Ancient China Simplified

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Just as Wu had been quietly submissive to Ts'u until the
opportunity came to revolt, so did the still more barbarous state
of Yueh, lying to the south-east of and tributary to Wu as her
mesne lord, eagerly seize the opportunity of attacking Wu when the
common suzerain, Ts'u, required it. The wars of Wu and Yueh are
almost entirely naval, and, so far as the last-named state is
concerned, it is never reported as having used war-chariots at
all. Wu adopted the Chinese chariot as rapidly as it had re-
adopted the Chinese civilization, abandoned by the first colonist
princes in 1200 B.C.; but of course these chariots were only for
war in China, on the flat Chinese plains; they were totally
impracticable in mountainous countries, except along the main
routes, and useless (as Major Bruce shows) in regions cut up by
gulleys; even now no one ever sees a two-wheeled vehicle in the
Shanghai-Ningpo region. It must, therefore, always be remembered
that Wu, though barbarous in its population, was, in its origin as
an organized system of rule, a colony created by certain ancestors
of the founder of the Chou dynasty, who had voluntarily gone off
to carve out an appanage in the Jungle; i.e. in the vague unknown
dominion later called Ts'u, of which dominion all coast regions
were a part, so far as they could be reduced to submission. This
gave the Kings of Wu, though barbarian, a pretext for claiming
equality with, and even seniority over Tsin, the first Chou-born
prince of which was junior in descent to most of the other
enfeoffed vassals of the imperial clan-name. In 502 Wu armies even
threatened the northern state of Ts'i, and asserted in China
generally a brief authority akin to that of Protector. Ts'i was
obliged to buy itself off by marrying a princess of the blood to
the heir-apparent of Wu, an act which two centuries later excited
the disgust of the philosopher Mencius. The great Ts'i statesman
and writer Yen-tsz, whom we have already mentioned more than once,
died in 500, and earlier in that year Confucius had become chief
counsellor of Lu, which state, on account of Confucius' skill as a
diplomat, nearly obtained the Protectorate. It was owing to the
fear of this that the assassination of the Lu prince was attempted
that year, as narrated in Chapter IX. In order to understand how
Wu succeeded in reaching Lu and Ts'i, it must be recollected that
the river Sz, which still runs from east to west past Confucius's
birthplace, and now simply feeds the Grand Canal, then flowed
south-east along the line of the present canal and entered the
Hwai River near Sue-chou. Moreover, there was at times boat-
communication between the Sz and the Yellow River, though the
precise channel is not now known. Consequently, the Wu fleets had
no difficulty in sailing northwards first by sea and then up the
Hwai and Sz Rivers. Besides, in 485, the King of Wu began what we
now call the Grand Canal by joining as a beginning the Yang-tsz
River with the Hwai River, and then carrying the canal beyond the
Hwai to the state of Sung, which state was then disputing with Lu
the possession of territory on the east bank of the Sz, whilst
Ts'u was pushing her annexations up to the west bank of the same
river. There were in all twelve minor orthodox states between the
Sz and the Hwai. In 482 the all-powerful King of Wu held a genuine
durbar as Protector, at a place in modern Ho Nan province, north
of the Yellow River as it now runs, but at that time a good
distance to the south-east of it. This is one of the most
celebrated meetings in Chinese history, partly because Wu
successfully asserted political pre-eminence over Tsin; partly
because Confucius falsifies the true facts out of shame (as we
have seen he did when Ts'u similarly seized the first place over
Tsin); and partly owing to the shrewd diplomacy of the King of Wu,
who had learnt by express messenger that the King of Ytieh was
marching on his capital, and who had the difficult double task to
accomplish of carrying out a "bluff," and operating a retreat
without showing his weak hand to either side, or losing his army
exposed between two foes.

In 473, after long and desperate fighting, Wu was, however, at
last annihilated by Yiieh, which state was now unanimously voted
Protector, _Vae victis!_ The Yueh capital was promptly removed
from near the modern Shao-hing (west of Ningpo) far away north
to what is now practically the German colony of Kiao Chou; but,
though a maritime power of very great-strength, Yiieh never succeeded
in establishing any real land influence in the Hwai Valley. During her
short protectorate she rectified the River Sz question by forcing
Sung to make over to Lu the land on the east bank of the River Sz.

