Jin, (Chinese) state of
State | Defunct
1046 BCE to 453 BCE
The State of Jin is a major state during the middle part of the Zhou Dynasty, based in southern Shanxi Province near the center of what was then China.
Although it grows in power during the Spring and Autumn Period, its aristocratic structure sees it break apart when the duke loes power to his nobles.
In 453 BCE, Jin is split into three successor states: Han, Zhao and Wei.
The Partition of Jin marks the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the beginning of the Warring States Period.
Related Events
Showing 10 events out of 11 total
The land of Jing in present-day central and southern China is inhabited by the native Chu people.
The early Chu state had been ruled by an aristocracy with close affinity to the Zhou kings, with its capital at Danyang.
Prior to the dissolution of Zhou's power, the territory had been transferred by authority of the King Cheng of Zhou of Eastern Zhou to Xiong Yi.
Chu, a successful expansionist and militaristic state, had developed a reputation for coercing and absorbing its allies, growing from a small, dependent state into a large empire worthy of contention, even attaining the traditional title of one of "The Five Overlord States of the Spring and Autumn Period".
Chu had first consolidated its power by absorbing the lesser states within its immediate vicinity in Hubei; then, it expanded into the north towards the North China Plain.
The threat from Chu has resulted in multiple northern alliances against Chu and its allies.
The Battle of Chengpu, a conflict between the states of Jin against Chu and its allies, could be viewed as the first great battle in the protracted conflict between the states of the Yellow River valley, and the states of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley.
The location of the battle remains obscure: two inconclusive possibilities are the vicinity of Chenliu County, Henan and the southwest area of Juan County, Shandong.
After returning to the north, Duke Wen had been recognized by the King of Zhou as first among the feudal lords.
A multi-state conference at Jiantu in 631 BCE headed by Duke Wen had confirmed their support for the Zhou royal family and sworn a covenant of alliance.
The Jin victory had confirmed the hegemony of Duke Wen and checked Chu ambitions in the north for at least a generation.
Duke Mu, born Ying Renhao, a ruler of the State of Qin from 659 or 660 to 621 BCE in China, is one of the Five Overlords of the Spring and Autumn Period.
He greatly expands the territory of Qin during the reign of King Xiang of Zhou.
The son of Duke De and the younger brother of Duke Cheng, he had married the daughter of Duke Xian of Jin, and married his daughter, Huaiying, to Duke Wen of Jin.
He had helped his son-in-law win the Battle of Chengpu against Chu; these two marriages led to the saying 'the Friendship of Qin and Jin' to denote political marriages and alliances based on marital bonds.
China’s so-called “Spring and Autumn Period” ends in 476 BCE (or, by some authorities, in 403 BCE).
After the king of Wú died during an invasion of Yuè (496 BCE), his son, King Fuchāi of Wú, had nearly destroyed the Yuè state, defeated Qí, and threatened Jìn.
In 482 BCE, King Fuchāi holds an interstate conference to solidify his power base, but Yuè captures the Wú capital.
Fuchāi rushes back but is besieged by the Yue forces.
Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sunzi" and "Sun Wu"), a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period, writes knowingly of spies in his Treatise on the Art of War, the first intelligence manual.
Some scholars believe that the Art of War was not completed until the subsequent Warring States period).
Composed of thirteen chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and is still read for its military insights.
The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world.
It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics.
Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy, and that the decision to position an army must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective beliefs of other, competitive actors in that environment.
He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions.
Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.
The Late Zhou period is increasingly characterized by destruction, as warfare among the semiautonomous Zhou vassals becomes endemic from the fifth century BCE.
China’s so-called “Spring and Autumn Period” ends and the Warring States period begins as the belligerent vassals form alliances with one another to increase their power and gain more land.
This is nevertheless a time of great intellectual achievement, China's "Golden Age".
The endemic warfare results in increased centralization and administrative efficiency within each state.
Chinese cast iron appears, but it is of poor quality.
The high phosphorus content of iron from their ore enables the Chinese to melt it––a process unduplicated by their western Eurasian contemporaries––but the castings are unsatisfactorily brittle.
The Chinese are aware of the way in which the cycle of fifths produces the chromatic scale of twelve halftones, but use the chromatic scale only to transpose the customary pentatonic scales.
Mozi (Mo Tzu, or Micius) who preaches pacifism and universal love in China, establishes a dialectical method of argument.
Chinese philosopher Lao-tze, the probable author of the “Tao-te Ching” anthology, formulates Taoism as a religion.
The oldest surviving Chinese literature dates from this age, as does the emergence of three important schools of philosophy: Confucianism, Taoism (Daoism), and Legalism.
Chinese education, largely conducted in private homes, is shaped for the most part by four schools of thought: Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, and Taoism.
The practical use of natural gas begins during the Warring States period in China, where people use bamboo pipes to collect it from natural seeps and convey it to gas-fired evaporators used in boiling ocean water for the salt.
China’s Warring States Period, in contrast to the Spring and Autumn Period, is a period when regional warlords annex smaller states around them and consolidate their rule.
The process had begun in the Spring and Autumn Period, and by the third century BCE, seven major states will have risen to prominence.
These Seven Warring States are the Qi, the Chu, the Yan, the Han, the Zhao, the Wei, and the Qin.
Another sign of this shift in power is a change in title: warlords still consider themselves dukes of the Zhou dynasty king; but the warlords now begin to call themselves kings, meaning they are equal to the Zhou king.