Warring States period

The Warring States period (simplified Chinese: 战国时代; traditional Chinese: 戰國時代; pinyin: Zhànguó Shídài) is a period in ancient China following the Spring and Autumn period and concluding with the victory of the state of Qin in 221 BC, creating a unified China under the Qin dynasty. Different scholars use dates for the beginning of the period ranging between 481 BC and 403 BC, but Sima Qian's date of 475 BC is most often cited. Most of this period coincides with the second half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty, although the Chinese sovereign (king of Zhou) was merely a figurehead.

The name of the period was derived from the Record of the Warring States, a work compiled early in the Han dynasty.

Geography

The political geography of the era was dominated by the Seven Warring States, namely:

• Qin: The State of Qin was in the far west, with its core in the Wei River Valley and Guanzhong. This geographical position offered protection from the states of the Central Plains and it also limited its initial influence.
• The Three Jins: Northeast of Qin, on the Shanxi plateau, were the three successor states of Jin. These were:

  Han, south, along the Yellow River, controlling the eastern approaches to Qin.

  Wei, middle.

  Zhao, the northernmost of the three.

• Qi: located in the east of China, centred on the Shandong Peninsula, described as east of Mount Tai but whose territory extended far beyond.
• Chu: located in the south of China, with its core territory around the valleys of the Han River and, later, the Yangtze River.
• Yan: located in the northeast, centred on modern-day Beijing. Late in the period Yan pushed northeast and began to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula

Besides these seven major states, some minor states also survived into the period.

• Yue: On the southeast coast near Shanghai was the State of Yue, which was highly active in the late Spring and Autumn era but was eventually annexed by Chu.
• Sichuan: In the far southwest were the States of Ba and Shu. These were non-Zhou states that were conquered by Qin late in the period.
• In the Central Plains comprising much of modern-day Henan Province, many smaller city states survived as satellites of the larger states, though they would eventually be absorbed as well.
• Zhongshan: Between the states of Zhao and Yan was the state of Zhongshan which was eventually annexed by Zhao in 296 BC.

History

Periodisation

The Spring and Autumn period was initiated by the eastward flight of the Zhou court. There is no one single incident or starting point for the Warring States era. The political situation of the period was a culmination of historical trends of conquest and annexation which also characterised the Spring and Autumn period; as a result there is some controversy as to the beginning of the era. Some proposed starting points are as follows:

• 481 BC: Proposed by Song-era historian Lü Zuqian, since it is the end of the Spring and Autumn Annals.
• 476 BC-475 BC: The author, Sima Qian, of Records of the Grand Historian who chose the inaugural year of King Yuan of Zhou.
• 453 BC: The Partition of Jin saw the dissolution/destruction of that key state of the earlier period and creating three of the seven warring states: Han, Zhao, and Wei.
• 441 BC: The inaugural year of Zhou Kings starting with King Ai of Zhou.
• 403 BC: The year when Han, Zhao and Wei were officially recognised as states by the Zhou court. Author Sima Guang of Zizhi Tongjian tells us that the symbol of eroded Zhou authority should be taken as the start of the Warring States era.

Background and formation

The system of feudal states created by the Western Zhou dynasty underwent enormous changes after 771 BC with the flight of the Zhou court to modern-day Luoyang and the diminution of its relevance and power. The Spring and Autumn period led to a few states gaining power at the expense of many others, the latter no longer able to depend on central authority for legitimacy or protection. Further to the decentralization of China, there exists in Chinese tradition, the “Heaven’s Mandate” (tianming) and is associated to a traditional and religious belief. It refers to the Heaven’s as the arbiter of the just heir. This would basically justify the political overthrow of one ruler by another, being that the victorious was chosen by the Heaven’s in order to become ruler. During the Warring States Period, many rulers claimed the Mandate of Heaven in order to have legitimacy as a ruler over other states and spread their influence.

The struggle for hegemony eventually created a state system dominated by several large states, such as Jin, Chu, Qin and Qi, while the smaller states of the Central Plains tended to be their satellites and tributaries. Other major states also existed, such as Wu and Yue in the southeast. The last decades of the Spring and Autumn era were marked by increased stability, as the result of peace negotiations between Jin and Chu which established their respective spheres of influence. This situation would end with the partition of Jin, whereby the state was divided between the houses of Han, Zhao and Wei, and thus enabling the creation of the seven major warring states.

