The Sociology of Philosophies

plots and negotiations that linked them into a network of conflict was giving

rise to an inner structure, which became the incipient intellectual community.^4

The Intersection of Rival Centers and Multiple Factions

At the height of the Warring States period, military success or even mere safety

depended on a web of alliances. A coalition of Chao, Wei, and Ch’in armies

turned back the aggressions of Ch’i, the most powerful state, about 284 b.c.e.,

then went on to counterattack by invading Ch’i. In 257 an alliance of Wei,

Chao, and Ch’u defeated a Ch’in attack; again in 247 Ch’in, which was fast

becoming the biggest and most powerful state, was beaten back by the com-

bined armies of five states. Courts had become places of discussion and debate

among visiting diplomats carrying proposals for alliances, together with do-

mestic officials and traveling scholars offering their services in either capacity;

all of them circulated schemes for administrative reform, military strength,

and/or religious blessings. Most of the reform schemes came to nothing.

Despite the intellectuals’ failures in long-term policy, their skill in argument

was made important by the salience of diplomacy. Such a figure as Hui Shih,

whom we think of mainly as a paradoxer or propounder of abstract logical

Intellectual Centers in the Warring States, 350 b.c.e.

(Chi-hsia Academy is in Ch’i; P’ing-yuan court is in Chao)

142 •^ Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths