The era 2,600 to 700 years ago is called "Spring and Autumn". This era often makes us feel both familiar and strange.It is familiar because many people and stories of this era have been compiled into textbooks, and we are familiar with them.The Spring and Autumn Period is also the birthplace of many idiom stories, and more than half of the idioms come from this era.Who doesn't use half a sentence of idioms when speaking and writing?Therefore, despite the age, we modern people are still inextricably linked with this era. It is said to be unfamiliar because this era is too long, and there are many princes and states, and wars continue. It takes a lot of effort to figure out the relationship between these princes and states.People in this era will also confuse us.We will feel that people in this era are more "stunned", killing and suicide are common, and the reasons are often very strange.Their names are also very strange: sometimes, a person has several names or titles, which makes people dazzled; sometimes, the names of father and son do not show any relationship.

In short, although this era is well known to everyone, there are many things that are difficult for us modern people to understand.Moreover, we always intentionally or unintentionally ignore the influence of this era on today. Today's Chinese people have inherited the basic criteria for judging right from wrong, good from evil, and evil from the Spring and Autumn Period.In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was the most precious humanistic spirit of the Chinese.However, many fine traditions of this era have unfortunately gradually faded in the years since. In the Spring and Autumn Period, people valued dignity, personality and honor more than life. People valued promises, kept promises, and despised life and death for the sake of morality.While fighting for their rights, people will never evade their responsibilities.People in this era dare to speak and act, and dare to act.

This is the most bloody era of the Chinese nation, and this is an era full of martial spirit.In this era, there is no clear distinction between civil servants and generals, and everyone can take up arms and go to the battlefield.In this era, even if there is a huge difference in strength on the battlefield, no one will flee without fighting.In this day and age, a man who opposes war and force is by no means cowardly. On the battlefield, he is still a brave warrior.In this era, the cohesion of the army depends on the sense of honor and responsibility of the soldiers.In this era, soldiers have a spiritual realm comparable to the heroes of later generations. They not only respect themselves, but also respect their opponents.In this era, soldiers can get enough respect, and they are called "Jiujiu Wufu, the leader of the country".

Of course, this era is not an idealized era.In this era, there are still some remnants of barbaric customs.In this era, people have to endure the pain of long-term wars.In this era, the level of productivity is not high, and the lives of people (especially those at the bottom of society) will never be so comfortable.In this era, the courts of the princes of various countries are full of scandals. Looking at the Spring and Autumn Period from today's perspective, we will naturally feel that there were many unsatisfactory things in that era, but we cannot ignore the precious humanistic spirit of the Spring and Autumn Period.And these spirits still have important value for us today.We need the social ethos of the Spring and Autumn Period of keeping promises, the people's pursuit of personality, dignity and honor, the sense of responsibility of the people of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the national martial spirit of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Therefore, we hope to use this book to interpret the Spring and Autumn Period in detail, to fully present this era to everyone, so that every reader can understand the Spring and Autumn Period. As the name suggests, this set of books is a historical popular book that provides a detailed interpretation of the Spring and Autumn Period.The whole set of books is divided into three volumes. This volume focuses on the important historical events that occurred during the more than 100 years from Zhou Ping Wang Dongdong moved to Luoyi in 770 BC to Song Xianggong's disastrous defeat in the battle for hegemony and his death in 637 BC.In terms of time period, this period belongs to the early Spring and Autumn Period, a period when the prestige of Zhou Tianzi gradually lost, and princes from all over the world appeared one after another to seek hegemony.During this period, although there was the glorious hegemony of Duke Huan of Qi, in general, the strength of the vassals of the various countries was relatively average, and no super-powerful vassal state appeared.Therefore, the period before the rise of the two superpowers Jin and Chu can be called the "pre-superpower period" of the Spring and Autumn Period.

