The Spring and Autumn Period originated from the historical book Spring and Autumn Period compiled by Lu, and the Warring States Period originated from the Warring States Policy written by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty. The division of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period by later generations is mainly based on two important events, namely, "Three clans divided into Jin" and "Tianqi Dynasty", especially "Three clans divided into Jin". So what's the difference between before and after this?
First of all, the attitude towards Zhou has changed a lot. Although the spring and autumn period was led by the Zhou royal family, it still held a large territory and a powerful army, and Zhou's prestige was still there, so all the vassal States did not want to replace Zhou. Therefore, although every country wants to be the hegemon, at least it will play the slogan of "respecting the king and foreigners bustling" to show its respect for Zhou.
However, the Warring States period was different. You know, only Zhou had the power to enfeoffment princes, but the state of Jin was directly divided by three powerful literati, and the royal family of Qi changed accordingly, which greatly destroyed Zhou's prestige, but the declining royal family was helpless, which also made the princes in the world disloyal to the royal family of Zhou. Later, they simply became kings and ignored Zhou.
Secondly, in the wars of various vassal States, the wars in the Spring and Autumn Period are very characteristic, and all wars are "wars of gentlemen". On the battlefield, whoever uses them as Sun Tzu's art of war will be looked down upon, and it is the kind of war that wants to run after losing the battle, and the opponent will never chase it. The war in the Spring and Autumn Period was more like a kind of competition. He paid great attention to etiquette, so there were wars like Jin Wengong's withdrawing troops and Song Xianggong's Feishui War, because.
But in the Warring States period, it was different. The wars in the Warring States period were famous for their barbarism. China's more than 2,000-year-old art of war and tactics had reached its acme during the Warring States Period. Because the purpose of the war in the Warring States period is to destroy the country and expand, we should aim at the effective strength of the enemy in the war. The most famous is the battle of Changping between Qin State and Zhao State, in which 400,000 soldiers of Zhao State were buried in Tian Lei Pit, and it was a battle of life and death between countries.
Finally, there are differences in cultural theories. The theory of letting a hundred schools of thought contend has matured in the Spring and Autumn Period, but in fact it is only theoretical and few can be put into practice. But in the Warring States period, hundred schools of thought's representatives began to travel around the world, and most of his theories and thoughts began to be put into practice, which also promoted the maturity of his thoughts.
So in a word, the Spring and Autumn Period is actually more like a competition between countries, showing their strength to each other, rather than aiming at destroying and occupying a country. Therefore, in the Spring and Autumn Period, we can always see the revival of the country, but in the Warring States Period, in order to destroy the country, all countries must fight to the death!