Realm
Chinese state (c. 9th century – 207 BC)
Qin was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. It is traditionally dated to 897 BC. The state of Qin originated from a reconquest of western lands that had previously been lost to the Xirong. Its location at the western edge of Chinese civilisation allowed for expansion and development that was not available to its rivals in the North China Plain.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Former Qin”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Qin (CHIN, , or Ch'in) was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. It is traditionally dated to 897 BC. The state of Qin originated from a reconquest of western lands that had previously been lost to the Xirong. Its location at the western edge of Chinese civilisation allowed for expansion and development that was not available to its rivals in the North China Plain.
After extensive reform during the 4th century BC, Qin emerged as one of the dominant powers among the Seven Warring States. It unified the seven states of China under Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC. This unification established the Qin dynasty, which, despite its short duration, had a significant influence on later Chinese history. Accordingly, the state of Qin before the Qin dynasty was established is also referred to as the "predynastic Qin" or "proto-Qin".
According to the 2nd-century BC Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, the state of Qin traced its origin to Zhuanxu, one of the legendary Five Emperors in ancient times. One of his descendants, Boyi, was granted the family name of Ying by Emperor Shun. During the Xia and Shang dynasties, the Ying clan split in two: a western branch that migrated across the Ordos Plateau to Quanqiu (犬丘; 'hill of the Quanrong', modern Li County, Gansu), and an eastern branch that settled east of the Yellow River in modern Shanxi. The latter became the ancestors of the rulers of the later state of Zhao.
The western Ying clan at Quanqiu were lords over the Xichui ('western march') region west of Mount Long and served as a buffer state for the Shang dynasty against invasions by the Xirong (also called Rong). One of the Shang, Elai, was killed defending Di Xin during the rebellion led by Ji Fa that established the Zhou dynasty. The Ying clan was, however, allied with the politically influential marquesses of Shen, whom the Zhou monarch relied upon heavily to manage the Rong people. The Ying clan was thus allowed to retain their lands and continued serving as an attached vassal under the Zhou dynasty. Feizi, a younger son of Elai's fourth-generation descendant Daluo, impressed King Xiao of Zhou so much with his horse breeding skills that he was awarded a separate fief in the valley of Qin (modern Qingshui and Zhangjiachuan in Gansu) northeast of Quanqiu, and his seat was named Qinyi (秦邑; Qin's hamlet) in the modern town of Qinting (秦亭). Both branches of the western Ying clan lived in the midst of the Rong tribes, sometimes fighting their armies and sometimes intermarrying with their kings.
Scholars Annette Juliano and Arthur Cotterel have suggested that having a horse-breeder as their ancestor may imply that the Ying family had a partial connection to nomadic tribes. As late as 266 BC, a noble of Wei remarked that they shared customs with the Rong and Beidi tribes. The Central Plains states seemed to hold Qin culture and that of other peripheral states like Yan and Chu in low regard, due to the marginal location of their states. Qin was the second state after Zhao to adopt cavalry tactics from the nomads. Following the collapse of the Zhou dynasty, the Qin state absorbed cultures from two of the Four Barbarians (Rong and Beidi) from the west and north, which made the other warring states view their culture with low esteem. The Qin state was sensitive to cultural discrimination by Central Plains states and attempted to assert their Huaxia identity. In Qin law, mixed-ethnicity offspring were categorised as Huaxia, and they had a preference for importing recruits from the neighbouring state of Jin.
In 842 BC, nobles revolted against the corrupt King Li of Zhou in a coup known as the Compatriot's Rebellion (國人暴動). They overthrew him the following year, leading the country into political turmoil that culminated in the Gonghe Regency. The Xirong tribes seized this opportunity to rebel against the Zhou dynasty, attacking and exterminating the senior branch of the Ying clan at Quanqiu. This left the cadet branch at Qinyi as the only surviving branch of the Ying clan in the west.
