The Contending among the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Warring States Period and the Development of the Theory of Monarchical Autocracy

In general, the phenomenon of the momentary emergence of many schools of thought and philosophies at about the same time and the contention and debate among them, creating a great deal of "noise"—the phenomenon often referred to in Chinese history and culture as Baijia zhengming (The contention among a hundred schools)—is considered to be something that promotes freedom of thought and social democracy and, in turn, is promoted by them. However, if we were to turn the pages of history to the section on the Warring States period in Chinese history, we would discover a stunning phenomenon that would cause us to gape in astonishment: There, we find, the result of the contention of the many schools was not the growth of a political democracy (or democratic politics) or the enlivening and activating of democratic ideas; on the contrary, the contention greatly promoted the development and "perfection" of the theory of monarchical autocracy, or despotism. In reality, too, the development of politics was in confor...