In the early Spring and Autumn period, there were most wonderful historical stories.Among them, some make people sigh with emotion, and some make people laugh.This book will lead readers into the era of gold and iron horses in as relaxed and cheerful style as possible, to get acquainted with those historical figures of great talent and strategy, and to appreciate the simple and heroic social customs of that era. Beacon smoke has been ignited, and the drums of war have been sounded.Let us lift the heavy curtain of history and watch the live historical dramas that took place on the Spring and Autumn Stage!

When did such an era begin?Why do we call such an era "Spring and Autumn"?This starts with a story. We know that the three oldest dynasties in Chinese history are the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.In 1046 B.C., King Wu of Zhou defeated Zhou and replaced Zhou, the last king of the Shang Dynasty.The most influential novel in the folk is a fairy tale written on the basis of the story of King Wu's conquest of Zhou and adding a lot of fairy ingredients. King Zhou Wu set his capital at Haojing (near Xi'an, Shaanxi today), and died of illness in the second year after the destruction of Shang.After his death, his son Zhou Chengwang succeeded to the throne.When he succeeded to the throne, King Zhou Cheng was still an ignorant child.The government was presided over by Zhou Gongdan, the younger brother of King Wu of Zhou.Zhou Gongdan eliminated some rebel forces, consolidated the rule of the Zhou Dynasty, and built a new ruling center to the east of Haojing, called "Luoyi" (the ancient capital Luoyang).In this way, from the southeast of Shaanxi to the west of Henan, with a radius of about one thousand li, is the territory directly controlled by Zhou Tianzi.

Outside the territory directly controlled by Emperor Zhou, there are many vassal states.Most of the princes were entrusted by Zhou Wuwang and Zhou Gongdan, some were descendants of the previous monarchs, some were brothers and relatives with the same surname as Zhou Tianzi, and some were heroes who made great contributions to the destruction of Shang Dynasty.The purpose of enfeoffing the princes is to reward those who are distinguished or have made great contributions to the Zhou Dynasty, and the other is to rely on them to control remote areas and consolidate the rule of the Zhou Dynasty.Each vassal state is an independent small country. In addition to fulfilling some obligations to the emperor of Zhou (for example, paying tribute every year, sending troops to support the emperor in the event of war, etc.), all affairs, big or small, are handled by the state. The princes make their own decisions.When the prince died, his position was inherited by his son.

Each vassal state is a small independent state, and the Zhou Dynasty is a bit like a confederal state.This is completely different from the unified national form we see now. You think, at that time the world was wild, not to mention there were no mobile phones, telephones, E-mail, some places didn't even have roads, and those remote areas, Zhou Tianzi just wanted to take care of them, but he didn't have the ability to take care of them.What if the emperor can't control it?Then entrust it to others, and you can manage it as you like, but you have to admit that I, the emperor, is your leader.

Moreover, people at that time did not have the concept of a unified empire. In their view, enfeoffing land was a matter of course.Our current government officials receive their salaries from the state. At that time, there was no such system. Everyone instinctively felt that if you give me a piece of land, I can get all my food and supplies from here. Why should I still receive salaries from you? ! This is China in the era of enfeoffment. The Zhou Dynasty was the longest dynasty in Chinese history, lasting more than 800 years.Don't think that a long time is a good thing. The emperors of the Zhou Dynasty actually only lived a good life for less than 300 years, and the other 500 years were reduced to the point of being bullied.

