China

Economic development

Important changes occurred in agriculture. Millet had once been the major cereal crop in the north, but wheat gradually grew in importance. Rice, imported from the south, was extended to the dry soil of the north. The soybean, in a number of varieties, proved to be one of the most important crops. Chinese farmers gradually developed a kind of intensive agriculture. Soil was improved by adding manure and night soil. Planting fields in carefully regulated rows replaced the fallow system. Great importance was placed on plowing and seeding at the proper time (especially in the fine-grained loess soil of northern China). Fields were weeded frequently throughout the growing season. Farmers also knew the value of rotating crops to preserve the fertility of the soil, and soybeans were often part of the rotation. Although iron was used to cast implements in the 5th century bce (probably even as early as the 8th century bce), those early examples discovered by archaeologists are of rather inferior quality.

Wood bowl decorated in red and black lacquer with stylized birds and animals, from Changsha, Hunan province, China, late Zhou dynasty, 3rd century bc; in the Seattle Art Museum, Washington. Diameter 25 cm.Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum, Washington

Irrigation became necessary as population pressure forced cropland to be expanded, and irrigation works were constructed in many states beginning in the late Chunqiu period. These projects were built to drain swampy areas, leach out alkaline soil and replace it with fertile topsoil, and, in the south and in the Sichuan Basin, to carry water into the rice paddies. The irrigation systems unearthed by archaeologists indicate that these were small-scale works carried out for the most part by state or local authorities.

Another significant change in the economic sphere was the growth of trade among regions. Coins excavated in scattered spots show by their great variety that active trade had expanded into all parts of Zhou China. Great commercial centres had arisen, and the new cities brought a demand for luxuries. The literary records as well as the archaeological evidence show that wealthy persons had possessions made of bronze and gold, silver inlays, lacquer, silk, ceramics, and precious stones. The advancement of ferrous metallurgy led to the earliest recorded blast furnace and the earliest steel. The Chinese had been casting bronze for more than a millennium; turning to iron, they became highly skilled at making weapons and tools. The Han historian Sima Qian (writing c. 100 bce) told of individuals making fortunes in the iron industry.

As the old feudal regimes collapsed and were replaced by centralized monarchies during the Zhanguo period, the feudal nobility fell victim to power struggles within the states and to conquest by stronger states. During the Chunqiu period these parallel processes drastically reduced the numbers of the nobility.

A new elite class arose in the late Chunqiu, composed of the former shi class and the descendants of the old nobility. The members of this class were distinguished by being educated, either in the literary tradition or in the military arts. The shi provided the administrators, teachers, and intellectual leaders of the new society. The philosophers Confucius (551–479 bce), Mencius (c. 372–289 bce), Mozi (Mo-tzu; 5th century bce), and Xunzi (Hsün-tzu; c. 300–c. 230 bce) were members of the shi class, as was also a large proportion of high-ranking officials and leaders of prominence. The interstate competition that drove rulers to select the most capable and meritorious individuals to serve in their courts resulted in an unprecedented degree of social mobility.

The populace, most of whom were farmers, also underwent changes in status. In feudal times the peasants had been subjects of their lords. They owned no property, at most being permitted to till a piece of the lord’s land for their own needs. The ancient texts tell of the “well-field” system, under which eight families were assigned 100 mu (15 acres, or 6 hectares) each of land to live on while collectively cultivating another 100 mu as the lord’s reservation. Individual ownership grew as farming became more intensive, and, increasingly, farmers were taxed according to the amount of land they “owned.” The land tax had become a common practice by Zhanguo times. By paying taxes, the tiller of the field acquired the privilege of using the land as his own possession, which perhaps was the first step toward private ownership. As states expanded and new lands were given to cultivation, an increasing number of “free” farmers were to be found tilling land that had never been part of a lord’s manor. With the collapse of the feudal structure, farmers in general gradually ceased to be subjects of a master and became subjects of a state.

A similar transformation occurred among the merchants and artisans, who gradually passed from being household retainers of a lord to the status of independent subjects. Thus, the feudal society was completely reshaped in the two centuries preceding the Qin unification.