CHAPTER XV

STATE INTERCOURSE

Whatever may be the reason why details of interstate movement are
lacking up to 842 B.C., it is certain that, from the date of the
Emperor's flight eastwards in 771, the utmost activity prevailed
between state and state within the narrow area to which, as we
have seen, the federated Chinese empire was confined. Confucius'
history, covering the 250-year period subsequent to 722, consists
largely of statements that this duke visited that country, or
returned from it, or drew up a treaty with it, or negotiated a
marriage with it. "Society," in a political sense, consisted of
the four great powers, Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u, surrounding
the purely Chinese enclave; and of the innumerable petty Chinese
states, mostly of noble and ancient lineage, only half a dozen of
them of any size, which formed the enclave in question, and were
surrounded by Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u, to the west, north,
east, and south. Secondary states in extent and in military power,
like Lu, CHENG, and Wei, whilst having orthodox and in some cases
barbarian sub-vassals of their own, were themselves, if not
vassals to, at all events under the predominant influence of, one
or the other of the four great powers. Thus Lu was at first nearly
always a handmaid of Ts'i, but later fell under the influence of
Tsin, Ts'u, and Wu; Cheng always coquetted between Tsin and Ts'u,
not out of love for either, but in order to protect her own
independence; and so on with the rest. If we inquire what a really
small state meant in those days, the answer is that the modern
walled city, with its district of several hundred square miles
lying around it, was (and usually still is) the equivalent of the
ancient principality; and proof of that lies in the fact that one
of the literary designations of what we now term a "district
magistrate" is still "city marquess." Another proof is that in
ancient times "your state" was a recognized way of saying "your
capital town"; and "my poor town" was the polite way of saying
"our country"; both expressions still used in elegant diplomatic
composition.

This being so, and it having besides been the practice for a
visiting duke always to take along with him a "minister in
attendance," small wonder that prominent Chinese statesmen from
the orthodox states were all personal friends, or at least
correspondents and acquaintances, who had thus frequent
opportunity of comparing political notes. To this day there are no
serious dialect differences whatever in the ancient central area
described in the first chapter, nor is there any reason to suppose
that the statesmen and scholars who thus often met in conclave had
any difficulty in making themselves mutually understood. The
"dialects"' of which we hear so much in modern times (which, none
the less, are all of them pure Chinese, except that the syllables
differ, just as _coeur, cuore, and _corazon, coracao_, differ from
_cor_), all belong to the southern coasts, which were practically
unknown to imperial China in Confucius' time. The Chinese word which
we translate "mandarin" also means "public" or "common," and
"mandarin dialect" really means "current" or "common speech,"
such as is, and was, spoken with no very serious modifications all
over the enclave; and also in those parts of Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and
Ts'u, which immediately impinged upon the enclave, in the ratio
of their proximity. Finally, Shen Si, Shan Si, Shan Tung, and Hu
Kwang are still called Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u in high-class official
correspondence; and so with all other place-names. China has never
lost touch with antiquity.

There is record for nearly every thing: the only difficulty is to
separate what is relevant from what is irrelevant in the mass of
confused _data_.

Another matter must be considered. Although the Chinese never had
a caste system in the Hindoo sense, there is, as we have stated
once before, every reason to believe that the ruling classes and
the educated classes were nearly all nobles, in the sense that
they were all lineal or branch descendants, whether by first-
class wife or by concubine, of either the ruling dynastic family
or of some previous imperial dynastic family. Some families were
by custom destined for hereditary ministers, others for hereditary
envoys, others again for hereditary soldiers; not, it is true, by
strict rule, but because the ancient social idea favoured the
descent of office, or land, or trade, or craft from father to son.
This, indeed, was part of the celebrated Kwan-tsz's economic
philosophy. Thus generation after generation of statesmen and
scholars kept in steady touch with one another, exactly as our
modern scientists of the first rank, each as a link, form an
unbroken intimate chain from Newton down to Lord Kelvin, outside
which pale the ordinary layman stands a comparative stranger to
the _arcana_ within.

Kwan-tsz, the statesman-philosopher of Ts'i, and in a sense the
founder of Chinese economic science, was himself a scion of the
imperial Chou clan; every writer on political economy subsequent
to 643 B.C. quotes his writings, precisely as every European
philosophical writer cites Bacon. Quite a galaxy of brilliant
statesmen and writers, a century after Kwan-tsz, shed lustre upon
the Confucian age (550-480), and nearly all of them were personal
friends either of Confucius or of each other, or of both. Thus
Tsz-ch'an of CHENG, senior to Confucius, but beloved and admired
by him, was son of a reigning duke, and a prince of the ducal
CHENG family, which again was descended from a son of the Emperor
who fled in 842 B.C.

