Spring and Autumn period

The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 771 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC). which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. The period's name derives from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 and 479 BC, which tradition associates with Confucius.

Periodization
The period can be divided into three sub-periods:
 * Age of regional cultures (Early): 771–643 BC, up to the death of Duke Huan of Qi.
 * Age of encroachments (Middle): 643–546 BC, up to the peace conference between the states of Jin and Chu.
 * Age of reforms (Late): 546–403 BC, up to the partition of Jin.

Background
During the Spring and Autumn period, China's feudal system of fēngjiàn became largely irrelevant. The Zhou-dynasty kings held nominal power, but had real control over only a small royal demesne centered on their capital Luoyi near modern-day Luoyang. During the early part of the Zhou dynasty period, royal relatives and generals had been given control over fiefdoms in an effort to maintain Zhou authority over vast territory. As the power of the Zhou kings waned, these fiefdoms became increasingly independent states.

The most important feudal princes (known later as the twelve vassals) came together in regular conferences where they decided important matters, such as military expeditions against foreign groups or against offending nobles. During these conferences one vassal leader was sometimes declared hegemon (later, ) and given leadership over the armies of all the Zhou states.

As the era continued, larger and more powerful states annexed or claimed suzerainty over smaller ones. By the 6th century BC most small states had disappeared and just a few large and powerful principalities dominated China. Some southern states, such as Chu and Wu, claimed independence from the Zhou, who undertook wars against some of them (Wu and Yue).

Amid the interstate power struggles, internal conflict was also rife: six élite landholding families waged war on each other inside Jin, political enemies set about eliminating the Chen family in Qi, and the legitimacy of the rulers was often challenged in civil wars by various royal family members in Qin and Chu. Once all these powerful rulers had firmly established themselves within their respective dominions, the bloodshed focused more fully on interstate conflict in the Warring States period, which began in 403 BC when the three remaining élite families in Jin – Zhao, Wei and Han – partitioned the state.

Early Spring and Autumn (771-685 BC)
After the Zhou capital was sacked by the Marquess of Shen and the Quanrong barbarians, the Zhou moved the capital east from the now desolated Zongzhou in Haojing near modern Xi'an to Chengzhou in the Yellow River Valley. The Zhou royalty was then closer to its main supporters, particularly Jin, and Zheng; the Zhou royal family had much weaker authority and relied on lords from these vassal states for protection, especially during their flight to the eastern capital. In Chengzhou, Prince Yijiu was crowned by his supporters as King Ping. However, with the Zhou domain greatly reduced to Chengzhou and nearby areas, the court could no longer support the six army groups it had in the past; Zhou kings had to request help from powerful vassal states for protection from raids and for resolution of internal power struggles. The Zhou court would never regain its original authority; instead, it was relegated to being merely a figurehead of the feudal states. Though the king de jure retained the Mandate of Heaven, the title held little actual power.

With the decline of Zhou power, the Yellow River drainage basin was divided into hundreds of small, autonomous states, most of them consisting of a single city, though a handful of multi-city states, particularly those on the periphery, had power and opportunity to expand outward. A total of 148 states are mentioned in the chronicles for this period, 128 of which were absorbed by the four largest states by the end of the period.

Interstate relations


Shortly after the royal family's move to Chengzhou, a hierarchical alliance system arose where the Zhou king would give the title of hegemon to the leader of the state with the most powerful military; the hegemon was obligated to protect both the weaker Zhou states and the Zhou royalty from the intruding non-Zhou peoples: the Northern Di, the Southern Man, the Eastern Yi, and the Western Rong. This political framework retained the fēngjiàn power structure, though interstate and intrastate conflict often led to disregard for feudal customs, respect for the Ji family, and solidarity with other Zhou peoples. The king's prestige legitimized the military leaders of the states, and helped mobilize collective defense of Zhou territory against "barbarians."

Over the next two centuries, the four most powerful states—Qin, Jin, Qi and Chu—struggled for power. These multi-city states often used the pretext of aid and protection to intervene and gain suzerainty over the smaller states. During this rapid expansion, interstate relations alternated between low-level warfare and complex diplomacy.

Ancient sources such as the Zuo Zhuan and the eponymous Chunqiu record the various diplomatic activities, such as court visits paid by one ruler to another, meetings of officials or nobles of different states , missions of friendly inquiries sent by the ruler of one state to another , emissaries sent from one state to another , and hunting parties attended by representatives of different states.

