From 770 B.C. through 476 B.C. was the Spring and Autumn Period of China. During the Period, princes that held land from the Zhou Kingdom made themselves states. Among all the 149 states, the most powerful were the Qi, Jin, Chu, Qin, Lu and Zheng States.
For the wide use of iron tools and farm cattle, […]
The Yan State was developed from a small prince. When the King Yan Zhaowang succeeded to the throne, he sought able people nationwide, collected them at hand and granted outstanding ones important positions. This gradually made Yan a strong state in the north of China.
The Yan State bordered the Qi State on the south, the […]
The Qi State established Linzi (present Linzi County of Shandong Province) as its capital. Qi was already a large and powerful prince before the Spring and Autumn Period. It neighbored the Chu, Lu and Song States on the south, the Yan State and the Bohai Sea on the north, the Zhao State and the Qinghe […]
Wei was also a powerful State. After King Wei Wenhou succeeded to the throne, he put Likui, Leyang and great militarist Wuqi into important positions, which gradually made the state flourish. Wei later moved its capital Anyi, i.e. present Anyi County of Shanxi Province, to Daliang, now Kaifeng of Hennan.
Wei neighbored the Chu State on […]
The Chu State was relatively slow in agriculture. But it kept a strong army and with it expanded its territory to the banks of the Changjiang River. Chu lay in the central plains of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. It bordered the Qi, Song, Wei and Han States on the north, […]
Qin reformed its political system in the year 356 B.C. It is known as Shangyang’s Reform. It enacted a new collection of decrees and encouraged the masses to grow plants and join the army. Owning vast fertile lands in present the central Shanxi plain and Sichuan Province, Qin soon surpassed other states in military power. […]
In 221 B.C., King Qin Shihuang defeated the other States, unified the whole China, and established the Qin Dynasty, also knowns as the First Empire, the first centralized empire in China. A long-time division by feudal lords ended.
The territory of the Qin Dynasty enlarged greatly, with its north border extending to present east Liaoning Province, […]
In 206 B.C., the Qin Dynasty was overthrown due to its tyrannical rule mostly for the large expenses required for building the Wall. In 202 B.C., after several years’ civil war, it was finally replaced by a new feudal dynasty – the Han Dynasty. Historians call the period from 202 B.C. to A.D. 8. Earlier […]
During the later stage of the Han Dynasty, rebellions led by peasants never ceased. Officials corrupted, landholders grabbed the lands, and eunuchs and relatives of the King usurped the throne. To make the situation of peasants worse were frequent natural hazards. Eventually, the Yellow Turbans Rebellion broke up, which reached the climax of the uprising […]
The Northern Wei Dynasty was developed from Xianbei, a nomadic nationality from the north. In 386, Tuoba Gui founded Wei. In 398, he set up the capital in Pingcheng, i.e. present Datong of Shanxi Province. One year after, he made himself king, i.e. King Dao Wu Di, and soon made Northern Wei a feudal state […]