Chapter 2

The classical age: The Zhou period (ca. 1045 - 226 BC)
Key ideas:
This chapter outlines the transformations in the Zhou period. It discusses the changes affecting all
areas, analysing the formation of an integrated political structure of disunity, an initially feudal society
transforming into a complex mixture of lords, nobles, knights, peasants, warriors, merchants, artisans,
and many others in-between, a developing war economy with markets and a surprising amount of
“free trade,” and fundamental changes in worldviews.

2.1 The demise of the Shang and the early Zhou state
The account that shaped the historical image of the Zhou conquest
of the Shang was composed some one thousand years after the
event by the historian Sima Qian 司马迁 (145-87? BC). Valerie
Hansen vividly paraphrases the story:
According to Sima Qian, the last Shang king liked the company
of women, drank too much, enjoyed “depraved songs” with
erotic lyrics, and hosted orgies. At the same time he raised the
taxes while generally neglecting matters of state. When some
of his subjects objected, he invented a new way of punishing
them, by roasting them on a rack. He turned some of his
victims into mincemeat, others into dried meat strips. He
appointed evil officials, and his good officials drifted away from
his palace to serve the Zhou.
When the Zhou king’s advisors urged him to invade the Shang,
he refused, saying, “You don’t know the Mandate of Heaven
yet.” Then the last Shang king killed an official who dared to
criticize him by cutting his chest open while he was alive, so
that the king could examine his still beating heart for signs of
virtue. When he heard this, the Zhou king launched his invasion
and defeated the Shang troops, and the last Shang king
plunged to his death in a fire. The Zhou king then impaled the
head of the dead tyrant on a pole for all his vanquished
subjects to see.30
The Mandate of Heaven31
Sima Qian offers a compelling story. The last Shang ruler is pictured
as a depraved tyrant, the new Zhou ruler as powerful yet careful to
act in accordance with Heaven. The replacement of the former
dynasty by the latter appears inevitable, the Mandate of Heaven
(tianming 天命) clearly having passed from the Shang to the Zhou.
The concept of the Mandate of Heaven was systematized only in the
Han period.32 The idea of a cosmic power gazing down upon the

30
Hansen (2000), Open Empire, 40f.
31
Shaughnessy (1999), “Western Zhou History,” 313-317 and Loewe (1986), “The Concept of
Sovereignty;” also Hansen, Open Empire, 40f.
 world like the celestial bodies yet having feelings for humans and
providing signs through which its will could be discerned and felt
certainly is much older. The oldest records of celestial events such as
eclipses and unusual constellations of the planets go back to the
early second millennium BC, their transmission itself attesting the
great importance of observing the heavens. While the need for a
reliable calendar required for agriculture should not be overlooked,
the numinous power of heaven was clearly present from the dawn of
Chinese civilization.33
The functions of Heaven and its mandate in Zhou society are little
known. However, Sima Qian’s powerful imagery shaped depictions of
later dynastic changes. Time and again through the course of
Chinese dynastic history, we come across depraved last rulers and
cautious, almost unwilling first rulers. The concept of the Mandate of
Heaven was elaborated into a system of legitimacy that was at once
abstract, elusive and very concrete. Heaven as an abstract cosmic
power had replaced the personalized God Above. Its signs and
communications with the human world were elusive and open to
interpretation. Omens that might indicate that a dynasty had lost the
Mandate might involve natural disasters such as earthquakes,
droughts and floods, unusual astronomic constellations such as
eclipses, or sightings of abnormal animals or monsters. Similarly,
positive omens might indicate that an individual was destined for rule
and were expected to accompany the setting up of new dynasties.
Heaven, furthermore, was not detached from the human sphere but
remained responsive, if enigmatic. The loss of the Mandate therefore
could also be indicated by signs of popular opposition, such as revolt,
social confusion, or even popular songs that mocked government.
All these signs, however, were inconclusive. A dynasty that managed
to survive ominous omens such as earthquakes and a major rebellion
was proven to have retained the Mandate of Heaven through the
crisis. Similarly, an unsuccessful rebellion could not have been
righteous. It appears logical, that certainty of the Mandate of Heaven
was possible only through retrospective interpretation based on the
outcome of a historic event.
The mandate of Heaven necessitates retrospective historical interpretation