If Tsz-ch'an had written works on philosophy and politics, it is
possible that he might have been China's greatest man in the place
of Confucius; for he based his ideas of government, as did
Confucius, who probably copied much from him, entirely upon
"fitting conduct," or "natural propriety"; in addition to which he
was a great lawyer, entirely free from superstition and hypocrisy;
a kind, just, and considerate ruler; a consummate diplomat; and a
bold, original statesman, economist, and administrator. The
anecdotes and sayings of Tsz-ch'an are as numerous and as
practical as those about Julius Caesar or Marcus Aurelius.

Another great pillar of the state praised by Confucius was Shuh
Hiang of Tsin, whose reputation as a sort of Chinese Cicero is not
far below that of Tsz-ch'an. He belonged to one of the great
private families of Tsin, of whom it was said in Ts'u that "any of
them could bring 100 war-chariots into the field." Nothing could
be more interesting than the interviews and letters (see Appendix
No. 1) between these two friends and their colleagues of Ts'i,
Ts'u, Lu, and Sung.

Yen-tsz of Ts'i almost ranks with Kwan-tsz as an administrator,
philosopher, economist, author, and statesman. Confucius has a
good word for him too, though Yen-tsz's own opinion of Confucius'
merits was by no means so high. The two men had to "spar" with
each other behind their respective rulers like Bismarck and
Gortschakoff did. Yen-tsz's interview with Shuh Hiang, when the
pair discussed the vices of their respective dukes, is almost as
amusing as a "patter" scene in the pantomime, a sort of by-play
which takes place whilst the curtain is down in preparation for
the next formal act (see Appendix No. 2).

[Illustration: K'ung Ling-i, the hereditary _Yen-sheng Kung,_
or "Propagating Holiness Duke"; 76th in descent from K'ung K'iu,
_alias_ K'ung Chung-ni, the original philosopher, 551--479
B.C.

This portrait was presented to "the priest P'eng" (Father Tschepe,
S.J.), on the occasion of his visit last autumn (7th moon, 33rd
year).]

Confucius himself had descended in the direct line from the ducal
family of Sung; but Sung, like the other states, was cursed with
the "great family" nuisance, and one of his ancestors, having
incurred a grandee's hostility, had met with his death in a palace
intrigue, in consequence of which the Confucian family, despairing
of justice, had migrated to Lu. When we read of Confucius'
extensive wanderings (which are treated of more at length in a
subsequent chapter), the matter takes a very different complexion
from what is usually supposed, especially if it be recollected
what a limited area was really covered. He never got even so far
as Tsin, though part of Tsin touched the Lu frontier, and it is
doubtful if he was ever 300 miles, as the crow flies, from his own
house in Lu; true, he visited the fringe of Ts'u, but it must be
remembered that the place he visited was only in modern Ho Nan
province, and was one of the recent conquests of Ts'u, belonging
to the Hwai River system. As we explained in the last chapter,
Ts'u's policy then was to work up eastwards to the river Sz; that
is, to the Grand Canal of to-day. Confucius, it is plain, was no
mere pedant; for we have seen how, in the year 500, when he first
enjoyed high political power, he displayed conspicuously great
strategical and diplomatic ability in defeating the treacherous
schemes of the ruler of Ts'i, who had been endeavouring to filch
Lu territory, and who was dreadfully afraid lest Lu should,
through Wu's favour, acquire the hegemony or protectorship. He
could even be humorous, for when the barbarian King of Wu put in a
demand for a "handsome hat," Confucius contemptuously observed
that the gorgeousness of a hat's trimmings appealed to this
ignorant monarch more than the emblem of rank distinguishing one
hat from another.

