Dong Zhou War and the Birth of Confucian and Legalist States

Author: Zhao Dingxin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The various characteristics of imperial China all originated in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. At the beginning of this period, China was still under the rule of hundreds of feudal vassal states nominally subject to the Zhou King; by the end of the period, China had developed into a unified empire, and the characteristics of imperial China that this book focuses on had begun to take shape. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, China made a series of breakthroughs in fields such as philosophy, economy, and military. First, the nature of war underwent a fundamental transformation. From the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period, small-scale localized wars evolved into large-scale, long-distance wars involving vast armies that lasted for months or even years. Professional soldiers and military strategists (the "military strategists" in the Hundred Schools of Thought) gradually rose, and military logistics and other military technologies made significant advancements. Second, the philosophical field saw the "Hundred Schools of Thought Contending" scenario emerge, where various schools of thought later known as Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism, and Mohism competed to propose solutions for societal issues, covering everything from family ethics to national and social systems. The philosophical and religious foundation of Chinese culture was thus laid. Finally, the economic field underwent profound changes. Iron tools were widely adopted in agricultural production, land privatization gradually expanded, agricultural productivity rapidly increased, and a series of large cities appeared, with the importance of handicrafts and commerce growing day by day. Many scholars (such as Creel, 1970; Hsu, 1965; Weber, 1951) have noted the similarities in social evolution between China's Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and medieval Europe. However, in Europe, these similar social evolutions led to the emergence of industrial capitalism, nation-states, and representative governments, whereas after the unification of the Qin state and throughout the entire Western Han period, China gradually formed a Confucian-Legalist state where political power and ideological power were combined, military power was subordinate to political power, and economic power was marginalized in social and political life. The term "political power and ideological power combined" refers to the close interdependence between the government and the Confucian scholars: on one hand, the court elevated Confucianism as the official orthodox ideology, and the court's power was, to some extent, supervised and controlled by the bureaucratic system led by Confucian scholars. On the other hand, the Confucian scholar group not only provided strong support to the imperial regime but also continuously supplied administrative talent to the imperial bureaucratic system through various selection and recruitment methods. The term "Confucian-Legalist state" here refers to a state model that gradually emerged during the Western Han period, which used imperial Confucianism (imperial Confucianism) as the official ruling ideology and legitimacy foundation while employing Legalist methods to manage the state substantively. The aforementioned characteristics of imperial China are all to varying degrees related to the unique combination of the four sources of social power—ideology, military, political, and economic—proposed by Michael Mann (Mann, 1986, 1993). In summary, it can be said that the social development during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods set the direction for the evolution of China's political history in the future. P6-7