Partition of Jin

The rulers of Jin had steadily lost political powers since the middle of the 6th century BC to their nominally subordinate nobles and military commanders, a situation arising from the traditions of the Jin which forbade the enfeoffment of relatives of the ducal house. This allowed other clans to gain fiefs and military authority, and decades of internecine struggle led to the establishment of four major families, the Han, Zhao, Wei and Zhi.

The Battle of Jinyang (453 BC) saw the allied Han, Zhao and Wei destroy the Zhi family and their lands were distributed among them. With this, they became the de facto rulers of most of Jin's territory, though this situation would not be officially recognised until half a century later, by King Weilie of Zhou.

Three Jins

The Jin division created a political vacuum that enabled during the first 50 years expansion of Chu and Yue northward and Qi southward. Qin increased its control of the local tribes and began its expansion southwest to Sichuan.

From before 405 until 383 the three Jins were united under the leadership of Wei and expanded in all directions. The most important figure was Marquess Wen of Wei (445-396). In 408-406 he conquered the State of Zhongshan to the northeast on the other side of Zhao. At the same time he pushed west across the Yellow River to the Luo River taking the area of Xihe (literally 'west of the [Yellow] river').

The growing power of Wei caused Zhao to back away from the alliance. In 383 it moved its capital to Handan and attacked the small state of Wey. Wey appealed to Wei which attacked Zhao on the western side. Being in danger, Zhao called in Chu. As usual, Chu used this as a pretext to annex territory to its north, but the diversion allowed Zhao to occupy a part of Wei. This conflict marked the end of the power of the united Jins and the beginning a period of shifting alliances and wars on several fronts.

In 370 BC, Marquess Wu of Wei died without naming a successor, which led to a war of succession. After three years of civil war, Zhao from the north and Han from the south invaded Wei. On the verge of conquering Wei, the leaders of Zhao and Han fell into disagreement about what to do with Wei, and both armies abruptly retreated. As a result, King Hui of Wei (still a Marquess at the time) was able to ascend the throne of Wei.

By the end of the period Zhao extended from the Shanxi plateau across the plain to the borders of Qi. Wei reached east to Qi, Lu and Song. To the south, the weaker state of Han held the east-west part of the Yellow River valley, surrounded the Zhou royal domain at Luoyang and held an area north of Luoyang called Shangdang.

Wei defeated by Qin

King Hui of Wei (370-319 BC) set about restoring the state. In 362-359 BC he exchanged territories with Han and Zhao in order to make the boundaries of the three states more rational. In 344 BC he assumed the title of king.

In 364 BC Wei was defeated by Qin at the Battle of Shimen and was only saved by the intervention of Zhao. Qin won another victory in 362 BC. In 361 BC the capital was moved east to Daliang to be out of the reach of Qin.

In 354 BC, King Hui of Wei started a large-scale attack on Zhao. By 353 BC, Zhao was losing badly and its capital, Handan, was under siege. The State of Qi intervened. The famous Qi strategist, Sun Bin the great-great-great-grandson of Sun Tzu (author of the Art of War), proposed to attack the Wei capital while the Wei army was tied up besieging Zhao. The strategy was a success; the Wei army hastily moved south to protect its capital, was caught on the road and decisively defeated at the Battle of Guiling. The battle is remembered in the second of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, "besiege Wei, save Zhao" meaning to attack a vulnerable spot to relieve pressure at another point.

In 341 BC, Wei attacked Han. Qi allowed Han to be nearly defeated and then intervened. The generals from the Battle of Guiling met again (Sun Bin and Tian Ji versus Pang Juan), by using the same tactic, attacking Wei's capital. Sun Bin feigned a retreat and then turned on the overconfident Wei troops and decisively defeated them at the Battle of Maling.

In the following year Qin attacked the weakened Wei. Wei was devastatingly defeated and ceded a large part of its territory in return for truce. With Wei severely weakened, Qi and Qin became the dominant states in China.

Qi

This period corresponds to the reign of King Min of Qi and the schemes of Lord Mengchang of Qi and Su Qin.

300 BC: Lord Mengchang of Qi, grandson of the former King Wei of Qi came to power when King Min acceded to the throne. He made a westward alliance with the States of Wei and Han. In the far west, Qin, which had been weakened by a succession struggle in 307, yielded to the new coalition and appointed Lord Mengchang its chief minister. This "horizontal" or east-west alliance might have secured peace except that it excluded the State of Zhao.