It is for this reason that we need to be aware of the great

importance of the concept for the legitimacy of rule as well as for
history writing: We have to be on our guard when we come across
depraved last rulers, for their depravity may be based on the fact
that their dynasty was overthrown rather than on their actual
behaviour. Perhaps even more importantly, we need to tread

32
Loewe, “The Concept of Sovereignty,” esp. 735-737.
33
For an analysis of astronomic observation, political and cosmological thinking, see Pankenier (1995),
“The Cosmo-Political Background of Heaven’s Mandate.” The dating of astronomical events has,
however, been challenged by Douglas Keenan (2002), “Astro-Historiographic Chronologies of Early
China are Unfounded.” East Asian History 23 (June): 61-68.
 cautiously when following the linear genealogy of dynasties linked by
the Mandate of Heaven passing on from one to the other. Such a
line, after all, is an ideal, orderly and monolithic construction, which
has to ignore realities of periods of division or of several coexisting
dynastic states. Constructed though it was, the image of the
Mandate of Heaven bestowed to one ruling house was extremely
powerful, formative for historic perspective and history itself, as the
investigation of the age of classical antiquity will show.
As to the historic realities of the Zhou conquest of the Shang, it
remains shrouded in mystery. Sima Qian himself record that the
Zhou army was vastly outnumbered by the Shang, yet it reportedly
were the Zhou who left the battle of Muye as victors. An explanation
is not provided.
The Western Zhou
Map: Western Zhou

However the Zhou came to power, the former a minor power centred
on the Weihe 渭河 valley in the vicinity of modern Xi’an 西安 quickly
proceeded to set up an impressive system of rule. Recognition of the
Zhou kings were enforced by military conquest and maintained
through feudal allegiance. This network seems to have spanned
much of Northern China. Key fiefs controlled by members of the
Zhou royal house were set up from the modern Beijing area to
Shandong, and from the passages to the culturally different south in
Huai-River area to southern Henan; other lords were bound to the
Zhou house by marriage and kinship ties.
The Zhou not only adopted Shang structures of rule, they modelled
themselves on their predecessors. Most notably, they took over
Shang ritual and its writing system. This we know from quite self-
conscious notes in the transmitted histories, such as the admission
that “only the Shang had ce and dian” quoted above, and from the
sudden adoption of Shang styles and technological accomplishment
in Zhou ritual vessels as well as the wording of inscriptions on these
vessels.34 Certain changes demarcated the transition to a new
dynasty. Thus, the number of drinking vessels were reduced, those
for food became more numerous. This could have been in
accordance with Zhou accusations of Shang excesses. Traditionally,
these excesses were mostly understood as drinking excesses. It
would seem however, that mass killings of humans for ritual
sacrifices were also discontinued by the Zhou.
Broken continuity

In many ways, the Western Zhou continued the Shang system of a

network of city-centred, culturally linked, but loosely defined states.
The civilization of the early Zhou would have not have differed much
from that of the Shang described in the previous chapter. However,
less than two centuries into the Zhou period, something happened

34
Rawson (1999), “Western Zhou Achaeology,” 385-397.
 that amounted to a historical break. The feudal system started
breaking apart. City-states coalesced into larger states and the
original Zhou lineage fiefs developed into powerful polities with
distinct identities. But changes went deeper than a political
restructuring. Simultaneously, ritual bronze vessels changed
completely in shape and use, while jade objects became numerous.35
Throughout this momentous period, the historical records are largely
quiet, providing little more than the names of the Zhou kings.36
For a pair of late Western Zhou wine containers, see
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/04/eac/ho_1988.20.4ab,5ab.htm

What happened to 9th century Zhou China? Let us look at the

classical China that took shape after the mysterious break before we
return to this question.

