During the Warring States Period, the territory of Qi was at its peak, and the frontier was expanded

Shandong is located in northern Jiangsu, northeast Anhui and southeast Hebei.

The State of Qi was a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty, a vassal state in Chinese history from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is divided into two eras, Jiang Qi and Tian Qi.

Its territory was mainly located in most of present-day Shandong Province, the southeastern part of Hebei Province and the northeastern part of Henan Province, and even when the Qi State was at its strongest, the territory of the Qi State did not expand.

Qi Territory: Most of Shandong was occupied by the Qi State. In addition to Shandong, Qi's influence also extended to Henan, Hebei and other surrounding areas.

Territory of the Lu State: Most of the ruling core areas are located in the territory of Jining, Shandong Province, and also include Ningyang in the south of Tai'an, Shanxian County, Yuncheng in the east of Heze, and Pingyi in Linyi.

When the national strength was the strongest, the territory reached Mount Tai in the north, Xuhuai in the south, the Yellow Sea in the east, and the Dingtao area in Shandong in the west, which was an important state controlled by the Zhou Dynasty in the east.

History of the Kingdom of Qi

In 1046 BC, Jiang Ziya assisted King Wu of Zhou to destroy the Shang Dynasty and was sealed as a state. Since the Taigong Wangfeng closed the country to build a state to trace oranges, boiled salt and cultivated fields, the rich armor side, the number of soldiers and the number of liquid states split 10,000, passed to the Duke of Qi Huan, it was already a large country in the East whose territory was on the verge of the sea, and the Duke of Qi Huan became the head of the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons through the "Respect for the King", and the State of Qi was called the country of the Sea King by the people at that time. When Jiang Qi passed to the Duke of Qi Kang, the doctor Tian He exiled the Duke of Qi Kang on the island near the sea, "eating a city to worship his ancestors".

Tian He established himself as the monarch of the country, and it was for the prince of Tian Qi.

In 386 BC, Tian He was listed as a prince by King Zhou An, Jiang Qi was replaced by Tian Qi, Tian He was officially called a marquis, and still used the name of Qi State, known as "Tian Qi", becoming one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. In 334 B.C., Marquis Tian of Qi was proclaimed king because of Qi. During the period of King Qi, the state of Qi expanded externally, swallowed the Song state in the south, but strengthened Qin in the west, and then recruited the five kingdoms to attack Qi, and the country's strength was greatly reduced.

In 221 BC, Wang Jian of Qi surrendered to the Qin Dynasty, the state of Qi was destroyed, and Qin established a unified feudal dynasty.

During the Warring States Period, there were many barbarians around the Chinese countries. Rongdi, who was close to the Central Plains, was successively merged by Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qin, and then merged with the Huaxia people. Dongyi and Huaiyi were also integrated by Qi and Lu.

Many parts of the Yue ethnic group in the south became the territory of the Chu state. Farther away, such as Linhu and Loufu in the north, originally lived in Jin, Shaanxi, northern Hebei and Inner Mongolia, and was the enemy of Jin, Qin and Yan. During the Warring States period, it was attacked by Zhao and Yan, and gradually withdrew from the Great Wall, and was annexed by the Xiongnu.

In the late Warring States period, the Xiongnu went south and became a fierce rival of the Huaxia people in the north. "The crown is with the Warring States Seven, and the Three Kingdoms are bordered by the Huns. "The northeast region is Huliangtan in the east, there are still in the east, and there is Su Shen in the northeast, which has roughly reached the territory of present-day Jilin and Heilongjiang.

In the Hexi region, there are Qiang and Yueshi people. After the Bashu in the southwest was occupied by Qin, there were also Qilan, Yelang, Yunnan, Kunming (all in the area of present-day Guizhou and Yunnan), Qiongdu (in the area of present-day Xichang), Du (in the area of Dadu River and Yalong River basin in present-day Sichuan), Xi (in the area of Tianquan in present-day Sichuan), Ran (in present-day Wenchuan, Maoxian County, Sichuan), and Baima (in present-day Chengxian County, Gansu) and other ethnic groups. There are Baipu and Qunman in the southwest of Chu State, and there are Baiyue in the south of the Great River, which are divided into Dongou (now southern Zhejiang), Oak Wutong Minyue (now Fujian), Nanyue (now Guangdong), Luoyue (now Guangxi) and so on.

The general trend of territorial change in the pre-Qin period was the gradual expansion of the Chinese region, from the Central Plains to the south to the north. In summer, oranges are mainly sold on both sides of the middle reaches of the Yellow River; Shang time south to the Huai River, north to Jizhong; Zhou reached the south bank of the Yangtze River in the south and Liaodong in the north; In spring and autumn, it reaches Dongting Lake in the south and Jinzhong in the north; During the Warring States period, it reached Wuling in the south and Yinshan in the north. On the other hand, there is the development of downstream to upstream.

In the Xia and Shang periods, it was mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and in the Zhou period, it developed westward to the Wei River; In the spring and autumn period, it developed to the Tao River. The development of the Yangtze River basin from the lower reaches to the upper reaches of the Yellow River basin is different, mainly due to the convenient transportation, the Zhuxia culture of the Yellow River basin first went to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and then turned to the upper reaches of the development.

