EASTERN ZHOU CHINA

Innovations in Thought

Out of this extreme political and social turmoil came new visions that were to dominate Chinese thinking about the individual’s place in society and provide the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings for the creation of the world’s longest-lasting imperial system (lasting from the establishment of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE until the abdication of China’s last monarch in 1912). Often it was the losers among the political elites, seeking to replace their former advantages with status gained through new types of service, who sparked this intellectual creativity. Important teachers emerged in China’s Axial Age, each with disciples. The philosophies of these “hundred masters,” a term mostly used at the time by itinerant scholars, constituted what came to be known as the Hundred Schools of Thought. Among the most influential were Confucianism and Daoism.

CONFUCIUS Han dynasty accounts show Confucius (551-479 BCE) to be very much the product of the violent Spring and Autumn period during which he lived. Born in the state of Lu at a time when Zhou power was crumbling, and at first a mere hanger-on at court, he looked back to earlier days of the Zhou dynasty for moral and political inspiration. Believing that the Zhou dynasty’s founders had established ideals of good government and principled action, but seeing only division and war among rival states, he set out in search of an enlightened ruler.

Confucius’s teachings stemmed foremost from his belief that human beings behave ethically, not to save their souls or gain a place in heaven as philosophers and priests elsewhere believed, but because it is in their human makeup to do so. Humanity’s natural tendencies, if left alone, produce harmonious existence. Confucius saw the family, and notably filial piety (the duty of children to parents), as the foundation of proper ethical action, including loyalty to the state and rulers. His idea of modeling the state on the patriarchal family—that is, the ruler respecting heaven as if it were his father and protecting his subjects as if they were his children—became a bedrock principle of his thinking and the foundation of mainstream Chinese political thought.

Although Confucius regarded himself purely as a transmitter of ancient wisdom, later followers claimed that he had enunciated the major guidelines for Chinese thought and action. The first of his guidelines was respect for the pronouncements of scholar-teachers—persons of learning like himself. The second was a commitment to a broad education—one that befits a strong but benevolent state. The third was an insistence on providing training for all who are highly intelligent and willing to work, whether noble or humble in birth. This equal access to training for those willing and able offered a dramatic departure from earlier centuries, when only nobles were believed capable of ruling. Nonetheless, Confucius’s distinctions between gentlemen-rulers and commoners continued to support a social hierarchy, although an individual’s position in that hierarchy would ideally now rest on education rather than on birth.

Confucius’s ethical teachings were preserved by his followers in a collection known as The Analects. These texts record Confucius’s conversations with his students. In seeking to reclaim the lost ideals of the early Zhou, Confucius proposed a moral framework stressing correct performance of ritual (li) based on practices from an earlier, more enlightened age; benevolence (ren); responsibility and loyalty to the family (xiao); and perfection of moral character to become a “superior man” (junzi)—that is, a man defined by benevolence and goodness rather than by the pursuit of profit. A society of such superior men would not need coercive laws and punishment to achieve order.

Confucius ultimately left court in 484 BCE, discouraged by the continuing state of warfare, and he died five years later. His transformational ideology remained, however, and has shaped Chinese society for millennia, both through its followers and through those who adopted traditions that developed as a distinct counterpoint to Confucian engagement.

CURRENT TRENDS IN WORLD HISTORY

What Makes an “Axial Age”?

In the mid-twentieth century, the German philosopher Karl Jaspers invented the term “Axial Age” to describe the importance of ideas that originated in the first millennium BCE. These thinkers and their ideas are characterized as “axial” because (1) they were a pivot point, or axis, that seemed to turn the world in a new direction, (2) they occurred along an east-west axis stretching from the Mediterranean to East Asia, and (3) they are central to ethical thought even down to the present day. These Axial Age philosophers were both the product of, and a challenge to, the societies from which they came. Each was responding to a context of economic growth and political infighting. Although the specific socioeconomic and political contexts that spurred them to develop their new ideas were unique—the stratifications of varna in South Asia for the Buddha, the warfare of the late Spring and Autumn period in China for Confucius, and the civil war among Greek city-states for Socrates—across the board these new thinkers critiqued and offered alternatives to the status quo.

