The Chinese people are proud of their long history.
About 5,000 years ago, Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, accord-
ing to legend, ruled part of the Yellow River valley. He and another
leader, Yandi, or the Fiery Emperor, made great contributions to
the progress of civilization. Huangdi is said to have invented the cart,
the boat, the clothes, the script and the medicine, and Yandi to have
taught people how to turn the soil with a plow. Today, Chinese all
over the world regard them as their earliest ancestors, calling them-
selves "Yan-Huang's descendants."
Many, many years after them, Yao, Shun and Yu led the peo-
ple one after another. Yu was popular and prestigious, for legend has
it that he had tamed the flooding rivers by channelling their waters
into the sea. Upon his death, Yu was succeeded by his son Qi. Thus
the first dyansty in Chinese history was founded. It was called the
Xia. This event marked the change from primitive society, where
there was no family, private property, or class distinction, to a class
society based on the family and private ownership.
The Xia, which lasted about 400 years, was overthrown by
Shang, a state in the east. The Shang dynasty was to rule the middle
and lower reaches of the Yellow River for about 500 years before it
was replaced by the Zhou.
It should be noted that Chinese history before the Xia dynasty,
though recorded in several ancient classics, is mainly legendary. So
far no material evidence has been discovered to prove that Huangdi,
Yao, Shun, Yu and the Xia dynasty really existed. However, the
existence of the Shang has been proved by the oracle bones and other
things unearthed in Anyang County, Henan Province, about a centu-
ry ago. According to recent research, the Xia was founded in about
2070 BC, and the Shang in about 1600 BC.
The Shang rulers were superstitious. Before they made an im-
portant decision, they would ask their court diviner to discover if the
occasion was favourable. He would take an ox bone or a tortoise
shell, drill a hole in it, and put it over a fire until cracks developed.
Then he would study the cracks, from which he could foretell
whether the action considered would have good or bad results. Both
the conclusion he drew from the cracks and the real result of the ac-
tion, if it was performed, would be recorded in a few words on the
bone or Shell. In this way the Shang diviners wrote faithful accounts
of many important events of their time.
Over the years about 100,000 pieces of oracle bones have been
discovered and collected in Anyang. The place was certainly one of
the capitals, probably the last one, of the Shang, which moved its
capital several times. Over 3,000 different words have been found on
those bones, indicating that written Chinese was already highly de-
veloped more than 3,000 years ago.
The Shang ruled over a slave society. Slaves, most of whom had
been captured in battles with other states or tribes, were forced to till
the land and do household work for their masters. What was more
tragic was that slaves might be killed as sacrifices to the gods and
their master's ancestors, and might even be buried alive to accompa-
ny their master when he died.
During the llth century BC, probably in 1066 BC, the Shang
dynasty was conquered by Zhou, a state in the Wei River valley in
present-day $hannxi Province. King Wen of Zhou had made his state
strong and planned the conquest. A few years after his death, his
son, King Wu, led an army in an attack on the $hang capital and
quickly defeated the Shang troops. King Wu became the first king of
the new Zhou dynasty.
When King Wu died, his son was still too young to rule the
country, so for several years state affairs were directed by King Wu's
younger brother, the Duke of Zhou. The political and social systems
of the new dynasty were mainly designed by these three founders:
King Wen, King Wu and the Duke of Zhou.
They established a feudal fief system. The whole country was
divided into a number of areas, each of which was assigned to a mem-
ber of the royal family or a noble related by marriage to the rulers, or
to the chief of a small state that had been loyal to the Zhou. Not only
land, but the people on it, were given to such a man and became his
and his descendants' property. This man subdivided his fid into sev-
eral areas and gave them to members of his family and their descen-
dants. These in turn gave land and people to those under them. It is
said that altogether there were ten classes in this system, each class
having to pay tribute and offer military and other services to the one
above.
At the top of this social ladder was the king, the master of all,
people and land alike. At the bottom was the set/, bound to the
land. He had to work his lord's land before attending to his own
small field, and was not allowed to move out of his lord's fief. When
there was a war, he had to go and fight. When his lord needed a
woman, his wife or daughter might be taken away. In short, his lot
was like that of a slave, but was a little better, for he had a small
piece of land, a home and a family, and some tools.
The Zhou rulers used two means to maintain law and order: se-
vere punishments to keep the serfs and common people obedient, and
rites to adjust relations among the nobles. The rites were rules of be-
havior and conduct, regulations of ceremonies and social institutions.
The basic principle was that the ri~sshouldr never apply to the com-
mon people and punishments should never apply to the nobles.
These systems and institutions suited the social conditions very
well and the Zhou enjoyed peace and stabilility for about 300 years.
Then in 771 BC natural calamities, internal struggle in the court and
attacks by border tribes brought Zhou rule to the brink of collapse. In
the following year the capital had to be moved from Haojing in the
west to Luoyi, now Luoyang, to its east. From then on the dynasty
was called the Eastern Zhou, and the period from 1066 to 771 BC the
Western Zhou.
The history of the Eastern Zhou was divided into two periods.
The first 300 years, 770- 476 BC, was called the Spring and Au-
tumn Period, because all the important events of this period were
recorded in a historical work called The Spring and Autumn An-
nals. The period from 475 to 221 BC was called the Warring States
Period, because there were continual wars among the states. The dy-
nasty was finally brought to an end in 256 BC, and 35 years later, in
221 BC, China was unified by the Qin dynasty.
During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, the
king was the ruler and master of the country in name only. He was
weak in every way and unable to control the nobles who had large
fiefs. The area under his direct rule was becoming smaller and smaller
as a result of invasions by nobles who were no longer loyal to him.
Powerful states often tried to occupy the land of weaker ones, and
they fought each other to increase their influence. As wars went on,
the number of states was reduced from over 1,000 during the West-
em Zhou to about 100 during the Spring and Autumn Period, and to
about 20 at the beginning of the Warring States Period.
There were great social changes too. The increasing use of iron
tools helped to develop agriculture. Landowners came to realize that
they could get more from their land than the old serf system if it was
turned into plots and rented to their serfs. Gradually their "common
fields"--fields formerly tilled by their serfs without pay---became pri-
vate fields leased out to their serfs for rent. Thus serf-owners became
in effect landowners and serfs became tenants, who showed greater
interest in production and enjoyed greater independence and freedom
than they had as serfs.
Along with this development of agriculture, handicrafts and
commerce also grew, and there appeared a new merchant class.
Many merchants were rich enough to visit and bribe princes and
dukes.
Another group of people, scholars, also developed. These came
from different classes. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, what
learning there was had been monopolized by the nobles; they alone
could use the books and documents stored by the government, and
other people could not share this right. The great political and social
changes during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods
broke the monopoly of learning by the nobles. At all levels of soci-
ety-declining nobles, new landlords, free citizens, even poor peo-
ple-there were people who made an effort to study and turn them-
selves into scholars. When rulers of states wanted wise advice that
would help them to make their states rich and strong, they turned to
scholars for such help and often put them into important positions.
The Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods were thus a
time of change. States expanded or were conquered. The old systems
and institutions established in the Western Zhou were no longer ob-
served. The rites and original social order were broken. Old beliefs
collapsed and new ideas spread. This turbulent situation urged schol-
ars of the day to think of ways to bring about peace and stability, or
to make a state rich and strong. Some of them went a step further to
study fundamental principles of the universe and human life. There-
fore these two periods, especially the Warring States Period, saw the
rise of many different schools of philosophy. It was a period when, as
people often say, a hundred schools of thought contended.
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