2.2 The classical age of the Eastern Zhou

By the 8th century BC, the Zhou royal house held little real power. In
770 BC, two states in alliance with some less civilized peoples
marched on the Zhou capital. The defeated Zhou were driven from
the Wei River valley. They shifted their capital eastwards, near
modern Luoyang 洛阳, close to the entry of the Huanghe into the
North China Plain. From this time, Zhou kings only retained
symbolical overlordship over the competing states which ruled over
much of China proper.
The Zhou royal house continued to be in existence until the death of
the last king in 256 BC, but the Eastern Zhou kings had lost all
means to assert any real authority over the ruling aristocratic
lineages. The system of ritual order and liege obligations had
become an empty frame. The final demise can perhaps be dated to
close of the 5th century BC, when five self-styled kings not only
naturally used the title king (wang 王), but confirmed each others –
obviously no longer very all-encompassing - claims by concluding
35
For the changes in ritual and ritual objects, see Shaughnessy, “Western Zhou History,” 331-338 and
Rawson, “Western Zhou Achaeology,” 414-433.
36
Shaughnessy, “Western Zhou History,” 328f.
 alliances of mutual recognition, “calling each other king” (xiang wang
相王).37 A king had become simply the title for the ruler of a
relatively powerful political unit. Its former sacrosanct status as the
only mediator between humanity below and God Above was lost.
The six centuries of the Eastern Zhou are traditionally divided into
the Spring and Autumn period (Chunqiu 春秋, 770-481 BC) and the
Warring States period (Zhanguo 战国, 481-221 BC). The first period
is named after the book entitled Chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn,” i.e.
annals), recording events up to 481 BC, the second after a collection
of episodes from the subsequent period entitled Zhanguo ce 战国策.
Six centuries of war
For a map of the Warring States period, see http://www.arte-tv.com/static/c1/030201p_chine/cartes/fr_1.html

Already in the early Zhou period, the number of polities had

decreased markedly. By the beginning of the Eastern Zhou only
some one hundred states were left. Some of these were the size of
modern European states, while others remained city-states. The
great number of independent-minded states formed a highly
competitive system in which wars, alliances and territories shifted
continuously.
In addition, new powerful states rose to the South that were not
bound into the Zhou political and ritual system, most notably the
states of Chu 楚 in modern Hubei, Wu 吴 in southern Jiangsu and
Yue 越 in Zhejiang.
Contact and exchange was not limited to the civilized states either
but extended to the less civilized peoples who lived in the hills and
mountains within the Zhou cultural sphere as well as surrounding it.
These peoples were referred to by the Chinese as the four

37
Zuozhuan: Aigong 3.
 barbarians, with the Yi in the East, the Di in the North, the Rong in
the West and the Man in the South. The Northern States that had
evolved from the original Zhou system, now regarded themselves as
the “central states” (zhongguo 中国), differentiated from the less
legitimate and civilized southern states. Beyond was the barbarian
world, subsumed under the term “four seas” (sihai 四海), figuratively
placing the civilized and levelled agrarian world in the centre of the
square world, surrounded by wild and unfathomable, non-agrarian
oceans.
The Eastern Zhou period has been described as six centuries of war.
Warfare certainly was intense. It was also somewhat regularized and
contained by rules of chivalry, not unlike medieval warfare in Europe.
Thus armies met for battle on open ground and adversaries waited
for each other to get ready. The 5th century work Art of War by Sun
Wu (Sunzi bingfa 孙子兵法) epitomizes martial strategy of the
period. Wars, however, were fought on an increasing scale. Armies
are said to have numbered in the ten thousands in the Spring and
Autumn period, but by the late Warring States period we frequently
find figures upwards 100 000. Not least the competitive pressure of
war forced each polity to efficiently use its resources if it was to
survive. Major social and technological changes resulted from this
competitive pressure. The most important, the change from feudal
structures to bureaucratic administration and the production
revolution caused by iron will be discussed below.
Despite strife and pronounced regional and local cultural difference,
economical and cultural integration increased. Trade relations with
the “barbarian” world were important. Horses, goats and sheep were
imported from the northern steppe regions, cowries and many
tropical products reached China from the Southern regions and
Southeast Asia via Wu and Yue. Overseas contacts with Japan and
both overseas and overland links to the Korean peninsula existed,
with rice culture and iron introduced to these regions quite early.38
The iron age
The use of iron for weapons and tools from about 500 BC greatly
accelerated the transformation of ancient societies, accounting for
great changes that set in the Warring States period.
The systematic use of iron began in the Hittite kingdom in Anatolia
(modern eastern Turkey) about 1500 BC. Iron smelting is thought to
have been transmitted East and West by the increasingly mobile
peoples of Central Asia. It is present in the Northern cultures and
also in China from the 8th century onwards, but seems to have
remained on a very small scale without changing the dominant
bronze culture. This changed suddenly from about 500 BC onwards.
As with bronze, iron smelting arrives quite suddenly on the scene

