As the concept of traveling advisors started and developed throughout the warring states period and into the Qin Dynasty, the manner in which each states’ “kings” made their decisions also evolved. The system of traveling advisors itself to multiple kings falling due to the fierce weight of influence each advisor had on their respective kings. While the fall of states under Qin power may be credited to weak militaries or poor leadership, the key players especially when Qin Dynasty began, the ones with the most influence in high stake decisions, were the ministers. By examining what a minister is defined by, what their powers were and relaying noteworthy examples of such, coming to the conclusion that ministers held a dangerous amount of influence
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This transformation from Zhou to warring states produced not only more set roles like military generals and diplomatic strategists but also expansion across early China. When concerning the expansion aspect, the precise borders between states are hard to define as they shifted repeatedly over the course of the period. Instead the most standout features of each state established their core areas of land, setting the “borders” and giving major states more geographical power (Lewis 593). As for the government structure, each state had differentiating features about them yet all maintained the concept of having a king or emperor as the face and authority of the kingdom. The overwhelming policy of the new forming states, taken from texts of the period, was a set of roles to be filled. These roles were the monarch, the reforming minister, the military commander, the persuader/diplomat and the scholar (Lewis 587). Each of these roles fulfilled a purpose and often overlapped each other in their work as well as in the individuals themselves. The overlapping …show more content…
Before travelling advisors became a commonality, location was the key factor in state interactions. Depending on where each state was in proximity to another alliances and rivals could easily be formed (Lewis 595). Although the larger the state, usually the more resources they had therefore having less of a need to ally with the smaller states and knowing that each state was for all intent and purposes rival to all others, the location of each still aided in key step in growth as a nation. As for the actual interactions, most interactions were seen in the form of war rather than ally visits. For example, the state of Qin was in almost constant war with the states of Qi, Wu, Sung and others throughout the period (Holsti 309). With rule of the entirety of early china on the table, each state mostly sought out others in attempt to win over by force thus expanded their own rule and territory further. When looking to build upon expansion almost all states that lost to others were simply absorbed into the winning states or put through forced annexation if the land or people did not have redeeming qualities (Holsti 311). This goal of conquering states one by one was held by every nation, and with such is the real budding era of travelling advisors. With
This transformation from Zhou to warring states produced not only more set roles like military generals and diplomatic strategists but also expansion across early China. When concerning the expansion aspect, the precise borders between states are hard to define as they shifted repeatedly over the course of the period. Instead the most standout features of each state established their core areas of land, setting the “borders” and giving major states more geographical power (Lewis 593). As for the government structure, each state had differentiating features about them yet all maintained the concept of having a king or emperor as the face and authority of the kingdom. The overwhelming policy of the new forming states, taken from texts of the period, was a set of roles to be filled. These roles were the monarch, the reforming minister, the military commander, the persuader/diplomat and the scholar (Lewis 587). Each of these roles fulfilled a purpose and often overlapped each other in their work as well as in the individuals themselves. The overlapping …show more content…
Before travelling advisors became a commonality, location was the key factor in state interactions. Depending on where each state was in proximity to another alliances and rivals could easily be formed (Lewis 595). Although the larger the state, usually the more resources they had therefore having less of a need to ally with the smaller states and knowing that each state was for all intent and purposes rival to all others, the location of each still aided in key step in growth as a nation. As for the actual interactions, most interactions were seen in the form of war rather than ally visits. For example, the state of Qin was in almost constant war with the states of Qi, Wu, Sung and others throughout the period (Holsti 309). With rule of the entirety of early china on the table, each state mostly sought out others in attempt to win over by force thus expanded their own rule and territory further. When looking to build upon expansion almost all states that lost to others were simply absorbed into the winning states or put through forced annexation if the land or people did not have redeeming qualities (Holsti 311). This goal of conquering states one by one was held by every nation, and with such is the real budding era of travelling advisors. With