298 BC: Zhao offered Qin an alliance and Lord Mengchang was driven out of Qin. The remaining three allies, Qi, Wei and Han, attacked Qin, driving up the Yellow River below Shanxi to the Hangu Pass. After 3 years of fighting they took the pass and forced Qin to return territory to Han and Wei. They next inflicted major defeats on Yan and Chu. During the 5-year administration of Lord Menchang, Qi was the major power in China.

294 BC: Lord Mengchang was implicated in a coup d'etat and fled to Wei. His alliance system collapsed. Qi and Qin made a truce and pursued their own interests. Qi moved south against the State of Song whilst the Qin General Bai Qi pushed back eastward against a Han/Wei alliance, gaining victory at the Battle of Yique. In 288 BC the two rulers took the title of "Di", (帝 literally emperor), of the east and west respectively. They swore a covenant and started planning an attack on Zhao.

287 BC: The diplomat Su Qin, possibly an agent of Yan, persuaded King Min that the Zhao war would only benefit Qin. King Min agreed and formed a 'vertical' alliance with the other states against Qin. Qin backed off, abandoned the presumptuous title of "Di", and restored territory to Wei and Zhao. In 286 Qi annexed the state of Song.

285 BC: The success of Qi frightened the other states (some say that this was part of Su Qin's plan). Under the leadership of Lord Mengchang, who was exiled in Wei, Qin, Zhao, Wei and Yan formed an alliance. Yan had normally been a relatively weak ally of Qi and Qi feared little from this quarter. Yan's onslaught under general Yue Yi came as a devastating surprise. Simultaneously, the other allies attacked from the west. Chu declared itself an ally of Qi but contented itself with annexing some territory to its north. Qi's armies were destroyed while the territory of Qi was reduced to the two cities of Ju and Jimo. King Min himself was later captured and executed by his own followers.

After 284 BC Tian Dan was able to restore much of the state's territory, but it never regained the influence it had under King Min.

Zhao

After Chu was defeated in 278, the remaining great powers were Qin in the west and Zhao in the north-center. There was little room for diplomatic maneuver and matters were decided by war in 265-260. Zhao had been much strengthened by King Wuling of Zhao (325-299). In 307 he enlarged his cavalry by copying the northern nomads. In 306 he took more land in the northern Shanxi plateau. In 305 he defeated the northeastern border state of Zhongshan. In 304 he pushed far to the northwest and occupied the east-west section of the Yellow River in the north of the Ordos Loop. King Huiwen of Zhao (298-266) chose able servants and expanded against the weakened Qi and Wei. In 296 his general Lian Po defeated two Qin armies.

In 265 King Zhaoxiang of Qin made the first move by attacking the weak state of Han which held the Yellow River gateway into Qin. He moved northeast across Wei territory to cut off the Han exclave of Shangdang north of Luoyang and south of Zhao. The Han king agreed to surrender Shangdang, but the local governor refused and presented it to King Xiaocheng of Zhao. Zhao sent out Lian Po who based his armies at Changping and Qin sent out general Wang He. Lian Po was too wise to risk a decisive battle with the Qin army and remained inside his fortifications. Qin could not break through and the armies were locked in stalemate for three years. The Zhao king decided that Lian Po was not aggressive enough and sent out Zhao Kuo who promised a decisive battle. At the same time Qin secretly replaced Wang He with the notoriously violent Bai Qi. When Zhao Kuo left his fortifications, Bai Qi used a Cannae maneuver, falling back in the center and surrounding the Zhao army from the sides. After being surrounded for 46 days, the starving Zhao troops surrendered (September 260 BC). It is said that Bai Qi had all the prisoners killed and that Zhao lost 400,000 men.

Qin was too exhausted to follow up its victory. Some time later it sent an army to besiege the Zhao capital but the army was destroyed when it was attacked from the rear. Zhao survived, but there was no longer a state that could resist Qin on its own. The other states could have survived if they remained united against Qin, but they did not.

Chu expansion

The general policy of Chu was to slowly annex the small states to its north. By late in the period it had a common border with Qi and Wei.

