Five Hegemons


The Five Hegemons refers to several especially powerful rulers of Chinese states of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, sometimes alternatively referred to as the "Age of Hegemons". There are various lists of five rulers of those certain states which rose to power over the other states of this time period, states which were also formed during the period of dissolution of a once real and strong central state, namely the empire of the Zhou dynasty. The Hegemons mobilized the remnants of the Zhou empire, according to shared mutual political and martial interests. An especially prominent Hegemon was Duke Huan of Qi.

Pronunciation and meaning

In ancient Chinese, “霸” "" has similar meaning and pronunciation as “伯”, which means "the eldest son in a family", or "senator". Both "五霸" and "五伯" can be translated as the "Five Hegemons". "五" literally means five, but in the context of ancient Chinese also has a more generally qualitative and less precisely quantitative use, implying completeness.

Use of the term

During the Spring and Autumn era itself, the hegemony tended to apply to states; it was therefore possible to speak of the State of Jin and the State of Chu struggling for hegemony over the Zhou states. In historical accounts it instead became associated with individual rulers, namely the ones who first brought their respective states to a dominant position. During the Spring and Autumn period the reigns of each hegemon tended to correspond with the zenith of their state's power.
Timeline of the most prominent hegemons
years in BCE

ImageSize = width:200 height:750
PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:80 top:20
Legend = columns:1 left:0 top:60 columnwidth:80
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:450 till:730
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:450
ScaleMinor = increment:5 start:450
Colors=
id:classical-hege value:rgb legend:most_commonly_considered_hegemons
id:consi-hege value:rgb legend:considered_hegemon_by_some_authors
PlotData=
from: 727 till: 701 mark: color:consi-hege text:Duke Zhuang of Zheng
from: 667 till: 643 mark: color:classical-hege text:Duke Huan of Qi
from: 643 till: 638 mark: color:classical-hege text:Duke Xiang of Song
from: 636 till: 628 mark: color:classical-hege text:Duke Wen of Jin
from: 628 till: 621 mark: color:classical-hege text:Duke Mu of Qin
from: 613 till: 591 mark: color:classical-hege text:King Zhuang of Chu
from: 572 till: 558 mark: color:consi-hege text:Duke Dao of Jin
from: 514 till: 496 mark: color:consi-hege text:Helü, King of Wu
from: 496 till: 476 mark: color:consi-hege text:Fuchai, King of Wu
from: 476 till: 465 mark: color:consi-hege text:Goujian, King of Yue

The Hegemon System

The concept of hegemony arose out of the weakness of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. Whilst its predecessor, the Western Zhou dynasty, was also feudal in nature, the centre was strong enough to command the obedience of most of its vassals, as well as to maintain a central army. The death of King You of Zhou and the sack of the Zhou capital in 771 BC rendered the position of the central court untenable and eventually dependent on the protection of neighbouring states.
The concept of the Hegemon was important to the Interstate relations during the Spring and Autumn period, since the Hegemon was nominally charged with underwriting the stability of the whole system, often heading a league of smaller states whose security was to some extent guaranteed by the state, in exchange for tribute.

The Five Hegemons

These are the two most commonly used lists of hegemons.
The Records of the Grand Historian list:
Alternatively, the Xunzi list:
The first two hegemons are widely referred to in contemporary texts and therefore rarely disputed because Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin themselves were officially rewarded the hegemony by the kings of Zhou in 679 BCE and in 632 BCE respectively.
Duke Zhuang of Zheng and Fuchai, King of Wu, were also amongst the contenders aside of the seven rulers mentioned above.
These lists are:
The Ci Tong list:
The list:
The Bai Hu Tong list:
The Book of Han list: