The Seven Heroes of the Warring States originated from the Spring and Autumn Hundred Kingdoms

Mondo History Updated on 2024-03-06

The Seven Heroes of the Warring States originated from the Spring and Autumn Hundred Kingdoms

Although we usually refer to the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, in fact the Warring States period included much more countries than these seven countries.

During the Warring States Period, in addition to the Seven Heroes, there were also Yue Kingdom, Lu Kingdom, Song Kingdom, Zheng State, Zhongshan State and other countries. Although these countries were not as influential as the Seven Heroes, they also occupied a certain position at the time.

However, none of them survived the turmoil of the Warring States period, and most of them were destroyed before Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne. Therefore, when later generations evaluated the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, they usually followed three criteria: first, the country was strong enough to influence the direction of Chinese history; second, it must occupy an important position in the middle of the Warring States period; Third, except for the ultimate victor, the state of Qin, the country must hold out until Qin Shi Huang ascends the throne and is destroyed by him personally.

Only by meeting these three conditions at the same time can you become one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. In addition, other countries during the Warring States Period, either the national strength was not enough to affect the history of the entire Central Plains, and they could only be led by the nose; Either it was wiped out before Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne.

These countries, even if they were once strong, could not be listed as one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. Among them, the most representative may be the overlord Yue Guo in the late Spring and Autumn Period.

The Yue Kingdom was the most powerful vassal state in the late Spring and Autumn Period, but in the Warring States Period, it declined rapidly, and in the end it was not even included in the list of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. As for how the hundreds of vassal states in the Spring and Autumn Period evolved into the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, we need to briefly review the historical context of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

That is, during the Western Zhou Dynasty, the influence of the Zhou royal family began to decline rapidly, and it was no longer able to control the vassal states below.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ruling power of Zhou Tianzi was maintained through the feudal system, which required the Zhou royal family to maintain strong strength. When the strength of the Zhou royal family dropped to a certain level, it could no longer suppress the vassal states below, and wars would begin between the vassal states.

Before the decline of the Zhou royal family, due to the suppression of the Zhou royal family, the vassal states were generally not strong, and the most powerful countries were only equivalent to the area of one or two modern cities.

However, with the occurrence of the Beacon Theater Princes, some far-sighted and expansionist countries began to expand wildly, and eventually rose to become real powers.

In this process, the four countries of Qin, Jin, Qi, and Chu were the first to emerge.

In the early Spring and Autumn period, obtaining the right to legitimate expansion was crucial to the rise of a nation. The four great states of Qin, Jin, Qi, and Chu all succeeded in gaining this power in their own way.

Qin Yin rescued the Zhou royal family during the Beacon Fire Theater princes, and obtained the promise of the Zhou royal family to expand in the west, and defeated the dog Rong to obtain land; The Jin Dynasty helped King Zhou Ping quell the civil strife and helped King Zhou Ping drive out King Zhou and get the right to expand legally.

When the Zhou royal family canonized the state of Qi, Jiang Taigong's ancestors were given"Conquer the nations in place of the Son of Heaven"As a result, the state of Qi in the east was able to become stronger. Because of its remote geographical location and the high sky and the far away emperor, the Chu State in the south relied on its strength to play the so-called legitimate expansion right.

The first hundred years of the Spring and Autumn Period were the period when the number of vassal states declined the fastest. The Jin State annexed seventeen countries, and obediently controlled thirty-eight countries; The Qin state successfully occupied the Guanzhong region; The state of Chu stook its horse in the south and gradually occupied the entire Jianghan Plain; The rise of the Qi state in the Shandong region eliminated a large number of Dongyi tribes and vassal states.

In the first stage, more than half of the vassal states had been eliminated. The vassal states that can survive the first stage are basically at the level above the city level. The vassal states at the town and county levels have basically been wiped out at this time.

The beginning of the second phase was marked by the rise of the Duke of Qi Huan, and after the melee of the early Spring and Autumn period, several great powers began to emerge and have their own spheres of influence. A new system of competing for hegemony gradually took shape, and several major powers began to compete for the position of hegemon.

Because at this time, behind every small country there is a big country, and if you want to annex a small country, you have to face this big country, so the struggle for hegemony has become the main goal of the powerful country.

The power of the hegemon can put pressure on other small countries to continue to expand, which is the core reason for the struggle for hegemony in the middle of the Spring and Autumn period.

In the second stage, the hegemon underwent several changes. Duke Huan of Qi started the hegemony of the State of Qi, and then Duke Wen of Jin took over as the overlord. Although Qin Mugong of the Qin State was briefly revered as the overlord, the status of the overlord still belonged to the Jin State.

However, the rise of King Chuzhuang deprived the Jin state of its hegemon. However, after the death of King Chuzhuang, the Jin state once again regained its position as the overlord. In conclusion, in the second stage, there was a fierce struggle for hegemony between the states of Qi, Jin, and Chu, while the state of Qin chose to support the state of Chu and the state of Qi chose to support the state of Jin.

After decades of war, the two sides were finally exhausted and entered the stage of Wu-Yue hegemony. The beginning of this phase was marked by the "Second Coalition of Soldiers", in which the two sides signed a peace agreement while not wanting peace for the other.

The Jin state supported the state of Wu around the state of Chu, and the state of Chu supported the state of Yue behind the state of Wu. Due to the third stage, the two countries of Jin and Chu signed an armistice agreement, and the two countries of Wu and Yue rose rapidly.

Therefore, in the late Spring and Autumn period, except for Wu and Yue, other countries basically stopped fighting.

