disciples and trying to save the world. His was a land of war. For hundreds of years the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty had overseen their vast empire in relative peace. In contrast to the crags and islands of Greece, most of his country’s population lived on great plains and amongst gentle mountains. These deep and wide horizons were a blessing for agriculture but were easy to conquer and rule centrally. They were also isolated: the inland people that farmed them rarely encountered foreigners or foreign beliefs. During the peaceful era of the Zhou, massive river-irrigation and water-conservation
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