Relations between states were characterized by as great a lack of ethics as those between individuals. An envoy had to be a brave man, for if the state to which he was sent became annoyed at his own state he might be killed. Even rulers were not immune from detention when they made friendly visits to other states; such detention might be in preparation for attacking their states, or for other reasons. The rulers of two small states were held in Ch'u for three years each, because they refused to give its prime minister certain jewelry, furs, and horses that he wanted. Once when the Duke of Lu visited Ch'i, he was held until he agreed to marry his second daughter to a minister of Ch'i. One ruler of Ch'u, hearing that the wife of the ruler of the small state of Hsi was beautiful, went there (as he said) to give a feast for Hsi's ruler. Having arrived he killed him, extinguished his state, and carried his wife off to his harem in Ch'u.Aristocrats had little enough security. The people had none. They were chiefly farmers, commonly virtual serfs. They had few if any rights as against the nobility; in practice they were taxed, worked, expropriated, scourged, and killed by the aristocrats, with almost no check save the fact that, if goaded too far, they might rebel. The penalty for unsuccessful rebellion, however, was death by torture.
Nobles traveling, even outside of their own domains, went through the land like a plague of locusts, cutting down trees for fuel, denuding the fields, damaging the houses in which they lodged, and backing "requests" for contributions with violence. These were the commonplaces of peace. The frequent wars brought more dramatic sufferings. In 593 b.c., for instance, the capital of the state of Sung was besieged so long that the inhabitants were reduced to eating the flesh of the children. Since they could not bear to eat their own, they exchanged children before killing them.
The gradual breakdown of centralized governmental authority increased the difficulties of the people in more ways than one. As time went on the number of aristocrats increased greatly, thanks in part to the institution of polygamy, and at the same time the standard of living of even minor aristocrats became more and more luxurious. China could easily support one royal court in lavish style, but when a score of heads of feudal states tried to live like kings, there was a strain on the economy. When in turn their vassals and the vassals of their vassals tried to adopt the ways of their superiors, abject poverty for the masses was unavoidable. When there is added the fact that in order to maintain their dignity these aristocrats felt compelled to wage a multiplicity of interstate, interclan, and even private wars, it is not surprising that the situation became insupportable.
This disease within the body of society produced its own antitoxin. In theory all the sons of aristocrats should have received fiefs and posts in the government, but the time soon came when there were so many men of noble ancestry that this was impossible. The result was that even some who were near relatives of rulers were reduced to penury. Thus there came into being a large group of men who by ancestry and sometimes by education were aristocrats, but who in poverty and in position came near to sharing the lot of the common people.
It was such reduced scions of the aristocracy who made up, in the first instance at least, the class of impoverished shih {-t), which played such an important role during the latter part of the Chou dynasty. Some of them were warriors, bravos with swords for hire. Others were officers or clerks at the various courts. Still others were philosophers. Without exception they were discontented. Having known better things, or at least feeling entitled to them, they were not inclined to accept the status-quo. They were not ignorant peasants, willing to suffer mistreatment without protest. All of them were resentful of such oppression as bore upon themselves, and a few were so altruistic as to espouse the cause of the whole people. Confucius was the most famous of their number.
Confucian State Arisocrats - Confucius and the Chinese Way - HG CREEL
