The Warring States

As the old dukedoms consolidated into seven hardened kingdoms, the philosophical free-for-all of the previous age turned openly political. Mozi preached universal love and defensive war against a preacher's-son logic; Mencius carried Confucius's banner into royal courts, insisting rulers governed only by the people's consent, while Zhuangzi mocked the whole enterprise with parables that dissolved certainty itself. Xunzi answered them all with a colder verdict: human nature was selfish, and only ritual and law could tame it.

That colder verdict found its truest believers in Shang Yang, whose reforms under Duke Xiao of Qin built the ruthless, meritocratic machine that would eventually swallow every rival kingdom whole.