389: Early in the Warring States period, Chu was one of the strongest states in China. The state rose to a new level of power around 389 BC when King Dao of Chu (楚悼王) named the famous reformer Wu Qi as his chancellor.

334:Chu rose to its peak in 334 BC, when it conquered Yue to its east on the Pacific coast. The series of events leading up to this began when Yue prepared to attack Qi to its north. The King of Qi sent an emissary who persuaded the King of Yue to attack Chu instead. Yue initiated a large-scale attack at Chu but was defeated by Chu's counter-attack. Chu then proceeded to conquer Yue.

278: General Bai Qi of Qin attacked from Qin's new (from 316) territory in Sichuan to the west of Chu. The capital of Ying was captured and Chu's western lands on the Han River were lost. The effect of 334 and 278 was to shift Chu significantly to the east.

Royal titles

The title of "king" (wang, 王) was held by figurehead rulers of the Zhou dynasty, while the rulers of most states held the title of "duke" (gong, 公) or "marquess" (hou, 侯). A major exception was Chu, whose rulers were called kings since King Wu of Chu started using the title c. 703 BC.

In 344 BC King Hui of Wei changed his title from Marquess to King. In 334 BC his victorious enemy, King Wei of Qi adopted the same title. In 325 the rulers of Qin and Han declared themselves kings, followed by those of Zhao, Yan, and Zhongshan in 323 BC. In 318 BC, the ruler of Song, a relatively minor state, declared himself king. The ruler of Zhao held out until around 299 BC, and was the last to take the royal title. In 288-287 the kings of Qin and Qi briefly called themselves "emperor" (di), before reverting to "king".

Horizontal and vertical alliances

Towards the end of the Warring States period, the Qin state became disproportionately powerful compared to the other six states. As a result, the policies of the six states became overwhelmingly oriented towards dealing with the Qin threat, with two opposing schools of thought. One school advocated a 'vertical' or north-south alliance called hezong (合縱/合纵) in which the states would ally with each other to repel Qin. The other advocated a 'horizontal' or east-west alliance called lianheng (連橫/连横) in which a state would ally with Qin to participate in its ascendancy.

There were some initial successes in hezong, though mutual suspicions between allied states led to the breakdown of such alliances. Qin repeatedly exploited the horizontal alliance strategy to defeat the states one by one. During this period, many philosophers and tacticians travelled around the states, recommending that the rulers put their respective ideas into use. These "lobbyists," such as Su Qin (who advocated vertical alliances) and Zhang Yi (who advocated horizontal alliances), were famous for their tact and intellect, and were collectively known as the School of Diplomacy, whose Chinese name (縱橫家, literally 'the school of the vertical and horizontal') was derived from the two opposing ideas.

Qin ascendency

After the Zhou were driven out of the Wei River valley in 771 BC the house of Qin was given the task of restoring Zhou rule in the valley. This they did by slowly absorbing the local Rong tribes. The valley was bounded on the south by high mountains and on the north by dry country. Its great advantage was its location in the far west "within the passes" which tended to keep Qin out of needless wars with the other states.

Little information exists with regard to the early history of Qin during the Spring and Autumn period. Most of its interactions were with its powerful eastern neighbor, Jin. In 632 Duke Mu of Qin (660-621) helped Jin win the Battle of Chengpu against Chu. In 579 Qin, Jin, Chu and Qi held a peace conference and agreed to limit the size of their armies.

During the early Warring States period Qin generally avoided conflicts with the other states. It began to become aggressive after the Shang Yang reforms of about 356 and then played a very active role in the final 180 years (300-221 BC).

• Circa 408 Wei pushed Qin back to the Luo River occupying the Xihe area west of the Yellow River.
• 364: Qin defeated Wèi and Han at the battle of Shimen. Wei was saved by the intervention of Zhao.
• 356-338: Shang Yang made centralizing and authoritarian reforms.
• 340: Qin took land from Wèi after it had been defeated by Qi.
• 316: Qin conquered Shu and Ba in Sichuan to the southwest. Development of this area took a long time but slowly added greatly to Qin's wealth and power.
• 325: The Duke of Qin took the title of king.
• 312: Qin defeated an attack from Chu.
• 307: Qin was weakened by a disputed succession.
• 301: For the intervention of Qi see "period of Qi" above.
• 269: General Lian Po of Zhao decisively defeated two Qin armies.
• After 269: Fan Sui became chief advisor. He advocated authoritarian reforms, irrevocable expansion and an alliance with distant states to attack nearby states (the twenty-third of the Thirty-Six Stratagems). His maxim "attack not only the territory, but also the people" enunciated a policy of mass slaughter that became increasingly frequent.
• 278: Qin's notoriously bloody general Bai Qi captured the Chu capital and pushed the Qin frontier east of Sichuan.
• 265: Qin started a war with Han, probably to open up the Yellow River corridor south of Shanxi.
• 260: Zhao aided Han but its power was broken by Bai Qi at the Battle of Changping. Qin was now the strongest state in China.

