Editing Spring and Autumn period (section)

==The Five Hegemons (685–591 BCE)==
{{Main|Five Hegemons}}
[[File:Five Hegemons.png|thumb|400px|Map of the Five Hegemons during the Spring and Autumn period of the Zhou dynasty]]
[[File:Guo State Shields (10279302544).jpg|thumb|Shields from a [[Western Guo|Guo]] tomb]]

===Hegemony of Qi (685–643)===
{{Main|Duke Huan of Qi}}
<section begin="齊桓公霸" />The first hegemon was [[Duke Huan of Qi]] (r. 685–643).  With the help of his prime minister, [[Guan Zhong]], Duke Huan reformed Qi to centralize its power structure.  The state consisted of 15 "[[Administration of territory in dynastic China#County|townships]]" ({{zh|c=縣|labels=no}}) with the duke and two senior ministers each in charge of five; military functions were also united with civil ones.  These and related reforms provided the state, already powerful from control of trade crossroads, with a greater ability to mobilize resources than the more loosely organized states.{{Sfn |Hsu|1999 | pp = 553–54}}

By 667, Qi had clearly shown its economic and military predominance, and Duke Huan assembled the leaders of [[Lu (state)|Lu]], [[Song (state)|Song]], [[Chen (state)|Chen]], and [[Zheng (state)|Zheng]], who elected him as their leader.  Soon after, [[King Hui of Zhou]] conferred the title of ''bà'' (hegemon), giving Duke Huan royal authority in military ventures.{{Sfn |Hsu|1999|p=555}}{{Sfn |Lewis|2000|pp= 366, 369}}<section end="齊桓公霸" /> An important basis for justifying Qi's dominance over the other states was presented in the slogan 'Revere the King, Expel the Barbarians' ({{zh|labels=no|c=尊王攘夷|p=zun wang rang yi}}). The role of subsequent hegemons would also be framed in this way: as the primary defender and supporter of nominal Zhou authority and the existing order. Using this authority, during the first eleven years of his hegemony, Duke Huan intervened in a power struggle in Lu; protected [[Yan (state)|Yan]] from encroaching [[Xirong (people)|Western Rong]] nomads; drove off [[Beidi|Northern Di]] nomads after their invasions of [[Wey (state)|Wey]] and [[Xing (state)|Xing]], providing the people with provisions and protective garrison units; and led an alliance of eight states to conquer [[Cai (state)|Cai]] and thereby block the northward expansion of [[Chu (state)|Chu]].{{Sfn |Hsu|1999| pp = 555–56}}

At his death in 643, five of Duke Huan's sons [[War of Qi's succession|contended for the throne]], badly weakening the state so that it was no longer regarded as the hegemon. For nearly ten years, no ruler held the title.{{Sfn |Hsu|1999|p= 560}}

[[Image:China 2b.jpg|thumb|left|Urbanization during the Spring and Autumn period.]]

===Hegemony of Song (643–637)===
{{Main|Duke Xiang of Song}}
[[Duke Xiang of Song]] attempted to claim the hegemony in the wake of Qi's decline, perhaps driven by a desire to restore the [[Shang dynasty]] from which Song had descended. He hosted peace conferences in the same style as Qi had done, and conducted aggressive military campaigns against his rivals. Duke Xiang's ambitions met their end when, against the advice of his staff, he attacked the much larger state of Chu. The Song forces were defeated at the battle of Hong ([[:zh:泓水之戰|泓]]) in 638, and the duke himself died in the following year from an injury sustained in the battle. After Xiang's death his successors adopted a more modest foreign policy, better suited to the country's small size.<ref>{{ cite book | title= Zuozhuan | title-link= Zuozhuan| chapter = [[:zh:s:春秋左氏傳/僖公#僖公二十八年|Lord Xi years 18–23]] |language=zh }}</ref>

As Duke Xiang was never officially recognized as hegemon by the King of Zhou, not all sources list him as one of the Five Hegemons.

===Hegemony of Jin (636–628)===
{{Main|Duke Wen of Jin}}
When [[Duke Wen of Jin]] came to power in 636 after extensive peregrinations in exile, he capitalized on the reforms of his father, [[Duke Xian of Jin|Duke Xian]] (r. 676–651), who had centralized the state, killed off relatives who might threaten his authority, conquered sixteen smaller states, and even absorbed some Rong and Di peoples to make Jin much more powerful than it had been previously.{{Sfn |Hsu| 1999 | p = 559}}  When he assisted [[King Xiang of Zhou|King Xiang]] in a succession struggle in 635, the king awarded Jin with strategically valuable territory near Chengzhou.

Duke Wen then used his growing power to coordinate a military response with Qi, Qin, and Song against Chu, which had begun encroaching northward after the death of Duke Huán of Qi.  With a decisive Chu loss at the [[Battle of Chengpu]] in 632, Duke Wen's loyalty to the Zhou king was rewarded at an interstate conference when King Xīang awarded him the title of ''bà''.{{Sfn |Hsu|1999|p= 560}}

After the death of Duke Wen in 628, a growing tension manifested in interstate violence that turned smaller states, particularly those at the border between Jin and Chu, into sites of constant warfare; Qi and Qin also engaged in numerous interstate skirmishes with Jin or its allies to boost their own power.{{Sfn |Hsu| 1999| pp = 560–61}}

===Hegemony of Qin (628–621)===
{{Main|Duke Mu of Qin}}
[[Duke Mu of Qin]] ascended the throne in 659 and forged an alliance with Jin by marrying his daughter to Duke Wen. In 624, he established hegemony over the western Rong barbarians and became the most powerful lord of the time. However he did not chair any alliance with other states nor was he officially recognized as hegemon by the king. Therefore, not all sources accept him as one of the Five Hegemons.

===Hegemony of Chu (613–591)===
{{Main|King Zhuang of Chu}}
[[King Zhuang of Chu]] expanded the borders of Chu well north of the [[Yangtze]] River, threatening the Central States in modern [[Henan]]. At one point the Chu forces advanced to just outside the royal capital of Chengzhou, upon which King Zhuang sent a messenger to inquire into the heft and bulk of the  [[Nine Tripod Cauldrons|Nine Cauldrons]] – the symbols of royal ritual authority – implying he might soon arrange to have them moved to his own capital. In the end the Zhou capital was spared, and Chu shifted focus to harassing the nearby state of Zheng. The once-hegemon state of Jin intervened to rescue Zheng from the Chu invaders but were resolutely defeated, which marks the ascension of Chu as the dominant state of the time.<ref>{{ citation | title=[[Zuozhuan]] | chapter=[[:zh:s:春秋左氏傳/宣公|Duke Xuan]]|mode=cs2}}</ref>

Despite his ''de facto'' hegemony, King Zhuang's self-proclaimed title of "king" was never recognized by the Zhou states. In the ''[[Spring and Autumn Annals]]'' he is defiantly referred to as ''Zi'' ({{zh|labels=no|c=子}}, ruler; unratified lord),{{sfn|Milburn|2016|p=64}} even at a time when he dominated most of south China. Later historians however always include him as one of the Five Hegemons.