the late Taoists.  These gentlemen living on their estates had acquired a new means of expressing their inmost feelings:  they wrote poetry and, above all, painted.  Their poems and paintings contain in a different outward form what Lao Tzu had tried to express with the inadequate means of the language of his day.  Thus Lao Tzu’s teaching has had the strongest influence to this day in this field, and has inspired creative work which is among the finest achievements of mankind.

Chapter Four

THE CONTENDING STATES (481-256 B.C.):  DISSOLUTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM

1 Social and military changes

The period following that of the Chou dictatorships is known as that of the Contending States.  Out of over a thousand states, fourteen remained, of which, in the period that now followed, one after another disappeared, until only one remained.  This period is the fullest, or one of the fullest, of strife in all Chinese history.  The various feudal states had lost all sense of allegiance to the ruler, and acted in entire independence.  It is a pure fiction to speak of a Chinese State in this period; the emperor had no more power than the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in the late medieval period of Europe, and the so-called “feudal states” of China can be directly compared with the developing national states of Europe.  A comparison of this period with late medieval Europe is, indeed, of highest interest.  If we adopt a political system of periodization, we might say that around 500 B.C. the unified feudal state of the first period of Antiquity came to an end and the second, a period of the national states began, although formally, the feudal system continued and the national states still retained many feudal traits.

As none of these states was strong enough to control and subjugate the rest, alliances were formed.  The most favoured union was the north-south axis; it struggled against an east-west league.  The alliances were not stable but broke up again and again through bribery or intrigue, which produced new combinations.  We must confine ourselves to mentioning the most important of the events that took place behind this military facade.

Through the continual struggles more and more feudal lords lost their lands; and not only they, but the families of the nobles dependent on them, who had received so-called sub-fiefs.  Some of the landless nobles perished; some offered their services to the remaining feudal lords as soldiers or advisers.  Thus in this period we meet with a large number of migratory politicians who became competitors of the wandering scholars.  Both these groups recommended to their lord ways and means of gaining victory over the other feudal lords, so as to become sole ruler.  In order to carry out their plans the advisers claimed the rank of a Minister or Chancellor.