Ideas about the Axial Age have come a long way since Jaspers. World historians today have a better understanding of how connectedness may have affected the development of these ideas. Where Jaspers saw a relatively disconnected world and marveled at the similarities among the independently proposed ideas, scholars today recognize that exchange between the Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, and South Asia predated these thinkers by almost 2,000 years and may have even had an impact on these developments. Scholars have refined the definition of what makes a tradition axial. For instance, Shmuel Eisenstadt has remarked that the axial philosophers were a sort of intellectual elite who, in a self-examining way, helped negotiate between what he refers to as an “otherworldly” and “worldly” order. David Christian, the historian known for his work with “Big History,” has noted the relationship between large, connected empires and these universal philosophical ideas, with their “universal truths and . . . all-powerful gods”; he has even interpreted the spread of these similar ideas as evidence of the connections across Afro-Eurasia. Others have also begun to reflect more critically on the limitations of Axial Age thought as an organizing concept. For instance, although the tenets of Axial Age philosophers were accessible and applicable to urban-living elite men, historians such as Karen Armstrong raise the question of whether they also applied to women, nonelites, and those living in rural contexts. Other scholars, of whom Iain Provan is the most recent and vocal, raise concerns about generalizing across very different cultures and not giving enough attention to the unique political situation of each region. Some have challenged outright the concept of the Axial Age, arguing that it is merely a modern, oversimplifying construct that is in no way useful for interpreting the complex philosophical developments of the first millennium BCE.

Even with the modern tweaks and strong critiques of his theory, it is hard to disagree with Jaspers that these mid-first-millennium BCE thinkers, such as Confucius, the Buddha, and Socrates, offered transformational ideas that are still with us today. The axial traditions offer surprisingly similar moral codes that address issues such as the nature of wisdom and divine justice, the need for kindness, and the value of following the “Golden Rule.”

Sources: Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (New York: Knopf, 2006), pp. xxi–xxii; Robert N. Bellah, “What Is Axial about the Axial Age?” European Journal of Sociology 46, no. 1 (2005): 69–89; David Christian, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 319; S. N. Eisenstadt (ed.), The Origins and Diversity of the Axial Age (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986); Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History, translated by Michael Bullock (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1953); Iain Provan, Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World That Never Was (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2013).

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

• Based on your reading of this chapter, what connections, if any, can be made between the geopolitical situation of a society and the Axial Age philosophy that sprang from that region? In what ways did each philosopher support or challenge the status quo?
• Karl Jaspers was particularly impressed that societies he understood as being disconnected from one another could develop philosophical ideas that were so similar. How might connections with other regions, or the lack thereof, have affected the development of these ideas? What might account for similarities and differences in these Axial Age philosophies?
• How useful, or not, do you find the concept of the Axial Age for thinking about global developments in the first millennium BCE? What are some arguments for and against using such a term/concept?

Explore Further

• Armstrong, Karen, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (2006).
• Bellah, Robert N., “What Is Axial about the Axial Age?” European Journal of Sociology 46, no. 1 (2005): 69–89.
• Eisenstadt, S. N. (ed.), The Origins and Diversity of the Axial Age (1986).
• Jaspers, Karl, The Origin and Goal of History, translated by Michael Bullock (1953).
• Provan, Iain, Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World That Never Was (2013).

MO DI One competing school of thought, later called Mohism, derived from the alleged teachings of Mozi, also known as Mo Di (c. 479–381 BCE). Recent studies have suggested that as a craftsman-builder he became for a time an articulate exponent of China’s lower and middling classes. Extolling hard work and spurning what he regarded as distracting diversions such as music and philosophical ruminations, he favored a simple life and called on his followers to engage in useful and profitable occupations. He believed that each man should feel obligated to all other people, not just to his own family and friends. He emphasized practical concerns of good government: promoting social order, ensuring material benefits for its people, and supporting population growth. He opposed wars of conquest, arguing that they wasted life and resources and interfered with productivity and the fair distribution of wealth, but he recognized the need for strong urban defenses to keep out marauders. For at least two centuries, his utilitarian philosophy found many enthusiastic followers, and although his school of thought was soon superseded, his views of practical statecraft and efficient government remained a part of the classical canon, along with Legalism, or Statism, which emerged as the dominant credo of the Qin Empire (discussed in Chapter 7).