Qin wars of unification

In 230 BC, the Qin state conquered the Han state under the leadership of the ruler Zheng. Han, the weakest of the Seven Warring States, was adjacent to the much stronger Qin, and had suffered continuous assaults by Qin in earlier years of the Warring States period. This went on until Emperor Qin Shi Huang sent general Wang Jian to attack Zhao. King An of Han, frightened by the thought that Han would be the next target of the Qin state, immediately sent diplomats to surrender the entire kingdom without a fight, saving the Han populace from the terrible potential consequences of an unsuccessful resistance.

In 225 BC, Qin conquered Wei. The Qin army led a direct invasion into Wei by besieging its capital Daliang but soon realized that the city walls were too tough to break into. They devised a new strategy in which they utilized the power of a local river that was linked to the Yellow River. The river was used to flood the city's walls, causing massive devastation to the city. Upon realizing the situation, King Jia of Wei hurriedly came out of the city and surrendered its city to the Qin army in order to avoid further bloodshed of his people.

In 223 BC, Qin invaded the relatively strong Chu state. However, the first invasion was an utter disaster when 200,000 Qin troops, led by the inexperienced general, Li Xin, were defeated by 500,000 Chu troops in the unfamiliar territory of Huaiyang, modern-day northern Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Xiang Yan, the Chu commander, had lured Qin by allowing a few initial victories, but then counterattacked and burnt two large Qin camps.

The following year, Wang Jian was recalled to lead a second invasion with 600,000 men. High in morale after their victory in the previous year, the Chu forces were content to sit back and defend against what they expected to be a siege of Chu. However, Wang Jian decided to weaken Chu's resolve and tricked the Chu army by appearing to be idle in his fortifications whilst secretly training his troops to fight in Chu territory. After a year, the Chu defenders decided to disband due to apparent lack of action from the Qin. Wang Jian invaded at that point, with full force, and overran Huaiyang and the remaining Chu forces. Chu lost the initiative and could only sustain local guerrilla-style resistance until it too was fully conquered with the destruction of Shouchun and the death of its last leader, Lord Changping of Chu, in 223 BC. At their peak, the combined armies of Chu and Qin are estimated to have ranged from hundreds of thousands to a million soldiers, more than those involved in the campaign of Changping between Qin and Zhao 35 years earlier.

In 222 BC, Qin conquered Yan and Zhao. After the conquest of Zhao, the Qin army then turned its attention towards Yan. Realizing the danger and gravity of this situation, Crown Prince Dan of Yan had sent the assassin Jing Ke to kill the Qin king, but this failure only helped to fuel the rage and determination of the Qin king, and he increased the number of troops to conquer the Yan state.

In 221 BC, Qin conquered Qi. Qi was the final unconquered warring state. It had not previously contributed or helped other states when Qin was conquering them. As soon as Qin's intention to invade it became clear, Qi swiftly surrendered all its cities, completing the unification of China and ushering in the Qin dynasty. The ruler Zheng declared himself Qin Shi Huangdi, “The first Sovereign Emperor of Qin".

In the rule of the Qin state, the union was based solely on military power. The feudal holdings were abolished, and noble families were forced to live in the capital of China, Xianyang in order to be supervised. A national road as well as greater use of canals was used in order for deployment and supply of the army can be done at ease and with speed. The peasants were given a wider range of rights in regards of land, although were subject of taxation creating a large amount of revenue to the state.

