The Formative Age 11
While most of our documentation from the Zhou refl ects the life of
the elite, some poetry in the Book of Songs, a revered collection of 305
Zhou poems, illustrates the hopes and fears of the common people as
well as the concerns of the court. This folk song, for example, refl ects
youthful love in confl ict with parental authority, a theme that runs
through much of Chinese literature.
I beg of you, Zhongzi,
Do not climb into our homestead,
Do not break the willows we have planted.
Not that I mind about the willows,
But I am afraid of my father and mother.
Zhongzi I dearly love;
But of what my father and mother say
Indeed I am afraid.^3In 770 bce the Zhou capital of Hao was conquered by two for-
mer Zhou vassals, who in alliance with several tribal peoples rebelled
and killed the Zhou king. Those of his courtiers who escaped the city
reestablished a new Zhou capital city near today’s Luoyang, several
hundred miles to the east. Thus, we call the period from 1045 to 770
bce the Western Zhou period, when Zhou rule was supreme through
much of north China. The period from 770 to 256 bce we know as the
Eastern Zhou, which is further subdivided into the Spring and Autumn
period and the Warring States period, named after two histories of the
era.The Spring and Autumn Annals and its detailed commentary, The
Zuozhuan (The Zuo Tradition), report the declining effectiveness of
Zhou rule during these years, as former Zhou vassals in outlying areas
became more and more independent. Similarly, The Intrigues of the
Warring States, a collection of (often fi ctionalized) anecdotes, describes
interstate confl ict and competition from 403 to 221 bce, giving that
period the apt name of the Warring States, when the Zhou court held
power only in a tiny enclave surrounded by larger states including Chu
to the south, Wei to the north, and Qin to the west. The Zhou realm
was fi nally extinguished entirely by the powerful Qin in 256 bce.
During the turmoil of the Warring States period, independent states
mobilized large numbers of commoners to build walls, dams, dikes,
and irrigation canals and by these means to increase agricultural pro-
ductivity dramatically (growing millet, wheat, soybeans, and rice) in
order to support standing armies of up to several hundred thousand.
Iron gradually came into general use, permitting the development of