38
Gina Barnes, (1999) The Rise of Civilisation in East Asia: The Archaeology of China, Korea and
Japan, 152, 168-171.
 and the technology employed from the beginning appears to have
been unique within its time period.
Donald Wagner has proposed that a new method of production
together with a new use was developed in the southern states of Wu
or Chu. Different from the Central Plains, in Wu bronze was not
reserved for ritual vessels and weapons, but also used to make
agricultural tools. This utilitarian use may have induced the
development of a cheaper replacement material, iron. Early cast iron
was thus a result from available technology developed in the
ceramics and bronze production and a shortage of copper in the
Southern regions.39 Early iron implements certainly were no match
for bronze in terms of shape and usefulness. The casting of iron was
hard to control, resulting in lumpy shapes. Moreover, cast iron was
brittle. Nevertheless, iron had a great advantage: it was much
cheaper.40
Iron tools and social change

Unsuited for precious objects, iron proceeded to work quite different

changes on the societies using it. Certainly, iron like bronze required
a high degree of organization for mining and smelting. But unlike
bronzes, the iron products went directly back into enhancing
economic production. We may assume that iron implements raised
agricultural productivity. This meant changes in the countryside. The
spade with an iron rim appears as an important tool. It would seem
that this tool enabled farmers to greatly improve productivity of their
land, mainly by digging and maintaining irrigation and drainage
ditches. We cannot ascertain what happened, but the Warring States
period clearly saw significant economic and population growth -
despite continuous warfare.
At the same time, the pace at which new agricultural land was
opened up in conjunction with higher productivity per person
overtook the old system of lords and dependant labourers. Instead of
the aristocratic landlord, peasant households who worked their own

39
Donald B. Wagner (1999). “The earliest use of iron in China.” In Metals in antiquity, ed. By Suzanne
M. M Young, A. Mark Pollard, Paul Budd and Robert A. Ixer, pp. 1-9. (Oxford: Archaeopress). For a
concise account (without however Wagner’s most recent research) see Barnes, Rise of Civilization, pp.
150-152.
This would explain the presence of both wrought and cast iron in China, with steel common after 300
BC. Wrought iron is produced by smelting at a relatively low temperature. A spongy mass is obtained
from the ore that can be hammered into shape. (Wrought iron was the only kind produced in the
West until the 13th century AD, when the adoption of the blast furnace made possible the high
temperatures needed to produce cast iron.) Cast iron is produced by adding carbon to the furnace.
This lowers the melting point of ore, but makes the metal brittle, requiring that the iron be cast in
moulds rather than forged into shape. It would seem that experience with high temperature firing of
stoneware directly led to the adoption more efficient furnaces in China, allowing for the massive
output documented for the Warring States period and leading on to the blast furnace that was in
existence by the first century BC.
40
Wagner, “The earliest use of iron in China,” 8f.
It may be added that iron production remained highest in the peripheral states of Wu in the South
and Yan in the Northwest, from where iron culture is thought to have reached Korea. See Barnes, Rise
of Civilization, 152.
 fields and were directly taxed by the state became common, while
new landowners without predicates of aristocratic lineage moved in
as well.41
The economic transformation of the Warring States period
Mark Elvin has described early Chinese economic development as
“politically driven.”42 This certainly was the case in the Spring and
Autumn as well as the Warring States periods. Valerie Hansen
summarizes the dynamics of economic development driven by
political competition and war:
The rulers of different regions fought to expand the area under
their control, either seizing territory from their political rivals or
encroaching further on the border peoples. The war machines
they built demanded enormous resources from the citizens of
each state. Because subsistence agriculture practiced on large
quasi-independent estates did not produce sufficient surplus,
rulers began to tax individual households. Improvements in
tools and irrigation allowed some households to develop
occupational specialities while other continued to farm to meet
their tax obligations. Money circulated in ever-increasing
quantities, as trade networks developed and cities grew.
Obsessed as they were with the costs of constant war,
contemporary observers were blind to the many advantages the
fighting brought them. War forced rulers to extract more from
their people, prompting a host of economic changes and
feeding a long-lasting economic boom.43
The formation of territorial states and economic integration

