The Economic Principles of Confucius and His School

the beginning of Ping Wang’s reign (219 B.K.¹ or 770 B.C.), the Chou dynasty had practically fallen, and all the emperors of the Eastern Chou line were without real power. It was the age of feudalism. Each feudal estate was an independent nation; each prince of every nation fought for its supremacy, and the power of the princes was greater than that of the emperor. During Confucius’s time, the power of the prince in each state had generally fallen into the hands of a few noble families, and the government had become a form of oligarchy. Sometimes the private officials of these families took public affairs into their own hands. The confusion and disorder brought about by the ruling class extended over the whole empire, while the common people, who were not sufficiently educated to help themselves, were entirely neglected.

Although the great mass of the people in Confucius’s time were uneducated, there was a middle class which had educated itself. Since China had been civilized for such a long time, the people were naturally developed to some extent. During the period of the Eastern Chou dynasty, although the power of the imperial government declined, the intellectual growth of the people increased. The greater importance acquired by the various independent states, along with the diminishing power of the emperor, gave rise to much peaceful diplomatic intercourse as well as many hostile military expeditions; these forms of contact had an educative influence upon a considerable class of the people. Further, as political power shifted from class to class and from person to person within each state, some noble families were ruined while some common people rose. Thus, the profession of learning was also shifted

¹ We use the forms B.K. and A.K. to avoid confusion with the "C." in Western chronology, as in B.C. The Chinese form of the name Confucius is K'ung Fu Tzŭ.