{"id":15342,"date":"2025-11-21T09:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T08:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/?p=15342"},"modified":"2026-04-21T11:49:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:49:46","slug":"atc-information-chan-kuo-tse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/atc-information-chan-kuo-tse\/","title":{"rendered":"ATC \u2013\u00a0Background information on the Chan-kuo Ts’e"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n

ATC\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

\n

ATC \u2013 The <\/span>Zhanguoce<\/strong><\/em><\/span> (=\u00a0Chan-kuo Ts’e<\/span>)
\n\u00ab\u00a0Strategies of the Warring States\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

1. The Warring States<\/span><\/h2>\n

Zhou dynasty: <\/b>from c.<\/abbr>\u20091046 BC until 256 BC (Zhou<\/strong> = Tchou = Tcheou
\nWestern Zhou
\nEastern Zhou:
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Spring and Autumn<\/strong> period: c. 771 \u2013 256 BCE (First half of the Eastern Zhou period)
\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Warring States<\/strong> period: c.<\/abbr>\u2009475 \u2013 221 BCE (Second half of the Eastern Zhou<\/a> period)<\/p>\n

Map of the Warring States c. 260 BCE<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Pinyin<\/td>\nQin<\/td>\nZhao<\/td>\nYan<\/td>\nQi<\/td>\nChu<\/td>\nWei<\/td>\nHan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wades-Giles<\/td>\nCh’in<\/td>\nChao<\/td>\nYen<\/td>\nch’i<\/td>\nCh’u<\/td>\nWei<\/td>\nHan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
EFEO<\/td>\nTs’in<\/td>\nTchao<\/td>\nYen<\/td>\nk\u2019i, ts\u2019i<\/td>\nTch\u2019ou<\/td>\nWei<\/td>\nHan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

2. <\/strong>Zhan Guo Ce <\/strong><\/em><\/span>(Wade-Giles Chan-kuo Ts’e<\/em><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Strategies (Annals) of the Warring States\u00a0\u00bb<\/i><\/em><\/span><\/span>(Wade-Giles Chan-kuo Ts’e<\/em>)
\nAn<\/span> online translation: <\/i><\/em><\/span>https:\/\/warringstates.wixsite.com\/warringstates<\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n<\/i><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0The Zhan Guo Ce <\/em>was originally compiled by Han dynasty scholar Liu Xiang<\/a>\u00a0\u00bb (77\u20136\u00a0<\/span>BCE)
\n(Wikipedia, Zhan Guo Ce<\/em>)
\nInformation on the text:\u00a0Loewe Michael (ed.) 1993. Early Chinese Texts: <\/span> <\/em>A Bibliographical Guide<\/em>. T<\/span><\/span>he Society for the Study of Early China <\/span>–\u00a0<\/span> The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Su Qin<\/span> (= Su Ch’in), ?\u2013284 BCE<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/h2>\n
\n

James Irving Crump Legends of the Warring States<\/span>: Persuasions, Romances and Stories from the Chan-kuo Ts\u2019e <\/strong><\/em>(1998). University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00ab\u00a0In the section labeled \u00ab\u00a0Four Romances\u00a0\u00bb the reader will find reconstructed biographical \/ rhetorical \u00ab\u00a0romances of the most famous persuaders, Fang Ch\u00fc, \u00a0Zhang Yi,<\/strong>\u00a0Su Qin and Ch’unshen Ch\u00fcn.\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong> (Legends<\/em>\u2026, p.10)<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00ab\u00a0Peripatetic Persuaders\u00a0\u00bb and their \u00ab\u00a0Persuasions\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Sometimes during the third to second century B.C., the [Zhou] kingdom and its feudal subdivisions (which we will call states in this book) had crumbled badly [\u2026]\nThis era of great change was characterized by, among other things, the rise of a class of political advisors and technocrats who peddled their services to anyone in power<\/strong>.Their activities are known to us today through the hundreds of carefully crafted pieces of rhetorical literature that are called \u00ab\u00a0persuasions\u201d in this book<\/strong>.<\/span> These are found in several other works but are more often and most closely associated with Chan-kuo ts’e<\/em>.\u00a0\u00bb (Legends\u2026<\/em> p. 1)<\/p>\n

The debacle\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The debacle [of the Six states] was the overarching historical fact of that age.<\/strong> However, as I see it, the geist of the era, romanticized fictionalized though it may be, is captured in the Chan-kuo Ts’e<\/em>. This it does by constructing stories about, and giving samples of, the imagined activities (primarily speeches) of the peripatetic persuaders. Although anyone of the names of these men in our book may be entirely fictional<\/strong><\/span>, there can be no doubt that such a class, with its skill in political advising and manipulation, did flourish. (Id., p.9)<\/p>\n

The \u00ab\u00a0legendary vertical and horizontal alliances\u00a0\u00bb (p. 8)<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00ab\u00a0By the time of the Warring States period, the major contest was between the powerful State of Qin<\/strong><\/span><\/a> situated in the west, and the other six mid-power, namely Yan<\/a>, Zhao<\/a>, Wei<\/a>, Qi<\/a>, Chu<\/a>, and Han<\/a>. The seven states engaged in a complex series of pacts and military alliances.
\nThe Horizontal Alliance<\/b> adopted by Qin, followed a west\u2013east alignment aimed at curbing the coalitions of the other six states.
\n\u2014 In contrast, the Vertical Alliance<\/b> formed a north\u2013south alignment among the six states to block Qin’s further expansion.<\/sup>
\nThe spokesperson for the Vertical Alliance is Su Qin<\/strong>, while the spokesperson for the Horizontal Alliance is Zhang Yi<\/strong>. (Wikipedia,School of Diplomacy<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Su Qin<\/strong> and Zhang Yi<\/strong> \u00ab\u00a0Persuasions\u00a0\u00bb are translated In Crump, Legends\u2026<\/em>, :
\nThe\u00a0 Romance of Chang Y<\/em>i, p.37-61
\nThe Romance of Su Ch’in<\/em>, p. 62-88.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ATC\u00a0 ATC \u2013 The Zhanguoce (=\u00a0Chan-kuo Ts’e) \u00ab\u00a0Strategies of the Warring States\u00a0\u00bb 1. The Warring States Zhou dynasty: from c.\u20091046 BC until 256 BC (Zhou = Tchou = Tcheou Western Zhou Eastern Zhou: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Spring and Autumn period: c. 771 \u2013 256 BCE (First half of the Eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15342"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15346,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15342\/revisions\/15346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}