The dividing line is 770 BC. In the year before this year, that is, in 771 BC, the twelfth emperor of the Zhou Dynasty (counting from King Wu of Zhou) King You of Zhou, because he performed an ancient political version of the story of "Wolf is Coming", Tragically, he lost his life, and also lost his own country and community. The story begins with a beautiful woman. This beautiful woman is named Baosi, and she was given to King You of Zhou as a concubine by a certain minority tribe.It is said that this Baosi is so beautiful, and adjectives such as "closed moon and shameful flower", "fish and wild goose", "overwhelming country and city", etc., can not be used too much on her. It is a good thing for a woman to be beautiful, which man does not like to look at a beautiful woman?King Zhou You was no exception.He doted on Baosi very much and tried every means to make Baosi happy.But what about Bao Si?She herself was sent by the tribe to the Zhou Dynasty to marry, that is, the role of a political victim.Being tortured by such a tragic fate, it was naturally difficult for her to be happy, so she was depressed all day long. When King Zhou You saw it, the beauty was not happy, so what's the matter?Which minister gives me an idea that can make Bao Si smile, and I will reward you heavily. There was an auxiliary minister named Guogong Shifu. "Guo" is the name of the fiefdom, which means that this person is the king of Guo State (the specific situation of Guo State will be mentioned later). "Gong" means that his status is very noble. The princes canonized by the Zhou Dynasty are divided into five levels from high to low, namely Gong, Hou, Bo, Zi, and Nan. Gong is the highest level. "Father Stone" is the real name of this man.Father Guo Gong Shi gave King Zhou You a very brainless idea, which was to light the beacon fire and summon the princes to Beijing to win Bao Si's smile.So what is the beacon fire? Anyone who has traveled to the Great Wall will be deeply impressed by the beacon towers.These beacon towers were the tools used by the ancient front to transmit military intelligence.If the soldiers of a certain beacon tower find that the enemy is invading, they will light a bonfire so that nearby beacon towers can also see it.The nearby beacon tower saw it and lit a bonfire.In this way, it is passed down level by level, and the rear will soon get the news.This kind of bonfire is called a beacon. The speed of using beacons to transmit messages is naturally not as fast as that of telephones and mobile phones, but in ancient times when communication was underdeveloped, this was already a very efficient method of information transmission.Therefore, the beacon fire is an emergency signal for help. Any prince who sees the beacon fire from Haojing must immediately send troops to rescue the royal family. King Zhou You followed Guogong Shifu's words and asked people to light the beacon.The princes from all walks of life saw the emergency signal from the royal family and did not dare to neglect it. They all took their soldiers all the way to Haojing.But when I arrived at Haojing, everything was calm as usual, and I didn't see any shadow of the enemy, so I felt very strange. King Zhou You and Bao Si sat on the tower of Haojing, watching the princes who ran hundreds of thousands of miles, all panting and puzzled with exhaustion, they felt a sense of satisfaction that their scheme had succeeded.Hey, have you been fooled?Have you been tricked?Bao Si finally burst out laughing seeing those princes full of question marks and stupid faces. It seems that Bao Si also has long-term psychological depression and has become a little abnormal.What's so funny about seeing other people working for nothing? It didn't matter if Bao Si smiled, King Zhou You liked it, and played it several times later, teasing the princes to the point of misery.Do you think that raising troops and fighting wars is just playing tricks?As soon as the cannon is fired, ten thousand taels of gold, which time to mobilize the army does not need to spend a lot of money?In this way, after being deceived several times, the princes are unwilling to mess around with this unreasonable emperor. If the story of the princes in Fenghuo Opera is over here, then we will just regard it as another clumsy performance of the ancient foolish emperor.But as I said before, our story is a political version of "Wolf is coming", so there must be stories with more serious consequences waiting for King Zhou You. It doesn't matter if you like beautiful women, and it doesn't matter if you love Bao Si, but you can't go too far, especially if you don't offend powerful people.Because King Zhou You loved Baosi, he wanted to make Baosi's child the crown prince, who would become the emperor in the future.However, under the regulations of the eldest son succession system set by the Duke of Zhou, King Zhou You originally had a prince, the son born to the queen, named Yijiu. What about the eldest son succession system?This is the "Zhou Ritual" set by Zhou Wuwang and Zhou Gongdan part of it.At that time, there was no emphasis on "ruling the country by