User:Cremastra/Spring and autumn

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For Ancient History/China/Zhou/Spring and Autumn Period
This yi ritual vessel dates from the sixth century BCE.

The poetically-named Spring and Autumn period – which takes its name from the Chinese classic text the Spring and Autumn Annals – marked the rise of city-states and set the stage for the Warring States period. The period is generally agreed to begin in 771 BCE, and end almost 300 years later in 481 BCE, when the ultimate collapse of the Jin state led to its fission into three factions – known as the Partition of Jin.

Background

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The ruling Shang dynasty, with its origins along the Yellow River in east-central China, ruled for some six hundred years, starting the sixteenth century BCE. The Shang are the earliest Chinese dynasty in the archaeological record. They were succeeded and conquered by the Zhou, a people from up the Yellow River.

The rising Zhou began to clash with Shang allies on the fringes of the declining Shang dynasty's control. But when a new Zhou king came to power, he began to menace the Shang more directly, and lead an alliance of anti-Shang states. These preparations culminated in the Battle of Muye, which was the defining event of this conflict: the rebel Zhou fought and defeated the Shang, and seized their capital. With just 45,000 men and a few hundred wagons, the Zhou were initially hugely outnumbered – even though most of the Shang forces were at war to the east, Di Xin of Shang organized some 170,000 troops. But Di Xin made a mistake: many of his fighters were slaves, and he thought that despite low troop morale, his army's superior numbers could, if not defeat, then at least slow down the rebels until reinforcements could arrive. He was wrong. The majority of his Shang troops fled or joined the Zhou, and the few who did were easily overwhelmed by the Zhou forces. The Shang dynasty had been defeated. Some of the Shang officials were incorporated into the Zhou government; Di Xin was not – he committed suicide.

In the following centuries, the Zhou dynasty's centralized power over central China began to decline, and largely-independent feudal states began to rise in power.

Classical sources

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  • The Chunqiu (春秋), the Spring and Autumn Annals or more literally, "Springs and Autumns", is a chronological history. It is a rough and frequently terse account that follows the state of Lu across twelve rulers and more than two centuries. It is considered a classic of Confucianism.
  • The Zhou Zhuan (左傳) was a narrative history, and a commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, providing more extensive accounts and context to the latter. Its title can be translated as "Zuo's Commentary". Like the Spring and Autumn Annals, it is considered as one of the classics of Confucianism.

States

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The states at the start of the Spring and Autumn period could be divided into Zhou and non-Zhou. The Zhou eastern states claimed descent from members and relatives of the Zhou royal family; nearly 150 such states are mentioned in the Zhou zhuan.

The Zhou states

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Qi

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Located on Shandong peninsula – the wide point of land which extends into the Yellow Sea towards Korea – and some of the surrounding land to the north, in present-day Shandong and Hainan provinces, the regional state of Qi (齊; “chi”) was one of the most powerful states. It was founded in the tenth century BCE when the Zhou dynasty overthrew the Shang dynasty.

The Partition of Jin

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Bibliography

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