Eastern Zhou · Spring and Autumn

After the royal house moved east to Luoyi, the Zhou kings kept weakening while the great states kept growing. Big powers competed for the lead under the banner of "honour the king, repel the outsiders" — this is the Spring and Autumn period.

Duke Huan of Qi trusted the reformer Guan Zhong; Duke Wen of Jin came home after nineteen years of exile to lead the states; Goujian of Yue "slept on brushwood and tasted the gall". Many of the best-loved idiom stories were born here.

In this same age, Confucius traveled from state to state with his students, and Laozi left behind five thousand characters. Beyond the noise of the hegemons, Chinese thought was quietly sprouting.