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The
Spring Autumn and Warrring States Period After
the capital was occupied by barbarians from the west in 771BC, the Zhou
moved east, thus it was called the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The power of
the Eastern Zhou declined somewhat. The so-called Spring & Autumn
period, named after a book (The Spring and Autumn Annals) that provides
the history of that period. During that time, new ideas and philosophies
of different schools proliferated. From a historical standpoint, the four
most important schools were Daoism (represented by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi),
Confucianism (represented by Kong Zi and Meng Zi), Legalism (represented
by Han Fei) and Militarism (represented by Su Wu). A great poet Qu Yuan
with his two poetic essays named Chu Ci (Chu Songs) and Li Sao (The Lament),
was very famous and he had great influence on poetry writing of later
ages.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, iron replaced bronze for tools and weapons.
The use of iron led to an increase in agricultural output. The population
continued to grow. But the influences of Eastern Zhou on its vassal states
became weaken and weaken. So many principalities co-existed with Zhou
and they always fought with each other for hegemony. Five dukes were most
important among them. They were namely Huangong of the Qi state, Xianggong
of the Song, Wengong of the Jin, Mugong of the Qin and Zhuangwang of the
Chu. In the history they were known as the "the Five Overlords of
the Spring and Autumn Period". The endless wars brought great disaster
to the people. At he end of Spring and Autumn Period seven important states
left they were namely QI, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin. Later on Kingdom
Qin annexed the other six and unified China.
