春秋时期Spring and Autumn period.doc

Spring and Autumn Period (722-476 BC) Brief Introduction In the 8th century BC, power became decentralized during the Spring and Autumn Period, named after the influential Spring and Autumn Annals. In this period, local military leaders used by the Zhou began to assert their power and vie for hegemony. The situation was aggravated by the invasion of other peoples from the northwest, such as the Qin, forcing the Zhou to move their capital east to Luoyang. This marks the second major phase of the Zhou dynasty: the Eastern Zhou. In each of the hundreds of states that eventually arose, local strongmen held most of the political power and continued their subservience to the Zhou kings in name only. For instance, local leaders started using royal titles for themselves. The Hundred Schools of Thought of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period, and such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism and Mohism were founded, partly in response to the changing political world. The Spring and Autumn Period is marked by a falling apart of the central Zhou power. China now consists of hundreds of states, some of them only as large as a village with a fort. Contents 1 Beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty 2 Rise of the hegemonies 3 Interstate relations 4 Changing tempo of war 5 Detailed history 6 Table of States 7 List of important figures 8 List of important events 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links The Spring and Autumn Period (春秋時代) was a period in Chinese history that roughly corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (from the second half of the 8th century BC to the first half of the 5th century BC). Its name comes from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 and 479 BC, which tradition associates with Confucius. The period itself lasted from 770 to 476 BC. During the Spring and Autumn period, China was ruled under a feudal system. The Zhou Dynasty kings held nominal power but on