Sung provided one distinguished statesman in Hiang Suh, whose fame
is bound up with a kind of Hague Disarmament or Peace Conference,
which he successfully engineered in 546 B.C. (see Appendix No. 3).
In the year 558 he had been sent on a marriage mission to Lu. Ki-
chah of Wu, who died at the ripe age of 90, was quite entitled to
be king of that country, but he repeatedly waived his claims in
favour of his brothers. K'ue-peh-yueh of Wei, is mentioned in the
Book of Rites, and in many other works. With him Confucius lodged
on the two occasions of long sojourn in Wei: he is the man
mentioned in Chapter XII who gave his authoritative "ritual"
opinion about traitors. Ts'in never seems to have produced a
native literary statesman on its own soil. During this 500-year
period of isolated development, and also during the later period
of conquest in the third century B.C., all its statesmen were
borrowed from Tsin, or from some orthodox state of China proper;
in military genius, however, Ts'in was unrivalled, and a special
chapter will be devoted to her huge _battues_. The literary
reputation of Ts'u was high at a comparatively early date, and
even now the "Elegies of Ts'u" include some of the very finest of
the Chinese poems and _belles lettres_; but in Confucius'
time no Ts'u man, except possibly Lao-tsz, had any reputation at
all; and Lao-tsz, being a mere archive keeper, not entrusted with
any influential office, naturally lacked opportunity to emerge
from the chrysalis stage. Moreover, the imperial dynasty, which
Lao-tsz served, had no political influence at all: it was an
ironical saying of the times; "the best civilians are Ts'u's, but
they all serve other states," (meaning that the Ts'u rule was too
capricious to attract talent). Hence, apart from the fact that
Confucius doubted the wisdom of Lao-tsz's novel philosophy,
Confucius had no occasion whatever to mention the secluded, self-
contained old man in his political history, or, rather, in his
bald annals of royal-movements.

CHAPTER XVI

LAND AND PEOPLE

What sort of folk were the masses of China, upon whom the ruling
classes depended, then as now, for their support? In the year 594
B.C. the model state of Lu for the first time imposed a tax of ten
per cent, upon each Chinese "acre" of land, being about one-sixth
of an English acre: as the tax was one-tenth, it matters not what
size the acre was. Each cultivator under the old system had an
allotment of 100 such acres for himself, his parents, his wife,
and his children; and in the centre of this allotment were 10
acres of "public land," the produce of which, being the result of
his labour, went to the State; there was no further taxation. A
"mile," being about one-third of an English mile, and, therefore,
in square measure one-ninth of an English square mile, consisted
of 300 fathoms (taking the fathom roughly), and its superficies
contained 900 "acres" of which 80 were public under the above
arrangement, 820 remaining for the eight families owning this
"well-field"--so called because the ideograph for a "well"
represents nine squares: a four-sided square in the centre, four
three-sided squares impinging on it; and four two-sided squares at
the corners; i.e. 100 "acres" each, plus 2-1/2 "acres" each for
"homestead and onions"; or 20 of these last in all. Nine
cultivators in one "well," multiplied by four, formed a township,
and four townships formed a "cuirass" of 144 armed warriors; but
this was under a modified system introduced four years later
(590). It will be observed that the arithmetic seems confused, if
not faulty; but that does not seriously affect the genuineness of
the picture, and may be ignored as mere detail.

The ancient classification of people was into four groups. The
scholar people employed themselves in studying _tao_ and the
sciences, from which we plainly see that the doctrine of
_tao,_ or "the way," existed long before Lao-tsz, in Confucius'
time, superadded a mystic cosmogony upon it, and made of it a socialist
or radical instead of an imperialist or conservative doctrine. The second
class were the trading people, who dealt in "produce from the four
quarters"; there is evidence that this meant chiefly cattle, grain, silk,
horses, leather, and gems. The third class were the cultivators, and
in those days tea and cotton, amongst other important products of
to-day, were totally unknown. The fourth class consisted of handicraftsmen,
who naturally made all things they could sell, or knew how to make.

Another classification of men is the following, which was given to
the King of Ts'u by a sage adviser, presumably an importation from
orthodox China. He divided people into ten classes, each inferior
class owing obedience to its superior, and the highest of all
owing obedience only to the gods or spirits. First, the Emperor;
secondly, the "inner" dukes, or grandees of estates within the
imperial domain: these grandees were dukes proper, not dukes by
posthumous courtesy like the vassal princes after decease, and the
Emperor used to send them on service, when required, to the vassal
states; they were, in fact, like the "princes of the Church" or
cardinals, who surround the Pope. Thirdly, "the marquesses," that
is the semi-independent vassal states, no matter whether duke,
marquess, earl, viscount, or baron; this term seems also to
include the reigning lords of very small states which did not
possess even the rank of baron, and which were usually attached to
a larger state as clients, under protectorate; in fact, the
recognized stereotyped way of saying "the vassal rulers" was "the
marquesses." Then came what we should call the "middle classes,"
or bourgeoisie, followed by the artisans and cultivators: it will
be noticed that the artisans are here given rank over the
cultivators, which is not in accord with either very ancient or
very modern practice; this, indeed, places cultivators before both
traders and artisans. Lastly came the police, the carriers of
burdens, the eunuchs, and the slaves. By "police" are meant the
runners attached to public offices, whose work too often involves
"squeezing" and terrorizing, torturing, flogging, etc. To the
present day police, barbers, and slaves require three generations
of purifying, or living down, before their descendants can enter
for the public examinations; or, to use the official expression,
their "three generations" must be "clear"; at least so it was
until the old Confucian examination system was abolished as a test
for official capacity a few years ago. Of eunuchs we shall have
more to say shortly; but very little indeed is heard of private
slaves, who probably then, as now, were indistinguishable from the
ordinary people, and were treated kindly. The callous Greek and
still more brutal Roman system, not to mention the infinitely more
cowardly and shocking African slavery abuses of eighteenth-
century Europe and nineteenth-century America, have never been
known in China: no such thing as a slave revolt has ever been
heard of there.

