The decline of aristocratic power with respect to the state was accom-
panied by an increasingly specialized, or perhaps even“professionalized,”
society. Within this milieu, martial arts became one of a number of skills
that someone could make a living practicing, the definition of a profession.
This should not be taken too far for the Warring States period. Society was
still understood to be divided into four classes: knights士, farmers農,
artisans工, and merchants商, with the knightly class serving as govern-
ment officials in peace and officers in war, and the farmers serving as
soldiers in wartime. The knightly class maintained a set of skills (the six
arts): archery, charioteering, mathematics, music, calligraphy, and rites
(in the Confucian context,“rites”encompassed manners, customs, and
ceremonies). Confucius was described by Sima Qian as“teaching the six
arts.”Most of these skills had direct or indirect martial as well as non-
military uses. It is also clear that while Confucius taught these arts, he was
not a proponent of specialization in any one of them, or of selling oneself
based upon those skills. Nevertheless, many gentlemen sought advance-
ment through their accomplishments in one or more of those arts.
Martial arts spread throughout Chinese society as armies grew and
conscripted tens of thousands of ordinary farmers into military service.
This growth in armies was accompanied by the large-scale production of
iron weapons. Mass armies and constant warfare militarized swathes of
society and valorized the profession of arms. Many thinkers struggled
against the enthusiasm for martial arts and warfare, particularly among
the rulers. When Mencius suggested to King Xuan of Qi that submission
to another state was the best way to promote good relations, the King
replied:
Great are your words, but I have a weakness. I am fond of valor.
I beg you not to be fond of small valor. To lookfierce, putting your hand on your
sword and say,“How dare he oppose me!”is to show the valor of a common fellow
which is of use only against a single adversary.^24
Mencius continues in the passage to advocate righteous anger and waging
war against injustice, something that is the correct orientation for a ruler.
He explicitly denigrates the sort of personal valor that interests the king as
being beneath him. Of course, this was precisely the kind of valor expected
of Spring and Autumn period aristocrats, and it had not entirely disap-
peared as an aristocratic norm or cultural ideal in the minds of Warring
States period elites. Mencius also asserts a difference between personal
martial arts practice and war, a distinction Spring and Autumn period
elites would not have supported.
50 The Warring States Period