C., when Tsin inflicted a great defeat upon its chief
rival Ts'u, the former power had 700 chariots in the field. In 589
B.C. the same country, with 800 chariots included in its forces,
marched across the Yellow River and defeated the state of Ts'i,
its rival to the east. Again in 632 Tsin offered to the Emperor
100 chariots just captured from Ts'u, and in 613 sent 800 chariots
to the assistance of a dethroned Emperor. The best were made of
leather, and we may assume from this that the wooden ones found it
very difficult to get safely over rough ground, for in a
celebrated treaty of peace of 589 B.C. between the two rival
states Tsin and Ts'i, the victor, lying to the west, imposed a
condition that "your ploughed furrows shall in future run east and
west instead of north and south," meaning that "no systematic
obstacles shall in future be placed in the way of our invading
chariots."
One of the features in many of the vassal states was the growth of
great families, whose private power was very apt to constrain the
wishes of the reigning duke, count, or baron.
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