Competing Systems 9

 The Two Periods

It will be seen from the above that there really were two distinct phases of the time between the end of Jou in 0771 and the realization of the Chin empire in 0221. This division is not, as might have been suspected, a mere literary device. I would also suggest in closing that though development in some areas was constant throughout the two periods, the transition between them was probably more rapid than gradual, and involved a change of type and not merely one of degree. A different organization of individual states, and a different mode of interaction among the several states, seem to have obtained. The key element in the shift from one to the other was the change from the elite to the mass army, and from an obligational to a bureaucratic state. These, as I have argued, were intimately connected, and form essentially one complex of social changes.

The much celebrated introduction of iron, at about the beginning of the Warring States period, seems after all not to have been the defining event, as several recent studies have shown, nor was it even decisive in determining the victor in the unification wars between the new-type states. Iron, like silver, was a detail. Social efficiency, administrative skills, and the ability to motivate as well as control large numbers of people, seem to have been of greater practical consequence. The victories of the generals seem to have rested, as the military texts themselves sometimes remark, on previous victories of statecraft.

There are also changes which proceed gradually throughout the centuries in question. Among these are increasing agricultural efficiency (with increasing ecological pressure) and continued improvement in both local and distance communications. These led to greater cultural integration within units, and to the stimulus of trade and new ideas between units, or at longer distances.

Conclusion

On these findings, the two periods in question are distinguished by a different style of organization of single states, and by a different style of comity or enmity between the several states. The essence of the difference is a relatively rapid shift in the military basis of the state, together with its fiscal support structures, and an induced change in the relation of the state to its people. Where formerly there were separate landholdings with a subject population supporting a chariot warrior, there came to be instead a continuous population and a central administrative elite. The material goods of life were more widely recognized, more efficiently sought, and more widely shared.

The exact terms of transition between the two systems will require further study, and consideration of many local variants. Only then will we be able to say that we have understood the familiar terms, Chun/Chyou and Jan-gwo.

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24 Sept 2000 / Contact The Project / Exit to Lectures Page