Through the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods, the
central states became more and more “state”-like in our modern
sense. Unlike the old network systems, we now encounter
integrated, territorially clearly defined states. By the 4th century,
some of these states had taxation systems, carried out land surveys,
and all were eager to recruit able administrators. In the new
administrations, merit rather than birth decided one’s career.
Integration

As may be expected in an age of intense conflict and competition,

overall cultural and economic integration of the central and southern
states also increased. While differences may have been highlighted
for polemical reasons, from the perspective of historical distance,
they often seem very small.
For example, different states issued differently shaped coins. These
were however used beyond the borders of the issuing states, thus
41
For the profound changes in agricultural technology and the ensuing social change, see Hsu (1999),
“The Spring and Autumn period.”
42
Elvin (2994), The Retreat of the Elephants, 101. For a vivid sketch of these politically driven
economies pitted against nature as reflected especially in the late Warring States text Guanzi, see
idem, 101-110.
43
Hansen, Open Empire, pp. 93f.
 attesting to the integration of the economy rather than to
differentiation along state borders.
The importance of transportation and communications was
recognized. Good roads were crucial for keeping up lines of
communication via messengers, for moving armies and provisions.
Unfortunately, however, little is recorded about these roads, and
archaeological evidence in the changeable loess landscapes is
difficult.44 Although we have hardly a clue what early roads and the
traffic upon them looked like, we are not left in doubt about the
great importance accorded to roads: for decaying roads were
regarded as a symbol for a decaying state.45
Changes in warfare

Throughout the period, these states were geared for military

efficiency. War itself was transformed. Whereas the armies of the
Early Zhou were grouped around the chariots of the nobles, technical
and social change brought the rise of infantry armies in the Warring
States period. While iron and steel weapons and the crossbow made
chariots inefficient, the decline of the nobility gave rise to
professional strategists and commanders as well as troops consisting
of warriors and conscript peasants. In addition, riding on horseback
was a new martial ability that spread from the north-western states,
who in turn had learned it from the steppe people. Speed thus
became another new aspect of war. By the late Warring States
period, the new developments that had begun in the 6th century
were the rule. Warfare had become a matter of efficiency rather than
heroism, and highly destructive. States geared their economies to
meet this organizational challenge.
Population and expanding states

Population size, efficient taxation and recruitment of subjects

became important for states. Consequently, the pace of expansion
into surrounding areas, both through the annexation of other states
and the subjugation of "barbarian," i.e. less organized peoples,
accelerated. Direct taxation of peasants rather than indirect control
through aristocratic lords became the preferred form of rule, as it
enabled the state to effectively control resources and conscript
peasant-warriors.
Mobility and communications

War, however, was not the only type of large-scale project that
involved mobilizing large numbers of people. Fortifications and walls
were other, war-related projects. We also encounter projects which
appear both “typically Chinese” and were economically immensely
important, namely the building of canals and irrigation reservoirs.

44
Wang Zijin (1994), Qin-Han jiaotongshi, 12-14 provides an overview of documentary evidence for
major overland roads and a system of stations serving messengers and privileged travellers for the
period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC.
45
Guoyu: Zhouyu zhong and Zuozhuan, Xianggong 31, quoted in Wang Zijin 1994, 13.
 The first transport canals are recorded for the late 6th century BC in
the middle and lower Yangzi region. In the following centuries, more
canals were built, creating connections between the Yangzi and the
Huaihe and between the Huaihe and the Huanghe. The recorded
purpose of these already quite long canals were strategic or clearly
“policy driven.” The new waterways were to serve as provisioning
lines for a campaign, or the transport of salt, a state monopoly. We
do not know whether the canals carried the boats of merchants as
well. The fact of canal building in itself, however, suggests that
transport by boat had become important and large numbers of boats
were available.46
Money economies47