Military theory and practice

Increasing scale of warfare

The chariot remained a major factor in Chinese warfare long after it went out of fashion in the Middle East. Near the beginning of the Warring States period there is a shift from chariots to massed infantry, possibly associated with the invention of the crossbow. This had two major effects. First it led the dukes to weaken their chariot-riding nobility so they could get direct access to the peasantry who could be drafted as infantry. This change was associated with the shift from aristocratic to bureaucratic government. Second, it led to a massive increase in the scale of warfare. When the Zhou overthrew the Shang at the Battle of Muye they used 45,000 troops and 300 chariots. For the Warring States period the following figures for the military strengths of various states are reported:

• Qin: 1,000,000 infantry, 1,000 chariots, 10,000 horses;
• Chu: same numbers;
• Wei: 200-360,000 infantry, 200,000 spearmen, 100,000 servants, 600 chariots, 5,000 cavalry;
• Han: 300,000 total;
• Qi: several hundred thousand;

For major battles, the following figures are reported:

• Battle of Maling: 100,000 killed;
• Battle of Yique: 240,000 killed;
• General Bai Qi is said to have been responsible for 890,000 enemy deaths over his career.

Many scholars think these numbers are exaggerated (records are inadequate, they are much larger than those from similar societies, soldiers were paid by the number of enemies they killed and the Han dynasty had an interest in exaggerating the bloodiness of the age before China was unified). Regardless of exaggeration, it seems clear that warfare had become excessive during this period. The bloodshed and misery of the Warring States period goes a long way in explaining China's traditional preference for a united throne.

Military developments

The Warring States period saw the introduction of many innovations to the art of warfare in China, such as the use of iron and of cavalry.

Warfare in the Warring States period evolved considerably from the Spring and Autumn period, as most armies made use of infantry and cavalry in battles, and the use of chariots became less widespread. The use of massed infantry made warfare bloodier and reduced the importance of the aristocracy which in turn made the kings more despotic. From this period onward, as the various states competed with each other by mobilizing their armies to war, nobles in China belonged to the literate class, rather than to the warrior class as had previously been the case.

The various states fielded massive armies of infantry, cavalry, and chariots. Complex logistical systems maintained by efficient government bureaucracies were needed to supply, train, and control such large forces. The size of the armies ranged from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand men. Iron became more widespread and began to replace bronze. Most armour and weapons of this period were made from iron.

The first official native Chinese cavalry unit was formed in 307 BC during the military reforms of King Wuling of Zhao, who advocated 'Nomadic dress and horse archery'. But the war chariot still retained its prestige and importance, despite the tactical superiority of cavalry.

The crossbow was the preferred long-range weapon of this period, due to several reasons. The crossbow could be mass-produced easily, and mass training of crossbowmen was possible. These qualities made it a powerful weapon against the enemy.

Infantrymen deployed a variety of weapons, but the most popular was the dagger-axe. The dagger-axe came in various lengths, from 9 to 18 feet; the weapon consisted of a thrusting spear with a slashing blade appended to it. Dagger-axes were an extremely popular weapon in various kingdoms, especially for the Qin who produced 18-foot-long pikes.

Military thought

The Warring States was a great period for military strategy; of the Seven Military Classics of China, four were written during this period:

• The Art of War, attributed to Sun Tzu, a highly influential study of strategy and tactics.
• Wuzi, attributed to Wu Qi, a statesman and commander who served the states of Wei and then Chu.
• Wei Liaozi, of uncertain authorship.
• The Methods of the Sima, attributed to Sima Rangju, a commander serving the state of Qin.

Culture and society

The Warring States period was an era of intensive warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation; the major states, ruling over large territories, quickly sought to consolidate their powers, leading to the final erosion of the Zhou court's prestige. As a sign of this shift, the rulers of all the major states (except for Chu, which had claimed kingly title much earlier) abandoned their former feudal titles for the title of 王, or King, claiming equality with the rulers of the Zhou.

At the same time, the constant conflict and need for innovative social and political models led to the development of many philosophical doctrines, later known as the Hundred Schools of Thought. The most notable schools of thought include Mohism, expounded by Mozi; Confucianism, represented by Mencius and Xunzi, and Legalism, represented by Shang Yang and Han Feizi, and Taoism, most openly represented by Lao Tzu.

The many states that were competing between each other attempted to display their power not only militarily but in their courts and state philosophy. Many differing rulers adopted the differing philosophies in their own advantage or that of their kingdom.

Confucianism during the Warring States Period was attempted to be instated as a state philosophy through the efforts of Mencius, proposing that through the governing of moral principles like benevolence and righteousness, the state would win popular support from one state and those neighboring, eliminating the need of a war altogether. Mencius had attempted to convince King Hui of Liang, although was unsuccessful since the king saw no advantage in the period of wars.

