Древний Китай. Том 2: Период Чуньцю (VIII-V вв. до н.э.)

The second volume contains the description of both processes: the slowly developing norms and the ceremonial procedure of feudal relations and a fast de-feudalization of these norms starting at the end of the Ch'un-Ch'iu period, to which Confucius made a major contribution. The first three chapters of the second volume are very specific. They describe step by step the events of the two-and-a-half-century long Ch'un-Ch'iu period. These events are presented with sufficient details. Firstly, because there is available material abundantly year by year reflected in the commentaries on the chronicle. Secondly, because the outline of these events is very interesting and instructive. Though the text is hard to read and keep in memory (it is overloaded with names and events), it makes clear and visible those elements that are usually characteristic for feudal structure. Fathers kill their sons in struggle for the throne and vise versa, brother goes against brother and all this is happening to the accompaniment of glorification of respect for the elders and ancestors, adhering to rituals and other ceremonials. Intrigues, plots, coups, flight of losers if they managed to escape and triumph of victors, permanent feudal wars of aristocrats, whose main activity was exactly war and hunting-that is the outline of the main events. This can be expanded by love stories, adulteries and harem passions, including incest, clashes of powerful aristocratic clans, faithfulness of some and betrayal of others. In other words, the picture is surprising and almost unique in the world history (if we take into account not novels but chronicles with detailed commentaries on them).

The following chapters of the second volume aim at analysing all this rich material from various sides, be it political history, norms of feudal structure, the character of feudal aristocratic wars, the problem of religious ideas and prejudices, forms of the Heaven cult, territorial gods or dead noble ancestors, faithfulness of some and betrayal of others. It also says about rituals among the nobility and the way of life of the common people, which could be learnt, in particular, from the folk songs and poems in the "Book of Songs" (Shih-king). Considerable attention is devoted to the social structure and the scale of rank in the texts, as well as to what extent these ranks corresponded to the realia of the time. Having no aim to characterise each chapter separately, it is important to pay attention to what they all have in common. It is the question of the development of the feudal structure, peculiarities of formation of the new vassal-seigniorial system, in the framework of which the domain of the Chou suzerain-wang, i.e. the Son of Heaven who possessed sacred holiness, was only one of existing political structures far from being a big one.

During the Western Chou the 14 armies used to be the basis of the Chou wangs' force and allowed them during the first two or three centuries of domination to feel at the very least powerful rulers, whose vassals de facto depended on them. These armies had disappeared a long time before. The wang's domain was now found in a miserable situation. It could hardly support one army. And although at the beginning of the Ch'un-Ch'iu period wangs still tried traditionally to interfere from time to time in the internal wars of their vassals, it soon became clear that it was beyond their powers. Moreover, with every new decade the real power of wangs diminished and wangs in case of necessity, such, for instance, as a conspiracy of relatives competing for the throne, had to turn to those of chu-hou princes, who had real power.

The question was that, as it has been mentioned earlier, in the framework of the structure formed in the Ch'un-Ch'iu period some vassal realms became bigger and stronger than the domain and many were equal to it. And none of the big and medium realms had the intention to obey to the wang although no one refused to treat with sacral respect the Son of Heaven. At the beginning this led to a chaotic confusion in Chung-guo, which was the name of an array of central and most civilized Chou kingdoms and princedoms (big semi-barbarian states-Ch'in in the west near the ancient places of inhabitance of the Chou-and Ch'u-in the south-were outside Chung-guo, as well as innumerable amount of small tribal states most of which were usurped by the stronger ones after a while.) Some time later first eastern Ch'i and then western Chin rose to prominence among the big kingdoms inside Chung-guo. It was from the rulers of these states that the so-called p'a, strong illegitimate rulers, appeared and took with weak wangs' approval the latters' authorities to arrange and maintain order in T'ien-hsia.