LAOZI AND ZHUANGZI Another key philosophy was Daoism, which diverged sharply from that of Confucius and his followers by scorning rigid rituals and social hierarchies. Its ideas originated with a Master Lao (Laozi, “Old Master”), who—if he actually existed—may have been a contemporary of Confucius. His sayings were collected in The Daodejing, or The Book of the Way and Its Power (c. third century BCE), which in time became the subject of more commentaries and more translations than any other Chinese work. Master Lao’s book was then elaborated by Master Zhuang (Zhuangzi, c. 369–286 BCE). Daoism stressed that the best path for living was to follow the natural order of things. Its main principle was wuwei, “doing nothing. Spontaneity, noninterference, and acceptance of the world as it is, rather than attempting to change it through politics and government, were what mattered. Master Lao is credited with saying, “The Sage, when he governs, empties [people’s] minds and fills their bellies. . . . His constant object is to keep the people without knowledge and without desire, or to prevent those who have knowledge from daring to act” (The Sayings of Lao Tzu, p. 37). In Laozi’s vision, then, the ruler who interferes least in the natural processes of change is the most successful. Zhuangzi focused on the enlightened individual living spontaneously and in harmony with nature, free of society’s ethical rules and laws and viewing life and death simply as different stages of existence.

THE GLOBAL VIEW

MAP 5.1 | The World, c. 500 BCE

By the middle of the first millennium BCE, complex agriculture-based societies beyond the regional empires of Southwest Asia, North Africa, and East Asia contributed to the flowering of new cultural pathways and ideas that reshaped the old empires and territorial states into what we might call second-generation societies.

• According to your reading, where did these second-generation societies appear? What had been located there before?
• Examining the map, how are these second-generation societies influenced by peoples on their margins?
• Which states are in regions closely connected to others? Which appear to be geographically isolated? How might proximity to others or relative isolation have shaped these societies’ development?

XUNZI AND HAN FEI Legalism, or Statism, another view of how best to create an orderly life, grew out of the writings of Master Xun (Xunzi, 310–237 BCE) toward the end of the Warring States period. He believed that men and women are innately bad and therefore require moral education and authoritarian control. In the decades before the Qin victory over the Zhou, the Legalist thinker Han Fei (280–233 BCE) agreed that human nature is primarily evil. He imagined a state with a ruler who followed the Daoist principle of wuwei, detaching himself from everyday governance—but only after setting an unbending standard (strict laws, accompanied by harsh punishments) for judging his officials and people. For Han Fei, the establishment and uniform application of these laws would keep people’s evil nature in check. As we will see in Chapter 7, the Qin state, before it became the dominant state in China, systematically followed the Legalist philosophy.

SCHOLARS AND THE STATE What emerged from all this activity was a foundational alliance of scholars and the state that ultimately became a vital feature of Chinese society through many centuries. Scholars became state functionaries dependent on the rulers’ patronage. In return, rulers recognized the scholars’ expertise in matters of punishment, ritual, astronomy, medicine, and divination. Philosophical deliberations focused on the need to maintain order and stability by preserving the state. (The bonds that rulers forged with their scholarly elites distinguished governments in Warring States China from the other Afro-Eurasian political systems at this time.)

The growing importance of statecraft and philosophical discourse promoted the use of writing. In fact, even though the Chinese script was not standardized until 221 BCE, its use in the philosophical debates raging across states and regions helped foster cultural unity at a time of intellectual diversity. As scholar-diplomats and scribes debated the best methods for creating stable and harmonious societies, some 9,000 to 10,000 graphs or signs became required for writing. The elevated influence that scholar-bureaucrats enjoyed in these debates set China apart from other societies of this period. The ideas of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism provided them with a rationale for their crucial role in empire building.

