Professor Andrew Meyer

The society of China on the eve of the Warring States, during the lifetime of Confucius,

It doesn't really resemble the imperial society of China that a lot of English language readers are familiar with from literature and film.

I think we're accustomed to thinking of the Chinese empire, which was led by this ruling class of very civil-minded, bookish literati.

The world before the Warring States is really led by a titled aristocracy.

that have much more in common with the aristocracy of 15th century Europe or of medieval Japan than of the later ruling class of the empire.

So it's a very different social and political scene in the time prior to the Warring States.

And it's really the Warring States is the crucible

in which Chinese society and politics become transformed and move towards the kind of social and political system that we're accustomed to associating with the Chinese empire.

Most of the Warring States period takes place during the Zhou Dynasty, Z-H-O-U.

You know, you can call them Zhou.

The Zhou Dynasty, it's a very important period in Chinese history.

Certainly, it plays an outsized role in the kind of cultural memory of China, the longest ruling dynasty.

It's a pre-imperial dynasty.

in the sense that the rulers of the Zhou did not use the title emperor.

That title was invented, literally invented by the first emperor.

So the leaders of the Zhou dynasty called themselves kings.

And the Zhou dynasty had been founded in about 1045 BCE.

So right around the time that King David would have been ruling in ancient Israel.

And the Zhou, in the first centuries of the rule, they're very powerful.

They exert a great deal of control and they consolidate a unified political system.