law", and the restraint of princes and nobles relied on "rituals". The main meaning of this ritual is not politeness, but etiquette and regulations.The rites formulated by the Zhou Dynasty are naturally called Zhou rites, which is the value standard that the upper class of society in that era needs to abide by.The stipulations on the issue of inheritance rights in Zhou Lizhong are the eldest son succession system. During the Shang Dynasty, when the king died, his position was sometimes succeeded by a brother, sometimes by a son. There are many people who have the right to inherit, but there is only one king's seat, so confusion often arises because of this, causing everyone to fight for the throne, and the six relatives do not recognize it.In order to avoid this situation, King Wu of Zhou and Duke Zhou established a rule to narrow the scope of succession, stipulating that only the wife of the emperor, that is, the eldest son born to the queen, can succeed to the throne, and other sons can only be granted the throne. Enfeoffed as princes.The same is true in the vassal states. The eldest son born to the lord of the vassal state's wife will succeed to the throne as a vassal, and the other sons will be entrusted as high officials.The so-called "di" refers to the son born to the wife, and the "eldest son" refers to the eldest son.Those sons born to non-legal wives are called "bastards". Bao Si was just a concubine of King Zhou You, and her son had no right to inherit the throne at all.In order to allow her son to inherit the throne, King Zhou You announced that he would abolish his queen and replace him with Bao Si.This offended the queen's natal family.Do you think that it is ordinary people who can marry their daughters to the emperor? King Zhou You's original queen did not leave a name, because she was married from Shen Guo, so everyone called her Queen Shen.Her father was a very powerful prince at that time - Marquis Shen.Hearing that his daughter was abolished by the emperor for no reason, Marquis Shen, the emperor's father-in-law, was naturally furious.But anger is anger, after all, King Zhou You is the Son of Heaven, the chief rudder of the princes of the world, even if he bullies you, can you still ask the Son of Heaven to settle accounts?Besides, as a prince, can you compare with the emperor in power? But Shenhou couldn't swallow this breath. He was not strong enough, so he contacted another prince who was adjacent to him-Zenghou.Knowing that his own strength was not strong, Marquis Zeng conspired with Marquis Shen and came up with a bad move: colluding with the Western minority dog ​​army to attack King You of Zhou together. Today's Henan Province and its surrounding areas were called the Central Plains or China in ancient times (this is not the same concept as our China today).People in the ancient Central Plains considered themselves to be civilized people, while all tribes outside the Central Plains were barbarians.They generally refer to the tribes in the east as "Yi", those in the west as "Rong", those in the south as "Man", and those in the north as "Di". Quanrong is a branch of the Rong tribe. They live in the underdeveloped areas of the west, and the living conditions are very harsh. Everyone often fights for food and water, which leads to extremely tough folk customs.Inu Rong's army not only has strong combat effectiveness, but also has first-class destructive power, so it has always been the object of strict defense by the Zhou Dynasty.When the Zhou royal family was very powerful, there was basically no chance for Quanrong to invade on a large scale.But this time, with Marquis Shen as the internal response, the effect will be quite different. Shen Hou told Quan Rong all about the defense situation in the west of the Zhou Dynasty, which was tantamount to completely opening the door to the west.Quanrong's army rushed in all the way, and went straight to Haojing to kill. When King You of Zhou learned that the army of the Rong people had entered in Haojing, he was in a hurry and ordered to send troops to resist.King You of Zhou himself had limited troops, so he had to light a beacon and summon the princes from all over the world to King Jingqin. The beacon signal was sent out, but none of King Qin's princes came - you have teased me so many times, even fools have become smarter, who will come? King Zhou You is like the child who told too many lies in the story "The Wolf Is Coming" and finally realized the pain of lying.He had no choice but to take his own army to fight the dog army, but he couldn't resist the powerful dog army at all.The Dog Rong army beat King Zhou's army to pieces, and incidentally also broke through Haojing.King Zhou You was chased and killed by Quan Rong's soldiers while fleeing, and his beloved concubine Bao Si was also snatched away by Quan Rong as a trophy. At this time, the princes realized that something really happened, this time the emperor was not playing tricks on us, so they rushed to Haojing with the army.But King You of Zhou is dead, and Quan Rong has almost destroyed the capital Haojing and its surrounding