After King Xuan of Zhou ascended to the throne in 827 BC, he appointed Qin Zhong, Feizi's great-grandson, as the commander of his forces in the campaign against the Xirong. In 822 BC, Qin Zhong was killed in battle and succeeded by his eldest son, Duke Zhuang. To commemorate Qin Zhong's loyalty, King Xuan summoned Duke Zhuang and his four younger brothers and gave them 7,000 soldiers. The Qin brothers successfully defeated the Rong and recovered their lost patrimony, formerly held by the deceased branch of the Ying clan. King Xuan formally awarded them the territory of Quanqiu. Duke Zhuang then moved his seat from Qinyi to Quanqiu and had three sons.
When Duke Zhuang died in 778 BC, his eldest son Shifu chose to continue fighting the Xirong and avenge their grandfather, turning down his place in the line of succession. As a result, his second son, Duke Xiang, ascended as the clan leader. In 777 BC, Duke Xiang arranged for his younger sister, Mu Ying, to marry a Rong leader named King Feng (豐王) in an apparent attempt to make peace. The following year, Duke Xiang moved the Qin capital eastward from Quanqiu to Qian (汧; modern Long County, Shaanxi). However, Quanqiu soon fell to the Rong again after he left. His older brother Shifu, who led the defense of Quanqiu, was captured by the Rong and was released a year later.
In 771 BC, the Marquess of Shen, in collaboration with the state of Zeng and the Quanrong nomads, attacked and sacked the Zhou capital Haojing, killing King You of Zhou and ending the Western Zhou dynasty. Duke Xiang led his troops to escort King You's son, King Ping, to Luoyi (modern Luoyang), where the new capital city of the Eastern Zhou dynasty was established. In gratitude for Duke Xiang's service, King Ping formally enfeoffed Duke Xiang as a feudal lord and elevated Qin from an 'attached state' (附庸; fùyōng, a minor state with limited self-rule under the authority of another liege-lord) to a major vassal state with full autonomy. He further promised to permanently grant Qin the lands west of Qishan, the former heartland of Zhou, if Qin could expel the Rong tribes that were occupying it. Encouraged by this promise, the following generations of Qin rulers launched several military campaigns against the Rong, eventually expanding their territories far beyond the original lands lost by the Western Zhou dynasty. The Qin state therefore viewed the Zhou rulers King Wen and King Wu as their predecessors and themselves as the legitimate inheritors of their legacy.
During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC), the Qin state's interaction with other central Chinese states remained minimal due to their focus on dealing with the Rong to the west. The exception was their immediate eastern neighbor, Jin, a large vassal of the Zhou. Qin maintained diplomatic relations with Jin through intermarriages between the royal clans, but relations occasionally deteriorated to the point of armed conflict.
In the early reign of Duke Mu of Qin, the Jin state, under the leadership of Duke Xian of Jin, was a formidable power. However, after Duke Xian's death, Jin descended into internal conflict as Duke Xian's sons fought for succession. Duke Hui of Jin, one of the contenders, emerged victorious. However, Jin was struck by a famine in 647 BC, and Duke Hui requested aid from Qin. Duke Mu of Qin, married to Duke Hui's half-sister, sent relief food supplies and agricultural equipment to Jin out of goodwill. However, when Qin experienced a famine the following year, Duke Hui did not reciprocate, leading to diplomatic deterioration and a war in 645 BC. The war ended with Duke Hui's defeat and capture, but Duke Mu later released him after Jin agreed to cede land and form an alliance.
During the battles with Jin, Duke Mu learned that Chong'er, one of Duke Xian's exiled sons, was taking refuge in the state of Chu. After consulting his subjects, Duke Mu sent an emissary to Chu to invite Chong'er and support him in his challenge against his brother, Duke Hui. After Chong'er defeated Duke Hui to become Duke Wen of Jin, he expressed gratitude to Duke Mu, and relations between the two states improved. With stability on his eastern front, Duke Mu seized the opportunity to launch military campaigns against the Rong tribes in the west.
