A Primary Study On The Assassinator In The Spring And Autumn Period And The Warring States Period

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is a time of great conflicts and changes of society, during which the traditional political system collapsed and a new one established. During the process of those changes, political struggles were especially violent, and assassinators played important roles in them. During the time of Spring and Autumn, the authority of monarchy was declining, and the power was moving down. At the beginning, it was "the five powerful chiefs", which are the most powerful princedoms, rose one after another, and then the literati and officialdom monopolized the power. In order to monopolize the power or take the place of the king, powerful bureaucrats always used assassinators to assassinate the kings of the states. The struggles among bureaucrats were very violent during the time, and assassinators were also been made use of removing their political enemies. During the time of Warring States, the power of monarchies was strengthened because of the establishment of the institution of the centralization of authority, and their position was rather stable. However, the conflicts among ministers were increasing, so the aim of assassinators during this period was mainly those ministers who were in charge of the power. The appearance of assassinator is resulted in the abnormal political status in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period,and because of its great force of destruction, it aggravated the unstable political situation in turn. There are three features of the assassinator in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period: First, the change of their identity. During the Spring and Autumn Period, assassinators were mainly from aristocrat, while the majority of them had been civilian in the Warring States Period; Second, the way they carried out their assassination. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is an era of cold weapon, so assassinators used cold weapons such as knives, iron hammers and so on as the dominant. Third, it's the feature of their spirit. The assassinators in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period left us a great treasury of spirit values. They always remembered other's kindness and tried their best to repay them, they esteemed justice and was not afraid of death, and always cherished their fame, which is adored by later generations throughout hundreds of years.