areas.Quan Rong was not stupid. Seeing that the armies of the princes were coming and his side was at a disadvantage, they all withdrew.Anyway, this time the troops were dispatched, and a lot of gold and silver treasures were also robbed, enough to live happily for several years. When Shenhou saw that King Zhou You was dead and his goal had been achieved, he and the princes supported the original prince, that is, Shenhou's grandson Yijiu, as the new emperor, and this was King Ping of Zhou. What is strange is that Shenhou, who was a traitor, was not condemned.Is it really "if the ruler is not upright, the subjects will vote for foreign countries"?Of course, even if there are some unpleasant voices, I probably wouldn't dare to say them blatantly, don't forget who helped them up today! The capital of the Zhou Dynasty was originally in Haojing in the west, but now it has been looted and dilapidated.Coupled with the dog army always threatening Zhou's western border, King Ping certainly didn't want to repeat his father's mistakes, so he moved eastward and put the capital in Luoyi, the eastern stronghold built by Duke Zhou.The original capital, of course, was abandoned, and later a certain vassal state was cheaper (this vassal state is very famous, please see the following article for details).In this way, the week before the relocation is called the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the week after the relocation is called the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.This year, 770 BC, became the dividing line between the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty. From 770 BC when King Ping of Zhou moved eastward to Luoyi, to 221 BC when Qin Shihuang unified the world and established the new Qin Dynasty, the period of more than 500 years can be called the Eastern Zhou Dynasty or the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.Comparing the two, the term Spring and Autumn and Warring States is more scientific.Because although in the past 500 years, Zhou Tianzi was still the common monarch of the princes of the world in name, but in fact, the more powerful princes did not take Tianzi Zhou seriously at all.Moreover, in 256 BC, the last emperor of the Zhou Dynasty was also captured by the Qin State, and the Zhou Dynasty has completely become a historical term since then. At this time, there are still more than 20 years before the end of the Warring States Period.Therefore, historians generally do not call this period the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. However, there is no clear dividing line between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The first 300 years are the Spring and Autumn Period, and the next 250 years are the Warring States Period.The name of the Warring States Period can be understood literally, which means that during this period, wars among the vassal states were fierce and frequent.So what does the name "Chunqiu" mean? In fact, "Spring and Autumn" was originally the name of a history book of the state of Lu, which recorded the major events that occurred in the vassal states from 722 BC to 481 BC.Therefore, people call the era similar to the records in this book the Spring and Autumn Period (the difference is so few decades, it can be ignored). In ancient China, every dynasties had a post of historian, whose main duty was to record the major events that happened in the country every year, and leave them as archives for future generations.When historians record things, they usually use this format: what happened in the spring of a certain year; what happened in the summer of a certain year; what happened in the autumn of a certain year, and so on.In this way, "Spring and Autumn" has become a synonym for history books. Some people may ask, why not call it "chunxia" or "autumn winter", but why call it "chunqiu"?This can’t be more true. The author thinks it’s just a conventional appellation. Maybe the ancients just thought that “Chunqiu” sounds pleasing to the ear. Whether it is Zhou Tianzi or various princes, they all have their own country's Spring and Autumn Annals, but only the Lu State's Spring and Autumn Annals, because it was revised by Confucius, has the greatest influence, and it is the only Spring and Autumn Annals handed down from that era to later generations.Therefore, what we modern people call Chunqiu refers to this book specifically, so we add the title of the book and call it "Spring and Autumn", which is one of the Five Classics; secondly, we use the name of this book to represent An era, that is, the Spring and Autumn Period. We can use a diagram to represent the relationship between these dynasties, or eras: King You of Zhou's war with the feudal lords became the trigger for the end of a dynasty, and also the introduction of the coming of the Spring and Autumn Period.Since King Ping of Zhou moved to the east, the aloof Emperor Zhou has become less and less taken seriously by the princes.Henceforth, our stories will seldom focus on the unlucky Emperor Zhou, but on those powerful princes. The curtain of Spring and Autumn has been opened since then.