Mohism was expanded by Mozi (468-376 BC) and it had the belief that people change depending on environments around. The same is applied to rulers, where depending on their surroundings, which is why one must be cautious of influences. He was very much against warfare, although was a great tactician in defense. He defended the small state of Song from many attempts of the Chu state.

Taoism was advocated by Laozi, and believed that human nature was good and can achieve perfection by returning to original state. It believed that like a baby, humans are simple and innocent although with development of civilizations it lost its innocence only to be replaced by fraud and greed. Contrarily to other schools, it did not want to gain influence in the offices of states and Laozi even refused to be in the minister of the state of Chu.

Legalism created by Shang Yang in 338 BC, rejected all notions of religion and practices, and believed a nation should be governed by strict law. Not only were severe punishments applied, but they would be grouped with the families and made mutually responsible for criminal act. It proposed radical reforms, and established a society based on solid ranks. Peasants were encouraged to practice agriculture as occupation, and military performance was rewarded. Laws were also applied to all ranks with no exception, even the king was not above punishment. The philosophy was adapted by the Qin state and it created it into a well-organized, centralized state with a bureaucracy chosen on the basis of merit. This period is most famous for the establishment of complex bureaucracies and centralized governments, as well as a clearly established legal system. The developments in political and military organization were the basis of the power of the Qin state, which conquered the other states and unified them under the Qin Empire in 221 BC.

Nobles, bureaucrats and reformers

The phenomenon of intensive warfare, based on mass formations of infantry rather than the traditional chariots, was one major trend which led to the creation of strong central bureaucracies in each of the major states. At the same time, the process of secondary feudalism which permeated the Spring and Autumn period, and led to such events as the partition of Jin and the usurpation of Qi by the Tian clan, was eventually reversed by the same process of bureaucratisation.

The reforms of Shang Yang in Qin, and of Wu Qi in Chu, both centred on increased centralisation, the suppression of the nobility, and a vastly increased scope of government based on Legalist ideals, which were necessary to mobilise the large armies of the period.

Sophisticated arithmetic

A bundle of 21 bamboo slips from the Tsinghua collection dated to 305  BC are the worlds' earliest example of a two digit decimal multiplication table, indicating that sophisticated commercial arithmetic was already established during this period.

Economic developments

The Warring States period saw the proliferation of iron working in China, replacing bronze as the dominant type of metal used in warfare. Areas such as Shu (present-day Sichuan) and Yue (present-day Zhejiang) were also brought into the Chinese cultural sphere during this time. Trade also became important, and some merchants had considerable power in politics, the most prominent of which was Lü Buwei, who rose to become Chancellor of Qin and was a key supporter of the eventual Qin Shihuang.

At the same time, the increased resources of consolidated, bureaucratic states, coupled with the logistical needs of mass levies and large-scale warfare, led to the proliferation of economic projects such as large-scale waterworks. Major examples of such waterworks include the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, which controlled the Min River in Sichuan and turned the former backwater region into a major Qin logistical base, and the Zhengguo Canal which irrigated large areas of land in the Guanzhong Plain, again increasing Qin's agricultural output.

Footnotes

References

• Cotterell, Arthur (2010), Asia, a Concise History, Singapore: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-82959-2. 
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Walthall, Anne; Palais, James B. (2006), Pre-Modern East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company, ISBN 0-618-13386-0. 
• Lewis, Mark Edward (1999), "Warring States Political History", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L., The Cambridge history of ancient China: from the origins of civilization to 221 B.C., Cambridge University Press, pp. 587â€"649, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8. 
• Lu, Liqing; Ke, Jinhua (2012), "A Concise History of Chinese Psychology of Religion", Pastoral Psychology 61 (5â€"6): 623â€"639, doi:10.1007/s11089-011-0395-y. 
• Tzu, Sun; Griffith, Samuel B. (1963), The Art of War, New York: Oxford University Press 

Further reading

• Li Xueqin. Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations. Trans. K.C. Chang. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-300-03286-2.
• Yap, Joseph P. (2009). Wars With The Xiongnu, A Translation from Zizhi tongjian. AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4490-0604-4.

External links

• Warring States Project, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Rulers of the warring states â€" Chinese Text Project