The Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods and the Pre-Qin Masters
The last ruler of the Western Zhou kingdom, King You, was good-for-nothing and the feudal princes all rebelled against him. When he deposed the queen and heir apparent, the queen’s father, Prince Shen, brought together the Rong outlying tribes, which undertook a military expedition and overthrew the government, killing King You at Mount Li (now Lintong in Shaanxi) and setting up his son, Yijiu, as king with the title King Ping. Since the capital city, Gao, had been destroyed in the fighting and the area around it occupied by the nomadic tribes, King Ping had no option but to move and settle further east at Luo Yi (now Luoyang in Henan) under the tutelage of the powerful feudal lords Duke Xiang of Qin, Prince Wen of Jin, Duke Wu of Zheng, and Duke Wu of Wei. That was in 770 BCE. History dates this as the end of the Western Zhou and the beginning of the Eastern Zhou. In 221 BCE the first emperor of Qin crushed all the feudal states in war and unified China, establishing the Qin empire. Historians commonly term the time between 770 and 221 BCE as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.
THE SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD
The Spring and Autumn Annals is a historical book that records the events of the state of Lu from the first year of Duke Yin’s reign (722 BCE) to the fourteenth year of Duke Ai’s (481 BCE). The term Spring and Autumn was commonly used by historians in the Zhou era to refer to the state histories, but by the Han Dynasty only the history of Lu, edited by Confucius, survived; all others were destroyed during the Qin Dynasty. Precisely because of the historical importance of the Spring and Autumn Annals and because it was the earliest work recording any period of history, people later termed this era the Spring and Autumn Period. There is no disagreement among historians as to whether the Spring and Autumn Period began in 770 BCE, but there is no consensus regarding which year the period ends. The famous historian Qian Mu thought that according to the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Spring and Autumn Period should end with the fourteenth year of the reign of Duke Ai (481 BCE). Another historian, Guo Moruo, took the first year of the reign of King Yuan of Zhou (475 BCE) as the turning point between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, as set out in the “Chronology of the Six States” in The Records of the Historian. Hence he thought that the Spring and Autumn Period should end in 476 BCE. The historian Jin Jingfang proposed 453 BCE as the turning point between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods because that was the year in which the state of Jin split into three—Zhao, Wei, and Han—which marks the formation of the Seven Powers of the Warring States Period.
Although historians are not agreed on the last year of the Spring and Autumn Period, they all think that it was a turning point for China’s ancient history. In technology, China evolved at this time from the bronze to the iron age. The widespread use of iron led to progress in the development of agriculture, handcrafts, and commerce. In internal politics, the Spring and Autumn Period saw the breakup of the clan communities. The use of iron had a great impact on productivity, which brought about the breakup of the clan communities based on the well-field system. The breakup of the clan communities led to the dismantling of a bureaucracy based on blood lineages. Each state moved toward a centralized bureaucracy. Centrally coordinated administrative districts replaced feudalism. In international politics, the eastern displacement of the Zhou Son of Heaven led to a decline in the power of his successors, and so in the Spring and Autumn Period China went from unity to division and the various states emerged in constant chaos as they contended for hegemony. In culture and scholarship, the later Spring and Autumn Period saw the appearance of two great thinkers—Laozi and Confucius. Their thought opened up the discussions of the hundred schools of the Warring States Period.
THE WARRING STATES PERIOD
The name “Warring States” comes from The Stratagems of the Warring States, a historical work edited by Liu Xiang. Historians generally call the period from 475 BCE (according to the “Chronology of the Six States” in The Records of the Historian) or 453 BCE (with the division of Jin into three parts) to 221 BCE, when the first emperor of Qin unified the other six states, the Warring States Period. During the Warring States Period, the seven states of Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi, Chu, Qin, and Yan, known as the Seven Powers, were constantly at war with one another. The conflict was fierce militarily, politically, and in the area of foreign relations. Shang Yang, who transformed the legal system of Qin and developed the state into a rich and powerful one, ensured that ultimately Qin became dominant as it gradually annihilated the other six states and realized the goal of unity, by which “the king of Qin swept up the six into one” and formed a united empire where “within the seas administrative districts were created and laws were unified.” Each of the seven states had sought to enrich itself and strengthen its army, and therefore some had undertaken legal reforms, including those of Li Li in Wei, Wu Qi in Chu, and Shang Yang in Qin, which all, to some extent, brought about social progress. The foreign policy of the verticalists and horizontalists represented by Su Qin and Zhang Yi was very active. During the Warring States Period, commerce and transportation reinforced each other’s progress, creating several famous cities. Outstanding water conservation measures—such as Dujiangyan near Chengdu, the irrigation system of the state of Zheng, and the canal of Hong Gou—brought constant progress to agriculture and blessings to later generations. In the development of culture and thought, the hundred schools of the Warring States Period clamored for attention, creating the glorious pre-Qin civilization that has had such a great influence on later generations.
