Is the idea that one of the other warring states unites China, or that China is never unified (or unified much, much later)? Because I'm not sure how plausible the latter is, even if we pushed a PoD as far back as a century prior.
We tend to think of the unification of China as inevitable because China has been around for so long as a single entity that we can scarcely imagine it not existing. But there is no more reason to think that the unification of China was inevitable than there was to think that the unification of the Mediterranean was inevitable.
I would say Chu looks like the most promising candidate, based on their size and resources, and (IIRC) likely being different from the Qin due to their strong landed aristocracy.Then we need to know which state
But they had been united (more or less) before under the Zhou, and the Warring States period can't last indefinitely. That said...We tend to think of the unification of China as inevitable because China has been around for so long as a single entity that we can scarcely imagine it not existing. But there is no more reason to think that the unification of China was inevitable than there was to think that the unification of the Mediterranean was inevitable.
That's actually a really good idea -- it would help the OP even more if he only managed to conquer the smaller, weaker states to the northeast, while Qin and Chu continued to hold them off. Now that I think of it, if the Jing Ke assassination is successful, it just might throw enough of a wrench into the unification wars to give this time to happen. In fact, I'm going to go on and cross-post this, if that's ok...What's the likelihood that Modu Chanyu of the nomadic Xiongnu Empire conquers and unifies the Chinese states under his authority, in lieu of the Qin uniting China?
I'd think the Chinese historians as a group would know themselves, just as American historians know about the American Revolution.
I would say Chu looks like the most promising candidate, based on their size and resources, and (IIRC) likely being different from the Qin due to their strong landed aristocracy.
That's actually a really good idea -- it would help the OP even more if he only managed to conquer the smaller, weaker states to the northeast, while Qin and Chu continued to hold them off. Now that I think of it, if the Jing Ke assassination is successful, it just might throw enough of a wrench into the unification wars to give this time to happen. In fact, I'm going to go on and cross-post this, if that's ok...