After the third phase of fierce fighting, the Yue State finally won a landslide victory, not only annexing the Wu State, but also establishing a solid dominance in the southeastern region. At this time, the six major powers in the Central Plains were standing side by side, namely Qin, Jin, Qi, Chu, Yue and Yan in the north.

Due to its location in the north and the lack of competitors, the Yan Kingdom was able to become a powerful country. However, this geographical advantage also limited the expansion of the Yan Kingdom. At the end of the third stage, the Viet Nak was at its strongest.

And the end of the Spring and Autumn Period also ended with the hegemony of King Goujian of Yue.

With the hegemony of the Yue Kingdom, history entered the fourth stage, which is known as the "stage of changing the law". This is because the development of iron-smelting technology led to the collapse of the traditional slave social system, and countries began to concentrate on solving domestic problems.

During this period, countries began to implement reforms to address domestic challenges. In this process, the powerful Jin State** became the Three Kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei, and the Qi State in the East also underwent a change of dynasty, from the Jiang family to the Tian family.

The countries began a wave of reforms, and after the Wei state separated from the Jin state, it first tried to change the law and quickly became the new overlord. Subsequently, Wu Qi introduced Wei's reform ideas into Chu, which made Chu rise rapidly.

After the successful practice of the Chu State, all countries realized that the Wei State's idea of changing the law was the most correct. Therefore, in the next ten years, the Qin State implemented the Shang Yang Reform, the Korea State carried out the Shen Bu Harm Reform, and the Qi State carried out the Zou Ji Reform.

After the completion of the reform of the law by several major powers, there is no possibility of the emergence of new powers in the Central Plains. It has become extremely difficult for small countries to rise, and it will be extremely difficult to miss the opportunity of this era and then think about change.

By the time the great powers such as Qin, Qi, Chu, and Wei completed their reforms and entered the stage of combining vertical and horizontal, the past strategy of fighting for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period was no longer applicable. Because most of the small countries have been annexed, the remaining small countries are only the second-rate powers of the past, such as the Song State and the Zhongshan State.

At this stage, the major powers continue to merge through a game of merger and succession. Second-rate vassal states were in danger of being annexed and partitioned. At best, they can only ensure that their country is not annexed by means of vertical and horizontal means, and expansion is no longer possible.

With the development of the times, some middle powers have suffered the doom of partition and annexation one after another. Since the death of King Goujian, the Yue Kingdom has gradually declined, and civil strife has been frequent, and a good opportunity for reform has been missed.

When the era of vertical and horizontal cooperation came, other countries did not give Vietnam a chance to reform. As a result, the Vietnamese hoped to divert domestic contradictions and seek reform through foreign wars.

But in the end, the Yue State was defeated by the Chu State in the foreign war, and as a result, it was completely divided between the Chu State and the Qi State. The state of Chu annexed most of the territory of the state of Yue.

During the Spring and Autumn period, Ba, Shu, and Yiqu were all powerful states in their respective fields, but with the successful implementation of the Qin reforms, the overall strength of these states gradually lagged behind the Qin state, and due to their geographical location, they were difficult to form an alliance with the Qin state, and they were eventually annexed by the Qin state.

Similarly, the vassal states in the core regions of the Central Plains, such as Zheng, Song, and Lu, were all powerful states during the Spring and Autumn Period, but by the Warring States Period, their strength was far less than that of the great powers that succeeded in reforming the law.

During the Warring States Period, countries gradually weakened and were eventually annexed by other countries. After a successful reform, Korea completely annexed Jeongkook.

The Song state once tried to divert contradictions through foreign wars, but after losing the war, it was divided between the states of Qi, Wei, and Chu. Lu has always used the strategy of combining vertical and horizontal to protect itself, but in the later stage of the strategy of combining vertical and horizontal, with the reduction of second-rate small countries, Lu was not spared.

Eventually, after the Battle of Changping, Qin wanted to destroy Zhao, and other countries went to the rescue of Zhao. During this period, the state of Chu sent troops to rescue the state of Zhao, but on the way back to the division, the state of Lu was destroyed by the way.

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the second-rate vassal states had been almost completely wiped out, and only the Seven Heroes of the Warring States remained. With the disappearance of these second-rate vassal states, several major powers lost their strategic buffer space, so the decisive battle of annexation between the great powers was inevitable.

At this time, the melee of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period entered the last stage - the unification stage. At the beginning of this stage, the Qin state was the most powerful, so the country that eventually unified the world was destined to be the Qin state.

Since the other great powers could not really join forces to fight against Qin, this outcome was already doomed.

The Battle of Changping became a turning point in the sixth phase, and the fall of Zhao marked the end of no country that could stand alone against Qin. This led to the alliance between the great powers turning into a sweep of the Qin state, and finally in 221 BC, with the surrender of the Qi state, Qin Shi Huang unified the world and ended the chaos of the Spring and Autumn Warring States.

In the centuries-long annexation wars of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, we can see a clear trend: large countries first annexed small countries, and then fought for hegemony and annexation between large countries.

The small countries were constantly eliminated and merged in the process, and when the power of the small countries was weakened to a certain extent, a decisive battle would start between the great powers of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. However, it should be noted that although the Seven Heroes of the Warring States were nominally seven countries, this does not mean that only these seven countries participated in the Warring States Period.

Other countries, such as the Yue Kingdom, the Song Kingdom, the Lu Kingdom, etc., also played an important role. It's just that these countries did not make it to the end.

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