The final sign of economic integration is the use of coins beginning

around 500 BC. Whereas cowry shells had been circulating in
increasing numbers before, now different states issued coins. These
had different shapes, some were miniature imitations of knives or
shovels, others were discs with a hole in the middle. By the mid 4th
century, money as a means of payment had become quite common.
We even hear of peasants who paid their taxes in money. Even if this
was a regional phenomenon, it shows that markets were integrated
and large enough for the states to rely on them for purchasing at
least some part of the goods they previously collected in kind.
For coins of the Zhanguo period coins in the shape of knives, bolts of cloth and spades, see
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AltechinesischeMuenzen.jpg

Considering the striking economic and social transformation of the

period, Chao Kang concludes that by 300 BC, the “prerequisites of
market economy” were in place.48

46
Shi Nianhai, Zhongguo de yunhe, 11-64.
47
Hsu, “The Spring and Autumn period,” 581f.
Nomadism and the steppe frontier49
In the Warring state period, mounted warriors burst upon the stage
of Chinese history, harassing the northern states to the extent that
they each erected defensive walls along their northern borders. This
is the Chinese perspective of the sudden rise of nomadism in the
North.
The picture receives some modification, when we take a close look at
Northern Asia itself, possible through archaeological finds that,
although few and far between, provide a perspective on a region
formerly known through the Chinese perspective only. At the outset,
the late neolithic, and well into the bronze age we find agricultural or
partly agricultural cultures to the north and west of Chinese ones.
Very gradually, these appear to have moved away from agriculture
to a pastoral lifestyle. Nomadism based on mobility provided by carts
and horses and on husbandry mainly of sheep formed gradually over
a millennium. The key technology of nomadism is the horse and the
horse-drawn cart, to which riding on horseback would be added
before long. The gradual abandoning of agriculture has to be seen in
the context of the gradually cooling climate, with greater aridity
pronounced in the Northwest.
For rock drawings of riders and chariots in Central Asia, see http://agri-
history.ihns.ac.cn/scholars/weisi/weisi39.htm

It should be noted that purely nomadic societies, who pursue mobile

animal husbandry without any agriculture , are dependent on trade
with their agricultural neighbours, at the very least for sheer survival
in times of disaster, such as the loss of their herds through extreme
drought or cold, and preferably on a regular basis for staples such as
grain, for luxury goods, and to some degree for vitamins and
minerals. Advantages of such cross-cultural trade are less obvious
from the agriculturalists, who receive mainly horses, sheep, hides
and furs - useful but perhaps not vital goods. More importantly, the
swiftness of mounted nomads is bound to arouse fears on the part of
their neighbours who at best can wall themselves in and hope to
defend their stores.

48
Chao Kang (1986), Man and Land, 2f.
49
Di Cosmo, Nicola (1999). “The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China.” In CHAC (pp. 885-966);
Barnes, Rise of Civilization, 154-158.
 This is a very general outline of the conflict that would characterize
China’s northern frontier from the Warring States period onwards.
We will see that initial military success by the northern states and in
particular the campaigns under the First Emperor of the Qin were
instrumental in creating the Xiongnu 匈奴 federation that became the
major military challenge of the early empire.
Lost certainties and the age of the philosophers
To Chinese living in the period, the world around them appeared to
have lost direction. Although the ideal of grand unity and harmony
existed, they lived in states under various kings, dukes and other
lords that were rarely far from the brink of war, while much of the
time either growing or shrinking at alarming rates. Society likewise
seemed to have lost all stability, with old aristocratic lineages sinking
into oblivion, while merchant upstarts could become richer than
dukes. At the same time, the ferment had produced a new class of
persons under the ruling class but above the peasantry: The shi
(knights, later to become the educated elite, but then still a group
whose status rested on valour both in arms and learning) were
usually descendants of lesser noble lines, later also commoners, who
offered their services to the rulers. The shi clearly were a socially
mobile group, moving into positions into which one had to be born
before. From this background came the philosophers who have
shaped Chinese thought and continue to do so. The period of the 6th
to the 3rd century BC have been described as the age of the Hundred
Schools of thought.50
Confucius