Because of Chu's non-Zhou origin, the state was considered semi-barbarian and its rulers – beginning with King Wu in 704 BC – proclaimed themselves kings in their own right. Chu intrusion into Zhou territory was checked several times by the other states, particularly in the major battles of Chengpu (632 BC), Bi (595 BC) and Yanling (575 BC), which restored the states of Chen and Cai.

Zheng falls out with the court (722-685 BC)
In 722 BC, Duke Yin of Lu ascended the throne. From this year on the state of Lu kept an official chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals, which along with its commentaries is the standard source for the Spring and Autumn period. Corresponding chronicles are known to have existed in other states as well, but all but the Lu chronicle have been lost.

In 717 BC, Duke Zhuang of Zheng (757–701 BC) went to the capital for an audience with King Huan. During the encounter the duke felt he was not treated with the respect and etiquette which would have been appropriate, given that Zheng was now the chief protector of the capital. In 715 BC Zheng also became involved in a border dispute with Lu regarding the Fields of Xu. The fields had been put in the care of Lu by the king for the exclusive purpose of producing royal sacrifices for the sacred Mount Tai. Zheng regarding the fields as just any other piece of land was an insult to the court.

By 707 BC relations had soured enough that the king launched a punative expidition against Zheng. The duke counterattacked and raided Zhou territory, defeating the royal forces in battle and injuring the king himself. Zheng was the first vassal to openly defy the king, kicking off the centuries of warfare without respect for titles which would characterize the period.

The display of Zheng's martial strength was effective until succession problems after Zhuang's death weakened the state.

In 692 BC there was a failed assassination attempt against King Zhuang, orcestrated by elements at court.

Hegemony of Qi (685-643 BC)
The first hegemon was Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 BC). With the help of his minister, Guan Zhong, Duke Huan reformed Qi to centralize its power structure. The state consisted of 15 "townships" with the duke and two senior ministers each in charge of five; military functions were also united with civil ones. These and related reforms provided the state, already powerful from control of trade crossroads, with a greater ability to mobilize resources than the more loosely organized states.

By 667 BC, Qi had clearly shown its economic and military predominance, and Duke Huan assembled the leaders of Lu, Song, Chen, and Zheng, who elected him as their leader. Soon after, King Hui of Zhou conferred the title of bà (hegemon), giving Duke Huan royal authority in military ventures. An important basis for justifying Qi's dominance over the other states was presented in the slogan 'supporting the king, and expelling the barbarians' (尊王攘夷 zun wang rang yi); the role of subsequent hegemons would also be framed in this way, as the primary defender and supporter of nominal Zhou authority and the existing order. Using this authority, Duke Huan intervened in a power struggle in Lu; protected Yan from encroaching Western Rong nomads (664 BC); drove off Northern Di nomads after they'd invaded Wey (660 BC) and Xing (659 BC), providing the people with provisions and protective garrison units; and led an alliance of eight states to conquer Cai and thereby block the northward expansion of Chu (656 BC).



Hegemony of Song (643-637 BC)
At his death in 643 BC, five of Duke Huan's sons contended for the throne, badly weakening the state so that it was no longer regarded as the hegemon. For nearly ten years, no ruler held the title.

Duke Xiang of Song attempted to claim the hegemony in the wake of Qi's decline, perhaps driven by a desire to restore the Shang Dynasty from which Song had descended. He hosted peace confences in the same style as Qi had done, and conducted aggessive military campaigns against his rivals. Duke Xiang however met his end when, against the advice of his staff, he attacked the much larger state of Chu. The Song forces were defeated at the battle of Hong in 638 BC, and the duke himself died in the following year from an injury sustained in the battle. After Xiang's death his successors adopted a more modest foreign policy, better suited to the country's small size.

As Duke Xiang was never officially recognized as hegemon by the King of Zhou, not all sources list him as one of the Five Hegemons.

Hegemony of Jin (636-628 BC)
When Duke Wen of Jin (r. 636–628 BC) came to power, he capitalized on the reforms of his father, Duke Xian (r. 676–651 BC), who had centralized the state, killed off relatives who might threaten his authority, conquered sixteen smaller states, and even absorbed some Rong and Di peoples to make Jin much more powerful than it had been previously. When he assisted King Xiang in a succession struggle in 635 BC, Xiang awarded Jin with strategically valuable territory near Chengzhou.

Duke Wen of Jin then used his growing power to coordinate a military response with Qi, Qin, and Song against Chu, which had begun encroaching northward after the death of Duke Huán of Qi. With a decisive Chu loss at the Battle of Chengpu (632 BC), Duke Wen's loyalty to the Zhou king was rewarded at an interstate conference when King Xīang awarded him the title of bà.

