12 China in World History
more lethal weapons, and eventually (by the third century bce) rul-
ers began drafting thousands of able-bodied peasants as foot soldiers
who replaced the old Shang and early Zhou forms of warfare led by
aristocrats in chariots. Old chivalrous codes of warfare, in which one
state would not attack another during a period of mourning, or until its
enemy had troops in place, gave way to a much more ruthless style of
battle with no holds barred. In the chilling opening words of the ancient
classicThe Art of War attributed to Sunzi (which probably dates from
the mid-fourth century bce and is still read today in military academies
and business schools), “Warfare is the greatest affair of the state, the
basis of life and death, the Way (Dao) to survival or extinction. It must
be thoroughly pondered and analyzed.”^4
As local lords became increasingly independent and Zhou kings
lost their aura of authority and power, more states began to use laws
and contractual agreements (instead of marriage and kinship alliances)
to keep peace and order, and a multistate system gradually emerged.
With ever greater investments in warfare, rulers began to recruit sol-
diers and offi cials on the basis of their skill and organizational abilities
rather than their noble birth. In the intense competition for resources
and military power, many rulers and offi cials gradually lost faith in the
old religious beliefs of the Shang and early Zhou. It became increas-
ingly clear that a state’s capacity to mobilize armed, disciplined, and
well-fed warriors determined the outcome of battles far more than any
ancestral spirits.
There were at least 148 small states in the eighth century bce, but
by about 400 bce only seven major states remained, along with several
small ones that managed to survive by allying with powerful neighbors
or playing their larger neighbors against each other. During this time,
every state sought out the best political and military advice it could fi nd,
and everyone understood that the surviving states were engaged in a
lethal competition for control of ever larger areas.
In the Chinese Warring States environment of change, uncertainty,
and increasing insecurity, a variety of Chinese thinkers traveled among
the competing states and debated the central questions of the day: What
is most important in life? What makes a human being? How should
humans live in families and communities? What is the cause of social,
political, and military strife and unrest? How should human society be
organized? Who has political authority and why? And perhaps most
important, at least for many kings or would-be kings, how can I con-
quer the world? In striving to answer these and other questions, the
thinkers of the late Zhou period presided over one of the most creative