Spring and Autumn - (779 - 476 B.C.)

The period from 770 to 476 is referred to as the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn) because the events of the greater part of it are recorded in the Lushi Chunqiu - the Spring and Autumn Annals (chronicles of Confucius' own state of Lu in Shandong province) compiled by Lu Buwei (290 - 235 B.C.). By this time there were nearly 170 aristocratic family states, each centered in its own walled capital. These states engaged in diplomatic intrigues some absorbing each other in a military-diplomatic free-for-all. The power of the Zhou emperor was gradually diminishing as these alliances strengthened. But already visible were the dual concepts of military rulers and scholar-teachers which would become the basis for imperial rule in the subsequent periods of Chinese history.

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