No General Descriptions provided.
| Present |
| inferred Present |
| inferred Present |
| inferred Present |
| inferred Present |
| inferred Present |
| inferred Present |
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| Year Range | Eastern Zhou (cn_eastern_zhou_warring_states) was in: |
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Inferred from contemporary polities.
pre-reforms (fifth c bce):
1. Capital city
2. town 3. feudal estates (?) 4. village
post-reforms (fifth c bce):
1. Capital city
2. Commandery capital 3. County 4. town 5. village
Inferred from contemporary polities.
1. ruler2. chief officials (e.g. commandant)/Councilors; also in many states were elite troops under direct command of ruler
[1]
3. [Commandery Protector]NB: not sure if the Protectors were superior to the generals or on the same level (DH)
3. generals (jiang or jiang jun)4.“specialized officer corps”
[2]
5. Individual soldier
[1]: (Lewis 1999b, 621)
[2]: (Lewis 1999b, 631)
Inferred from contemporary polities.
1. Ruler
_Central government_
2. Prime Minister "The most important codification of Chinese law is the Fa jing (Canon of Law), compiled during the Warring States period by the prime minister of the Wei state Li Kui (455-395 B.C.)" [Fu 1993, p. 108] 3. Chancellor, Secretaries, etc Court officials (Chancellor, Secretaries, etc) [Feng 2013, p. 194] 4. Assistants / Secretaries / scribes
4. Manager of state-run iron/bronze foundry inferred level 5. Worker in state-run iron/bronze foundry inferred level
_Provincial government_
2. jun (commanderies) Provincial / commandery governors; military generals [Feng 2013, p. 194] "At the onset of the Warring States period, Wei reorganized the whole guo - core as well as conquered territories - into a two-tier structure of jun (commanderies) and xian (which evolved from dependent districts to counties). As the jun and xian became standard administrative units in the Warring States period, strategists could evaluate the relative capabilities of various states in terms of their numbers of jun and xian." [Hui 2005, p. 98] 3. xian (counties)
4. town heads
5. village-level chiefs
"Although most soldiers were drafted peasants, it became common to select and train elite corps of crack troops." [Ebrey_Walthall 2013, p. 23]
Generals existed in contemporary polities: "Wu Qi, a military general who arrived [in Chu] from Wei in 390 BC...." [Hui 2005]
How were officials paid? The administrative system was advanced and there was an itinerant class of officials, Shi, who were able to hawk their services to different rulers over the course of their careers. One must infer they were paid in a form of wealth that was moveable with them.
"Yan 2002: 30 has shown very convincingly that even during the late Warring States period and in the state of Qin, where the bureaucratization process went furthest, the privileges and gifts that each rank of officials could get were still of much greater value than the salaries attached to the official duties." [Zhao_Scheidel 2015]
"Around 445 BC, Wei started the new wave of self-strengthening reforms ... In conventional accounts, Wu Qi, a military general who arrived [in Chu] from Wei in 390 BC, introduced a self-strengthening program to eradicate the entrenched nobility and establish meritocracy. The reforms were so comprehensive that Wu Qi was much hated by the aristocrats. When the king died in 381 BC, Wu Qi was killed and the reforms were abandoned." [Hui 2005]
"Around 445 BC, Wei started the new wave of self-strengthening reforms by systematizing preexisting practices and introducing innovative institutions." [Hui 2005, p. 85] "In short, during Qin's early ascendance, all other great powers introduced various elements of self-strengthening reforms such as the mass army, national taxation, household registration, and hierarchical administration." [Hui 2005, p. 86]
"Before the Northern Sung, the principal means of entry into the social and political elite was by official recommendation or kinship relations." [Elman 2000, p. 5]
Unknown.