Hegemony of Qin (628-621 BC)
After the death of Duke Wen in 628 BC, a growing tension manifested in interstate violence that turned smaller states, particularly those at the border between Jin and Chu, into sites of constant warfare; Qi and Qin also engaged in numerous interstate skirmishes with Jin or its allies to boost their own power.

Duke Mu of Qin had ascended the throne in 659 BC and forged an alliance with Jin by marrying his daughter to Duke Wen. In 624 BC, he established hegemony over the western Rong barbarians and became the most powerful lord of the time. However he did not chair any alliance with other states nor was he officially recognized as hegemon by the king. Therefore not all sources accept him as one of the Five Hegemons.

Hegemony of Chu (613-591 BC)
King Zhuang of Chu expanded the borders of Chu well north of the Yangzi River, threatening the Central States in modern Henan. At one point the Chu forces advanced to just outside the royal capital of Zhou, upon which King Zhuang sent a messenger to ask how heavy and bulky the Nine Cauldrons were; implying he might soon arrange to have them moved to his own capital. In the end the Zhou capital was spared, and Chu shifted focus to harassing the nearby state of Zheng. The once-hegemon state of Jin intervened to rescue Zheng from the Chu invaders but were resolutely defeated, which marks the ascension of Chu as the dominant state of the time.

Despite his de facto hegemony, King Zhuang's self-proclaimed title of "king" was never recognized by the Zhou states. In the Spring and Autumn Annals he is defiantly referred to by the Chu ruler's original title "viscount" (the second-lowest noble rank), even at a time when he dominated most of south China.

Attempts at peace


After a period of increasingly exhausting warfare, Qi, Qin, Jin and Chu met at a disarmament conference in 579 BC and agreed to declare a truce to limit their military strength. This peace didn't last very long and it soon became apparent that the bà role had become outdated; the four major states had each acquired their own spheres of control and the notion of protecting Zhou territory had become less cogent as the control over (and the resulting cultural assimilation of) non-Zhou peoples, as well as Chu's control of some Zhou areas, further blurred an already vague distinction between Zhou and non-Zhou.

In addition, new aristocratic houses were founded with loyalties to powerful states, rather than directly to the Zhou kings, though this process slowed down by the end of the seventh century BC, possibly because territory available for expansion had been largely exhausted. The Zhou kings had also lost much of their prestige so that, when Duke Dao of Jin (r. 572–558 BC) was recognized as bà, it carried much less meaning than it had before.

At the same time, internal conflicts between state leaders and local aristocrats occurred throughout the region. Eventually the dukes of Lu, Jin, Zheng, Wey and Qi became figureheads to powerful aristocratic families.

Hegemony of Wu (506-473 BC)
While the conflict between Jin and Chu for the Central Plains gradually eased, two states in southeastern China with initially tenuous links to the Zhou realm – Wu in modern-day Jiangsu and Yue in modern-day Zhejiang – grew in power as they gained relevance in interstate affairs.

Starting around 583 BC, Jin used aid to solidify an alliance with Wu, which then acted as a counterweight to Chu so that, while Jin and Chu agreed to a truce in 546 BC to address wars over smaller states, Wu maintained constant military pressure on Chu and even launched a devastating full-scale invasion in 506 BC.

In 506 BC King Helü ascended the throne of Wu. With the help of Wu Zixu and Sun Zi, the author of The Art of War, he launched major offensives against the state of Chu. They prevailed in five battles, one of which was the Battle of Boju, and conquered the capital Ying. However, Chu managed to ask the state of Qin for help, and after being defeated by Qin, the vanguard general of Wu troops, Fugai, a younger brother of Helü, led a rebellion. After beating Fugai, Helü was forced to leave Chu. Fugai later retired to Chu and settled there.King Helü died during an invasion of Yue in 496 BC. Some sources list him as one of the Five Hegemons.

He was succeeded by his son King Fuchai of Wu, who nearly destroyed the Yue state, imprisoning King Goujian of Yue. Subsequently, Fuchai defeated Qi and extended Wu influence into central China.

In 499 BC, the philosopher Confucius was made acting prime minister of Lu. He is traditionally (if improbably) considered the author or editor of the Spring and Autumn annals, from which much of the information for this period is drawn.

In 482 BC, King Fuchai of Wu held an interstate conference to solidify his power base, but Yue captured the Wu capital. Fuchai rushed back but was besieged and died when the city fell in 473 BC. Yue then concentrated on weaker neighbouring states, rather than the great powers to the north.

The year 481 BC, in which Confucius died, marks the end of the Spring and Autumn chronicle. Later events are however included in the Zuo Commentary as an epilogue.

