序（上）：秦之興與六國之變
Preface (Part I): The Rise of Qin and the Transformation of the Six States
太史公讀秦記，至犬戎敗幽王，周東徙洛邑，秦襄公始封為諸侯，作西畤用事上帝，僭端見矣。禮曰：「天子祭天地，諸侯祭其域內名山大川。」今秦雜戎翟之俗，先暴戾，後仁義，位在籓臣而臚於郊祀，君子懼焉。及文公逾隴，攘夷狄，尊陳寶，營岐雍之間，而穆公脩政，東竟至河，則與齊桓、晉文中國侯伯侔矣。是後陪臣執政，大夫世祿，六卿擅晉權，征伐會盟，威重於諸侯。及田常殺簡公而相齊國，諸侯晏然弗討，海內爭於戰功矣。三國終之卒分晉，田和亦滅齊而有之，六國之盛自此始。務在彊兵並敵，謀詐用而從衡短長之說起。矯稱出，誓盟不信，雖置質剖符猶不能約束也。秦始小國僻遠，諸夏賓之，比於戎翟，至獻公之後常雄諸侯。論秦之德義不如魯衛之暴戾者，量秦之兵不如三晉之彊也，然卒並天下，非必險固便形埶利也，蓋若天所助焉。
The Grand Historian read the Annals of Qin. When he reached the point where the Quanrong barbarians defeated King You, and the Zhou court fled east to Luoyi, Duke Xiang of Qin was for the first time enfeoffed as a feudal lord. He built the Western Altar and performed sacrifices to the Supreme Deity — and there the seeds of usurpation became visible. The Rites state: "The Son of Heaven sacrifices to Heaven and Earth; the feudal lords sacrifice to the famous mountains and great rivers within their own domains." Yet Qin, steeped in the customs of the Rong and Di barbarians, placed force before benevolence, and though it held the rank of a mere border vassal, it presumed to carry out the suburban sacrifices reserved for the king. This alarmed men of principle.
By the time Duke Wen crossed the Long Mountains, drove back the barbarian peoples, honored the sacred treasure of Chen, and established his rule in the region between Qi and Yong — and then Duke Mu refined his governance and extended his eastern border all the way to the Yellow River — Qin had become the equal of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin among the hegemons of the Central States. After that era, subordinate ministers seized power, grandees held hereditary stipends, and the Six Ministers monopolized authority in Jin, conducting military campaigns and convening covenants with a prestige that overawed the feudal lords. Then Tian Chang assassinated Duke Jian and made himself chancellor of Qi, yet the feudal lords sat calmly by and did not punish him — the whole realm was now consumed with the competition for military glory. In the end, the three families partitioned Jin, and Tian He likewise extinguished the old house of Qi and took it for his own. The ascendancy of the Six States began from this point.
Their sole concern was strengthening their armies and annexing their rivals. Cunning and deceit prevailed; the doctrines of Vertical and Horizontal alliances arose. Fraudulent claims abounded; sworn covenants went unheeded — even the exchange of hostages and the splitting of tallies could no longer bind men to their word. Qin began as a small, remote state. The Central States treated it as a guest and classed it with the barbarians. Yet from the time of Duke Xian onward, Qin consistently dominated the feudal lords. If one judges Qin's virtue and righteousness, it does not compare even to the cruelty of Lu and Wei; if one measures Qin's military strength, it was not equal to that of the Three Jin states. Yet in the end it unified all under Heaven. This was not simply because of its strategic terrain and defensible positions — it was as if Heaven itself had come to its aid.
Notes
The Grand Historian (太史公) is Sima Qian referring to himself in his official capacity. As Prefect Grand Historian (太史令) under Emperor Wu of Han, he completed the Shiji around 94 BC. The self-referential 'Grand Historian says...' formula is his distinctive authorial voice throughout the work.
The 'Annals of Qin' (秦記) were the official chronicle of the state of Qin, the only state-level historical record to survive the Qin dynasty's burning of books in 213 BC. Sima Qian repeatedly laments that these annals were terse and omitted dates, making precise chronology difficult.
In 771 BC, the Quanrong (犬戎) barbarians sacked the Western Zhou capital at Hao (near modern Xi'an), killing King You. His successor King Ping moved the capital east to Luoyi (modern Luoyang), marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period and the decline of royal authority. Duke Xiang of Qin was rewarded for escorting the Zhou king eastward by being granted the old Zhou homeland in the Wei River valley — territory the Zhou themselves could no longer defend.
The Western Altar (西畤) was a sacrificial site where Duke Xiang of Qin performed the jiao sacrifice (郊祀) to the Supreme Deity (上帝), a rite properly reserved for the Son of Heaven alone. Sima Qian identifies this act of ritual usurpation — not any military conquest — as the moment Qin's imperial ambitions first became visible. The character 僭 (jiàn, 'to usurp, to overstep') carries strong moral censure.
Duke Wen of Qin (秦文公, r. 765–716 BC) expanded Qin westward over the Long Mountains into Gansu, subjugating barbarian peoples. The 'sacred treasure of Chen' (陳寶) was a miraculous stone, said to be a pheasant that transformed into stone, discovered during his reign. It became a state talisman.
Duke Mu of Qin (秦穆公, r. 659–621 BC) was one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period. He extended Qin's eastern frontier to the Yellow River, sponsored the return of Duke Wen to Jin, and conquered twelve barbarian states to the west. He is paired here with Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin as the great hegemons who maintained interstate order through personal authority.
The Six Ministers (六卿) of Jin — the Zhi, Zhao, Han, Wei, Fan, and Zhonghang families — gradually arrogated the power of the Jin ducal house during the late Spring and Autumn period. After the Fan and Zhonghang were eliminated and the Zhi were destroyed in 453 BC, the remaining three families (Zhao, Han, Wei) formally partitioned Jin in 403 BC. This event, along with Tian Chang's usurpation in Qi, is traditionally taken as the starting point of the Warring States period.
Tian Chang (田常, also known as Chen Heng 陳恆) assassinated Duke Jian of Qi in 481 BC and installed a puppet ruler. His descendants ruled Qi as de facto regents until Tian He formally replaced the Jiang-surnamed house and was recognized as a feudal lord by the Zhou king in 386 BC. This dynastic usurpation transformed Qi from an ancient state founded by Jiang Ziya into the Tian-Qi regime.
Vertical and Horizontal (從衡, also written 縱橫) alliances were the two grand strategies of Warring States diplomacy. The Vertical alliance (合縱) linked the six states from north to south against Qin; the Horizontal alliance (連橫) was Qin's counter-strategy of bilateral deals to break up the coalition. Su Qin and Zhang Yi were the most famous advocates of these rival doctrines.
Duke Xian of Qin (秦獻公, r. 384–362 BC) initiated the reforms that transformed Qin into a centralized military state. His son Duke Xiao continued these reforms by appointing Shang Yang (商鞅), whose legalist program of universal military conscription, meritocratic rewards, and severe punishments gave Qin a decisive structural advantage over the other states.
The comparison with Lu (魯) and Wei (衛) is pointed: these were small, weak states associated with Confucian virtue and ritual propriety (Confucius was from Lu). Sima Qian's argument is that Qin's success cannot be explained by either moral virtue or raw military strength alone — a conclusion that borders on historical fatalism, attributing Qin's triumph to something like the Mandate of Heaven.