The Spring and Autumn Period

In the 8th century BC，power became decentralized during the Spring and Autumn Period（770-476BC），named after the influential Spring and Autumn Annals.In this period，local military leaders used by the Zhou began to assert their power and compete for hegemony.The situation was aggravated by the invasion of other peoples from the northwest，such as the Qin，forcing the Zhou to move their capital east to Luoyang.This marks the second large phase of the Zhou Dynasty:the Eastern Zhou（770-256 BC）.In each of the hundreds of states that eventually arose，local strong men held most of the political power andcontinued their subservience to the Zhou kings in name only.Local leaders，for instance，started using royal titles for themselves.The Hundred Schools of Thought of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period，and such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism，Taoism，Legalism and Mohism arose，partly in response to the changing political world.The Spring and Autumn Period was marked by falling apart of the central Zhou power.China then consisted of hundreds of states，some only as large as a village with a fort.

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