[Page 95] Not till five centuries later did Buddhism enter China and complete the triad of religions—­a triad strangely inharmonious; indeed one can scarcely conceive of three creeds more radically antagonistic.

[Page 96] CHAPTER XVIII

THE WARRING STATES

Five Dictators—­Diplomacy and Strategy—­A Brave Envoy—­Heroes Reconciled—­Ts’in Extinguishes the House of Chou

In the first half of the Chou dynasty the machinery moved with such regularity that Confucius could think of no form of government more admirable, saying, “The policy of the future may be foretold for a hundred generations—­it will be to follow the House of Chou.”  The latter half was a period of misrule and anarchy.

Ambitions and jealousies led to petty wars.  The King being too feeble to repress them, these petty wars grew into vast combinations like the leagues of modern Europe.  Five of the states acquired at different times such a preponderance that their rulers are styled Wu Pa, the “five dictators.”  One of these, Duke Hwan of western Shantung, is famous for having nine times convoked the States-General.  The dictator always presided at such meetings and he was recognised as the real sovereign—­as were the mayors of the palace in France in the Merovingian epoch, or the shoguns in Japan during the long period in which the Mikado was called the “spiritual emperor.”

The legitimate sovereign still sat on his throne [Page 97] in the central state; but he complained that his only function was to offer sacrifices.  The Chinese dictatorship was not hereditary, or the world might have witnessed an exact parallel to the duplicate sovereignty in Japan, where one held the power and the other retained the title for seven hundred years.

In China the shifting of power from hand to hand made those four centuries an age of diplomacy.  Whenever some great baron was suspected of aspiring to the leadership, combinations were formed to curb his ambitions; embassies sped from court to court; and armies were marshalled in the field.  Envoys became noted for courage and cunning, and generals acquired fame by their skill in handling large bodies of soldiers.  Diplomacy became an art, and war a science.

An international code to control the intercourse of states began to take shape; but the diplomat was not embarrassed by a multiplicity of rules.  In negotiations individual character counted for more than it does at the present day; nor must it be supposed that in the absence of our modern artillery there was no room for generalship.  On the contrary, as battles were not decided by the weight of metal, there was more demand for strategy.

All this was going on in Greece at this very epoch:  and, as Plutarch indulges in parallels, we might point to compeers of Themistocles and Epaminondas.  The cause which in the two countries led to this state of things was the existence of a family of states with a common language and similar institutions; but in the Asiatic empire the theatre was vastly more extensive, [Page 98] and the operations in politics and war on a grander scale.