Hegemony of Yue (473-465 BC)
With help from Wu's enemy Chu, Yue was able to be victorious after several decades of conflict. King Goujian destroyed and annexed Wu in 473 BC. Competing against the fewer, more powerful Warring States, Yue did not fare as well. During the reign of Wujiang (無彊), six generations after Goujian, Yue was destroyed and annexed by Chu in 334 BC.

Usurpation of Qi by Tian
In 489 BCE, Duke Jing of Qi died. The major cadet branches of the Jiang clan, the Guo clan (國氏) and the Gao clan (高氏, probably no relation to the earlier Gao clan), favored the accession of Prince Tu (公子荼) to the throne. On the other hand, Tian Xizi supported Prince Yangsheng, expelled the Guo and Gao clans, and then installed Prince Yangsheng on the throne as Duke Dao of Qi, with Tian Xizi himself as Prime Minister. After this, the Tian clan's status was paramount in Qi.

In 481 BCE, Tian Xizi's successor Tian Chengzi killed Duke Jian of Qi (and possibly his father Duke Dao of Qi as well in 485 BCE), as well as numerous members of the Jiang clan. He then installed Duke Jian's brother, Duke Ping of Qi to the throne. Following this, the Tian clan became the de facto rulers of Qi.

In 391 BCE, Tian Xizi's great-great-grandson Tian He deposed Duke Kang of Qi. However, Tian He did not install a new leader this time; Qi therefore was in interregnum between 391 and 386 BCE.

In 386 BCE, Tian He exiled the former Duke Kang onto a small island in the Yellow River delta and declared himself Duke. In the same year, the Zhou court formally recognized Tian He's new position as Duke, and legitimized the rule of the Tian clan over Qi.

In 379 BCE, the former Duke Kang died, thus ending a line that stretched back to the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. The Tian clan's hold on Qi would continue until Qi's annexation by the Qin in 221 BCE.

Partition of Jin
After the great age of Jin power, the Jin dukes began to lose authority over their nobles. A full-scale civil war between 497 and 453 BC ended with the elimination of most noble lines; the remaining aristocratic families divided Jin into three successor states: Han, Wei, and Zhao. This is the last event recorded in the Zuo Commentary.

With the absorption of most of the smaller states in the era, this partitioning left seven major states in the Zhou world: the three fragments of Jin, the three remaining great powers of Qin, Chu and Qi, and the weaker state of Yan near modern Beijing. The partition of Jin, along with the Usurpation of Qi by Tian, marks the beginning of the Warring States period.

List of states
A total of 148 states are mentioned in the chronicles for this period.

Important figures


The Five Hegemons (春秋五霸):

Traditional history lists five hegemons during the Spring and Autumn period:


 * Duke Huan of Qi
 * Duke Xiang of Song
 * Duke Wen of Jin
 * Duke Mu of Qin
 * King Zhuang of Chu

Alternatively:


 * Duke Huan of Qi
 * Duke Wen of Jin
 * King Zhuang of Chu
 * King Fuchai of Wu
 * King Goujian of Yue

Bureaucrats or Officers
 * Guan Zhong, advisor of Duke Huan of Qi
 * Baili Xi, prime minister of Qin.
 * Bo Pi, bureaucrat under King Helü who played an important diplomatic role in Wu-Yue relations.
 * Wen Zhong and Fan Li, the two advisors of King Goujian of Yue in his war against Wu
 * Zi Chan, leader of self-strengthening movements in Zheng

Influential scholars
 * Confucius or Kongzi, leading figure in Confucianism
 * Lao-tse or Laozi, teacher of Daoism
 * Mo-tse, Mozi, or Micius, founder of Mohism
 * Sun Tzu or Sunzi, author of The Art of War

Other people
 * Lu Ban
 * Yao Li, sent by King Helü to kill Qing Ji
 * Zhuan Zhu, sent by Helü to kill his cousin King Liao
 * Bo Ya

Literature
Some version of the Five Classics existed in Spring and Autumn period, as characters in the Zuo Commentary and Analects frequently quote the Book of Poetry and Book of Documents. One the other hand, the Zuo Commentary depicts some characters actually composing poems that would later be included in the received text of the Book of Poetry.

Sima Qian claims that it was Confucius who, towards the close of the Spring and Autumn period, edited the received versions of the Book of Poetry, Book of Documents and Book of Rites, wrote the "Ten Wings" commentary on the Book of Changes and wrote the entirety of the Spring and Autumn Annals. This was long the predominant opinion in China, but modern scholarship considers it unlikely that all five classics could be the product of one man.