The Warring States Period

The event

Roughly seven major states — Qin, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qi — fought near-constant wars for supremacy, fielding massive infantry armies armed with iron weapons and crossbows in place of the older aristocratic chariot warfare. The Zhou king continued to exist as a figurehead until the dynasty was formally extinguished in 256 BC, by which point he controlled no meaningful territory at all.

The period's brutal instability also produced a golden age of Chinese thought, the 'Hundred Schools' — Legalism, with its emphasis on strict law and centralized state power; Daoism, Laozi's teaching of yielding to the natural way; and Mohism, with its call to universal love and rule by merit — as rulers cast about for any philosophy or strategy that promised survival. Intense suffering, as so often in history, provoked intense searching for answers.

Out of this chaos, the western state of Qin steadily rose through a combination of ruthless Legalist administrative reform, associated with the statesman Shang Yang, a strong military tradition, and a defensible frontier position, absorbing or conquering its rivals over more than two centuries — setting the stage for the dramatic unification of 221 BC.

Dating

Chinese historians traditionally mark the start of the Warring States period at either 475 BC (the year after the Spring and Autumn Annals conclude) or 403 BC (when three noble families formally partitioned the state of Jin). Both dates appear in reputable sources.