The Warring States: The 200-Year War That Created China

Before China became a unified empire, seven powerful kingdoms fought for control of the ancient world. Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei raised enormous armies, conquered weaker states, introduced sweeping reforms, and transformed warfare on an unprecedented scale. But the Warring States period was more than an age of destruction. The pressure of constant war forced rulers to centralize government, weaken the hereditary nobility, recruit officials by ability, register and tax their populations, expand agriculture, and mobilize mass armies. It also produced some of China’s most influential political and philosophical traditions as thinkers searched for a way to restore order to a divided civilization. This documentary explores the collapse of Zhou authority, the rise of the Seven Warring States, Shang Yang’s transformation of Qin, the Hundred Schools of Thought, the Battle of Changping, and Qin’s relentless conquest of its remaining rivals. By 221 BCE, King Ying Zheng had defeated every competing kingdom and declared himself Qin Shi Huang—the First Emperor of China. The Warring States had ended, but the political system created by centuries of conflict would shape Chinese civilization for the next two thousand years.