The Warring States Period
Warring States Period
The Warring States Period is the time period falling the Spring and Autumn period and ending with the rise of the Qin Dynasty. The Warring States Period lasted from 403 BCE to 221 BCE.
China Prior to Warring States Period
As the Zhou Dynasty slowly began to fall, lesser kingdoms began to break away and act as autonomous kingdoms. After these kingdoms broke away, they were pushed into volatile political system with each independent state looking to accumulate more power. Kingdoms would seek many different ways and philosophies to gain advantages over their rivals. This time period would see lots of social and political change that would greatly change the way China would evolve.
China Just Prior to Unification Under Qin Dynasty
“The central authority of the feudal Zhou regime had long disintegrated, and a varying number of states were engaged in perpetual struggle for predominance.”
“This struggle for hegemony came to an end only in 221 B.C., when the despotic northwestern state of Qin succeed in reuniting the Chinese under a single (though short-lived) dynasty once more” (Minford xx).
War as a catalyst of change
The Warring States Period gets its name, quite simply, due to the fact that it consisted of almost constant warfare. This time period would see great changes in the way war was fought.
The northern Chinese state of Jin had to wage war against non-Chinese tribes in the north. These tribes had mastered the art of cavalry warfare. Jin needed to combat this new threat and began to develop their own cavalries. Jin was the first Chinese kingdom to adopt cavalry techniques. Soon other kingdoms would adopt this newer, cheaper (than chariot warfare) and more effective strategy. After seeing the benefits that a cavalry can bring on the battlefield, kingdoms began to fight over pasturing lands and horses to build up their militaries.
Example of a Chinese War Chariot from the Terracotta Army
Besides the effect on Chinese warfare, the move towards cavalries had a great social effect. Chariots were manned buy powerful prestigious aristocracies. And though the chariot never went completely out of style, the addition of cavalry units and massed infantry greatly diminished the chariot aristocracies power both in the military and politically.
The invention of the crossbow during this period would have an even greater effect. The crossbow allowed simple farmers to become effective soldiers with very little training. The crossbow enabled soldiers to shoot further and more accurate than ever before. This addition was very successful and militaries saw their numbers swell to the hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions. The ability to mass large numbers of soldiers was a great advantage in warfare and kingdoms sought out was to grow their populations and attract others.
During this time period kingdoms invested in irrigation and agriculture in order to increase their populations. Different kingdoms also sought to attract peasants away from their rival kingdoms by offering immigrants land and by granting populations certain rights. During this time period there was a gradual decline in serfdom eventually ending all serfdom under the Qin Dynasty.
Rulers started to look on trade more favorably as a way to gain economic advantages. They began to cast coins to take the place of larger bolts of silk. Economies were able to greatly expand thanks to Iron. Iron was used greatly in weapons and farming. By the end of the Warring States Period there were great smelting projects that employed up to 200 workers.
Effects on Government
The Warring states had amassed large militaries consisting of mass infantry, chariots and cavalry. Complex logistical systems needed to be developed and maintained by efficient government bureaucracies in order to train, supply and control theses massive units. In order to maintain control over these armies and their lands, rulers were forced to change the way they governed. Rulers would rely more and more on their own officials from the central government and send them out to govern peripheral territories. This new style of governance strengthened the power of the central government while Lessing the influence of hereditary lesser lords throughout the kingdom. It also allowed for more upward movement among lesser aristocracy members.
Kings could choose advisors from a large, competitive pool of qualified men. The competition among the states also insured that these talented men could be more discerning with whom they chose to advise.
As lesser states were concerned during this period, their nobles would be forced to seek new employment. These educated men would be quickly lured to work as advisors for neighboring kingdoms. These men would make plans and proposals and present them to the king on a variety of issues. These proposals would be debated, which lead to great advancements in the art of oratory skills, logic, strategy and science. Because of this, this period in time is also referred to as the One Hundred Schools of Thought. The Warring States Period would produce some of China’s most popular and revered scholars.
Ideologies in the Warring States Period/ One Hundred Schools of Thought
- See Confucianism
- See Moism
- See Taoism
- See Legalism
Great Philosophers during the Warring States Period
- See Confucius
- See Mozi
- See Mencius
- See Han Fei Tzu
- See Xun Zi
- See Lao Zi
- See Zhuang Zi
- See Qu Yuan
- See Lao Tze
- See Sun Tzu
Sources
- Bary, Theodore & Irene Bloom. Sources of Chinese Tradition From the Earliest Times to 1600. Columbia University Press, New York, NY. 1999.
- Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Chinese Civilization, a Sourcebook. The Free Press, New York, NY. 1981.
- Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Illustrated History China, Second Edition. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. 1996, 2010.
- Gernet (1996) A History of Chinese Civilisation, Cambridge university press, p. 59
- Sun Tzu. The Art of War. Edited and Translated by John Minford. Penguin Group, New York, NY. 2003.