Page 60 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

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The Period of the
Warring States

A map of China in the sixth century b.c. would show a tiny and
impotent state of Chou, somewhat like modern Canberra, sur-
rounded by powerful principalities constantly forming and break-
ing alliances and attacking each other, condescending to consult
the royal house only on matters of legitimacy and inheritance. In
the north, Chin kept the desert hordes at bay until it was destroyed
in 403 and parcelled out among the three states of Chao, Han, and
Wei: at one time these three states formed an alliance with Yen and
Ch'i in the northeast against the power of the semi-barbarian
Ch'in, now looming dangerously on the western horizon. The
smaller states of Sung and Lu, which occupied the lower Yellow
River Valley, were not militarily powerful, though they are fa-
mous in Chinese history as the home of the great philosophers. In
the region of modern Kiangsu and Chekiang, Wu and Yueh were
emerging into the full light of Chinese culture, while a huge area
of central China was under the domination of the southward-
looking and only partly Sinicised state of Ch'u. Gradually Ch'u
and Ch'in grew stronger. In 473, Wu fell to Yueh, then Yiieh to
Ch'u. Ch'in was even more successful. In 256 she obliterated the
pathetic remnant of the great state of Chou; thirty-three years
later she defeated her great rival Ch'u, simultaneously turning on
the remaining states of Wei, Chao, and Yen. In 221 B.C. she de-
feated Ch'i, and all China lay prostrate at her feet.
As often happens in history, these centuries of ever-increasing
political chaos were accompanied by social and economic reform,
intellectual ferment, and great achivement in the arts. Iron tools
and weapons were coming into use. Now for the first time private
individuals could own land, and trade was developing, much
aided by the invention of currency—bronze "spade" money in
central China, knife-shaped coins in the north and east. This was
the age of the Hundred Schools, when roving philosophers
known as Shui-k'e ("persuading guests") offered their council to
any ruler who would listen to them. The most enlightened pa-
tronage was that offered by King Hsuan of Ch'i, who welcomed
brilliant scholars and philosophers of every school to his court.
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