In the year 548 the kingdom of Ts'u ordered a cadastral survey,
and also a general stock-taking of arms, chariots, and horses.
Records were made of the extent and value of the land in each
parish, the extent of the mountains and forests, and the resources
they might furnish. Observation was also made of lakes and marshes
suitable for sport, and it was forbidden to fill these in. Note
was taken of such hills and mounds as might be available for
tombs--a detail which shows that modern graves in China differ
little if at all from the ancient ones; in fact in Canton "my
hill," or "mountain," is synonymous with "my cemetery." In order
to fix the taxes at a just figure, stock was taken of the salt-
flats, the unproductive lands, and the tracts liable to periodical
inundation. Areas rescued from the waters were protected by dykes,
and subdivided for allotment by sloping banks, but without
introducing the rigid nine-square system. Good lands, however,
were divided according to the method introduced by the Chou
dynasty; that is to say, six feet formed a "fathom," 100 fathoms
an "acre," 100 "acres" the allotment of one family; these English
terms are, of course, only approximately correct. Nine families
still formed a hamlet or "well," and they cultivated together 1000
"acres," the central hundred going to pay the imposts. Taxes,
direct and indirect, were fixed with exactitude, and also the
number of war-chariots that each parish had to furnish; the number
of horses; their value, age, and colour; the number of armoured
troopers and foot soldiers, with a return of their cuirasses and
shields. Regarding this colour classification, of the horses, it
may be mentioned that the Tartars, in the second century B.C.,
were in the habit of equipping whole regiments of cavalry on
mounts of the same colour, and it is, therefore, possible that
this practice may have been imitated in South China; but Ts'u
never once herself engaged in warfare with the Tartars; at all
events with Tartars other than Tartars brought into Chinese
settlements.

Long before this, the philosopher-statesman Kwan-tsz of Ts'i had
so developed the agriculture, fisheries, trade, and salt gabelle,
and had governed the country in such a way that his State,
hitherto of minor importance, soon took the lead amongst the
Chinese powers for wealth and for military influence. His
classification of the people was into scholars, artisans, traders,
and agriculturalists. He is generally credited with having
introduced the "Babylonian woman" into the Ts'i metropolis, in
order that traders, having sold their goods there, might leave as
much as possible of their money behind in the houses of pleasure.
There are many accounts of the luxury of this populous city, where
"every woman possessed one long and one short needle," and where a
premium levied upon currency, fish, and salt was applied to the
relief of the poor and (!) to the rewarding of virtue. Kwan-tsz
also maintained a standing army, or perhaps a militia force, of
30,000 men; but he was careful so to husband his strength that
Ts'i should not have the external appearance of dominating; his
aim was that she should rather hold her power in reserve, and only
use it indirectly: as we have seen, his master was, in consequence
of Kwan-tsz's able administration, raised to the high position of
the first of the Five Protectors.

From this it will be plain that there was considerable commercial
activity in China even before the time of Confucius: there was
quite a string of fairs or market towns extending from the
imperial reserve eastwards along the Yellow River to Choh-thou
(still so called, south of Peking), which was then the most
northernly of them: apparently each considerable state possessed
one of these fairs. The headwaters of the River Hwai system were
served by the great mart (now called Yii Chou) belonging to the
state of Cheng. As with our own histories, Chinese annals consist
chiefly of the record of what kings and grandees did, and mention
of the people is only occasional; and, even then, only in
connection with the policy of their leaders.

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