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A significant period in Ancient China
generally dated from 475 to 221 BC, during which China (mostly northern) had
split into a variety of aggressive competing polities ruled by hegemons
(generally dukes) vying with each other to dominate the area. It was ended by
the victory of the Qin ruler who proclaimed himself the first Emperor. General
histories of China list this period as following the Spring and Autumn era -
another violent period of local warfare.
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Reviewer Comment:
Michael Pillsbury finds that recent and current Chinese political and military
officials and authors frequently quote or refer to examples of statecraft
employed by the various rulers during the Warring States Period as valuable
precedents for Chinese policy today. He generally merges the Spring and Autumn
with the Warring States period as being so similar as to consider them one.
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The period is not only or mostly of interest
today for the actual military events as for the important literature written by
authors including the famous Sun Tzu - in all 4 out of the 7 most significant
Chinese classics of military philosophy and strategic thinking. The Wikipedia
entry has excellent map and discusses in detail the chronology of the
successive powerful local rulers who were fighting each other for full power.
It was this several centuries long era of conflict between relatively equals
that generated such a volume of theoretical and practical texts on strategy,
tactics, military methods, economics and the mobilization of every facet of
assets and society in the quest for power.
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