Search Results - Warring States

The Warring States Period (simplified Chinese ????;&_160;traditional Chinese ????;&_160;pinyin Zhànguó Shídài), also known as the Era of Warring States, covers the period from 476 BCE to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE. It is nominally considered to be the second part of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, following the Spring and Autumn Period, although the Zhou dynasty itself ended in 256 BCE, 35 years earlier than the end of the Warring States period. As with the Spring and Autumn Period, the king of Zhou acted merely as a figurehead.

The name Warring States Period was derived from the Record of the Warring States, a work historically compiled early in the Han Dynasty. The date for the beginning of the Warring States Period is somewhat in dispute. While it is frequently cited as 475 BCE (following the Spring and Autumn Period), 403 BCE—the date of the tripartition of the Jin—is also sometimes considered as the beginning of the period.

The Warring States Period, in contrast to the Spring and Autumn Period, was a period when regional warlords annexed smaller states around them and consolidated their rule. The process began in the Spring and Autumn Period, and by the 3rd century BCE, seven major states had risen to prominence. These Seven Warring States (????/???? Zhànguó Qixióng, literally "Seven Hegemonial among the Warring States"), were the Qi (?/?), the Chu (?), the Yan (?), the Han (?/?), the Zhao (?/?), the Wei (?) and the Qin (?). Another sign of this shift in power was a change in title warlords once considered themselves dukes (? gong) of the Zhou dynasty king; but now the warlords began to call themselves kings (? wáng), meaning they were equal to the Zhou king.