"The Legalists were the chief proponents of the use of a penal code to control the people. During the Warring States period, the sovereigns of the various states had little use for morals and rites. They were more concerned with building strong states, strengthening their armies, and enlarging their territories. This can only be realized by being able to keep a submissive people. The Legalists proved more useful for their political aspirations, as they exerted a major influence on Chinese traditional law and legal institutions, which were set up under their direction." [Fu 1993, p. 107]
"The Legalists were the chief proponents of the use of a penal code to control the people. During the Warring States period, the sovereigns of the various states had little use for morals and rites. They were more concerned with building strong states, strengthening their armies, and enlarging their territories. This can only be realized by being able to keep a submissive people. The Legalists proved more useful for their political aspirations, as they exerted a major influence on Chinese traditional law and legal institutions, which were set up under their direction." [Fu 1993, p. 107]
"The most important codification of Chinese law is the Fa jing (Canon of Law), compiled during the Warring States period by the prime minister of the Wei state Li Kui (455-395 B.C.), who may be called the real founder of the Legalist school ... The compilation of Fa jing was based on the then current laws of the various states and became the prototype of later Chinese imperial codes ... All the legal codes of imperial dynasties, from the Qin code to the Qing code, can be traced to Fa jing. ... There were always minor changes but the basic legal structure remained intact. Even the laws proclaimed during periods of alien rule, like the Mongolian Yuan dynasty and the Manchu Qing dynasty, were no exception." [Fu 1993, p. 108] "The Legalists were the chief proponents of the use of a penal code to control the people. During the Warring States period, the sovereigns of the various states had little use for morals and rites. They were more concerned with building strong states, strengthening their armies, and enlarging their territories. This can only be realized by being able to keep a submissive people. The Legalists proved more useful for their political aspirations, as they exerted a major influence on Chinese traditional law and legal institutions, which were set up under their direction." [Fu 1993, p. 107]
"The Legalists were the chief proponents of the use of a penal code to control the people. During the Warring States period, the sovereigns of the various states had little use for morals and rites. They were more concerned with building strong states, strengthening their armies, and enlarging their territories. This can only be realized by being able to keep a submissive people. The Legalists proved more useful for their political aspirations, as they exerted a major influence on Chinese traditional law and legal institutions, which were set up under their direction." [Fu 1993, p. 107]
"The marketplace became a key site in Warring States and early imperial cities, a site marked both by a tower and a grid. It provided the interface between politics and commerce. Walled, laid out in a grid, it was a scene of state authority. This included not only regulation of prices and the quality of goods, but also the proclamation of decrees, the carrying out of punishments, and the display of corpses. Despite these attempts at control, the market was also a site for activities outside the state sphere. ..." [Lewis 2006, pp. 186-187]
Irrigation known in this period: "The oldest known hydraulic engineers of China were Sunshu Ao (6th century BCE) of the Spring and Autumn Period and Ximen Bao (5th century BCE) of the Warring States period, both of whom worked on large irrigation projects." [Henkel 2015, p. 87] "Around 430 B.C., the first known large-scale irrigation project was built on the North China Plain (near present-day Hebei Province) to channel water from the Yellow River to nearby fields." [Karplus_Deng 2008, p. 10]
"Besides the more well-known extensive irrigation works and man-made transport canals linking up the major rivers, the provision of water supplies to its cities formed the third important element of China's ancient water civilization." [Angelakis_et_al 2012, p. 169] "The entire underground water supply pipeline system of Yangcheng [Warring States Period?] was discovered in archaeological excavations (Figure 8.2), providing important physical evidence of early water supply of cities in ancient China." [Angelakis_et_al 2012, p. 171]
"Every Warring States city had an enclosed palace area distinct from the outer wall." [Clark 2013, p. 111]
Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
Unknown. Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
ritual and religious thought in ancient China apparently not associated with sacred texts sensu stricto (i.e. texts containing "the word of god"), though works of sayings of religious figures (e.g. Confucius) were certainly deemed as important and canonized as ‘five classics’ [Puett_et_al 2014]
Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
Unknown. Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
Zhou dynasty had the Zuo Zhuan which was a late 4th BCE history of the Spring and Autumn period.
Unknown. Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
Clear that each Warring State kingdom kept records and produced a great deal of political, philosophical, and religious work; most literature from this period was destroyed in various wars however, and ultimately systematically destroyed by Qin and later Han Empires, though parts of the works produced in this period were adapted or transmitted to later authors.
Unknown. "The earliest minted form of currency was the bu, a coin cast of bronze in the form of a miniature double-pronged digging stick or hoe, complete with hollow socket. They are particularly densely concentrated in the vicinity of the Eastern Zhou capital of Luoyang and in the states of Han, Zhao, and Wei." [1] Different states had different types/shapes of metal objects used as a store of wealth; unclear if used as medium of exchange. Han, Wei, Zhao used ‘coin’ shaped like spade; knife-shaped coin used in Qi, Yen, and Zhao; cowrie-shaped coin used Chu; circular coin with hole in Qin, Zhao, and Zhou [2] Unclear if coinage was always monopoly of state, or produced by large merchant groups/families Wei: spade-shaped token. true coins not introduced until state of Qin in late third c bce (right after this period)
[1]: (Higham 2009, 83) Higham, Charles. 2009. Encylopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. Infobase Publishing.
[2]: (Gernet 1982, 73)
From the Shang period roads considered important enough to be "controlled by a special official" [1] but references to post usually begin with the Qin’s First Emperor who "constructed post roads across his empire". [2] However, Confucius (551–479 BCE) said: "News of good deeds travels faster than the mail" [3] which strongly implies a postal system was present at his time. One may infer from the importance of roads a basic postal system existed earlier.
[1]: (Lindqvist 2009) Lindqvist, Cecilia. 2009. China: Empire of Living Symbols. Da Capo Press.
[2]: ( ? 2003, 391) ? in Mokyr, Joel ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Volume 2. Oxford University Press
unlikely literacy widespread enough for a general postal service to be necessary.
Shang Yang noted for standardizing measurement systems of Qin in 4th c bce, but clear that all Warring States kingdoms each had their own systems of measurement, sometimes with regional differences as well
Shang Yang noted for standardizing measurement systems of Qin in 4th c bce, but clear that all Warring States kingdoms each had their own systems of measurement, sometimes with regional differences as well
Shang Yang noted for standardizing measurement systems of Qin in 4th c bce, but clear that all Warring States kingdoms each had their own systems of measurement, sometimes with regional differences as well
Shang Yang noted for standardizing measurement systems of Qin in 4th c bce, but clear that all Warring States kingdoms each had their own systems of measurement, sometimes with regional differences as well