THE PRE-QIN MASTERS
During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods a new intelligentsia emerged, the scholar-officials. Most of them were born among the lower classes, but they were learned and talented. Some were great philosophers and thinkers. Others understood history, astronomy, the calendar, mathematics, and geography. Some were outstanding in politics and military affairs. Representatives of this group include Laozi, Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Hanfeizi, the Legalists Shang Yang and Shen Buhai, the primitive agriculturalist Xu Xing (ca. 390–315 BCE) and his disciple Chen Xiang, and the military strategists Su Qin and Zhang Yi. All of these were famous thinkers, politicians, military experts, or scientists.
Because they came from different backgrounds, their views also differed, and hence, in resolving or responding to real questions, they proposed different political ideas. They wrote books to establish their ideas and were constantly debating among themselves such that the hundred schools contended for attention, giving rise to the schools of Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism, yin-yang, Nominalism, verticalism and horizontalism, Eclecticism, Agriculturalism, and the novelists. Of these, four are important—Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and Legalism—and the Analects, Mencius, Mozi, Laozi, Xunzi, and Hanfeizi are the representative works of these four schools. What follows is a brief introduction to some of the most important pre-Qin masters.
Guan Zhong (719–645 BCE), personal name: Yiwu, appellation: Zhong. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong was the prime minister of Qi and a famous politician, strategist, and thinker. The Guanzi originally had 389 sections but most of it was lost when the first emperor of Qin burned the books and buried the Confucian scholars alive. What survived was edited by Liu Xiang during the Western Han. Eliminating repetitions, the whole surviving work came to eighty-six sections, of which ten went missing before the Tang Dynasty, leaving only seventy-six today.
Laozi (600–? BCE), surname: Li, personal name: Er, appellation: Boyang. Laozi was a famous thinker of the Spring and Autumn Period. He wrote the Daodejing (also called the Laozi) and is the father of the Daoist school. It is said that Confucius studied under Laozi. The Laozi has throughout history been considered a classic of China’s political thought, leading in the Han Dynasty to the aphorism “using the Confucian arts outside, and inside using the Yellow Emperor and Laozi,” and in the Tang and Song dynasties to the exalting of Daoism to the status of state religion.
Confucius (551–479 BCE), personal name: Qiu, appellation: Zhongni. Confucius was a great thinker and educator in China. Confucian thought as represented by Confucius has had a profound and long-lasting influence on Chinese history. He was later honored as the “Most Sagely” (a sage among the sages) and “the teacher of ten thousand generations.” Confucius corrected the Odes and the Book of History, edited the Rites and Music, wrote a preface for the Book of Changes and compiled the Spring and Autumn Annals. The Analects is the most important Confucian book. It was compiled by his disciples and their successors. It records the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples.
Mozi (personal name: Di) was the founder of the Mohist school. Mozi lived sometime between Confucius and Mencius, but there is no agreement on the dates of his birth or death; for instance, the following have all been suggested as his dates: 490–403 BCE, 468–376 BCE, and 480–390 BCE. At first Mozi studied Confucianism, but he was not happy with the complications and expense of the rites and therefore began to form his own ideas. The Mozi is a book that records Mohist thought; most of it may be lecture notes written by Mozi’s students, but a small part may be the work of later Mohists.
Mencius (372–289 BCE), personal name: Ke. Mencius was a great teacher and thinker in the Confucian school after Confucius. His fame increased from the Song Dynasty onward and by the time of the Yuan Dynasty he was called the “Revered Second Sage,” and later people called him “Second Sage,” meaning that his status was only slightly less than that of Confucius, and hence he is sometimes named alongside Confucius in the expression “Confucius and Mencius.” The Mencius, one of the Confucian classics, is a compilation, by Mencius and his disciples, of Mencius’s sayings, political ideas, and political activity.
Xunzi (312–238 BCE), personal name: Kuang. Xunzi was a famous Confucian scholar and thinker of the Warring States Period. Because two of his pupils, Hanfeizi and Li Si, both became famous Legalists, throughout history some historians have strongly doubted that Xunzi belongs among the Confucian scholars. Most chapters of the Xunzi summarize the scholarly world of the contentions of the hundred schools and Xunzi’s own scholarly thought. A few chapters are the work of his disciples.
Hanfeizi (280–232 BCE), surname: Han, personal name: Fei. He was a famous philosopher and thinker of the Warring States Period and a representative of the Legalists. Though his teacher was Xunzi, he did not follow the Confucian school of thought. Instead he developed Legalist thought and became a successful Legalist of the late Warring States Period. The Hanfeizi is basically Hanfeizi’s work, though a few chapters of other people’s writings may have been inserted, as often happened in the transmission of ancient books.