TABLE III. Successive Occurrences of the War-and-Peace Cycle in post-Confucian Sinic History

Phase
Overture
(497-419 B.C.)1
First Cycle (419-333 B.C.)
Second Cycle (333-221 B.C.)

(i) Premonitory Wars (the Prelude) .... (ii) The General War ....
407— 400
A_T(\—'ifIC\
OOO 9A1

(Hi) The Breathing Space .....
4.00— A. cc
1*10— 1C A
OA.1 90ft

(iv) Supplementary Wars (the Epilogue) (v) The General Peace ......
455-4S3
4O-4IO
3S4-340 74/)_oo<>
230-221
221 B C AD l84?

o

1 These-dates are reckoned in terms of the domestic history of
the state of Tsin, If we were reckoning in terms of the contemporary
history of the state of Ch'u, we should have to date the beginning
of the overture in 506 B.C. instead of dating it in 497 B.C., and the
Time-span of the overture would then run to 87 years, as compared

with the 86 years of the first regular cycle and the 112 years of the <3
second regular cycle. £

2 The Pax Sinica running from the establishment of a Sinic £
universal state by Ts'in She Hwang-ti to its dissolution in the last N
days of the Posterior Han. p>