Confucius (551-479 BC, this is the Latinization of the honorary name

Kongzi 孔子 or Kong fuzi 孔夫子 used by his followers) was the first
of these independent thinkers. Originally he was a knight of humble
means whose success in finding a position at some court was
moderate. He ended up dedicating himself to teaching. And as a
charismatic, challenging, and cryptic teacher he eventually - long
after his lifetime - became immensely influential.
As with all other philosophers of the time, no texts composed by
Confucius himself exists.51 The little we know is based on
recollections written down much later, and more relies on the
exegesis of works related to him and accounts of much later
thinkers, especially Mencius or Mengzi (孟子, ca. 370 ca. 290 BC)
and Xunzi (荀子, flourished 298-238 BC).
Confucius presented himself as transmitter, always insisting on the
importance of recreating ancient ritual – form filled with meaning –
50
Nivison, 752-759.
51
The only text that can be ascribed to him with some degree of certainty is the Chunqiu 春秋, the
Annals of his home state Lu, a bald record of events to the year 381 BC. His disciples started taking
down their recollections of their conversations with the master. The result is a short text in dialogue
form, the Analects (Lunyü 论语). Genesis and layers of this text are difficult, with the last additions
probably dating some time after 250 BC.
 and the restoration of unified and virtuous rule, extolling both early
Zhou and mythical rulers of an idealized past. These were the
messages the teacher succeeded in inculcating his students and
eventually Chinese culture itself: The veneration of an ideal past and
the respect for learning and the learned. It should be mentioned that
learning as Confucius taught by example involved literacy and the
study of texts. More important though appear conversations and
travelling in pursuit of learning through direct experience and
interaction.
Changing attitudes towards gods and spirits

The man who so ardently wished to restore the purity and dedication
of the past showed a critical distance concerning metaphysical
questions.
Jilu asked how the spirits of the dead and the gods should be
served. The Master said, ‘You are not able even to serve man.
How can you serve the spirits?
‘May I ask about death?’
‘You do not even understand life. How can you understand
death?’52
Clearly, Confucius’ attitude towards spirituality was robustly this-
worldly. This attitude appears pervasive when we look at other
philosophers. Like Confucius, they concern themselves with
fundamental questions but never forget to relate their ideas to quite
practical matters, such as good rule, the economic and military
strength of a state, or social harmony. Wolfgang Bauer has described
this process as “the fading of gods and ghosts.” In Shang divination,
direct questions were asked and answers obtained, with both heaven
and godlike ancestors assuming human shape. By the time of
Confucius and even more by the late Warring States period when
philosophical debate was most intense, heaven had become a distant
and abstract cosmic power. Direct communication was no longer
thinkable.53
Other thinkers were more radical than Confucius and developed very
different philosophies. Despite all difference and debate, however,
they shared the primary concern of living this life right. Could this be
the fundamental attitude that makes them so attractive to us today?
The classical Chinese thinkers lived in a “multi-cultural” world, so do
we. And as we have gradually accepted other religions and
worldviews, religious belief seems to fade into rather abstract ideas
of the numinous, while to many of us our own religious tradition has
become a nostalgic ritual, lovable and helpful when we need solace,
but no longer filled with belief.

52
Lunyu 11:11. Transl. By D.C. Lau as Confucius: The Analects (London: Penguin, 1979), p. 107.
53
Bauer, Wolfgang (1995). “Gläubigkeit und Rationalität; Über das Verblassen von Göttern und
Geistern in der zweiten Hälfte des 1. vorchristlichen Jahrtausends.” In Das Alte China: Menschen und
Götter im Reich der Mitte, 5000 v. Chr.-220 n. Chr. Essen: Kulturstiftung Ruhr.
Changing burial rituals and the distance of the sphere of the dead

A change in burial customs reflects a somewhat comparable change

in the worlds of the living and the dead. In the period, mingqi 冥器
spirit articles appear with increasing frequency in graves. These were
artfully made pottery replicas of bronze vessels and other objects
with subtle modifications. These objects were fired at a much lower
temperature than ceramics for real use and obviously were unusable
in the world of the living.54
On Mingqi, see http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mgqi/hd_mgqi.htm

The Liji (Book of Rites) states explicitly:

[The grave articles made of] bamboo should not be suited for
actual use; those of earthenware should not be able to contain
water; those of wood should not be finely carved; the zithers
should be strung, but not evenly; the mouth organs should be

