No Unification of China

Is it possible at any point after the fall of the Zhou Dynasty, for China to remain several independent states, rather than unite under the Qin or Chu or *insert dynasty here*?
 
Is it possible at any point after the fall of the Zhou Dynasty, for China to remain several independent states, rather than unite under the Qin or Chu or *insert dynasty here*?

No, because in OTL the Zhou fell to the Qin. Those independent states were runaway vassals under the rule of a king without any hard power and ceremonial authority.

But my smartassity aside, I think the states were just destined to be united in some fashion, there's too much gravity already at work, the fact that much of the Balkanization of the Spring and Autumn period was turned over by the time of the warring states, what once was dozens of petty statelets were now a handful capable of exerting actual authority. If you want China to remain broken then you need outside powers to get involved. I'm not sure who'd have the given strength in the SPAP to take adavantage of the disunity, maybe the Yue to the south. But internally, those lands at their core just unite regardless. The periphery can fall out of orbit but invasion would have to happen for Middle Kingdom to be shattered
 
No, because in OTL the Zhou fell to the Qin. Those independent states were runaway vassals under the rule of a king without any hard power and ceremonial authority.

But my smartassity aside, I think the states were just destined to be united in some fashion, there's too much gravity already at work, the fact that much of the Balkanization of the Spring and Autumn period was turned over by the time of the warring states, what once was dozens of petty statelets were now a handful capable of exerting actual authority. If you want China to remain broken then you need outside powers to get involved. I'm not sure who'd have the given strength in the SPAP to take adavantage of the disunity, maybe the Yue to the south. But internally, those lands at their core just unite regardless. The periphery can fall out of orbit but invasion would have to happen for Middle Kingdom to be shattered
So if I'm understanding this correctly, it's not impossible, just incredibly difficult?
 
It's my personal (though not particularly informed) opinion that China remaining disunited for a long period of time IS possible. You do have some forms of gravity at work towards unifying the area, of course, but it's not predetermined. There are plenty of areas of rough terrain that could separate the South from the North essentially permanently. You simply need both to have strong states, and maybe for the idea of a united China to either not get off the ground, or for Chinese rulers to lose enthusiasm for the idea (like Western rulers did for the Roman Empire). Preventing the erosion of other ethnic identities like Di, Xianbei and Qiang would also help, as it would create more fault lines to disrupt a unified Chinese state.
 
How would one go about doing this?

Well after the Battle of Fei River in 383 caused a collapse of the Former Qin, the Eastern Jin who had defeated them began to experience instability as well, which was eventually put down by Liu Yu, who established the Song dynasty. You could have China as a whole have a total collapse, although there would be some consolidation in certain places.

Probably the most likely scenario would be a permanent North-South division, which could use a slightly later PoD, where the Northern Wei and Southern Qi empires consolidate.

Keep in mind this is the only period of Chinese history (other than the obviously irrelevant-to-this-discussion 20th Century) that I know much about. But it's my understanding that China has been divided North-South many times.
 
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