After a period of increasingly exhaustive warfare, Qi, Qin, Jin and Chu finally met for a disarmament conference in 579 BC, where the other states essentially became satellites. In 546 BC, Jin and Chu agreed to yet another truce.

During the relatively peaceful 6th century BC, the two coastal states in today's Zhejiang, Wu and Yue, gradually grew in power. After defeating and banishing King Fucha of Wu, King Gou Jian of Yue (r. 496 BC-465 BC) became the last recognized overlord.

This era of peace was only a prelude to the maelstrom of the Warring States Period. The four powerful states were all in the midst of power struggles. Six elite landholding families waged war on each other in Jin. The Chen family was eliminating political enemies in Qi. Legitimacy of the rulers was often challenged in civil wars by various royal family members in Qin and Chu. Once all these power strugglers firmly established themselves in their dominions, the bloodshed among states would continue in the Warring State Period. The Warring States Period officially started in 403 BC when the three remaining elite families in Jin - Zhao, Wei and Han - partitioned the state; the impotent Zhou court was forced to recognized their authority.