{short description of image}  
 

WARRING STATES PERIOD

Wikipedia entry

{short description of image}

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.

 
 

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.

 
 

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.

 

 
 

 
 

 
 



.

,
 

.

 
 

 
{short description of image}

 
{short description of image}

 
{short description of image}

 
{short description of image}

 
{short description of image}

 
{short description of image}

 

Return to Xenophon.