In 771BC, a coalition of feudal lords and the Western Rong tribes overthrew KingYou and drove the Zhou out of the Wei valley. During the following Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the major states pursued independent policies and eventually declared full independence claiming the title 王 borne by Zhou rulers.
All claimed descent from the Yellow Emperor through cadet lines of the royal houses above, although the historicity of such claims is usually doubted.
Qin
The kings of Qin claimed descent from the Lady Xiu, "the granddaughter" of "a remote descendant" of the Emperor Zhuanxu, the grandson of the Yellow Emperor. Similarly, in the next generation, Lady Hua was said to be descended from Shaodian, the legendary figure who is sometimes the father and sometimes the foster father of the Yellow and Flame Emperors. Although Nüfang (lit.'Lady Fang') is counted as Elai's son, some scholars have claimed the figure was Elai's daughter and, along with the numerous important women in the early pedigree, indicates that early Qin was matriarchal.
The surnameYing (lit.'Abundance') was said to have been bestowed by Shun upon Dafei (the husbandman Yi). If it was ever held by any of his descendants, it had fallen out of use by the time of Feizi, who was granted the name anew by KingXiao of the Zhou.
↑Recorded as "Duke Ning of Qin" (秦寧公) in Sima Qian, but inscriptions on excavated bronzeware from the period has shown this to have been a mistranscription of the original "Xian".
References
123456Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian translated by Nienhauser, William Jr. The Grand Scribe's Records: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China, pp. 87 ff. Indiana University Press, 1994. Accessed 4 December 2013.
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