In 630 BC, Qin and Jin agreed to wage war on the state of Zheng, but Duke Mu was lobbied by the Zheng emissary to abandon the alliance. In 627 BC, Duke Mu planned a covert attack on Zheng, but the Qin army retreated after being deceived into believing that Zheng was already prepared for Qin's invasion. By that point, Duke Wen had died and his personal alliance with Duke Mu no longer stood, and his successor Duke Xiang ordered an ambush for the retreating Qin army. The Qin forces were defeated at the Battle of Xiao (near modern Luoning County, Henan); the Qin suffered heavy casualties, and all three of its generals were captured. Three years later, Qin attacked Jin for revenge and achieved a major victory. Duke Mu refused to advance further east after holding a memorial service for those killed in action at the Battle of Xiao and returned to focus on the traditional policy of expanding Qin's dominance in the west. Duke Mu's achievements in Qin's western campaigns and his handling of foreign relations with Jin earned him a position among the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period.
In a speech pronounced on the eve of a major interstate conference of 546 BC, a Jin leader recognized Qin—along with Jin, Chu and Qi—as one of the four pivotal great powers of the current world.
In 506 BC, King Helü of Wu defeated Chu at the Battle of Boju and captured the Chu capital, Ying (modern Jingzhou). Helü's adviser, Wu Zixu, who had previously been forced into exile by the already deceased King Ping of Chu and craved vengeance for the brutal execution of his father and brother, exhumed King Ping's corpse and posthumously lashed it. This was a great humiliation for the Chu state. Consequently, Shen Baoxu, a Chu official and a former friend of Wu Zixu, travelled to the Qin court and pleaded for assistance from Duke Ai of Qin to recover the capital. After Duke Ai initially refused to help, Shen spent seven days crying in the palace courtyard. Duke Ai was eventually moved by his devotion and agreed to send troops to assist Chu. The poem "No Clothes" (Chinese: 無衣; pinyin: Wú Yī), recorded in the Classic of Poetry, was a battle hymn personally composed by Duke Ai to boost the morale of the Qin troops. In 505 BC, the Qin and Chu armies jointly defeated Wu in several battles, allowing King Zhao of Chu to be restored and return to the recaptured capital.
Mozi (460–390 BC) did not list Qin among the powerful states. However, other scattered information about its military exploits indicates that Qin had remained a powerful polity since Duke Mu's rule. Its armies acted, even if infrequently, in the eastern and southeastern parts of the Chinese world, occasionally against the great power of Wu. Although not weak, the overall impact of Qin on the affairs of the Zhou world in the 5th and the early 4th century BC was considerably diminished. There is evidence that this diminished influence was a result of Qin adopting an isolationist policy to avoid entanglement in the wars of the Central Plains, rather than military weakness. Initially, Qin avoided involvement using its protective geography and, responding to growing external threats, gradually turned to intervention in the manner of "defensive imperialism".
During the early Warring States period, its neighbours in the Central Plains began rapidly developing. The Wei state, formed from the partition of Jin, became the most powerful state on Qin's eastern border. Qin largely relied on natural defences such as the Hangu Pass (northeast of modern Lingbao, Henan) and Wu Pass (modern Danfeng County) in the east, to protect its Guanzhong heartland. Between 413 and 409 BC, during the reign of Duke Jian of Qin, the Wei army—led by Wu Qi and supported by Zhao and Han states—attacked Qin and conquered some Qin territories west of the Yellow River.
In 362 BC, Qin defeated Wei and Han. Following these victories, Qin rulers actively pursued legal, economic, and social reforms. In 361 BC, Duke Xiao ascended to the throne of Qin. He issued an announcement inviting men of talent (including scholars, administrators, theorists, and military experts from other states) to enter Qin and assist him with his reforms, promising rewards of high offices and lands in return.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Qin (state)”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.