54
Wu Hung, “Art and Architecture,” 727-740
 prepared, but not in tune; the bells and chimestones should be
there, but have no stands.55
Interestingly, too, the spreading of mingqi from the 5th to the 3rd
centuries BC go together with a general decline in human sacrifices
accompanying burials. It would appear that the worlds of the living
and the dead were moving apart, each accorded their own sphere
with direct links fading.
Conclusion
Let us return to the question asked before we turned to the Eastern
Zhou period: What happened to the Zhou in the 9th century BC? We
still cannot provide a straightforward answer. The best guess seems
to be that the Zhou did indeed set up a both larger and tighter
network than the Shang had ever attempted to. As a result, greater
integration and cultural exchange brought the Shang system of ritual
and religion down. It was unsuitable for dominating other systems or
perhaps had been adhered to by only a small elite within the Zhou
from the start, and so it quickly disintegrated, leaving the stage open
for the great ferment of the subsequent Eastern Zhou period.
The Spring and Autumn and the Warring State periods constitute the
classical age of China. Yet they are highly exceptional, both
worryingly instable in the eyes of men at the time and unusual when
compared to later history: It was a period of disunity with, although
some ideal of a unified dynasty was preserved, no realistic prospect
of realization up to the 230s. Due to the political disunity, it was also
perhaps the only period in Chinese history without ideological
control.
Why, then, did it end in war and a terrible loss of life? We may
picture the late Warring States not so different from Europe of the
14th century: Gradual and sustained development despite frequent
wars had led to the cultivation of all land accessible with the
technologies of the time, to a population densities and resource
depletion that could easily become critical. In the case of Europe, the
crusades and Black Death tipped the balance, killing a third of the
population and changing the face of the continent. In China, it
appears that the intensifying wars and the megalomaniac Qin
projects ravaged the land.

Further reading:
Hansen, Valerie (2000), “The Age of the Warrior and the Thinker.” In The open Empire: A History of
China to 1600. Chapter 2. New York: Norton.
For a picture of individuals and philosophical thought.
Gernet (1972). Le monde chinois, chapters 2 and 3. Paris: Colin.
For an overview of political and social history.

55
Liji, 8, translated by Legge, Li Chi, vol. 1, p. 148, quoted from Wu Hung, “Art and Architecture,”
732f.
Ebrey, Paricia B. ed. (1993). Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. Chapters 5 “The Battle between Jin
and Chu,” 6 “Confucian Teachings, “7: “Daoist Teachings,” 8: “Legalist Teachings,” 9: “Two
Avengers.” 2nd rev. ed. New York: The Free Press.
Festines, rituals y ceremonias: Bonces archaidos del Museodo Shanghai. Barcelona: Museu Nacional
d’Art de Catalunya, 2004. Exhibition catalogue.
or
Rawson, Jessica, ed. (1996). Mysteries of Ancient China: New Discoveries from the Early Dynasties.
London: British Museum Press.
for a richly illustrated analysis of artefacts, art and society
Hung, Wu (1999). “The Art and Architecture of the Warring States Period.” In CHAC, pp. 651-744.
For much insight in life and worldviews
Di Cosmo, Nicola (1999). “The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China.” In CHAC, pp. 885-966.
For a different and stimulating perspective on the steppe peoples and their relations to China

For the seriously interested, the relevant chapters in the Cambridge History of Ancient China provide
thorough and detailed introductions to many issues of Zhou archaeology and history:
Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1999). “Western Zhou History.” In CHAC (pp. 292-351).
Rawson, Jessica (1999). “Western Zhou Archaeology.” In CHAC (pp. 352-449).
Falkenhausen, Lothar von (1999). “The Waning of the Bronze Age: Material Culture and Social
Developments, 770-481 B.C.” In CHAC (pp. 450-544).
Hsu; Cho-yun (1999). “The Spring and Autumn period.” In CHAC (pp. 545-586).
Lewis, Mark E. (1999). “Warring States: Political History.” In CHAC (pp. 587-650).
Nivison, David S. (1999). “The Classical Philosophical Writings.” In CHAC (pp. 745-812).
Harper, Donald (1999). “Warring States Natural Philosophy and Occult Thought.” In CHAC (pp. 813-
884).