If it was the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi Dynasty, the early Qi State was large, and the Western Wei Dynasty, the predecessor of the Zhou State, only had a narrow Guanzhong area. Hou Jing's rebellion occurred in the Southern Liang, and the Western Wei took the opportunity to capture Hanzhong, Bashu and Jingbei, and the territory suddenly became the most of the Three Kingdoms, so in the end the Northern Zhou Dynasty was able to destroy the Northern Qi, and after the Sui Dynasty Zhou, Yang Jian unified the world.

East of Jishui and north of Mount Tai are all of the Qi State. The state of Zhou only controlled the area around Luoyi.

The territory of Qi is large, and the territory of Zhou is small.

Northern Qi. It inherited the territory controlled by the Eastern Wei Dynasty and occupied the vast areas of Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. At the same time, the dynasties that coexisted with it included the Western Wei and Southern Liang.

Nan Chen et al. In the third year of Tianbao of the Northern Qi Dynasty (552 A.D.), after the wisdom of the world, he chased the Khitan in the east.

Xiping Shanhu (belonging to the Xiongnu people), breaking Rouran and Kumoxi in the north, and taking Huainan in the south, extended the territory to the Yangtze River, and the national strength of the Northern Qi reached its peak.

Since the accession of Duke Huan of Qi, the state of Qi has been strong, and when other vassal states mainly developed agriculture, they took the lead in developing commerce, and have always maintained the status of the richest country. In the early days of the Warring States Period, in Guiling and Maling, he defeated the overlord Wei at that time and regained his position as the hegemon. After the governance of King Qi Wei and King Xuan of Qi and two generations of Ming monarchs, the State of Qi reached its peak during the reign of King Min of Qi, and was even called the "Emperor of the East and the West" together with the State of Qin.

But why did the powerful state of Qi fail to unify China?

Resources for war. Although the Qi State attached great importance to commerce and was the richest prince at that time, and its capital Linzi was also the most developed city at that time, but at that time, it was necessary to fight a war with sufficient grain and grass, and the Qi State itself was not large in land area and underdeveloped in agriculture, so the Qi State could win one or two battles, but it was difficult to fight far, let alone support a long-term war; Compared with the Qi State, the grain of the Qin State is extremely sufficient, after the Shang Dynasty reform, large-scale reclamation of the land north of the Guanzhong Plain, but also after the accession of King Huiwen of Qin, the implementation of the strategy of annexing Bashu, the Qin general Sima Cuo led the Qin army to occupy the fertile Sichuan Basin, laying a material foundation for the future war.

Geographical environment. The advantage of Qi is that the eastern part of its territory is the sea, so unlike other feudal lords on the frontier, they need to defend themselves against foreign invasions at all times. But the predominantly plain country itself is not easy to defend. The five kingdoms were invaded, the Qi country collapsed for thousands of miles, there was no danger to defend along the way, and only two cities of more than 70 cities were left to support in the end, and the rest all fell.

The Qin State is in a dangerous terrain, and the five countries will attack Qin, and at most they will hit Hangu Pass. was also besieged by other princes, and the Qi State suffered a catastrophe, while the Qin State did not have any losses, which shows how important it was to grasp the "geographical advantage" at that time.

National Strategy. The state of Qi did not have an effective and long-term strategy to guide it to accomplish the great cause of reunification, and when the country became strong, it used all its forces to make enemies everywhere. During the reign of King Min of Qi, the State of Qi destroyed the State of Song and the State of Yan, although it was unstoppable, but it offended the other princes, so the goal of the joint column at that time was not the State of Qin, but the State of Qi. Later, the Yan State was restored, calling on the princes to jointly crusade against the Qi State, Qin, Zhao, Wei, and Han responded together, and the five kingdoms attacked Qi, and the powerful Qi State lost the battle and was almost destroyed, and the King of Qi Min also died in the war.

Since then, the national strength of the Qi State has been greatly reduced, and although it has relied on the Tiandan Fire Ox Formation to restore the country, it no longer has the strength to compete with the Qin State for the world. After the restoration of the country, the Qi State still did not formulate a strong country strategy, but chose to avoid the war, and did not send a single soldier to help during the Qin State attacking Zhao, Wei, and Han. After the Qin State captured Bashu and captured the "granary", it followed Fan Ju's strategy of distant friendship and close attack, expanded its territory and disintegrated the alliance at the same time, and finally swept the six countries and won the world in one fell swoop.

Qi has no resources for a long-term war, and its geographical environment cannot guarantee freedom from aggression. The most important thing is that although most of the monarchs are eloquent and strategic, the xenophobic ideology cannot guarantee the inflow of talents, and it is not surprising that although the country is strong for a while, no one has put forward a long-term national policy, and it cannot be unified.

During the time of Xiao Qi, the land of Huaibei almost completely fell. Qingzhou moved to control Qushan (East China Sea), Jizhou moved to govern Vortex, Yuzhou governed Shouchun, North Yanzhou governed Huaiyin, and North Xuzhou governed Zhongli. The rest of the states and counties are mostly based on the old Song Dynasty.

There are 23 prefectures, 395 counties, 1,474 counties, and then they were frequently invaded by the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the second year of Yongyuan, Yuzhou assassinated Shi Pei Shuye's rebellion, lost his longevity, and died three years later. When Xiao Qisheng was in his prime, Nanzheng, Fancheng, Xiangyang, Yiyang, Shouchun, Huaiyang, Jiaocheng, Liankou, and Shushan were important national defense towns in the north.