Professor Andrew Meyer

And, you know, the state had grown very large through conquering neighboring states, and they occupied some of the most fertile land.

They were situated right at the point where the Yellow River enters the Pacific Ocean, so they controlled some of the most fertile land in the Zhou realm.

And a duke comes to the throne in about 483, and he's had a very sort of troubled life.

He's lived much of his life in exile.

He's seen his own father murdered.

He's come to the throne after the murder of his own father.

He's an interesting character, and one of the things that seems to have happened during his exile, he had spent his exile in the neighboring state of Lu.

And the state of Lu was significant because that was where Confucius lived.

Confucius had for several decades been gathering young men around himself.

Confucius was a very low-status aristocrat.

He was sort of a figure analogous to Socrates in ancient Greece.

He claimed to have discovered this Tao or way that he thought could redress all of the problems that were causing society to fall apart.

He taught this to his disciples.

One of his disciples becomes very close to the man who would ultimately become the Duke of neighboring Qi.

We don't really know what his actual name is.

He's called Zaiwa.

Zaiwa seems to have been a satirical label that was appended to him.

It means, make me prime minister.

So why would his fellow disciples call him, make me prime minister?

Because that's exactly what happens to him.