Innovations in State Administration

Regional rulers of the Spring and Autumn period enhanced their ability to obtain natural resources, to recruit men for their armies, and to oversee conquered areas. This trend continued in the Warring States period, as elites in the major states created administrative districts with stewards, sheriffs, and judges and a system of registering peasant households to facilitate tax collection and army conscription. The officials were drawn from the shi, who under the Western Zhou had been knights but were now bureaucrats in direct service to the ruler. These administrators were the “superior men” (junzi) of Confucian thought. They were paid in grain and sometimes received gifts of gold and silver, as well as titles and seals of office, from the ruler. Of all the ministers who sought to enhance the central government, none was more successful than the Qin statesman Shang Yang (fourth century BCE). Lord Shang’s reforms included a head tax, administrative districts for closer bureaucratic control of hinterlands, land distribution for individual households to farm, reward or punishment for military achievement or lack thereof, and a harsh penal code that applied equally to government officials and peasants.

Innovations in Warfare

Along with administrative reform came reforms in military recruitment and warfare. In earlier periods, nobles had let fly their arrows from chariots while conscripted peasants fought beside them on the bloodstained ground. Now the Warring States relied on massed infantries of peasants bearing iron lances who fought fiercely and to the death, unconstrained by their relationships with nobles. War now involved huge state armies containing as many as 1 million commoners in the infantry, supported by 1,000 chariots and 10,000 bow-wielding cavalrymen. During the Spring and Autumn period, one state’s entire army would face another state’s; by the time of the Warring States period (403–221 BCE), armies could divide into separate forces and wage several battles simultaneously.

Armies also boasted elite professional troops wearing heavy iron armor and helmets, brandishing iron weapons, and wielding the recently invented crossbow. The crossbow’s tremendous power, range, and accuracy, with its ingenious trigger mechanism, enabled archers to easily kill lightly armored cavalrymen or charioteers at a distance. The technology of siege warfare also advanced in response to the growing presence of defensive walls along frontiers and around towns. Enemy armies used counterweighted siege ladders (the Chinese called them “cloud ladders”) to scale urban walls or dug tunnels under the walls; defenders often pumped smoke into the tunnels to thwart the attackers. The rhythms of warfare also changed. Rather than lasting through an agricultural season, campaigns now stretched over a year or longer.

Economic, Social, and Cultural Changes

Rather than depressing the economy, incessant warfare spurred China’s economic growth to remarkable heights. The agricultural revolution on the North China plain along the Yellow River led to rapid population growth, and the inhabitants of the Eastern Zhou reached approximately 20 million. Demographic changes also affected the environment. As more people required more fuel, deforestation—particularly on the North China plain—led to erosion of the fields. In addition, many animals were hunted to extinction; others, like the elephant, found their open range sharply curtailed. Many inhabitants migrated south to domesticate the marshes, lakes, and rivers of the Yangzi River delta; here they created new arable frontiers, thus averting the ecological disaster that swept through northern China.

Eventually, such population pressures on arable land initiated a vicious and tragic economic cycle for Chinese peasants. The shortage of cultivable land eventually pushed agricultural technology, based largely on peasant manual labor, to its limits. Even though, during the late Zhou, peasants produced more rice and wheat than anyone else on earth, they also created families with an unprecedented number of mouths to feed. Peasants’ standard of living declined even while farmers opened new frontiers by draining wetlands. When these frontiers reached their limits, Chinese families faced terrible food shortages and famines.

Commoners and elites alike tried to restore stability in their lives through religion, medicine, and statecraft. The elites’ rites of divination to predict the future and medical recipes to heal the body found parallels in the commoners’ use of ghost stories and astrological almanacs to understand the meaning of their lives and the significance of their deaths.

In the short term, economic changes began when peasants gained the right to own their land in exchange for taxes and military service. As their productivity increased along with advances in agricultural technology and bronze and metal casting, trade in surplus grain, pottery, and ritual objects gave rise to an early market economy. Peasants continued to barter, but elites and rulers used minted coins. At the same time, social relations became more fluid as commoners gained power and aristocrats lost it, but gender relations became more rigid. Along with male domination within the family, relations between the sexes became increasingly constrained by sanctions against any behavior that appeared to threaten the purity of authoritarian male lineages.

Even with the endless cycles of warfare and chaos—or perhaps because of them—many foundational beliefs, values, and philosophies for later dynasties sprang forth during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. By the middle of the first millennium BCE, China’s political activities and innovations were affecting larger numbers of people, spread over a much broader area, than comparable developments in South Asia and the Mediterranean.